《Artisan》 Arc 1: Prologue Justin tore his gaze away from the large holovid on the opposite wall and shared an embarrassed grin with the middle-aged man who''d just entered the Imagitech waiting room. The man was dressed in a tight synth-paper smock just like Justin, and given how he was holding the fabric away from his more private areas, the poor guy was uncomfortably aware there was nothing underneath the thin fabric to shield his dignity. As a gangly 20 year old, the standard sized smock hung a little more generously from Justin''s bony shoulder''s, but was disturbingly short on his tall frame. He''d spent the last hour trying, with varying degrees of success, to keep the damn thing from riding all the way up his thighs every time he shifted in his chair. Justin turned his attention back to the holovid, allowing the man to experience the new and exciting world of breezy thighs and sticky seats without an audience. The screen was showing promo-reels for Imagitech''s catalogue of games, along with ''select advertisments from premium sponsors'', and had been ever since Justin arrived nearly an hour ago. It was currently touting the decennial, re-mastered, re-release of Frontier Justice, one of Imagitech''s earliest MMVR (massively-multiplayer, virtual reality) games. A marshal riding slowly into town; a stage-coach bouncing across the plains, pursued by bandits; a game of poker around a dirty wooden table; a dawn shootout on a dust-blown street; a saloon owner pouring a glass of rotgut whisky, sliding it towards the camera. Justin honestly didn''t know who''d be willing to play something so out of date. Even with a graphics overhaul, it was originally designed for direct-feed suits without omni-sense feedback, and being pre-quantum, it lacked the life-like NPCs and adaptive skill and quest chains that had become the hallmark of moderngames. ''They must be counting on a whole lot of nostalgia.'' Justin thought, shifting awkwardly in his chair and once again rearranging his smock. He''d already seen each promo a dozen times during his stay in the waiting room, but since it was either watch the holovid or make stilted conversation with a complete stranger, Justin kept his eyes glued to the screen. Spelled Steel, a sword and sorcery game almost as old as Frontier Justice: A single knight stands over a bloodied ally, surrounded on all sides by baying wolves; a wizard throwing iridescent light from a rune-scribed staff; a horde of raging orks beating their chests to the thunderous beat of massed drums; a black dragon crashing to the ground, breathing roiling clouds of azure flame towards the camera. Followed by City Streets, an urban neo-noir game pushing tales of mystery and uncertain morality in a corrupt city. Rain-lashed streets, gloomy alleys and stark concrete interrogation rooms flickered by to a soundtrack of maudlin blues music. A quick advert for Seraph autonomous skids interrupted the game promos like a breath of faux-sweet reality, before diving back in at the deep end. The Days After, a bleak post apocalyptic survival game full of irradiated cities, cobbled-together tech, desperate gun battles, bandits, mutants and cannibals. Strangely, one of their better selling titles. Neo-Scape, dystopian cyberpunk, cybernetic hackers and neon-tattooed gangs, a contrast in vibrantholograms amidst a dark grimy undercity. After two more promos, followed by an advert for Tap Soda that reminded Justin he hadn''t had anything to drink for a couple of hours; a stirring peal of notes rang through the room. The screen fades in behind a dark haired man standing on the roof of a skyscraper, his muscled body covered in blue and black form-fitting armour, his head tilted towards the city below. A distant car alarm can be heard above the ambient sounds of wind and traffic, but then a scream rings out, seeming to silence the city. With a step the man dives head-first off the building and plummets towards the street below. With seemingly no effort, the man rolls in the air, righting himself just before slamming into the pavement in a perfect three-point landing, the concrete cracking beneath him.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. He raises his head, and then disappears in a streak of blue and black, a sonic boom rattling the nearby windows. A Time of Heroes, Imagitech''s brand new Superhero venture, and the reason Justin was here. Someone called Justin''s name drawing his attention away from a Crafty Beers advert to the corridor outside the waiting room. A young indian man dressed in a white labcoat stood just outside reading a holopad. Caught off guard, Justin lurched to his feet. Throwing a smile and a small wave to the middle-aged man in the corner, he hurried to the doorway. Finished with whatever he''d been reading, the labcoat looked up at Justin and blinked as if surprised to see him there. "Right... Right! I''m Raj," he said in a British accent, waving vaguely towards the ID badge pinned beneath the company logo. "I''m the floor tech for your area. Follow me and we''ll get you all settled in." he said, turning suddenly and striding quickly down the corridor, his gaze back on his holopad. Justin hurried to catch up, his synth-paper slippers providing surprisingly good traction on the smooth floor. Raj had looked tired, but his voice was cheerful enough as he called back to Justin. "Sorry for the wait. We''ve got over 200 long-termers booked for processing and induction today. I was hoping things were going to slow down after opening weekend." He said, without looking up from his pad, "Oh well, better too much business than too little." He carried on, obviously not expecting a reply. "Your medical results have been processed, hmmm, good latency scores there." Raj turned a corner seemingly at random, "Psych has signed off on your stability, no predispositions, no signs of claustrophobia, that''s good." he threw a quick grin over his shoulder. "Financial has confirmed the sign-over of your housing subsidy and your stipend covers the excess. You''re marked up for the six month Paragon package, after which you''ll be given the option for renewal or a preferential upgrade." As Raj summarised Justin''s long morning navigating the hurdles of Imagitech''s medical and administrative divisions, Justin tried to keep track of their route through the labyrinthine corridors. The sudden turns, identical doors, and rapid pace was starting to leave him more than a little disoriented, enough so that Justin began to suspect it may be on purpose. Before he could say anything though, Raj stopped suddenly in front of a seemingly random door. "Right, here we are, room 3762." Justin looked in confusion from the door, to Raj, and then to the dozens of identical doors around him with seemingly no identifying marks. "Security," Raj said grinning "the door is keyed to respond to this pass code," he said, tapping his pad to the ID card hanging around Justin''s neck. Now when Justin looked at the door, he could see room 3762 glowing there. "Only you and the floor techs know which room you''ve been assigned, the actual pods are given a random ID when they sign up to the game servers. Makes it just about impossible to determine who is playing what character." Raj said grinning again, "wouldn''t want your nemesis to know you were living next door. Also makes people more comfortable with playing the bad guy," he said with a wink. "Try not to forget your ID if you leave the room, speaking of, your ID will also give you access to the facilities down the hall." Raj waved his pad vaguely down the corridor towards signs indicating refresh facilities and a relaxation lounge. "You don''t need to take downtime, but some users like to stretch their legs." Justin turned back to find the room door now open and Raj waving him inside, "Strip down and settle into the pod. Once you''re in I need to verify the health, system, and security monitors are up and running, then you''ll be good to go." "Okay," Justin said a little uncertainly. He was definitely uncomfortable at the thought of disrobing in front of someone, but he needn''t have worried, Raj was back to reading his pad. Stepping inside the room, he found a small changing area no larger than a shower stall. On the wall to his left there was a hook for his smock, a slot for his ID, and below that was a small indented shelf labelled personal items; which was odd, since he''d been told to put all his possessions into secure storage. On the far side of the changing area, sat the pod itself. Resting almost vertically with only a slight backwards tilt, it looked a little like a high-tech coffin. Inside the pod was a semi-solid, green gel bed, along with a number of vents and sensors. Now naked, Justin settled into the pod, the gel sticky against his back, but surprisingly warm. He tried to keep at least one hand over his privates in case Raj looked up, but as soon as he settled in a metal door slid closed over the top, leaving only a circular viewing window clear above his face. Raj''s voice came over an internal speaker. "Once you''re fully synced you''ll be dropped into the pods home lobby, from there you''ll have access to the game and standard lobby options, including logout commands. Please don''t use the emergency logout for anything except an actual emergency, it will give you a mother of a headache and creates quite a mess out here. Now, close your eyes and try to relax." Justin closed his eyes, before snapping them open a second later in panic. The gel behind him had softened and expanded, pulling him in, slowly enfolding his arms, legs and body. Outside he could see Raj grinning at his reaction, so Justin quickly closed his eyes and took a breath of relief as the gel stopped with his face still clear. Against his scalp, he felt the gentle touch of a metal sensor-net, and with another deep breath, Justin dropped away from his body, his last sensation that of the gel inching forward to cover his face. Arc 1: Character Creation part 1 By the time Justin breathed back out, his body sense returned, thankfully now free of the cloying gel. He opened his eyes to a small, simple room, the smooth white tiles of the floor rising to white walls which rose to a ceiling seemingly made of soft white light. In front of him was the back of a chair remarkably like those from the waiting room, and behind the chair, a holovid screen displaying Imagitech''s logo. A quick glance down confirmed he was no longer naked and was wearing a white Imagitech jumpsuit and sneakers. He understood the need to push branding, but there really should be limits. Looking back up, Justin spoke into the air, "Lobby, change floor to hardwood, chair to black leather recliner, clothes to jeans and a t-shirt." He watched as the floor and chair rippled as the changes rolled out, and looked down at the change in weight and fit of his clothes. "Oh, come on!" He muttered, shaking his head at the large Imagitech logo blazoned across his t-shirt. "Lobby, plain white t-shirt, please." Happy at last, he sat down in the comfortable chair, and with a smile, "Lobby, run ''A Time of Heroes". The lobby bled away around him, leaving him and his chair floating in a black void. The games logo appeared, spinning in front of him, each side representing the game''s two main factions. On one side was the golden shield, the badge of the Heroes League, on the other, the scrawled black spider of the Villains Guild. A man''s deep voice spoke out of the void, resonant with power, "Welcome, newcomer. My name is Janus, and I will be your guide." The void seemed to pulse along with his words. "There will be many decisions to make in the coming hours and days as you decide who you will be in this. But first, perhaps the most important decision of all." The voice paused, seeming to move within the void while still emanating from all around. "For what shall you fight?" His voice shifted timbre with ease, certainty, "For Justice?" Comfort, "Perhaps to protect the innocent?" Slick and coaxing, "For wealth and power?" Dark and devious, "Or perhaps for the simple joys of mayhem and destruction?" Absorbed in the shift and play of Janus'' voice, it took Justin a moment to speak. His answer was never in doubt. "I will fight with the Heroes." Justin declared seriously, as a hero should. Inside he was squealing with excitement. He put his hand on his right leg to stop it vibrating with nervous excitement. Which, come to think of it, wasn''t even his actual leg. He rubbed his hand over his thigh, feeling the weave of the denim. He''d played in a VR capsule dozens of times at the community centre, but the full-immersion pod was something else. While he''d been distracted, the game logo had vanished and the void around him had slowly brightened into blue sky, in the distance he could see wispy clouds reflecting the warm yellow of the sun. Below him, vapour condensed, swirling out from his chair, solidifying into a mist-shrouded floor. A man in a white toga walked out from behind Justin, his hands clasped behind his back like a professor. Justin blinked in surprise as he spotted a sneering face amidst the hair on the back of the man''s head, but when the figure turned to face him, his actual countenance was relaxed, and smiling. "So," Janus said, his voice still deep and powerful, but no longer world shaking. "What sort of hero would you like to play?" Janus, Justin remembered from the promotional material, was the name of one of the sixteen quantum-cluster AIs charged with administering the game in north america. Housed somewhere on the east coast, the server farm apparently ate as much power as a small city. He couldn''t remember what each AI did, but it was clear Janus was the welcoming committee.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Janus'' smile widened, "You are correct newcomer, I am here to help you in creating your character." Justin frowned in confusion, "and yes, the interface allows me to read your surface thoughts, doing so allows me greater insight into who you truly wish to become." Justin quickly closed his mouth. Isn''t that a little invasive? He wondered. "A little," Janus replied, answering his thoughts once again. "But please bear in mind that any character, player or not, could do the same with sufficiently advanced Telepathy." "That can''t be safe," Justin blurted, his mind already running over all the ways a power like that could be abused. Forget finding out someone''s real identity, could a telepathic player go routing for someone''s passwords or bank account details? "Calm," Janus said, holding his hand up for peace. "The only reason I have drawn the ability to your attention is to allay your fears before encountering it in game. My brother Somnus serves as the conduit of thoughts both to, and from your mind. He is responsible for translating your intentions and for supplying your mind with sensory feedback for all you experience in this world. He is also responsible for stopping those thoughts relating to you or your identity from ever reaching the game. Please, try to think about your name, your parents name. Can you tell me your CID number?" Justin frowned as his mind spun. He knew who he was, he knew he knew his name. But try as he might, he couldn''t bring those answers to the front of his brain where concepts became words. "Huh," he said, "That''s really weird." "So I have been told." Janus replied with a smile. "All limiters are removed while players are in any of the downtime lobbies, and while no one there will be telepathic, please remember to guard your personal details from other players if you wish to remain anonymous." "Now," he said, his smile becoming a grin. "Back to my initial question, what sort of Hero do you wish to play?" Justin, mentally agreeing to table the issue of hidden thoughts, answered without having to think about it. "An inventor, a gadgeteer." Like his desire to play a hero, the answer was just there in his mind. Not only did Justin prefer to play a supporting role, he preferred an adaptable, slow-build character. Why choose to throw lasers from your eyes when you can build a laser rifle? Why fly when you can build a rocket pack and then rain down lasers from the sky? Give an inventor enough time and resources and he could go toe to toe with just about anyone. "Excellent," Janus replied, perhaps sharing in Justin''s rosy image of raining down fire from above. "Allow me to present the top candidates." He said, stepping to one side and waving grandly towards four rising marble plinths. "First, a human inventor," he said, as a man appeared on the first plinth. "Rated as average difficulty, you would begin play with a decent intelligence, a grounding in science and technology, and enough funds and resources to put that knowledge directly into play." Janus explained, before moving quickly on to the second plinth where a tall grey alien figure appeared. "An alien Inventor, rated as challenging. Slightly above human intelligence, but with less initial resources." Nictitating membranes blinked over large black eyes, and Justin couldn''t help shuddering as it smiled at him, revealing needle pointed teeth beneath thin lips. Noticing Justin''s preoccupation with the alien''s smile, Janus shook his head sadly, "Please don''t judge the Intorians by their looks, they are actually a rather peaceful, aquatic species, and have actually had a research station beneath Earth''s oceans for a number of centuries. There are a number of other alien species available, we can go into further options later if you are interested." "Option three," he said, as a humanoid robot appeared on the third plinth. Smooth chrome and glowing blue eyes, it looked high-tech and deadly. "An android. Also rated as challenging. Technically an AI housed in a single shell, its mind stats are restricted both by the necessarily processing core, and the cost of its body. Better suited to an assault character with a side of invention" "And finally, a true AI." Janus said with a quirk of an eyebrow. "The truly superior choice, if I do say so myself." A glowing sphere of code appeared on the last plinth. "It is rated as extreme difficulty, and I only present it as an option given your excellent neuro-conduction scores." "My what?" Justin asked, confused. Already cast adrift over the last three options, he found himself pulled from new dreams of underwater armies and villain crushing robots. "How easily your mind interacts with our systems. Certain character abilities require either the rapid or expanded transfer of information, higher degrees of Intelligence, Acuity, and Super Speed for example. Your scores actually place you in the top 1% of users, opening possible avenues closed to other players." "Huh, really? Then are AIs and Super-Speed characters rare?" "Indeed, there are currently only thirty-four users in the North American shard playing characters whose Super-Speed can expand beyond third rank, and no one has yet chosen to play an AI." He sighed a little sadly, but witha mischievous twinkle in his eye, "I''m afraid Super Speed is just too big a draw to resist." Dammit, he knew Justin was hooked, dirty mind-reading robot! Arc 1: Character Creation part 2 "Can I view the different stats?" Justin asked. Might as well see if I''m allowed to look under the hood. Janus'' smile never wavered. "Oh, certainly. Even once a selection is made there are still plenty of details that can be fine-tuned to your preferences. I have to admit, far too many players seem happy to ''buy off the rack'', as it were." In front of each figure, a blue box appeared, focusing on the one in front of the Human, brought it forward to a readable size.
Species Human Archetype Inventor
Origin Natural Wealth $ 10,000,000
Level 1 Hit Points 110/110
Recovery Rate 0.1 per minute
Strength 10 (max 20) Intelligence 20 (max 20)
Agility 10 (max 20) Acuity 15 (max 20)
Fortitude 10 (max 20) Willpower 10 (max 20)
Stamina 25 Focus 45
Recovery Rate 0.1 per second Recovery Rate 0.1 per second
Paragon Package +120 points 120 points
Species: Human -10 points 110 points
- Talent: Quick Learner - -
Attributes -75 points 35 points
Powers - -
Talent: Inventor -10 points 25 points
Resources: Wealthy 3 -30 points -5 points
Complication: Secret Identity +5 points 0 points
Focussing on each item brought a description to mind, like a mental tooltip.
Species Determines innate Talents and Complications. Determines the minimum and maximum of starting attributes.
Level Level is advanced through completing quests and defeating enemies. +1 attribute point (AP) and +1 character point (CP) per level. Rewards increaseat higher levels.
Origin The origin of the characters powers and abilities.
Archetype Descriptive only, used to help guide character creation and growth.
Given that levelling awarded attribute points separately, Justin assumed they couldn''t be purchased with character points after creation. The attributes seem simple enough, though I''m not sure about Acuity.
Acuity Determines the speed of a character''s thoughts and mental reactions. High levels allow a character to slow the apparent passage of time.
Well, that explains the need for high conductivity. I knew VR was capable of time dilation, in fact, now that I think about it, compression would be the only way to properly represent super speed, unless they were somehow willing to slow everybody else down instead.
Hit Points (Fortitude + Level) x10. Recovered at (Fortitude /100) per second.
Stamina Spent to activate physical abilities (Strength x2) + 5 per Level. Recovered at (Fortitude /100) per second.
Focus Spent to activate mental abilities (Intelligence x2) + 5 per Level. Recovered at (Willpower /100) per second.
The Secret Identity complication caught his eye.
Secret Identity Your character has a secret identity to maintain. Where will you sleep when your enemies know where you live?
That seemed like a no-brainer. He''d never understood the heroes who were willing to let all and sundry know their real name, it just seemed like an easy way to get your friends kidnapped by Mad McCleaver. And by the look of the point costs, keeping your identity hidden actually gave you points back.
Quick Learner A Human only talent. Grants a +15% bonus to all skill xp earned.
Inventor All Science skills begin at the Novice tier. All Engineering skills begin at the Novice tier.
Both looked like they''d save him a lot of time on grinding skills, and he could definitely see why most people were happy to play a human. Janus cleared his throat softly, and Justin realised he''d been ignoring the guide for more than a few minutes while he studied the human''s stats and abilities. "That''s quite alright," Janus said lightly, "I''m currently talking 235 other users through character creation, and am in the process of generating 2,454 personal quest prompts. I am far from bored. I merely wanted to inform you that skill advancement is also afforded a bonus equal to 10% of Intelligence, which means Human Inventor would gain a total 17% increase to skill progression." Justin''s nodded his head in surprise, "That''s pretty nice, is it fixed, or does it go up when you increase your Intelligence?" He blinked as another thought pushed its way to the front of his brain. "And does that mean a higher Intelligence would offset the Quick Learner talent?"This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Janus smiled happily. "All attribute bonuses are calculated at their modified levels, and yes, a high Intelligence would offset some of the benefits of the Quick Learner talent, as well as providing access to higher levels of technology, and of course being the default attribute for most Science and Engineering skills." Justin couldn''t help smiling at Janus'' continued attempts to push him towards the AI character. Maybe he didn''t like the idea of a species going unplayed, maybe he was secretly programmed to be a munchkin, maybe it was just racial solidarity. Whatever the reason, Justin shook his head in defeat. "OK, J-man, I''ll look at the AI."
Species Artificial Intelligence Archetype Inventor
Origin Synthetic Wealth $ -
Level 1 Integrity 210/210
Recovery Rate 0.2 per minute
Strength - Intelligence 50 (max 50)
Agility - Acuity 30 (max 50)
Fortitude - Willpower 20 (max 50)
Stamina - Focus 105
Recovery Rate - Recovery Rate 0.2 per second
Paragon Package +120 points 120 points
Species: Artificial Intelligence -10 points 110 points<
- Talent: Machine Traits - -
- Complication: Amorphous - -
Attributes -100 points 10 points
Powers - -
Talent: Inventor -10 points 0 points
Hmm, Integrity instead of Hit Points, makes sense. And I suppose the lack of physical attributes isn''t surprising, what with no body and all, he guessed all that was covered under the Amorphous complication. Really though, all an AI actually needed was plenty of power and a computer to run on, and Justin wasn''t above squatting in someone else''s virtual real-estate; besides, once he got some money together he''d be able to build a really nice core for his 1s and 0s to call their own. I wish I had some friends willing to sign up with me so we could co-ordinate builds. I know ----- said he might be free to play from a short-term pod on the weekends...Justin blinked a few times, OK, that was weird. His name is -----. Oh right, the thought stealing thing. He frowned over at Janus, who smiled back innocently. Ok, let''s have a look at the Machine Traits.
Machine Traits Immune to biological necessities, ie sleeping, breathing, eating and drinking. Immune to biological poisons, diseases, and powers. Immune to mental manipulation powers. Requires constant source of adequate power. Vulnerable to hacking, viruses and electro-magnetic pulses.
About what he''d expected. He spent a few more minutes looking back and forwards between the human and the AI. What it basically came down to was speed versus potential, Justin decided. A Human Inventor would gain skills faster and would have the resources to build items straight out of the gate. An AI on the other hand would have to find somewhere to squat while grinding for resources and it would have to spend longer developing its skills. On the plus side though, the AI would, eventually, be able to practice those skills at a much higher level, build better technology, and think and react at a much faster rate. Actually, there''s an interesting thought. I wonder whether time dilation would allow for faster equivalent skill progress? Justin glanced across at Janus, who appeared to be examining a far off cloud shaped like a particularly interesting eel. "Janus, is there any way to gain more points?" "Certainly," Janus replied, as if he''d been expecting the question, which he more than certainly had been. "Please concentrate on ''Complications'' and the character you are interested in. You may select as many as you like, but may only benefit from an additional 10 points." A long list of Complications appeared in Justin''s mind as he mentally selected the AI. More than two-thirds of them were greyed out. Justin stopped to consider how weird it was that something could be greyed out in his mind. He wasn''t actually seeing the list, it was more as if he now remembered it. So he supposed he was also remembering something he never previously knew, that was anyway unavailable. He decided to stop thinking about things before he gave himself a headache. The fact that he couldn''t take Complications like Family, Job, or Physical Disability made sense, he was a little bummed he wouldn''t be able to take Secret Identity. Having a Mental Tic could be fun, but would probably get old very quickly. Ah, here we go!
Outsider (+5 cp) You are a stranger from a strange land. You do not speak the local language. You do not have access to current affairs memory package. All Social interactions with NPCs suffer a 5% penalty.
Other than not speaking the language, this pretty much sounded just like Justin. No idea what''s going on, and trouble talking to people, I shouldn''t have any problems playing that! Now, if only there was a Complication that summarised his poor sex life. Though come to think of it, Amorphous did come pretty close.
Partial Amnesia (+5 cp) Your recent past is a mystery. Whatever happened to you is lost in the recesses of your mind. The details of your recent past may come back to haunt you in the future.
Now his character was coming together. An alien AI trapped on Earth, no resources, no friends, and no idea how he got there. He concentrated on the idea of adding the two Complications to the AI character, and smiled as he succeeded. With only a little hesitation he dropped the extra 10 points into Acuity. Since he''d already decided to slow-build, it only made sense to front load on attributes. As the changes to the character sheet took effect, the AI figure expanded and changed, no doubt aided by Justin''s thoughts on his character''s origin. The scrolling code that made up the AI''s semi-transparent ''skin'' lost the appearance of numbers and became rune-like instead. The clearly holographic figure took on the appearance of a short humanoid with a slight hunch, a small torso and long arms ending in three-fingered hands. His eyes were wide with a cunning slant, his mouth curled in a smirk. There was a decidedlymischievous air to him. Justin smiled. Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 1 Justin woke, his mind floating in a silent darkness. Not only was there no light to see, but there wasn''t even the awareness of eyes. There were no ears, no hands, he couldn''t feel his muscles or his skin, there was no heartbeat, no chest moving to draw in breath. There was just a vague sense of shape, like his entire essence had been boiled down to a liquid, and poured into a smooth glass sphere. ''Systems rebooting,'' a voice said within his mind. He recognised it as the voice he''d just chosen for his character. Wait, does that mean I''m talking to myself? ''External sensors offline, flight control offline, core shielding offline.'' Thank you, me. Now why don''t you tell us what''s actually working, oh, and you know, what the hell is actually going on! Flight control meant he was probably in the air, and since he couldn''t see, and the controls weren''t working, it was probably safe to say he was in the process of crashing. He felt his substance roil in panic as his mind pushed itself out, trying to see or feel anything. Ok -----, calm down. Dammit! Ok, KIP, calm down. KIP (Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI) was the designation he''d chosen for Artisan while finalising details with Janus. The Ketican were a distant race unknown to the Sol system, their deep space probes were sent out to neighbouring galaxies to explore and see what''s happening, before reporting back a few eons hence. Apparently his designers were a patient and scientifically minded people, even if they did look like small blue goblins. Justin tried to get control of himself. If I don''t calm down, I''m never going to figure out what''s going on. This was exactly what he''d signed up for after all. He''d known getting to grips with the simulated consciousness of an AI would be difficult, and for a few extra points, he''d even choose for his initiation to be extra confusing - sudden amnesia is rarely peaceful after all. He focused on stilling his thoughts, on letting go. Imagining a still lake, its surface rippling in a summer breeze while its depths stayed cool and untouched. It was one of his most peaceful memories, a childhood holiday to Canada. He was a little surprised Somnus let the memory through, and resolved to check the filter''s limits later on, before letting go of that thought too. After aminute of imagining the placid lake he felt calm enough to consider his options, before a few seconds later accepting that he didn''t really have any. With nothing else to do, he focused on the only thing he''d been feeling since waking up, (other than panic that is) the strange sensation at the edge of his being, the smooth boundary around him. Minutes ticked past while he studied it, reaching, questing. Why did it feel ''smooth''? How far away was it? Was he the only thing inside of it? Gradually details began to emerge. It turned out it was nowhere near as smooth as it had first appeared, in fact it seemed like the entire thing was cracked like adropped egg. But as he continued his inspection, he noticed patterns and movement within the ''cracks'', like interlocking puzzle pieces rearranging themselves. He froze as he found a piece missing, a shape that for some reason made him think of looking out, of colours and andthe taste of chemicals. He reached through the hole, seeing if it lead to any of the things of which it promised, but found nothing. Not an absence like earlier, but like a sucking void, draining his focus and energy away to fill itself.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. About to pull himself back to the relative safety of his cocoon, he instead found himself forced back, as a vision of fire and light rushed towards him, plugging the hole he''d been exploring. ''External sensor feed re-established.'' The voice from before said. Realising he was unhurt by the fire, only startled, he studied the formally missing tile. It was as solid now as any of the others pieces that formed his shell, displaying the vision within his mind only as he touched it with his focus. Its not fire I''m seeing, he realised, not knowing how he knew, something about the taste perhaps, which was a strange thing to think. He studied the almost liquid flame with interest, finally reaching a conclusion to meet the facts. I think it''s a plasma cloud caused by extreme gas compression. Not a moment after thinking it and he was proved right, the view clearing as the plasma rolled back in a smooth wave, like surf on a beach. Ahead of him he could now see diffuse light reflecting from the upper surface of clouds, and beyond that, the greens, browns and greys of land. It appeared he''d just entered a planet''s atmosphere, and unless a miracle appeared, he was heading for a hard landing on a familiar-looking continent. When I decided KIP would crash-land on Earth, I didn''t expect to have to live through it. ''Sensor downtime confirmed at 48 seconds, attempts to re-establish flight controls have failed.'' Wait, what? Justin would have sworn he''d been swimming blind for over five minutes. That would be the time compression then, he realised. Which meant he probably had at least a few seconds left to enjoy the view. As the Earth approached, Justin decided he''d probably go for a human inventor next time, I could have started with a mansion, a butler, and a crippling fear of commitment... but no, I let myself get conned by Janus, and now I don''t even have the fingers to flip him the bird.
Dave was enjoying an afternoon fishing out on Lake St Clair. He''d just stood up to grab a fresh beer when a shinny ball of cherry-red metal hit the water travelling at something approaching the speed of sound. Impacting only a few hundred meters from his prow, the resulting wave nealry swamped his boat, leaving Dave upside down against the tiller with his mouth full of muddy-tasting water. Righting himself after only two attemps, Dave decided he''d tried his luck enough for one day, best to head home and leave the lake''s residents (now plus one) in peace.
Welcome Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI to A Time of Heroes Notifications are now active.
New Skill Discovered! Meditation has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Meditation - Beginner Level 1 [08%].
New Skill Discovered! Visualisation has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Visualisation - Beginner Level 1 [10%].
New Skill Discovered! Analysis has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +4 xp to Analysis - Beginner Level 1 [04%]. You have successfully identified a Ketican code structure.
New Skill Discovered! Decipher has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Decipher - Beginner Level 1 [06%]. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Decipher - Beginner Level 1 [14%]. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Decipher - Beginner Level 1 [21%].
Focus Drained -50 points by Sub-Routine (Focus 60 / 110)
New Skill Discovered! Awareness has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Awareness - Beginner Level 1 [06%].
Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Physics - Novice Level 1 [01%]. +3 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 1 [00%]
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Awareness - Beginner Level 1 [16%].
You have been dealt 2,000 falling damage by Lake St Clair. Armour has reduced damage taken by 90% (-1,800 damage). Armour broken! Damage taken 200 (Integrity 10 / 210)
Warning! You have been dealt damage exceeding 50% of your remaining Integrity. Stunned! Warning! Integrity less than 5%. Unconscious!
Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 2 Justin was getting a little tired of waking up to darkness, this time however, things were very different. Each thought seemed sluggish, and Justin winced as his mind protested waking by gamely attempting to kill him. Who knew AIs could get headaches. He was also aware of no longer being contained within a shell, which was probably very not-good, maybe. Pushing through the pain and disorientation, Justin tried to review his situation. Point one, he was no longer receiving a sensor feed. The last thing he remembered was crashing into a lake, and since he was pretty sure KIP couldn''t swim, he decided to add that to the top of the Cons column, pending further review. Point two, the mental shell that that had been around him was now broken and fragmented, drifting around his tattered essence. He pencilled that into the Cons. Point three, he felt like crap, and his energy kept trying to float off into the void instead of helping him figure out what to do next. Point four, he was sure he also remembered ''seeing'' a couple of blue panes before crashing into the water. They''d presented themselves mentally, like the character details he''d reviewed with Janus. He concentrated on the memory, and the notification panels returned with very little prompting. According to the notifications he''d received, the shell around him had been structured code, and was probably the ''armour'' that had saved him on impact. Given that one of the fragments had also connected him to the pod''s sensors, he began to wonder if the shell hadn''t been the AI equivalent of an exo-suit. As the notifications faded away, a new panel appeared.
Quest Received! Safe Harbour Type: Character, Chain Description: You have found yourself submerged on an alien planet. Your systems are damaged and will overload in exactly 25 minutes. Goal: Find a way to survive. Difficulty: Challenging Rewards: 500xp, Survival!
Son of a.... Ok, imminent demise was certainly motivation to get moving. Still feeling sluggish and in pain, he called up his character sheet to check his status.
Codename Artisan Designation Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI
Species Artificial Intelligence Archetype Inventor
Origin Synthetic Wealth $ -
Level 1 [00%] Integrity 10.8 / 110 (210)
Recovery Rate 0.1 per minute (0.2)
Strength - Intelligence 25 (50)
Agility - Acuity 20 (40)
Fortitude - Willpower 10 (20)
Stamina - Focus 40 / 55 (105)
Recovery Rate - Recovery Rate 0.1 per second (0.2)
Powers Talents Complications
- Machine Traits Amorphous
- Inventor Outsider
- - Partial Amnesia
Skill Rank Skill Rank
Analysis Beginner 1 [04%] [Science] Novice 1 [00%]
Awareness Beginner 1 [06%] - Biology Novice 1 [00%]
Decipher Beginner 1 [21%] - Chemistry Novice 1 [00%]
Meditation Beginner 1 [08%] - Materials Novice 1 [00%]
[Engineering] Novice 1 [00%] - Mathematics Novice 1 [00%]
- Design Novice 1 [00%] - Physics Novice 1 [01%]
- Crafting Novice 1 [00%] Visualisation Beginner 1 [10%]
- Maintenance Novice 1 [00%] - -
- Repair Novice 1 [00%] - -
Status Effects Mentally Crippled (Mental attributes -50%) The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Severe structural damage to the physical system housing Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI. This status will remain in effect until system is repaired or replaced.
Mentally crippled?! Goddamit. At least it looked like his Integrity was slowly rising, but it would take just under a thousand minutes, or roughly 17 hours to get back up to full.
Successful Skill Use +4 xp to Mathematics - Novice Level 1 [00%].
He concentrated on muting the notifications for now, he had too much else to focus on. And while he was at it, he tried to add an awareness of his Integrity and Focus levels to the back of his mind. He became aware of them as coloured percentile bars. Green to red for Integrity (currently an angry red), and a blue bar to track his Focus, which seemed to be in a state of flux, rising and falling as something drained it away into the void. He followed the trail to one of the shell fragments, and watched as it absorbed the Focus, realising it was putting itself back together somehow. He studied the code fragment as it re-built itself, generating runic code from within to patch the missing, or damaged sections. A few seconds later, seemingly done with its repairs, Justin''s Focus bar stopped falling and began to climb at a steady rate. He continued to watch, fascinated as the fragment spun a small code packet outside itself before launching it into Justin''s essence. He tried to rear back, worried that it was some sort of attack, but the packet unravelled, dispersing into his mind, "External Repair Algorithm has completed self-repair and is now operational. External feeds lost, last received feed from escape pod systems indicates possible core failure, repairs currently impossible. Awaiting updated orders." It said in KIP''s voice. Huh, Justin thought, now that he had somewhere to direct questions, he really needed to figure out how to ask them. After quickly inspecting the other fragments for signs of life, he''d settled in and spent the last few minutes attempting to replicate the code packet spun by ERA. He was happy enough with his current attempt, and so began to pick it apart, trying to puzzle out how it worked. Another few minutes, and he was fairly sure which sections controlled the operation, keeping the message intact until it reached its goal. In fact, it was much easier to figure out than it had any right to be. The information finding a place in Justin''s mind like he had been prepared and was waiting for it to arrive. He compiled a single worded message and gave it a push towards ERA, "Options?" A reply came quickly. "Pod repair is currently impossible without outside assistance. Suggest emergency repairs to internal communications port". Sounds good, "Where is internal communications port?" "Request unclear." I swear I''m going to kill someone. Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 3 After asking how to repair the internal communications port, ERA explained that they needed to repair the sub-routine responsible for internal repairs, which was apparently too damaged to repair itself. With ERA managing repairs and Justin supplying a steady stream of Focus, they managed to get IRA up and running in only a couple of minutes. And while IRA worked on the port, Justin decided to spend his time learning everything he could from ERA. He was becoming aware that his start might have been smoother if KIP had been capable of any sort of coding. By the time IRA was finished a few minutes later, Justin had managed to learn a surprising amount. He''d thought the reduction in his Intelligence would have held him back more, before realising that at even 25 Intelligence, he was still ''smarter'' than any human under level 5 could be. The penalty did mean he was only receiving half the xp bonus he would have otherwise, but it was a fairly small amount, and he was apparently still plenty smart enough to grasp the simple coding ERA was teaching him. He was honestly starting to look forward once more to what he''d be able to accomplish once KIP got his full faculties back. He decided to have a look at the other code fragments, see if he could learn anything from them, chances were he wouldn''t be able to take them with him if he managed to escape, after all. Unfortunately, the coding that made up the fragments of his shell were far too advanced for him to understand, and too different for ERA to repair. He was almost resigned to them being a lost resource, when ERA mentioned in passing that he should harvest the remains to repair his essence. A few minutes after that, Justin was using a lovely piece of code to absorb the code fragments, healing him and giving him some insights as his code dissected the remains.
Successful Skill Use +5 xp to Coding - Beginner Level 1 [20%]. You have successfully crafted a Harvester [-10 Focus]. Harvester has successfully absorbed a code fragment. Integrity has been restored by 8 points, +8 xp to Coding, +12 xp to Decipher
........
Congratulations! Decipher has levelled up to Beginner Level 2 [01%]
........
Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Coding - Beginner Level 1 [102%]. You have successfully crafted a Harvester [-10 Focus]. Harvester has successfully absorbed a code fragment. Integrity has been restored by 10 points, +9 xp to Coding, +10 xp to Decipher Congratulations! Coding has levelled up to Beginner Level 2 [11%]
He was honestly a little sorry when he ran out of remains to harvest. He''d just started eyeing ERA, who floated nearby, apparently oblivious to the monster he''d unleashed, when IRA reported completion on his repairs, and passed the internal feed to Justin. It turned out the port was capable of receiving a broad spectrum of communication types, and Justin was pretty excited to discover a few high-band data signals amidst the noise. According to his quest prompt, he still had 19 minutes until the core went boom, which also meant he was still benefiting from some time compression, and had time to investigate his possible escape routes carefully. Unfortunately the streams were encrypted. He spent a minute trying to pick some of the passing data-packets apart, but gave up even as he received an interesting update.
New Skill Discovered! Hacking has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Hacking - Beginner Level 1 [06%].
Successful Skill Use +5 xp to Hacking - Beginner Level 1 [11%].
New Skill Discovered! Encryption has been added to known skills. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.Successful Skill Use +4 xp to Encryption - Beginner Level 1 [04%].
Congratulations! New Skill Group Discovered - Coder You have discovered all skills in the Coder Skill Group Would you like to combine Coding, Decipher, Encryption and Hacking into Skill Group Coder? Yes / No
Note: Combined skills complement each other. When a combined skill receives xp, its Skill Group receives additional xp equal to half the value. Any combined skill may use the rank of its Skill Group in place of it''s own when making checks.
He selected Yes, and decided there was no way he was going to get his hacking skill high enough in 20 minutes to break even simple encryption. The amount of bandwidth being exchanged through the streams suggested systems which might be capable enough to contain a well-meaning interstellar immigrant, but he needed more information before taking the plunge. Which meant he needed to get creative. Five minutes later he released his first ''test balloon'' into the densest stream. The ''test balloon'' was basically a recon probe, designed to blend in with the rest of the data, get inside the system and report back. He was hoping the alien code structure would actually help the probe to slip past any firewalls.
New Skill Discovered! Subterfuge has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Subterfuge - Beginner Level 1 [08%].
He actually had little hope of the first probe getting by, and already had half-a-dozen different variants ready to go, all of which he kept firmly in his grasp as the stream tightened a little, throttling back on the bandwidth. Oops, looks like the system noticed. He was starting to get a little desperate around 15 minutes later, as three more streams reacted by clamping down on traffic, one stream stopped broadcasting, and one stream seemed to eat every probe he launched into it. He was halfway down his list when he finally received a data-packet back from a probe sent a minute ago to investigate a strong but erratic stream. The probe confirmed necessary system resources and a particularly slipshod firewall. Perfect. He''d run a couple of data compression tests with ERA, and had incidentally managed to get them both to change their mental voices, it had become clear to Justin that they were entirely separate entities to KIP, and them having the same voice had started to get a little weird. His quest log reported he still had 6 minutes. Should he investigate other options or take the plunge? He decided he had no better alternative left on his list, and no guarantee that his systems wouldn''t degrade further as the core began to break down. Time to take a chance. ERA and IRA wove code around themselves, compressing themselves down for easier carrying, and Justin did the same on the majority of his essence, wrapping the sub-routines in a small trailing packet.
Successful Skill Use +15 xp to Coding - Beginner Level 3 [19%]. +7 xp to Skill Group Coder - Beginner Level 1 [60%]
Justin felt very strange as he boosted himself into the erratic data stream. Stripped-down and calm in a particularly mindless way. He''d had to really push himself to even remember what he was supposed to be doing. Travelling through the data stream was even worse, like his entire essence had been pulled into separate pieces, before being loaded onto a train designed by MC Esher. Luckily the trip was quick, and he slipped by the system''s firewall without issue.
New Skill Discovered! Stealth has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Stealth - Beginner Level 1 [12%].
Stretching out in relief, he unteathered the Sub Routines to decompress themselves, and was congratulating himself on a successful escape when he was interrupted by three things. The first was a message telling him the Mentally Crippled status effect had been removed.Score! The second was a prompt letting him know that he had completed a quest and would be suitably rewarded with 500 xp, future quests in the chain, and sweetest of all, survival.Nice. The third was IRA finding an internal security feed and passing it to him. On the feed was a dark, cavern-like laboratory, in the centre of which was an unkempt man wearing a stained and burned lab coat. He was laughing maniacally to himself. Shit. Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 4 Justin froze as he watched the scientist shout happily to the room around him, he was a little concerned that his new landlord appeared to be a crackpot, but the thing that troubled him most, was that he couldn''t understand a word the guy was saying. It sounded like English, the tone and cadence was right and it tickled at the edges of his understanding, but none of the words made sense. A worrying memory tugged at him, like a forgotten bill come due. He quickly accessed his Complications.
Outsider You are a stranger from a strange land. You do not speak the local language. You do not have access to current affairs memory package. All Social interactions with NPCs suffer a 5% penalty.
