You want to save people. You're going to start with yourself. Once you get your GED, you'll never need to deal with The Trio again. While you're at the library, might as well do some research to see exactly what you're up against. After you've had a productive morning, it's back to the arcade to see if you actually have new friends or if it was just a one-time thing. It's a plan!
GED is pretty straightforward. There's an exam you can study for. It isn't a particularly high standard, either. If you put in some time every day, you feel like you could probably handle it in a month or two (roll 1d30 plus the number of times after this that you've spent studying this, need a 30 to pass the test. May only attempt the test once per month).
You consider creating a PHO account, but decide not to quite yet. Mostly, you're just not sure what username you want to use, especially since it'll probably become tagged as a cape account eventually. For that matter, you're not sure what your cape name should be.
There are four major villain factions in Brockton Bay, plus some independents. Most of this you already know, but haven't considered this in the context of your power yet.
The ABB holds the docks. You're not even slightly asian, so they'd attack you on sight whether or not you were there as a cape. The difference is whether they'd try to rape or murder you. Not fun either way. Fighting Lung is a bad idea, at least for now -- there's probably some kind of Tinkertech you could copy that could deal with him, you just don't know what it is. Maybe a sedative or restraint foam in the lungs before he changes too much. Oni Lee is also likely to a be a problem before you grab some more gear, but you could probably copy his grenades if they didn't kill you first.
The Merchants will attack you if you enter their turf unless you join them -- not something you're willing to do. They're druggies and they take sex slaves. Scum who need to be taken down to save others. Skidmark and Mush are useless to you, and Mush is gross. You're fairly certain that you don't have enough prana to copy any of Squealer's vehicle's yet, even if you copied them. Might be worth doing eventually if you can build up your prana capacity over time.
Coil's organization holds territory, but they don't really do much to hurt people. As villains go, you're okay with waiting on dealing with them. He's supposed to have mundane soldiers with some Tinker-made guns, sort of like a nega-PRT. If you spot his soldiers, you can probably copy some gear off of them, but they only appear for defense and during operations, and you don't really want to attack there yet.
Finally (at least among the groups that hold territory), there's the Empire-88. It's the fucking Nazis. On the bright side, you're white, so you'll probably be safe in their territory until you start attacking them, and still safe in civilian guise even after that. You could easily join them, but again, it's the fucking Nazis. Not happening. You can't think of much in the way of useful stuff to copy from them, either. You could grab some giant weaponry from Fenja and Menja, you guess, but they don't have any fun Tinkertoys to clone. Much as you hate to admit it, their territory is pretty safe, at least as long as you're white, and there aren't many non-white people dense enough to still be in their territory after all these decades.
First of the groups that don't hold territory is the Travelers. They're new in town, but again, no fun gear. They're supposed to be mercenary, so nobody needs to be saved from them yet.
Next, the Undersiders. Small-time crooks, no awesome gear. They try to minimize civilian involvement and don't have any fun gear either. Robbed a casino a few nights ago, but they've been lying low since then, and again, minimal civilian involvement. They need to go down eventually, but you can also wait on them.
Finally, there's Uber and Leet. They've done some nasty stuff, like the time they beat a woman to death, but that was a few years back and they haven't anything like that in a while. Apparently that was for a Grand Theft Auto video. Makes sense, but still bad. Leet has all kinds of fun toys that you'd love a chance to copy, but there's no way to tell where they are until they start streaming. If you subscribe and keep an eye out, you should be able to track them down as soon as they next start filming.
For heroes, there's New Wave, the Protectorate and the wards, and the PRT. New Wave as useless to you, but the PRT has restraint foam, which should be incredibly useful. Between the Protectorate and the Wards, there's Armsmaster and Kid Win. Kid Win has those stun guns for ranged, and Armsmaster has some awesome powered armor and that halberd. With those as primary weapons, you could probably take on anything in Brockton Bay shy of Lung and Kaiser. The Protectorate might have an issue with you copying that gear if you don't register as a hero first, though.
You're pretty sure those are all the major players in town. There's a chance you might have forgotten one or two, though.
As it turns out, you DO have real friends again! Daniel and Ted are both at the arcade by the time you get there. Apparently, Tetris has a multiplayer mode where two blocks drop on the same field, with each player controlling one of them. You cycle through with them for a few hours. Daniel's significantly better than Ted at the game, but they're both quite skilled. You spend a lot more time watching than playing despite the fact that you play two rounds out of three.
"Interested in being Internet Famous?" Daniel asks after a while. "Ted and I have a Youtube channel. Video-game themed, of course. You'll get a cut of the ad revenue."
"We're thinking Metroid," Ted adds.
Noticing your confusion, Daniel explains. "Exploration game featuring a girl in powered armor. Normally I'd play the protagonist, but that just doesn't seem right in this case."
Response?:
[ ] Yes! These are your friends, and this is a good chance to copy some powered armor.
[ ] Wait… two guys with Tinkertech and a video game stream? Are you secretly Uber and Leet?
[ ] Not that you don't want to do this, but you don't think you have the time. You need to study for your GED.
What about a cape name and a PHO username?
[ ] Write-in. No urgency, but you won't log in to PHO until you decide on a name.
What to do tonight?
[ ] Gotta save someone. Even if you just fight unpowered people, you can help!
[ ] Sneak out at night to gear up. Gotta get ready so you can save people from capes.
[ ] Sleep. If you stay up all night, you'll be dead on your feet if you go jogging, or you'll have to sleep in and miss it. Either way, you're not ready and can better spend your time sleeping.
