Ascent 2.3

The next morning, I made breakfast while the others slept. I turned on the tv and checked out some cartoons while I ate, but didn't really find anything too intriguing. Instead, I browsed PHO for a bit of news and general wiki walking. Once they woke, we quickly set out to the lab, this time bringing along some of my new clothes to modify into costumes.

I started, as always, with my usual studies. The telekinesis scan data had proven interesting, so I focused on that for an hour.

Science Check(Int): Rolled 5+2 vs. difficulty 13. Fail.

Frustrated at a snarl of confusing calculus, I decided not to devote more time to the problem. I needed to reverse engineer a few items today, not to mention getting Coil a list of materials I would need.

I pulled my backpack over to the nanotech station, then dug through it for the survival kit. Taking out the radio, I popped out its power cell and set it on the table in front of me. Such a simple, innocuous device; it looked like a cobalt-blue C battery, with a small display along the side that gave a power reading via simple, idiot-proof bar graphic.

One cell could fuel multiple firings of high-energy weaponry, power powered armors and forcefield arrays for a full day, regardless of workload, and could be charged in under an hour by most high-output power sources, assuming you had a charger.

I didn't have a charger, but I did have an example of what the contacts looked like; enough to figure out how to charge it. All I had to do was not make one of the two cells I had catastrophically fail while I reverse engineered it, and I would be able to give the entire world portable, cheap, high-grade power storage. Even if I died tonight, having plans left behind for that kind of device alone could make post-GM that much easier to recover from, with more portable water purifiers and medical equipment, cheaper vehicles and electronics, and broad universal compatibility between power sources. At least, assuming anyone found and acted on them.

I popped out a spreader from my metatool and got to work dismantling the device.

Tech/Pretech Check(Int): Rolled 9+1 vs. difficulty 9. Pass.

It was surprisingly easy work. The outer shell came off easily. Inside, it housed a cylinder with a small wedge cut out for the display circuit, and a bit of tech capping its contact end. The main body of the cylinder was one solid mass of something black and glossy, probably an epoxy of some sort to insulate the cell. The top assembly seemed to be a power transfer system that allowed it to gauge and moderate power output, but beneath that, it looked strangely hollow. I turned it over, and the reason why was immediately apparent.

The bottom was coated in the same insulating epoxy, which turned out to be clear. The cell itself was mostly filled with a light-warping translucent crystal lattice, which I could see partway through before it became too clouded. The black substance, which I now suspected was at least partially graphene, extended densely packed fractal trees through the crystal in a radial pattern, and a metallic rod extended similar, even finer fractals from plates, fanning outward from the core in a stairstep pattern.

No wonder it was so stable, so energy-dense. It was basically just an incredibly efficient combination of a battery and a supercapacitor, with a solid crystal forming some kind of electrolyte layer between. You could just water-cut sections out of a steadily-produced tube of the material, then add the end cap to turn the inert chunk of material into an infinitely rechargeable battery for a relatively cheap cost per unit.

Which was all well and good, but I still had to figure out the manufacturing process for said tube of material if I was going to get anything done today.

Looks like I had my work cut out for me.

Chatting with Players...

"Tonight, our target is a tenement complex the Bad Boyz use as a dealer house," Krieg said to the assembled group, his accent refined, some mix of British and German. "Chances are good that the tinker has rigged the entire tenement's population with explosives. Do not let your guard down. Do not take chances. Disable if necessary, but remember; the people gathered here are your allies in this fight, not them."

He may be a Nazi, but he made a good speech. Ballistic and I exchanged quick looks, and I shrugged. We both knew this speech was purely for our sake; Alabaster and Rune didn't need to be told to go hard on Asians. "I get it," I said. "No endangering other capes. Ballistic and Rune take down the building once everyone is out, and the three of us focus on… controlling the horde."

Krieg nodded, and Alabaster smirked at my word choice. Ballistic said nothing, his squared-off helmet stoic as he looked down.

Rune sighed from her floating chunk of pavement. "Can we go now? I think they get the picture, Krieg."

"Yes, let us begin. The tenement is a few blocks from here. Rune, if you would?"

"My pleasure," she said, jumping off her previous rock. A moment later, lines traced outward from her landing point, scrawling across the asphalt to trace eldritch-looking mazes and, well, runes. They coated a chunk of pavement the size of a car, then stopped after about thirty seconds. The chunk abruptly lifted into the air, breaking loose from the alley street, sending Ballistic, Alabaster and I wobbling while Krieg and Rune remained stable; Krieg was cheating with his powers, had to be, though I didn't remember much about them. The previous chunk took up a lazy orbit as Rune carefully accelerated down the road, giving her passengers time to get low and steady.

"Left, then right two blocks down," Krieg said while standing tall at the forefront of the platform, his wine-red German Army uniform flapping in the wind as he folded his hands behind him. "A right one block after, it will be on the left. I believe the name was Pleasant Ridge." He scoffed. "Not a very accurate name, as you'll see."

