Author's Note: This story has become my most successful story in such a limited time.
45 Favorites.
68 Followers.
17 Positive Reviews.
All this in less than a week maybe not even half a week since I posted the story, I am having one of my best times on this site.
I thank all the people who are following this story and leaving reviews.
I remind those who are interested that you can decide the name of the heroic Holmes character.
A) Omicron-23
B) Iron-Star
XXX
Responses to comments:
RedBurningDragon: Thank you very much for the compliments and I see there is a Toaruverse fan here. Holmes is currently at level 1 as an Electromaster Type Esper, turning on a light bulb is the best he can do ... on his own. He'll need 10 years at most to get to level 5 and become what Misaka Mikoto is like.
His perks may shorten the length of time to level up, but Esper powers are strange to cultivate.
Part of their potential is based on the genetics of the user, a type of DNA may have a greater chance of success. Holmes currently to a small amount of genes from the First Civilization coming from Assassin's Creed, then to among the best genetic bases/foundations on here work.
Another factor is how much he has to invest in the development of his Esper powers, there is a whole curriculum full of being there, various studies and analyses for a power and a great deal of experimentation and use of drugs etc to help develop and grow in power.
Holmes' Cosmic Warehouse/Personal Reality has a Garage, a repository of valuable resources, a computer room and a bomb-making lab.
None of this allows him to manufacture a drug or perform surgery on his brain to accelerate level growth ... for the time being.
His mental perks can help him significantly shorten the time to level growth and allow him to greatly improve his technique, but I don't think they're enough.
Take the case of Accelerator, the strongest Esper, after the events of Volume 5, his brain has been damaged and he must rely on a choker-style electrode that connects him to the Misaka Network.
The brainwave network allows him to use language, as well as compensating for his lost ability to do calculations, though it is claimed to be less than half of what he once had.
10,000 clones created for military use, all Esper and mentally connected can give Accelerator less than half of his former ability to compute.
Even with less than half of its computational capacity, it is large enough to allow Accelerator to calculate and analyze all 25,000 different types of Kakine Teitoku's dark matter energy, fighting on equal footing with him and protecting bystanders.
Harold Holmes can at most think three times faster than the Olympic athlete/assassin/thief who was trained by Ezio Auditore of Florence.
He cannot compare to a monster like Accelerator. So without a very specific 600 advantage, Holmes will have to grow slowly through training/experimentation/accumulation of mental advantage. I currently stay away from 600/800/1000 advantages/gifts. Until Holmes ends up with his back against the wall or the big hitters come I'm sticking between the 50 and 400 boasts.
tizian.s: You're right I really do need a beta bed, so I'm making an announcement here and now. If anyone reading this wants to become my beta reader they can text me privately.
I would especially like someone who understands Italian and English, because I first write my stories in Italian then translate them into English.
Kekeli Akpabli: Thank you for the nice words, I hope you have a great day.
Andorxor: You're right, one of the nice things about Tinker of fiction, are the interactions between the main character and Taylor. But I think you're judging my character a little too coldly.
A 12 year old can be more fun but there are a lot more limitations and oversight.
A Celestial Forge user can't work if they are kept under lock and key. A 16/17 year old boy is old enough to go off on his own for several hours and make a lot of unique messes and tantrums that a child cannot.
Kaiya Azure: The idea of this false flag operation is to be dramatic and highly visible. There will be consequences in this chapter and problems that Harold will have to solve later.
Edale: I thank you for pointing out my little mistakes.
XXX
Chapter 4.1: Taylor's opinions and emergency meetings for Heroes, Nazis, and Serpents.
POV Taylor Hebert
When the Endbringers' alarm sounds, your body's first reaction is to run and hide, your mind's first reaction is to pray that your town doesn't get hit.
When I found out that an unnamed town in England was hit by Behemoth, I was relieved.
My life to enough problems in the form of the trio, an Endbringer would be too much to support.
On Sunday, I was no longer so happy that England was hit by Behemoth. Because my father explained to me that he was called by social services.
I found out that I have an aunt who was born thanks to my grandfather's betrayal, the stereotype that pretty secretaries are hired for exclusive sexual services is not a stereotype for my late grandfather.
The aunt I never knew to a son, Harold Holmes, my estranged second cousin (?), is he true to live with us.
Because Behemoth hit the town where the entire Holmes family was staying at the time, the worst place and time to have a family reunion.
A real stranger to live with me and my father, a stranger slightly older than me.
