Ghi
"Looting the Empire?"
"Yes, what's left of them." You say. "A gang doesn't get that big without financial support and without being entrenched. Pull as much as you can from them. You'll have full support from the Thinktank and the Daemon."
"Uh…"
"Start with Max Anders." You say. "And you can keep a portion of what you're able to steal."
"Sure! Yeah, I can do that." Lisa says with a quick nod. "But, uh, what if I need to do some stuff in person? Like, if electronics aren't enough?"
"I'll show you how to drive the Phase Carrier later." You say.
"Perfect!" She responds. "Oh, and I finally have a name for myself."
"Yeah?"
"... Eris."
"Going straight for the greek god names, huh?"
"It's not taken, it's on-theme… and then I can save Tattletale for after this whole thing is over and I can retire." She says. "The Empire tried dumping Morrigan on me. Ugh."
You grin. "Makes sense to me. You ready to steal everything the Empire's got, so even if they break out they're fucked?"
"I'm happy to." She says, and you think she actually is. After all, you know spite is a strong motivator.
"... So, there's a very real concern that there might be some kind of, uh, Kiss/Kill thing going on here."
Jacey glances at the data, the evidence Eris had pointed out… and scoffs.
"Yeah, no." She says. "I get that I'm so amazing that your ego can't believe I'd be fine with you, but trust me. There's no risk of that sorta dynamic. After all, I'm already working with you. We're already working together. There's no reason our powers would push us to work together even more, right?"
"Uh, I guess." You say. There's also the fact that you know for a fact that your power wants you to do some of this solo, without Medea's help.
"Plus, my power isn't the usual kind, remember?" She asks- and you pause. Right. She'd bought her power. "All this data is based on the usual sorts of powers. I know for a fact that mine is different."
It's a load off your mind. She settles back into your lap again.
"I just… yeah. I thought you should be informed." You say.
"That's sweet," She says, "But we'll be fine."
The facility- Dowager Industrial- had seen better days. Far off, on the outskirts of town, your contact- an older man by the name of James- shakes your hand.
"Pleased to meet you," You say. "Thank you so much for agreeing to this deal."
"It's no problem. We already provide a broad range of chemicals and laboratory supplies to schools and laboratories. This is effectively skimming off the top. I wish we'd had the idea to begin selling to the Guild, or the Protectorate, but they're both already locked up in contracts with other suppliers."
"True, working with Dragon would be a dream." You say, and he nods knowingly. You look at the barrels sitting out the back of the open truck, and the Daemon takes a glance at the barcodes. They are labeled 'for sale to Parahuman Icarus', so they're the right ones. "These eight should be more than enough for me. Thank you again," you say. They're the exact chemicals you need to synthesize the crystal.
He nods. "Did you want me to bring out some of our employees?"
"No, my drones can handle it," You say. True to your word, the Shining Drone begins extruding more glowing, virtual drones, their forcefield constructs perfectly designed to lock around a barrel. They begin carrying them up and into the Phase Carrier.
"Incoming vehicles," the Daemon says, and you turn around. Coming this way- even though you're pretty far from the Bay itself, on the outskirts of town- are three black vehicles, sleek looking ones. You immediately look for the license plates- and they're covered. The windows are shaded. Both of which you're pretty sure is illegal in this state.
"You uh, might want to go inside." You say. Your contact nods and runs.
The two cars behind the one in lead split off, off of the main road and onto the grass alongside the sides. Simultaneously, they all swerve to a stop, sideways, blocking off the exit from the building as if you needed to use it.
Stepping out of the driver's seat of the first car is a tall, tall cape. It looks like his arms and legs have been stretched like putty, almost- it's barely within human tolerances, but you wouldn't be surprised if it was also a power-based mutation. He's thin, wearing a flowing white skirt and sleeves, both with white ribbons dangling off of them. He's also shirtless- showing that despite his thin build, he's full of lean muscle. The ribbons catch the wind, drifting.
"Hello!" He calls, waving. "I am Echo. I speak for the Elite."
"If I wanted to speak to the Elite," You respond, "I would have responded to your messages.
"Oh, yes." He drawls. "Sometimes as a businessman, you've got to be a little pushy when prospective clients are a little skittish."
