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You take a deep breath, focus on anywhere but that beautiful, sexy crystal and meet Professor Ranes' eyes.
"I intend to make it a weapon."
That draws a frown from the 'Director' who can't be anyone other that Director Cross of the New York PRT but Professor Ranes motions for you to continue and you continue eagerly, "I intend to use it to defeat the monsters would harm innocent people, the scum who would cheat honest men and women of their rightful rewards."
You glance at the crystal, "I want to destroy the monsters, and then when I am done, I will use the crystal to make this world better." You glare at Director Cross for a moment, "And I wont let anyone get in my way. I want to see a world where we don't need costumes heroes to deal with villains, I want a world where powers aren't a source of prejudice or mindless adulation."
Your gaze sweeps back to Professor Ranes, "That, is what the crystal will be used for."
There is silence and you feel yourself breathing slightly heavier than normal from your little speech, but you keep your eyes locked with Professor Ranes.
Finally, he nods with a smile, "I see I was right to wait. Miss Williams, the crystal is yours. I'll box it up for you."
Director Cross sniffs, "You're making a mistake Ranes, a big one."
"We shall see, won't we?"
You have acquired: Mysterious Crystal!
Secret Achievement Unlocked: Fallen Star
Acquired the Mysterious Crystal
Reward: Fractal Seed Plans - You figured out designs for bombs and warheads made from the 'leaves' and 'flowers' of the crystal.
The return back to your apartment is a happy one and you make yourself a fine meal in celebration and spend some time with your guilty pleasure, Earth-Aleph romantic comedy shows, until it is time for bed.
The next day, you open the crate containing the crystal to find that the leaves and flowers have now choked the inside of the crate. After carefully extracting the crystal, you find that it's mass and weight hasn't changed despite the fact that there must be several kilograms of fractal 'plant' matter inside the crate.
Breaking out some tools, you quickly harvest the flexible leaves and the hard, warm buds inside the flowers.
+90 Esoterics
The crystal has already started to grow more leaves and flowers, so you need to decide how to deal with this.
[]Prune them neatly: Treating the crystal like a proper plant will net you +50 Esoterics a day but growth will be slower.
[]Prune them harshly: Cutting the growth back fiercely will net you +160 Esoterics a day but encourage fiercer regrowth that might spread wildly.
[]Break Up the Crystal: Shattering the crystal will give you a one-time +1000 Esoterics, but who knows what will happen with the shards.
There's also the junkyard and recycling yard deals.
-Recycling Center: $200 per 20 units of Chemicals, available for 6 days.
-Junkyard: $50 per 100 units of Scrap and Electronic Parts, available for 8 days.
[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YmNxXuhHNk[/embed] [X] Plan Bii
[X]Prune them neatly: Treating the crystal like a proper plant will net you +50 Esoterics a day but growth will be slower.
[X]Acquire more resources
-[X]Spend $300 for 20 units of Chemicals, 200 units of Scrap and Electronic Parts
[X]Start work on a modest power armor meant to protect your squishy body.
[X] Plan Bii
[X]Prune them neatly: Treating the crystal like a proper plant will net you +50 Esoterics a day but growth will be slower.
-[X] Buy a book on the practice of Bonsai.
[X]Acquire more resources
-[X]Spend $300 for 20 units of Chemicals, 200 units of Scrap and Electronic Parts
[X]Start work on a modest power armor meant to protect your squishy body.
[X] Plan Bii
[X]Prune them neatly: Treating the crystal like a proper plant will net you +50 Esoterics a day but growth will be slower.
-[X] Buy a book on the practice of Bonsai.
[X]Acquire more resources
-[X]Spend $300 for 20 units of Chemicals, 200 units of Scrap and Electronic Parts
[X]Start work on a modest power armor meant to protect your squishy body.
You remember Mom giving you some gardening tools in case you ever decide to take care of plants. You never used them and as you rummage in a closet for them, you find that you never used them to the point that they're still in their original packaging. Unpacking them, you bring them back down stairs and give the crystal a quick pruning to slow the growth. You may not garden, but Mom made it clear that you knew how, just in case.
+50 Esoterics
With the crystal's growth now visibly slowing, you place it somewhere it can get some light and act as a conversation piece before placing your prunings with the rest in the crate you brought the crystal in, before grabbing your keys again and heading out to the local Junkyard and Recycling Centre.