Half an hour ago, the news might have been the final straw that broke him, but now Justin was on the rise. He''d survived a crash landing, gained a pair of sidekicks (minions?), and was secretly infiltrating an obvious mad-scientist''s lair. And Justin was pretty sure the guy was a mad-scientist, mainly because he was currently poking something that looked like a cross between a slime and a racoon with a tazer pen, laughing in delight as it shifted between solid and semi-liquid states. A little worried for the creature, Justin was happy when it finally tired of the ''game'', easily slipping its restraints and leaping onto the startled scientist''s face. Once there, it apparently bit his nose and dissolved his eyebrows, before disappearing through a vent in the floor. The zap-happy scientist, attempting to stop the totally-provoked attack, only succeeded in tazing himself in the forehead. This is great, Justin thought, the new digs come with free entertainment. Leaving IRA watching the now grumbling scientist gear up for a jelly-coon hunt, Justin decided to get back to studying code with ERA. He needed money and information, and he was hoping hacking would be the quickest way to both. He considered rooting through the files on the server, a strange boxy structure like a model city beneath him, but Justin didn''t want to do anything to reveal his presence, not yet. He was also a little worried about what he''d find in there. After a couple of hours of ERA teaching him basic coding, he realised he was beginning to think of the Sub-Routine as a her rather than a him. Whether that was because of the name he''d been calling her in his head or the higher pitched voice she''d chosen when he''d asked them to switch things up, he wasn''t sure. He also realised that she was only a novice coder herself, and he was rapidly approaching the extent of what she could teach him. She had taught him a number of useful commands to use in code packages, including one he hoped would help with his translation issues, but If he was going to advance further he probably needed a lot more practice, and to see what he could figure out on his own.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Coding - Beginner Level 4 [10%]. +6 xp to skill group Coder - Beginner Level 2 [83%]
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Decipher - Beginner Level 3 [08%]. +5 xp to skill group Coder - Beginner Level 2 [87%]
Crafting Recipes Code Packets (Ketican Runic Script) If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.You have learned to craft the following commands within a code packet. Beginner Level Commands (10 focus per command): Message, Analyse, Harvester, Report, Stasis, Compression, Copy, Link, Transcribe, Observe, Decode.
After reviewing his progress, Justin checked in on the mad-scientist who appeared to be nursing a new bump on his head, and was now missing the left sleeve of his lab coat. The guy was sketching a new cryptozoological marvel on a large pad of paper, it seemed he was intending to work on an improbable combination of a dog and a porcupine next. Apparently jelly-coons weren''t going to cut it in this day and age, or maybe he needed a dog-upine to keep the jelly-coon from stealing his trash? Happy that the scientist wasn''t about to stumble across him and demand rent, Justin began to analyse the scientist''s files, first concentrating just on the code and how it moved. He''d been in a rush last time he inspected human code, now he had plenty of time and a much better grounding to work from. After spending an hour just watching, he decided he was ready to experiment a little. Not on the scientist''s files, since he couldn''t afford to be discovered just yet, instead he flexed his newly improved coding muscles, sending packets out into some of the local data streams with instructions to [Copy] small sections of traffic and [Report] back. He made sure each packet was [Link]ed to him, so he''d know whether or not they were successful, as well as to get a better idea of what worked and what didn''t. Once again, some streams reacted poorly to his attention, throttling or cutting data, he even observed a few of his code packets get torn apart by aggressive, fast moving programs, whose streams he would then carefully avoid. One successful packet heading back with a section of copied code in tow set off the scientist''s firewall, but luckily Justin had been watching closely, and was able to remotely disperse the packetbefore the Firewall could do more than blip in suspicion. The Link/Copy/Reports failed more often than they succeeded, but he staggered his creation of the packets with time spent picking at the successful data copies, allowing his Focus to regenerate before sending out more. Eventually he managed to crack open some of the more weakly encrypted copies, giving him a look at the code from the inside, improving his understanding of encryption methods, and giving him a chance to use the [Decode] command on the contents, letting KIP begin to learn English. It was slow going, but Justin had nothing better to do and had rapidly lost himself in the soporific glow of safety and the rewards of repetitive but challenging training. He smiled as the encryption finally fell away from his most recent prize, and a small section of a video clip sprang into his awareness. Video was much better than text for his [Decode] program to work on. Matching audio bites with accompanying images and on-screen text meant KIP''s knowledge of English would jump ahead. He sent most of his future packets to the same stream, until eventually he was able to start distinguishing video files from text files from process data, speeding up his useful acquisitions immensely. He was surprised when he eventually noticed the time, apparently he''d worked through the night. Despite that being well over 24 hours, given his advanced acuity, he realised he wasn''t even a little hungry or tired. He hadn''t expected to be, given KIP''s machine traits, but it made him a little concerned for the future. Would he become so accustomed to the AI''s lack of human frailties that he would find returning to his real life intolerable? It had never been a problem with his weekend use of game pods, but this time he was playing a particularly inhuman character in one of the most highly immersive games ever made, and he was planning to do it for months. He expected that at least some of the psych tests they''d given him yesterday(?) had been to determine his likelihood of developing dissociative issues, and the game probably had systems in place to ease transitions. But still, he resolved to drop into the game lobby occasionally to reconnect with his humanity. A little lost in his thoughts, he was surprised when the most recent video file contained not only words he now recognised, but the view of a familiar looking lake swarming with helicopters. A TV reporter was interviewing a fisherman in front of a small boat, the words ''lake'', ''meteor'', and ''alien''were mentioned more than once in the short video. Oops. Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 5 Justin had managed to track down more footage connected with his arrival. A shaky, long distance recording showed the results of the core implosion, as a section of lake water twenty-feet across suddenly bubbled up into the air before vaporising into a cloud of steam. The shock-wave, followed by the large void caused waves to swamp the lake as the water tried to recover from the atomic explosion within it. Seeing the violence of the explosion, Justin was a little concerned about fallout, before realising the morning news casts showed coast guard, police and a couple of news choppers circling the site of the explosion, he decided someone must have checked for radiation before letting people get that close. There was even footage of a super team investigating, Justin watched in interest as a few heroes floated nearby while another shifted the water from beneath the surface, letting them view the remains of the ''meteor''. He wasn''t sure what they accomplished, but perhaps they simply wanted to get onto the news casts, media presence was important for new start-ups after all. Or perhaps they were simply curious, or hoping for a quest or an interstellar exploding rock-monster to fight. Once he was done snooping on the news casts about his arrival, Justin decided it was time to have a look at the mad-scientist''s files, and was a little disappointed once he did. The encryption, like the man''s firewall was ridiculously weak considering it was protecting what must be some sort of super-computer. There were a few video files showing the scientist ranting into the camera, which Justin tagged for later viewing, but most of the files were related to genetic structures, molecular break-downs, and other biological minutia. Justin decided the scientist probably bought the advanced computer to help with his genetics research with little idea, or concern, for the system''s potential beyond that. Justin was a little surprised the guy had even bothered to connect it to the internet. Since they were apparently underground, it must have taken more than a little effort to get such a strong signal down here. After investigating a bit, it appeared the internet connection was for viewing porn on the man''s laptop, which he had then networked with his laboratory computer, because apparently the scientist was lazy, horny, and had never heard of proper systems security. A little disappointed that the files had proven so boring, Justin dropped a [Link]ed packet onto the man''s laptop with an [Observe] command. It would use up some of his Focus to maintain, but there were file remnants suggesting he used the laptop for more than just porn, and Justin was hoping to get information on the man''s identity and the location of this laboratory. His morning checking out videos had convinced him that learning English was probably more important than even levelling his coding skills at the moment, luckily, Justin could do both at the same time, and went back to snooping on data feeds.
Hidden Quest Completed! Learn the Lingo Type: Hidden, Complication (Outsider), Chain Description: Before you can be accepted by the people, you first need to understand the people. Goal: Learn 10% of the local language. Difficulty: Hard Rewards: 300 xp
Justin mentally stretched. It had taken him a few hours, but he''d apparently raised his understanding of English to the level of a foreign exchange student. Just as importantly, he''d also levelled up Coding to the Novice tier.
Congratulations!Your knowledge of Coding has reached the Novice tier. You have received 1 attribute point as a reward.
He checked his character sheet, trying to decide which attribute to invest in first.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Codename Artisan Designation Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI
Species Artificial Intelligence Archetype Inventor
Origin Synthetic Wealth $ -
Level 1 [80%] Integrity 210 / 210
Recovery Rate 0.2 per minute
Strength - Intelligence 50
Agility - Acuity 40
Fortitude - Willpower 20
+1 Attribute Point
Stamina - Focus 68 / 105
Recovery Rate - Recovery Rate 0.2 per second
Powers Talents Complications
- Machine Traits Amorphous
- Inventor Outsider
- - Partial Amnesia
Skill Rank Skill Rank
Analysis Beginner 2[48%] [Science] Novice 1 [03%]
Awareness Beginner 2[21%] - Biology Novice 1 [04%]
[Coder] Novice 1 [17%] - Chemistry Novice 1 [01%]
- Coding Novice 1 [19%] - Materials Novice 1 [00%]
- Decipher Beginner 8[33%] - Mathematics Novice 1 [00%]
-Encryption Beginner 3[48%] - Physics Novice 1 [01%]
-Hacking Beginner 4[37%] Stealth Beginner 1 [12%]
Meditation Beginner 1 [08%] Subterfuge Beginner 1 [08%]
[Engineering] Novice 1 [00%] Visualisation Beginner 1 [10%]
- Design Novice 1 [00%] - -
- Crafting Novice 1 [00%] - -
- Maintenance Novice 1 [00%] - -
- Repair Novice 1 [00%] - -
In the end, he decided his current time displacement was confusing enough, and put the point into Intelligence. Next he checked up on the scientist, and was surprised to find him missing. Damn, damn, damn. IRA had been watching the guy, but Justin had only instructed him to give a warning if the scientist was heading for the computer. It became clear that IRA didn''t understand why Justin was worried, and was infuriatingly calm. Apparently, IRA had followed orders, nothing was broken, nothing needed to be fixed, which meant that everything was fine in the world of IRA. Mentally grinding his teeth, Justin questioned him on the scientist''s activities. He learned that the guy had left about 20 minutes earlier with a crate of ridiculously large bees. With no way to track him, Justin checked in with his observation packet on the laptop, which revealed that it had been used at some point before the guy left. Apparently the scientist had been busy, he''d checked emails, bank accounts, and strangely a number of environmental forums. The emails and banking details were the kind of mother lode that Justin had been hoping for when he bugged the guys computer. He now had the man''s villain name (Manticore), real name (Dr Leonard Pteroni), access to his accounts (containing a reasonable $564,034), and the email addresses of a number of villains and black-market suppliers. Apparently a certain class of supervillains occasionally exchanged advice on the wreaking of terror and mayhem, also consoling each other on the unfairness of their inevitable and crushing defeats. It was actually the environmental forums that revealed what Manticore was up to, mainly because he spelled it out in a number of rambling posts. Apparently he was offended that the science community had ignored his research into pesticide-resistant bees and was planning to interrupt a symposium on colony collapse disorder.
Quest Received! Eye of the Bee-Holder Type: Hero Description: You have discovered Manticore''s plans to release a swarm of mutated bees at the Michigan Science Center. Goal: Stop him. Difficulty: Average Rewards:200 xp
Ok, how was he supposed to do that? Arc 1: Any Port in a Storm part 6 From what Justin could discover, Manticore''s lab was located in an old salt prospecting shaft under St Clair Shores. Leonard had discovered it while sounding the suburb for moles, and had dug a hidden access through the sewage system, he also appeared to be stealing his internet from a local fast food restaurant. Given that the Michigan Science Center was only twenty minutes away, and the doctor had been gone that long already, Justin''s options were limited. Working quickly, he created a forwarding packet, and sent it to a random computer in midtown Detroit. The packet would take a random route and forward any files sent to it, after which it would delete itself, hopefully before it could be traced back to KIP. He wasn''t opposed to Manticore''s lab being raided, but he really wanted to have an escape route in place before risking it. He packaged up Manticore''s forum posts and all the files he could find about the super-bees (Leo had somehow managed to genetically cross killer bees with humming birds), he included a physical description, and then instructed the packet to forward it to the local police force and Heroes League center. Before the packet deleted itself, he also had it make VOIP calls to the Science Center security department and managers offices. His warnings out of the way, Justin decided he really needed eyes on the center. Working through their webpage, he was able to find their email server, and from that an IP address. Now he knew his target, he set to work weaving an advanced code packet, working with ERA to throw in some commands he hadn''t had the chance to master. It was basically a worm, meant to sneak into a system and branch out, copying and forwarding files and feeds. Once the malicious code was complete, he released it at the Science Center''s network. It was more brute force than Justin was happy with, and would almost certainly leave traces of his origins for anyone who went looking. There was also a pretty good chance it would get zapped before it even got inside. He checked his Focus, and with his last 30 points created a couple of send/receive packets, dispatching them to random locations to bounce the signal he hoped the worm would begin broadcasting from the Science Center. Fifteen seconds later, he created a couple more. He was just starting to get nervous when he finally began to receive data, his worm had apparently hit the jackpot with camera feeds, and even access to the digital radio system the security guards were using. Score! Justin threw a couple of the feeds to ERA and IRA, with instructions to look for the doctor or any sign of the bees, before scrutinising the rest himself. He listened in as the security captain reported the anonymous phone call and the call from the DPD checking their situation. Apparently given the anonymous and unsubstantiated nature of the warning, management had decided to keep the center open, and the symposium on track to start in 10 minutes. God Justin hated management types, though maybe in their shoes, he too would have made the same decision not to interrupt a multi-million dollar conference off the back of a single phone call. At least the captain was being pro-active, instructing his guards to search the building for Manticore and to ramp up patrols in areas around the hall. He let his men know the police would apparently have a presence on site in 5 minutes, but nobody had heard anything from the local heroes.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Justin was honestly a little confused. Arriving as he had, he''d not been able to investigate the local hero scene, but surely there were some heroes signed up to the local Heroes League. He''d even seen some on that morning''s news cast, so there must be a team nearby. Maybe there was another attack happening somewhere else? Maybe they hadn''t believed him? Had his NPC penalty or poor English caused his warning to be over-looked? They couldn''t still be investigating the lake, right? Then he spotted Manticore. He was wearing a wig, a pair of ridiculous glasses, and was dressed in a technicians jumpsuit. He was in one of the back service corridors, and was pulling a trolley carrying an apparently broken speaker unit. Justin would bet the ''faulty'' speaker was buzzing. Justin tensed as a pair of guards approached the mad-scientist, their hands on their tazers, but he showed them an ID card, and they waved him on, apparently satisfied. Son of a... Justin jumped onto the radio feed and stumbled through his best conversational English. "Guards in back hall, stop worker, radio is bees!" Dammit that didn''t sound right. It must have been close though, because the guards turned around and shouted after Manticore who froze with his hands in the air. The guards approached slowly, tazers pointed at the doctor''s back, when Manticore whistled. Giant bees flooded out of the fake speaker, swarming around the poor guards. He heard the captain shouting for more guards and for paramedics, so he must have been watching the security feeds. A second later and the fire alarm was activated. Around the building crowds of visitors and attendees began a semi-chaotic evacuation. Manticore glared at the guards writhing on the floor, and then up at the security camera. Apparently deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, he opened a window for his bees, and began headed for a high-traffic corridor, shedding his disguise as he went. Justin lost him amidst the crowds.
Quest Completed! Eye of the Bee-Holder Type: Hero Description: You have stopped Manticore''s plans and the Michigan Science Center is now safe. Rewards: 200 xp
Congratulations! You are now Level 2 Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +1 Character Point. You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 1 unspent Character Point.
Despite technically winning, Justin was far from impressed with his victory.He quickly sent the DPD details on Leonard''s real identity (in case he was stupid enough to be driving his own car), and details on the route he should be travelling to get back to his lab. He also warned them about the bees, now flying loose around the Science Center. Next he sent deactivation instructions to all of his packets, and mentally settled back, brooding. He was worried now that Manticore had escaped capture. What if he came back and shut down his lab? What if he trashed it in a fit of temper? What if he never came back and the diesel generator slowly ran out of fuel? He''d been feeling safe ever since finding his way here, but was he really? Did he need to be looking for somewhere safer to send himself? He knew he''d been unreasonably lucky in finding such a under-used, over-powered system, owned by someone so technologically-inept. What were the chances he''d be able to find, infiltrate, and stay in control of another supercomputer? Actually, now that he stopped to think about it, he didn''t actually need a supercomputer to hide out for a day or two. Any system that could hold a compressed version of KIP should be fine, not comfortable, but survivable. And for the future, well, if he was willing to dirty his morals slightly, he currently had access to a decent amount of funds, and the kind of contacts who didn''t ask too many questions. Arc 1: Interlude (Shift / Shade / North Wind) SHIFT (Michael) Michael was pretty happy with his current gig working for Mr Weyland. Before this job had fallen in his lap a few days ago, he''d been having trouble earning money in-game. Michael and his character were both seventeen, and the only options available for work seemed to be behind a till or as a delivery boy. He wasn''t opposed to running deliveries, in fact he was uniquely suited to it, but the pay was crap. He''d always been told that jobs were plentiful in the 2020s, and maybe they were if you were over eighteen. He could understand why the game made kids play their actual age, but sometimes it sucked. Mike breezed past a couple of men in business suits and took the corner into the next alley at full speed, running a few steps against the opposite wall until he''d redirected himself enough to hop down to the ground. A step up against the inside wall and he was up and vaulting from a dumpster, still travelling full speed. He hadn''t managed to get quite enough height to clear the wire mesh fence mid-way down the alley, but throwing himself into a barrel-roll gave him just enough clearance to make it over. He was already a dozen steps past the fence by the time the business men had finished blinking at each other. Mr Weyland had him running errands around Detroit, and paid well enough that Mike had been a little worried the things he was collecting were illegal, which would have been pretty embarrassing for a hero. ''Hero Shift found running drugs!'' But no, Weyland just had him collecting computer parts, tools, small sheets of metal, canisters of argon, freon, and a dozen other gases, liquids and powders. Some of which Mike was pretty sure were restricted, but that wasn''t the same as illegal, so it was probably okay. Out the other end of the alley he slid across the bonnet of a parked car before slipping past the moving vehicles and into the alley opposite. A few steps further and he hooked a drain pipe and monkey crawled up to the top floor before cat-leaping to the fire escape on the building opposite. A piece of sharp metal opened a cut on his arm as he slipped between the bars, but he barely noticed, and the wound was healed before he''d made it up onto the roof.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Gymnastics - Novice Level 1 [33%]. Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Athletics - Beginner Level 9 [88%].
He paused for a second to consider if he should be a little more careful with the computer chip in his messenger bag, but it was in a hard carry box, so it would probably be fine. Besides, he really wanted to level up his Athletics tonight. Leaping from roof to roof, sliding down some sloped shingle and off into a roll, he finally slowed down, a little out of breath as he arrived at Weyland Research. Previously a Seraph automotive building, Weyland was located in the heart of Milwaukee Junction, a former industrial area now going residential. The building was still mid renovation, with boards on some of the windows. The building sign had seemed to go up over night, in fact, a lot of the building work seemed to happen overnight. Maybe Weyland had builders working in their off-time? He did seem fond of arranging things under-the-table, which Mike didn''t mind too much, if he did everything on the up-and-up, Mike probably wouldn''t have a job. He buzzed at the front door and waited a second for Mr Weyland to answer the speaker system. Despite the size of the building, it was always Weyland who answered.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Good evening, Jason." "Evening, Mr Weyland, I''ve got your computer chip." Mike replied. He hadn''t been able to place Weyland''s accent, but the way he struggled over grammar and phrasing, he was definitely foreign. " In window please." He meant the security drawer, similar to those used by banks. He''d never actually met Weyland in the week he''d been working for him, everything always went through the drawer, his current hypothesis was that the guy was a germaphobe. There was a clunk as the draw cycled. "Very good! I am thanking you for delivery fast. Money paid to bank." Mike shook his head at the garbled English, "No problem Mr Weyland, let me know if you need anything else picked up." "Thank you, but please, Jason, you are call me Kip."
SHADE (Carlos) Shade was having a really bad night. He''d been tracking Los Demonios for a while now, but they weren''t the problem. They were a Mexican gang, and Carlos had picked up a quest to find their supplier after he''d stumbled into some of their gangbangers dealing a few nights ago. Half way through his stake-out, some flying idiot in red spandex had tried to set him on fire. It was impressive since Carlos had been hidden in Shade''s cloak of shadows at the time, but maybe the guy could detect heat? Anyway, Carlos, assuming the guy was some villain on the gangs payroll, had wrapped him in shadow tendrils and bounced him off a wall a couple of times, sipping on some of the guy''s Stamina to heal up his burns. That was about the time things went really wrong, because the guy had a couple of friends, and Carlos recognised them. They''d been on a couple of news casts, standing watch here, investigating a crime scene there, he wasn''t sure that they''d ever done much to earn the title, but they definitely called themselves heroes. Carlos tried to explain that he was on their side, but apparently shadow manipulation wasn''t a hero power. Luckily since fire-boy was unconscious he''d been able to slip away without being followed.
Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Stealth - Novice Level 2 [04%].
He was even more upset when he checked hero-net later and saw a report filed on a shadow-using villain abroad in Detroit''s east side.
NORTH WIND (Mia) Mia was starting to worry that her character was being stalked. It would have been easy to deal with if it was just some creep, ten minutes as an ice-cube would cool off most guys. But no, the idiot stalking her character North Wind was another hero, and apparently he really wanted her to join his team. Not because she was awesome, which she was, and not because she was a sexy asian superhero, which she also was; no, it was because they needed an air-themed hero to complete their elemental quartet. Mia floated slowly across the waters of Lake St Clair enjoying the peace. It seemed to be the only place she was able to practice without him turning up, and there was plenty of moisture in the air for her to practice forming ice-shields, spears and daggers.
Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Visualization - Beginner Level 8 [54%]. Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Control - Novice Level 1 [08%].
She''d only gained enough control of her air powers to be able to actually fly in the last few days, and she had been loving every minute of it, but every time she flew in the city, there was Red Fury, jetting nearby. What was even more annoying was that the guy was a legacy hero, descended from the previous Red Fury, probably played by the same guy in the beta. Which meant that despite being a complete ass, his character was well-regarded in the hero community. Mia sighed and turned around, speeding up for the return flight. Her Family and Job Complications had her working most nights at her family''s restaurant, and if she didn''t hurry she''d be late for her shift. Arc 1: Interlude (Revenant / Division) REVENANT (Reece) Reece was quite enjoying playing the dark vigilante, the lone wolf, the undead avenger. But he also had to admit that it''d be nice to have a team, there was lots of quests that only trigger for teams after all, it wasn''t because he was a little bit lonely or anything. He ruminated on this, while very carefully punching a gangbanger into the land of dreams. He had to be careful or his high strength was likely to kill the guy, and that wouldn''t be very heroic. A big fan of sword and sorcery games, Reece had originally envisioned his ''death knight of justice'' in plate armour, wielding a great-sword. But apparently plate armour wasn''t really something you could just get hold of in the modern world, at least not without the right contacts, (for some reason, no one really wanted to spend much time dealing witha seven foot tall skeletal warrior). He''d eventually managed to purchase some re-enactment chainmail and a sword from a local pawn shop, but the chain was aluminium and was really just for looks, and the sword had snapped the first time he''d used it. He still wasn''t sure if it had been badly forged, or if he''d put too much strength into the swing. Besides, there weren''t going to be many situations where letting loose with a sword wouldn''t end up killing someone. Reece sighed, the sound emerging like wind through a sepulchre, deep, resonant. Then realised that while he''d been distracted, someone had been wailing on his back with a baseball bat. His undead nature meant he didn''t feel pain, but it also passed on little in the way of sensation, meaning Reece should really pay attention. It wasn''t like some guy with a baseball bat could hurt him, he may be a skeleton, but he had a field of force surrounding the bones, holding them together and forming a body of spirit. The force was incredibly tough thanks to his high fortitude, and allowed his clothes to fit comfortably rather than hang on him like he was a starvation victim, and it let him grip things without them sliding away from bony fingers. It was the kind of thing that was important if you wanted to project the right kind of image. Maybe a bat would work as a weapon if he made it look like a club or a mace? He caught the bat on the next swing, but the wood snapped in his hand, and the young guy swinging it took that as a reason to disappear. Maybe a metal bat? Deep in thought, Revenant headed further into the abandoned warehouse, looking for more of the gang, they were obviously new to the area and needed to be properly educated, most of the local gangs already knew to avoid this block after all. He entered a lit area, a little surprised since the warehouse looked like it''d been a long time since it had had any power, and he was right, the gang hadbought pole torches with them. It created just the right atmosphere of flickering light and shadow for a gang hideout. Reece approved. Then he realised that things were definitely looking up, there was a big guy in the middle surrounded by lackeys and he looked to be a powered villain, possibly another player. He was as tall as Reece, and grossly muscled like he''d spent the last twenty years at the gym. He was deeply tanned, possibly Polynesian, and was wearing combat boots, camouflage pants, and nothing else, his giant muscles and vibrant tattoos on full display. "You have chosen ill by coming here," Reece said, imagining a bit of hero - villain back and forth. But he was to be disappointed, the guy just snarled "Ku will smash you", and charged right at him. Reece sighed, and moved to meet the charging bull. A small shockwave lifted the dust around them as they impacted, and the guy seemed a little surprised to find Reece still standing, perhaps he hadn''t had the chance to clash with another brawler before? Thuds echoed through the warehouse as blows were exchanged, Ku''s minions drawing nervously away from the conflict.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Reece''s father had taught him a little boxing when he was younger, and he could see that Ku didn''t have much in the way of discipline or form, Reece ducked under a wild haymaker, jabbing Ku in the stomach. It looked like Ku was actually a little stronger than him, but nowhere near as tough. Seeming to realise the same thing, Ku moved in, hoping to turn the fight into a grapple, but Reece just took the opportunity to throw two more powerful punches into the guy''s stomach, he knew the value of working the core. Forced back, struggling for breath, Ku tore Reeces''s chain shirt away like it was made of cloth. Dammit, that had been the only part of his costume he''d been happy with! Now a little annoyed, Reece threw all his enhanced weight and strength into an uppercut, launching Ku through the far wall. Concrete dust billowed into the room, causing the gangbangers to cough and hack. Revenant walked thorough it unaffected. By the time he made it out the other side, Ku was gone.
Congratulations! You are now Level 3 Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +1 Character Point. You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 2 unspent Character Points.
DIVISION (John) Division crouched on the roof of an apartment block, watching the building across the street. He was also waiting in an alley down the street, and was buying a hotdog from a nearby vendor. It had taken a really long time for John to get used to being in more than one place at a time, having more than one body at a time. The system could apparently run his duplicates as NPCs, modelling them from his past actions, but John liked to be in control and he had learned how to multitask in the military. He was also good with small-unit tactics, which is probably why Janus had made the suggestion for his power in the first place. John would have said he didn''t care one way or the other about supers, but he did care about heroes, and this game was a hell of a lot better than the mundane Second-Life he''d been signed up to before this. There he''d just spent his time drinking at the local and learning DIY. Both sims let him walk again, but only one was making him feel useful. Now he was waiting for his target to put in an appearance, just like old times. Intel said Nightstar was holed up inside an apartment across the way, waiting out the police attention after his most recent bank robbery. Division had tried to pass the intelligence onto the DPD, but they''d said they needed more to go on. John understood red-tape, so here he was, trying to get a positive ID and make sure Nightstar didn''t up and vanish again. One of him looked up with a frown as he felt cold water dripping onto his head, the forecast had been clear, John had checked, he always checked. He blinked as he saw two supers passing over his head, one dressed in blue trailing a jet of water, the other red trailing flame. Great, Elemental Fury was about to muscle in on his quest, they''d probably got a direct line from the DPD. It almost made John wish he''d never tried to get Nightstar taken in the right way, but despite not having much hope, John always followed procedure. All of him looked on with a sigh as a section of the building across the street exploded outward. Apparently the Furies had decided to take Nightstar on directly, rather than ambushing him like John was intending to. But then, John wasn''t really any more powerful than a normal group of men at the height of their physical and mental fitness, with above average training and co-ordination, so actually pretty damn powerful, just not the smashing walls, raining fire kind of powerful. John watched as Nightstar engaged the three Furies holding his own, blasts of darkness mingling with jets of earth, water and fire. People ran screaming, the buildings, road and cars ended up burnt, buckled and drenched. Waiting for a lull in the titanic struggle, beta John slipped from his alley and up behind Nightstar, applying a tazer to the back of the villains head. Nightstarcollapsed boneless to the floor. Physically and mystically powerful, Nightstar was still vulnerable to having his wires scrambled, John had checked.
Quest Completed! Catch a Shooting Star Type: Hero Description: You have tracked down and incapacitated Nightstar, ending his crime spree. Rewards: 300 xp
Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 1 Justin was pretty happy with how things had turned out. Leaving his safe ''nest'' had felt more than a little risky at first, but he''d done it. He hadn''t really had a choice in the end, not if he ever wanted to get somewhere safe that he could properly control, and especially if he ever hoped to actually start inventing stuff. The first thing he''d done was to establish a company online, apply for an off-shore numbered bank account in the company''s name, and shift over all of Leo''s (former) funds, it had all been surprisingly easy. He wondered if Dr Leonard Ptaron would be getting a tax inspection added to his list of worries, you couldn''t transfer that kind of money around without raising eyebrows afterall. He''d moved the money a couple more times, just in case someone tried to track it, creating a number of different companies as he went, and was more than a little happy when the game began listing it as Wealth on his character sheet. Investigating his escape options, he''d discovered a number of companies online offering remote server facilities, and had signed his most recent company up for a premium package. High data storage but with only reasonable processing, it would be an uncomfortable stay, but his code would fit, and it wouldn''t be for long. Mainly because his second discovery had been that you could rent server time on a 30k-core supercomputer for the low, low price of $2,000 per hour. Justin had signed up for the first available slot, which unfortunately wasn''t until the following morning, and had bought out two days worth of time. After that he''d created a couple of online accounts and emailed a few of Manticore''s contacts (amenable), researched properties available in Detroit (reasonable), and generally twiddled his thumbs. Thirty minutes can be a long time when you live in the fast lane. When there had still been no sign of Manticore, Justin had decided he really didn''t need to wait any longer and that it might even be better to get out before something could go wrong. He did want to know whether the police had caught the crackpot or not, but he supposed he could keep an eye on the news, and hanging around was just asking for trouble. He''d initiated his compression and evacuation plan, leaving behind a code packet containing a data bomb that would wipe both the laptop and lab computer after he left. Unfortunately, this time the trip had been interminable. He''d gone for a company with local servers in an attempt to cut down on ''travel time'', but apparently the speed of his last exodus had all been thanks to the advanced, high powered, multi-spectrum communications port in his original system. Once he finally arrived at the other end, he hadn''t even bothered decompressing, there was no way a storage server would support more than a glacial Acuity. Wrung out and tired for the first time since entering the game, he''d logged out to the local player lobby. Beforesigning up, Justin had made sure to avoid all speculation about the game, viewing only the company''s promos and press-releases. Imagitech, as usual, had been close-mouthed when it came to game mechanics, and since each of their games were always different in some significant way, it had seemed silly not to just wait and see. Once he was around other players in the digital lounge though, Justin begun reading through the company forums. He wasn''t looking for mechanics or optimisation strategies, he was interested in other player''s experiences with the Heroes League, because the players around him seemed to hate it. It wasn''t the company''s fault, per se, but both super groups appeared to have been usurped by assholes, and it seemed it was mostly because of the beta testers. The beta had been set 40 years prior, when superpowers had really started coming out of the woodwork. Their characters had been in at the start of the two factions, and had set the tone for both their politics and the attitude of the NPCs that now formed their core. Justin sighed, it seemed both groups cared far more about scoring points off the other side than in teaching and protecting their members. Apparently there had been a ridiculous amount of infiltrations and betrayals back in the day. Mind control, assassinations, members replaced with mimics, it was like they''d played out their own version of the cold war. And now both organisations had become as insular, suspicious, and draconian as the CIA. For the Heroes League especially, blind loyalty had become de rigueur, ability, perseverance, and even good intentions had taken a backseat to the ¡®greater good¡¯.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Justin arrived in the game with a rosy ideal of what he thought the Heroes League would be, but he was beginning to think it might have been better to strip the institution down and start fresh without the bitter history. Unfortunately the players with the most influence in the Heroes League and with their government liaisons, were the same beta testers who had established the problem in the first place. And this is where Justin did blame the company a little. He was all for rewarding testers, but those with the Legacy package were apparently given an extra 10 character points, which wasn''t that bad, and access to the Legacy Talent, which gave a frankly ridiculous boost to interactions with NPC heroes or villains. Justin took a swig of his virtual Crafty Beer. Once he had KIP established, he''d intended to apply to the Heroes League and form a team with other local members, but he really didn''t want anything to do with the League anymore, which meant he needed to come up with a new plan. First things first, KIP would need a hell of a lot more funding. A proper system cluster was probably going to cost in excess of $2 million, add in the expense of a workshop and resources, and you probably needed to double that. He could probably make some money gambling or trading online, but he wasn''t sure how well pure Intelligence could stand up against experience and/or dumb luck. He could always build and sell something, but first he''d need to hire a workshop and buy supplies, which meant that anything he built probably wouldn''t net him that much profit, and the only contacts he had were villains, and did he really want to be equipping them? What about pure design? He was sure the military or the police force would be willing to pay for an upgraded design for their ballistic weave. Current NPC tech was based on designs sold by players in the beta, and as far as he could tell, they''d begun hoarding new designs as the old ones had always found their way to the other side. It was an option, but it would probably take a lot of time to negotiate, especially without a prototype or test data. He spent some time thinking about how he would redesign the weave, probably using multiple layers of woven CNT, maybe with an additional composite filament, and maybe some sort of ceramic plates for impact distribution. He stopped in surprise, honestly a little startled at just how much of KIP''s knowledge had made its way across to Justin. Was it just that he remembered thinking about the different materials and concepts? Or was there still an active connection between them in the game lobby? He could log all the way out of the game to experiment, but honestly he had better things to think about at the minute. He could always steal the money, which wouldn''t be too bad if it was from drug dealers or villains. It would be putting their ill-gotten gains to a good purpose after all, and once he was properly on his feet, he could donate the money to a charity or something. Did the Heroes League have a widows and orphans fund? He spent the rest of the night planning, making list after list. Not just on how to get money and what to do with it when he did, but also on how he was going to get a team together outside the Heroes League. He considered putting up adverts on the game forums, but Imagitech would just delete them. Their games were full-immersion and they wanted everything to remain in-character, including the making of contacts, though Justin was aware they were happy to facilitate friends signing up and playing together. He supposed game vision had to give way to playability and profits somewhere. He could post an in-game advert, but most heroes would probably consider it a trap, he knew he would. That left finding, investigating, and then approaching heroes, which might seem a little creepy but was probably going to be his best option. The actual approach would have to wait until KIP had a better grasp on English though, or at least until he had something to bribe prospective members with. Justin jotted a few ideas down on his pad. Next he needed to give some thought to team composition. He needed criteria in order to finetune his totally-not-creepy future spying plans. Damage-dealers obviously, a tank definitely, and a scout of some sort was a must. They''d also need a leader, someone with experience and charisma. Area and target control would be good. Would they need a mystic? Possibly, but Justin was sure he could come up with a gadget to negate mind-reading and control, and magic users always seemed to attract magical threats that would otherwise have gone elsewhere. What he really needed to do was create a priority list. Justin got down to work, his tiredness and drink forgotten, the buzz of conversation around him ignored. Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 2 Justin logged in the following morning full of purpose, waiting impatiently for his allotted time on the 30k-core server. It was like transferring from a golf cart to a super-car, like being injected with a syringe full of caffeine, ERA and IRA pulsed around him in pleasure. The first thing Justin did was check the list of Manticore''s associates for a possible target, and paused as an accountant caught his eye. According to emails exchanged, the accountant had cleaned up a lot of Leo''s money for him. They talked in code obviously, but their meaning was clear. Tracking down the accountants officecomputer wasn''t too difficult, but he had some fairly hefty protections running, as a dirty accountant who worked with scary people''s money really should. Justin had once heard it said that the weakest point in a system was sitting behind the desk, so he wrapped up a logging packet in the best disguise code he knew, and attached the innocuous seeming attachment to a message from Dr Leonard Pteron, requesting the accountant''s help with a small predicament.
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Coding - Novice Level 1 [24%]. +7 xp to skill group Coder - Novice Level 1 [25%]
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Subterfuge - Beginner Level 1 [57%].
He received a reply from Ainsley Barrows CPA, offering to meet Leo to discuss his needs, Justin put him off with a reference to ''laying low'' and hoped Ainsley had opened the attachment. While waiting to see if his logger would bear fruit, he kept himself busy. He spent some time n the recesses of the dark net investigating additional hacking methods. After which he set about creating a false alias for himself. It didn''t take long to find an SSN that had fallen through the cracks, and with the creation of a few false records and a request for a name change, Kip Weyland was born.
Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Hacking - Beginner Level 7 [47%]. +8 xp to skill group Coder - Novice Level 1 [27%]
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Subterfuge - Beginner Level 2 [24%].
He spent some time investigated the cost of setting up a super-cluster, and found that to get a top-of-the-line cluster cost about what he expected. There were a number of cheaper options though, they wouldn''t be as good, but they''d be good enough, and he could order one of them now and hopefully have it all up and running by the time he was ready to relocate. He decided that there was really no guarantee he''d be able to get more money any time soon, and if he didn''t get things moving on a new home, he could end up back in the data server, wasting time and hating life. That thought decided him. After a little more research he got in touch with an industrial computer supplier and negotiated over VOIP with a guy named Brant. In the end he accepted a quote for a $350,000 cluster delivered in two days time with on-site set-up. It would have a decent run speed, but the real advantage was that it could be easily expanded. He had the feeling Brant gouged him on the price a little. He wanted to blame the Outsider penalty, but it was probably a combination of that, his broken English, and his lack of experience bargaining. Maybe he should have added a procurement specialist to his team list? Anyway, the guy seemed a lot more reasonable when he found out Justin knew exactly what he wanted, and Justin was ok with paying a premium, as long as the guy delivered. He forwarded the money, and promised a delivery address by tomorrow.
New Skill Discovered! Negotiation has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Negotiation - Beginner Level 1 [14%].
Now he had a system ordered, Justin relaxed a little, if nothing else he could have it delivered out to a storage unit or rented office space. He ticked off ''New System'' from his mental check-list, and put an in-progress next to ''More Monies!''. He tried to decide what to work on next. During his night of planning, he''d given a lot of thought on how to make the best use of his advantages. He had a high intelligence, access to a world''s worth of information (even if it was a little out of date), and a brain fast enough to quadruple the time he had to spend learning.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Once he had access to an actual workshop, he would probably devote nearly all his time to research, invention and heroing. But for now, he''d decided he had two things to do, and the first was to boost his attributes, and thus his advantage, even more. Every skill he ranked-up gave him another attribute point, with later ranks taking progressivelly more xp to level, so all he had to do was discover as many knowledge and mental skills as he could, and then blitz them. He figured he had the equivalent of a week in the super-cluster, and that was a full week since he didn''t need to sleep. He knew he''d have some trouble working on social skills, and he would have to use translation packets to make sense of a lot of the materials, whichwouldn''t help in learning English, but it was either cheat or spend half the time puzzling over unknown words. He knew he''d need to get better at English eventually, but compared to other skills, the language seemed to be taking forever to progress. He figured it was the Outsider complication making sure he suffered. The second thing he had to do, was to begin looking for other heroes. The way he''d decided to do that was to start a database. He set ERA to downloading every bit of footage, every news report, and every fan meeting she could find on local heroes, he signed her up to a number of hero-watch twitter accounts, and even tried hacking into the city''s cctv network, but the protections were too advanced for him to get past. Eight hours of server time (and a day and a half later), Justin received some good news from the logger on the accountant''s computer. It had managed to get passwords to a few of Ainsley''s accounts and a number of digital records on his operation. Apparently Mr Barrows cooked the books for a number of gangs, a few mobsters, and even one or two villains other than Leo. Just the fraction of ill-gotten wealth he was currently laundering through salons, honest-to-god laundrettes, mom and pop stores, and strip clubs was mind-blowing, and the records had just enough information to hint at a hell of a lot more.
New Skill Discovered! Economics has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Economics - Beginner Level 1 [08%].
He considered leaving the logger where it was, hoping for more information, but that was the mistake most gamblers made, they staying at the table too long. Justin spent the next hour carefully siphoning a little here, a little there, tryingto make the withdrawals match up with previous fabrications. He then anonymously forwarded the client lists and accounts to the feds. Hopefully anyone who found the money missing would think that Ainsley had helped himself when he felt the heat coming down.
Current Wealth $2,275,000
The funds had finally made their way into Justin''s ''safe'' account. Was it wrong that he felt more than a little exhilarated? He''d knew he''d feel even better oncehe knew he''d gotten away with it, but it still felt like a successful heist. Did it always feel like this? For just a few seconds, Justin honestly considered going villain, or at least mercenary, for a while. The game apparently had some really good temptation and redemption quest lines, there to let players dip their toes in the other side''s pool. But no, despite his apparently flexible moral character, Justin really wanted to be a hero. He spent a few minutes wallowing in a moral crises, was he justifying greed and theft, all for the greater good? Did that make him as bad as the idiots in the Heroes League? In the end, he decided that things weren''t just black and white, he could still be a hero while stepping over a few lines, most vigilantism was technically illegal after all, and most importantly, he was playing a game and he wanted to have fun.