"And you really think it's a good idea to corner me like this? After the Empire?"
"You don't yet have a teleporter, mister Icarus, and Medea is nowhere near." Echo says. "Besides. She won't be able to pull off that particular trick without this, will she?"
There's a thrum of inaudible sound next to Echo, and then there's a short, blond-headed woman in a black and yellow suit standing there She's holding a familiar piece of tinkertech- a burned out one. One of Medea's weather machines.
"We've already retrieved four of the suspected six devices, and the Protectorate has the rest." Echo says. "Loki has finished identifying their key features. Now, we're willing to-"
"Oh, fuck the negotiations," A third cape steps out of the second car. He's wearing a costume with thick bands of metal, almost like a rollcage shaped like a human body. He's built like a bodybuilder, tall and broad, and has strange armatures attached to his wrists. They look like retractable chain weapons, only one end of them appears to be pushed against his skin, almost into his skin- the other appears to be mounted to some kind of gear-powered mass driver. It should fire off the spikes, and then allow him to retract them. "Asshole's just gonna blow us off again."
"We've got orders, Whiplash." Echo says with a sigh. He turns back to you. "Sorry about that. Specifically, we're here to offer you a deal. One on good terms."
"Oh yeah?"
"We're willing to supply you and your group in resources. Whatever resources you may need for your tinkertech, complete with bodyguards, defenses, protection from external sources like the Protectorate or the Empire. You'll never have to step out of your lab again, if you don't want to. This deal also goes for Medea, and any other tinkers or capes in your faction."
"In exchange?" You ask.
"In exchange, you'll become part of the Elite. You'll gain status, an individual cell, and you'll only have to report to higher-ranking members, like Uppercrust himself. You'll also be obliged to use your talents to assist other Elite-aligned tinkers, and possibly supply any capes with tools if your specialty aligns with their personal needs. For example, Reel- a tinker from another cell- had was able to construct the devices that extend Whiplash's striker power." He nods to Whiplash.
"... Let me guess. This is one of those deals where I can't say no." You respond. You know that's how the Elite generally operates.
"If you'd wanted better terms, you should have contacted us earlier," Echo says. "But this isn't a gun to your head situation. If you decline, then it's simply good business to make sure to keep… opponents away from our new territory."
"You'll have a week to leave Brockton Bay." Whiplash says, casually.
You look at them, deciding, while the Daemon finishes reporting on the names you've heard.
"So," You say with a sigh. "Is there a contract or something?"
"Well," Echo says, turning back toward the car. At that moment, you raise your arm and fire a clump of voidwax at him. From Echo's back and shoulders, a translucent body extends out, like a fraction of Crusader- and his arm whips out to smash the voidwax clump from the air. It shatters his arm, electricity crackling from it, but the arm shatters and the voidwax falls to the ground. Ripple, next to him, vanishes, her eyes wide.
"Attack!" Whiplash calls, and raises both wrists.
You shoot off, into the air, as your wings unfold. There's a thrum of sound- and suddenly Ripple is clinging to your back. You twist in the air, elbowing at her- but before your elbow can make contact, she's gone again.
"Switch. Piercing, self-propelled, two layer." You mutter to your launcher. This way, not only will the pellets burst on Echo's… echos, but they'll keep going to hit him properly. The launcher begins to readjust, cables pumping different levels of chemical mixtures together. You thrust yourself out of the way of Whiplash's projectiles, the long, thin cables attached to the needles seeming to almost hover in place as the needles flit through the air. One of them retracts back to Whiplash's wrist-launcher, but the other seems to anchor itself into the air itself. Holding itself in place- and then the wrist-launcher begins to reel itself in, tugging Whiplash off the ground.
Ripple lands on your back again- and this time, she has a heavy tool of some kind. A set of long-handled bolt cutters.
You try to elbow her again and your elbow makes contact with her helmet. You twist and buck in the air, trying to get the teleporter off- and she shoves all her weight into the cutters.
Snip.
Perfectly in time for one of Whiplash's spikes to make contact with your armor. The moment it does, it seems to stick. Ripple throws herself off of your back- and something in the world twists.