Part of me is happy to have another person in the house, someone to talk to. Since Mom died
A part of me is terrified that the cousin can be a second Emma or a second Sophia, or worse the Trio can become a Quartet, it's terrifying me both at school and at home.
If that were the case I wouldn't know what to do to escape.
I couldn't sleep that night because of my stupid paranoia.
On Monday, I met my British cousin, living proof that some stereotypes exist for a good reason.
I imagined various types of people who could be Harold Holmes.
A violent thug, all muscle and no brains, who I like for the slightest mistake.
A heartless, manipulative, lying bastard capable of turning my father against me, but not before stealing him from me.
An invasive nerd similar to Greg, who annoys me every single moment and talks non-stop about video games.
Or one of those melancholy guys, dressed in dark clothing, who seems to hate everything that exists and sucks the light out of a room.
I might be a little anxious about meeting Harold Holmes.
I imagined a thousand different guys, one worse than the others, the racist sexist Jack Slash fan was in the top 3.
Instead of all that, I met a beautiful British boy, the most handsome boy I have ever seen in my life.
With a face like that Harold looks like he came out of a storybook, he just missed the the horse, the armor and a princess to save, to be a real prince charming ... I feel like I missed something obvious?
In the first few hours after her arrival she tried to get away from Brockton Bay, but my father convinced her to stay.
After the first night, followed by the next few days my doubts about Harold almost completely disappeared.
My cousin is one of the nicest, kindest and most capable guys in the world, someone like him shouldn't exist.
But living proof of the stereotype of British boys being perfect, he lives in my home ... almost perfect.
Unaware that he can cook dozens of European dishes, each of them looks like they've stepped out of a five-star restaurant, he packs a sack lunch for my dad and me, with cards inside wishing you luck and odd sayings like, "Great and good are rarely the same person" or "Don't pray for easier lives, but to be stronger people."
It's when I get home he greets me with a smile and a plate of freshly baked cookies/sweets/pastries ...
Not to mention, he always wakes up first and makes a hearty and delicious breakfast.
On top of that, he is slowly repairing the whole house, plus he cleans it regularly, I think he asked if he could plant some flowers and if he could paint the house ...
British, handsome, kind, cooks, handyman, early riser, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't swear, has a fairly sizable trust fund ... he's not perfect.
Certainly he's an innate butler/homemaker with a likely future as a model if he tried.
But to many flaws ... ... ...
Harold Holmes insists on being called H3 or Arno for some reason I don't understand, in my opinion Harold is not a bad name.
He makes references that no one understands and the habit of speaking in riddles and/or using complicated artist phrases.
Many times he ends up getting us lost in his thoughts and stares into space for a few minutes, something I find slightly polluting, I hope he doesn't have brain cancer or something. I've only known him for a short time but imagining my life of him hurts, I'm sure even Dad would feel worse if Holmes disappeared, I think he sees him as the son he never had.
Going back to Harol Holmes' flaws, he dresses in an eccentric way that gives too much in the eye, never mind that he is trying to fit in with the city, he is too good to look like a bad guy.
He "forces" me and my father to watch numerous detective shows such as: Dexter, Commissioner Rex, Castle, Sherlock, Elementary, The Murdoch Mysteries, Scorpion, Grimm, Numb3rs etc.
He seems to hate Parahumans or doesn't really like them, making snide comments about mentally compromised people who get powers only to make the world worse.
He spends a lot of time in the bathroom, really wrapped up staying for hours in the bathroom doing British boy things ...
There are other flaws that I can't think of at the moment, because I just woke up to find Harold bringing me breakfast in bed.
" Thank you." I thanked Harold who delivered a classic American breakfast, eggs, toast, sausage and orange juice. It looks tasty, but not as tasty as the usual dish prepared by Harold, I think this dish comes from the room-service.
" Gladly, eat, then get dressed, we need to get home, Danny is looking out for you." Holmes said, pointing to a bag full of cute and expensive clothes all in my size, where did he get them from ?
Never mind, I definitely need to have a talk with him about how much he can spend on me.
'I'm thinking of chastising a nice guy for spending too much money on me, some girls have the opposite problem.'
XXX
Once we finished eating, Harold came out of the room to allow me to get dressed.
Harold bought me a couple of very nice dresses, the first dress is too feminine for my taste, a red turtleneck, a black mini skirt, a pair of long black stockings and brown leather shoes.