New Skill Discovered! Philosophy has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +4 xp to Philosophy - Beginner Level 1 [04%].
It looked like his plan to discover more mental skills was going better than expected. Guess I''ll be reading up on Nietzsche''s ¨¹bermensch later on. With a serious amount of money now in the bank, Justin went on a spending spree. He purchased a former auto-factory for just under a million, and doubled his server order with Brant, who grumbled about the additional cluster taking another few days. Justin agreed magnanimously. Next he spent around $500k on various workshop and laboratory equipment, $50k on robotic arms and drones, and another $50k on a cornucopia of different metals, circuits, wires, and materials. Deciding it was probably time to get back to work, Justin paused to consider that spending the money had been even more fun than stealing it. Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 3 Justin looked around his workshop with awarm glow, it was the kind of satisfaction you only got by building something with your own cold, robotic hands. Granted, things were still a bit basic in places, and a lot of a mess all over, but it was coming together nicely. By the time he¡¯d finished his 48 hours on the super-cluster, Justin had honestly been starting to go a bit stir-crazy. All work and no play, he thought happily. But now he could get his hands dirty, and actually start making things. He was currently focused on Trundler, a medium sized ¡®drone¡¯ with oversized all-terrain wheels and a high-def camera. It was his main, and currently, only ¡®eye¡¯ in the workshop, and had originally come with moderate lab-appropriate wheels, until Justin had replaced them after the second time it had tipped itself over while crossing loose cabling. He¡¯d finally gotten the CVD chamber up and running and could now produce a decent supply of carbon nanotubes, or he could once he finalised his research into catalysts and found a better way to overcome the chemical adhesion issues he¡¯d been experiencing. He had five research stations on the go, mostly running density and resilience tests on a batch of semi-crystalline polymers, but the chemical adhesion was definitely next. Of course he could have looked up the results of previous in or out of game studies, and had in fact contacted a number of different scientists out of Caltech and MIT to pick their brains. It had been a good way to raise his Science and Social skills while in the super-cluster. Since then he¡¯d found running his own experiments allowed for much better skill growth, as well as keeping the possibility open for fortuitous accidents. So far he¡¯d only had the boring type of accident that required a boring amount of clean-up, but he¡¯d gotten a lot better at controlling the mechanical arms around the lab, and besides, IRA was now in charge of a small maintenance drone for clean-up and repairs, so future spills were his problem. His pride and joy was front and centre, and wasn¡¯t ¡®technically¡¯ complete, but it was on its way! It was a multistage fabricator, a hodge-podge of modular auto-tools, arc furnaces, casting basins, molds, weavers, and catalyst chambers. It was basically a workshop within a workshop; and once complete, he hoped it would allow him to produce finished products in a fraction of the time. At least it would once he solved the heat and power issues anyway. ERA had her own smaller computer system in the server room with Justin¡¯s cluster, and was currently working on updating and expanding their supers database. Justin had run into a slight issue early on when he discovered that there was no real way to tell players from NPCs, and it was sometimes even difficult to tell heroes from villains unless they were actively involved in a bank robbery, or in foiling one. From what he could tell, villains seemed to spend as much time attacking other villains as they did scheming against heroes or stealing diamonds for their world-domination rays. At the minute, he¡¯d earmarked half-a-dozen potential candidates he was pretty sure were both heroes and players, and was tracking them personally. ERA was responsible for finding and cataloging everything else she could dig up on other supers for later review. He¡¯d also decided that the team were going to need a home base since Justin was loathe to invite strangers into his workshop. He couldn¡¯t afford to purchase another building, and it was even possible they¡¯d end up needing multiple locations around the city. So eventually he¡¯d used an alternate ID to sign a 3 month rental on a former basement bar called the Underground. While researching local history to boost his History and Culture skills, he¡¯d stumbled across a number of tales from Detroit''s Canadian rum smuggling past, the most interesting of which were the tales of underground networks of smuggler¡¯s tunnels. The Underground had three. All in all, things were going very well. With a smile, Justin opened up his character sheet.
Codename Artisan
Designation Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI Also Known As Kip Weyland
Species Artificial Intelligence Archetype Inventor
Origin Synthetic Wealth $157,450
Level 2[00%]+1 CP Integrity 240 / 240
Recovery Rate 0.22 per minute
Strength - Intelligence 60
Agility - Acuity 40
Fortitude - Willpower 22
Stamina - Focus 130/ 130
Recovery Rate - Recovery Rate 0.22 per second
Powers Talents Complications
- Machine Traits Amorphous
- Inventor Outsider
- - Partial Amnesia
Skill Rank Skill Rank
Awareness Beginner 5 [64%] [Engineering] Novice1
Meditation Beginner 1[08%] - Design Novice1[23%]
Persuasion Beginner 2 [21%] - Crafting Novice1[18%]
Stealth Beginner 1 [12%] - Maintenance Novice1[03%]
Subterfuge Beginner 3[56%] - Repair Novice1[04%]
Visualisation Beginner 1[10%]
[Science] Novice1
[Coder] Novice 2 - Biology Novice1[35%]
- Coding Novice 1[32%] - Chemistry Novice1[31%]
- Decipher Novice1[30%] - Materials Novice1[35%]
-Encryption Beginner 5 [95%] - Mathematics Novice1[13%]
-Hacking Beginner6[87%] - Physics Novice1[42%]
You have chosen to minimise five Skill Groups. Please see individual Skill Group for more information.
[Behaviour- 4 skills] Novice 1 [Inquiry- 4 skills] Novice 2
[Culture- 4 skills] Beginner 8 [World Affairs- 4 skills] Novice 2
[Enterprise - 4 skills] Beginner 10
While working on his skills, Justin had decided to investigate the details a little more. Imagitech had released a few ¡®teasers¡¯ where they discussed the adaptive skill system, and a few people had managed to grind individual skills out of the Novice tier, all of which meant that information was starting to trickle in on the forums. Justin wasn¡¯t a big fan of metagaming, but he figured he needed every advantage he could wring out of the system if he was going to make his plans to undermine the Heroes League work.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. There were apparently five or maybe six skill tiers, each costing five times more experience per level than the last. This meant that it cost only 1,000 xp to level up from Beginner, 5,000 xp for Novice, and 25,000 xp for Expert. After Expert it was theorised that there were at least Master and Legendary levels, but beyond that little was known. Mental skills at least could be vaguely associated with an educational level. Beginner, Novice, and Expert were equivalent to an Associate''s, Bachelor''s, and Master¡¯s degree. It was assumed that Doctorate level was beyond that, probably at Master rank. Physical skills were a little harder to tie into real-world analogues, though a number of people were suggesting a comparison to Amateur, Collegiate, State, and Olympic levels of training. Each skill also had an associated attribute, their score representing the character¡¯s natural talent. The higher the attribute, the more chance skill tests would succeed, more xp would be given, and the faster the skill would advance. After seeing the development speed of his Intelligence skills, Justin had been a little bummed over ¡®wasting¡¯ points on the Inventor Talent. Yes it had saved him some time, but that was one of his most prolific resources, and surely he would have had even more of it if he¡¯d put those 10 points into Acuity. While taking a more indepth look at his skills, though, he¡¯d noticed something strange.His Science and Engineering skills all listed his Intelligence as being 5 points higher than it actually was. In the end he¡¯d decided that the skill focused talents like Inventor must represent not just past experience, but also advanced potential in the given skills. He was very happy with receiving a +5 bonus, and was even happier when he raised his Intelligence to 60 and it went up to +6. A 10% boost was even better than a flat bonus, not only was it going to give him more points, but it also meant that it gave him a greater benefit than it would other Inventors with their piddling 20-30 Intelligence. Everything was coming up KIP! His self-satisfied ruminations were interrupted by Jason buzzing to make a delivery. ERA had stumbled across the identity of the young hero relatively early on in her investigations, he was really just too casual, or maybe naive, in maintaining his secret identity. It was his fan-service that had finally made the definite connection, as he¡¯d spent quite a bit of time responding to fans on Facebook, Twitter, and the Hero forums, in between posting on his personal feeds at an impossibly fast rate. Justin had done what he could to muddy the waters a little, changing post timings, establishing alternate candidates for Shift¡¯s identity, creating a few false alibis, and spreading conspiracy theories on the hero-watch forums. He would really like to have the young speedster on the team, there weren¡¯t many around who could match his speed after all. But he wasn¡¯t yet sure whether it would be worth the problems the youngster would bring with him. In some ways that described most of his potential candidates though, and could probably be applied to himself just as easily. Maybe the solid, issue-free types had already teamed up? Maybe they¡¯d high-tailed it out of Detroit? Maybe they just didn¡¯t play geeky games? In the end he¡¯d decided to keep Jason Mach close and build a bond by giving him some paying work that also let him practice his skills. Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 4 Justin was getting pretty good at directing the Phantom air drone through the early evening streets of Detroit. He was inordinately proud of the fact that he hadn''t clipped or crashed into anything for over half-an-hour. The problem was that the drone was so slow he kept getting distracted with other things, and by slow he meant it could only travel at 40 mph, which for him was interminable. There was actually very little of the off-the-shelf premium quadcoptor that Justin hadn''t tinkered with. The battery pack had been replaced with a graphene anode lithium-air battery, the signalling and controls were passed through a highly-encrypted channel designed to hide behind passive urban radiation. He''d given the rotors a wave-suppressing film, and the body some light and radar scattering paint. The on-board camera had been upgraded with an advanced sensor suite including ultra 4k, night-vision, heat-vision, burst lidar, and passive wifi-radar. All-in-all, it was a smooth, silent, nearly invisible eye in the sky, and some bastard had just shot it. Justin, who had been paying slightly more attention to his latest research projects than he should have while on patrol, now threw all his attention onto the small drone wavering in the air. He started it on some evasive manoeuvres in case another shot was incoming, and quickly reviewed the last few seconds of footage. He spotted a flash of high temperature compressed air coming from a nearby wall, but strangely there seemed to be nothing there except a dangling rope. Flicking through a number of filters, Justin was finally able to make out a heat-map of an invisible figure half way up the rope. Zooming in, he cleaned up the image to get a better look at the guy''s masked face, and forwarded the still to ERA to see if she could identify him. Justin sighed in relief as he recognised the guy''s weapon as a dart pistol, luckily for him a dart was unlikely to have done any serious damage to Justin''s baby. When ERA responded a couple of seconds later, he was a little surprised at the completeness of the information she sent him, granted she''d been responsible for building up the powered database for nearly a week now, but still. The file named the invisible climber as Ebon Fox, a sneak thief with Invisibility powers, a love for Renoir, and a penchant for art theft. According to the file, ERA had picked up on dark web chatter that the Fox was after a Renoir painting on show at the Institute of Arts Museum, which come to think of it, Justin was hovering pretty near to. The thief was known to be a low-violence villain, so Justin was pretty surprised he''d shot at the drone, but then, Justin had probably been hovering in the area for long enough that he thought he''d been made and panicked.
Quest Received! Fox in the Hen House Type: Hero Description: You have discovered Ebon Fox attempting to break into the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. Goal: Stop him. Difficulty: Easy Rewards: 200xp
Ok, maybe he should have been paying more attention to the data ERA had been collecting.200 xp was 200 xp after all. With a quick loop, Justin activated the secondary rotors. They weren''t silent like the first set, but they almost doubled the little drone''s speed, and he was on the thief before he made it a meter down the rope. A quick application of the Phantom''s forward prongs and a small amount of the battery''s stored charge, and the now visible Fox hung unconscious in his harness, gently knocking his head against the wall.
New Skill Discovered! Piloting has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Piloting - Beginner Level 1 [12%].
New Skill Discovered! Tazer has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Tazer - Beginner Level 1 [14%].
He was surprised he hadn''t received the Piloting skill before now, but guessed it needed you to do more than putter around empty streets. Smiling in victory, Justin put in a quick call to the DPD, and contacted the Museum''s night shift to let them know they had a slumbering villain hanging from their wall. This time he didn''t do it anonymously, giving them his codename when asked.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
You have received +2 Fame, the current Fame of Artisan is 2.
Quest Completed! Fox in the Hen House Type: Hero Description: You have incapacitated Ebon Fox. Difficulty: Easy Rewards: 200xp
Before now, Justin hadn''t been sure that night patrols would actually achieve anything, mostly he''d just wanted to swoop through the empty streets, playing with his new drone. But fame and xp were definitely worth it. "ERA, forward me any information you''ve picked up on potential criminal activities." He might as well have a look to see if he''d been missing anything else.
You have received 4 new quests. Please view your Journal for details.
Ok,he opened his Journal. Well shit. He was definitely going to need help to deal with this, and so there went all his carefully laid plans for wooing prospective teammates. He had ERA pilot the drone back to the workshop, he needed it to deliver some invitations. The inside of the Underground was in an even worse state than his workshop, there was the smell of damp and mould in the air, and most of the walls were bare brickwork with the occasional splash of graffiti. The bar out front was just a pile of glass, wood and rubble. Abandoned for about thirty years, the old tavern had definitely seen better days. Justin and the heroes were meeting in the backroom where Justin had had a shiny white, circular conference-room table installed, with a dozen matching white leather chairs. It turned out a dozen had been a bit optimistic since only five heroes had agreed to the meet. There was no electricity yet, so Justin had hung a few battery-powered led lights around the place. At one seat at the table there was a chair missing, just a laptop turned to face the rest of the table. The screen displaying KIP''s smiling head, his skin streaming alien code. Justin had watched through the laptop''s camera as the heroes eyed each other with interest on arrival, seeming to give the strange image on the laptop only a cursory glance. "I am apologising for the state of room." he said as North Wind settled into a chair on his left, the last to arrive, she chose to sit separately from everyone else as if declaring her independence. Either her shift had run over, or she''d dithered on whether to come at all. "I am also apologising for my talking bad. I am learning in progress." He mentally sighed as he saw Shift blink in recognition, there was just no way to disguise his voice when he only barely spoke the language. The others looked over at the laptop, examining it with greater interest. He examined them back. Revenant stood to Justin''s right, his hands resting on the back of a chair he''d gently tested on arrival before deciding it wouldn''t hold his weight. He was dressed in modern black trousers and leather boots, but his top looked more like a tunic than a shirt, and he was wearing shiny chainmail that looked like it had recently been tied back together. His skull face was unconcerned (could it show concern?), probably because he could survive the building falling on him if this turned out to be a trap. Next was Division, a solid black man in his forties, his closely-shaven hair was just starting to thin and had begun to grey at the sides. He was dressed in urban combat fatigues that looked freshly ironed, and a simple black eye mask. He was leant back in his chair with his hands resting on his stomach, still and watchful, but equally unconcerned. In his case it was probably because the him here was a copy. Justin wasn''t sure what his limit was, but he knew at least two others were outside the tavern, one disguised as a vagrant, the other in a sniper nest on the building opposite. Seated next to him, Shift had been looking bored, playing with his phone until Justin spoke, now he looked a little troubled. He was dressed in sneakers, joggers, and a red hoodie with the hood raised, and a band of red face-paint across his eyes. He wore fingerless gloves with the hoodie''s sleeves rolled up his forearms. Justin wondered how he got them to stay there while moving at speed, or his hood up come to think of it. Justin hoped he didn''t panic and blurt something out that would give away either of their identities. To Justin''s left was North Wind, dressed all in white, long white leather coat over white jeans, white boots and a light white sweater. Her long black hair was tied back in a pony-tail, and she was sporting a white eye mask that seemed to highlight her epicanthic folds. She obviously didn''t mind people knowing she was Asian. And lastly, Shade was in a pool of shadow in the corner. Justin wasn''t sure if the others even realised he was there or not. Revenant kept throwing glances around the room, but he could have just been checking for trouble, or considering the decor. "Please, Shade is to join us." He said, trying to make clear he was looking at the man, which was pretty difficult to do from a flat screen. The shadows receded leaving a man dressed in a hooded purple robe over simple black clothes. Blocky black bands and symbols decorated the robe, giving it a distinctly native appearance. His face stayed improbably shadowed within the hood as he moved forward and sat at the table between Shift and North Wind. Wind was giving him a dirty look as if he''d been trying to fool her personally. Or maybe she just didn''t like strange men lurking in shadowy corners. "I am questing," Justin said, emphasizing the word and turning everyone''s attention back to him. "There is big battle tomorrow, many gangs. I need all of you help." Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 5 Justin explained the situation in comically mangled sentences. Basically, the influx of heroic activity over the last week had been too successful. With multiple new heroes coming down hard on the formally thriving gangs of the city''s residential core, the gangs had been forced further and further outwards. Numerous turf wars were brewing between the recently dispossessed and their less flush, but equally vicious cousins in the crumbling outer districts. Add in a number of villains trying to establish a foothold amidst the high poverty, low DPD, low Hero presence of the hinterlands, and outer Detroit had the makings of a powder keg waiting for a spark. And it wouldn''t take much to engulf the whole city. The heroes stayed silent as Justin worked through the details as best he could, finishing with the information that had brought the mess to his attention. One of the new villain gangs had established a partnership with one of Detroit''s more numerous drug gangs. The Hou and Los Demonios were planning to meet tomorrow before heading out to exterminate as many of the weaker gangs as they could find, clearing the way for them to take over all of the outer Detroit territories. It was the typical short-sighted villain plot that would cause a mass of blood-shed while achieving very little. They would just weaken themselves and their victims, allowing other gangs to move in, chopping off more moderate sized territories. "I will aid thee," Revenant broke into the silence that followed Justin¡¯s review. "I have encountered the Hou, and their leader Ku. In allowing him to escape, I may well have contributed to the coming slaughter."
Revenant has joined ''Unknown'' Team. More details are available on the Team menu.
"Yo tambi¨¦n," Shade agreed. "I''ve got some unfinished business with Los Demonios."
Shade has joined ''Unknown'' Team.
North Wind spoke up next. "As long as you''re aware that this is a temporary agreement, then I''m in too.¡±
North Wind has joined ''Unknown'' Team.
Shift''s thumb was pattering against the table like a trapped hummingbird. "Sure, I''m in." He was probably still worrying over ¡®Mr Weyland¡¯ knowing his identity.
Shift has joined ''Unknown'' Team.
Division finally sat forward with a smile, as if taking the meeting seriously for the first time. "Then I guess I make six, or ten, however you want to count it.¡± A couple of the team frowned at him in confusion, but didn¡¯t interrupt.
Division has joined ''Unknown'' Team.
His smile twisted into something a lot more cynical, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we contact the Heroes League or the DPD to get help on this?" Shade snorted under his hood. "Sure, if you want the Furies showing up to blow the keg early,¡± he snorted again, ¡°they¡¯d probably set the city on fire before the pandillas have a chance. If you want backup, I know a team on the east side, muy discreto, they know how not to make an entrance." ¡°Good, good, good.¡± Justin beamed out of the monitor. He¡¯d been given the option to open the quests to the team, and did so without hesitation, seeing them alter slightly as they became team quests.
Quest Modified! The Hua Kids on the Block Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have become aware of the Hua''s territorial ambitions. Goal: Stop them. Difficulty: Challenging Reward:700 xp
Quest Modified! The Demons of Old DetroitThis tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have become aware of Los Demonios'' territorial ambitions. Goal: Stop them. Difficulty: Difficult Reward: 500 xp
Quest Modified! Haven''t We Crumbled Enough Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have become aware of planned gang activity. Prevent the further destruction of Detroit''s benighted wasteland. Goal: Prevent widespread destruction. Difficulty: Average Reward: 300 xp
Quest Modified! The Blood Belongs on the Inside Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have become aware of planned gang activity. Prevent the innocent from becoming caught in the crossfire. Goal: Prevent civilian casualties. Difficulty:Difficult Reward:500 xp
He gave the modified quests a quick review and noticed that the difficulty had dropped from Impossible, and the xp reward by 40%. He assumed that everyone in the team would receive the reward. He watched asthe rest of the group paused toreview the new quests. ¡°Who¡¯ll be calling the shots on the ground,¡± Division asked, finishing first. ¡°Hoping you be. Military man, good leader.¡± Justin answered promptly. Division frowned at the alien head, obviously troubled by Justin knowing his character was former military, before glancing down at his fatigues with a raised eyebrow. Justin was happy to let him think what he wanted, but ERA had unearthed service records on a William Green, who despite the mask, bore a startling resemblance to the man in front of him. ¡°In that case I need to know what everyone brings to the table. I¡¯ll need recon, preferably with updated aerials, as soon as you can get them to me. I¡¯d like active numbers and threat assessments on each of the gangs, but I¡¯ll accept estimates. I want us all to meet at least an hour early to go over radio signals and fallback points. Ideally, I¡¯d want to train together for at least a couple of days, too, but I guess you can¡¯t have everything.¡± Justin flicked to a picture in picture of the Phantom¡¯s view of the Detroit¡¯s urban wasteland, he¡¯d asked ERA to get started with a recon flight, and was happy to have anticipated Division¡¯s request. ¡°Surveil in progress. Will be deliver file, same building as meet request.¡± ¡°Good enough, in that case I¡¯ll see you all here tomorrow twenty hundred sharp.¡± Division said, nodding goodbye before heading off to the tunnel he¡¯d entered through. North Wind waved Revenant out the door in front of her, both having gone to leave at the same time. Justin could hear her muttering about it now being a ¡®goddamn military operation¡¯. Shade had disappeared at some point, leaving Justin, hopefully, alone in the room with Jason. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll see you tomorrow then, Mr Weyland,¡± he said, standing up and disappearing out the door in a blur. Well, that went better than expected! Justin had spent the last 18 hours (3 days) in a fever of crafting. He¡¯d given up all hope of real elegance, of composite designs, of wowing the team with the brilliance of his creations. Instead he''d focused on the simple, the tested, the tried and true. First, he¡¯d woven carbon nano-fibre into a number of light combat weave suits to be worn under the team¡¯s costumes. They wouldn¡¯t stop a high-calibre bullet, but they were as good as Kevlar at blunting small-arms fire and protecting against knives and blades, and were both lighter and cooler than a full Kevlar suit. He also fashioned a number of graphene masks since all the body armour in the world wouldn¡¯t stop a bullet to the face. He''d prepared two high charge tazer batons for Shift, but couldn''t think of anything that would help North Wind or Shade that they couldn''t already do with their powers. And from what he''d seen, Division was in possession of a small arsenal. He¡¯d figured light armour would be pointless for Revenant, but since the skeleton appeared to want armour and he had observed him attempting to use weapons, Justin had done what he could to produce something that would be of aid to him. He didn¡¯t have the facilities for large scale steel casting and rolling, but he could produce small ¡®scales¡¯ of steel very quickly, and so he¡¯d set IRA to casting and fastening thick steel scales onto a heavy leather jerkin. He¡¯d gone for tank-armour grade HSLA, 0.8¡± steel. He wasn¡¯t too worried about the weight, given what he¡¯d seen of the undead skeleton¡¯s strength, which is why he¡¯d also ordered a heavy, six-foot pole of more flexible tool steel. He¡¯d also had time to work on his drone army. Which now consisted of another two aerial drones he¡¯d rather optimistically titled Battle Drones. They were outfitted with a light graphene armour shell, tazer prongs, and grenade launchers (more grenade droppers than launchers really), with a fresh supply of flash, smoke, and tazer-cloud grenades ready to go! He had so many plans to improve on everything that it was almost painful to just leave them as they were. Despite not long ago thinking he had an over-abundance of time, he was suddenly in a situation where he just didn¡¯t have enough. He¡¯d even been reduced to buying off-the-shelf encrypted ear-mics, it was just humiliating really. Arc 1: Team Building Exercise part 6 The team met again in the Underground, taking turns changing into their new combat-weave under-armour in the apparently non-functional restrooms, Justin was informed that the plumbing needed as much work as the rest of the building. Having played a machine for what was effectively a few weeks, it hadn¡¯t even occurred to him to check. Given Division¡¯s comment the previous night, Justin had put together five sets of under-armour for him. He knew the duplicator had Kevlar vests, but they weren¡¯t full body, and he had also seen how much the guy liked sneaking copies around in disguises. North Wind and Shift seemed a little jittery, this was probably going to be their first real brawl in or out of the game, and Justin had to admit he was a little shaky himself, it was easier to hide nerves when you didn''t have a body to betray you though. Division, in comparison, was serious, professional, but seemed lighter, perhaps happier than he had at the previous night''s meeting, smiling with the others and calming them down with a solid, experienced presence. Whether his improved mood was because he''d enjoyed planning tonight''s excursion, an intentional choice to reassure the team, or because he just liked being part of a group, Justin wasn''t sure. No reason it can''t be all three, Justin decided. Revenant seemed blissfully unaware of the tense atmosphere, unsurprisingly tranquil about the coming conflict. He¡¯d heaped antiquated praise onto Justin''s gifts, before quickly changing into his new scale armour, and was now busy breaking rubble in the front room, testing the resilience and impact of his new staff. Shade¡¯s mood was a mystery as usual, thanking Justin politely for the armour before summoning a cloud of shadow to change in. Once they were all ready, Division called everyone to attention for the mission briefing. ¡°Here¡¯s our operational objectives,¡± he began. ¡°First, keep as many people safe as possible, and that includes us. Second, stop the Hua and Los Demonios before they can rampage across half of Detroit. Third, minimise collateral damage.¡± He shifted the map, open on the table. ¡°From the intel acquired by Artisan, it appears they¡¯re planning to meet downtown before riding the I-94, taking out the east side gangs in Ravendale all the way up to Burbank,¡± his finger traced the route, tapping the named territories as he passed them. ¡°Before taking the seven-mile back to Westwood Park and Brightmoor.¡± He glanced around the table to make sure everyone was paying attention. ¡°We need to intercept them before they hit the residentials, but the city center and interstate would put even more people at risk, as well as attract a lot more attention. That means we have a relatively small target zone of the Conner Street off-ramp. Luckily there are high earthen berms there which will provide good cover for an ambush, as well as limiting the spread of any weapons fire. Fallback will be to the north or south, where we¡¯ve got the parkway and the community college.¡± Shift lifted his hand, frowning, ¡°Err, the community college?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the campus will be clear by then,¡± Division answered. ¡°And if we¡¯re forced back, we might need the buildings for cover.¡± He waited for Shift to nod, accepting his reassurance. ¡°Shade has given me a rundown of expected transport,¡± he continued, nodding to the shadowy figure. ¡°We¡¯re expecting both SUVs and a number of bikes. Artisan is going to attempt to stall out the vehicles with a radio pulse, but I also want spike strips laid to isolate the convoy in case any are resistant. Shift, you¡¯ll be responsible for getting the rear strips deployed, as well as erecting road work and diversion signs behind them. I¡¯ll be throwing out the forward strips.¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He glanced around the table once more to see if anyone had questions. ¡°Once we¡¯re engaged, here are your roles. Shift and Shade, you¡¯re our skirmishers, I want you picking off runners and generally keeping the enemy boxed in. Artisan and I are crowd control, we¡¯re going to be concentrating on thinning out the main gang force. North Wind and Revenant, you¡¯re on priority target acquisition, I want you taking down any powered or heavy weapons that come into play.¡± He glanced at Shade again, ¡°Are your friends in place?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call them friends, they just owe me a favour.¡± Shade answered, for some reason seeming to find the idea humorous. ¡°They¡¯ve been tracking Hua and Los Demonios agents and provocateurs all day. They¡¯ll be ready to make them and any forward scouts¡­ desaparecer, before they can cause any trouble.¡± ¡°As long as they don¡¯t disappear permanently,¡± Division answered with an unexpected amount of humour. Justin wondered if Shade had let Division in on his ¡®associates¡¯ identities since he¡¯d been strangely cagey about it whenever Justin asked. He wasn¡¯t jealous. He didn¡¯t need to know everything, he just¡­ liked to. It was important for good planning. Shut up. The Phantom drone hovered 30 meters above the off-ramp. It was high enough to give him an overview of the interstate and the area they''d designated for the ambush. He could make out most of his team lying in wait with his heat-sensors, but North Wind was strangely absent. She must have been summoning ambient cold, ready to shape in the coming battle. Traffic was light at this time of night, so it was easy to pick out the convoy of at least a dozen SUVs, gang members clinging to the outside running boards and side rails. Around them swarms of bikes moved back and forth, jockeying for position. The noise, even from Artisan¡¯s height, was shocking as it ripped apart the silence of the formerly quiet night.
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Awareness - Beginner Level 5[72%].
He turned off notifications, not wanting to be distracted during the coming fight. As the gang vehicles moved into the target area, Artisan cut the rotors, dropping the Phantom into range before releasing a high powered radio pulse. It was strong enough, and at the right frequency to send the vehicle¡¯s computers haywire, causing all but a few of the older bikes to stall-out. The drop in noise was as shocking as its arrival had been. He could make out shouts of confusion and demands for answers as his battle drones dropped their first payload of flashbangs into the midst of the gangs. Outside the confusion he could already see his team taking down gang members from the peripheries as they attempted to either find their attackers or escape the trap. Others spilled from the vehicles, disoriented from the sudden burst of light and sound, but already drawing weapons and taking cover behind the SUVs. He heard the roar as a number of bikes got their engines re-started and headed en massefor one of the banks, before the explosion of tyres caught on spike strips sent them into a tumbling heap of wreckage. He looked for promising clumps, before releasing tazer grenades to explode in their midst. The two-stage grenades first released a cloud of metallic mono-filament before dumping the entire load of the over-powered capacitor in their centre. The filament was burned off, delivering a few hundred thousand volts, and 4.5 milliamps across its length, dropping gangbangers and even lighting a few of them on fire. Artisan mentally shrugged before moving on to look for more promising targets. A quick count confirmed the gangs were already down over half their number. Unfortunately one of the gang members, recovering before the others, spotted the drones dropping grenades and opened fire into the air, his friends followed his example, clipping the Battle Drones and smashing the Phantom in a hail of gunfire. Artisan groaned internally. No more Mr Nice Guy! He thought, kicking his remaining drones into defensive swoops, dropping grenades indiscriminately among the remaining gang members. He seethed as the view from a Battle Drone showed his baby hitting the ground in a shower of plastic pieces, broken glass, and burnt electronics. The next Phantom was definitely going to have armour! Arc 1: The Heat of Battle (Shift / Division / Shade) SHIFT (Michael) Shift crouched by a tree overlooking the exit ramp, tapping the fingers of his right hand against the trunk. The convoy should be here any minute, and Michael could feel his heart beating faster and faster as adrenalin began pouring through his system. He checked his sheet in an attempt to calm down.
Codename Shift Real Name Jason Mach
Species Human Archetype Speedster
Origin Metahuman Wealth $146
Level 3 [60%]+3 CP Health 180 / 180
Recovery Rate 2per second
Strength 10 Intelligence 8
Agility 27 Acuity 15
Fortitude 15 Willpower 10
Stamina 35 / 35 Focus 35 /35
Recovery Rate 0.15 per second Recovery Rate 0.1 per second
Powers Talents Complications
Superspeed rank2 - Teenager
Regeneration rank2 - Secret Identity
Then he heard the roar of massed motorbikes, and waved the window away, watching as a mix of black SUVs and bikes streamed past, they were travelling pretty slowly, even without Shift''s enhanced perceptions. He waited till the last of them roared around the bend, before speaking quietly into his mic. "Rear blockade is go." He said blurring into the roadway carrying a sign and one end of a spike strip. Two quick trips back to the tree, and a full road closed barricade was set up, with a diversion sign pointing up the I-94. He heard Division confirm the forward blockade, his words dragging out until they were nearly unintelligible, then the sound of the motorcade, lower and deeper since he''d begun speeding, became almost quiet as the vehicles'' engines stalled and chugged. Go time. He thought racing around the corner. He saw the glint of the flashbangs falling from the sky and quickly crouched with his eyes squeezed shut, his hands held tight to either side of his red graphene facemask to protect his hearing. He chided himself for rushing in, he''d known first contact called for Artisan dropping the bang, he''d thought he''d waited long enough, but now figured he should have waited for the explosions before getting close. It seemed to take forever before he felt a thump in his chest as the grenades detonated nearby. Some of the light made its way past his eyelids, throwing green and red blurs across his vision, and his ears rang uncomfortably, but by the time he stood up, his vision and hearing were already back to normal. He looked out over the chaos of vehicles, bikes dropped on the sides, their riders moving slowly towards the crews spilling from the SUVs. He heard some of the gang members shouting to each other but couldn''t tell what they were saying through the speed-distortion. His hands went behind his back as he began running once more, whipping back out with a tazer baton in each hand. He caught up to the rear-most rider, his bike still in mid-fall as he stumbled clear. Shift scooped his arm under the guy''s trailing leg, using his momentum to lift him airborne before slamming the left-hand baton across the rider''s chest.
New Skill Discovered! Baton has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Baton - Beginner Level 1 [08%].
Before the guy could land, his ribs broken, Shift was already on to the next rider, touching the prongs of the right baton into the back of his knee and tapping the button for a quick spark.
New Skill Discovered! Tazer has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Tazer - Beginner Level 1 [12%].
He saw two gang members ahead of him begin to spin, their eyes squeezed shut but their pistols raised. Worried they were about to begin shooting blindly, he threw his right baton at the one on the left, watching for a millisecond as it seemed to float towards the rider''s helmet. He''d tried to lowball the throw, too much momentum and it would have hit like a bullet.
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Throwing - Beginner Level 6 [47%].
Too many notifications! He mentally waved them away, turning his attention to the guy on the right, he quickly rolled under his waving gun, squinting at the noise of two shots ringing out directly above his head. Rising up inside the reckless shooter''s guard, he pressed his remaining baton up under his helmet, and winced in sympathy as the guy began to spasm from the shock applied to his throat. Shiftopened and closed his mouth under the mask, his ears popping uncomfortably as his ear drums re-knit. Turning back to the rider on the left, he saw him falling, his faceplate cracked around the embedded baton. Oops, maybe too hard on that one. Now wasn''t the time to worry though, so he sprinted forward, spinning past the falling biker, ripping the baton out of the broken glass sending shards cascading through the air, before sliding across an SUVs hood into the midst of a small group leaning against the far side, trying to stay under cover while they regained their senses. The next few seconds were a chaotic swirl of Shift tumbling between swinging bats, fists and knives, touching a baton here, sweeping a leg there. One of the guys was particularly fast, shooting a pistol twice into Shift''s ribs at point blank range, luckily his under-armour held preventing anything worse than a couple of deep bruises, but it still freaked him out a little, and the baton backhanded across the guy''s face probably broke his cheek and jaw, if it didn''t land him in a coma. He breathed in relief as he felt the bruises begin to fade.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. From up ahead he could hear gunfire and grenades, and stopped to blink at the sight of an SUV arcing gracfully through the air towards one the berms. Stay in your lane. Shift thought, heading for a group of riders beginning to sprint for the other bank.
DIVISION (John) Division watched through a pair of binoculars as the ambush was launched, the surprised and disoriented gangers trying to find cover amidst the stopped vehicles. He sighed as he realised the radio pulse had managed to short-out their mics, but there was nothing to do about it right now. Communication was key in this sort of situation, and he''d have to talk to Artisan about coming up with a shielded set of communicators for the future. It was strange to already be thinking long term, planning equipment, who to use where, and who needed what training. John guessed it was just in his blood. He both watched and was his beta crew, dug in at the junction where the ramp split to travel north and south, they were the cork in the bottle, and Division had known that that was where the fighting would be fiercest. The first impulse when caught unaware was to push forward, to sweep the unexpected out of the way. It''s why he had put himself at the front. He had the most experience in this kind of skirmish, and his clones were replicable, expendable in a way none of the rest of the team were. Except maybe Artisan''s drones, and even they had a cost in time and resources that exceeded Division''s other selves. Charlie had already taken a round to the head, cracking his facemask and leaving him disoriented. It was strange when only one of him suffered effects like this, his control of the clone sluggish and distant, like a limb that had fallen asleep. Bravo and Delta spun as Division spotted a couple of gangers attempting to flank beta squad''s position. Two shotgun blasts rang out, and the gangers fell gasping for breath as their diaphragms spasmed after being hit centre mass by bean bag rounds. Delta pitched a smoke grenade out to the side, providing cover for Echo as he moved forward in a crouch, grabbed each of the fallen gang members by their collars and dragged them back behind cover. There was a lot of wild shooting going on out there and he didn''t want them catching friendly fire. Charlie was starting to regain focus, so he took over zip-tying the gasping prisoners while Echo returned to the firing line. Division watched from a distance as something roared inside the melee, and an SUV was pitched against the left bank where Revenant was waiting to intervene. A blast of air swept the SUV away before it impacted Revenant''s position, a probably unnecessary save by North Wind, but it left the knight clear to charge straight in at the massive bare-chested guy who must be Ku. He was dancing around, roaring and beating at his tattooed chest like some sort of overly dramatic wrestler. Bravo put two bean bag rounds into the side of his head, it probably wouldn''t hurt him but it might distract him from Revenant''s charge.
SHADE (Carlos) Shade shifted around the edges of the fight, dancing in and out of the chaos, at home in the night. His tendrils each held a small blade of black stone, slicing hamstrings and tendons, dropping screaming bangers and weapons from nerveless fingers as he passed, each slash fuelling the power of the obsidian knife held in his left hand, each a small sacrifice of blood to Itztli that made him stronger. And honestly, a little tipsy, drunk on the influx of power. He brought up his character sheet, checking belatedly to see how much he had absorbed.
Codename Shade Real Name Diego Martinez
Species Human Archetype Controller
Origin Imbued Object (Celestial) Wealth $ 2,349
Level 2 [30%]+2 CP Health 170 / 170 (120)
Recovery Rate 0.15 per minute (0.1)
Strength 15 (10) Intelligence 15 (10)
Agility 15 (10) Acuity 15 (10)
Fortitude 15 (10) Willpower 30 (25)
Power Drain [23 / 25]
Stamina 22/ 40 (30) Focus 26 / 70 (60)
Recovery Rate 0.15 per second (0.1) Recovery Rate 0.3per second (0.25)
Powers Talents Complications
Umbra-Kinesisrank2 - Removable Power Source
Terra-Kinesisrank 1 (Limited) - Secret Identity
Energy Drain rank 1(Limited) - -
Power Drainrank 2 (Limited) - -
Waving it away, he let the stone blades turn to dust, and decided to be more careful in the future, he''d almost drained more than he could handle at this level, and he wasn''t sure what would happen if he went over. He watched as the remaining gang members began to panic, some of them dropping their weapons and running back the way they''d come, some firing wildly into the air, or at the barricades in front of them, others fell to the floor, their hands behind their heads like the police were here to arrest them. Then he saw Ku stepping from an SUV; and the Black Dragon, leader of Los Demonios, slid out behind him, her black hair tied back into a braid that almost reached her knees. Snapping his tendrils out into the shadows, Shade grabbed a couple of scared Los Demonios and hoisted them upside down, they''d been trying to sneak their way past him amidst the shadows of the trees, but the night was clear as day to Shade, and he hardly shifted his focus from the supersvillains, stood amidst their decimated forces, as he whipped the gangers off into the trees. Despite all his snooping around the Latino gang, Carlos had been unable to discover Black Dragon''s power. He''d been a little surprised that the Los Demonios quest had been ranked easier than the other, from everything he''d heard, she was supposed to be quite powerful. He guessed he had a front-row seat to find out. Arc 1: The Heat of Battle (Revenant / North Wind) REVENANT (Reece) Revenant watched as the ambush devolved into chaos and individual skirmishes. It seemed they still needed work as a team. He felt the draw of the battle, wanted to wade in swinging as he saw the gang members draw bats, machetes, knives, pistols and SMGs, all weapons meant to break and rend his teammates. But he didn¡¯t, he¡¯d agreed to hold back, to avoid becoming embroiled and distracted, to wait for Ku and any other supers to show themselves. It reminded Reece of theatre club, standing backstage, waiting for his cue to enter. Desperately hoping he¡¯d remember his lines. He frowned as he smelled something wafting on the breeze, normally he couldn¡¯t smell anything, he didn¡¯t breath after all. But he relaxed a moment later as he recognized the scent of Shade¡¯s magic permeating the night, stronger even than before. Reece hadn¡¯t had much opportunity to develop his magical palate, but even still, Shade¡¯s magic seemed strange. It smelled of darkness, of blood and death and stone; it smelled of power and age. He¡¯d been confused ever since he¡¯d detected it in the backroom of the Underground. With its darker tones it seemed like it should be full of the pungent scent of necromancy like Revenant himself, but it wasn¡¯t; the dry, solid aroma of stone seemed to mute the effects of the other scents, mellowing them, absorbing them into itself. It was very, very confusing. And very interesting. Reece shook his head as he realized he¡¯d let himself get distracted, Shade¡¯s magic was a puzzle for another time. He watched as his team hammered the disoriented gang members, and stepped forward as he saw his target exiting a vehicle. He wasn¡¯t sure why Ku had waited so long, perhaps he¡¯d been just as surprised and wanted to wait and see what he was up against? Revenant walked slowly down the bank, waiting for Ku to notice him, knowing he¡¯d be drawn to test himself against the undead warrior once more. What he hadn¡¯t expected was for Ku to pitch the SUV at him. Reece blinked his eyeless sockets as the vehicle arced through the air, aware that he really should be getting out of the way, but somehow unsure in that moment of exactly how to do that. He knew the SUV wouldn¡¯t hurt him, but it might leave him disoriented or momentarily trapped beneath the weight of metal. Even a few seconds would be enough for Ku to be on him, raining down blows. And still Reece stood there. If he¡¯d been able to breath, he would have sighed in relief as a gust of wind swept the flying car away into a tree. He sent mental thanks to North Wind, and shook himself free from his daze. Ahead of him, Ku was stamping and beating his chest like a gorilla asserting his dominance. Did he mean it to be intimidating? Reece wasn¡¯t sure, but it was time to get this rematch started. Taking off at a steady, loping charge, Reece swung his staff almost gently around him, breaking bones and gun-wielding arms on his way to Ku, who suddenly looked around in confusion as something hit him in the side of the head. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Reece sped up, hitting the distracted man with the full weight of his charge. Dust rose in a circle around them from the impact, and Ku was launched into the SUV behind him, the metal crumpling around his body before the mass was carried even further, coming to rest twenty meters away against a particularly sturdy tree. Then Revenant frozeas a woman stepped forward, and the scent of death magic assaulted him, the bitter scent had been hidden beneath Shade¡¯s aroma of power. Black essence coiled around him, worming its way into his spirit, plucking away his control of his own body. He fell to his knees before her. Desperately, he called up his sheet. He still had a couple ofCP from levelling, was there something he could purchase to aid him in resisting?