It's like you're in the center of the universe. Your sense of place is confused, dizzied- and you watch as the side of the entire earth slams into you. The impact is hard, but not hard enough to hurt you much through your armor. Whiplash, standing sideways on the face of the earth, casually flicks his wrist-cable. The earth moves away- and slams into you again. Then he begins to flail it over himself, over and over. It crashes into you again and again, even as the chain slowly retracts.
The wind is knocked out of you, and you wheeze on the ground. Whiplash's hand is touching a panel of your armor, and you can feel- from the way the world is quaking and shivering- that you're still in the grip of his Striker power.
"Slow down, don't kill him." Echo says.
"Fuck you man, this guy's got taser weapon. I need to-" Whiplash starts, and you thrust said wrist launcher straight toward Echo. The pellet- deformed, twisted out of shape- shoots off-kilter. In the same motion you keep swinging- switching from voidwax to pure ichor, the launcher moving toward Whiplash's hand.
in the innards of the device- something clogs. Something seizes. Wax builds up in the wrong pipe. Too much ichor goes the wrong way. The mixing chamber shudders for a moment-
Misfire.
Your back arches, electricity rippling through your plugsuit's systems. Paralyzed- stunned.
Whiplash lifts the entire earth and slams it down on you again. Then again, and again. He lifts the entire earth- and it comes crashing down on your head.
Then, darkness.
Combat: 3, 43 (Misfire: Voidwax Launcher)
Except… you refuse to fail.
The darkness is blanketing everything, encroaching on all sides.
Except you refuse to let it.
Your eyes open. Your helmet's display is fuzzy, the systems having taken a shock from the Launcher's misfire. It just needs time.
"Shit, what are we going to do if you paralyze him?"
They don't know your armor's as strong as it is. You're beaten and bruised… but you've already been beaten and bruised before. You've already been fucked up worse.
This? This is nothing. This is a friendly juggle compare to the shit you've been through.
You begin to wheeze. It's a laugh. You can't help it.
"He doesn't need to walk to build anything," Whiplash shrugs.
"Fuck it. Fine. Get him in the car." Echo says. You feel a hand grab you by the shoulder-
You lash out. There's a loud crunch under your fist, and the hand lets go.
"Fuggin' bish!" Whiplash calls, stumbling back. He's holding his face and nose.
You're laying on the ground, laughing. It's the same sort of strange, demented laugh you remember- waist deep in Balminder's blood.
The next, you're standing. You don't exactly remember getting up.
Your hands are shaking.
If you're going to fix things, walk things back… these scrubs are enough to stop you? You've never even heard their names before. They're nobody. Losers.
You refuse to let this be how your story ends.
"Looders? Go fuck yourdelf!" Whiplash calls, and thrusts his arm at you. Launching from his wrist is one of his spikes, again, attached to the cable.
Metal. Conductive.
You catch it. The world twists.
"AAAAGHHHHH!!!" Whiplash screams.
The electricity thrums underneath your glove, shaking in your hand as Whiplash howls. He's on the ground, back arching, seizing and shaking.
You'd shoved the spike into the Void Wax Launcher's ichor tube, you idly note.
Echo shoots toward you. Six arms, all translucent, come pounding toward you with inhuman force.
You meet them on your hands and forearms. You're swinging and pounding away. Arms keep breaking. Your arms are breaking… but so are his. The heavy, brute-enforced impacts are shattering against your armor plates, impact-sensitive gel squishing and absorbing the energy before they can break your bones. For a full ten seconds, you continue lashing out against the assault.
You refuse to let him stop you.
You step backward.
The wings take you further back- and you pull Whiplash's spike at the same time it starts to reel.
Echo is blown off his feet by his friend's body.
There's a thrum.
You don't even need to look at the helmet's display.
Instinct tells you where to reach. You can feel Ripple in your bones.
She appears with your hand already gripping her skull, already moving. Already executing your next move.
One quick motion. A leg sweep- twist in the spine, and all of your body weight- and her head goes slamming into the asphalt, pinned there by your palm.
Echo thrusts himself back to his feet- or tries.
You point.