The second outfit is feminine but with a more mature and professional look, a pair of low heel shoes, a pair of black pants, a white shirt, an amber colored cologne, a long brown/orange trench coat and a pair of new glasses.
Looking at myself in the mirror I can tell that Holmes a talent for picking out clothes, they make me look more mature and professional, even pretty.
While I'm looking in the mirror I notice that on the desk of the room where Holmes' cape is resting, there are some covers, a sketchbook and a black leather notebook full of notes.
Driven by curiosity I'm getting ready to peek into Harold's stuff, but common sense stops me from doing so, violating a person's privacy is something you don't do. Especially when that person is standing outside the room waiting to come in.
" Can I come in, Tay-Tay !?" Holmes asked, banging on the door.
" Sure, I just finished getting dressed."
Harold entered the hotel room, carrying a newspaper under his arm, once inside he glanced at me, analyzing how my clothes fit, from his smile I can tell he likes what he sees.
" How do I look ?" I ask shyly, the first time I've asked a guy what he thinks of my appearance.
"If you were a redhead you could pass as one of Touko Aozaki's Doppelgänger dolls." Holmes said, smiling I feel like I missed something obvious?
" Is that a good thing? " I ask not knowing who Touko Aozaki is, maybe an actress? Why can't she make more common pop culture references.
" It's a good thing, next time you can wear the red dress I want to see how it looks on you. You'll look more gorgeous than Rin Tohsaka." Said Holmes, again I feel like I missed something obvious?
" You look happier than usual." I said, noticing that Harold is smiling more than usual. Did something happen after I fell asleep ?
'Did Harold do something to me while I'm asleep !
' What the hell am I thinking ! If he wanted to hurt me he would have left me at Sophia's mercy, I'm sure the walls of this room are soundproof, if he wanted to do something he would have already done it. 'Taylor you are too paranoid for your own good. ' I thought, cursing my messed up head, I only think the worst.
" We can say that I just got the inspiration and confidence I always wanted to bring my dream to fruition." Holmes said, moving the magazine that talks about motorcycles, to pick up the drawing pad.
He showed me several dunks and drawings, each one is drawn incredibly well, but the content shows several motorcycle diagrams, fantasy scenes with flying islands, followed by gruesome scenes in a science fiction setting.
" The drawing of a motorcycle and a bunch of doodles showing Cases 53, makes you feel good." I said, not understanding why Harold must be overjoyed about drawing strange monsters.
" I'm honestly thinking about buying a motorcycle or building one."
" My dad won't allow it." I stated seriously, my father will not allow my eccentric artist to get a motorcycle to hurt himself ... did I just say Holmes is mine !?
" I will talk to Danny about it, but if I build a motorcycle from scratch myself I doubt he can stop me.
Putting aside my inventor/mechanic side, as an artist I hit a golden mirage of inspiration, last night I worked on a work of science fiction combined with some old horror.
I will call this work, Zombies in Space, no, I have a better name Dead Space." Said Holmes smiling through his teeth. Again, I feel like I missed something obvious?
" I'm not sure it would sell, but I know fantasy or horror books." I admitted, hoping not to hurt Holmes' feelings, if she writes as well as she draws then she'll be successful for sure.
"Yeah, you prefer fantasy and adventure novels. So what about a band of nomadic knights/adventurers named Storm Hawks. Consisting of Aerrow, Finn, Junko, Piper, Starlin, Polaris, Stork, Radarr.
Do you want to hear the prologue? " Holmes asked, grinning like a fox. I'm missing something obvious, aren't I ?
" Sounds intriguing." I said sincerely, not feigning interest in Holmes' literary work.
"Atmos. World of a thousand mountaintop kingdoms, each protected by a Sky Knight against the forces of darkness: beasts, thieves, and worst of all, cyclones.
The greatest of all Sky Knights led the Storm Hawks.
His mission: to unite the kingdoms and free Atmos from evil forever. But he was betrayed, the Storm Hawks were defeated and all hope was lost ... Until now.
I am Aerrow, the last descendant of the original Storm Hawks, and I have been assigned their mission.
This is my squadron: Finn, the sharpshooter. Junko, the strong man. Piper, the sorceress. Starlin, the kunoichi. Polaris, the navigator. Stork, the helmsman. And, of course, my co-pilot Radarr. We are the Storm Hawks, and for us, the sky is never the limit." Holmes finished telling the prologue to his story. To much potential, I wonder if he'll get the book published.
" I almost forgot, here is the paper, I got it especially for you, you have to read the first page." Holmes said with an amused smile, handing me the paper.