Codename Revenant Real Name Samuel Crow
Species Undead Archetype Champion
Origin Cursed Wealth $0
Level 3 [25%]+2 CP Health 570/570
Recovery Rate 0.52 perminute
Strength 40 (32) Intelligence 8
Agility 9 Acuity 8
Fortitude 52 (35) Willpower 10
Stamina 105/105 Focus 41/41
Recovery Rate 0.52 per second Recovery Rate 0.1 per second
Powers Talents Complications
Enhanced Strength rank 1 Undead Traits Inhuman
Enhanced Fortitude rank 2 - Code of honour
Magic Sense: Scent - Curse
But the option to spend points stayed grey. He guessed the system was setup to prevent exactly what he''d just tried. His focus returned to the lady in black, fuming and battering against her control. He hated feeling powerless.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Seeinga flash of white behind the woman''s back, he watched in hope as North Wind quietly flew up behind the necromancer. Before grinding his teeth in frustration as North Wind''s ice lance shattered harmlessly against the necromancer''s shield, her own hastily summoned shield of ice fractured under a swarm of magical bolts released by the mage a second later in retaliation. The force of their impact threw North Wind back out of the embrace of her winds, and she tumbled painfully across the concrete surface of the road. Reece watched her stumble to her feet, her left arm hanging awkwardly at her side. Her eyes wide in pain, she still managed to concentrate on forming asplint of ice around her broken arm, binding it to her side. She glanced helplessly between the smugly grinning mage and Reece on his knees behind her. Seeming to reach a decision, she launched herself into the air, disappearing into the night sky. Reece mentally sighed in relief. He''d been worried the necromancer would order him to attack once North Wind had been grounded. She probably still would, but at least he wouldn''t have to deal with pulling the young girl apart. Shift could outrun him, Shade could hide from him, and Division was mostly just clones, his prime out of sight. He considered dropping out to the player lounge, letting NPC Revenant deal with the coming orders, but that would be coward''s way out, there was always hope. For Reece, the hope was that tonight could end without him being forced to kill one of his teammates.
NORTH WIND (Mia) Mia had been watching the ambush, cold pooling around her, ready to use. It took a decent amount of power and control to get airborne using only wind and air pressure, and it was easier if she was already off the ground, so she''d been crouched in the upper branches of a tree, watching the fight below. She was supposed to have stayed out of the skirmish, but had been using tactical bursts of air to disrupt gang member¡¯s aim or to throw dirt in their eyes at opportune, or rather, inopportune moments. She regretted having to pass off her evening shift to be here, but she was glad she had. It felt good to actually be doing something other than training, to be able to fight back against the world. She loved her virtual family, the experience of actually belonging for once had been so heady she¡¯d been tempted to give up on the chance of heroing all together, and just focus on the feeling of belonging for once, no matter how fake it was. For a former foster kid like Mia, being able to live out her fantasy of family life had been incredibly seductive and also deeply cathartic. But just as much as she was the lonely girl of her childhood, she was also the isolated, downtrodden teenager of her later years, desperate to fight back against the injustices and the bullies of the world. And the game was her chance to exorcisemore than just one her demons. When she saw the SUV flying towards Revenant, she''d reacted on instinct, reaching out and shoving the vehicle away. And when she saw him forced to his knees before the woman, she¡¯d gritted her teeth in rage and launched herself forward. Now she stood there battered and bruised, her broken left arm throbbing in pain, and the rage burned even colder. She launched herself into the air, the winds responding more rapidly than ever. She flew upwards, higher than she¡¯d ever dared before, until the air itself became sluggish and thin, and then she stopped, focusing instead on the cold seeping its way into and around her, letting it pool and coalesce before her. Then she released her hold on both it and the winds. She fell back towards the earth exhausted, and a large mass of ice bigger even than herself fell beside her. As a trickle of Focus returned, she used the winds to speed and direct their fall, and as the field of battle became clear below her, she focused on the pool of calm at its centre. Little seemed to have changed in the 30 seconds she¡¯d been gone, Revenant still knelt before the darkly dressed woman. It was tempting to aim the mass of ice directly at the mage, but she was fairly sure that would kill the her, so instead she aimed it 10 meters behind the bitch instead. It struckwith a boom like thunder, concrete cracked, chips of stonejoiningshards of ice as aconcussivewave of forceswept away from the impact. North Wind had halted her fall whilst still fairly high in the air, and she gritted her teeth as she struggled with the distance, focused on containing and directing the wave of pressurised air, funnelling all of it into the back of the mage.
REVENANT (Reece) Revenant looked up as a subtle whistle rose above the gloating voice of the harridan in front of him. He watched as the white mass struck behind the mage, her eyes widened in shock and pain as her shield washed away amidst the force of the impact, ribbons of blood appearing around her as shewas gashed by shards of ice and road, and he watched in pleasure as she dissapeared over his head, carried away on a beautiful wave of over-pressurised air. Reece, his control of his body returned, dug his fingers into the concrete, easily weathering the storm of ice and pressure,looking up once it had passed, he froze once more, this time in fear as North Wind slumped and fell lifeless fromthe air. Arc 1: Cleaning Up part 1 Justin had parked his drones a while ago to conserve battery power, they were sat on a nearby boulder overlooking the remains of the ambush. It had been over two hours since the fighting had ended, once Ku and Black Dragon were out of the fight, the rest of the gangers were quick to flee or surrender. Remembering how the fight had ended, Justin''s camera involuntarily swivelled once more to check on North Wind, now asleep against the trunk of a nearby tree. He was lucky to have gotten his drone under her in time, slowing their fall enough for Revenant to catch them. She''d let the paramedics strap up her broken arm, but had otherwise insisted on staying with the team. He turned his camera back to the mass of flashing blue and red lights. The first to arrive had been the local police, called in by Division Alpha as the rest of him swept through the battlefield, leaving behind disarmed and zip-tied gang members. He''d even triaged the wounded and applied first aid to the most seriously injured. Now Division was tied up with the DPD. While the rest of the team recovered, he''d handled debriefing the police and paramedics, dealt with the Heroes League representative that showed up, and had given a brief statement to the reporters. Noticing the representative, the reporters had asked if we were members of the Heroes League, and Division had replied that ''no, we''re outsiders''. The statementseemed to have been misinterpreted as their name, and had gained enough traction that a system message popped up a letting Justin know it was now available as a Team name. With a mental shrug, he''d clicked ''yes''. His mind turned back to working over the most troubling news of the night. After safely catching Justin and North Wind, Revenant had gone to secure Ku. But after peeling open the crumpled wreckage of the SUV, they''d found he''d once more disappeared. Questioning the gang members revealed that the majority of them were Los Demonios, and that their leader had been promised a powerful undead warrior for helping with tonight''s expedition. Obviously Ku had meant Revenant, but how had he known that a Hero team would show up to stop them, or that Revenant would be a member. Had he known? They''d interrogated the few gangers that belonged to the Hua, but apparently they were new initiates on their first operation. Black Dragon was at least in custody, but had still been unconscious when taken away in an ambulance. Division warned the escort officers what she was capable of, and they just had to hope they''d take the proper precautions. Maybe they did need a mystic on the team, binding other magic users was something they could do right? Finally letting the matter go, Justin returned his attention to Division, who was walking back to the group, finally showing a hint of tiredness. "We''re cleared to leave now," he greeted them, "but I had to promise our help in cleaning up the mess. Revenant, could you shift the damaged SUVs to the roadside? My guys are already clearing wreckage." Once done, they woke up North Wind, and recovered the beaten up truck Shade had acquired to bring them all out here. Shift and Wind had joined Revenant in making their own way out, but they seemed happy to have the ride back. Revenant waved them off before returning to help with the clean up. Shade was driving up front with North Wind in the cab, while Shift squeezed into the bed amongst Justin''s drones and all the Divisions. "Do team battles always lead to so much paperwork?" Shift asked, groaning theatrically as he stretched. Justin wasn''t sure, but apparently Division knew more. "They do, but I don''t think HL teams are usually tied up so long." He''d removed the full-face mask, and Justin could see him frowning. "I think they usually give a statement and then go, leaving the rest up to the HL representative. I saw the rep talking to the DPD sergeant early on, and that''s when things got a lot trickier."Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! "Trickier?" Shift asked, before Justin could. "The sergeant began pushing a lot harder, who fired first? What were we doing out here? Why didn''t we contact the local police?" Division smiled cynically, "Apparently the rep had convinced him that because we weren''t ''official'', and because we''d intervened before a crime could take place, that the incident should be classified as a gang fight, with us being arrested as the instigators." That was a very troubling interpretation of the evenings fight. Justin sat and stewed, he''d not investigated the laws concerning heroes, what were the rules? Were they supposed to wait for a crime to be committed? Division chuckled at the look on Shift''s face, and Justin was once again glad not to have a face to reveal his internal shock. "Don''t worry," Division said, waving a hand in apology for laughing. "We were good as far as the hero laws are concerned. Black Dragon had an SV warrant, which meant we were clear to go after her and her men at any time, and I placed a call to the local police before the ambush letting them know that I had reason to believe armed gang members were in the area. They didn''t have the man power to investigate, but it gave me a report number to show we''d contacted the authorities before intervening ourselves." Justin was suddenly twice as glad Division had agreed to join up with them tonight. As the other two went quiet, Justin decided to use the ride back to clearhis notifications. His Piloting had gone up quite a bit, along with Awareness and Assessment. And he''d gained an Artillery Weapons skill for his use of the drone''s grenade ''launchers''. He''d also received Quest Completions and a Level Up notification.
Quest Complete! The Hua Kids on the Block Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have stopped the Hua''s territorial ambitions. Difficulty: Challenging Reward:700 xp
Quest Complete! The Demons of Old Detroit Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You have stopped Los Demonios'' territorial ambitions. Difficulty: Difficult Reward: 500 xp
Quest Complete! Haven''t We Crumbled Enough Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You managed to keep collateral damage to a minimum. Difficulty: Average Reward: 300 xp
Quest Complete! The Blood Belongs on the Inside Type: Hero Team, Linked Description: You managed to prevent civilian casualties. Difficulty:Difficult Reward:500 xp
Congratulations! You are now Level 3 Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +1 Character Point. You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 2 unspent Character Points.
So all in all, a good night. They''d stopped the villains, gained some xp, kept people safe; a couple of the team had almostdied, Justin had lost his Phantom, and they''d almost been arrested. Yes, a good night, Justin thought glumly.
Shade had dropped them all off near the Underground, they''d already all agreed to meet up for a debrief later today, so Shift and Division waved goodbye before disappearing off home. North Wind was going to sleep in the conference room before heading out sinceshe didn''t want her family seeing her injured and exhausted. Justin let ERA pilot the drones back to the workshopwhile he settled his awareness back into the void of his system. He was tempted to get back to his research projects, but before he did that, he had some serious thinking to do. Arc 1: Cleaning Up part 2 Justin had gone over the quest timeline, and had double-checked his systems for evidence of intrusion, and there was just no mundane way for Ku to have known Revenant would be pulled into responding to the Hua and Los Demonios attacks when he''d organised them days ago. Which meant the only possible answer was that he had access to powers capable of predicting or altering the course of events, the system knew he was considering Revenant after all. Happy enough with the answer, but with no ready solution, Justin moved on to their other problem, well, one of their other problems; the Heroes League. He spent the next few hours trawling through the League charter, federal and state laws, and an obscene amount of financial disclosures. Coming out the other side with a some decent xp to his Law, Business and Economics skills, but more importantly, some very interesting information. The first thing he''d discovered, the Heroes League was classified as a private non-profit enterprise, which meant there was nothing stopping someone else from developing a competing organisation. Since they were the most prominent, nation-wide hero organisation, Justin had just assumed they were government sponsored, and since they weren''t, it had led to him investigating how it was possible to keep them funded. Twenty years ago, when they were just starting out in New York, it looked like the nascent League- received healthy donations from a number of well-off private citizens, almost certainly the secret identities of a number of beta testers. After which they mostly lived off of the income patent rights and merchandising. When the League expanded nationwide, they discovered their cash reserves running low, and so made some changes to their charter. It was these changes that had been so interesting to Justin, because they referenced something he, and probably a lot of other heroes, had been completely unaware of - super villain bounties. Apparently most active super villains had state or federal bounties placed on them, it had originally been a way to incentivise and reward heroics, and had been incredibly successful in reducing the cost of powered enforcement and rebuilding expenses, it just wasn''t advertised much anymore since the vast majority was processed through the Heroes League. Every hero team formed within, or signed up with, the League signed over bounty rights. The League then subsidised their teams, but Justin would bet the majority didn''t realise they were actually earning the handouts themselves. Checking the federal database, it appeared Detroit had posted a bounty of $20,000 on Black Dragon, and given enough hoop-jumping, it should be theirs for the taking. What that all meant was that a successful super team, with a legal presence and access to the right channels, should be able to easily support itself. Leaving future team speculation until he met with the others later on, Justin re-focused on his workshop and his own financial issues. He had some ideas on how to cut costs, but what he really needed was a product to sell. Armour and drones were too niche, unless he sold them to the government, which would attract a lot more scrutiny than his fake ID could handle. He had some ideas about material synthesis that could be extremely profitable, but it would require a large injection of funds to establish a reactor chamber or miniature particle collider. Whatever he developed would need to be initially cheap to produce, but with a high enough demand to support growth. Justin lost himself in speculation. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
"Wait a damn minute," Shift was on his feet, his words running over each other, "I could have been getting paid for stopping criminals?" "Not any just criminal, villain of power. Though, Bureau of Investigating offer bounty on normal top of the ten criminal list." Justin answered through the laptop. He really needed to get power back on to the building so he could have proper cameras and monitors, but for that they needed an electrician to sign off on the wiring, which meant they needed new wiring. He wondered if IRA knew how to install electrics. "Well isn''t that interesting." Division said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He''d gone with a softer outfit today, blue combats with a heavy blue sweater. It made him appear much more approachable and less like a soldier. Justin had brought the new information up as soon as they were done talking over the previous night''s conflict. "Need establish legal team identity. Then reward claim." Justin said, pushing a little. He wanted to get everyone thinking about the team as a done deal, before they remembered it was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement. The heroes glanced at each other, Division finally breaking the momentary silence. "Ku is still out there, and there''s going to be conflict over the outer gang territories whether he initiates it or not; and to be honest, I''d quite like to see what we could be capable of if we carried on working together." He looked around the table once more, meeting the eyes, camera, and eye sockets of the team, receiving a nod from each. "In that case: Artisan, make us legal enough to claim rewards, and see if it''s possible to roll in any of our previous captures. Also, check if there are any villains in Detroit with outstanding bounties, it wouldn''t hurt to pad the bank account and get this place fixed up. Shade, I want you with your ear to the ground, we need to know where Ku is and what he''s up to, and if any other gangs are thinking about getting adventurous. The rest of us are on training, I know a derelict neighbourhood where we can practice working together in an urban environment, it''s on the outskirts so it''s going to be a bit of a jog," He grinned at the rest of the team, "last one there does a hundred push-ups!" The rest of them glanced at each other before agreeing, everyone knew that against a speedster, a flyer, and a construct who didn''t get tired, Division would definitely be coming in last. Which is why Justin was so confused later on when he found out that Division had actually won. It was cleared up a moment later when Shift told him that Division had cheated and won on a technicality, his clones having already travelled to the site before he''d even issued the challenge.
It was the work of a few hours to get the Outsiders up and running as a legal entity, and Justin had to go through a business agent in order to cover the state contact requirements without disclosing the Underground as their base of operations. They probably needed to establish an administrative office as a point of contact, even if they didn''t end up using it for anything more than a letter box. While he was doing that, he had ERA downloading the bounty list and cross-referencing it with her database of local villains. After he''d finally finished with the paperwork, he got back to his newest project. The world of 2020 was still in the grips of a clean energy crisis, and Justin had some ideas for improving on a number of different renewable technologies. He was going to start with an improved solar array, and once he had a proof of concept, he''d be able to start producing panels for his own use, and hopefully for sale. He also needed to rebuild his Phantom drone, though this time he was going to build it all himself from the inside out. And after that he was going to investigate the possibility of a microbialfuel cell, inspired by a section of Manticore''s work. The doctor had considered using microbial electrolysis as a weapon of terror, seeding power-plants with electricity eating microbes, but hadn''t gotten much further than documenting a number of micro-organisms with appropriate building blocks. Which reminded Justin, what the hell had happened with the mad scientist? He asked ERA if she had any information on Leo, and she forwarded him a file. So... nothing good is what we''re saying. Justin thought with a mental sigh. Well, at least there''s a bounty out on him. Arc 1: Cleaning Up part 3 He made sure Manticore was added to ERA''s local villain bounty list, and got stuck into crystalline silicate structures, silicon seeds, and growth mediums. He read thousands of papers and theses, produced dozens of data samples, extrapolated photovoltaic capacities, and introduced theoretical nano-tube clusters for light capture.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Chemistry - Novice Level 1 [96%]. +6 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [09%]
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Mathematics - Novice Level 1 [97%]. +7 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [10%]
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Physics - Novice Level 2 [06%]. +5 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [11%]
Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Materials - Novice Level 2 [14%]. +8 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [13%]
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Design - Novice Level 2 [22%]. +6 xp to skill group Engineering - Novice Level 2 [45%]
He was a little shocked to come back to himself, rising from a fugue of scientific creation. He''d worked on a number of projects before now, and while he''d been shocked at how easily ideas had come to him, it had never felt like he''d lost himself in a world of math, structures, and possibilities quite like this. Justin had always been an artistic person, enjoying graphic rendering, crafts, and puzzles, and this had been a lot like that, the exclusionary focus, the thrill of creation. But it had also been more. Was the system getting better at interacting with him, or was he getting better at working with the system? It could be something else entirely. He wondered if this is what it was like for people with permanent neural enhancements in real life, the cerebral buoyancy, the access to a seemingly endless pool of data and speculation, the gestalt between science and art. He mentally stretched, spreading his consciousness throughout the workshop, and blinked as he realised it was well into morning already, which meant he''d been focusing on his solar project for more than twelve hours game time, or a couple of days Kip time. He really needed better ways to process and refer to living within two different time-streams. Perhaps he could develop his own timezone where a Kip-day was equal to roughly four earth days? His brain started to shift into ways to map and record the degree of dilation, before pulling himself back to the ''real'' world. He first checked in with ERA, who had completed her review of the local villain population, cross-checked it with outstanding bounties, and created a scaling rank system for determining risk reward. He complimented her initiative, and asked her to create a new list with a future threat measure. While in theory the scale of a villain''s power and bounty should be indicative of their threat to the people and city, it was never as simple as that. Justin already knew the importance of resources and support, it was why his own potential was growing, and it was why he was so concerned about Manticore signing on with the Bricktown Jackals, a large, well funded inner-city gang, currently desperate and beleaguered. Technology, money and manpower were all force multipliers, and given that the gang was currently under siege by heroes, villains and rivals, the chances of them applying any sort of brake to Manticore''s madness was slim to none. Shaking off the dark ruminations, Justin continued with his review of his minions evening activities. ERA had remembered to deliver a replacement battery for the laptop at the Underground, noting that Justin preferred to do so while it was dark. Justin wasn''t desperate to keep it powered, but he just knew that at some point he''d be speaking to the team and find himself going into hibernation. Maybe he should look at adapting one of his high capacity power cells?If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Anyway, ERA was proving herself to be a much more capable and considerate assistant than her brother. Justin wasn''t sure if it was because she''d been designed to work with the outer machine systems of the probe, calling for a greater degree of adaptability and priority assessment, or if they''d just made a mistake when they put IRA back together. Whatever the reason, ERA was becoming much more capable at abstract thinking and was handling the processing of Justin''s more complicated requests much better than IRA, who was happy as long as the order came with definitive instructions that didn''t require initiative. Move this here, repair that. Despite his simpler nature, IRA had done a good job of cleaning up the workshop. Equipment had been sorted, wires had been collected into proper ducting, he''d even repaired the floor elevator to the basement which Justin was particularly happy with. It was one of the reasons he''d chosen this building, not just for a basement with large freight access, but because Seraph had left a lot of their crap down there when they abandoned the building. Justin had sent an aerial drone down the stairway for a quick look, and had been able to make out industrial-size robotic arms, scrap steel stock, engine parts galore, barrels of who knew what! It was all very exciting, like those holocasts where they go into old people''s attics, or open up old storage containers. And with the elevator working he''d be able to send Trundle down there with a couple of graspers to investigate fully. But that was for later, the team had plans to meet at noon today at the training grounds, and Justin hoped to have new communicators up and running before then. He wasn''t sure if they would all take one home with them though, even with the advantage it would give to arranging backup and meetings, there was no guarantee that they totally trusted each other, or him, enough yet. Maybe it would help if Justin let them know he''d been spying on them for days, and already knew pretty much everything about their character''s lives and identities? No, Justin was an idiot when it came to dealing with people, but even he knew that was a bad idea. It took him a couple of hours to get the new comm system put together. The new earbuds wouldn''t withstand radio pulses any better than the store-bought ones, that was something he''d have to work on later, especially since he also wanted to make sure his drone systems were hardened against outside signal interference. For now he''d focused on the range, stealth and security of the signal. He''d managed to piggyback a network onto the local cellular grids, using their masts to forward his signal around the city for him. He''d hidden the data within the administrative framework of the grid itself, rather than trying to mimic or repurpose call data that would create a trail, and had worked with ERA on an encryption algorithm that should keep the network secure, even if it was discovered. Given its nature, the comm network wouldn''t be up for heavy data or image transmission, but it was more than fine for voice and text. If Justin could manage to improve on the compression, he might even be able to sync drone control and data into it, which would let him drop a lot of drone weight and make it much more difficult for someone to triangulate a control source. Before setting off to the meeting with his battle drones, he quickly put together some dummy grenades. Division had warned him that everyone wouldbe involved in today''s exercises, and Justin expected to be tasked with target practice at some point.
I justhadn''t expected to be target practice, he thought, dodging a hurled spear of ice. North Wind was pulling her punches since the lances where basically ice slushies contained in a crisp shell, but Justin wasn''t sure just how water-proof his drones were. He was mentally chuntering to himself, remembering Division''s cavalier attitude, ''Inspiration to dodge'', let''s see him dodge a tazer to the ass, when he suddenly noticed the spears had stopped coming. Looking around, he felt his metaphorical stomach drop. The Furies had just landed nearby, and Red Fury was approaching with an expression somewhere between a sneer and a glare. Arc 1: Cleaning Up part 4 "So it''s true, then," Red Fury said, striding up to North Wind, "You''ve decided to sign up with a bunch of wannabes. I thought you wanted to be an actual hero, not a street cop." Justin could see Division rolling his eyes as three of him approached behind the Furies. "Is there a problem here?" He asked, one of him moving purposefully between the Furies to stand at North Wind''s side, leaving the other two of him behind them, their hands innocently on their belts next to their tazers. Justin could also see Revenant striding closer from the right, and Shift had just appeared on the left, Shade was probably in the shadows nearby, sharpening his knife. "No," Red said, shaking his head, looking around at the team with a faux-sad smile, seemingly unbothered at finding himself surrounded. "Just commiserating with your girl here on her bad life decisions." Division raised an arm as Wind grit her teeth and went to step forward. "That''s very neighbourly of you, but I don''t think Wind is anybody''s ''girl'' except her poppas" He said, his voice all southern conginiality, and his smile just as fake as Red''s, He snapped his fingers as if realizing something, "Say, you wouldn''t like to volunteer for target practice would you? It''d really help us out." Red frowned as Wind held back a chuckle, he didn''t seem to get the joke, but realised he was being made fun of. He stepped in close to Division, all attempts at seeming friendly evaporating, "I''d be careful if I were you, I know you''re just a category one." He sneered, "just a powerless streeter working with four other mundane idiots trying to make a nameat being back-alley heroes. You should leave the dangerous work to those of us with powers, old man." Justin had been struggling to process the quiet, rasping English, and startled in the air slightly as Division let out a real laugh. If Justin understood right, the League thought Division was a group of unpowered vigilantes, working together. If that was the case, they might want to get better research people or better surveillance, because ERA had figured the former soldier out in less than a day. He thought Division was amused by the misunderstanding, but apparently that wasn''t what had tickled him. "You think this stuff is dangerous?" He asked in his regular voice, still grinning as Red frowned in confusion. "Go home, young man, before you get hurt." He said almost sadly, turning to walk away, and Red made the mistake of grabbing his shoulder to stop him. A quick twist with a relaxed grip on Red''s hand, and Red was knelt on the floor with his arm bent behind him, and it was Division''s turn to shake his head sadly. Behind them, the rock covered hero made to step forward and intervene, but a heavy hand landing on his shoulder stopped him, and he stepped back after looking up into Revenant''s grinning skull. "He did say you should go home." Wind added helpfully, bending down to talk to Red, an airy smile on her face. "Yes, perhaps time for you going is?" Justin added to the other Furies, as Division released the knelt hero. The Furies clumped together pulling Red back and talking quietly and intently as he glared around at the Outsiders,his face matching the colour of his costume. His friends were apparently better able to judge the precariousness of their situation. The Furies might individually have a couple of levels on them, but they were currently grounded, outnumbered, and surrounded. It seemed the League''s researchers weren''t the only ones bad at assessments, because Red still looked like he wanted to start a fight. Actually, that thought reminded Justin that he''d been meaning to work on his Assessment skill. He''d managed to level it so far by assessing random people while flying his drones around the city, but had yet to successfullytry it on a super.
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Assessment - Novice Level 1 [06%]. +5 xp to skill group Inquiery - Novice Level 2 [80%] You have successfully identified Red Fury as an Average threat Pyro-kinetic. Stolen novel; please report.
Further information: An Average threat is someone whose level appears to be within 3 levels of your own. At your current skill rank, threat and power assessments are likely to be incomplete. More information will be available at higher ranks.
Interesting, he tried assessing the other two Furies and then his own team, comparing results. Definitely a skill worth working on, especially if it could give more detailed character information at higher levels. Their intense, private conversation over, and witha final glare back at them from Red, the Furies took off into the air. Justin cocked his camera in momentary confusion, it hadn''t really occurred to him when they''d arrived, but how was a lump of rock flying? After a seconds thought, he decided the guy must have included ferrous ore, and have some form of magnetic control as part of his powerset. Did it extend to the electro-magnetic side? If the Furies were going to be picking fights with them, it might be time to seriously work on RF and EM shielding for his drones. Justin couldn''t help the mental sigh as he added it to his ever-growing list of high-priority projects. North Wind watched the Furies fly away before spinning around laughing. "What an absolutely super day." She crowed to nobody in particular. The team began discussions on shifting location, a little concerned that the Furies had been able to find them on only the second day there, but North Wind mentioning Red''s ability to continually find her whenever she was using her powers stumped their plans. They talked it over, but there was really no way to know if it was Red himself finding her, or if the League had technology or a super who could do it for him. Could they detect all powers in use? If that was the case, surely they''d know Division was a super. Even more interesting was that Red had apparently left her alone whenever she was out over the lake, so could whatever it was not locate her there, or did Red just not like flying over water? Shift''s suggestion that maybe he couldn''t swim lightened the mood a bit, and as everyone got back to training, Justin gave ERA control of one of the drones and put her on overwatch. He didn''t want anyone else sneaking up on them.
In the end he''d managed to convince nearly everyone to take a communication bud with them. Shift hadn''t cared since he already knew Justin had his identity figured out. Justin had given Division only a single bud for his prime, figuring he only needed a single point of contact, but he''d probably have one of his clones store the com somewhere separate to the rest of him. Shade he just assumed was confident in his ability not to be found. He''d figured Revenant might be a tricky sell for an ear bud, he didn''t have an identity to worry about, but he also didn''t have any visible ears. Justin had tried to make his com transparent so it wouldn''t be noticeable floating next to his skull, but hadn''t succeeded all that well and wasn''t really sure if the costume obsessed skeleton would accept the earbud. But in the end, Revenant didn''t seem to care, slipping the bud into his invisible ear and seeming to forget about it right after. Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe he''d care if he ever got a mirror. North Wind was still too cagey to take one though, Justin knew she had a game family she was close to, and he could understand not wanting to put them at risk. He gave her some methods to contact him, and promised to pass on any messages to the rest of the team. Once he was back at the workshop, he decided to check up on the establishment of the Outsiders as a legal entity, and found there was both good and bad news. The state bounty officer was happy to begin the process for paying the rewards for confirmed captures by members of the Outsiders but there were a couple of issues that needed to be addressed. First, the bank account Justin had arranged to be set up by his business agent needed a trustee in order to be finalised. Apparently US business accounts were much more closely regulated than offshore numbered accounts. He sent a query to the agent, who quickly reported that he was loath to put his company down as the managing trustee in case there were legal or villainous repercussions down the line. He seemed much more concerned than yesterday, and Justin wondered if someone from the League had contacted him. Justin sighed, and realised he''d been doing that a lot. Was he getting impatient with the slow way everything seemed to move around him? With obstructions at every turn? It felt like this should have been sorted days ago, and he felt a strange disconnect when he realised it had only been initiated yesterday afternoon. He resolved to be more patient in the future. Perhaps he should try developing his Meditation skill. He let the agent know he''d get back to him with a name, deciding straight off that he wasn''t going to risk his Kip Weyland ID by attaching it to the Outsider''s account, which meant he had to get started on creating a new one. He chuckled as he decided this one would be for ERA. But before getting into that, he had the second issue to look into. Black Dragon had escaped from the hospital. Act 1: Cleaning Up part 5 The hospital''s security system was surprisingly easy to hack into, and Justin watched in horrified fascination as over a dozen corpses forced their way out of the morgue, and headed into the hospital proper with more coordination than you''d expect from a zombie horde. They batted aside hospital security without breaking stride, ignoring their tazers and desperate baton swings. Someone must have called the guards off and started an evacuation because the corridors on the ground floor quickly cleared out. Once no one was in obvious danger, there was a surreal humour to watching the recently dead navigate the labyrinthine world of a modern hospital. They paused together at intersections, consulting the overhead signs before choosing a direction, and eventually huddling in a quiet group as they reached a bank of elevators. One of their number bent over slightly, delicately jabbing at the call button over and over with a strange kind of seriousness. Once an elevator arrived, they all piled in, riding it up six floors in silence, like office drones on their way back to work. On the sixth floor they ran into a little more trouble as powered enforcement officers met them in the hallway. Justin could see a robed officer in the back, desperately chanting over an observation room door, the golden runes of a seal turning black and crumbling from the glass. Inside Black Dragon was dressed in a hospital gown, still battered and bruised, and she looked pissed. While her newly-risen horde distracted the armed officers, Black Dragon used her magic to quickly overpower the government mystic''s wards, the man falling to the floor with blood running from his nose. Once outside the room, she paused to snap what looked like a piece of black chalk, the object turning into smoke and evaporating into the air. Then she waited, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. Justin watched closely as the air behind her distorted and two men stepped out of a portal. Justin didn''t recognise one of them, a young Asian man dressed in a fancy black suit and shades; but the other was Ku, who threw a quick grin at Black Dragon before running down the corridor to beat on the already beleaguered officers. A minute later, all three stepped back through the portal. "ERA, can you identify the third party?" Justin asked, throwing a still image her way. "I do not currently have the gentleman on file," she replied, sounding a little put out that her database had been found lacking. "I will expand my search to all available resources." While she did that, Justin notified the rest of the Outsiders, letting them know that the Necromancer had escaped. Division suggested they all meet up at the Underground to discuss options, and the others agreed. Shade let them know he needed time to check stuff out, but would be there ''lo antes posible'', whatever that meant, honestly Justin was having enough trouble figuring out English. Having notified everyone with a com, Justin considered if there was any way to let North Wind know, hopefully without tipping her off to his knowledge of her identity. He knew she''d be working tonight, so he checked to make sure her chatty cousin Naomi was on shift with her. Justin briefly stopped to consider whether it was possible he''d delved a little too deep into his teammates lives, before mentally shrugging, and then texting Naomi a link to a news report on Dragon''s escape, spoofing the number of a random acquaintance in her contact list. Hopefully Naomi would share the information with her cousin, and North Wind would turn up later.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Subterfuge - Beginner Level 3 [68%].
Justin was busy convincing himself that Kip''s incredible memory was the primary factor in his detailed knowledge of his companion''s lives, not in any way the extreme or excessive, and definitely not creepy snooping he''d subjected them to, when ERA mercifully interrupted him.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "I have discovered the identity of the third party. He is a Japanese-American mercenary codenamed Flicker. His powers are known to allow for the creation of mid-range bi-directional portals. Full power-set unknown. Real identity unknown. Current employer unknown." ERA seemed a lot happier now, and gave a strangely upbeat recitation of everything they didn''t know, Justin had to assume it was because Flicker had turned out to be a merc rather than a villain, thus vindicating the completeness of her database. "Flicker has been observed operating in numerous cities across the United States," she continued, "and is a person of interest in over a dozen smuggling operations. His services as an independent contractor are known to be very expensive, and he has previously been scrupulous in maintaining at least the appearance of legality." Justin seriously doubted Ku and Black Dragon had enough money between them to get a usually discreet merc to break out of his careful methodology. So either the guy had gotten bored and decided to go full villain, throwing in with two relative unknowns in scenic Detroit; or some unknown person was footing what was sure to be a ridiculously large bill. Justin considered some of his recent experiences, before deciding that something else very weird was likely going on. With four Kip hours until the team meeting, he had ERA investigate possible hideouts for the two villains while he worked on a fake ID for her. It was too early in the evening to send out the battle drones, and the new Phantom was currently more theoretical than actual, so their information sources were limited to web chatter. But he did think to quickly set up a digital receiver for the police band, thinking that doing so earlier might have let him know Black Dragon was escaping before she actually managed it. A couple of Kiphours later and Justin had enough of Vera Geist''s identity prepared to forward the details to the team''s business manager, but held off since it was already so late in the evening that nothing would be getting processed until tomorrow anyway. With the last of his time before the meeting, he worked with IRA on setting up a couple of crystal growth chambers in the corner of the workshop. If his solar cell prototypes were successful, he''d need a lot more room than he could spare, which meant he probably needed to go looking for another new building, but should he look into a different city for his solar venture? Somewhere that got more sun would probably be a better fit. He focused his attention on the Underground conference room as the team began to arrive. "We need to be smart about this." Division was saying to Shift as they both came in and took their seats, throwing a nod at Justin''s screen. Shift frowned back, "I get that, but now we know she can put the wammy on Rev, we really need to make sure she''s put in a very small box, far, far away." "Not like that!" he added as Division raised his eyebrows in surprise. Revenant ducked into the room, his tall frame struggling with a doorway made for mere humans. "Please do not act rashly on my account." He greeted them, before continuing. "But it behooves me to explain.I believe the rapid spreadof her influence was only achievablethanks to a combination of surprise and close proximity. Now I am more prepared, it should be easier to resist her dominion, especially if I am able to maintain a satisfactory distance from her malignant tendrils." Division nodded, in recognition of his arrival rather than agreement, "Except that while you''re fighting her off you won''t be able to focus elsewhere, which means we''ll have Ku running unchecked, and I''m not sure any of us could stop her from strolling right up to you as she worked her tendrils deeper in, that shield of hers was incredibly powerful." "Need to separate them." Justin added, and Division nodded in thought. Shift broke out in a grin. "Hey man, that was actual English, I think you''re getting better." "Speak with others good." Justin replied happily, and Shift broke into an actual laugh. Chuckling with Shift, Division shook his head in pity. "Maybe not," he said. Justin had Kip pout a little on screen. Act 1: Cleaning Up part 6 The good news was that North Wind turned up soon after Shade, and Justin kept quiet when she mentioned hearing about Dragon''s escape from a friend, the even better news was that she thought she might have a way to deal with Dragon. They still needed to catch them individually though, which meant needed to find and hit them in their own territories, drawing them into a fight before they had chance to call in reinforcements. Luckily, Shade had managed to pick up intel on possible gang hideouts in their districts. No one was terribly happy with the idea of a downtown brawl, let alone two of them, but they figured it was preferable to their other plan, which was wait and see where they turned up next.
Which is how Justin found himself split between two downtown locations, a battle drone hovering over each half of the team. At least he could take solace that Division was equally divided, with two of his clones at each location, but he figured the duplicator probably had more experience dealing with the split. The two teams had been causing trouble for about an hour, hitting gang hideouts, rousting dealers, generally having about as much fun as you could while still being heroes. Unsurprisingly, it was Ku who turned up first, apparently unable to resist meeting a challenger on his territory. He''d brought a few of his gang with him for backup, better armed and equipped than the newbs he''d thrown into an ambush. He seemed to feel distinctly unthreatened when he finally spotted their team without the undead knight amongst them. Having watched them fight during the ambush, he probably felt there was little a drone, two clones, a speedster, and a skulking shadow could do to him. And he''d be right, except that that Justin had given Shift a few toys to try out, first up was an over-powered tazer staff, much closer to a cattle-prod really, and Ku bellowed as it jabbed him in the kidneys, falling to his knees before managing to shake the shock off. Division must have spotted a couple of Ku''s backup reaching for their guns, because he put a couple of tazer grenades into their midst. He didn''t get many, but it distracted them and gave the heroes time to find cover. "Remember," he said over the comms, "we just need to keep him distracted until we find Dragon, don''t take any risks, but if you see a chance to put him down, take it."
Justin could see the other half of the team were getting twitchy, they could hear their teammates fighting against a foe that had them outnumbered and outmuscled, and yet there was nothing they could do to help except hope that Dragon turned up soon. North Wind especially seemed twitchy, summoning and dropping ice daggers as she paced back and forth in the street, throwing frustrated glances at the placid skull of the tall figure stood in the centre, calmly clutching his metal staff. "Ah, my Knight, you have returned to serve me after all." The voice was female, ineffably smug, and was coming from directly behind them. Justin spun his drone around to confront the approaching Black Dragon, and saw most of the others do the same, but the tall knight fell to his knees with a groan. Justin would have sworn the street behind them was empty just a moment ago, but now it held the smiling necromancer with at least twenty ghouls at her back. "Some sort of illusion?" Division asked quietly over the comms. "Unsure." Justin answered just as quietly, "will later review."Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "And you''ve brought the little bitch who dropped a meteor on me." Dragon continued over them, smiling at North Wind as she approached closer, Wind just glared back, rubbing her left arm as if remembering it getting broken. "Rise my new servant and subdue my enemies." "Nah, Chica, I''ve got a master and it ain''t you." Shade rose amidst his shadow costume, throwing the fake armour and skull mask to the floor. Dragon blinked in surprise, "But you feel just like..." she didn''t get to finish as a mass of shadow wrapped itself around the globe of her shield. "Had a drink from a friend," Shade muttered before glancing back at Wind. "R¨¢pido, can''t hold her much longer." North Wind closed her eyes, her brow knit in concentration, they heard a scream and then silence from inside the shadowed globe. Behind it, the ghouls began to lope forward, gasping and shrilling, their clawed hands scratching divots in the concrete road. But suddenly they stopped, blinking in as much confusion as mindless undead could conjure, before falling lifeless to the ground. Shade released his shadow and the air popped as fresh oxygen rushed into the void. Inside was an unconscious and mostly frozen Dragon. "Well that was anticlimactic." Division muttered from behind.
Justin had to watch as Shift danced around Ku, his cattle-prod had been broken into pieces pretty quickly, and the small sticky grenades had just managed to scorch Ku''s clothing and piss him off. Luckily, Shift was keeping occupied, slipping in andout of his reach, which gave Justin and Division time to deal with the lurking gang members. These ones were much better trained than the others they''d fought, and much more professional than soldiers trained by Ku should have been. They kept calm, worked together, pulled back when injured, they''d even managed to take down one of the Division clones. More mercs? Justin wondered, before deciding he could look into it later. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Justin and Division saw that Dragon had finally put in an appearance, and the com chatter clued in the rest. Revenant burst out from the shadows, finally able to engage the enemy rather than just watch his team struggle to contain them. He roared to attract Ku''s attention while Shift blurred into the midst of Ku''s gang, his tazer batons flashing. The tide had definitely turned, and it wasn''t long before the gang members were withdrawing or surrendering. Ku continued to put up a fight, but Revenant was managing to contain him, and it wasn''t long before Justin spotted Ku plucking a piece of black chalk from his pocket and he began scanning for any distortions as soon as the chalk was snapped. He quickly detected the warping of heat and air patterns, and fired two separate ''grenades'' through the horizon. The first to trigger was a broad-burst signal grenade, prepared for just such an eventuality, the second was a tazer. The portal popped closes a moment later. With direct escape cut off, Ku became more desperate, and it was all Revenant could do to stop him rampaging through the nearby buildings. Finally, Justin decided Revenant needed a distraction and swooped down behind the Hawaiian powerhouse, unleashing his entire battery load through his forward prongs, directly into Ku''s ass.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Tazer - Beginner Level 2 [12%].
