Radio Crafter

"So, that's the bulk of the plan then?" I asked, "It seems… I dunno… Kind of flimsy?"

There were a lot of maybes and what-ifs involved.

We were going to be hitting the biggest vault in the community, the biggest repository of wealth and technology that the entire community had. It wasn't a big leap to suggest that, once we got started, the concept of keeping certain people out of the way or independent heroes not getting involved could just fly out of the window.

"It's kind of just the way things go, Tristan," Lauren said, I could tell that I'd offended her at least a little bit. "All things considered, we've actually done a pretty good job of covering our bases this time around. "

"I uh… I didn't mean to put your plan down-" I tried to say, before being interrupted by Lauren.

"It's our plan," She said, giving me a very pointed look.

I was struggling to think of it that way. If things went wrong that would be a lot of responsibility suddenly thrown at my feet.

I didn't let on that was how I was feeling, however. Instead, I said, "I'm just a bit nervous, that's all. It's not like I've done something like this before while you're all veterans."

"It's not like you have to come," Becca said, a nasty smile on her face. The exact same sort of smile that the bullies would wear when they knew they had one up on me.

"Hey, on the level, if you're having second thoughts…" Greave cut in, trying to defuse the steadily building tension.

"Well… Yeah, I'm having a lot of thoughts. Second ones right up to hundredth ones," I said, before taking a deep breath of air to steady my rapidly beating heart. "But… I'm part of this team, right? So I'm not going to let my doubts stop me. I'm coming on this mission, and I'm going to give it my all."

The glare left Lauren's face in an instant, replaced by a beaming grin.

"Good!" Lauren exclaimed with a clap of her hands, "In that case, we've got the rest of the day and all of tomorrow to do our prep work. Tristan, I'm going to need you to focus on crafting for most of that time. We need those handheld sets, and we need them to be able to work through concrete. I'd also advise you to try and give yourself some defence, maybe some armour, I don't know how you crafters work. Let me know if you need gear, I can have it here tomorrow."

"Understood," I said with a nod. "I've got the pieces for the handhelds now, so I'll get started on those straight away."

I stood with a stretch, my back popped in several locations and brought out a little shiver.

Was I anxious? Yes.

Did I think what we were doing was wrong? Also yes.

Was a little rebellious section of my mind incredibly excited for what was about to occur? That's a third yes.

I wasn't so much excited for the fights that were to come, but the chance to craft on a bunch of cool items? That tickled my fancy a lot more.

I didn't have many components at the moment, but I had enough to throw together the radios that the team needed. Anything else could be requested through Hypogean's mysterious boss, though where they were going to pick up a bunch of metal and wires in under 12 hours I had no idea.

I scooped my bag up from the sofa and walked over to the table, tipping all of the contents out onto its surface as I sat down in one of the hard wooden chairs.

Crafting was an interesting power to have.

It wasn't like I was consciously building things. Blueprints surged into my mind and my hands began to work off of their own accord, slamming components together and melding them with a golden glow.

Time passed in a blur as I sunk further and further into the fugue state. The world around me blurred until my focus was entirely on the components before me and the radio sets that were slowly coming together.

The design of the radios was unlike anything that I'd ever seen the PHA using.

The PHA's radio sets were big and bulky handheld devices that slipped into slots on their belts. My design was completely different.

Before long five earpieces sat in front of me. They looked shoddy and hastily made, but that was purely because of the materials that I had been forced to work with. They'd still do the job.

The earpieces would hook over an ear and connect automatically with any other pieces nearby through a closed encrypted network.

They had a fairly short range, but that was only because the signal needed to be incredibly strong to pierce through materials like thick concrete and steel. Short-range strength and long-range connectivity didn't really go hand in hand, or so my power said.

Each of the units was powered by an incredibly dense solar cell that would power each of them for a minimum of a week at a time before needing to be charged up if they were used as standard earpieces.

However, in dire circumstances, they could double as energy grenades. A quick triple tap of the power button that rested on the side of the piece would start a fifteen-second countdown, which when elapsed would discharge all the remaining energy to disrupt the brainwaves of anyone nearby.

They would be knocked out, but in theory, they wouldn't get killed.

I hoped the theory would hold out.

"What are those?" Allen asked, walking up behind me. "I asked earlier but you were deep in the crafting."

"Ah, little radio sets. Capable of piercing through tough materials and they double as a bomb that should incapacitate but not kill anyone but the strongest of brawlers," I explained. "In other words, they're exactly the sort of tech we need to give us an edge."

I just hoped they didn't end up giving us too much of an edge, after all, I was only just getting started.