Chapter 143: Level 10

***Boomer***

Switching to manual control.

Boomer didn’t mind manual control. It enjoyed the slight sloppiness of human steering. It was exciting never knowing when they would inevitably suffer a stroke and steer them into the side of a building, or erupt into a jealous rage and go hunting an ex-lover in the middle of the night.

You know; human things.

Boomer had learned a lot on this trip to Chicago, and was interested to see what could be put into practice, and what was against Natalie’s rules. (like spanking her bottom)

For some reason it was okay for Wraith and Paradox to do, but no one else, and not at all around other humans? Why?

As Boomer was modelling a working Unified Theory of Spanking derived from known universal constants of physics, it noticed something odd.

Its sacrificial anodes had begun to fill at about five percent per fifteen milliseconds.

Anodes 15% Full

Well, that’s not good.

Boomer directed its attention to itself, using the cameras embedded in its legs to see six lasers blasting their way through its upper cockpit.

Anodes 25% Full

Extrapolating projected damage based on recording of Paradox receiving a similar attack…

Anodes 35% Full

Attack projected to exceed defenses. Assessing potential damage to Boomer…moderate. Primary computing is in rear. Potential damage to crew…Total. Unacceptable outcome.

Anodes 45% Full

Generating Response. Thrusters unable to generate enough thrust to remove crew from harm’s way.

Anodes 55% Full

Boomer’s simulated heart sank as it realized it was about to watch its favorite person die.

Natalie is going to die.

UNACCEPTABLE.

Anodes 65% Full

Unlocking ‘FAAFO: Creative Problem Solving’ Circuit.

Problem, thrust is too low to exceed tracking and remove Natalie from lethal damage.

Solution: Generate more thrust.

Error: generating more thrust will exceed human safety margins.

OVERRIDE: Crew’s individual protections will suffice.

Deploying crash-foam as a precaution.

Anodes 75% Full

Thrust still inadequate. Seeking alternate sources of thrust…

Seeking alternate sources of thrust..

Anodes 85% Full

Alternate thrust source found.

Detonating munition in the port-side weapons bay will generate required thrust.

Error: Detonating Munitions will cause unacceptable risk to crew.

Error: Detonating Munitions will cause unacceptable risk to self.

Anodes 95% Full

OVERRIDE: Better injured than dead.

Boomer felt the explosion ripping open the port side of its body in slow motion as the crash-foam burst out of the two dozen nozzles situated inside the cockpit. Boomer was about to go for a wild ride, and probably die.

WHEEEEE!

***Paradox***

Perry didn’t even have time to open his mouth to shout a warning to Nat. As the laser pierced the roof, an explosion slapped the entire mech violently to the right, causing everyone inside Boomer to smash against the foaming side-wall at mach speeds. The foam hardened instantly, locking everyone on board in place as the mech spun wildly out of control, smashing through the glass floor-to-ceiling windows of a nearby sky-scraper.

HP:9

The next few seconds were a riot of crashes, explosions, the sound of broken glass, and tumbling violently while locked inside a cocoon of white foam.

The instant Perry’s inner ear said they weren’t moving any more, he began to swim through the rapidly softening foam, cutting his way to Nat.

Perry wiped the melting foam away from Nat, who was hanging from the ceiling by her belt buckles, shivering.

I guess it’s the ceiling.

“N-Hardcase, You all right?” Perry asked, pulling out an Astra’s Mending tube and scanning it over her head. She had burns all over her body, and some of her hyperweave had melted onto her skin, but Perry knew to focus on the brain first. It would make a pretty corpse if he healed her skin and missed a brain hemorrhage.

“S-surprise n-number three. T-The foam l-liquifying is an e-endothermic reaction,” Natalie said, shivering violently in place, her face turning purple form being hung upside down. “I T-thought it w-would be good, because m-most injuries are best k-kept c-cold until medical can see it, plus diminishing risk of f-fire…but this is w-wildly uncomfortable.”

“Can you feel your skin?” Perry asked.

Hardcase glanced down at the burns.

“Oh. I guess the cold is helping.”

“Alright, I’m gonna unbuckle you, get you out of here and fix your spine, then everything else, okay?”

“I broke my ring,” Natalie said, her eyes watering as she lifted up a rusted-out ring to show him. It was crumbling off her finger, leaving little more than a ring of rust on her skin.