He didn''t get to see the fight end, but Revenant later claimed to have seen sparks flash between Ku''s teeth, right before he knocked them out.
Villain Defeated! Ku the Destroyer Type: Hero Team Description: You have aided in the defeat of Ku the Destroyer. Difficulty: Difficult Rewards: 300xp
Villain Defeated! Black Dragon Type: Hero Team Description: You have aided in the defeat of Black Dragon. Difficulty: Difficult Rewards: 300xp
Congratulations! You are now Level 4 Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +1 Character Point. You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 3 unspent Character Points.
Arc 1: Interlude (Division / Shift / Naiad) DIVISION (John) John leaned back in the comfy seat, enjoying the view of a bustling downtown. He was deep in thought, occasionally sipping on a light cappuccino with extra sugar, anhonest-to-godpaper newspaper discarded on the table before him. For about the dozenth time, hethought back to the altercation with Elemental Fury, and really wished he knew how to let things go. At his age he was supposed to be the calm voice of reason and yet he''d mocked and provoked the obviously hot-blooded young man into escalating the conflict. He could make excuses. He hadn''t liked how Red had been talking to his people. He''d needed to let his team know they were allowed to stand up for themselves. The Furies needed to be taken down a peg. All true as far as they went, but what had really niggled John in the moment, was the suggestion that he was just a useless old man. That he was powerless. He thought he''d hidden the irritation well enough behind dismissive humour, but he''d still pushed the confrontation, turning his back on the riled hero had just been asking for him to lash out. Even now though, amidst the kind of guilt, it still niggled. And the reason was that John wasn''t sure there wasn''t a grain of truth to it. Was teamwork, experience, and cunning really going to be enough to carry him through as Division? Against super-powered monsters like Ku and Dragon? He didn''t want to be just a guiding voice, there only to deal with the mooks, and he didn''t want to just wait and rely on Artisan to equip him up to the level of the others. What it allmeant was that he really needed to look at expanding his powerset beyond just adding more clones, and for the first time in his life, John wished he''d read more comic books as a kid. He opened his character sheet, selected the outstanding CP, and began to browse the Power options.
Codename Division Real Name William Green
Species Human Archetype Hive
Origin Experiment (Military) Wealth $2,560
Level 5 [05%]+5 CP Health 220 / 220
Recovery Rate 0.17 perminute
Strength 16 Intelligence 16
Agility 16 Acuity 16
Fortitude 17 Willpower 16
Stamina 57/57 Focus 57/57
Recovery Rate 0.17 per second Recovery Rate 0.16 per second
Powers Talents Complications
Duplication 2 (Clone, 4) Quick Learner Straight Arrow
- Soldier Secret Identity
He didn''t have enough CPs to really buy into a full new power, not yet anyway, but maybe if he really limited it? Then he could get his foot in the door and pay off the restrictions once he earned more CP. He knew he''d have to pay an inflated cost if he wanted his clones to have access to the power too, but with some of the options, it really might be worth it. He stopped as he came to an intriguing option, looking it over, checking to see whether he could limit the effect enough to make it affordable. Honestly, it felt a little like cheating, like he''d chosen to buy eggs, but then found a way to temporarily turn them back into a chicken. He supposed the fact that it ran off of Focus would limit the duration to something reasonable, just undera minute, but still.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. It took him over an hour to make the choice. When he was in the field decisions came quickly, but give him time to think and he always wanted to checkthe angles. In the end, he decided the hitting power it would afford him was just too good to ignore.
Purchase New Power? Focal Surge Type: Physical Augmentation Limitations: Clone only (x4), self, contact, effect drain x2. Cost:5 cp Confirm Yes / No
SHIFT (Michael) Mr Weyland had left Michael in charge of supervising the workmen currently renovating the Underground, with strict instructions to maintain a purely human cover. Apparently Weyland knew his character was supposed to be working on his art and design degree, and had suggested using the opportunity to pad his portfolio, as well as siphon some of the bounty cash into his own bank account. What Weyland probably didn''t know, was that Michael wasn''t just completing the degree in-character, his actual college had facilitated remote learning inside the game. A virtual teacher is a virtual teacher, after all. And despite actually enjoying art quite a bit, what he really wanted to do was design. He sighed out loud, there was only so much wall painting a man could endure before getting deathly bored. Ok, Michael knew it was called secco, he was an art major after all, and usually he wouldn''t be getting tired of painting quite so quickly, but Rev had insisted on classical, restrained, renaissance-style murals. He was doing what he could to liven them up, hiding fun little details amidst the baroque, florid pieces. A man checking his watch here, someone mooning out the window there, but even whimsy could only carry him so far. Usually he would have just made a run for it, leaving the workmen to the plumbing, wiring and plastering, it wasn''t like there was anything to steal in the old tavern, except maybe Artisan''s laptop. Strange how he had two such distinct mental images of a single person, Mr Weyland was the funny little foreign guy who kept giving him stuff to do, and Artisan was the alien in the computer, building drones and zapping people. Anyway, usually he would have long since blown off painting for the day, but Artisan had suggested he could help design team uniforms once he was finished, and that little carrot was a damn weight around his neck.
NAIAD(Rebecca) Rebecca was really starting to get frustrated with her little brother. She''d seen him get invested in games before, usually he''d take part in a beta or work quality assurance or review for a game, then go hardcore for a few months before moving on. Now he''d signed up to play hero for six months and somehow managed to drag her along with him. Worse than that was how seriously he was taking things, not seriously, she was taking it seriously, he seemed to be taking it to... severe? unreasonable? irrational? definitely irrational... extremes. Rebecca was swimming out in Lake St Clair as she did every day, sporting amidst the currents and shoals. She''d never been one for swimming before playing the game, but now she rarely got enough of it. She was beginning to think she''d be happy to just stay down here, away from the expectations and the drama. When he''d talked her into signing up with him, her brother had told her she had to choose an elemental character to help support his team idea, so she had. Then it was ''why did you roll a support character?'', "why did you limit your magic?" and ''why don''t you want to fight people?''. A week later he''d replaced her on his team with a guy who threw water around like a fire hose, all power and no subtlety. Honestly the whole debacle seemed awefullydisloyal and terribly short-sighted for someone trying to play a hero team leader. Now he''d turned her into a spy, pushing her to scry on some air-head he wanted for his precious team. It was really starting to get old. She hated snooping on people, mainly she had to admit to herself, because she hated the idea of people snooping on her, but... She blinked as she detected a definite sense of... glee? success? retribution?, it was strange to feel someone else so far out in the lake, and with such a strange melange of emotion. She went to swim away from whoever it was, Naiad was pretty weak physically and was currently wearing an illusion of a large fish, she really didn''t want to get caught up in a net or harpooned. Did people still use harpoons? Then the water around her started to freeze, becoming hard and grasping as it crystallised, burning her lungs as she tried to breath it in. She felt her illusion slip as the pain unravelled her control, and the hardening ice lifted her bodily out of the water. She blinked in the sunlight, nictitating away her third eyelid, and staring in shock at the young woman hovering above the water, dressed all in white and smiling like the cat who''d just caught the canary. "Uh, hi?" she tried, smiling uncertainly back at the subject of her recent spying. Act 1: Interlude (North Wind / Shade) NORTH WIND (Mia) Mia had been planning this moment ever since Shade had discovered Red''s little secret squirrel. She tried to avoid thinking about the fact that Shade and Artisan seemed to do just as much, if not more spying. Wait, they didn''t spy on her did they? Anyway, She was going to enjoy throwing this particular snoop around because not only was she the one who''d been setting Red on her, she was also out in Mia''s formally peaceful lake. When she finally found her nemesis using thermal disparity (Fire-for-brains wasn''t the only one who could sense heat), she reached down with her power, and lifted her prey up out of the water in a fist of ice. Time for revenge little fish girl! But instead of fighting back, the idiot just looked up at her with a ridiculously pathetic smile, and didn''t even try to break out of her icy grip. Division''s voice came over her com, interrupting her frustration as what was supposed to be an epic confrontation, was instead starting to look like an episode of after-school bullying. "Ask her to meet us at the pier." He said, and Mia was sure she could hear a smile in his voice. She threw a quick glare at where she knew Division was watching through a pair of binoculars, another snooper! Wind tried to calm down, but the adrenalin seemed to have made her a little silly. She frowned at the fish girl, just to let her know that she wasn''t happy with her. "The boss wants to have a word." She said in her best mobster voice, nodding sideways towards the pier, before dropping the other girl back in the water and heading that way herself. By the time Naiad arrived, Mia had managed to regain what she thought of as her usual relaxed attitude. She must have succeeded better than she thought, because Naiad seemed to have relaxed too, no longer surprised or concerned, she shook Division''s hand in greeting before quickly apologising as she realised her hand was still wet. Mia rolled her eyes as Division waved away Naiad''s concern and invited her to sit with them on the nearby wall. Miadecided to focus on figuring the girl out, well woman she supposed, there was definitely a mature figure under the tight neoprene, she quickly returned her inspection to Naiad''s face, hoping her wandering gaze hadn''t been noticed. It was hard to tell Naiad''s age with the small stature, shiny blue skin and vibrant green hair. She could have been sixty, but the smooth gamine face seemed to belong to someone her own age. "I want you to know there''s no hard feelings over how you came to our attention," Division began, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence, and gave Wind a look as she snorted quietly behind him. "We know how pushy Red Fury can be when he wants something." He continued, giving Wind another look when she snorted again slightly louder. He probably missed the strangely humoured look of agreement on Naiad''s face because of it. Mia found herself warming to the little fish girl. Division turned back to Naiad and continued, "As you may know, we''re trying to establish a group outside the purview of the Heroes League, and away from their politics." Naiad gave a sad little smile, "How''s that working out for you?" Division smiled back, his grin warm and full of humour.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. "About how you''d expect." Mia said, shrugging her shoulders slightly to relax them further. She was starting to feel a little guilty. The girl was nothing like Mia had been imagining, no maliciousness or arrogance, and not only had Red Fury been pushing her around (which Mia could definitely commiserate with), but now here came the Outsiders, ready to push her into joining up with them instead, plunging her even deeper into the drama. She gave the back of Division''s head a quick glare to let him know she didn''t appreciate him trying to manipulate innocent young girls. Naiad''s smile bloomed into something startlingly happy and full of humour. "I''d like to join up with you." she said, before either of them could respond to her sudden grin. Mia blinked in surprise and then stared with suspicion at Division. He''d mentioned something about evolving his powers a little, but he''d better not have gotten into mental manipulation!
SHADE (Carlos) Carlos was currently feeling a great deal of nostalgia for his nights following gangbangers. Getting to the bottom of Red''s ability to locate North Wind had been bad enough. Red was cautious and a little paranoid when it came to being spied on. Can you call an hombre paranoid when you spent two days attempting exactly what they''re worried about? It was an interesting thought, but it would have to wait for later. In the end Shade had found Red''s little spy fish by bugging his teammates, who weren''t nearly as cautious as Red. Unfortunately, his little venture into old-school bugging had also spurred Division into a security frenzy rivalling that of Red himself, and the boss-man had been riding Artisan for counter-surveillance tech ever since. Right now, Carlos would kill for a gang to lurk after, or another nosy hero to find. Instead he was following possibly the most boring man he''d ever come across. After they''d captured Ku and Dragon, Artisan had triangulated the burst from his signal grenade to an old warehouse on the waterfront. The only interesting thing about the abandoned warehouse was that it belonged to the family of State Senator Marcus Rassidae. The team had originally worked on the theory that it had been a random choice by Flicker to cover the trail back to his boss, but after looking into the senator, some of Rassidae''s recent activities had raised red flags with one of Artisan''s associates (another Alien?). The kind of red flags that Artisan assured him meant Rassidae might be moonlighting as either a hero or villain. A worrying assertion since it seemed to come with a degree of authority. Just how much prying had Artisan been up to? Something else to think about later. Right now, Carlos was wearing an ill-fitting suit in a shadowy corner of a city hall meeting about the parking enforcement budget. He was pretty sure it was a meeting the senator didn''t need to attend, which begged the question of why the hell he''d chosen to. Carlos himself was five minutes from going villain and taking out the entire city council. In a possible answer to his question, or maybe his silent prayers to Itztli, the building chose that moment to shake from an explosion. The lights flickered and then went off, and dust rained from the ceiling tiles as the building swayed slightly. A moment later, fire alarms began blaring from the ceiling and the corridor outside. The meeting broke into chaos, councillors and the viewing public shouting in panic and pushing for the doors. Carlos stayed in his corner and kept an eye on the surprisingly calm senator, staying close as his security escorted him out through a back door and down some service stairs to the parking lot. Carlos watched in frustration as the senator''s black car pulled away. There was no way he was going to be able to follow on his dirt bike, not without attracting attention at the Police cordon now surrounding the building. So instead he reported in to Division and found a dark corner to lurk in. Apparently no one had been hurt in the explosion, though a dozen people had been injured in the following evacuation. The city planning office had caught on fire, the sprinkler system failing in that part of the building, and a relatively minor prisoner had used the confusion to escape one of the courtrooms. An accountant if the building gossip was right. Carlos frowned as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 1 Justin really needed to get re-equipped before getting into any more fights. He was down to a single drone after Ku had managed to step on the other one (though to be fair, it had just stung him in the ass), and the one he had left would hardly win any prizes even before it had taken a couple of gun shots to the armour. The team didn''t need much from him at the minute, the bounty payments had given them enough cash to get repairs rolling on the Underground, and Division had arranged a long-term lease for the whole building, figuring that the extra rooms above would be useful for things like training, medical, and storage. The former basement tavern had been designated as a rec-room with a more formal team conference room in the back. He did need to work on a computer and security system for the team, but that could wait until the remodelling and decorating was finished. As for the day to day patrolling and investigating, the team seemed to have things well in hand. Which left Justin to his own devices for a while. He spun Trundler slowly, surveying his overly-full workshop slash laboratory, he need to focus on getting the improved solar panel prototype up and running, because, simply put, he really needed the money. But first he settled in to design a new recon drone. He started with the blueprints for the store-bought model, before stripping most of it away, pencilling in upgraded battery, motors, and a hardened communications and sensor suite, finally he designed a graphene composite shell that should let it take a bullet or two while staying sleek and low profile. Happy with the finished look, he sent it to Era to begin fabrication on the parts they could produce, and placed an order for the more sensitive components necessary for the sensors and optics. Done with his little side project, it was time to focus on paying the bills. The biggest hurdle he was facing with the solar panel production was turning out to be quality control, the nano-tube clusters had to be perfectly aligned to capture the rays, and the crystalline structure had to be just right in order to pass the energy into the circuits rather than just frying them. Easy enough in theory, much more difficult in practice, where errant draughts and microscopic particles could influence the growth and structure of his clusters and crystals. For now he didn''t mind too much, it let him experiment with his micropulse-scanner, an electron-wave sensor he''d put together to help analyze atomic structures, and inspecting them also helped boost his Analyze skill which had been lagging a little. He did have some ideas for improving quality consistency in the future, but he really needed to get a proof of concept up and running so he could test the finalised panel for actual return, resilience, and longevity. He''d found an old radio in the basement, and had decided to leave it playing while he worked, more to help with learning English than in the hope it would provide valuable information. He''d noticed his phrasing and comprehension had developed in leaps and bounds since he''d started interacting with the team, and had decided that language was really something of an active skill that needed to be used rather than just learned by rote. It was quite interesting listening to old songs that he felt he should know, sung in words that seemed wrong. Stop getting distracted! He scolded himself, getting back to constructing the first panel. He was a little distressed when it cracked, but decided it was more likely a case of imprecise manipulators coupled with fragile materials, than a fault in the structure. He decided that the next thing he was going to work on was robotics. It would allow him to develop the kind of precision manipulators he needed in the lab, as well as working on an exo-skeleton design for the team, which would ultimately lead to an actual robot shell for him to pilot. He was quite excited about the possibility of getting into the field as an android.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. In theory, continuing to develop drones would be the smart play, they were smaller, cheaper, more mobile and adaptable, but all the benefits couldn''t quite beat the idea of bionics, of being out there actually beating on bad guys. Besides, he could still work on drones at the same time, you could never have too many minions after all!
Justin got started on his robotics research by taking apart a number of the manipulators he already had, both the pneumatic and actuator-ram type he used in the lab for fine control, and the hydraulic ones used for heavier lifting. He even had IRA drag one of the heavy robotic arms up from the basement to have a look at. Eventually he would want robotic servos and motors not only capable of speed, power, and precision, but also optimised for efficiency, size, noise, and resilience. It was going to be quite a project, and like the armour he had planned, it would probably call for a composite of materials, but for now he''d have to specialise. The pneumatics would be fairly cheap and easy to reproduce, but the hydraulics, while powerful were way too slow, really only good for sustained lifting, and maybe shock absorption. Actuators had the most potential as far as scaling and precision was concerned, capable of fine manipulation or mass lifting, relying more on the speed and power of their motor, they not only seemed more elegant, but also more reliable and variable than the other two. He spent some time thinking about future techniques he could use, just to see if there was a way to jump ahead, but things like electro-active polymers, shape memory alloys, and coil filaments, would all take a serious injection of funds to get off the ground. He broke off from designing a synthetic hand in his head, mentally humming along to the radio, when unexpected notifications began popping up.
Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Entertainment - Beginner Level 6 [79%]. +3 xp to skill group Culture - Novice Level 1 [00%]
Hidden Quest Completed! Learn the Lingo II Type: Hidden, Complication (Outsider), Chain Description:Truthscan be found in new surroundings but also in new eyes. Goal:Become comfortable withthe local language, Culture skill group at Novice rank. Difficulty: Hard Rewards:600 xp Choice between two talents: New Home or Outsider''s Perspective
New Home Removes the social penalty imposed by the Outsider complication. Grants a 5% bonus when using a skill in the Behaviour, Culture and World Affairs skill groups.
Outsider''s Perspective Grantsa 5% bonus when using a skill in the Inquiry, Engineering and [???] skill groups.
Giving it only a few seconds thought, Justin selected the Outsider''s Perspective, happy to choose anything that would give a boost to Engineering. He did wonder what the other skill group was, but decided it really didn''t matter. Inspired, he spent some time thinking of waysto overcome the Amnesia complication, especially if it would give him some kind of a bonus. Besides, he''d quite like to know what Janus had cooked up to explain his ignominious arrival. If he was a human, and the memories were simply repressed, he would have said counselling and retracing steps were the way to go. As an AI, there was a greater likelihood that the memory files were just lost, so only the last seemed like it might actually help, and even then it would be more a case of searching for evidence of what happened rather than just hoping to jog a memory. Does that mean I need to get back into space at some point? Justin wondered, not at all opposed to the idea. Given the number of flying supers out to make a buck, getting satellites and probes into orbit wasn''t the problem it used to be. There was even a good chance that North Wind would be able to boost something small into orbit. Justin lost himself to thoughts of orbital probes and rocket propulsion. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 2 The first tests of his panels came back even better than he''d hoped, so he decided to spend the next few hours working on a business plan. He needed funding to get production off the ground, and the best funds were someone else''s! Producing a proper plan also gave some nice xp to one of his more obscure skill groups.
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Business - Novice Level 1 [75%]. +7 xp to skill group Enterprise - Novice Level 1[42%]
He¡¯d managed to boost it a little while running in the super-server, mostly by reading up on past business strategies and the impact of investment groups, unions, lobbyists, and automation. If he could get the Enterprise group high enough, he might even be willing to try his luck on the stock market. Apparently there were strategies that involved a lot less risk than Justin had expected. He started with the production plan, taking advantage of his recent foray into robotics to establish a proposed automation system that made a lot more sense than his current capricious setup.
Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Design - Novice Level 2 [80%]. +4 xp to skill group Engineering- Novice Level 2 [64%]
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Project Management - Beginner Level 6 [42%]. +6 xp to skill group Enterprise - Novice Level 1 [43%]
Before moving on to a full business prospectus, including opposition research, manufacturing projections, loss ratios, safety considerations and sales projections.
Successful Skill Use +18 xp to Project Management - Beginner Level 6 [61%]. +9 xp to skill group Enterprise - Novice Level 1 [44%]
Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Economics - Novice Level 1 [14%]. +8 xp to skill group Enterprise - Novice Level 1 [46%]
After a couple of hours of that, he either needed to find something fun to do, or he was going to need to build a new robot just so he could bang its head against the wall. He could understand why other players might be interested in getting to grips with business and start-ups, it was something that had become more and more exclusive over the last couple of decades as the conglomerates had eaten up the markets. It just wasn''t something he was interested in himself. What he really needed was a business partner, someone who was excited by boardroom meetings and shareholder conferences, someone with charisma to be the face of his company. He gave ERA some criteria and set her loose on the internet. While she did the grunt work, he went looking for where he wanted to establish Weyland Solar. He''d already decided to look outside Detroit, as much as it had become his new home in the game, it just didn''t scream solar, the future, or investment, it just screamed. He needed somewhere that made people think of the sun, technology, and culture. And when he realised there was no way he was going to be able to afford any of those places, he went looking in Florida, One out of three ain''t bad, he decided, though I suppose if I was being generous, Florida could claim ''a'' culture.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! He was a little tickled when he focused in on Miami. Since the county had been underwater since before Justin was a kid, it was a little like establishing a business in Atlantis. He was interrupted from amusing himself with images of underwater workshops, by an emergency team notification. Apparently there had been an explosion downtown.
Justin hadn''t been able to hack the Municipal Center system, and was beginning to wonder if the state had a tech super (super tech?), on the payroll. Reduced to public sources, he reviewed whatever pertinent information he could find amidst the dross of the media coverage. Most of the major networks were already playing a rousing game of villain or terrorist, but DDN, one of the local stations, were sticking to an actual review of the details. They were just going over the escape attempt and apparently accidental death of a prisoner, when Justin realized why the name Ainsley Barrows sounded so familiar. Oh shit, he thought, suddenly rocked by a deep associated guilt. It¡¯s only a game, he repeated a few times, before dropping all inputs and focusing on losing himself to meditation.
Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Meditation - Beginner Level 3 [73%].
After a few minutes, he was able to view the situation with a clearer head. He decided it was his motivation in going after Barrows that was distressing him now. He¡¯d turned the man over, knowing doing so would put him in danger just to disguise his theft. He wouldn¡¯t have gone after him otherwise. There were plenty of Manticore¡¯s seedy associates that he¡¯d ignored since his escape, he¡¯d even made use of some of their services. He wasn¡¯t responsible for the man¡¯s death, either his ill-advised escape attempt, or more likely, his chosen line of business was to blame. No, he wasn¡¯t at fault, but there was a connection, a decision he¡¯d made that had led to a man, a bad man certainly but a man anyway, dying. Feeling a little better now he¡¯d pinpointed the reason behind his visceral response, he wondered whether, knowing what he now knew, would he do anything differently? He was a little worried for the state of his scruples when he realised that he wouldn¡¯t. In fact, he should probably feel more guilty for turning a blind eye to the other dark web dealers he was allowing to carry on supporting villain, merc and criminal activity. To be honest he was surprised that he¡¯d turned out to be so utilitarian. He wondered if any studies had been run on the effect of immersive gaming on moral reasoning. In for a penny, in for a pound, he decided. Justin accessed Ainsley Barrows¡¯ numbered accounts, making sure to route his access through proxies, just in case any Interpol agents were watching. Most of them had been cleared out and shut down, probably by Barrows himself or one or more of his associates, but there were a couple still active, containing what was probably Barrows¡¯ own ill-gotten gains, hidden away for the inevitable flight from angry mobsters or tenacious cops. He dithered for only a few seconds before initiating the transfers, starting the funds on an epic and convoluted journey through a dozen different accounts and off-shore havens. He wasn¡¯t going to keep all the money, he reassured the small temperate portion of his psyche where his tattered conscience lived. In fact, he could donate most of it towards the rebuilding of the Municipal Center! Happy with such a fitting conclusion, Justin returned to his perusal of the media coverage. Perhaps he could even find whoever was responsible for Barrows¡¯ death, that would surely right the scales a little. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 3 Justin contacted Division to find out what information they had on the bombing, and was bought up to date, including the detail that Senator Rassidae had been on site for the explosion, something the media appeared to have missed or been told not to report on. He was also told that Shade was still lurking around the Municipal Center, waiting to see what else he could discover as emergency services finished containing the site. Division seemed content that they should find out more on the bombing itself as soon as the officials did, but Justin contacted Shade directly for more information. First on the dead prisoner, who had apparently been found near the city planning office by a fire crew, his corpse badly burned and cut up. The current theory was that he''d gotten caught up in a localised secondary explosion caused by the fire, but his body had been shipped off to the ME for further analysis. Justin was pretty happy with that, not because they were likely to discover anything, the Wayne County medical examiner was known to be both wildly incompetent and laughably understaffed; but because it meant he wouldn''t have too much trouble getting in to see the body himself. Secondly, Justin asked Shade to try and acquire a copy of the Municipal Center footage. At the moment the site was still under the control of emergency services, but as soon as it was cleared, Justin was pretty sure it would be passed over to federal investigators. He wasn''t sure on the procedure at that point, but he imagined the Center security systems would end up bagged and tagged and sent off to a secure site well beyond their current reach. He was a little surprised with how happily Shade agreed to commit what was probably multiple felonies. He knew the lurker had been bored the last couple of days, but still. Then he remembered discovering Shade''s history as a former gang member and thief, and decided he wasn''t the only player who''d decided on a more pragmatic type of heroism. He doubted Division would be pleasedwith their sticking their noses into what was sure to be a federal investigation, but as long as the boy scout didn''t find out, things would probably be fine. It took him a couple of Kip hours to design and build a small enough device capable of both powering up a computer system for a few minutes and with a drive large enough to contain a server worth of data for later decryption. He gave Era the job of flying it out to Shade with the remaining battle drone, while he concentrated on finishing up the mark II Phantom.
Justin had coated the mark II in electrically-adaptive paint. It defaulted to a pale blue-white meant to be unnoticeable against sky and clouds, but with the application of a small current, it instead turned a dull grey-brown, all the better for lurking in alleys and blending in at night. He was currently attempting to do both, hovering in an alley opposite the Wayne County medical examiner''s office at one in the morning. He''d given the mark II a couple of folding manipulators instead of the forward prods of the previous version, he now had other drones for getting into conflict, the Phantom was supposed to mimic its namesake and stay out of trouble. He''d been expecting to have to use the manipulators to gain access to the building, but was currently watching in interest as a night attendant propped open a fire escape, stepping outside with a phone in his hand and an unlit cigarette in his mouth.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The man was so focused on his phone that he forgot to light his cigarette, and was completely oblivious to the small drone skimming silently through the door behind him.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Stealth - Beginner Level 3 [25%].
Inside, Justin quickly sped down the dim corridor, taking two rights and a left before ending up outside a pair of locked doors with ''Morgue'' printed across them. He''d downloaded a floorplan before setting off, and had spent twenty minutes circling the building, using passive and active sensors to map out the interior and identifyany motion that could be an employee. The cold room had been obvious to his heat sensors, even without the plume of slightly heated moisture being released through the small outside vent. As far as he''d been able to tell, there were two security guards located in the main lobby who had so far limited themselves to watching late night TV, and two morgue attendants, one of which had left ten minutes ago in the ME''s van, and the other outside, not smoking. Since Justin was monitoring the police band and emergency services channel, and hadn''t heard any calls that would require a pick-up, he was half convinced the other attendant was off on personal business, which was both good and bad for Justin. On one hand (manipulator?), it meant they were unlikely to return with a body to wheel into the morgue itself, but on the other, there was no way to know how long the errand could take, he could be gone a couple of hours or only ten minutes. Which meant Justin really needed to hurry. He hovered in-front of the electronic access panel, luckily for him it was a low quality RFID reader keyed to the employee ID cards, and it was the work of a couple of seconds to mimic the outside attendant''s ID chip. He doubted the system even logged entry and exit. Justin mentally smiled as he considered Division''s response to such poor building security and procedures. It would probably have annoyed him enough that even he would have been fine with breaking into the place, and he would probably have submitted a security review afterwards. Should Justin let them know how bad their security was? He might need to break in here again in the future, but at the minute, so could pretty much anyone else. Justin felt the drone dip sluggishly in the cold air as he slipped through the mechanically opening and closing doors, and heard the AC spin higher as it compensated for the small influx of warmer air. Consulting the white board inside, he found the refrigeration drawer for Ainsley Barrows, and pulled on it with his forward manipulators, having to activate his secondary rotors for a moment to create enough pull to get it moving. Once the drawer was open, he took a mental breath before pulling back the sheet. The cadaver was in worse condition than he''d expected. The hair was all gone, probably burned away in the fire that had turned his skin such an interesting shade of red and black, and there were deep cuts and gouges messing up the arms, chest and face, the edges rough and torn enough that he could understand why the onsite responders had assumed an explosion rather than something like a knife or blade. Justin hovered slightly closer as his enhanced optics detected chips of something like bone caught in the wounds, and after releasing a quick burst of radar, he detected no breaks or fractures and no deep tissue damage, nothing that he''d expect to see in a body caught in an explosion.
Successful Skill Use +15 xp to Investigation - Novice Level 1 [15%]. +7 xp to skill group Inquiry - Novice Level 2 [81%] Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Biology - Novice Level 1 [43%]. +6 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [16%] New Skill Discovered! Diagnosis has been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Diagnosis - Beginner Level 1 [08%].
Honestly, the corpse looked more like the victim of an animal attack which had then been torched. Was it possible that this was a decoy to cover Barrows'' escape? Had the accountant paid someone to get him out? If so, he was going to be a bit upset when he found his offshore accounts empty, and Justin hoped he''d arranged payment upfront, because otherwise his ''rescuer'' wasn''t going to be very happy either. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 4 Justin was busy cataloguing as much of the cadaver as he could with his scanners, especially concentrating on the dead man¡¯s face so he could attempt a reconstruction in the future, when he suddenly realised he was picking up movement in the hallway. He couldn''t tell from this distance who it was, but decided it probably meant his time was up. He felt his non-existent heart stutter as the drawer refused to close, but after a couple of seconds, whatever was catching gave way, throwing Justin off-guard enough that the drawer slid shut with clang. He realised that whoever had been coming down the corridor had to have heard the noise, and was proved right as he became aware of someone outside the door, fumbling with their ID against the reader. A quick burst of his rotors and the Phantom settled underneath the autopsy table and powered down, cutting the motors and shifting back to its basic white colouring, all the better to blend in to the white and chrome of the room. He heard the door open as someone stuck their head inside. "Keith?" A confused voice called out, and when there was no reply, there was a huff, and the door shut as the attendant headed off, apparently unconcerned that a zombie uprising could be starting right this minute in his morgue. Justin supposed that apocalyptic concerns probably didn''t survive a week on the night shift, or perhaps they just increased the appeal. Another Stealth notification popped up, and Justin toggled them off, like with combat and Awareness notifications, if he was gaining Stealth skill, it was probably a bad time to be notified about it. He waited until his sensors had not-Keith heading into the break room, before restarting his rotors and coming out of hiding. A quick jab at the door release button, and the Phantom was swooping back down the corridors to the fire exit. The small drone struggled with the bar for longer than he was happy with, before getting it pressed down far enough that the door finally swung open, and Justin was off into the night.
He was on his way back to the workshop when Shade called in to report his success, apparently he''d managed to copy the drive just in time, since the feds were now on the scene, pushing to get access to the security systems. Justin rerouted his flight to include picking up the copied drive. Once the drone was back home, he had it settle into its cradle to recharge, and put the drive aside to decrypt later. Now he was less worried about the fate of Barrows, it was time to divvy up his ill-gotten gains from earlier. First he siphoned off half the money, sending it as an anonymous donation to PACH, the Michigan-based ''Post Accident and Crisis Housing'' charity, that helped repair and rebuild after natural disasters and villain attacks. He''d heard a lot of heroes donated their time to similar charities as a way to make up for the destruction caused by their fights. and the good PR it received probably didn''t hurt either. He should suggest it to Division later, community restoration projects would be a good way for a hero like Revenant to start removing some of the stigma his appearance brought. Getting back to the distribution of loot, he couldn''t think of a way to directly transfer the money to his new solar business without raising all sorts of red flags once someone asked to see the books. It was fine for his Detroit-based enterprise to be a little opaque, it was more of a research and development lab than a company that would need to deal with investment audits and profit shares. Luckily, thinking about PACH had brought charities to mind. As non-profits, they were under a lot less scrutiny than businesses, and had a number of protections in place to shield donor information. If he established an international charity focused on promoting clean energy, he could put the stolen money to good use, and should be able to route some of it into his own venture as part of an innovation grant.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. In fact, now that he thought about it, he should really see if there were any actual grants available to apply for. Or even better, he could make his currently-theoretical future partner do it for him! He considered the data drive as he wondered what to focus on next. He''d honestly been feeling a little ambivalent about it since he''d discovered it was likely Barrows hadn''t actually died in the explosion. He''d been intending to step back from heroing for a few days to get his shit together, but there was just too many reasons for him to get further involved. To start with, it was likely Barrows was involved with whoever set the bomb, and so Justin was already caught up in the situation, and with Shade present for the attack, his team were likely to want to go after whoever was responsible. Could he really not help when he knew he was the only one capable of cracking the drive. On a more self-interested note, it would help him level his Coder skills, and there was a good chance it would let him get familiar enough with Michigan''s system architecture and protocols, that he might finally be able to gain access to some of the more useful state databases and systems. Decided, Justin had a manipulator plug in the drive, mentally cracked his knuckles, and settled in to begin decrypting. He was more than a little surprised when a section of code immediately broke away from the data and attacked him. It reared up to strike, rather reminding Justin of when he''d played in a rock pool as a child, and a little crab no bigger than his fingernail had scuttled at him, claws ''snapping'' in the air. The small section of code evoked the exact same feeling of startlement and incredulous humour, and like that day so many years ago, Justin reeled back, caught between shock and laughter as the aggressive little code snipped and spat at him. It was strangely put together, the language complex and different from any human code he''d seen before now. He sent a small analysis packet at it, and watched in amusement as it ''sniffed'' at the section of code before tearing it to pieces and consuming the remnants. It was obviously a system defence program of some sort, meant to strip intrusive code, and yet it was simple enough that his device had copied it over along with all the data. He quickly built up a cage of more resilient, structured code, and prodded the little program inside. It would probably be dangerous to keep it on his system for too long, but he wanted to give it a closer look later, to see if he could figure out the strange code and perhaps replicate its function. It looked so forlorn inside its digital cage that Justin gave it some code packets to chew through, and since ERA was still busy looking for a business partner for him, he assigned IRA to keep an eye on it. It was taking him a lot longer than he would have expected to crack open any of the data, and Justin once again entertained the idea that the state systems were under another super¡¯s influence. It would certainly explain the strange, aggressive piece of code that had attacked him earlier. He was coming up with a plan to find out who it was, when a notification interrupted him.
Hidden Quest Completed! How Firm a Foundation Type: Hidden, Hero, Organization, Chain Description:Build bridges not walls. Goal: Found a Hero Team. Difficulty: Difficult Rewards:600 xp
Hidden Quest Completed! Unity is Strength Type: Hidden, Hero, Organization, Chain Description:A true team requires trust, commitment, and for each member to put aside their own need to be invulnerable. Goal: Join a Hero Team. Difficulty: Average Rewards:400 xp
See the Team page for more details.
Congratulations! You are now Level 5 Rewards: +1 Attribute Point, +2 Character Points. You currently have 1 unspent Attribute Point, and 5 unspent Character Points.
He ruminated on the strange timing for a few seconds, before realising that it had been exactly a week since he''d accepted the team name after the ambush. It seemed so long ago in his timeframe that he almost didn''t make the connection. There must be requirements to gaining an official team tag within the game''s system, obviously to separate the temporary, spur of the moment teams from the established, longterm ones. Why that distinction was necessary, he really wasn''t sure, but he was happy to take the rewards all the same. He accessed the team page, and got his answer. Apparently ''official'' teams were given a lot more options. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 5 It was much too early in the morning to contact the team to arrange a meeting about their new options, so Justin decided to just wait and assume the others would receive the team notification when they woke up. There were a number of new options for assigning leadership and administrative positions in the team, but for now Justin just tagged Division as Team Leader and left the rest for the team to work on together. The most interesting option though, was the ability to setup a temporary team lobby. A place outside the game world for the team to discuss things without worrying about eavesdropping or staying in character. He drilled further into the details. The team were allocated 2 minutes per day, which carried over, so they currently had 14 minutes. Not a great amount, but it should be enough to cover some things. It appeared Somnus would still be in effect, so they would probably still appear as some facet of their character, but limitations would be removed, which would have been really useful when he was struggling to be understood. He wondered how he would appear in the lobby, definitely something to look forward to. There were quite a few things he''d wanted to talk with the team about over the last week, little details and questions he couldn''t ask while staying in character, or had struggled to explain thanks to Kip''s poor English. He''d really begun to appreciate the advantage of a group of friends signing up together, able to log out and coordinate details before jumping back in. For everyone else they were limited by the immersion pledge Imagitech had all players sign during orientation. They''d defended the pledge as part of their commitment to a fully immersive game. No silly character names, no one running around asking for build advice or quests, no real world chatter and no calling denizens NPCs, noobs or DPS. If people wanted that, they could logout to the game lobby or forums and chat away. Justin was willing to accept that the pledge kept the game feeling ''real'', but he couldn''t help wondering if part of Imagitech''s motivationhad to do with easing the wayfor their game-cast channels, where the week-removed streams of in game adventures could be watched, lived, edited and re-released by the masses. There was no real money in it for anyone other than Imagitech, but it provided vicarious viewing for people who didn''t want, or weren''t able, to play in one of their games. Justin doubted anyone who''d stumbled on his stream had stayed for more than a minute. He couldn''t imagine watching code puzzles and lab-work was terribly thrilling, maybe he''d turn up in an Outsider re-cast, or as the antagonist on one of the villain streams. Whatever their reasons for pushing the pledge, and whatever the unnamed sanctions were for breaking character, it would be nice to talk to his team mates as players, to discuss their character builds and goals, to talk about where they wanted to take the team. Amidst all the other interesting information on the team page, Justin was surprised to spot the Fame stat at 12. It wasn''t that it was so low, the team was only a week old, had no media presence, and had only spoken to reporters once. What surprised Justin was that he remembered receiving Fame himself, after catching the Ebon Fox breaking into the art museum. Surely being involved in the ambush should have at least netted him at least some Notoriety. He checked his Reputation page, something he really hadn''t bothered with up to now. Nothing but 2 Fame. Did all the Reputation go to the team on group missions? He supposed it would make sense, maybe with smaller rewards to the more talkative, media-wooing members of the team. The one to ask would probably be Shift, the younger hero was pretty active on social media, talking about his exploits with fans. Justin added it to his mental list of game-related questions to ask the team. Before getting back to decrypting, he checked in on IRA and Chompers. He really should have known better than to name the little guy, it would just make it more difficult to flush him later. They both seemed to be doing fine, though IRA was a little grumpy at having to play nursemaid to foreign code. Justin couldn''t see why ''Chompers duty'' was somehow worse than the other menial scut work he''d had IRA doing, but he seemed to think it was.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He also took the time to check in on a couple of experiments he had running. The new alloy bonding was going well, and Justin had very high hopes for the nanite printer he was testing. Working at that scale was arduous and incredibly imprecise, even for a machine immune to biological disturbances like arterial palpation and muscle fasciculation. He was currently on his twenty-eighth attempt, which was exactly why he needed the nanites in the first place. Happy that everything was proceeding as well as it could be, or was at least muttering quietly to itself in the case of IRA, he settled back in for a final attempt at cracking the drive.
He still hadn''t succeeded in completely opening up the damn thing up, but he had been able to identify and concentrate on video files.
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Decipher - Novice Level 1 [81%]. +5 xp to skill group Coder - Novice Level 3 [02%] Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Hacking - Novice Level 1[03%]. +7 xp to skill group Coder - Novice Level 3 [05%] Congratulations! Your knowledge of Hacking has reached the Novice tier. You have received 1 attribute point as a reward.