-$300
Being a local celebrity has it's advantages, as is having a spotless criminal record. One quick check and the Recycling Centre was more than happy to sell you a large amount of potentially explosive chemicals while the Junkyard had more than enough electronics to satisfy you alongside a goodly amount of scrap metal.
You draw some looks from your neighbours, but a quick explanation of 'Making some modern art' draws nods and some amused murmurings of getting earplugs.
Which does raise a point, you can't work in your apartment for long, you need somewhere more secure to make stuff just in case. Lee might have people watching you, or he could have his own means to watch you. If he has powers, there's no telling what he could be capable of doing.
You grab your sketchpads and pencils and sit down with cartoons playing, power humming in your mind as you plan and create a means to protect yourself.
[]Roll 1d100-15 to find a hideout, best out of five will be used.
Pick one power armour design:
[]Liquid Mesh Suit: 30 Chemical, 120 Esoterics, 90 Electronic Parts.
This semi-solid concealing full-body suit heightens reflexes and strength to low-level Parahuman levels and is functionally bullet and knife-proof.
Damage Reduction: 3.
Special Ability: Mimetic Stealth - As an action, you can employ the suit's stealth functions, matching background images and textures exactly by remaining perfectly still. This defeats all conventional detection mechanisms. MUST BE STATED IN AN ACTION! THIS IS NOT AUTOMATIC!
Pros: Stealth functions, self-maintaining, full identity protection, can be literally made in your bathtub.
Cons: Cannot wear clothing underneath or over the suit. Your designs and power indicates that extended use will be...uncomfortable. Will not stand up to direct combat.
[]Sneaker Covert Power Suit: 120 Scrap, 150 Electronic Parts, 80 Esoterics, 15 Chemicals.
This suit is built to look like a relatively thickly-layered ensemble of casual clothing with long coat and a full-body interface suit for underwear. It offers no identity concealment, but is capable of matching Low and Mid-level Brutes blow for blow in strength and durability and contains sophisticated threat sensors that predict possible threats.
Damage Reduction: 5
Special Ability: Predictive Threat Avoidance - Fully assembled, the suit can predict inbound threats a high degree of accuracy thanks to near-precognitive prediction systems. On a roll of 4+ on a d6, the suit automatically moves your body to avoid *any* attack.
Pros: It looks stylish, can be made extremely quickly thanks to needing to convert clothing. Won't attract attention in use.
Cons: Hand-wash only, must be worn fully for PTA system to operate, requires 2 hours of maintenance a month, no facial concealment.
[]Lawmaker Combat Power Armour: 400 Scrap, 400 Electronic Parts, 100 Esoterics, 80 Isotopes, 20 Chemicals
A full suit of visible power armour containing Shock-Pulse Projectors, Kinetic Detonators, Inertial Redirectors and sufficient strength and reflex enhancements that you can take on a high-level Brute and have a reasonable chance of actually winning.
Damage Reduction: 8
Shock-Pulse Projector: Electrical 3E
Kinetic Detonators: Impact 3D
Special Ability: Inertial Redirectors - All things have inertia that dictate their movement. Inertial Redirectors allow the suit to redirect any attack that is in motion, from fists to bullets to energy beams, away from the suit once per combat turn automatically.
Pros: It's intimidating, classical power armour from the Pre-Cape era of comics plus some Earth Aleph stuff you have.
Cons: 6 Hours of maintenance per month, difficult to hide, has no means to hide the face if the helmet is removed.
[X] Roll 1d100-15 to find a hideout, best out of five will be used.
[blockquote]Rolled 1d100-15 : 28 - 15, total 13[/blockquote]
[X] Lawmaker Combat Power Armour: 400 Scrap, 400 Electronic Parts, 100 Esoterics, 80 Isotopes, 20 Chemicals
If we choose something else, we can make the Lawmaker later, right? I'm thinking for now we'll probably want something we can shop in, not something to blow our enemies to bits.
Also, since there is no fifth roll yet even though I probably won't beat 80:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d100-15 : 82 - 15, total 67[/blockquote]
Just so you know, Gideon020, the "we can make the Lawmaker later, right?" was a question towards you. On the assumption that we can, tentatively voting:
[X]Sneaker Covert Power Suit