I take it and ... "Winslow High School burned to the ground by the new Empire 88 Tinker!"
XXX
POV Narrator
Later that day.
PRT officers have been trained to take on criminals and monsters with powers beyond human comprehension.
They are rugged and courageous men and women who have dared to face the worst the world has to offer.
Yet, even they have given ample space to Emily Piggot as she walks the halls of PRT headquarters.
They know not to fight it when she's in a bad mood ... more than usual.
Currently Piggot's rage rictus has exceeded normal limits and is reaching the critical zone.
The interruption of her daily hemodialysis due to an emergency has done this to her.
" Bring me Armsmaster and Miss Militia! " Piggot shouted, in such a tone of voice how she is not declared a Master or a Shaker is a mystery to all.
XXX
In his lab in the Protectorate Base, Colin Wallis aka Armsmaster is working on his next project: a tranquilizing serum and delivery system that would counteract the regeneration of high level brutes. That device was going to be the one that finally helped him bring down Lung.
But Armsmaster's work was halted by a ping coming from his computer. An emergency call.
"Armsmaster present." The blue-clad Tinker answered.
"Armsmaster, this is Renick. Director Piggot wants to talk about last night's events in her office along with Miss Militia, hurry up she's in a bad mood." Renick stated, before ending the call.
The case the assistant director is talking about is on everyone's lips, a huge explosion and fire ravaged Winslow.
A very serious and visible crime, after the explosions, the fire burned throughout the night.
Normally an arson case takes weeks to be investigated according to the rules and discover the cause.
But this case is anything but normal.
The cause of the fire was an explosion that broke the building into four parts, as well as make it collapse for metta. You can started the fire that burned throughout the night until the first light of dawn.
The building in these is a school, a public building, which is regularly attended by children.
Luckily the explosion/fire happened on Friday night in the middle of a thunderstorm, if it had been on Monday in the middle of the lessons the number of victims would have been enormous.
The attackers are unknown, but the fire burned so as to form a symbol of hatred famous throughout the world, so the main suspects are the Nazis, mainly the Empire 88.
With these assumptions, the case was classified as a terrorist action, accelerating several procedures a lot.
XXX
Inside Piggot's office the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
" Everything you're about to hear has to stay in this office, I've been clear! " Piggot declared, in a firm voice.
Armsmaster and Miss Militia nodded that they understood.
" The Winslow High School bomber is a Tinker/Thinker and goes by the name Rache, his goal is to kill Shadow Stalker, surely his civilian identity has already been discovered. The next attack may be on Shadow Stalker's home, targeting his family.
The beautiful part, we know all this because, Rache herself at the time of the explosion sent us an email, expressing her desire murder and her radical ideas, racist and Darwinism." Announced Piggot, presenting the facts as they are, bad. Giving the heroes of the Protectorate a copy of the email.
Armsmaster and Miss Militia stiffened.
Brockton Bay is already the center of parahuman criminal activity in North America, but at least most of the bad guys try to stay away from the schools.
Not just so they don't bring heat on their heads, but also because places like Winslow are major recruitment centers and markets for drugs and other illegal items.
But target a school set it on fire and simultaneously blow it up, all to find out the identity of a Ward, then text the PRT about how you want to kill Shadow Stalker and his family.
We're going from the average crime to the criminally insane like Jack Slash and the Butcher, both of whom have a place reserved for the gallows or the birdcage.
" We're sure there's a second Tinker in town who specializes in bombs. It can't be Bakuda, she has already targeted Cornell University. She later got the university's ransom by planting several bombs in an academic building to destroy it. This could be a false pretext to make us look the wrong way." Suggested Miss Militia, reasoning that two Tinkers centered on explosives could not appear in the same city.
" I wish Bakuda was behind Rache and this whole thing was an elaborate diversion. But the Boston PRT to evidence and witnesses that say Lung a recruited Bakuda at about the same time here Winslow High School burned.
The facts are clear, we have two Tinkers capable of making bombs, one works for Lung, the other will surely join Empire 88 and apparently hates Asians to death, especially ABB members. At the next gang war this city is in danger of going the way of Hiroshima or Černobyl." Piggot explained that the situation is even worse than expected.
" What do we know about Rache, other than she's a racist, dangerous, able to ferret out a Ward? " Armsmaster asked, wanting more information to make a guess and figure out what to deal with.
Piggot handed him a pile of documents containing the information gathered by the forensic team.