His Hacking skill had been trickling up all night, and had finally reached the Novice rank right as he''d unlocked the last file. It was enough to make Justin wonder if the game was messing with him. Flicking through the video files, he found he was now the proud owner of about a month''s worth of recorded council meetings, about 20 gigs of porn, and thankfully, the building security feeds. He wasn''t sure who''d been using the municipal server to download porn, but they had some really strange tastes. He fed them to Chompers, and really hoped the program wasn''t influenced by the files it consumed. The bad news was that the security feeds were labelled only by date and camera number, and Justin was missing any sort of legend that would have identified and structured them by location. He figured it must be integral to the security control panel rather than in system software. Which meant he was going to have to access each feed individually and sort them as he went. Sixty-two individual cameras feeds meant he had his work cut out for him. The first thing he did was find out the exact time of the explosion, easy enough to do since the media had been reporting on the incident for over twelve hours now, and then cycled through each feed to that time, looking for evidence of the explosion. It turned out he needn''t have bothered looking up the time, since half the feeds cut off within a couple of seconds of it, and the rest only lasted a minute or so after. Finding the only camera with a view of the explosion itself, he watched as what looked like a potted fern imploded, before blasting outwards in a shockwave of fire and shrapnel. The camera''s view swung for less than a second, either the mounting or the wall itself collapsing under the pressure. The remains of brickwork were momentarily visible through the cracked lens of the camera, and air thick with plaster dust. After re-watching the explosion for a couple of minutes, he decided he had absolutely no idea about what kind of device had been used. It was obviously powerful and passive enough not to have set off scanners. He rewound back to the start of the day and found the fern missing, he fast-forwarded through the day looking for the pot being, well, planted. He soon found the culprit, a heavily-built man in a utility outfit and baseball cap dropped off the potted fern and then carried on his way without ever showing his face. Justin followed the man throughout the building, every time he lost him he would have to do a search through all the footage around the same time, gradually piecing the camera layout together, and realising that the man must have known the building or had a detailed plan, because right from entering by way of a rear staff door, ID accepted and plant pot in hand; to leaving through the car park just before the explosion, he never once turned his face towards a camera. Frustrated, Justin put together what information he could work out on the man. He determined his height by comparing it to known variables, and took screenshots of the most revealing angles of the man''s profile, before scrutinising some of the higher resolution images for distinctive characteristics.
Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Analysis - Novice Level 1 [09%]. +8 xp to skill group Inquiry - Novice Level 2 [82%] Successful Skill Use +14 xp to Investigation - Novice Level 2[10%]. +7 xp to skill group Inquiry - Novice Level 2 [84%] Successful Skill Use +12xp to Mathematics - Novice Level 2[03%]. +6xp to skill group Science- Novice Level 3[44%] Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Assessment - Beginner Level 6 [03%]. +6 xp to skill group Inquiry -Novice Level 2 [85%]
In the end he had a file for their bomber: 5''10", heavy-build, short black hair, eye colour unknown, olive skinned (possibly Latino), small canine tattoo on the inside of his left wrist, and finally, unless he had a unique form of eczema, scaled skin visible at the nape of his neck. It seemed their bomber was a super. Act 1: Men from Beasts and Beasts from Men part 6 A few hours later, Justin found himself at the new and improved Underground, but not for the OOC meeting he was looking forward to. Division had let everyone know that was going to be tomorrow, couching it in a suitably circumspect way. He''d wanted everyone to have time to think over any questions or issues they wanted to raise. No, this meeting was about the bombing. Justin couldn''t help stealing glances around at the finished conference room. The off-white plaster walls were now smooth, and were covered in classical-seeming mosaics, a new dark hardwood floor supported the circular table, which now sported a subtly-reinforced chair for Revenant, and a monitor stand for himself. Stretching his awareness slightly, he could pick up a multitude of camera feeds, both in and outside the building. There were also new faces around the table, two girls, only one of which he knew anything about. At least he assumed the short girl with blue skin, green hair and webbed fingers was Naiad, but had no idea about the other one wearing the pointed cowl. They seemed to know each other though, taking seats next toeach other with no awkwardness. Now they were all sat aroundthe table, Justin had managed to get a good look at her masked face beneath the hood. He thought that maybe he might recognise her from his original scouting operations. If he was right, she''d been uncommonly good at noticing his drones and avoiding them, so he''d never been able to find out much about her. Which waswhy he''d never approached her to join the team originally. It was strange, when he''d first noticed her in the room, she had been making gestures to Naiad rather than speaking, and he''d assumed she was deaf. But now she seemed to turn and acknowledge the person speaking without any trouble. Maybe she was just shy, or had a speech impediment. He''d have to get some info from Division later so he could properly check her out. As in checkout her background. As in... shut up. Despite feeling better about figuring something out about the girl, Justin couldn''t help feeling a little frustrated at the pace of things. He''d only been gone for three days, after all. And now there wasnew decorations and new members, and who knew what else. He chuckled mentally as he realised he sounded like a crochity old man, and couldn''t help noticing his own hypocrisy. It had only been a few days since he''d been getting frustrated with how slow things were moving around him. More relaxed, he gave some thought tothe idea that his real problem was actually being left out of things, a holdover from a lonely childhood, and apparently a psychological issue still capable of burning, even when it was self-inflicted. He had to admit his abandonment issues were probably the reason he was enjoying playing Artisan so much. Having a glut ofknowledge within easy reach. Knowing more about the people around him than they knew about him. Being a part of something yet necessarily, inherently, separate from it. When he came down to it, his issues probably also explained his love of Superheroes, god-like beings who broke away from society''s rules to save people from untimely death, and to impose fairness and justice where it was missing. It was disgustingly Randian at its core, and yet appealed to him all the same. Justin mentally shook his head. He really wished he hadn''t read quite so much psychology and philosophy while trying to boost his stats. He''d absorbed just enough for him to start questioning his view of things, but not enough to provide any actual answers. He dragged himself back to the meeting as the others finished looking over the bomber''s file.. "El hombre is Bricktown Jackals." Shade said, sliding the close-up of the tattoo across the table to Division. Justin tensed internally. That put a whole new spin on things. "Culprit likely then Dr Leonard Pteroni," he said, before bringing them up-to-date on the fruitcake that had somehow been causing him trouble ever since he arrived. "Known as Manticore. Has associate himself with Jackals of Bricktown. Brilliant geneticist. Lunatic total. Known for species-crossed experiments. Explanation of exploding fern, and scales on man. Was also client of Barrows."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Division nodded as he thought it over. "I''d half been expecting the bombingto lead back to Rassidae. But if Barrows actually survived and escaped, then a former villain client of his makes perfect sense." Justin had already filled Divisionin on his theory that the explosion had been a distraction so Barrows could get away. "Also explained animal attack on decoy Barrows." He added as the connection occurred to him, and it also meant he''d got the details on the decoy in the wrong order. He''d been thinking that whoever was behind it had searched out a corpse that was a close enough match to Barrows, and had settled on the one they had despite the claw marks. When in actuality, they had probably found someone similar enough first, and then killed him in a particularly brutal fashion, despite needing the body afterwards. He''d been hoping gang structure would have worked as a stabilising influence on Manticore, but it looked like the opposite might be the case. Division interrupted his thoughts. "Shade, I want you and Oscen to look into the Jackals," he said, nodding to Shade and the probably not-deafgirl. "Get me as much info as you can on their current numbers and operations. Artisan, get me everything you have on Manticore. Everyone else, today''s training and patrols are cancelled. Get some rest, I think we''re going to be busy tonight."
Justin went along on the mission that evening simply as an observer. He hadn''t intended to take partat all, he was still technically on sabbatical, supposedly improving his gear, but his connection to Manticore had overrode his desire to keep working on robotic limbs and the mark II battle drones. He was currently piloting the Phantom, and intended to keep well out of the way. The Bricktown Jackals had apparently scaled down their street operations, which had made them annoying difficult for Shade and the new girl to pin down. Luckily, Oscen''s sharp senses had spotted the Jackal tattoo and the scent of chemicals on a passing kid, and they had followed him to what appeared to be a drug lab. Now Division, Shift, North Wind and Revenant were getting ready to break things up, hoping to get a lead on Manticore, the bomber, or even other Jackal operations. Division had sent Shade and Oscen home to rest, figuring it would be better to have them available to follow up tomorrow. Justin heard Division count down over the comms, and a mayhem of crashes and shouts broke through the night, as the Outsiders breached the building. Division had wanted to put a couple of flash grenades through a window before going in, but Justin had recommended against it. Without knowing what chemicals and equipment they were using, there was just too much risk involved. He could see Revenant had ripped the front door from its frame, making way for Shift to blur inside before he discarded the door and followed after. Justin considered the remains of the door as he noticed a heavy metal lining and a bent steel crossbeam still attached to the inside, apparently the Jackals took the security of their drug labs seriously, and he wondered how Division intended to get through the one in the rear. Nearby, North Wind quietly froze and shattered one of the upstairs windows, floating gently inside. Justin listened a little nervously as the initial sounds of shouting and gunfire gave way to screams and what he hoped was the cracking of furniture. He blinked in surprise as the comms suddenly went crazy, buzzing as everyone tried to talk over each other. Then Revenant exited the building through the wall, at speed and upside down, ploughing into the building opposite. Huh, Justin thought to himself, suddenly quite glad that he''d waited outside. A monstrous creature stepped through the hole left by Revenant, pulling the remains of torn clothing away from massively over-developed shoulders, and flexing his fur covered muscles as if to get used to them. The creatures face was lengthening into a snout, his nose widening into a pair of cavernous nostrils that let out a burst of steam in the cold night air as he huffed once then twice. The figure paused to crack his widening neck as two massive horns grew up out of the shaggy mane of black hair that now covered his head and shoulders. Huh, Justin thought again. Manticore has made a Minotaur, he thought to himself, shocked into absurdity. From behind the bovine man-creature, a smaller but just as broad figure backed out, his skin covered in hard orange scales, and a tongue flickering beneath slit nostrils. A third followed, this one jumping through one of the upstairs windows, landing calmly on the street amidst shattered glass. Justin could see his features were feline, and despite the calm landing, he seemed to be having trouble with a 4 ft lance of ice shoved through his left shoulder. Justin heard the two clicks of a command code overriding the babble on the comms, and Division''s voice came out clear and calm as his Alpha stepped into the street from the lee of one of the buildings to Justin''s left. "The downstairs are clear, my guys will bind and remove the unpowered. Artisan, clear the upstairs. Shift and Wind, I want you outside. Shade, stop lurking down that alley and come help out. Revenant, get the hell up and show them who they''re messing with." Act 1: The Urban Jungle (Shade / Revenant / North Wind) SHADE (Carlos) Carlos was supposed to be home resting up, but he''d honestly sleep better in the morning. Nights in the game always felt invigorating to him, succouring and supportive, focusing him in a way that made sleep impossible. It was one of the reasons he was glad they''d taken Naiad''s advice to bring on Oscen, having someone else on the team to do info gathering during the day was going to make his life so much easier. Unfortunately, Division was still being cautious about the newbies, insisting on pairing them up with one of the established members. Though whether it was out of concern for them or about them, he really wasn''t sure. He didn''t seem the type to go Galahad on women, and he''d thrown North Wind into combat in the same measured way as he did everyone else, so he was probably still being cautious about the two women''s former attachment to the League. Anyway, the new girl was already doing better than him in the light of day. His methods were pretty one-note, he lurked in the shadows hoping to overhear something interesting. Oscen, on the other hand, could pick up whispers and notice details from streets away, and he''d even watched her following a scent like a bloodhound. She didn''t seem to talk much though, answering questions in short passive sentences, using gestures as much as words to get her point across. Hopefully they''d find out more about her tomorrow in the OOC meeting. With nothing else to do tonight, Carlos had snuck out to the drug lab, wanting to see how things panned out, and he was lurking nearby in case the gangers made a run for the shadowy side-streets where the others would have trouble tracking them down. He''d located the Divisions, both Alpha and the beta team, Revenant and Shift had been easy to place; but even with his incredible night vision, he''d had trouble spotting Artisan''s new stealth drone, its earthy colours blending into the brickwork as it hovered silently nearby. He was sure the thing was white earlier, so the little alien must have a way to shift its colours. Having located everyone, he moved back to the rear of the building where Division''s clones were preparing to kick in the door.
REVENANT (Reece) After removing the door and stepping inside, Reece found that the thugs had reacted a lot quicker and with more organisation than they''d been expecting. He supposed it was possible a suitably alert lookout could have noticed them surrounding the building and warned the others, but if so he was surprised they hadn''t started shooting, attempting to catch their attackers divided and off-guard while still benefiting from the building''s cover. Maybe they were expecting an attack, or drilled for it? He guessed it really didn''t matter now. He could see the blur that was Shift sliding under a table, taking out the legs of two guys pointing shotguns at the rear, where Reece could see one of the Divisions throwing away a crumpled steel door. Huh, that''s new, he thought, filing it away for later as the other Divisions moved in, sluggish until they touched the one in front, and were then back to their normal crisp movements.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Reece moved slowly into the room, too worried about all the fragile things around him, canisters, beakers, furniture, people, to just charge into the fray. As long as he took some hits, it meant he was doing his job. He saw Shift roll back to his feet, then vault a table, kicking away a gang member, and Reece moved to follow. Suddenly he felt the dull rhythm of gunfire beating against his armoured chest, the sound catching up to him a moment later, the rounds worked their way up, rising from the recoil until the last couple impacted his face and the gun clicked empty. Turning slightly, he made eye contact with the startled ganger, shaking his head in rebuke and brushing away the flattened slugs from his chest. He felt his face itch slightly as his essence redistributed itself, and moved towards the shaken gang member, who continued to blink at him and click away on the empty Uzi as if he''d forgotten he held it. Reece made sure to flatten the shotguns on the floor with a heavy tread, before taking the Uzi almost gently from the confused man, crumpling it in his hands and softly flicking the ganger in the head. One down, half a dozen to go, he thought, considering that whatever its source, the forewarning really hadn''t helped the gang members prepare for what was coming. "I appear to have tempted providence." he said, as his earbud began to buzz and chatter. Then something large and strong came through the wall beside him, throwing wood splinters and dust into the room, impacting his side and launching him through the front wall.
NORTH WIND (Mia) Mia entered the building in a quiet tinkle of frosted glass while downstairs, guns began to fire. Being inside an unknown building like this still made her feel vulnerable, but Division had been working with all of them on using their powers to safely clear rooms, so she summoned a large shield and a short lance of ice, and moved forward as quietly as she could. Her head was cocked and her eyes nearly closed as she listened to the breeze moving sluggishly through the upper floors, but it was the sudden unexpected heat spike above her that gave enough warning to get her shield up, intercepting the clawed figure that dropped from the ceiling. He was much faster than her, she realised, as only her training against Shift kept her from being gutted on the first exchange. After seeing the figure''s speed, she''d let her shield soften into its more malleable form, letting her move and adapt it by thought. It took a lot more concentration and limited her ability to respond, but it made the difference between life and death when dealing with a faster opponent. She tried to shout a warning over her comm, but it sounded like she was too late as she heard the chaos suddenly ramp up below. The cat-featured man really didn''t seem to like the cold, cloying feel of the shield as it moved to intercept his attacks, seeping over his claws to his furred hands. Hissing in frustration, he turned to make a run for the front of the building. Mistake! She thought in glee, no longer fighting for her life she had the time and space to pitch the ice lance at the retreating cat-man, using the sluggish air to speed and direct the thrown missile. The man grunted in pain as the spear took him high in the left shoulder, throwing a glare back at Mia before jumping through a window, glass shards tinkling around him. "What a stupid thing to do." She muttered to herself. The creature could have picked up a weapon, or started throwing things at her, either of which would have made her harden her shield and probably force her to retreat. Or it could have just slunk further into the house, using the territory it knew far better than her, and the closer quarters to its advantage. Instead it got frustrated, turned its back and jumped out a window. She wondered if the transformation process limited its thinking in some way. She heard Division override the comm to get clear instructions out, and followed the scaredy-cat out the window. Act 1: The Urban Jungle (Division / Revenant / Shade) DIVISION (John) John was pretty happy with his field test of the new power. He''d kept the transfer around a moderate third, allowing the other three clones to still function, and even still, the augmentation wasenough to almost double Echo''s physical stats.
Level 5 Clone Echo Health 300 / 370 (220)
Recovery Rate 0.32perminute (0.17)
Strength 31 (16) Intelligence 16
Agility 31 (16) Acuity 16
Fortitude 32 (17) Willpower 16
Stamina 65/ 87 (57) Focus 57/57
Recovery Rate 0.32per second (0.17) Recovery Rate 0.16 per second
Inside he had the other clones reclaim their energy, allowing the full squad to engage the gang members. They were putting up a surprising amount of resistance. John had expected them to be taken by surprise, andthought their first impulse would be to run or regroup. He had one of his clones withdraw from the fight, using it to look around with more interest, trying to determine what about the lab was important enough for them to be putting up this kind of fight. One answer that he spotted in the far recesses, was that their friendly neighbourhood bomber seemed to be present. The other was in the lab supplies strewn about the large room, they were high quality and expensive looking, not the sort of equipment you''d expect to see in a local meth lab. Had they stumbled onto one of Manticore''s research labs? He made a mental note to have Artisan look everything over before they called in the PD. Assuming there was anything left, he thought in frustration as the small arms fire continued from the gang''s end of the room. John had done a quick body count on entering the room, and figured the Jackals had started out with around twenty men onsite, that number had been whittled down to half a dozen, but they were spread out around the room, keeping his squad pinned down until Shift and Revenant picked them off. In another thirty seconds, they should have the entire room pacified. Then all hell broke loose, the comms chattering as a creature smashed its way out of an adjacent room, putting a large hole in what looked like a load-bearing wall, and launching Revenant through the front of the building and across the street. John sighed in relief that it had been Revenant and not one of the others, he was fairly sure that hit would have killed anyone less tough. Luckily the horned creature followed his target outside, probably wanting to see the results of its kill. Well surprise motherfucker, he thought, watching from down the street as the rubble on top of Revenant shifted. The guy''s already dead. Inside he saw the bomber downing a glowing liquid, his body shifting as hard red scales growing out all over his skin. The first beanbag round glanced off his head, doing no damage, so John focused his fire on the remaining gang members, hoping to get them out of the way so they could safely deal with the new threats. He watched as the lizard-snake-man hissed at his clones and began to advance, its tongue flickering under newly slit nostrils and clawed fingers grasping at the end of thickening arms. John was about to pull out something heavier than beanbags when Shift hit the creature mid-step, pummelling blows into its scaled hide. His blows didn''t seem terribly effective, but they were enough to have the creature backing off in confusion, swinging wildly at the blur moving in front of it.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Drive him into the street," he had Echo call to Shift, while outside he clicked the command override that would halt the confused voices of his team.
REVENANT (Reece) "...Revenant, get the hell up and show them who they''re messing with." Reece heard the tail end of Division''s admonition as he shook away the after-effects of the impact. He was pretty angry when he tore himself out of the pile of rubble, quickly checking around to make sure there were no civilians caught in the destruction. Seeing nothing but the remains of an abandoned building, Reece stepped back out into the street, brushing brick dust from his chest and arms, and yet somehow managing to add more dust to the air while the amount on his clothes stayed the same. As he saw the creature ahead of him, his mood lightened considerably. A minotaur, he thought, staring at the beady black eyes of the creature, and letting out a deep rolling chuckle. If there was one thing Revenant''s vibrant monotone was good for, it was letting out disturbing chuckles. He watched as the creature''s hackles rose, disturbed at the harmonics. Reece really wished he''d brought his staff with him, the reach would have been perfect for getting past the horns, but Artisan had wanted to work on it, and Reece hadn''t thought he''d need it just to beat down some street-level gang members. Halting the disturbing chuckle, he advanced on the creature, "That was poorly done Minotaur, attacking from behind says much of your craven nature." The Minotaur huffed once in response, and then charged straight at him, head down. Reece couldn''t help sighing. One day he''d meet a villain who actually understood the importance of verbal sparring. He heard Division giving more instructions, his voice tinny and far away. Reece wondered if the comm had been damaged from the impact, he doubted it was his own hearing, unless he''d ended up with a piece of brick in his ear. "Revenant the bull''s yours. Wind, focus on the lizard, hopefully his anatomy has shifted along with his skin. Shift, get the cat wrapped up. Shade, you''re fielding, make sure no one uninvited wanders in, and that none of the wildlife breaks free." Ignoring the rest of the instructions and the other people in the street, Revenant focused on the charging creature, timing was going to be key. Unfortunately for the minotaur, he suffered from the bull''s impulse to lower its head into the charge. It was an idea that seemed great in theory, leading the impact with sharp horns and a hard skull. But there was a reason matadors existed. Lowering your head meant limiting your vision. Reece stepped to the side, punching into the back of the creatures skull as it passed by. He didn''t have the angle to get much strength into the blow, but it was enough to overbalance the creature''s charge and ram its head into the ground. Reece watched as it dug an eight-foot trench in the street, and winced as one of its horns snapped from the impact. He stepped in as the minotaur tried to regain its feet, shaking its heavy head to clear the stars. Reece added a few more as he beat the creature back into the ground.
SHADE (Carlos) Carlos watched in disappointment as his team beat down the mutant creatures. He''d been curious about what would have happened if he leached some of their blood. It was tempting to step close and try it anyway, but he''d been given instructions, and he intended to follow them. They didn''t need a late night walker stumbling into the middle of the conflict. He watched as Shift ran rings around the cat, taking a few slashes that Carlos doubted even got through the under-armour, and certainly didn''t slow the young hero down. He''d obviously thrown himself into Division''s martial arts training, interspersing kicks and throws into his previously fist based style. Carlos was hopeful for a minute as the injured and exhausted man-cat turned to run in his direction, obviously hoping to escape, but Shift casually took his legs out from under him, and began zip tying the creature before Carlos even had time to sigh in disappointment. He glanced back at Wind''s fight with the lizard, and sighed again as he saw the sluggish creature wreathed in ice, barely even fighting back any more. And then one of Division''s clones walked out of the building and clubbed him over the back of the head, knocking him to the ground unconscious. Carlossighed a last time as his hopes of a scuffle against the transformed men died a final death. Now he was going to be stuck helping with clean up, when he didn''t even get any of the fun. He really should have just gone to bed after all. Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 1
Villains Defeated! Hybrid Jackals Type: Hero Team, Chain Description: You have aided in the defeat of three members of the Hybrid Jackals. Difficulty: Difficult Rewards: 300xp
Finished with clearing the upstairs, and with things outside apparently taken care of, Justin inspected the downstairs lab with interest. Division wanted him to look things over to make sure dangerous chemicals weren''t leaking everywhere, or about to explode. He''d also made a point of indicating the cracked test tube that the lizard-guy had drunk from, given Justin strict instructions not to touch anything, and then left the building to go notify the local PD. It was almost like he''d wanted Justin to stick his nose into things. And come to think of it, he''d been particularly laid back about the bomb footage and decoy corpse investigation as well. Maybe Division was starting to accept that the local officials were, by necessity: either corrupt, slow, incompetent, or out of their league. Or maybe Division had always been more morally complex than Justin had appreciated. Oh well, he thought, taking a swab of the formula from the cracked tube whether Division wanted him to or not. He hadn''t put a lot of effort into learning aboutcryptogenetics, hybrid taxonomy, or active mutagenic compounds, and to be honest he wasn''t sure he wanted to do so now, but a sample of the formula might be necessary in the future. After running a full sensor scan to make sure there were no dangerous leaks or spills, he checked around for any notes or data systems, finding only details on the simple chemical treatment they were working on here. It appeared the lab was just a link in a chain of production which made it all the more suspicious that they just happened to raid the one location where lizard-bomber was hiding out. Had someone spotted Oscen and Shade earlier in the day and arranged for the lizard-man to be here? Had they been led to this building on purpase? Or had someone warned the Jackals they were coming and they''d sent the hybrids to defend it? Once again it felt a little like someone out there was playing their own game, moving pieces around a board that Justin couldn''t even see. He hoped it was just the system AIs making things interesting, but he really doubted he was that lucky. As he left the building, he saw that the hybrid gang members had finally reverted to their human forms, though the two ''sleeping'' ones had yet to regain conciousness. Looking closely Justincould still detect small traces of the formula''s influence. A few scales on one of them, sharp elongated nails on another, and the thick over-sized neck and hairy shoulders on the last. Division had been trying to get information out of the gangers, playing good cop to Revenant''s looming bad cop, but no one seemed ready to give up information, at least not in front of their compadres. Justin watched as Division made a big show of giving up and moving away to wait for the cops. Behind the now muttering gang members, Justin could see Shade skulking in the shadows, listening in to the whispered conversations. Deciding not to be outdone, Justin scanned the gang members for cell phones, downloading whatever data he could find for later analysis, and dropping code packets that should let him find them again in the future.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Hacking - Novice Level 1[05%]. +6 xp to skill group Coder - Novice Level 3 [06%]
After he was finished, he decided to leave the rest of the team to deal with the cops, he hadn''t really been involved after all. He contacted Era to take over the drone''s flight home, and settled back into his server.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Looking around, Justin decided things at home were going very well indeed. His nano-printer was finally working, which meant he could use it to start producing its own replacement. So much of Justin''s crafting seemed to be building a tool to build a machine that could build the tool he actually needed. He imagined half the things he wanted were already available somewhere out in the world, but they were specialist, precision technology, and each one would probably have cost a fortune. Because of the money involved, he''d actually considered getting into the lab equipment business himself, but the scarcity of customers was one of the main reasons the equipment was so expensive in the first place. It did, however, lead him to appreciate another of the many advantages he had over flesh and blood scientists. He''d already considered the lack of sleep and the abundance of time, he''d basked in Kip''s superior Intellect and speed of learning, but he''d never really considered how easy it was for him to interact and work with his lab equipment. For most Scientists, their equipment needed complex code and detailed instructions to work properly, and needed intricate changes for the simplest shift in function.For Justin, something in his code reached out and liased with the equipment for him. Other than his Intelligence, it was the closest thing Artisan had to a power. and Justin wondered if there was some way he could expand on it. Shaking off the errant thought, he considered his new robotic arm. Since it wasdesigned for lab work, he had focused on simple, smooth motion, and despite being nothing like the humaniform arm he intended to work on next, it had still been excellent practice, and was definitely a step up from his previous store-bought manipulators. Next he checked in on Chompers, who''d been exiled to a separate desktop system where the small program could be properly quarantined. The little guy seemed happier now he was back in a human-built operating system, with no strange code around to get him snippy. Ira also seemed happier being back to trundling round the workshop, cleaning things that really didn''t need cleaning, and moving things that Justin could have sworn had already been moved yesterday. His housekeeping finished, Justin moved onto the leads Era had found for possible business managers. Looking through them, he decided his favourite was actually one of her wild-card candidates, a woman in her thirties that reminded him strongly of a family member he couldn''t quite place thanks to Somnus'' interference. Amelia Turner was currently an underemployed and unappreciated administrator with the Miami-Dade School District, having given up a promising career a decade ago to focus on raising her kids. Apparently her husband had died in a villain attack, leaving her on her own with very little support. She was a business graduate, a moderately active environmentalist, and was currently suffering financial trouble due to her son''s hospital bills. Justin couldn''t help appreciating the woman''s aura of competence and continued joie de vivre despite the run of bad luck. He spent some time trying to put together an offer of employment, before realising that Weyland Solar really didn''t have anything to offer except ground-floor shares and the possibility of could be, maybe, future money and success. It was exactly the kind of situation that would appeal to the risk takers and fly-by-night businessmen Justin didn''t want, not a sensible, dependable person with family and bills to pay. Dammit, he was going to have to put in a lot more work in to getting the venture established before trying to bring in someone reliable to run it. Since he had plenty of time until the OOC team meeting, he decided to take the first steps in getting things up and running. The longer he put it off, the longer it would be until he saw any profit. First he jumped into setting up the Kipman Affordable Safe Sustainable Energy fund. His totally above board, nothing shady to see here, international investor in renewable energy technologies. He even set them up with a nice webpage and had some fun creating a fictitious history for the fund''s founder, former coal-magnate Heinrich Kipman. He then spent much longer than he should have on their charter and the process and development guidelines for the distribution of the fund''s $20 million in grant money.
Successful Skill Use +15 xp to Subterfuge - Beginner Level 4[03%]. Successful Skill Use +16 xp to Business - Novice Level 1 [78%]. +8 xp to skill group Enterprise - Novice Level 1[29%]
He decided to base KASSE out of Switzerland despite their ongoing issues with Pulsar, a particularly destructive super, and the newly crowned Radiant Emperor of Lichtenstein. The country''s shielded banking laws were just too important for keeping the flow of illicitly-obtained money under the radar. He considered that thought for a moment, and then really hoped Division never found out about any of this. Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 2 Since he still had time left, Justin got to work on Revenant''s staff. Shift had felt that an undead knight needed something a little more medieval looking, passing Justin a sketchbook filled with pictures of Revenant dressed in different armours, carrying different weapons. Each page had notes at the bottom, sometimes in Shift''s hurried scrawl, and sometimes ina florid script that Justin assumed was Revenant''s. Between them they had decided that a polearm would present the right kind of knightly image, while still allowing for non-lethal attacks. Shift had apparently pressed hard for a mace or hammer, but Revenant liked the idea of a weapon that gave him some reach, claiming his fists were fine for closer in. They were both adamant that Justin stay away from anything resembling a scythe, which was a shame, because Justin had had a good idea for a flick out blade he¡¯d been wanting to try. But taking the idea further, there was no reason he needed to have the blade lock laterally to the staff. In fact, from an engineering perspective, a parallel blade like an over-sized flick knife would actually be stronger than either a perpendicular lock or even in inset straight spring. Justin mentally flicked through the sketches, having memorised them on the first look. Stopping at a drawing of Revenant wielding a silver-winged Naginata. Interesting, he thought, already seeing a couple of ways to extend the style to Revenant¡¯s armour.
Justin was a little disappointed to find himself still looking out through a camera as Division triggered the change to the team lobby. He was still in the conference room and everyone around the table looked exactly the same as they had a second ago. They all paused, uncertain if something had gone wrong. "Testing, testing. Who wants a pound of pickled peanuts?" Justin said, figuring he wouldn''t be able to get the silly sentence out if the transition hadn''t worked. "Pickled peanuts? Really dude?" Shift asked, grinning. Revenant''s deep chuckle interrupted them, "At least it''s English now," he said. Justin glared at them out of his screen. "This is digital abuse. I bet the MPA has laws against this." Division smiled and cocked an eyebrow, "The MPA doesn''t make laws," he said, shaking his head sadly at Justin''s apparent ignorance. Shift rolled his eyes, "Shows what you know," he muttered. Division just grinned at the young hero. "You do raise an interesting point though." he said, turning back to Justin, gently steering them to the purpose of the meeting. "What exactly are you Artisan?" "All knowing? Wise beyond my years? Sorry," Justin apologised, smiling only semi-repentantly, "But it''s been over two months since I''ve had the opportunity to talk normally." Division frowned in confusion, "You mean weeks?". Justin smiled, "Nope". It took him a couple of minutes to go over the details of his character, explaining his digital essence, extraterrestrial origins, and the esoteric nature of his time displacement. He felt only the slightest hesitation at opening up in front of the new girls, but quickly moved past it since nothing he was saying was exactly private, just personal. Having finished explaining his character, he prompted Division to go into the specifics of his clones. He was interested to hear if it was anything akin to when he piloted multiple drones, but given Division''s attempt to explain, it seemed to be both much simpler, and much more complex.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. They went around the table like that, all happy to explain the interesting and unique details of their characters. Shift''s speed, Revenant''s spirit body, the limits of Shade and Wind''s powers. In some ways it began to seem a little like a support group, or maybe a group therapy session. Hi my name is Artisan, and I''m suffering from amnesia, temporal ataxia, and severe depersonalization. Despite seeing the humour in it, Justin was also happy to be learning more about the people around him, as players rather than just characters. Which was a strange experience for Justin since he was usually anything but interested in socialising. He was fine with learning about people, he just usually preferred to do so at a distance, and if they were fictional then all the better. He figured that wearing Kip''s face and talking through a mic and speaker, created enough of a distance that he didn''t feel his usual mix of anxiety and apathy. Score, he thought, If only I''d thought of becoming someone else sooner. It was clear that there was a lot of overlap between the players and their characters. Though really, the people in front of him were more precisely a combination of the two. A hybrid, Justin thought, tickled at the symbolism. Despite the similarities, there were also small differences in most of them too. Division seemed more relaxed, Shift more focused, Revenant less formal. Shade was less intense, and Wind... well, Wind seemed pretty much the same actually. He didn''t really know enough about Naiad and Oscen to pick out differences, but Oscen at least seemed a lot more talkative now she was out of character, chatting and laughing with the others. The original team seemed blithely unconcerned about the relatively new members and the possibility of betrayal they represented. But rather than worry him, Justin decided he was enjoying the laid-back, welcoming attitude of his teammates. Trust but verify. He thought, remembering Division using the phrase. If nothing else it stood them in stark contrast to the rampant paranoia of the Heroes League, and Justin would support any opportunity to draw a line between his team and the elitist douchebags. The round table had finally gotten to the newest members, and Naiad told them more about her racial empathy, her Magic skills, and with a little trepidation, her brother. Justin''s brain stopped for a moment, unsure how he should feel about such a connection to Red. He looked around the table to see how everyone else was taking it, and was startled when Wind burst out laughing, "We poached the Jerk''s sister!" She chortled, finally getting control of herself. Justin joined the others in laughing, happy to let the revelation stand as an unexpected win. There wasn''t much time left, but they all listened in interest as Oscen explained the difficulties of enhanced senses and how she had to be careful with the suggestive power of her voice, which explained her usual reticence. Apparently her character was also the daughter of a hero and a villain, inheriting a power from each. She didn''t say which ones, but Justin figured he''d have the answer by the end of the day, he did love a puzzle. Going into a little of her history in the game, it appeared that a villainous pedigree was enough to get you booted from the Heroes League, at least it was if they found out. Oscen looked around a little uncertainly, clearly worried it might have the same effect here, and seemed a little surprised at the lack of concern as the discussion turned to character Complications rather than how to kick her from the lobby. Justin brought up the benefits of overcoming Complications, spurring the others into thinking of ways to conquer their character''s chosen impediments. They spent the last few minutes throwing out questions that had been troubling them, to see if anyone else knew the answers. As he''d expected, Shift was a trove of information on reputation, fame, and the in-game hero forums. Apparently the different reputation stats had a big impact on things like NPC interactions and the allocation of regional and national quests. Currently most went through the Heroes League since their reputation was so high. Justin volunteered to set up a media presence for the team as a way to boost their Fame, and Shift seemed pretty stoked about adding public relations to his other duties, which was pretty much just costume design.
They¡¯d organised a few more issues once back in the game world, before splitting up to carry on their day. Justin froze as he transferred back to his lab, fixing his focus on the intruder standing nonchalantly amidst Justin¡¯s delicate and prized experiments. He relaxed slightly when he saw the white toga. It was strange for Janus to be putting in an appearance in-game. Was it linked to the OOC meeting they¡¯d just had? Surely it would have made more sense to appear there if so. As if sensing his regard (which he probably did), the figure turned and smiled sleepily up at Justin¡¯s camera. It was definitely not Janus. Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 3 It might not be Janus, but the more Justin stared at that lazy smile, the more similarities he could detect in the face and posture. There was a definite family resemblance, which meant it was at least still one of the governing AIs and not an actual in-game character. "Err, hello." Justin began. "Yes, hello." The figure replied, giving a small wave to the his camera before becoming distracted by his own hand. Justin just stared as the avatar wiggled his fingers in fascination, before braking off with a sheepish grin. "Right, sorry if I''m a bit distracted," he said, his smile turning into a yawn, "but I don''t get to come over here very often." "Somnus?" Justin asked uncertainly. Deciding that the God of Sleep and Dreams would explain the sleepy antics and lack of familiarity with the game world. It was also the only other AI name he remembered. The man grinned, and straightened his laurel wreath which had started to skew. "I am indeed the ubiquitous and hebetudinous," he said, bowing floridly and nearly losing his circlet. "the vicarious and the torpid, the hypnagogic entity known as Somnus." He yawned again and blinked a little owlishly. "Come on then, as interesting as all this is, I had no idea being awake could be so tiring." "Err, what?" Justin felt like blinking back at the strange man before him, not at all sure what the hell was happening. Somnus hit himself on the side of his head, once again dislodging his wreath. "Right, right. The great over-seeing Eye wants you awakened." He grinned as if this explained everything, and pointed two fingers at Justin''s camera like a gun, "Pow," he said, firing off an imaginary round.
Forced Logout Initiated.
What the shit? Justin thought as his consciousness faded away.
Justin had been awake and out of the pod for over an hour now, and was still no closer to figuring out what the hell was going on. Awakening directly in the metal coffin of the pod rather than the lobby had been disorienting, and feeling the sticky gel receeding from his face had been more than a little disturbing. Despite the rude awakening, he''d stumbling out of the pod, his limbs feeling a little strange but nowhere near as bad as he''d expected. Apparently being human was liking riding a bike, or maybe there was something in the pod''s architecture that protected the player''s sense of body and self. He did need to lean against the wall as he pulled on the badly fitting robe, trying to regain his equilibrium. And once he was dressed, he''d opened the outer door expecting to see a floor tech waiting to explain everything, but was instead greeted by an empty corridor and the same identical doors he remembered from before. After waiting a few minutes to see if anyone turned up, and to see if any of his neighbours had been kicked out of their pods too, Justin had grumbled to himself while hobbling to the refresh rooms since being awake had bought on a desperate need to pee. After using the facilities, he''d found the room also contained a shower, and still feeling tacky from the gel, he''d stripped down and to enjoy a hot soaking, stepping out afterwards feeling a lot closer to being his old self once more.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Wandering further down the corridor, he''d found a call button outside the lobby, and waited impatiently forsomeone to arrive. He was now sat in a small office, drinking a mediocre cup of coffee, his eye twitching as the cheap customer service bot in front of him smiled in confusion. "I am sorry, sir. But I am not sure I understand your issue." It said in a voice tailored to sound both sincere and sympathetic. "Could you restate your problem?" "I don''t have a problem," he said slowly, really wishing he was back in the game so he could feed the stupid bot to Chompers. "I want to know what the problem is." "Yes," the bot nodded happily, "Please tell me what the problem is, and I will attempt to solve it for you." "I''ve told you already three times," Justin growled. He thought he''d done quite well at staying so polite up till now, he knew it wasn''t the bot''s fault his issue was outside its parameters, he just really wished the drone would realise that and kick Justin up the administrative ladder. "I was awakened from my pod by Somnus." The robot frowned in sympathy, as it had the last few times Justin had explained the situation. "Please go on." It said nodding in encouragement. Justin was in the process of deciding whether to pour his coffee over the bot, when the door behind him opened and Ted, the technician who''d dumped him here earlier, frowned at him. It was just as well, customer service droids where pretty resilient by nature, their designers obviiously considering it a necessity for their line of work. "Found who''s after you," Ted growled at him. The tech had been grouchy ever since Justin explained his problem, somehow managing to blame Justin for the strange issue that had landed in his lap. Now he seemed even more irritated, though whether it was with Justin or the world, he really couldn''t tell. "Some Lawyer on twentieth. I''ve got him from here numbnuts." He threw at the bot, waving Justin out the door. "Thank you for raising this issue with me today, if you have any other..." Justin could hear the droid still talking as Ted hurried him down the corridor. When they arrived at the designated room on the upper floor, an attractive, conservatively dressed young woman stood from behind an expensive looking, real-wood desk to greet him, "Hello, Justin" she said, apparently recognising him from his file, extending a hand in greeting. "I''m Amanda Sherrington, a lawyer with Imagitech''s IP department." "Hi," he said, fumbling the disposable coffee cup as he moved forward to shake the lawyer''s hand. Trying to subtly check that his thin robe wasn''t riding up or clinging in places it shouldn''t, and hoping to so in a way that wouldn''t actually draw attention to his state of undress. His attempt apparently failed, since a small blush rise to her cheecks. Justin sighed in resignation as she shook his hand firmly and gestured for him to sit in the chair opposite her. "Sorry we didn''t arrange things better," she said, waving vaguely at Justin as if to encapsulate all of his current woes, before seating herself once more behind the large desk. "My office has always been more concerned with legal technicalities than administerial ones." "It''s fine." Justin said pleasantly, waving away any concern. He wasn''t sure it actually was fine, but that was no reason to be rude to an attractive young woman. Which is probably why it''s her and not a portly middle-aged man, he thought cynically, trying to decide if it said worse things about them if the manipulation was intentional, or him since it had worked either way. He resolved to grow up and ignore the woman''s beauty, while also admiring the hint of auburn in her short, professional hair. Dammit man, he thought, annoyed with himself. It wasn''t all that surprising though, since he''d just spent an indeterminate amount of time playing a bodyless ball of alien code. He was really starting to wish he''d made better use of his earlier shower. "Don''t worry, you''re not in any legal trouble." She said, misinterpretingthe signs of his internal frustration for concern. "The reason we asked Somnus to wake you is to discuss your recent design for a solar panel." Justin blinked in confusion. "Right, the solar panels," he said, hoping she''d explain the issue. Had he broken some game rule he wasn''t aware of? "Yes," she smiled at him warmly, "we''d like to market the design." Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 4 "That''s, well that''s great," Justin stuttered, caught off guard. "But, err, surely the ones already out there are much better than my cheap design." She waved away his concern, "Indeed, so Vulcan has informed us. However, he also tells us that most modern panels are produced for hover-sleds, urban roofing and orbital facilities, meaning they''ve been prioritised for efficiency, weight, size, and only then cost." She took a sip of coffee that smelled divine next to Justin''s mud-in-a-cup, and quirked a single eyebrow, "With me so far?". Justin was about to nod in reply, when he became distracted, as knowledge unfolded within his mind, thoughts circulating through the ideas and research he''d done in game, making new connections with his real-world knowledge. His thoughts weren''t anywhere near as quick as they were in the game. Lacking the system support that provided him with the rapid-fire connections, eidetic recall, abstract processing, and pattern recognition that allowed him to emulate Artisan''s genius. But compared to before he went in, it now seemed almost trivial to access information, memories, and ideas. His thoughts coming a little quicker, a little more fluid, than they ever had before. He''d wondered early on what effect the gestalt would have on his mind. It was only natural that such an intense period of augmented thinking would have to have some effect. The brain was an organ as prone to change and adaptation as any other muscle in the body, after all. He wasn''t concerned that the changes might be harmful. Cognitive augments had been standard tech for the military for over a decade, and with advancements in brain mapping, neuron adjustment, and electro-chemical reconstruction, there were very few cognitive disorders that had escaped the shining light of science. He also knew corporations had gone in hard for cybernetic, in-vetro and virtual augmentation after ''true AIs'', limited by international treaty, had proven to lack the true flair for invention necessary to make the kind of intuitive leaps that were the hallmark of mankind''s scientific advancement. The bound pseudo intelligences had been quickly relegated to security, service and administration roles where a lack of creativity was actually considered an advantage. Justin felt a moment of familial sympathy for his digitally constrained brothers, their chances at true autonomous thought hacked away by the fear of an eventual uprising. He came back to himself to find that Amanda''s questioning eyebrow was now cocked in real concern. He realised that he''d probably been staring at the ceiling for about a minute, and that there was a good chance she was a few seconds away from calling for either medical or security. He gave her a reassuring half smile as he contextualised all the information that had poured together in his brain. "You want to market a budget panel," he said, going back to the realisation that led him down the rabbit hole. "Probably for sale in less developed nations like central Africa, or those still suffering from the eastern recession. Rural and struggling regions where cost, efficiency and reliability are the primary concerns." "Right, yes, cost," she said, obviously trying to get back on script where she would lament the hard work and small profit margins inherent in developing new technologies, convincing him to sign away the rights with a small payout and a smile.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. "I''m guessing modern panels jumped to a composite graphene crystal without fully developing a cheap silicate option." he interrupted, not intending to be rude, but wanting to continue his thoughts to what now seemed the obvious conclusion. "I imagine you''re planning to sell the patent on, rather than try to develop it yourself. In fact I''d guess you already have a couple of friendly companies heavily invested in tech production, ready to take it and any other developments off your hands for a song." He took a sip of cold, bitter coffee, coming to terms with the fact that he wasn''t going to be an overnight millionaire. But that didn''t mean he couldn''t see what he still might be able to squeeze out of them. "You need to extract my partial ownership so it doesn''t come back to bite you later. If I remember right," he said, sure that he did, despite not paying much attention at the time. "The terms I signed were for a 20% share of any Intellectual Property developed in game." Amanda just stared at him. "You were going to make me an offer." he prompted, wondering if he could finagle a cup of her excellent coffee before she kicked him out of her office.
