AN: Haha, this is a good example of a time the players did something I didn't expect.
"Alright. Now, this'll be a bit finicky," You say, and pull out the needle. Devin leans back, eyebrows raised.
"The hell is that?"
"Tinkertech." You say. "I give you an injection, and you get power immunity for a short time. It won't last more than a few seconds, but it's enough that the collar will pop. Then we can get you out of here.
"Shit, you're a tinker? Hell yeah." He says. "Almost like I'm back at MedCent. Have to get used to giant needles there."
"Lean close, and close your eyes," You say. He does.
You twist an empty vial onto the back of the device, and plunge the tip of the needle into his ear. He flinches a little, his eyes shimmering colors- and then you extract his power.
His needles quiver, and his tail writhes for a moment- and as you watch, they begin retracting, turning to ash- and he hisses- ripping himself away from the needle.
"It f-fucking h-hurts," He writhes for a moment, fingers and hands seizing.
Then, he slumps on the toilet, arms and legs limp. Slowly, carefully, he opens his eyes.
"W-was that it?" He asks. He glances at his own neck. "Shit. The collar's still here."
"Yeah," You say. "There's another step."
He looks up- and doesn't have time to react as you plunge the sharpened end of the broomstick into his neck, through the hole in the door. Devin falls back, ripping at it, trying to scream. He rips it from his neck- and almost instantly loses consciousness, bleeding out in the bathroom stall he'd been trapped in.
You turn, and leave the bathroom behind. You'd been hoping for something more than a political prisoner- someone who wasn't loyal to any of the gangs.
It might be harder to find a cape like that than most…
But you glance down at the vial, before pocketing it.
You don't need a cape anymore.
Katie flickers through the room, picking up her various 'inventoried' items and vanishing them into her otherspace, more than happy to have her power back.
"A normal trigger situation would have the power reconfigure itself to fit you," You say. "But since I just put it into stasis, I've effectively tricked it into thinking that you pretty much… kinda went to sleep and woke up later."
"So someone else would have the same exact copy of my power as I did?" She asks.
"Yep," You say. "Unless it was fused with something, The power would even think that you were still the owner. Might even get confused about the new user was acting differently," You say, and finish hooking the wires up to the CRT monitor. It whines, and then you're looking at a mostly-black screen.
"Wait, powers can think?"
"Not sure," You shrug. "Anyway, come on in here."
She speeds up to a walk- and then flickers into your tinker workshop. "What is it?"
"This in your mouth, touching the top of your palate," You say, handing her a once-digital thermometer, connected to a long wire, and then a different scanner that used to be a camera. "Hold this against your left temple. Right there."
"O-okay?"
She asks, doing it exactly. You type a few words into your new device- your analyser- and then it runs, old harddrive clicking as it does, a mason jar crackling with red lightning as it draws information from her power.
The screen chirps, and then displays its results.
"Allows the user and inanimate objects they carry to temporarily shift into an alternate plane of existence with unusual interactions with the user's home dimension. While moving at significant speed, The user will reappear at a significantly further distance effectively teleporting. While stationary, the user can leave behind physical objects. Time does not pass in the alternate plane while stationary," You say. "Then there's some more details here. Raw numbers, I think they're the speeds it'll take you to travel certain distances, based on some factor I can't tell."
"... A hundred forty miles per hour to get out of here," She says, taking the scanner out of her mouth. "If I'm lucky and this 'factor' is high. And I'm fine getting out alone."
"If I work on it more, I'll get more details," You say. Then, carefully, you scan yourself. "What's it say?"
"Ineligible Target," Katie says. "Likely immunity to … Shard… Shardspace Spoofing and Intrusion? Do not attempt Power Extraction or Injection." She says. "The letters are all flickering."
"Yeah, like I thought." You say. "I had an impression that most of my stuff won't work on me, but.. Thought I'd try."
That said, you finally place the vial on the table, into a clamp designed for it- wires hanging from both ends of the clamp. The vial sparks for a moment.
"Grants low-level physical shapeshifting ability. Allows the user to perfectly blend into one's environment by altering exact color pigments of skin. Enhances the target with thermal vision, improved physical strength, improved physical agility, improved reaction times, a tail for improved balance, and inherent natural weapons." You say. "It says 'improved', but I'm not sure by how much. If I had more time and materials, I could make it a bit smarter and get some exact terms on it."