" My guess is that Rache's specialization is not as powerful as Bakuda's, she is more focused on exotic explosives.
Rache seems to specialize în demolitions, his bombs are slightly more advanced than military bombs. Quantity above quality, placed in the weak points of the school to get the most damage." Armsmaster stated, making his assumptions partially true.
The bombs used in the bombing are slightly better than the regular bombs used by the military, but they were quickly prepared in less than an hour. With time and patience ... Hiroshima will be a joke in comparison.
"How will we proceed with the investigation?" Miss Militia asked, asking the important questions.
"The Brockton Bay Police Department has shared with the PRT the files they have on Winslow. Including the list of students. While they are not the prime suspects, we are working on the theory that a student was involved in the incident, so the PRT will be monitoring their activities for abnormal behavior. Any questions?" Piggot asked, wanting to end the discussion and get back to work.
" What do we do about Shadow Stalker and his family." Asked the heart of the local Protectorate aka Miss Militia.
"We are already working on it, Shadow Stalker's family is going into witness protection, Shadow Stalker will change Image and be shipped to Los Angeles where Alexandria will take care of her.
In exchange for the loss of Shadow Stalker, we get Flechette from Boston." Said Director Piggot, happy to no longer have to worry about Shadow Stalker and his bullying attitude.
" The conference is over, go dig up this new Tinker bomb." Said Piggot, ending the emergency conference.
XXX
Several hours later, in another part of the city.
The Nazis have just finished talking about what they found out about the Winslow High School bombing.
Empire 88 brass: Kaiser, Hookwolf, Krieg, Fenja, Menja, Crusader, Night, Fog, Alabaster, Stormtiger, Cricket, Victor, Othala, Rune. Together with the normal elite members, they gathered to plan what to do after being blamed for this terrorist attack on a school.
" A Tinker who believes in our cause decided to help the city by spacing out the place where the dregs of society meet and corrupt our young members." Said Kaiser, from his tone of blades and swords. With the twins Fenja and Menja standing on opposite sides of his throne of swords.
Translation of Kaiser's words, "An idiot and uncontrollable Tinker truly believes in our cause. He destroyed the school where our human shields/meat comes from."
" She wants to help the city, but she can't do it alone, she needs a guide to show the right way, before the race traitors can can hold back such a rising star." Said Kaiser to his audience in a sympathetic tone. The guy should be an actor instead of a CEO, he's wasting his talent here.
Translation of Kaiser's words, "An angry child with problems towards society, she is a danger to us and herself, especially us. We need to get control of this Tinker before we send her to the birdcage. We need a Tinker to get stronger."
" This is a sign of rebirth for our city, we need to expand our ranks and prepare for an unprovoked attack on our organization." Said Kaiser, standing up and spreading his hands, making himself seem bigger and more important in the eyes of his subordinates.
Translation of Kaiser's words: " This is a disaster that will bring us problems. We need to increase our numbers, we need to force people and join with us. I have are with us or against us, there is no middle ground."
The Nazis are going to make a lot of trouble for a lot of people in the coming days, especially a famous Cape Rogue centered on textiles.
XXX
Several hours later, in an underground base worthy of an Agent 007 movie.
A Machiavellian man with a fetish for leather suits and snakes is talking via phone to his reluctant sex slave worker.
" What did you find out, Tattletale ?" Asked the pedophile snake to his "captive".
《Not much, the fire and bombs destroyed any clues, the storm only further compromised what was left.》
"Mai did you find out anything from the email I sent you ?" Snake asked, sure that Tattletale found out something, if he didn't he wouldn't be a useful asset for his organization anymore. It's useless assets are discarded and replaced with better tools.
《Yes, from the email I can tell that Rache is a pre-teen rape victim with a strong hatred for Asians and other lesser races. She hates the local government for not helping her and holds Kaiser in high esteem, seeing him as in example to follow.
The powers have compromised his mental stability, making him violent and with an explosive temper, as well as developing an unhealthy obsession with Shadow Stalker, he blames her for what happened to him.》
" Do you know that her actions will make people move to a safer place? " Snake asked, wanting to know how smart this crazy dynamite named, is Rache.
《 A planned everything to the smallest detail for months, she wants Shadow Stalker to be transferred so she can attack her while transferring.》
" What will she do but hit Shadow Stalker while moving. Will Shadow Stalker follow her and leave Brockton Bay or stay ?" Asked the snake, not too interesting to the new Tinker. Ignoring the drama and her chosen target, she is a weak Tinker capable of making slightly better than normal bombs months in advance. Her mercenaries and money can do the same in less time and with less risk.