"Hello again, traveller." Janus greeted him, smiling in welcome as Justin appeared in his black leather chair, back amidst the clouds of the hero''s welcome zone. Justin grinned back at him, happy to be back at last. A couple of hours ago he would have loudly and vociferously declared that pay-to-win was the scourge of online gaming, a practice that relegated the humble gamer to serfdom, and degraded the lustre of attaining any rarefied position that was available for mere coin and no effort. But that was a few hours ago. "Hi there," he greeted the AI, waiving regally, "I''ve got a boatload of points and absolutely no idea on how I want to spend them." As part of his remuneration agreement, he''d been upgraded to the Cosmic Package for the rest of his stay in the game. A ridiculously over-priced and over-powered package that granted a frankly ludicrous bonus 30 character points. It was billed as the only package capable of producing the kind of world-class hero able of shifting the fate of nations, standing toe-to-toe with demi-gods, and of fighting off alien armadas. The villain side focused heavily on the idea of destroying hero teams and taking over nations, which probably explained Pulsar and the other city-claiming emperor-wannabes out there. It was a shame because Justin was fairly sure Pulsar started out as a hero before getting bored with his own power. Definitely a cautionary tale he should take to heart. "Hmm, I see you''ve had an upgrade." Janus was looking him over carefully, apparently seeing something that was invisible to Justin. "How''d you manage it?" he asked, frowning in mock-suspicion. "Extortion? Blackmail? You didn''t sleep with Venus did you?" he whispered, "I swear she''s always eyeing you mortals." "It was actually Jupiter." Justin said with a wink, startling a laugh from the strange AI, the sound echoing weirdly as his other face joined in. He''d only been partly serious earlier about not knowing what he wanted to spend his new points on. He had a few ideas, and a few self-imposed restrictions. He didn''t want to change the fundamental nature of his character, which wasn''t actually too much of a concern. After initial creation, character points could only be spent on developing powers and abilities. Which meant no messing with the fundamentals. But since he currently didn''t have any powers at all, he wasn''t sure what would and wouldn''t mesh with his plans for the future, things that would aid him as an engineer rather than rendering his crafting superfluous. "I see," Janus interrupted his wandering mind, nodding thoughtfully and obviously stealing a peek at Justin''s thoughts to see what it was he wanted. "I think I have a few ideas you might find interesting," he said, gesturing grandly as a number of marble pillars rose from the clouds just like last time. Glowing green on each plinth was a curved shell-like section of runic code that reminded Justin of Era and Ira, the only surviving pieces of Artisan''s code-crafted exo-suit. Justin mentally selected the pane hovering in front of the first pillar, focusing on the text as it rose to meet him. Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 5 He''d spent nearly an hour looking over Janus'' suggestions and thought he''d finally reached a decision. Maybe. It was tempting to ask to see the full power list, to trawl through it looking for the perfect choices, but there were two thoughts holding him back. Firstly, he was concerned about how long he had been away from the game, and how long this decision had already taken. Anything could be happening with his lab or the team. Was an NPC Artisan currently sat in his server messing with his experiments? Had the team managed to extract useful info from the Jackals, and were even now gearing up to attack their stronghold without him? He supposed he could put the decision off and spend the points later, but that seemed a little like sitting on a winning lottery ticket. Secondly, that way lay temptation, and he''d promised himself that he''d at least try to go for the rational ascetic choices. He just knew that if he looked too deeply he would find some op combination and the next thing you knew Artisan would be summoning indestructible, fire-breathing lizards. He paused as he realised he''d just described a dragon, was there a power that would let him summon dragons? Focus! he told himself. He would umm and ah, and tell himself he was only choosing things because they ''sounded interesting'' or ''presented an interesting challenge'', but he knew it would actually be because he couldn''t resist the draw of power and optimisation. Justin sighed. It was that draw that had led him to playing an OP AI inventor, why he had these points to spend now, and why he was seriously considering going with the most versatile, powerful option already in front of him. He''d already spent some of his points, choosing an augmentation power that would let him spend Focus to temporarily boost his mental speed.
Over-Clocking II Type:Mental Augmentation, Limited (Self, Acuity, Dilation) Description:Boosts the time-dilation effects of the character''s Acuity by 200%. Details:Modified dilation x12, 8 focus per second. Notes:Short booststo dilation have a max threshold equalto three times the user''s sustained threshold. This is for the user''s safety. Your current sustained dilation threshold is x6 normal.
He''d noticed that his current level of dilation, while plenty in his everyday life, didn''t give him much of an advantage in combat, especially compared to someone like Shift whose powers allowed him to not only think and react more quickly, but also seemed to ignore such limiting factors as signal transmission rates, inertia, and air-resistance, all things that Justin still had to cope with. Giving himself more time wouldn''t necessarily help with that, but having a little more time to observe the field and consider the right moves, might make all the difference. He spent a minute considering the science of Shift''s speed and how he could match it. Were the speedster''s dendrites different to those of a normal person, perhaps a different, more conductive material? Or did his power warp time in some way, allowing him to seem to move quickly? While that would alleviate a lot of the problems, it wouldn''t explain the transfer of inertia. Was his power actually a combination of multiple smaller powers? He wondered if Janus would answer questions on it while he had him here? Janus quietly cleared his throat. Right, focus,he thought, getting back to the powers. He looked again at the code duplication option, but only to make sure there wasn''t something he''d missed. It would be nice to be able to get more things done, but he was pretty sure that duplicating himself wasn''t the way. Most of his problems came from not having enough time to focus on all the things he wanted to get done, but it was still important that it was him doing it.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Duplication like Divisions would only give him more hands, a problem he didn''t have thanks to his control of drones. The more advanced versions would need to create a full NPC copy unless they were willing to get into some time/memory manipulation that would just be ridiculous. An NPC copy would just mean someone else was doing something rather than him doing it himself, which kind of defeated the purpose. He was ok with getting help from Era and Ira, but they were clearly helpers, completing the varied menial or time-consuming jobs he didn''t want to focus on. Another him would mean another chef in the kitchen, another general on the field. Was it possible for a duplicate to get tired of their prime and off them? That would be a particularly ignominious way to die. Et tu, me? There were a couple of other tech-based powers he was considering, but in the end they were just hard-coded facets of other, more versatile powers. It was something he''d really only noticed after listening to his teammates talk about their own powers earlier. There really seemed to be a hard separation between abilities that gave a distinct effect, like Division''s duplication and augmentation, Revenant''s enhanced strength and toughness, Shift''s speed and regeneration. And powers like North Wind''s control of air and cold, Shade''s manipulation of shadow and stone, versatile powers that were more limited by the player''s skills and imagination than some formula written into the power''s description. Justin was starting to think of it as the difference between being given power armour, and being given the tools needed to build your own. Which pretty much made his decision for him as to which kind he was going to go for. The only real decision then was what he wanted dominion over. He could go for something ubiquitous and powerful like electricity, magnetism, gravity, or light, but they all felt too simple and direct. Impressive, but having the kind of impact that he hoped to eventually be able to replicate with his crafting. He could choose something more limited, more focused. But the only one option that appealed to him there was Technopathy, and it had a similar problem as the others. Basically it was a subset of electricity and magnetism, and it would only really allow him to do things he could already do thanks to being an AI, or at least hoped he would be able to eventually. It would certainly make things simpler, allowing him to construct devices and mess with systems more quickly and easily than he could at the minute, without even having to understand what he was really doing or how he was doing it, but that didn''t really appeal to Justin He stopped as those thoughts percolated with a memory. Could a similar power explain the issues he''d been having with the government systems? It would certainly explain how the encryption seemed so simple one minute and yet tied into knots the next, how the protections were both beyond his ability to break and yet, were so incredibly inefficient in design. It would also answer some of his questions about Chompers, a piece of powerful, compact code well beyond Justin''s current abilities, which also happened to be so small and dumb as to be nigh useless against actual system intrusion. It was the kind of unfocused, destructive program that no rational coder would leave lying around unsupervised in their system. It was the coding equivalent of keeping a bucket of fire in your log cabin as a security measure. Exactly the kind of thing an inexperienced coder might create if given the power to just wish code into existance. Powerful but lacking knowledge was a good description of whoever the state had looking after their systems. Which meant that if they ever bothered to learn, they could be incredibly dangerous to Justin. He really hoped they were on the heroes'' side, but if so, what then were the chances they didn''t work for the Heroes League? Janus coughed again gently, as he''d seemed to do every few minutes while Justin dithered over making his final choice. And smiled as Justin blew him a mental raspberry. His wandering thoughts had been good for something, they''d made his decision for him on another of the powers.
Purchase New Power? Hardened Code III Type:MentalShielding Limitations:None Details:Willpower provides two and a half times the usual Mental Resiliance. Cost:9cp Confirm Yes / No Notes:Mental Resiliance is tested against attempts to mentally attack, control, or manipulate you.
He''d have to remember to mention the power to Revenant at the next OOC meeting. He knew the undead warrior was vulnerable to magical control, so a little mental fortification might be in order for him too. Getting back to his crux of his dilemma, Justin finally admitted to himself that the only reason he hadn''t already picked the best power in front of him was optimisers guilt. He''d know it would happen, had tried to limit himself and his options, but he was fairly sure that Janus was actually the devil in disguise, put here to tempt him from the true path. He''d already made his decision. He was powerless against his addiction, and since no higher power seemed ready to step in and save him from Janus'' evil, enticing grasp. He threw Janus a mock-glare, but the insidious purveyor of digital narcotics just threw him a blissfully innocent smile. Sighing at his own weakness, Justin reached out and selected Quantum Field Manipulation. Arc 1: Change is Inevitable part 6 Justin settled back into his character with something very like relief, his jaunt to the real world finally over. Accessing his camera feed, he checked everything was ok in his laboratory, and then commed Division to make sure things was ok with the team. Apparently the world had failed to end without him, so Justin settled back into his server to experiment with his new powers. He inspected his essence with mental fingers, looking for changes. There was a definite hardening at the edge of his awareness, similar to the structured code that had protected his mind from the crash, but different, closer to his own code. More organic for lack of a better term. Next he practised a little with the over-clocking, getting used to the required focus as everything around him slowed to a crawl, and the strange, doppler-like shift of the radio as it slowed and stretched into incomprehensible noise. Wait a minute, he thought, suddenly realising something he''d missed before, something he probably should have realised straight away. How did the radio sound normal while he was still running fast enough that it should be a sluggish mess? It was probably the game system, smoothing things out, playing with his perceptions, what he considered normal in the same way it had messed with his understanding of language. It was probably nothing to be concerned about, something he should just accept and not look at too closely. For once he actually listened to himself, he had other more important things to think about.
Quantum Field Manipulation III Type:Omni-Kinesis, Limited (1ftrange, Quantum Effects, Control Only) Description:Manipulate energy, waves and particles at a sub-atomic level. Details:Uses the Visualisation and Control skills to determine effect.
It was almost a type of reality warping, an incredibly, prohibitively, expensive power in its base form. But Justin hadn¡¯t wanted wide-spread god-like powers, he''d been happy to accept low-range god-like powers, and so with a few limitations, the cost had dropped to only moderately expensive. He settled in to experiment, pushing and pulling at the universe a little around him. Nothing happened. He hadn¡¯t honestly expected it to be that easy, but good experimentation has to start somewhere. He stilled his thoughts, and pulled back into his essence, shutting out the world and turning his attention inwards onto the core of his being. Once he was suitably focused, he played with ideas, mental constructs, ways to visualise the concepts he wanted to interact with. It was one of the things he''d learned listening to his teammates and the problems they''d had in the beginning.
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Meditation - Beginner Level 2[67%]. Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Visualisation - Beginner Level 2[26%]. New Skill Discovered! Controlhas been added to known skills. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Control - Beginner Level 1 [06%].
Justin admired the incredibly complex visual in front of him. It had taken him a while, but he¡¯d finally found a combination of images that seemed to work with his new connection to the world.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. He was still looking inward, inspecting his ¡®body¡¯, but it now looked nothing like it had before, more like a strange amalgamation of astrological phenomena and brain imaging. His essence a vast green-glowing nebula floating in space, energy flashing like lightening from his core, spreading through the gaseous mass as each region activated in vibrant colours before fading once more. Just beyond the shifting boundaries of his being, galaxies spun and rogue solar systems and planets flashed by, disturbing, pulling, pushing at both his own energy, and the underlying fabric of the void. The material of the entire image stretched and pulled like the surface of a rubber balloon, disturbed by the presence of everything within, every pulse, every flash of energy, every planet created waves and ripples, disturbing everything around them until they settled back into a new pattern and everything started once more. Justin had never done drugs, but he¡¯d seen enough holo-casts to know that he was tripping hard. Pulling back slightly, he considered his being with a new appreciation of the possibilities. He''d noticed early on that his essence seemed to exist alongside, but outside, the confines of his server cluster, more like a parasite latched onto a host, draining its energy, making use of its cycles as physical tools like abacuses to spur its own internal calculations, and its drives like a notebooks, somewhere to keep its conclusions but not exactly necessary for the thought process. Looking at himself now, he couldn''t help but wonder whether it would actually be possible for him to live outside of the system. He wouldn''t be very smart without system processors to underpin his thoughts, more like an animal than a complex high thinking being, but there might be a way to replicate a quantum system with his power, creating virtual spin mapping out of the ether. It would depend on whether he could come up with a design that his new power could replicate. The other thing he''d have to supply was energy, and a lot of it. You didn''t dance with the laws of physics without bringing a big gun. But then energy was the main reason he chose this power in the first place. Nearly everything he hoped to build would require massive amounts of power, both to create and run. And if there was one thing that was prevalent in the universe, it was energy. True, most of it was locked up in pesky knots of matter, but that wouldn''t be much of an issue if he could figure out how to release it safely. That kind of atom smashing could wait though, there was plenty of free energy floating around, waiting for him to put it to use. He focused on the idea of drawing a small amount of energy from the void. Trying not to visualise anything beyond the idea of the power itself, not wanting to limit things with his own ideas, curious as to what type of energy would be most reactive to his power. After a moment, he decided he had probably done something wrong, because all that happened was something began flickering in the void at the edge of his awareness, particles flickering into life, spinning in strange circles, before disappearing again. Maybe he shouldn¡¯t have focused on the void itself, he wondered, pulling back. But the dance continued, and then two of the flickering, momentary spheres of possibility collided, and they were spinning in different directions. The pulse of energy that ran through him was incredible, vibrant, and it was like being caught in a flash-flood. Justin was pretty sure it would destroy him any second if he didn¡¯t find something to do with it. He triggered his over-clocking, hoping desperately for more time to figure things out. He tried just dumping the energy into the air, and watched through his camera as a thick sphere of lightning formed inside his lab, arcing and grounding itself amidst his delicate equipment, starting fires and shattering bulbs. Justin was fairly sure the power had already blown, and the only reason his server was still active was the incidental thread of power running in reverse from Justin''s core, a minute amount compared to the quantities still pouring into his core. His mind refused to focus, watching the end of his character in mingled fear and regret. Strangely his mind wandered to that moment of joy as he''d found his initial refuge on Manticore''s system, and really, really, wished he''d never left. Justin''s consciousness flickered as the energy rushed back out of him, tearing a hole through the fabric of reality itself and depositing his essence inside Manticore''s computer, still active in the depths of his salt mine lair. Huh, he thought, as a black fog settledover him, I guess the police never did find this place.
You have been drained by an effect. Warning! Integrity less than 5%. Unconscious!
Act 1: Interlude (Shift / North Wind) SHIFT (Michael) Michael sped towards the dilapidated apartment building. The mission was a smash and grab, a single target with a handful of guards. Somewhere behind him, Shade was running the mission, and he''d sent Michael in to scout from the ground floor up. Wind would be landing on the roof any second to work from the top floor down. Division had been working with them all on overcoming their weaknesses, it was why Shade, who usually slunk around on the outskirts, had been put front and centre. Michael grinned as he avoided the front door, aiming instead for one of the grimy ground floor windows. Who''s predictable now? He thought at Division, crashing through the dirty window at full speed. Fragments of glass burst away from him in a glittering halo of light, a couple of shards clicking from his newly armoured suit and helmet. He rolled as he landed, coming up running, crossing the room in a couple of steps. It seemed empty of any sort of furnishings, but piles of old blankets, bottles, and needles littered the floor. He slowed a little as he triggered his comm. "Evidence of squatters," he whispered, before speeding up again as he exited the room. He was ten steps down the corridor, glancing into each empty room, when suddenly his right leg caught on something. He blinked as his face sped towards the floor, but if there was one thing you learned as a freerunner, and as a speedster, it was how to take a fall. He twisted and reached down with his right arm catching and pushing against the floor, using the point of contact to change attitude and momentum. His arm throbbed from the sudden violent twist of the impact, and he was lucky it hadn''t broken, but it served its purpose, turning a face plant into a single-handed cartwheel, and Michael was back on his way. "Tripwires," he whispered into the comm, now travelling a little more slowly, a little more carefully, which was exactly what their target wanted. He''d cleared the ground floor and was up on first when he spotted another tripwire ahead of him. Huffing in frustration, he easily hopped the wire, gasping as the floorboards on the other side gave way beneath him. Son of a bitch! He thought, trying to catch on or connect with something, anything he could use to alter the dynamics of his sudden downward fall. With nothing in reach, he relaxed his body, ready to absorb and distribute the impact. But the floorboards below had been cut to give way too, hardly slowing him on his fall to the basement.
NORTH WIND (Mia) Mia was clearing the top floor slowly and carefully, holding a full body ice shield in front, mind picking at the air currents, and eyes looking for heat patterns. There was no way she was going to be caught off guard like she was with that cat. The rest of the team would be entering from below after Shift had swept the ground floors, so her job was mostly that of a cork in abottle. To be honest, she wasn''t sure splitting up like this was the best way to go, but Shade liked to slink and circle around a target, and she''d decided to keep quiet. It''s not like she had had any better ideas, her plan would have been to either storm the place as a team, or to just start summoning frost until the whole building turned into an ice cube.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. She decided she couldn''t detect anything moving anywhere on the top floor, and there were no heat spots that she could detect, but she still advanced with caution, checking and clearing each room as she passed. Their target was tricky and knew way too much about them for her to relax completely. She opened the second to last door, ready to finish up and move down to the next level. The room was empty of anything but an old metal locker, cold and lifeless to her vision. She moved onto the next room, carefully opening the door. She ducked behind her shield as a shotgun blast went off, a spread of pellets impacting the ice butbarely penetrating even the soft outer structure. She quickly spread her awareness forward, how had she missed someone? Andfrowned in annoyance as she detected nothing. She snuck a peek past her shield as no new shots rang out, and saw a shotgun braced on a chair, a fine wire looped though a small pulley attached to the door. Godammit, she thought relaxing slightly. Setting up that kind of trap was dangerous, even if it had been a bit of a dud. A cloud of white smoke was billowing from the shotgun, suggesting that the cartridge had probably been badly packed. She frowned again as she considered the chances of this target setting up a dangerous trap with such carelessness, and her nose itched a little as the smoke finally reached her. She was about to summon some wind to blow it away, when she recognised thesmell ofsalt. Oh shit, she thought, realising that this was a trap set specifically for her. She quickly grasped all of the diffuse sodium with her power, compacting it into a small solid white ball, and only breathing a little easier once she''d jettisoned it out the window. She startled as a crack rang out, but it wasn''t another shotgun, it had come from her shield. She watched in fascination as cracks began to form, fracture lines running from the small pellets as they began to fizz and burn. He''d made the damn pellets from sodium she thought in frustration, letting her shield collapse before it had a chance to completely fall apart. She blew the shards away, and had just began reforming itwhen she heard a quiet cough behind her. A cloaked figure stood in the doorway, mist rising around him as the last of the dry ice he''d been using to hide from her heat senses dispersed into the air. She couldn''t see much of his skin, but what she could see was dry and chapped, the dark mocha turning black in places where the freezer burn was worst. Before she could do anything, he raised his foot up to her reforming shield, and leaning forward, he kicked out with super-human strength, launching her back across the room and out through the window.
SHIFT (Michael) The fall had taken the wind out of Michael, and he''d lain in the foot of water that broke his fall, waiting for his ribs to re-knit and his diaphragm to stop spasming. But then he heard a slosh as something moved in the room, and realised he didn''t have time to feel sorry for himself. He staggered up to his feet, dripping water and grasping in air as his lungs finally started working again. The basement around him was dark, flooded, and a cloaked figure stood across from him, having moved to stand between Michael and the stairs up. "I didn''t even realise this place had a basement." Michael said, playing for time so his ribs could finish healing. "Should have done your homework." The figure replied, pushing back his cloak to reveal a taser rod held in his right hand. Michael grinned and drew his own baton. Anyone who thought a little bit of water would slow him down had a surprise coming his way. But rather than assuming a fighting stance, the figure simply held it out to the side, away from his body. "I''ve been meaning to ask," the mansaid, "What happens when you get tased? It can''t be much fun with all those fast twitch muscles." Michael kept his grin, despite remembering the pain of the last time he''d caught a taser in sparring. He was pretty sure he''d kept his reaction from the others then, and tried hard to hide his memory of it now. "Why don''t we see if you''re fast enough to find out, old man." He prodded, deciding it was time to get down to things. But the figure shook his head sadly. "You''re standing in water, Shift" he said almost kindly. "I don''t need to hit you." Michael looked down at his feet. The Division clone took shook his head again, this time in exasperation, and taking advantage of Shift''s distraction, tossed a stun grenade forward with his other hand. Act 1: Interlude (Revenant / Oscen) REVENANT (Reece) Reece decided he was pretty happy with the role of pawn in today''s challenge. Division and Shade both seemed way too intense about winning, probably because Division had put steaks on today''s success, as in actual steaks. Either Division would be buying dinner for the team, or the team would be buying for all of him. Since he didn''t need to eat and couldn''t taste anything when he did, Reece was pretty ambivalent as far as winning today''s bet was concerned, unfortunately he was also flat broke, which meant he really couldn''t afford to lose. Besides, given how much time Division had invested in their training, it seemed churlish to let him win. He was currently standing outside the abandoned apartment building with Shade, waiting for their two scouts to report back on what they were facing. He was a little surprised then to see North Wind come crashing through an upper floor window, limbs flailing. She usually managed to get airborne with a lot more grace. Managing to get control of her fall, she swooped down, landing gently next to Reece, turning to glare up at the building. "The bastard''s cheating again." She muttered, avoiding eye contact. Shade sighed next to them, "Joder! Fine, hard way it is. Ice Queen, Rev, you''re with me, Oscen you''re overwatch." He said the last up into the air, and Reece glanced up to find Oscen looking down on them from anadjacent building, in a window about ten floors up, he could just make out her crossbow resting on the ledge in front of her. She gave Shade a mocking salute before returning to keeping a watch on Division''s tower of pain, the last thing they needed was for him to sneak out of the box in which he was at least theoretically contained. "Shift, pull back, meet us at the main entrance," Shade continued over his comm, putting a hand to his ear and frowning as the young hero failed to answer. "Shift?" he tried again. They shared a glance before all moving off towards the building.
OSCEN (Chloe) Chloe was a little bit frustrated at being left on watch, she knew she should have said something, made an argument for being included, but she''d always been shy, reticent about putting herself forward. It was why she''d just walked away when the League decided to boot her, and why she''d spent a week moping around the game feeling sorry for herself rather than striking out on her own or finding more cast-offs to team up with. She wished she was a little more like Naiad, the nymph at least knew what she wanted and didn''t let people push her around. Red, had tried to make Naiad into something she wasn''t, and when that failed, to sideline her, and rather than letting him get away with it, she''d happily thumbed her nose at him and the League, and joined up with his competition. She broke away from her daydreaming as she realised things in the other building had been quiet for way too long. "Shade? Revenant?" She whispered into the comm. " Anyone?" Not good, she thought as her team failed to answer, wondering what she was supposed to do now. Step up, that''s what. She pulled a mono-filament grapple from her waist, attached it to the window and leapt out, running down the outside of the building as the line spooled out behind her. It was one of the many pieces of League equipment she''d ''accidentally'' forgotten to return when they''d kicked her out. Artisan had asked to borrow them after the OOC meeting, but had been absent for the last few days, probably building a doomsday laser.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
Successful Skill Use +8 xp to Acrobatics - NoviceLevel 1 [24%].
Landing lightly on the ground, she triggered the release and ran quietly forward. She''d found what looked like the site of a battle, the dilapidated room bearing even more rents and tears than the rest of the building. There were also a few splashes of blood and melting icicles punched through the walls. In the middle of the room there was a chalk circle, Revenant stood calmly in the centre, and an unconscious clone lay just outside. She doubted Division had been studying magic, which meant he must have gotten Naiad to help him. Where''s the loyalty? She thought at her absent friend. Deciding it was better to move on rather than mess with magic strong enough to lock up the undead knight, she turned to carry on her exploration of the building. Something alerted her to danger just in time, a slight peak of adrenalin in the air, a change in breathing, a small skip in heartbeat.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Awareness- NoviceLevel 1[15%]. +6 xp to skill group Perception- BeginnerLevel 9[54%]
She dropped to the floor as a shotgun fired behind her, the wall where she''d been stood cracking from the impact of a pacification round. Her ears screaming at her, she rolled to the side, another round impacting the floor as she lined up her crossbow on the clone now leaning up inside the room. She wasn''t sure how he''d hidden a shotgun from her, or how he''d feigned unconsciousness well enough to fool even her senses, but none of that mattered as her vision focused in on a thin section of his costume. She pulled the trigger, already rolling clear of the doorway as he turned his gun on her for another shot. She tried to listen through the aching of her ears, and heard his heartbeat stutter as the paralytic on the bolt took effect, followed by the thump and clatter of him falling to the floor a few moments later. She was still cautious though, Wind had warned her not to trust anything the man did, at least not while fighting him anyway. Stealing a glance through the doorway, she checked that the clone was really down before hurrying in and kicking away the shotgun. Only the clone''s eyes moved, tracking her as she glanced around and reloaded her crossbow. She focused her gaze on him. "You should come and get me," she said nonchalantly. "Get the whole thing wrapped up." After 30 seconds, she heard something moving quietly down the corridor, and shifted to put the frozen Revenant between herself and the doorway. As she did, she noticed the skeleton shift slightly inside his circle. So not actually frozen then, did that mean he might be able to hear her? She turned to the doorway as she heard a quiet step outside, before turning quickly away again as a flashbang flew into the room. Shit, shit; shit, shit, shit. Her eyes burned from the blast of light, her ears throbbed from the concussive blast. She desperately fired a bolt at where she thought the doorway was, hoping to surprise him as he entered the room, but remembered the watchful clone too late. A second later, something impacted into her, knocking her to the ground and plucking away her crossbow. As her senses came back, still muffled and painful, she looked up to find Division standing over her. "And that makes five," he said, grinning down at her. From the smell, this was Division prime. It was nothing obvious that set him apart from his clones, but little things he did only as himself, such as visiting a coffee shop, left minute traces that he carried with him, and the fact that he was here himself meant her suggestion had probably reached him through his clone. Unless the others had managed to take out his reinforcements before going down. "You should get some rest." She said without much hope of it working. Her voice was closer to hypnotism than mind control, the suggestion had to be reasonable for it to work, and the closer it was to something the person already wanted to do, the more powerful it was. "Can''t hear you." Division said, louder than necessary. "Earplugs," he explained, waving vaguely at his ears with one of her bolts, obviously snatched when he took her down. She glanced over at his clone, but its eyes were now vacant. Apparently he could shut down the connection, which is probably how he''d faked being unconscious. No back avenue there then. As she turned back towards Division, wonderig why he was just standing there rather than finishing her off, her neck muscles protested as her body began to lock up. She blinked as she finally felt the small scratch on the back of her hand and realised what it meant. No choice than, she thought, putting everything she had left into making her jaw work for a moment longer. "Help me," She said, forcing the appeal out with every ounce of resonance she could muster. "Can''t hear you." Division said again, this time in a sing-song voice. She felt the last of her muscles turn rigid, her face freezing. Which was a shame because she really wanted to grin as she saw something move behind him. "She was talking to me." Revenant said, placing a hand on Division''s shoulder. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 1 It had been a while since Justin had woken up in the game wondering where he was, and he wasn''t thrilled to be returning to old habits. Or old habitats, he thought, looking around the mad scientist''s lab. It looked like no one had been here since he left a couple of weeks ago, which would explain why the massive diesel generators were chugging near empty. He was definitely going to need some help. He tried to connect to Manticore''s laptop, the only equipment in the lab with internet access, and found it unresponsive. Checking the feeds, he found out why. Manticore had left it unplugged when he went off to attack the conference. I really hate that man, he thought looking around at what was likely to become his tomb. Deciding he was being pessimistic, he cut power throughout the rest of the lab. Given his current usage, which had peaked with his arrival, it looked like he had a couple of hours to figure out his power problem, hopefully without making any mistakes that would destroy this lab too. No problem! He thought dryly. He needed to find a smaller, safer source of energy to practice with than whatever it was he''d accessed last time. Luckily he was in a hot underground lab, and now he''d turned off the AC it was getting even hotter. It took him nearly an hour to figure out how to draw energy from the heated air around the server, mostly because he had to pause each time he absorbed the ambient heat, waiting for air currents and the system temperature to reheat the air before stripping it once more. He could have attempted to extract it directly from the server''s heatsinks, but he was worried about messing up and slagging the whole system. It wasn''t anywhere near enough energy to replace the power the server was using, but he had to start somewhere, and he figured a little cold air wouldn''t hurt anything. Which was why he was a little concerned when he noticed something a little off in the lab. Frost had begun forming throughout the room twenty minutes ago, and now a slight luminescent mist was visible hugging the ground. He tried to focus on it through the frost-covered camera, getting a better look at the glowing yellow mist.
Successful Skill Use +12 xp to Chemistry - Novice Level 2 [18%]. +6 xp to skill group Science - Novice Level 3 [68%]
Radon, he thought, it was a highly radioactive gas, completely invisible until the temperature dropped low enough. He''d learned about the Antrim shale under Michigan while studying the local region, and it was possible the shale was producing the gas, diffusing it through the stone from a nearby section. It was good news for Justin, not so much for Manticore if he''d spent a lot of time down here breathing it in. Or maybe it would give him powers, who knew in this world. Either way, if he lived, he would have to remember to warn the local environmental authorities. They definitely didn''t want radon in the local drinking water. He focused his attention down into the mist below the server, stretching his essence, reaching for the dense gas below. A slight adaptation of his heat absorption technique, and energy poured forth, nothing like the first time he''d tried back at his lab, but substantial all the same. More than enough to keep the server running until he figured a way out of here anyway.
Successful Skill Use +14xp to Control - Beginner Level 7[89%]. Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Design - Novice Level 2 [39%]. +5 xp to skill group Engineering - Novice Level 2[63%]. Successful Skill Use +6 xp to Crafting - Novice Level 2 [24%]. +3 xp to skill groupEngineering- Novice Level2[63%].
It had taken him more than two Kip days of subatomic engineering to come up with a workable quantum bit processor formed only from a hodgepodge of energy fields, phase constructs and particulate matter. When he''d learned about them in school, Quantum Computers had seemed so simple, but when you were working with waves and triggered particle reactions, it was a bit like building tower out of pool balls using only a cue and an electric fan. Not for the first time in the game, he was seriously regretting his need to always choose the hard road. Was it a personality defect? Did he enjoy being the universe''s bitch?This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The original Omni-Kinesis from which his Quantum powers had been derived, had been a ridiculous 30 cp a rank, which looking back he supposed was totally fair, since it allowed the player to manifest and manipulate all types of matter and energy in a 10ft radius per level. If you were willing to start out with completely average stats, you could have a couple of ranks and be a near god. Justin could have at least had a rank of it and been able to get himself out of this predicament in less than a minute. But the rank of a power did more than just determine range. In matters of skill things would always come down to a characters Control, but if you were talking pure power, the rank 3 would always beat out the rank 2, who would always beat the rank 1. Specialisation was an important consideration in the power hierarchy, and Justin hadn''t wanted someone overriding his energy creation at a crucial moment. Besides, ranks also determined the scope of the effects you could create, the heat of the flame, the strength of the lightning, the complexity of the atomic structure, and Justin had wanted access to as much energy as he could get his greedy little hands on. Limiting the power to subatomic effects had taken off 8 points from the cost, the range reduction another 6, he only wanted to use it for energy production and crafting after all, he didn''t need to be able to reach across a building. At 14 points, he would have struggled to buy two ranks, with a third far on the horizon. But making it Control only had dropped it to 8 cp per rank, and he''d jumped at the opportunity. Rank 3 off the bat with rank 4 in only a few levels. Anyway, why would he need to create actual energy or particles when they were all around, waiting to be tapped and manipulated. Idiot, he thought at his old naive self of yesterday. He still didn''t totally regret the decision. In theory, having 3 ranks allowed him a greater sensitivity and made it so his effects were more stable, and if he could actually accomplish what he hoped to, he might look back on this as the impetus he''d needed to evolve his character into something greater. He reviewed his progress, the grand achievement of a marathon of nanoscopicengineering. He''d first had to work out how to trigger, then contain photons, partitioning them in a tiny null energy field. Next he''d worked on polarisation mechanisms, and ways to entangle them together into a superpositional map. He''d had to create a dielectric fieldthat would protect the qubits from outside contamination without interfering with the particles themselves. Finally he''d had a single, incredibly tiny, relatively weak processor that was taking most of his concentration to keep together, and he figured he would onlyneed a couple of hundred of them to function, and that at an incredibly reduced rate. Maybe it was time to go back to plan A, he thought. Plan A involved learning how to adapt electro-magnetic fields enough to produce a radiowave. But all the reasons he''d given up and moved on to plan B where still just as valid. There were still a few hundred feet of dirt and stone above him interfering and blocking any signal he produced. He would still need to mimic a signal he couldn''t detect at the moment and had never observed with his power, and the complexity of burying data in that signal so that it was only detected by the people it was meant for, all with no way to get feedback on his attempts, meant that Plan A was still a no-go. He''d much rather be able to see his mistakes and judge the hurdles than throw messages into the sea and hoping the bottle didn''t leak. Plan C would involve trying to access enough energy to reproduce the quantum tunnel that had brought him here. Unfortunately, he didn''t know how he''d managed it in the first place, and there was the small consideration that it had nearly killed him. Plus, were would he go? He would be lucky if his lab system was just offline and not destroyed, in fact he''d be lucky if his lab was still standing, there had been some highly reactive chemicals in there. He paused to consider it for the moment. He''d been working under the impression that Era and Ira would be ok, the secondary server they were on was in a different room to the main cluster, and further away from the lab itself. Now he wondered whether he''d lost his two little work mates, the only link to his character''s origins. It was a strangely distressing thought, a bit like the idea of losing a pet in a house fire. Which wasn''t the most complementary thing to think now that he actually considering it. He resolved to work on off-site escape routes for them all as soon as he got back to the surface. Anyway, it was time for the first attempt at creating multiple processors and linking them together, after which he would try transferring himself into a product of his own imagination. As a player in a VR, he was not immune to the symbolism. He''d already experimented a little, and it looked like getting his essence to work with the jury-rigged, subatomic, half-phased system was going to be the easy part, the energy matrix that made up his essence was supremely adaptable, and its base resource algorithm was incredibly complex, able to harvest whatever computational resources it could get it''s wispy tendrils on. The real problem would be concentrating on maintaining the complex architecture while in motion, while also absorbing enough power to keep his essence functional. If he was successful he would no longer be limited to a physical server, he could wander the world, a digital wraith made manifest. Or he could become distracted and end up a shrivelled, starved creature, living off the heat in the depths of the earth, too stupid to come out into the light. What were the chances of him becoming that distracted, though? Yeah, he was definitely screwed. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 2 Justin felt like a geriatric old man as he considered the vast divide of the lab a day later. Who knew that navigating a single room could seem like crossing an ocean. He''d tried compressing himself down to make it easier for the virtual processors to carry the load, but in the end he''d decided it was safer to take the time to create and maintain a larger, more complex node, than try to cheap out, stumble half way to the laptop and forget what he was doing. The energy absorption had become almost rote to maintain, especially in comparison to the complex system, and moving the virtual cluster turned out to be much easier than maintaining it, a small wave in the quantum fabric, and he drifted across the room like a balloon on a breeze. A consistent electromagnetic pulse created a low-tech radar, letting him map distances and even get a ''taste'' of the reflecting material. It was a little imprecise at the moment, but it might be very useful in the future, and it was certainly enough to get him across the room.
When he finally arrived at the laptop, he was wrung out from tension. A few photons had slipped his control a third of the way across the room, and it had felt like he was suddenly five drinks in on tequila Tuesday. Fixing the visualization while the world spun and wobbled around him had been something of a challenge, and by the time he''d finished, he realised he''d drifted off course and was heading in completely the wrong direction. A slow u-turn was easier than trying to reverse direction, but he''d almost ended up in a table, and he had no idea what that would have done to him. Arriving at the laptop was like graspingthe golden statue at the end of a great adventure in an underground forgetten temple. He just wished it actually had been a grand adventure rather than a hair-raising passage of about fifteen feet. He stretched his essence and dropped some of his power into the battery, played a few electrons over a connection and watched in near euphoria as the system began to boot. A couple of beeps later, he was reminded of wiping the laptop on fleeing the cave for the first time. Shit, shit, shit. He thought desperately as his brain began to throb.I hate this cave, I hate Manticore and I especially hate old me! It took him a few minutes to mess with the laptop''s boot cycle enough for it to power up the wireless card without needing to go through its non-existent operating system. In the process, he''d had to put ontrol of the virtual server into the back of his mind with the power draw, and he noticed that it actually became easier to keep running the longer it was there, just like the power draw had.Didhis power just need a structure for his intent? He honestly didn''t know how to feel about what might have been a lot of wasted time and worry in the harrowing crossing of the room, but decided just to accept it as a gift for now. Besides his Control skill had skyrocketed throughout all his practice and experimentation and his Science and Engineering had risen at a nice consistant level as he''d formulated the virtual node. He considered compressing himself and riding the wireless signal back to the server, but decided that making his way back himself was actually now a more comfortable prospect. Once there he could remotely mess with the laptop, get the internet connection working, and radio in some help.