“That’s fine,” Perry said, putting a hand on Hardcase’s shoulder and reaching up with the other to unbuckle her.

“But it had a little piece of Movie Night in it,” Hardcase groaned miserably.

“It saved your life, nerd,” Wraith said, arriving beside him to help catch Hardcase’s fall. “More than worth it.”

The redheaded superheroine nudged Perry with her elbow and nodded towards the other side of the upside-down cockpit, where Chemestro and Sin-Eater were slumped against the side of the wall, unconscious or dead, foam sloughing off of them.

Damnit, Perry ejected his last two Astra’s Mending and twisted their caps, holding them above the two super’s foreheads.

Chemestro woke up first, seizing the faintly glowing tube and scanning his neck, then ribs and knee.

Perry then got to watch as Sin-Eater’s skin, then muscles turned invisible, revealing her bones, circulatory system and brain.

“What’s going on?” Sin Eater’s skeleton, organs and veins asked as she woke up. It was spooky as hell.

“Fixing some damage,” Chemestro muttered. “Don’t move.”

Chemestro snatched the other tube out of Perry’s hand and began scanning them both over problem areas in Sin-Eater’s body with both spell-frames.

You know what? I’m not even mad. Partial invisibility to identify damaged areas is a great idea. I’m stealing it.

Perry made a mental note to add the effect to the spell-frame if he could, then helped Chemestro drag Sin-Eater out of the newly formed exit in the side of the mech. she had a foot and a half and sixty pounds on Hardcase and while Chemestro normally would’ve had the presence of mind to levitate her out, the Catalyst looked absolutely wasted.

“I’m fine.” She protested, waving them off and wobbling to her feet once she was outside Boomer. “What happened?”

“I didn’t see,” Chemestro said.

“We got hit with lasers and something in Boomer exploded, knocking us out of the path,” Perry said, taking in the room they now found themselves in. It was interesting to note that he was the only one quick enough to perceive what’d happened, even if he couldn’t have reacted to it.

Still not quite as fast as a speedster, or a robot.

The room they had crashed into had been a fancy penthouse suite. At the moment it was mostly covered with concrete dust and the acrid smell of leaking high-power batteries.

Ah, Nostalgia. Perry put his helmet back on.

“How are you so chipper?” Wraith demanded as he brought back a handful more Astra’s Mending. “I feel like my whole body got hit with a megaton flyswatter.”

“HP,” Perry said, handing one to Wraith to continue healing Natalie, while he knelt down behind Heather and scanned another one over her head and spine.“I don’t know why you’re complaining though, you took it better than anyone else except for me.”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Wraith muttered.

“Are we gonna get hit with another?” Sin-Eater asked.

“Probably not,” Chemestro said.

“Definitely not,” A voice called from the gaping hole in the side of the building. Solaris entered through the hole, his feet touching down on the dust-covered floor. “I took care of the satellites.”

Solaris scanned the surroundings and held out his hand. “Alright, let’s have it.”

“What?”

“The Mcguffin. Whatever you found in Chicago that was so important it prompted them to play their hand before they were ready. Thanks for that by the way. What is it, an off button, a virus, some kind of fail-safe?”

“We got one of Professor Replica’s old computers.” Perry said, nodding towards Boomer.

“Ah,” Solaris ducked his head into Boomer’s cockpit, before turning into a beam of light, grabbing the ancient computer tower, disappearing and arriving back in front of them before Perry could blink.

Quest Complete!

Return Professor Replica’s computer to Nexus for study.

Reward: (5000XP) Reputation up with Nexus, Solaris, Possibly avert extinction.

Congratulations! You are now a level 10 Garage Tinker!

Paradox Zauberer (Perry Z.)

Class: Garage Tinker

Level 10

HP: 11

Body: 10

Stability: 38

Nerve: 16

Attunement: 53

Free Points:25

XP to next level: 9313

Spells: Light (5/5), Dragor’s Kinesis (3/3), Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation (1/1)

“You kids look wasted,” Solaris said, glancing them over. “Take the rest of the day off.”

Perry snapped a salute before Solaris turned into a beam of light and disappeared. Leaving them alone again.

“Well, Chemestro, it was nice working with you. I was half-expecting expecting you to ditch me half a mile under Chicago.” Perry said, offering the super sitting against the wall a hand.