"... Wait." She says. "What about Michael?"
"Think we could convince him over here?" You ask. She frowns, and shakes her head.
"Yeah, I don't wanna force him…" She says.
"I'll grab some longer cables for the sensor," You say.
"Grants the user electrokinetic abilities from a limited pool of energy that slowly regrows. Absorbs various energy sources to recharge the limited pool. Also grants advanced sensory abilities." You say, walking out of your tinker room, to where Katie has the scanning devices carefully held against your brother's head. "That's it."
"That's it?" She asks. "Nothing about… you know?"
"A lot of it was garbage noise," You say. "But that's all I could gather. With this version of the machine, anyway."
"Well, fuck." She says.
Suddenly, there's a loud knock on the door. Katie all but throws herself behind the sofa, hiding behind it, despite the windows being similarly barricaded.
Carefully, you creep toward the front door, peeking out of the peephole. Your door had been reinforced years ago, as had the windows- the building clearly has been modified for someone to live here… And you relax.
"It's Dave." You whisper. She throws up a thumbs up, but then throws a blanket over herself, just in case.
You unbolt the door and open it up.
"Hey, Dave."
"Lucas." He says. "Sorry, but I've got some pretty bad news for you."
"What is it?"
"It sounds like you're losing your place as a carrier," He says. "You haven't been in in weeks, and there's all sorts of shit going on with Tyrant now. Garcia heard about that time I let you through a few days ago, and she's worried that might be one of the reasons why."
"What?" You ask. "What happened?"
"Someone from MedCent went into DFC disguised as one of us two days ago," He says. "Killed some people. Tyrant's on the warpath now. This might even reignite the gang war."
"Fuck," You say. That… might have been you. "Anything we can do?"
"No, just keep your head down." He says. "Oh! And even though she's pretty much firing you, I was able to talk her into giving you a bit more water. Severance pay, I guess."
He slides over a wagonfull of bleach containers- emptied and refilled with water, to keep them from growing shit for a while- and hands you two of them.
"Thanks," you say. "Anything else?"
"Just the typical warning. You know the stuff we have to keep secret- courier routes and the underground paths, mostly. If that stuff gets out, we'll know who, and then you won't even be able to trade for supplies."
"Yeah, I know." You say.
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news," Dave says. "But it sounds like you're busy with stuff anyway. This'll probably be for the best."
"Yeah. You be careful too, okay?" You ask. "And if something happens, hit me up."
He grins. "Yeah, I'll leave you to it." He claps a hand on your shoulder, and heads on out.
You shut and bar the door again, and turn back to Katie.
"What was that?"
"A pink slip," You say. "I'm not a waterboy anymore."
"Knew that was coming," She says, and you shrug.
"Alright. So we didn't get a new recruit. But we got a vial," She says. "What now? I … Might know a few people that might want out of the Firebirds, if we really need more people."
"Yeah, but they might be on high alert, after, you know," You shake the vial.
She frowns, but nods.
"... Hey, while we're lying low," She says. "You need a name."
"A name?"
"Yeah." She responds. "I'll need to call you something other than Lucas. Most people don't hide your identity, but it's best if you do. You'll need a proper cape name." She says. "Maybe something like Big Prick."
"What? Hey," You say.
"Because of the needle," She giggles. You roll your eyes.
Materials: 2
Supplies: 7 (3 weeks)
Tinkering: Nothing.
[] [Tinker] Upgrade the Injector (-6 Materials)
[] [Tinker] Upgrade the Workbench (-6 Materials)
[] [Tinker] Upgrade the Analyser. (-6 Materials)
[] [Tinker] Construct the Centrifuge. (-3 Materials)
[] [Tinker] Don't build anything.
[] [Plan] You know a few people from the waterboys who might want out, especially if the war's starting up again. Meet with them.
[] [Plan] You and Skipper go scavenging. With the two of you together, you can carry a lot more.
[] [Plan] It might be worth selling your services… Scout out the Highway and MedCent to see how they might react.
[] [Plan] Something else? (Write-in)
[] [Name] Alchemist. What? It fits.
[] [Name] Solomon.
[] [Name] … Prick.
[] [Name] Something else? (Write-in)