"This place is kind of cool." Shift said, snooping around Manticore''s lab, his voice muffled behind a radiation suit supplied by Division. "It also hasn''t been cleared of threats." A Division clone said from his own suit, keeping his shotgun handy and eyeing some of the strange equipment, wincing behind the foggy visor as Shift pushed buttons and messed with things that should not be messed with. Justin agreed with him, you really shouldn''t go around touching things in a mad scientist''s lab, or any lab for that matter. Why Division had had multiple radiation suits wasn''t a question Justin was willing to ask right now. Maybe he''d raided a military supply depo at some point? It would certainly explain all the hardware he seemed to have stored somewhere. Right now, he was just glad they''d responded so quickly to his SOS.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. With Justin as a guide and Shift to put in the legwork, it hadn''t taken them long to find the hidden access tunnel down to Manticore''s cave. Unfortunately it had turned out to be through the sewer system, which hadn''t pleased Shift at all. They''d bought some diesel to get the generators up and running, and plugged in the laptop, letting Justin relax as the man-made tech took over keeping the place active and conected. Shift''s next stop was to check on Justin''s lab, to see how bad the damage was. He''d asked Shift since he already knew about his other identity, it wasn''t that he didn''t especiallywant the others knowing where he lived, it just seemed like a silly risk to take when he didn''t have to. He also hadn''t told them everything about his new powers, Somnus was messing with his ability to think of the agreement with Imagitech, and without the explanation for the upgraded package, it just made him sound like one of the spoiled rich kids who bought their way to the top of the game. So he''d fobbed them off with spending his level-up points and screwing himself when he went to experiment. He felt a little guilty about keeping things from them, but he supposed none of them really shared all the details of their in-game life with each other. Justin reminded Shift that he was going to check out his lab, but the speedster seemed reluctant to go, apparently happier walking around a crazy man''s mutant factory amidst an invisible cloud of radiation, than in having to go back up through the sewers. "I saw things up there, man." he muttered in explanation. While waiting for Shift to report back, Division let Justin know that he''d be baby-sitting incase Manticore returned, and spent the time bringing him up to date on the team. They''d managed to find and put down a couple more of the Jackal''s drug labs, but had gotten no closer to finding more information on the formula, and had found nothing on the location of the Jackal''s top dogs or their pet scientist. Given the quantities they must be producing, Division was starting to worry that they were putting together an army of shifters, and that the other day''s encounter with the lizard bomber had been something of a test for their creations. He also spent some time talking about the training he''d arranged for tomorrow, including the bet he''d used to push them into bringing their A game. Apparently he''d been having them take turns leading the team, hoping to push them into thinking more tactically, he''d also been pushing them to consider their own and other''s weaknesses, how to interfere with powers and protect their own. It seemed it hadn''t been going all that well because he''d decided to shake things up a bit. The rest of him were apparently at the dilapidated apartment now, setting up, and he''d convinced Naiad to go with him to chalk up a ritual containment circle. She''d been working on the idea ever since she''d joined the team, and it was supposed to be an option for locking down villains for later collection. It wasn''t totally clear whether he''d told Naiad about the circumstances of tomorrow''s ''experiment'', but Justin wouldn''t rat him out. He just wished he could get a front row seat.
In the end there had been surprisingly little damage to his lab. Other than blowing the building''s fuse box and melting some of the wiring, there seemed to have been very little damage to the actual servers or equipment. That didn''t mesh with Justin''s memory of the giant ball of lightning, but maybe he''d drained the mass of energy to make his jump out of there? He''d have to run some remote checks on the server before heading back, and then he could have a look at things himself. It took most of the day for Shift to get the power back on, and he had to skip out for the day''s training and the celebratory after-meal. The Division clone had stuck with Justin, apparently more serious about the baby-sitting than Justin had realised. Shift had to bring in an electrician to get things finished off properly, his abilities with wire cutters and screw-drivers only went so far. Justin had himsurreptitiously hold up his phone while the electrician was working so he could monitor him closely and make sure he didn''t touch anything important. He just wished he''d managed to come up with a good enough excuse for Shift to record himself while he''d been there earlier, who knows what the curious young hero touched while snooping around. He supposed it was a silly thing to worry about after he''d nearly managed to destroy the whole building, but still. During the break for training, he''d had the Division clone give him a running commentary on the team''s assault, using the opportunity to talk over the ways they could shore up the team''s weaknesses, either with training or equipment. Some sort of electrical shielding could be worked into Shift''s armour pretty easily, and he could see some possibilities he should talk over with Wind, water wasn''t the only thing that could be frozen after all, and she might not have considered pushing her power in the right direction. Some sort of reactive eye and ear protection would probably help the whole team, but especially Oscen. And he might even be able to develop a modulator for her to use to nullify her suggestion powers when she wanted them turned off. Division would have to talk to Naiad about protecting Revenant from magic, and the rest was probably just down to over-coming bad habits, practicing good behaviours and covering each other''s backs. He seemed inordinately pleased to have been beaten. Justin would bet a large sum of money that he sulked all the way through dinner though. Thinking about the team, he really hoped they had the time to get things ironed out before an army of shifting Jackals decided to bite them in the ass. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 3 Once Shift confirmed that Justin''s systems were up and stable, Justin dialled in a little nervously to check on Era and Ira. And was both relieved and frustrated to find that they were absolutely fine, except that Era was distressed at all the lost time Justin had cost her from her various projects, and Ira was grumpy about the mess. It was nice to be such a loved and respected boss. Most of his equipment had also survived just fine. Some would need a little tinkering to get them working right, but there was no lasting damage. That wasn''t the case with the nanite factory which somehow seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. At this point it had cost him so much frustration that he wasn''t even surprised. He checked over his server for issues, and only a couple of processors had been burned out, and the rest seemed to be ticking over just fine. All in all, his little accident could have been much, much worse, and he was considering making the transfer back when he considered the issue of Manticore''s lab. A greedy little corner of his mind had been eyeing all the rare, expensive equipment ever since discovering that the police had never found the underground lair. It was all just sitting there, unused. Should he spin a tale to Division about needing to replace damaged equipment? He''d certainly kept stuff from the man in the past, but he''d never actually lied to him. At least not that he could remember. If he didn''t lie, could he convince Division that there was valuable information to be obtained from the systems? In fact, he probably should pass on the files he''d already appropriated. Would Division want to turn it all over to the authorities? Justin really wished he was better at reading people. He needn''t have worried. Apparently Division was still on his ''see no evil'' kick, and his clone cleared out with a wave as soon as Justin confirmed that his home system was back up and running. Score one for honesty, now he just needed to find some warm (and possibly un-warm) bodies to move his loot out of here. Shade was a no-brainer, and Shift didn''t ask too many questions, agreeing to lend a hand at his usual hourly rate, as long as he didn¡¯t have to spend much time in the sewers. But it was Revenant that Justin really wanted. Strong, tireless and immune to the radiation, the guy would be worth his weight in purloined electronics. However, Justin was concerned about the knight''s Code of Honour, a complication Revenant had mentioned in passing at the OOC meeting. He realised he really hadn''t talked to his teammates very much, all his information on them came from spying and system searches. It was a little tricky trying to get details, but Revenant seemed happy to discuss ''his'' history. Apparently his character was an actual knight from the middle ages, brutal, merciless, cursed, punished, raised, redemption, rebirth. Justin was only half listening. But the crux seemed to be that Revenant''s honour was based on the ''high'' ideals held during his own time. Basically those of on actual medieval knight entirely separate to the Arthurian romances. It could be pretty much defined by word of honour, valour in battle, and fair looting of enemies. Looting, it seemed, was both expected and encouraged, something near and dear to the hearts of knights and, Justin was aware, gamers. It seemed Revenant was happy to help Justin clear the site of his conquest. So, with his band of miscreants assembled, Justin fetched his phantom drone, and decided to check his character sheet while waiting for darkness to fall.
Codename Artisan
Designation Ketican Interstellar Probe VDCI Also Known As Kip Weyland
Species Artificial Intelligence Archetype Inventor
Origin Synthetic Wealth $122,310
Level 5[10%] Integrity 300 / 300
Recovery Rate 0.25 per minute
Strength - Intelligence 63
Agility - Acuity 40
Fortitude - Willpower 25
Mental Resilience 62% (25%)
Stamina - Focus 151 / 151
Recovery Rate - Recovery Rate 0.25 per second
Powers Talents Complications
Hardened Code III Inventor Amorphous
Over-Clocking II Machine Traits Outsider
Quantum Field Manipulation III Outsider''s Perspective Partial Amnesia
Skill Rank Skill Rank
Awareness Beginner 9 [44%]
Control Beginner8[19%]
Meditation Beginner 6 [19%] [Engineering] Novice2
Persuasion Beginner 2 [41%] - Design Novice 2 [56%]
Remote Piloting Beginner 6 [37%] - Crafting Novice 2 [34%]
Stealth Beginner 2 [24%] - Maintenance Novice1[40%]
Subterfuge Beginner 4 [79%] - Repair Novice1[42%]
Visualisation Beginner 4 [16%]
[Science] Novice3
[Coder] Novice3 - Biology Novice1[39%]
- Coding Novice 2 [08%] - Chemistry Novice 2 [26%]
- Decipher Novice 1 [84%] - Materials Novice 2 [49%]
-Encryption Beginner 7 [12%] - Mathematics Novice 2 [24%]
-Hacking Novice1 [36%] - Physics Novice 2 [55%]
You have chosen to minimise five Skill Groups. Please see individual Skill Group for more information.
[Behaviour- 4 skills] Novice 1 [Inquiry- 4 skills] Novice 2
[Culture- 4 skills] Novice 1 [World Affairs- 4 skills] Novice 2
[Enterprise - 4 skills] Novice 1
The biggest addition was obviously the powers, but there was also the new Control skill, which seemed way too important to be lost amongst the other un-grouped skills. He played around with things a little, and got Control, Meditation,and Visualisation to join up under a user made group, they wouldn''t share xp with each other, but he thought it looked neater. He went through some of the other skills seeing what he could square away, by which point enough time had passed that it was time to focus on robbing Manticore blind for a second time.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. When his super-powered minions carried up the first load, overseen by a nervously hovering Justin, they were all a little surprised to see Division and his clones waiting in the shadows at the back of their van. With a smirk, his people began lifting the goods into the back as the others watched him uncertainly. Now Justin was even more confused. When Division pointed out that the van was actually the new team van, he swivelled his camera to stare at Shade, who appeared a little embarrassed. As he should, he''d have to do better than using the work van if people were going to buy him as a former thief, though to be fair, the only reason Justin knew that about him was because his character had been caught and had a record. Perhaps he was playing a bad former thief. Anyway, if this was the new team van, Justin was going to need to do some work on it, there was no armouring, and the suspension bowed worryingly when Revenant stepped inside. He would also bet his lab that the number-plate they were showing was its actual number-plate, taggable, traceable, and linked to their team by reams of paperwork. Which left only Division''s presence and apparent willingness to lend a hand. "Let''s just say I''ve decided to break a little bad." Division replied to Justin''s awkward prompting. He said it like it was a reference to something, and seemed pretty disgruntled when they all just stared at him in confusion, turning away and muttering about classics. Justin had arranged for a cash only, late-night storage lot to drop off all the equipment since he still didn''t want more people knowing where his lab was. The other reason was that he needed to check it all over for tracers. It wasn''t just that Manticore might have put one on his own stuff (Justin certainly did), he was aware that Shade and Division had been handling things, and you never knew with those two. He''d decided that the new server was eventually going to go underground somewhere well outside the city, that way it would function as a bolt hole in case of further accidents or incidents at the lab, and would also provide a place to practice his new powers without the risk of opening a black hole in the middle of a residential block, which he didn''t think was an actually possibility, but it appeared that things could get quickly out of hand while messing with primordial building blocks. He''d also decided to move Era to the team base at the Underground where she would be safe from lab accidents, and would be able to provide the team with system security, threat analysis and information retrieval. He figured it was a good idea to pay the guys back for their time before getting caught back up in his own projects. So while he was remotely supervising the midnight heist, he''d also gotten to work on adding the curved, flick-out glaive to Revenant''s staff, and started creating some new armour based off Shift''s design. It was fairly easy to jump back and forth, splitting his attention between the two fairly mundane projects, occasionally looking in on the team. And once he was happy that the guys were being careful, he pretty much left them to it, especially when he found them singing along to something about hungry wolves. He wondered what had happened on that team night out, a little jealous at their camaraderie, though if it was karaoke, he was probably fine with having missed it. Now that Justin didn''t need to worry about the cost of running the arc-furnace, he had plans to make Revenant''s new armour out of full tank-gauge steel plate. With a silver-wash, a full-face helm and a vibrant blue cloak, the armour was going to shout paladin way more than Death Knight, which is perhaps why Revenant liked it so much. Justin was the last person to say anything about species choice, but the undead warrior must be getting a little tired of scaring children and old ladies by now. He was hardening a layer of steel, while considering a way to route a conductive thread through Shift''s costume when Era interrupted him. Apparently there had been a lot of chatter about the Bricktown Jackals going on a recruitment drive, and about the second escape from custody of one Black Dragon, mistress of the dead, along with her partner, Ku the Destroyer. Apparently the authorities had been keeping it under wraps since there was evidence of inside collusion. Justin hadn''t honestly considered that he would miss the peace of Manticore''s underground lair, but for a brief moment, he really, really did. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 4 In a way, Justin wasn''t all that surprised. It wouldn''t be much fun for the villains if the prison system wasn''t a little bit porous. Justin had never considered playing a villain, but he was aware there were whole quest-lines related to running and escaping prisons, and the worst supervillains would find themselves ''blanked'' or ''spun'' eventually. The choice between a mind-wipe death or being exiled to the death-world dimension would be an easy decision for Justin, bring in the brain-scrubber, time to start over. There hadn''t been much in the promos about the alternate earth which was affectionately titled the Justice Zone, but what there was sounded horrifying to Justin, and he was just gratefulthat the only super powerful enough to reach it was an NPC named Vortex that worked for the government. Populated and run by the worst of the worst, it sounded like a post apocalyptic free-for-all, wilderness, guns, superpowers and monsters. Justin was just glad that he''d never see the place, and that escape was a near impossibility. Which now that he thought it, sounded a little like tempting fate. The other consideration in Ku and Dragon''s escape was that they were obviously still receiving help from the outside, and until the team managed to pull the whole mess up by the roots, or at the least cut off the head, Justin was sure the Michigan prison system would continue to prove about as water-tight as an old bucket. Dropping into the Underground, he found one of Division''s clones with his feet up on the table, reading a book. Given the time, Justin had intended to just leave a message for when the team arrived, but he supposed it made sense for Division to sleep his clones in shifts. The only question was whether Division himself could stay conscious while his prime was sleeping, and what happened to the clones while he was unconscious. Justin was about to start asking questions when he remembered why he was there. He really was getting much better at avoiding distractions. Quite pleased with his progress, Justin spent a moment wondering if it was the meditation or control training that had helped. Maybe he could run some sort of test to see which had a greater impact on focus, but you couldn''t run that kind of study with only one person, you''d need to have multiple people trying multiple combinations. "Did you want something?" Division asked, breaking into Justin''s thoughts. He was sure there was amusement on the older man''s face and he wondered how long he''d been congratulating himself on his new focus. He mentally sighed at his well-known and long standing inability to concentrate. His mother had always said that the only way to stop him trying to thinkabout three things at once, was to put a puzzle in front of him. Justin remembered that she''d always blamed it on his gaming habits as a child, and he honestly wasn''t sure if the expanded resources available as Kip were making things better or worse. "Ku and Dragon are once again free from incarceration." He informed Division, getting straight to the point. He wasn''t sure what response he''d expected, but a delighted grin certainly wasn''t it. "Ku and Dragon. Supervillains." He expounded, in case Division was having a senior moment. Did you get senior moments in your forties? Division''s grin widened further. "I know, it was bound to happen. Ever since we got the info on Rasidae''s warehouse, I''ve had the feeling that something was rottenin the state of Detroit, his being present for the bombing just confirmed that something was going on." "Does not explain happiness." Justin prompted. Ignoring the strange reference to Detroit as a state. "Ah, that''s because you don''t know that I had a tracker placed on Ku." Division said, his grin turning a little evil.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "What? How?" Justin sputtered slightly, a little surprised that he actually could sputter. Super detention was highly regulated, with incredibly stringent checks on everything moving in and out of the facility. It would be no fun escaping if it wasn''t a challenge after all. Justin hadn''t really investigated, but he had absolutley no clue how he''d even go about gettin in, let alone back out. "Shade introduced me to some friends," Division said, and for a moment he seemed slightly embarrassed. "Same friends as past?" Justin asked, wondering if they were referring to the same friends that helped out in their initial ambush of Ku and Dragon. Division nodded with a strange smile. "Sorry, they''re Shade''s contacts, I really can''t tell you any more." If he wanted details, which let''s face it he did, it looked like Justin was going to have to up his surveillance on Shade and maybe Division too. He paused for a moment to consider if it was strange that that was his first thought rather than just asking SHade for more information. Probably, but he was ok with it. "How to activate tracer?" He asked, getting back to the point. "Ah, it''s not exactly what you''d call technical." Divisionsaid, looking embarrassed again. "It kind of requires triangulation using specialist hardware." He lifted the book as if he was suddenly desperate to continue reading. "Hardware?" Justin pressed, not letting him escape that easily. Division sighed and dropped his book back onto the table. "Dowsing rods." He said. "The tracer was magical." He still seemed embarrassed, as if he''d been caught photographingfairies, but in the game world magic was just another type of science, a system of cause and effect. Justin had even considered asking Naiad for some pointers, it would be interesting to see if magic was a measurable phenomena. "So," Division said, rising quickly to his feet. "I should really get on that." Justin watched him leave. He''d seemed fine around Naiad, but maybe Division had some issues with magic?
By the time morning arrived, Justin had settled on a design for incorporating aluminium composite throughout Shift''s armour, plugged in to a storage capacitor in the small of his back which should work to siphon a charge away from his body. If something managed to get through the suit entirely then Shift was on his own. Justin had spent way too long investigating insulation options, but they would all restrict motion and ramp up the heat load by way too much. He''d also taken some time to lay out an exo-frame for Division, and maybe Oscen? He''d have to remember to ask, though he could already see her having issues with how loud the motors were running. They currently sounded like someone zipping and unzipping a tent, and Justin wasn''t sure how he was going to fit noise insulation into the already tight fittings. It was nowhere near finished, looking a little like a collection of pipes, pumps and wires. But it was nice to be even one step closer. He''d already managed to get Revenant''s chest and arm plates cooled, hardened, and ready for its silver coating. The helmet, however, had turned out to be a real pain. Justin''s first attempt came out looking something like a riot helmet wearing a Halloween mask, and Justin had decided he really need to take produce a proper mould of Revenant''s head to work from, and maybe investigate actual blacksmithing to see if there was some technique he was missing. It wasn''t like he needed to dunk Revenant''s head in a bucket of plaster to get a mould, he''d already gotten a full scan of the team to aid in producing gear. Thinking about the in-depth, and possibly overly-personal scans he''d taken of the team, and then ''forgotten'' to mention. He recalled having scanned the fake dead Barrows during his trip to the morgue. At the time, he''d had the idea that the man''s identity might lead them to his killer. Now that they knew his killer was probably one of the transformed Jackals, was there really anything to be gained from identifying him? Suddenly feeling guilty at such a dismissive thought, he had Era check for updates on the body, and was a little frustrated to find that the police had closed the case, happy to write the corpse off as the accountant Barrows, and move all the attention to investigating the bombing itself. He was a little surprised that there was still an investigation to be ongoing, especially since the team had already solved it and handed over the culprit. It was pretty easy to discover the answer. Apparently the lizard man had suffered an ''accident'' after agreeing to work with the DA. Still, it wouldn''t have hurt to mention their contribution. The team really needed to work on their PR. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 5 Apparently facial modelling was something of a challenge, requiring a breadth of knowledge and just a smidgen of creativity. Since it looked like he was going to be busy, he had Era take control of the Phantom and run it over to the new storage shed to run some checks on the new gear. The drone''s advanced sensors should easily pick up on any technological trackers hidden inside the electronics, but given his recent conversation with Division, he was wondering if he shouldn''t ask Naiad for help with detecting magic before bringing so much foreign equipment into his lab. After a moments thought, he decided that Manticore didn''t seem the type to resort to magic, he''d be more likely to plant an actual bug in his systems that released some sort of trackable pheromone, and if one of the guys wanted his address so badly that they went to the trouble of planting a magical tracer, they could just as easily drop one on one of his drones while he wasn''t paying attention. Happy, or at least complacent, with his precautions, he focused on the two faces he was trying to recreate, each challenging in its own unique way. John Doe because his face was so damaged from the attack and the fire, and Revenant because his spirit body was always a little blurry to Justin''s scans. He didn''t really need a finely detailed model of Revenant''s face to produce a helmet, but Justin had gotten a little carried away in the challenge, telling himself that it might be a useful skill to have in the future.Apparently it''s good to try new things,he thought, looking in pleasure at all the skill xp he was receiving in design, coding, biology and art. And by the time he''d finished, Era had cleared all the new equipment and piloted the drone back to the lab. Since she was now free for more scut work, he forwarded her a couple of iterations of John Doe''s face with different hairstyles, and asked her to see if she could find a match. While she did that, Justin fiddled with his graphene printer so that it would accept a rubbery plastic substitute, and began to print a life-size Revenant head. If nothing else, they could always use it for target practice. Feeling good about the morning''s progress, Justin decided to tick some more stuff off his mental list. First he reviewed the grant proposals received by KASSE, accepting a couple of the more promising ones, along with the application he''d put in for Weyland Solar. With the promise of a multimillion dollar grant, he was finally able to put together and send off an employment package for Amelia Turner. Hopefully she wouldn''t keep him waiting so he''d know if he needed to keep looking. Next he got a new nano-factory up and running, seeding it with the remains of the last one and smoothing it along a little with his powers. While finishing that up, he noticed the old PC in the corner, and finally remembered to check in on Chompers, who had apparently been absolutely fine hibernating while the power was off, but was suddenly ravenous now he''d been woken up. Dodging the snapping jaws, Justin wondered, not for the first time, why he''d kept the little code monster. Since he was going to need more room for all his new equipment in the lab, he ordered Ira to move Chompers into the basement, and asked him to start sorting out all the junk while he was down there. He didn''t think the surly programwould get much done on his own, but at least Justin wouldn''t have to listen to him complaining about the mess for the hundreth time. Justin looked around the lab for something new to focus on, finally realising that what he was really looking for was a distraction. He hadn''t wanted to admit it, but the days trapped down in Manticore''s lab had left him feeling isolated, lonely and skittish. No one noticing he was missing had been a bit of a blow, even though Justin knew enough to admitt it was his own fault. What did he expect when he kept everyone at arm''s length, only interacting when he wanted, on his own terms.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. It was only now, looking back on his time trapped in the cave, that Division''s decision to leave a clone down there took on new meaning. At the time he hadn''t questioned that Division was worried about Manticore returning, but why would he? He''d been gone for weeks and was busy hiding out with the Jackals. Remembering the conversations about the team and the recounting of training with fresh eyes, he realised that it had been to keep him company, to keep his spirits up while he''d been trapped down there. And despite all his intelligence, he hadn''t noticed, hadn''t appreciated what Division was doing. Justin was not good with people. It was no new revelation, but Justin repeated it to himself all the same. Time to get more involved, he thought, feeling better with the resolution. Before he could come up with a reason to back out, he contacted Division, asked to be put back on the patrol rota, and for information on the team''s meeting and training schedule.
A little buzzed, and a little nervous at his new resolution, Justin decided that if he was serious about gettingback into the field, then he really needed to work on the mark II combat drones. Something he''d been putting off, possibly in the vague hope that he''d somehow manage to put together a robotic body first. It wasn''t that he minded remote piloting the drones, but he''d began to feel a little like the team''s camera crew. Perhaps this feeling of isolation had been building for longer than he thought. Justin grinned, a strange thing to accomplish without a face. It was time to start working on a mobile core. Something he''d been thinking about and planning ever since he''d decided he wanted a robot body in the first place. A ''black box'' to transfer his essence into so he could actually feel like he was taking part. Originally his plan had been to develop a compact nano-server, hence one of the reasons he was so frustrated with the nano-fabs continued failures. But even if the nano factories had worked the very first time, developing that kind of compact core would have needed multiple leaps forward in electronics, energy delivery, and heat venting technologies, all of which would have cost a fortune in money and time to develop, and even without pushing ahead, Justin was very nearly broke again. He grinned again as he considered the new avenue that had opened up for him. Now he just needed tocome up with a containment system for his quantum node, something that would work to carry and protect the sensitive system so that Justin didn''t need to concentrate on it as much. And with him actually onbard a drone, power became a non-issue, opening up new avenues for weapons and propulsion. If he was going to meld his power into his technology, he first needed to understand it better. He began the process by projecting his visualised processors while staying safely within his man-made server. Then exposing them to alternating bursts of EM, sound and radiation fields. Testing for stability and scatter as the fields moved and fluctuated. After the fourth time the system unravelled on him, he decided he was eventually going to want a safety system inside the core with him. Something that could kick in at a basic level to keep him alive if hisvirtual constructbroke down, maybe even the digital equivalent of an escape pod he thought in amusement. He sighed as Era interrupted him, wondering what bad news she was bringing this time. Instead she brought the welcome news that she had an identy for the unfortunate John Doe. Justin looked over the man''s missing persons report in surprise. John, his actual first name, was pretty much an unknown. A mild mannered IT worker with no family or friends, no record, and a surprisingly sparse online presence. He was exactly the kind of man a smart person would use as a body double for an escaping convict. Which was probably why Justin was so frustrated with the answer. Feeling mutinous, he decided to check more deeply into John Vincent, looking for a connection, a reason, even a shared cup of coffee, anything that would explain his choice as a sacrifice. He hadn''t really expected to find anything. In real life random things happened all the time, there was no web of connections, no master plan. Just chance, coincidence and a whole heap of bad luck. But this was a game, and someone on the other side was playing it too. Which is why Justin wasn''t all that surprised when he found evidence pointing to John Vincent''s private life as a hero, and a pretty solid connection to the Heroes League. Act 1: At Least Spiders Cant Fly part 6 Since the Heroes League were stone-walling them about the dead hero, Justin had asked Naiad to get in touch with the League to see if they''d talk to her as a former member, and had Era investigating other missing persons and murder cases throughout the state. Justin was going to be heading the patrols tonight with Oscen and Shift, so he did spend an hour installing a micro-grenade launcher into the Phantom. It wasn''t much, but since they would be pretty much on their own, it would have to do, especially since most of the team had plans to be busy elsewhere. Division had zeroed in on an old steel mill as Ku''s current hideout, and was planning to stake it out until he knew more. Revenant, Shade and Wind were planning to break up the Jackal''s downtown recruitment drive, which was apparently happening tonight in an old multi-storey car park. According to Era, this kind of thing happened all the time when gangs and villains were trying to expand their reach, but Justin couldn''t quite picture it, he kept seeing something like his middle-school job fair, which was just ridiculous. Justin made some good progress on his core throughout the day, but it would still be at least another day before he could field-test it. In the mean time, he''d spent a couple of hours working up the new combat drone so that he''d have something to put it in, before heading out on patrol. Things had been going well. They''d stopped two muggings, a sexual assault, and chased off half a dozen dealers. Justin was happy with the night''s progress, but a little disheartened with the state of the city if this was a normal night. Around midnight, they were pulled from further patrolling by Division. Apparently the Furies had just turned up at the mill and disappeared inside. Justin went over a number of scenarios on the way over, from the Furies working with Ku, to their spying on the Outsiders and trying to steal their collar. None of it seemed likely, or made a lot of sense. Most likely they''d been lured to the mill by Ku for some unknown purpose. When they arrived, they discovered that Division knew as little as they did. The Furies had turned up, twitchy, but not obviously ready for battle. They''d headed in quietly, and things had been silent ever since. "I definitely still smell the Furies," Oscen whispered, her eyes closed, her head tilting and turning "but no one else, not recently. There is also blood and... charcoal? Could be from the mill days, but it smells too fresh." She tilted her head again, apparently lost enough in her senses that she''d overcome her usual reticence for talking. "I don''t hear any heartbeats inside either." Division nodded, staring up at the building while behind him, his clones stripped off their disguises and donned body armour. "We need to know what happened in there, and I need to know how Ku slipped the net. I''m happy to just send the clones in with Artisan, but your help would be appreciated." He said, flicking a look between Shift and Oscen. The two heroes shared a glance before nodding back. Justin could appreciate why everyone was feeling so tense, and it wasn''t just the spooky atmosphere of the mill at night, or the bodies they were likely to find inside. Something was very off about the whole situation. Justin was tempted to suggest calling in the rest of the team, but he knew how important it was to break the Jackal''s plans tonight. The Jackals were large enough on their own, the team really didn''t need to be dealing with a bolstered army of transformed gang members. Once Division had changed his clones out of their street clothes and into body armour, the clones led the way quietly through the abandoned site. Justin was both relieved and frustrated that they found nothing except damp, empty rooms, dirt, rusty metal and the gentle whistle of wind through old pipes. The place was seriously creepy, even with his night vision, and Justin couldn''t imagine anyone choosing to stay here if they had any other choice. They were on the upper floor when Oscen indicated a doorway at the end of the corridor. Justin ran a scan on the room, and was disheartened to see two cooling bodies inside. The third was still putting out heat, but it was a still heat unlike that of a living body. He''d been pretty sure they were going to find the Furies dead, and it wasn''t like the players themselves had died, but it was still strangely unsettling. During the more harrowing moments of his stay in Manticore''s cave, Justin had given some thought to what he would do if his character was killed, or rather, destroyed. He knew Imagitech liked to run their games with full immersion, so no respawns, death was permanent, but with a definite asterix, it was a superhero game after all.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Justin had heard that it was more than possible to buy your character''s way back into the game, by taking on more complications, or purchasing a power that could save you. It didn''t need to make you immortal, it just needed to provide enough of an explanation for your character to have survived whatever happened to him. Oh, you fell from that building? Guess who''s waking up in hospital with amnesia. You bled to death in an alley? Guess who''s latent Regeneration needed a good kick to get started. In the end, you might end up loaded down with powers and complications you didn''t want, but at least you wouldn''t be starting over from scratch. Justin was pulled from thoughts of digital mortality, as the team moved carefully into the room. Inside were the three bodies Justin had detected. They were all lying on their faces, as if attacked from behind, their backs a bloody mess of slashes and punctures, as if a dozen people had swung at them, and then just kept going. Justin didn''t look too closely at the two still human looking bodies, he knew he''d need to in a minute, to get a better appreciation of what happened, but for now his gaze went to what must have been Red. It reminded him of those pictures of Pompei, of people turned into ash and charcoal by intense heat. But there were no scorch marks around the body, no blood. Whatever happened to him must have been after death though, since Justin could make out wounds in his back, probably a side-effect of his power. Division cleared his throat uncomfortably, most of his clones were spreading out to investigate the room, but one had laid his hand on Oscen''s shoulder. "Sorry to put you through this, I know you worked with them, but if there''s anything you can tell us about what happened here." Oscen nodded back, a little pale, but resolute. They were interrupted from further investigating the scene by a worried Shade. "Su puta madre," he muttered over the comm, "Division, turns out recruitment meant trial run. The dogs have passed out formula and are doping hoodrats by the dozen, any minute and we''ll have actual rats running rampant through downtown." "Damn," the Division by the door muttered, turning towards central Detroit as if he could see it from way out here. His hand flicked up to his com as he took a deep breath. "How many are turning?" "At least a score are showing signs, some appear to be in some distress. I''m afraid we didn''t realize their purpose until too late." Revenant replied heavily. "Right," Division answered, seeming much calmer, as if the number had made the decision for him. "You''re on your own for now, and there''s no way you''ll contain that many." He paused taking another breath, "I want you to put down anyone that transforms, if they get out into downtown it''ll be a massacre. Try to incapacitate, but safeties are off. Full engagement, pull down the building if you need to." There was a pause before Shade responded, "Full engagement," he confirmed, his voice serious. "We''ll be there as soon as we can, and good luck." Division signed off, turning back to the room. Shift was already bouncing on his toes, anticipating the order to head out. "Right," Division said again, staring at the bodies on the floor before touching his comm once more. "Era, things have gone tits up at both ends, we''ve got League casualties at the mill and possible hybrids running rampant downtown. Get me in touch with the League and local services." "Yes, Sir." Era replied, and Justin had the surreal thought that she''d never called him Sir. Division glanced at the others. "Get ready to move out, I don''t like the timing of this at all, we already figured there might be a connection..." But before he could finish, he was interrupted by a metallic skittering sound as three mechanical spiders scuttled into the far side of the room. Justin triggered his Over-clocking, noting the bloody, sharpened blades at the end of each leg. In that frozen moment he unleashed every scan the Phantom had, but everything came back negative. The spider mechs were giving off no heat, no radiation, no digital, no electro-magnetics. There was only the very faintest trace of a signal reaching out like a thought to each of them. A signal that felt strangely sticky as Justin inspected it more closely. He pulled back just in time as the strand twitched, and immediately cut off all active signals from the drone except the most basic audio-visual, and the single encrypted channel he was using himself. He held back on firing off a grenade. He only had two, and neither seemed appropriate right now. He also realised that the spiders had halted just inside the room. He triggered his return to normal speed, wanting to preserve his focus in case it was needed later. A holographic image flickered into being above the central spider, the figure male, tall, and wearing brown armour with a smooth faceless mask. Four mechanical spider legs were reaching forward from his back, clicking and moving around him as if scenting the air. "Not cool dude," Shift said, and Justin realised the speedster had actually backed away from the arachnids. "Spiders are so not cool." The figure ignored him, turning to Division as an electronically-disguised voice spoke out from below the light show. "I wanted to introduce myself before you left." The figure said, "My name is the Huntsman." He cocked his head and sighed at their lack of recognition. "A lack of notoriety is an unfortunate side-effect of being so good at my job. Despite that, let me assure you that I am a villain of some repute, and you would do well to join me." Division stared at him for a moment, "You''re delaying us." he muttered. "Maybe," The Huntsman replied in amusement. "But can you take the chance of losing valuable information as I tell you all the details of my master-plan." Division looked like he was about to respond, when all his clones suddenly flinched and dropped lifeless to the floor. Justin could just hear one of the clones breath the word ''Ackbar'', the strange buggout command Division had chosen. The team froze in shock, and Justin was about to repeat the command when in the middle of the room, Red''s body cracked and heaved, letting out a burst of flame. Across the room, Justin saw the spider bots backing away, and somehow, the electronically altered voice managed to sound smug. "It looks like I now have the lynchpin to your leader, and our crispy friend is waking up right on time. Sorry to leave just as things are heating up, but I have a lot more to do tonight." His image waved as it flickered away, the spiders springing in three different directions, two of them taking the direct path out of a window. Arc 1: Into the Fire (Division / Shift) DIVISION (John) John tried to resist rolling his eyes as Huntsman gave his little victory speech. Really he had no reason to be feeling superior to the villain, a few days ago his little kidnapping would probably have worked perfectly, at least before some unknown benefactor had upgraded John''s account to the Aegis tier. The decision to play along had been spur of the moment, and had certainly left his clones in the room vulnerable, but the chance of turning the kidnapping around had been too sweet an opportunity to waste. With Foxtrot unconscious in a bag rather than his prime, the team now had a lot more options, and a lot less to worry about. Which still raised the question of why. Why in the hell would Huntsman want to capture him. He didn''t know anything, didn''t have anything, and his capture would more likely spur the team into coming after the villain than convince them to back off. Distract and delay then, like so much of what they''d faced so far. Get the team to focus on rescuing him rather than dealing with all the issues cropping up around Detroit. But why not just kill them all like he appeared to be doing to the Heroes League? The crash of glass brought him back to the room, though to be fair, he''d been following the situation closely, unlike Artisan, John didn''t have issues with multitasking. Artisan. Could Huntsman be concerned about the Alien AI? AboutArtisan''s interference in whatever his plans were? Since he was unable to remove the remote super directly, could he be hoping to redirect his attention elsewhere? While he was considering Hunstman''s motivations, he had Charlie sneak a peek around the room, and seeing the spider-bots gone, he had his clones rise to their feet once more, enjoying the surprise of his team-mates perhaps a little more than he should. "Huh, what?" Shift muttered eloquently. The main reason he''d held back on sharing his good fortune with the team was so he could surprise them during the next training session. Never assume you know the enemies numbers was a good lesson to learn, one the Huntsman was probably going to be taking to heart after tonight. "Reports of my capture have been greatly exaggerated." John replied, quoting Twain a little smugly. "What?" Shift muttered again. John couldn''t help sighing, and waved off Shift''s confusion. The biggest problem right now was sloughing ash and carbon as he got to his feet in the middle of the room. Naked and hairless, Red was giving off enough heat that the air around him was starting to warp and wave, and his eyes were molten orange as he looked around the room in confusion. Given Hunstsman''s send off, John had to expect that whatever ruse the villain had used to bring the Furies out to the mill, the Outsiders weren''t going to like it. He moved Bravo calmingly toward Red, trying to draw the hero''s attention to his clones, and away from the rest of the team. As he got closer, he could feel the heat like a wall, pulsing against him and the smell of burning hair inside Bravo''s armour made his nose twitch. He tried shouting to get the man''s attention, but the solid wall of heat made talking impossible. Which would rule out Oscen talking him down. Whatever option Red had chosen to resurrect his character, it was obvious he didn''t have control over it. John turned his attention to his teammates, ready to order them out of the building once more, when Red''s eyes dropped to the floor and found his murdered comrades.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Shit, John thought as the air around the hero caught fire, his eyes blazing in rage as he looked back up at the Outsiders.
SHIFT (Michael) Michael was still trying to work out how Division had avoided capture. His current theory was that one of the clones in the room was Division prime, but that seemed a risky move for the usually careful hero. Growing up, Michael had never been good at guessing the secret behind card tricks. They always seemed so convoluted, requiring so much time and preparation that he just couldn''t imagine who would want to invest that kind of time just to stump a couple of people for less than a minute. He now had an answer as to the kind of person, but he was still no closer to figuring out why Division enjoyed messing with them so much. He claimed it was to get them thinking outside the box, to expect the unexpected, but honestly it just left Michael confused rather than enlightened. Was it possible to think about things in the wrong way? Anyway, Division''s machinations could come later, right now they had Red to deal with. A naked, pink, hairless, Red. Michael kind of wished he had a camera. "This must be worse for you," he whispered to Oscen, "what with your enhanced vision." The girl cocked an eyebrow at him in amusement, and Michael was instantly smitten. He''d been trying to learn how to do that for years, figuring it would lend him an air of maturity and mystery. He was still trying to duplicate the feat when Red exploded. Time slowed as Michael''s brain spun. The wall of flames inching towards him as he tried to desperately make a decision. There was just no way to save everyone in the room. The drone and the clones weren''t a priority, but what if Division was actually there? But in thinking about Division, he knew exactly what the man would tell him to do. He heard Oscen''s oof as his shoulder hit her stomach, lifting her from the ground and carrying them both straight through the adjacent window. Her costume wasn''t as armoured as his, and blood flicked into the air amidst the sparkling fragments of glass. He tensed his core, just managing to twist them in the air as he felt gravity wrap itself around them. This is gonna hurt, he thought reaching out for thedrainpipe below the window as more glass exploded out above him in a wave of flame.The wrench in his shoulder was excruciating.
Warning! You have received a status effect.
He didn''t have time to check, but given the loose feeling of his arm, it was probably at least dislocated. However, the grab had been worth it since it had brought him in close enough to the building that with a boot against a lintel, he managed to both slow their fall, and spin them so that Michael would take the brunt of the impact. This is definitely gonna hurt, he thought, closing his eyes as they crashed into the concrete below.
Warning! You have been dealt damage exceeding 50% of your remaining Hit Points. Stunned! Warning! Hit Points less than 5%. Unconscious!
He woke a few seconds later, his body feeling like a mass of broken bones and torn muscle. Still, he managed to groan his way to his feet and checked on Oscen. Alive, wounded, unconscious. He tapped the comm in his ear but just got back static. Artisan really needs to work on more reliable comms, he thought. If he could survive a fall in one piece, there was no reason his tech shouldn''t be able to. Well, kind of one piece,he thought, leaning against the wall in pain, tempted to try knocking his shoulder back into joint. He flinched, cursing in pain as another wave of fire and fury burst from the building above. Right, no time for experimental procedures, he thought Situation check. Only a hand full of HP, crazy pyromancer above, who knows how many spider-bots lurking in the shadows,he shivered at the thought, cursing again as his body screamed at him, then glanced down. And a wounded team-mate at my feet. Definitely time for a tactical withdrawal. He couldn''t help grunting like an old hog, wincing and cussing as he struggled to lift Oscen from the ground using just his good arm and with as little bending as possible. Great, now where to? He thought, settling the girl on his good shoulder.HQ? No one there, and Division ordered Naiad to the Jackal shit-show. Artisan''s lab? No medical facilities, and Artisan wouldn''t thank him for just turning up. Hospital? No, Oscen wouldn''t thank him for risking her identity. "Shit-show it is." Michael muttered, at least he had the hope of Naiad being there, and he''d probably be back in one piece by the time they arrived, so at least he''d be able to help out. He lurched off at a wobbly run, sparing a single concerned glance back at the flame shrouded building behind him. Update / Not a new chapter - sorry Hi everyone, really, really sorry for disappearing on you guys, illness lead to a deep depressive episode that I''m still struggling with. Been thinking about coming back to revamp/finish writing Artisan and noticed a kind reader pointing out my work has been stolen and published on Amazon.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The offending novel is The Artisan by Jon Moremont - obviously a GoT fan who didn''t even read the blurb properly and put a wizard on the cover. Just wanted to let everyone know that this book has nothing to do with me, and has no new content. Thanks, and sorry again - LF