A young, mentally compromised Tinker is more of a liability than an asset, especially if this Tinker is targeted by the PRT, Protectorate, ABB, and Empire 88.
《This Tinker is willing to chase Shadow Stalker to the end of the world to kill her and ... rape her. Let's also add violent impulses, fits of rage, and bad sexual tendencies to Rache's list of problems. 》She said Tattletale with disgust in her voice, clearly her thinking powers are saying things she doesn't want to hear.
" You've done a good job for today Tattletale, tell the rest of the team to keep their heads down until we caiman the waters." He ordered the snake, ending the call and going back to planning his long term schemes.
XXX
In another part of town, Harold is smiling while watching TV with Taylor and Danny.
His new gift obtained after destroying Winslow High School is working on compromising all the information he got about what he did last night.
Tricking the entire town into looking for a ghost that only exists in their imagination, while the real culprit is taking a break before striking again.
' I have to prepare a costume, hero equipment and finally choose a name. Iron-Star or Omicron-23 ?' Thought Harold Holmes, imagining what he can build with the gifts he received for destroying a school make trouble for all the bigwigs in town.
Continue ...
XXX
In the next episode/chapter: His name is ... Part 1.
Holmes will make his hero debut and first battle against racist supervillains.
The name will be decided next time, so hurry up and vote if you want.
Currently, Iron-Star is the frontrunner.
XXX
Benefits / Article Jumpchain obtained:
Indie (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): Get an apartment in the city. The apartment has been rented for a year and paid for in advance, you have no roommates if you don't want them, and your fridge is empty. Get to work!
It's my game! (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): And even if it's not, for whatever reason you have a huge influence when it comes to the direction of development. If you want purple ogres in your sci-fi game, so be it. Do you want to change the plot from an E-rated kids' game about flowers to an adults-only game about flying penis monsters? Probably not. Regardless, whenever you're involved in the development of something you have the ability to change parts of it to your liking, even if it's only in a small way.
+ Artist (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): drawing, animation, and lots of discarded ideas. You have artistic talent, or maybe you just like drawing beautiful pictures, but either way you'll bring the images to life. From characters to castles and from reloading a gun to running, you'll make sure everything looks good and smooth.
Drawing (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): The basics. Despite the name, you have an innate talent for most art forms and intuitively know the basics of how to draw, paint and animate, as well as a much smaller thrust to areas like sculpture and ceramics. This means you can draw an anatomically correct human being, no problem, and even without following real life your art will still be pretty decent.
Concept Art into Concepts (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): An artist is the intermediary between imagination and reality. What you dream up, the artist puts on the canvas. But concept art is just a prototype, a single step in the marathon that is game development, and it's common for projects to go through many iterations. This is less true with you, since you're a master of prototype design, as any preliminary design you do can be done much faster than otherwise, and overall tends to be closer to the final design than normal, reducing design and concept time immensely.
+ Designer (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): stories, myths and even entire worlds. You're a designer, in charge of defining all these things for your games and more. You'll create character backgrounds and define their motivations, create entire imaginary worlds and the beings that live in them, and much more.
Story (Generic Video Game Developer)(Free): You're an amazing writer, able to write prose comparable to some of the best in history, and the stories you tell are pretty interesting too. You have taken classes on Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell and have an understanding of how a story should develop and what the best end result should be.
Writer (Libriomancer)(100): You are a writer. Well, I suppose anyone can call themselves that, but you stand out. Your skill with prose and mastery of the written word allows you to create poems and stories of such quality that you could write a best seller in less than a month. Because of the quality of your writing, anything you bring to your editor will likely receive a third or even fourth look and have a significantly greater chance of being published.
Creator (Generic Light Novel / Manga / Anime Jump)(200): Jumper ... what slumbers inside you is a great talent for being a creator, of the written and image variety. You can effortlessly write a mediocre story in less than an hour along with decent drawing and animation skills, strive anyway and you can create wonderful pieces of literature and art worthy of global recognition. Also, any translation of your work, from word to animation or into different languages, will not cause any loss of quality or misinterpreted/distorted meanings. Who knows, maybe this will help you if you ever acquire the ability to create worlds or entire universes on your own.