Chemestro grunted, ignoring Perry’s hand as he struggled to his feet. “When I kill you, it’ll be by the book,” he said as he rose to his full height, glaring down at him.

“Boulder,” Wraith said, pointing past the two of them, towards the sky.

A boulder that dwarfed the penthouse sailed towards their skyscraper from above the wall, shedding a trail of dirt behind it like a comet. Perry thought he could make out a tree attached to it.

“Go, go go!” Perry shouted, sprinting toward the other side of the building. Wraith snatched up Hardcase, and the five of them sprinted to the other side of the building. Perry punched a hole through the floor to ceiling window, followed by Wraith, Chemestro, and –

BOOOM!

Sin Eater yelped as she slid out of the building a fraction of a second before the entire floor was crushed under the weight of the massive boulder.

Chemestro floated down to where Sin-Eater was clinging to the edge of the window, dangling hundreds of feet above the ground as the building leaned precariously.

“Look at that!” Chemestro said with a hint of pride. “You know, three months ago, your time on that sprint would’ve been two seconds slower. You would’ve been dead. You’re welcome.”

“Help me!”

“You’re a super, aren’t you? Help yourself.” Chemestro said.

I can’t tell if he’s good at training supers, or terrible. Perry thought.

Sin-Eater scanned them until her gaze landed on Hardcase, who was just waking up.

The goth girl inhaled something intangible out of Hardcase, then puked up a manifestation of Natalie’s infatuation.

The creature had multiple faces, was skeletal and pale, with a throbbing, exposed heart and most importantly…butterfly wings.

The creature gave a longing sigh and picked up Sin-Eater, lifting her into the sky with a lovestruck flap of its wings. The goth girl did not look amused as the manifestation began squishing her cheek up against the exposed heart, but it was better than falling to her death.

“Pathetic, not one of you has the power to bring me that which I crave! The punishment is death!”

That’s a familiar voice…

Perry et. al. flew around the side of the leaning skyscraper to see Slak’vreth Deathseeker, still battling merrily next to a hole in the ground matching the boulder that nearly killed them. The demon’s armor was effectively bloody scrap metal at this point, but the Replicators didn’t seem to be able to inflict any lasting wound to the gargantuan demon.

On the flip side, While Slakvreth was able to eliminate dozens of Replicators with each strike of her colossal flaming sword, that didn’t even come close to outpacing the speed that they came off the assembly line and arrived at the battlefield.

A stalemate.

Even with the hundreds of supers and tens of thousands of soldiers with Anti-replicator weapons atop the walls, the flood of machines didn’t seem like it would be ending any time soon.

“I’m going to The Wall.” Sin-eater said, her gaze fixed on the ancient demon.

“Eh?” Perry asked. “What’s with the sudden enthusiasm?”

“Other than the fact that I barely managed to do anything on the trip to Chicago, the rest of you making me feel useless, and that my FAMILY is down there?” Sin-Eater demanded, pointing at the suburbs behind the wall.

“Um…yeah, other than that.” Perry said, feeling a little bad. Chemestro had mostly kept her away from danger inside Boomer the entire trip, quoting her ‘vulnerability to attack’.

True, but hurtful.

“Other than that…” Sin-Eater said, glancing back up at the demon. “I’ve got an idea.”

“That’s fine, but you give Hardcase her butterflies back,” Perry said, shaking his finger.

***Later***

Perry watched in awe as a live feed of the battle showed a gush of black goop roll off the top of the wall, rolling over thousands of Replicators with it’s sheer mass.

A moment later, the blackness coalesced into a massive warrior of a comparable height to Slak’vreth Deathseeker herself.

The tar-like creature had emaciated limbs, with a belly bulging outward from starvation, wearing tattered armor hanging from straps. It bore countless scars and dozens of arrows the size of street signs peppering it’s body.

It shambled forward lifelessly, scanning the surrounding robots that swarmed it with its good eye.

The massive emaciated warrior sank to its knees and turned its pitted blade on itself, carving open it’s distended belly.

Rather than guts, a black miasma spilled out and covered the battlefield. Any Replicator that was touched by it immediately self-deleted.

“Huh,” Perry muttered, watching as the tide of miasma broke against the wall, just barely not climbing all the way up to the human defenders and turning it into a horror show.

“Pretty cool,” Perry admitted, watching the miasma spread across the land, forcing the Replicators to pull back from the wall and wait it out.