The drones slam down on his back, pinning him in place. Hands shoving him down. Even as ghostly, twisting forms try and buck up, out of the way, one of the drones exist purely to block his motions, allow the constructs to break themselves on it.
"Now," You say, your voice low- almost beastial. "How about we negotiate some terms?"
Echo shudders.
The Impossible Dream: 86 (Critical Success)
Status: Bruised and Beaten
Damage: The damage dealt to the wings and Voidwax Launcher are minor. Both will be repaired by the end of the next build phase.
"Daemon, evaluate cameras."
You look back toward your contact- but he's long gone. He'd come out the back door, and there aren't even any windows from the building facing you, that he could be watching through.
"Check the cars for bugs or trackers," You say, and make your way over to the various capes. You strip off Whiplash's bracers, taking a look at the tinkertech gearwork. Your voidwax launcher is still pretty damaged- too damaged to bind your prisoners- but you still have your zip ties for a reason.
You don't know all the details of their powers, but after a bit of analysis from the Daemon- and looking at the recordings- some things are clear.
Echo's power- the boosted projections- originates from the exact same position as his body, and detonate upon any impact. It's limited by his physical ability, and you don't think he can blow through bindings if you apply enough.
'Enough', in this case, means layers of zip-ties and duct-taping his arms to his body. Enough that he can't move his torso at all, really.
Whiplash, with his striker power, should be safe enough with his hands pinned behind his back, stuck on his chest and belted to the floor of the phase carrier.
Ripple… you can't do much about, not in transit. You already have the Hyperforge producing soundproofed walls, in the hopes she won't be able to teleport through it. But you still have the gas canister in the carrier as well- it takes a moment to get her set up. It's not stable over a long time, but it'll do for the drive back to the city.
"Medea, there'll be a bit of an exotic shipment coming back on the Phase Carrier with the supplies. Can you make sure they get to where they need to be?"
"Exotic shipment?" Medea responds. "Oh, I see. Got it. What about you?"
You buckle the seatbelt of your new, black sedan. "Going for a bit of a joyride."
You pat the main drone next to you, which sits in the passenger seat, and take off. Behind you, glowing hand-shaped drones begin to move, one on the wheel and the other on the pedals.
You'll take them somewhere safe, somewhere secure.. .and then scour them for bugs, traps, and data.
Data such as the manilla envelope in the glovebox…. Or the loose hairs stuck in the fabric of the headrests. For how clean the cars are, the Elite have left more than enough samples to pick through.
"According to the genetic data… There's the other half of the cell somewhere in town." You hold up the envelope. "My helmet sensors tracked down some loose hairs that've been in the car, and did some basic genetic testing with our new prisoners. Four more members of the Elite are in town. Or at least, those cars had seven passengers since they were last cleaned, and three of those passengers were our prisoners."
"So that's half the problem gone." Jacey says. "Did we get anything else?
"They had data on me." You say, showing Jacey the envelope. "They had a few of their tinkers take a close look at my gear. They knew exactly where to hit my wings to disable them."
"At least it was a clean cut," Medea frowns. She looks at the envelope too. There's sketches of your equipment, along with notes- written in different hands- about each of them. Most of the notes are type-written, but at least one thinker's gone to it with a pen- at least one in town. It's the pen-writer that noted which of your wing arrays' cables were data cables, and which were power sources. 'Surprisingly lightly-armored', one note says- 'hold back in combat'. Must be why even Whiplash wasn't hitting you too hard.
Then you flip to the next page- a psych profile- and both you and Jacey begin giggling.
Conflict-averse. Paranoid. Attempts to end all encounters peaceably. Recommended to threaten and give a 'hard sell'. You're not sure who they're picking up on, or how they're getting this information… but it's clearly not right.
"So, we've got Whiplash and Echo in secured vaults, and Ripple's in the soundproofed one. I've got some speakers in there giving off a low ultrasound, and she's kinda bouncing off the walls. Her power can't get her out of there." Medea says. "As far as the other two, Whiplash has been using his power to climb the walls, but there's no way he can get out that way. Echo gave up trying to punch his way out a while ago. What did we want to do with them?"
"Could call up the Elite's leader, offer to trade them back to him in exchange for a promise to leave us alone." You say.
She rolls her eyes. "I vote we tank 'em."