Blank II (Essential Body Modification Supplement)(200): Abilities that gather information about your past, present, or future do not work on you. This includes scrutiny, divination, mind reading, and even cold reading and lie detection. This ability not only affects the person closest to you, but also provides a degree of protection to the objects and people around you, making it difficult to predict the past, present or future of any group you move with or ship you travel on. If you have the Essential Mutuality advantage, your affected companions gain the full benefit of your Void advantage even if they act independently.
I: You are immune to all supernatural and technological abilities and devices that perform the functions described above. You simply do not register for such abilities, though your abilities function normally. The purely mundane skills of cold reading or lie detection will be less effective, but will still work to some degree. Dsc: Sch / Ass / Arc / Sup / Lch / Bea / Dra / Exp / Hea
II: Even trivial versions of the elements above will not work against you. Also, you are able to detect when someone is actively trying to discern that information through supernatural or technological abilities or devices and provide them with false information of the type they expect. Thus, you can feed an image of yourself asleep in bed with a divination spell while secretly across town beating up thugs or you can have a truth detection spell return ``truth'' when you tell a lie. Note that this does not protect you from compulsions to tell the truth or share information directly. Also, all objects you create have a measure of this protection, making it difficult to predict actions that rely directly on those objects and making it impossible to detect the objects themselves with most supernatural abilities.
Engineering (Dead Space)(100): You're a real Mr. Fix-It, you know? Faulty fuel intake? Easy. Defensive asteroid cannon defective? Turn it off, then turn it back on. Communications array unresponsive? Mix up the working emitters a bit so they're symmetrical. Undead monstrosities? Depends on what you mean by "fix". Does it count using a rivet gun to blow them up? Does it? Then we're good.
Scrap Hound (Dead Space)(Free): Build. Of course, you need parts to build, and of course, you need materials, usually scrap metal or advanced electronic parts, to create parts. Whenever you go looking for scrap parts to use as materials, you always find about 25% more than you would otherwise, and when you build parts from materials or scraps, you always find that you need 25% less materials to put those parts together. Really, really useful if you plan to build electronically based weapons, armor, etc. or extensively modify your pre-existing equipment by similar means.
Infinitely Customizable (Dead Space)(100): It's not that your weapons are bad, by any stretch of the imagination, it's just that they could be so, so much better. And now you can actually do that. In this world, your tools and weapons are aided by nanoscale circuitry, which leaves plenty of room for enhancements, typically in the form of power nodes soldered into specific locations to provide extra power to certain weapon subsystems, to increase power, ammo count/efficiency, and even unlock special abilities, such as setting enemies on fire or exploding violently. As an added benefit, you also have the ability to break weapons and tools into parts, specifically frames, tools, tips, accessories and upgrade chips, see the Notes section for more information and reconfigure them to your liking. You can even upgrade these parts individually using power nodes.
Modular Designs (Dead Space)(200): It's getting easier and easier to make better things with better materials, and your knowledge of far-future engineering is top-notch, which means that all the things you make are really a lot better for it. In addition to being able to further upgrade parts, tools, and weapons and create better base parts for tools and weapons, you can apply the bonuses of Infinitely Customizable to other things. han tools and weapons by breaking anything down into modular part fragments and swapping them out at your leisure. This eliminates almost any part of the process of adapting old creations with newer parts, aside from the actual manual work and time.
Utility Mods (Dead Space)(Free): Ah, technology, the best part of the future. The Kinesis module projects an artificial gravitational field from an emitter onto the palm of the hand it's mounted on. Just as the name might suggest, this field allows you to lift objects; smaller objects hover about a foot in front of your palm, while larger objects, most of which have to be specifically modified to work with it and are typically on rails or tracks, move as close to you as they are capable of. You can manipulate these objects with your hand and even throw them with surprising force, enough to penetrate a body with a bone point and nail it to a steel wall. Stasis, on the other hand, as its name might imply, creates a temporal stasis field of some volume around the targeted object. It affects both organic and inorganic material, including living creatures, and has no problem with irregularly shaped objects flowing around the targeted object.