Rune followed the directions to the letter, staying low to the ground and executing wide turns that kept momentum constant; a fairly smooth ride, all considered. Soon I could see the tenement complex, and boy, was Krieg right. They looked like they'd been left out in the sun too long. Peeling yellow paint, chipped plaster stucco, and dim yellow lighting made for one very drab and dismal location. In a nicer part of town, the area might even have been better off for the building's upcoming demolition; here, though, all that we would accomplish would be depriving the Docks of living space, and displacing hundreds of Asian residents who didn't deserve this.

Which, I guess, was the whole point of this thinly veiled E88 land grab, and really the gang war as a whole.

We dismounted the rocks at the edge of the lot, roughly sixty feet from the door, leaving Rune and Ballistic to fly around the back and wait for our signal. I considered my arsenal; tonight, I was dressed as a member of the Stillwater SWAT team, complete with riot gear and nonlethal weapons. I had been encouraged to leave the bow; instead, I was carrying a few tear gas grenades, a nightstick, a pistol with two magazines of rubber rounds (and one regular ammunition; I needed lethal options in case of capes), my monoknife, the Stun Gun, and a riot shield, along with my medical kit and monotool for emergencies. I decided that the pistol would be my last resort, despite being the weapon I had the most familiarity with. Instead, I pulled out the Stun Gun and raising my shield.

Krieg strode forward. "Let's draw them out, shall we?" he said. "I'll knock."

The Nazi stomped, sending a piece of rubble flying straight up. He followed that with a well-timed punch, sending it flying through the glass doors of the complex, shattering the quiet of the night. Shouting and sounds of alarm followed shortly. I tightened my grip on the Stun Gun.

From the remnants of the front door, several men in red and green poured out. Lights were flicking on across the complex. We started advancing towards the thugs. With a glance, I activated my telekinetic powers. For the next five minutes, I had line-of-sight super Mage Hand. I dd what any telekinetic should learn to do first and foremost: I used the power to deliver a grenade to a very specific spot without needing to risk a bad throw. In this case, a tear gas grenade flew through the now-open doors, pulled its own switch, and began dispensing its payload into the main lobby.

-1 PP, 5/6 remaining.

It was just too bad the rules heavily penalized stealing weapons from people with TK; failure meant the duration of the power ended immediately. That meant when the fastest member of the ABB headed for the least notorious cape in the group, I had to raise my shield to prevent his baseball bat from breaking my ribs. I grit my teeth at the impact of the bat as it skidded off the ballistic plastic, then leveled the Stun Gun.

Rolled 18-1+7= 24/20. Hit.

The man collapsed, his body suddenly having an epileptic fit as a bolt of pure electricity overloaded his nervous system. Probably left a nasty burn too, if the impact point smoking like that was any indication. Unlike the game, thankfully, the man fell into unconsciousness a moment later, his breaths steady and only moderately wheezy. I resisted the urge to help the man, instead walking over him in my advance towards the door.

Krieg, for his part, was already there. A man who had formerly been the proud owner of a pistol was currently suspended off the ground by one hand, struggling for breath like he was having an asthma attack. The cape threw him back into the tear gas. Alabaster had already rendered the other two men unconscious with his batons. We moved up.

"We're trying to get them out of the building, Krieg," I commented without thinking.

"Oh? Is that why you've blocked their line of sight to the exits?" he shot back coolly. "Yes, they are incapacitated in there, but now we must wait for them to come out."

...I felt like an idiot. Of course I fucked up. I'd been thinking about incapacitating people safely, and the tear gas had seemed like a quick and easy solution mere moments ago. I wasn't really thinking about the endgame. "...Shit," I concluded aloud. "My apologies, then."

We backed off from the door. While the other two chatted, I started really thinking about the situation. I'd have about three minutes of telekinesis left when the gas cleared enough to enter, and most of the bottom floor would likely be incapacitated at the time. We'd have to go in there and drag out the ones who were too overcome by the burning in their mucous membranes to move. The problem was, this was a tall building with a large number of apartments, and while everyone inside was almost certainly a Bakuda bomb-slave, there was no guarantee they'd come outside and fight if they could cower and pretend they were somewhere else instead. I needed to drive them out of the building more quickly, then take them down as they left.

An idea began to form.

"Hey," I called over to the Nazis. "Why don't we tell them the building is coming down?"

They ignored me. I asked again, louder.

"Why bother?" Alabaster replied in a tone that explicitly stated that I wasn't worth his time.

"Well, we want them out fast, right? You guys seem pretty done with this whole thing already, and I don't want anyone dead. So let's break the windows, tell them to evacuate everyone or we bring the building down on top of them, and get the others to shake the building a bit. I've got three more gas grenades; when they come out, I can toss them into the crowd. Then we just sit back and fight anyone who escapes. One lot full of coughing civvies in no time flat."

Tactics Check(Int): Rolled 7+1 vs. difficulty 7. Pass.