You hold back a shudder. "Really?"
"It's a waste not to."
"And if other people ask where they went?"
"Last anyone saw, they were leaving town to face you. You said that your contact ran inside before they even got there?"
"Yeah. Didn't even stay to watch the cape fight." You say. "Looked kinda scared."
"Then simple. You ran away, in accordance with your 'conflict-averse' personality. Never saw them. Who knows where they are now?" She drawls. "Maybe that Coil asshole did something."
"Or we can give them a proper tinkertech scan. They're captive. We'll see if I can get them to cooperate. Extra privileges, promise them freedom or whatever while we have them." You say. "Then I send them to, uh, norway or something."
"If you can convince them. That'd be a lot of work for all three, though, and I'm not sure most of their powers are worth the effort." Jacey counters. "I might take a crack at the sound lady. I'm seeing a sort of matter-to-energy conversion thing going on, and the patterns are pretty interesting."
"With Eris's help, I could probably get them all done." You say.
"Then she's not making us as much money before missing persons reports goes out for all the Empire guys." Jacey counters again.
"Thank you. One more time, location A to B." You say over the radio. Ripple sits, disheveled, in the cell you have her in. She slowly stands, and steps up to the spot on the floor marked 'A'. There's a thrum, and the sensors- both yours and Medea's- register the noise. As she disappears and reappears at location B.
It's just below human audibility, but with the Daemon, the Thinktank, and Eris's report, it's enough to get a good picture of things. Medea dials in a few details and punches in a few numbers.
"Look, I deconverted the waveform back into a pseudo-physical clone." Medea grins. You glance at it- and you can see Ripple's form, echoed multiple times along the path, blurred. "There's a strange kind of shift mid-way through, and I think that's the sound of her thinking!" Medea grins.
"So she's not only turning into sound to move, but she's actually conscious during the process?"
"Yeah. I think. In fact…" Medea types a bit on the system, writing a quick program. Then she takes the mic from you. "Ripple, step to location A. Then use your power. As soon as you're gone, the screen will display which location you should land at."
Ripple disappears- and that triggers the system to show her the letter D. She reappears at location D, the back left corner of the testing chamber.
"Yeah. She's conscious during it. Even more, I got a better hint of how the thought process works." She says. "I might be able to use this. Develop a defensive reverberation system, keep turkey-bitch's power at bay."
"Really? Anti-simurgh tech?"
"I'll need a copy of your anti-time thinkery tech," She adds, stretching. "But yeah. I've got stuff to do before I can work on that. Build my molting tank, then finish Rulebreaker. It's a good thing you recovered a bunch of those weather machines- the parts will definitely come in handy."
"No problem," You drawl back, and she leans close to kiss your cheek. You take up the mic. "That will be all for today, Ripple. Thank you for your assistance. I've got an appointment with Uppercrust later, and we'll discuss what will happen."
Ripple turns to you, and slowly nods.
"If you don't let us go," She responds, eyes boring a hole into the one-way mirror. "And soon, you aren't going to like what will happen."
"Yeah, we know." Glory Girl responds.
"You do?"
"They've been in town for months. Since like, you came out with that hyperforge thing. They started trying to dig their way in since the new year."
"Really?" You ask. That is about when you started getting the email from them…
"Yeah. They already talked that doll lady into joining them. Pariah? Preen? Something like that. The one with the stuffed animals." She says. "She's still doing her charity work, but she's openly with them now."
"What about you guys? Will you be fine?"
"Oh, of course. The PRT's ready to protect us if the Elite try to strongarm us, but it looks like this group is one of the friendly ones. I know their tinker is doing what she can to repair the rig's forcefield generator. She's got the schematics and Armsmaster helping her and everything."
You pause. "Friendly?"
"Yeah. Why, did… did they attack you?"
"They threatened me. Gave me a week to get out of town if I didn't join up."
"That's weird." She says. "I'll ask my aunt about that, see what's going on. If you need anything, just call, okay?"
"Yeah." You say. Glory Girl hangs up, and you stare at the phone for a moment. You start to make more calls- and with each call, it just reinforces what Glory Girl had said- The Elite are taking the soft approach with everyone.