RIG (Dead Space)(Free): resource integration equipment All your needs in a bulky backpack-like accessory. All RIGs provide a small etrength inerease and have a few small reservoirs of nanobiotic medical gel inside, four for you, that can bind most wounds, even serious ones, almost instantly, as well as some form of projector screen, either from the wrist out of the hand, as on civilian models, or from a small projection screen in front of the face mask for more work-oriented models. They also have a course detector that tracks an augmented reality light path leading to things you know the coordinates of, as well as a folded-space container that can hold up to four weapons and five cubic feet of items, divided into what are basically one cubic meter, 'inventory spaces,' along with magnetic locks on the boots, a roughly two-minute air supply that automatically recharges in the atmosphere, and a built-in stability assist system that allows for a form of spaceflight, for navigating space during an EVA trip. Each inventory space can only hold one type of item, whether it's ammunition, medical gel refills, etc. Some RIGs are better at other things than others, however, and you can dress yours up as you see fit here. Get a basic unarmed RIG for your Background that is padded enough to stop 58 damage for free and can be attached to a single piece of armor or clothing you already own for free.
Medical Gel Efficiency (Dead Space)(50): You only have four tanks of medical gel to begin with, and while even some of the worst damage you can take will only require one or two, that's not much, is it? Each time you take it, though, it increases the efficiency of the RIG's medical gel, increasing the amount of gel tanks you have by 508 from the base. It's +2 tanks each time you buy it, up to a maximum of four times, for a total of 12 tanks.
Technician (Storm Hawks )(100): You grew up among the machines, with a civilian job or one of the lucky few hired as support for a Sky Knight squadron. Technicians must be multi-skilled in scope, able to repair almost anything they encounter. Resources are scarce in Atmos, and you're adept at performing field repairs with little more than scrap metal and string.
Mr. Technician (Storm Hawks)(100): Weatherproofing Sand will never choke your vents, sea spray will never rust your gears. When you travel. you quickly learn how to adapt your constructions to withstand existing environmental conditions. This advantage will also help you adapt your machines to work in space or even in stranger places, but these esoteric engineering puzzles may take decades to solve.
Skimmer Tech (Storm Hawks )(100): In addition to general engineering skills, this perk teaches you the tricks and tips for creating vehicles that can transform without sacrificing performance or functionality. Unlike the clunky, unbalanced vehicles others may pilot, your craft maintains high performance in any form. In theory you could include as many alt modes in a vehicle as you want, but Storm Hawks Jump's basic level of technology prevents you from having more than one alt mode without affecting the integrity of your craft.
Crystal mage (Storm Hawks )(100): No one can say for sure where crystals come from. Natural creations, relics from the previous world, or a side effect of the cataclysm, but some individuals have a special bond with them. Needing no machines to control them, understanding their nature with a glance and summoning their power with a gesture, Crystal Mages are attuned to the strange energies contained within these stones.
Uniform (Storm Hawks)(Free): Get a suit plus spare parts appropriate to your background. Civilian suits, rugged jumpsuits, pilot suits, or a comfortable set of baggy suits with an opaque hood.
Crystal Firebolt (Storm Hawks )(50): The standard weapon among Cyclone forces, the Firebolt crystal can be set to enhance a blade, giving it an aura of intense heat, or used in a special mount to launch fiery projectiles. This particular crystal is of excellent quality, good for a hundred hits or an hour of continuous operation. It recharges by absorbing heat from the environment.
Suriker crystal (Storm Hawks )(50): A less lethal weapon crystal than the firebolt, preferred by the Sky Knights. The suriker crystal surrounds blades in an electric aura that is tuned to shock and stun opponents. These crystals are also much more stable than lightning, and no specialized mounts are required: a Sky Knight can discharge waves of energy as he swings his weapon with the push of a button. It has roughly the same energy capacity as a firebolt crystal, but requires electricity to recharge.
Power Crystal (Storm Hawks )(50): Obtain twenty power crystals of various sizes. The smaller thumb-sized crystals can easily power a skimmer for an hour of operation, while the larger crystals are used to power carriers. The larger these blue crystals are, the more power they can hold, but the less stable they can become during operation, so most motors are designed to absorb small amounts of power from multiple crystals. Power crystals cannot be recharged; their charge is determined by the amount of heat, pressure, and other energies absorbed during their formation.
Crystal Culture Kit (Storm Hawks )(200): Contains heating coils, pressurized chambers, chemical injectors, and monitoring equipment, the absolute smallest this machine can be is about two cubic meters. In theory, forming crystals is easy. In practice, forming Crystals with a capital C is a tedious and inconsistent process that no one will ever be able to define perfectly, unless you are a Crystal Wizard. People who lack the "gift" have to get by with completely byzantine procedures and compare notes to often find that each has different recipes for creating the same type of crystal. Having the Crystal Mage background makes the process much easier as you slowly develop an intuitive sense of what will and won't work, but you can still expect a lot of experimentation, trial and error.