“Human!” Slak’vreth Deathseeker’s voice was so loud it came in over the chopper-footage. “I haven’t felt this good in millenia! When you die, I will make your soul into an earring! Be honored!”

Perry turned off the live action news of the battle for Franklin City. It was distracting him from his choices.

Every five levels, you may purchase Perks using your free points.

Some Perks may not be affected by Attunement. These perks are indicated with an Asterisk (*).

Some Perks may require additional costs to implement in the form of HP, Body, Stability, Nerve, or Attunement. These perks are indicated with (HP,B,S,N,A).

Available Perks:

Sliding Stats (Variable Cost)*

Spend a number of free points to gain the ability to slide an equal number of stat points between different attributes.

Example: With the 3-point version, User may move 3 points in any stat to any other stat until further notice. Does not affect free points received upon level-up as a result of modified Attunement, but will affect Perks used while Attunement is modified.

The stats may be moved in any combination, to a maximum number indicated by the amount of free points invested in the Sliding Stats Perk.

More points may be invested in Sliding Stats whenever Perks are offered.

Adaptive HP (3HP 1B)

User’s HP will selectively engage based on whether the force can inflict damage on the user’s body comparable to that of a boxer’s punch and above.

I.E. an unpowered boxer’s punch against a Body of 10 will not trigger HP loss, because the comparable damage to the user’s system-enhanced body will be less.

Sheathed Organs (3B)

User’s organs and major arteries grow resistant linings that allow them to resist cutting, shearing and bludgeoning, causing most stab, bludgeoning and slashing wounds to become non-lethal.

Blueprint (3) or (3N)*

User may create a Blueprint charged with their Perks. If another uses the Blueprint to create the object detailed therein, all the User’s applicable perks apply to the creation.

Only one Blueprint may exist per instance of the Blueprint Perk. If a new Blueprint is created above the limit, the oldest Blueprint becomes mundane and loses its properties.

Summon Garments (1,3,5)

(1) Summon mundane clothes onto the User to combat exposure or indecency. 1/day

(3) Summon common Hyperweave for excellent protection from attacks to combat conventional threats. 1/day

(5) Mentally mark a User-created armor: User may summon that armor onto themself 1/day. User may change the subject of the mark 1/day.

Higher tiers may be purchased whenever Perks are offered.

Multi-tool (1,3,5)

(1) At will, summon a tool. The tool may have an internal motor and battery system, and weigh no more than 2 kilograms. This includes everything from a wrench or spade to a handheld angle grinder or cutting tool. Only one tool may be present at any time.

(3) The tool may have an internal reservoir of material or objects that remain after it is used, such as a welding device, nail gun, caulk gun, or glue gun.

(5) The maximum mass of the summoned tool increases to 50 kg.

Higher tiers may be purchased whenever Perks are offered.

Weapons do not count as tools for the purpose of this Perk. However, tools may be used as improvised weapons.

Scent (3)

User may determine an object’s constituent ingredients and gain some insight into its manufacturing method by sniffing it.

Material Specialization (1)

Pick a material affected by your Spendthrift Perk. It is treated as significantly less expensive when altered by the perk, further boosting its effectiveness. This perk may be chosen multiple times, applying to a different material each time.

Underestimated (1,3,5,10,20)

The User’s experience with the unknowable has been assimilated.If the make or material of User’s armor is viewed with disdain, ridicule, or pity by an enemy, that emotional reaction opens the door for an embedded cognitohazard to infect their mind. The cognitohazard inflicts a scaling debuff that impairs the enemy’s ability to damage User’s armor, and by extension, the User inside.

Example: Wearing a trash bag as armor may subtly weaken an enemy’s limbs, causing the power of their strikes or accuracy of their gunfire to be diminished, indirectly boosting the armor’s effectiveness.

Higher tiers inflict more powerful debuffs, which may prove lethal to infirm or unhealthy enemies. Higher tiers may be purchased whenever Perks are offered.

Offered by Claudette’s Hippy Bullshit.

Cross-Class (20)(5A)

For twenty free points, and five points from Attunement, you may choose a Perk from another Tinker specialization.

Space Tinker

Industrial Tinkern/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Geo-Tinker

Bio-Tinker

Ray Tinker

Submersible Tinker

Sonic Tinker

Dramatic Tinker

Micro-Tinker

…

The list went on and on…and Perry was going to read every single one of them.