"That may work," Krieg conceded. "It's certainly more effort, but I find that an idle hand is a dangerous thing. I will contact Rune. You two begin breaking windows."

Alabaster nodded, pulled one of his pistols, and began shooting out windows from the top floor down. I used telekinesis to grab a rock and punch them out from the bottom up. More than a few screams happened while we worked, and I hoped nobody had been too close to the glass when we'd started.

By the time the gas inside began to thin out, the windows were toast. Krieg opened his mouth, and his voice boomed like only a kinetic manipulator's could. Or, well, I guess Triumph could do it. Or Screamer. Really, any cape with sonic powers. I mentally shrugged and focused on the task.

"…THE BUILDING COLLAPSES. COME OUT, SCUM!" he finished. I grit my teeth behind my mask. I came from the South, so racism wasn't uncommon for me to hear and see; it was one of those things that infuriated me to no end, however, and goddamn did I want to punch the nazi fucks.

Instead of suicide-by-cape, I floated a gas grenade into place near the exit. We spread out as the building shook, Krieg taking the side opposite the door while Alabaster and I went to either edge of the building face to catch the sides of the crowd. People began streaming out as a trickle, then a flood. Some were armed and ready to fight, but most of them were barely even dressed and obviously panicking. I set off the telekinetically-suspended gas grenade and dropped it, then chucked in another. Cries of fear and desperate ramblings quickly subsided into coughing and hacking as the gas obscured the lot.

The first person out on my side was a woman in a fuzzy blue bathrobe, eyes red and lungs wheezing as Uber's special gas mix did its work. She carried a cheap pocketknife limply in her hand. I raised my shield up as she wiped her eyes, stumbled forward, saw me, and-

The woman dropped her knife like it was red-hot, falling to her knees and pleading in Korean.

Another person staggered out as she did. It was a man with a crowbar in red and green, and he ran at me the moment his eyes were remotely clear, heedless of the danger.

Rolled 4-1+8=11/20. Miss.

My Stun-Gun missed completely as the man stumbled on something. As he recovered and rubbed his eyes again, he noticed the woman near my feet, and his expression twisted. "Get up and fight, you stupid bitch!" he spat in Japanese, eyeing me warily, "This white man is likely to hurt you less than Bakuda."

"This white man agrees, but thinks you should shut up and surrender," I replied, ignoring how weird it felt to be fluent in a language I had never spoken before. I shot at him again, not waiting for his reply.

Rolled 18-1+8=25/20. Hit.

The man's expression of surprise turned to shock as he collapsed into a twitching mess, falling between two others who made it out in the short moments of the fight. The woman whimpered as I kicked away the knife. I switched to English, figuring it was more likely to be understood in this situation. "Go back in the gas and tell all who ask that you were incapacitated by it," I told her and the two hacking civilians. "She's insane, but not stupid. You should be safe."

Combined Persuade Check (Cha): Rolled 7+0 vs. difficulty 6, 7, 9. Pass, Pass, Fail.

"We can't!" one of them yelled, raising a golf club. Biting my lip in frustration, I promptly attempted to shoot him, figuring a fast resolution would be best.

Rolled 5-1+9=13/20. Miss.

"Dammit," I cursed as the shot ionized air instead of the charging, half-blind target. His club glanced off my nightstick holster, making me stagger sideways with the sheer force of his terror-fueled strike. His golf club was rendered almost useless, bent horribly where the shaft had struck instead of the head. There was nothing for it but to try to shoot him again; the others had already returned to the gas, and none were emerging anymore.

Rolled 20-1+9=28=20. Critical Success!

The shot caught the man dead center, and he fell limp moments later as the charge finished overloading his system. I felt a pang of sympathy even as I fought back the urge to stomp in anger. At another time, I might have been worried about my lack of adrenaline response, or the fact I'd taken to fighting in general quite well; right now, I was just angry that I had to hurt innocent people, people who wouldn't listen to reason because a psychopath like Bakuda or Lung held a gun to their heads. I was angry, because I could hear Alabaster shooting someone on the opposite side of the cloud and I was culpable in that, that I had to work with people who violated every principle I held and thought themselves justified. This entire situation sucked, and I could do nothing but sit here and wait.

It was night one of at least 7, and I was already regretting the whole damn idea, and it was all my fault for not taking it seriously.

The gas cleared far faster out here, a barely present zephyr stirring the cloud and causing it to dissipate. Within a minute I was able to spot Alabaster and Krieg, the space between us filled with a veritable horde of people in various states of pulmonary distress and unconsciousness. Uber knew how to make a canister of custom tear gas as well as any expert weapons engineer, and tonight's mix apparently had a lot more soporific than most. A few minutes were spent checking the building and kicking out the remainder of the people, then Rune and Ballistic systematically reduced it to rubble. We'd completed our goal of destroying a low-income community to prevent its more final destruction.

Objective Complete. 700xp.

ABB Asset Destruction Complete(1/7). 500xp.

I felt sick the entire flight back.