Everyone except you.
Echo's power, strangely enough, is temporal in nature. It's some kind of… autonomous paradox clone from a future that doesn't exist. It's fascinating… but it's making studying him kind of difficult. Your TIG is causing too much noise, so most of the scanning is Eris ordering him about in front of your scanners, and then you go back to look at the data, leave notes for Eris, and then come back later. It's making things take much longer than you'd expected.
Most of that time, you've spent instead building the tower. It is what your power wants made, after all.
It's taken a lot of small doohickeys, small gadgets- tools to build tools. The Hyperforge has been working hard- it's not replicating things so much as atomically forging miniscule circuitry, devices on a molecular scale. But now you're almost ready.
The shining drone is emitting its forcefield, but instead of projecting a drone, you have it projecting a large hollow prism shape- the shape is filled with the chemicals and fluids you'd purchased from your contact, with a dozen long wires of exotic alloys stretching from the top of the prism to the bottom. At a dozen points around, the small gadgets- similar ones, resonators of some kind- are all clamped in place, ready to activate. Intuitively, you can feel your power making you twist dials, switch controls. Plug cabling together. You're barely piloting your own body at this point… but you can feel the small grin on your face isn't entirely your own, either.
"Ready." You tell the Daemon. "Initiate in three…"
You trail off… and pull the lever, shoving power into the resonators. They hum, slowly, and then begin to buzz. The shining drone's forcefield slowly begins to rotate, and the resonators seem to be… solidifying the crystal from the inside out, locking the wires in place. Slowly, it rotates. Slowly, the resonators are burning out, shaking themselves apart. And the TIG continues to stay at 100%, jamming whatever hyper-powered cape is trying to observe you.
"Inertial anchoring. He can anchor things to his own body, or relative to the world. He can even anchor his own clothes, allowing for tricks like walking up nothing by anchoring each shoe in sequence." Eris says, reporting on Whiplash's power. The sensors make sense, as well, but the data is somehow lacking. "That said, though, He's… not cooperating."
"He's not?"
"No matter how much I needle him, or how much I talk, he's strangely stubborn. He seems to hate the idea of anything even closely associated with you." She says. "... Which doesn't make sense to me. He's not from here, and hasn't had any-" She pauses, and stops.
"What?"
"There's a chance he's been Mastered." She says. "I mean… 60, 70 percent chance I'm right. It explains why he's angry toward you. Unless you remind him of some traumatic event, which I could also see." She says.
You sigh. "Alright, thank you. I'll leave it there. You can get back to robbing what's left of the Empire. I've got to call Uppercrust."
She nods, and you make your way to the phone.
"So. You've been trying to get into contact with me." Uppercrust says. "Icarus, yes?"
"Yes."
"A portion of the Brockton Bay cell came to meet with you." He says. "And now they're missing."
"Yes. They threatened me, and I protected myself." You say. "They're alive. Currently apprehended."
"Yeah? You have the power to arrest and hold a group of rogues?" He asks. "I didn't know you were PRT-affiliated."
"I'm not-"
"Then you're kidnapping." He responds.
You take a deep breath. "... I was trying to contact you in an attempt to make peace. Come to a detente. Live or let live. And to those ends, I'm willing to release them back to you instead of sending them to the PRT."
"Send them to the PRT? For what crimes?" He asked. "Neither Echo, Ripple, or Whiplash are wanted for anything. They are completely crimeless independent capes." He says.
"They came to me-"
"Which is what your footage will show, I'm sure. But I have very well-funded lawyers, and it's entirely possible for a tinker of your caliber to falsify data. Especially considering the delay. None of them will see a day in prison." He responds. "... You're making a mistake, kid. You want allies- and you're making enemies here. I'd recommend you release my boys as soon as possible. Don't make this whole thing turn you into a villain. You don't want to be seen as the Yangban, do you?"
You start to respond- and he hangs up. The line goes dead.
You stare at the data. Even after this week, the crystal's only halfway done, and you don't have any of Whiplash's data. You didn't even have a chance to tell Uppercrust about Eris's theory.
Negotiation: 12 (Severe failure)
Data gained: Echo, Ripple
Affinity: -1 (45)