Minor author notice. The map and stat sheet, up to date, of the SI, are linked in my profile page for any who want to see them.

I love fire. I love explosions. Once, when I was a wee lad, me and a bunch of friends decided to see if sheds were flammable. We packed it full of things with flammable symbols and then tossed a piece of flaming wood at it.

Spoiler alert, sheds are flammable. That had been cool. Since then when I grew up I had become a chemistry graduate. I knew the ins and outs of a lot of chemistry and I had met a lot of people who agreed with me that more things needed to explode or be set on fire.

That's why I had a plan for this Sarin. That was what was coming in, I was pretty sure. It had been used to attack Tokyo. Aum Shinrikyo was a crazy Buddhist religious cult which used a fuck ton of lsd and believed that anime and the bible and stuff was telling them the end of the world was coming and they needed to kill people. So, they stockpiled enough Sarin to kill a couple million people and opened with the Tokyo sarin attack.

In college we had talked about this a lot. Imagine the sort of mind that sets a shed on fire because it can. Pack that sort of mind in with others just like them in a lab, rushing a term report? You got the biologists talking about tailored viruses that could wipe out races, the computer science people talking about how they could hack the old industry machines and collapse our infrastructure, the physicists talking about how easy it would be to make a dirty bomb and ruin a city, and us chemists trying to one up our friends by talking about chemical warfare.

Sarin interfered with acetylcholine degradation- I had no idea why it was causing us to cough blood. Not me yet, because I was badass, but others. It normally just caused muscle spasms and death. Even if it was something else, he'd called it a nerve gas- why was it causing bleeding? Nerves didn't bleed. Movie magic I guess. But regardless, there was a way to stop it and many other similar agents.

Activated charcoal. Burnt stuff mashed up into a fine enough powder that it would chemically bind to a bunch of toxins. That made into a paste with calcium chloride would absorb the nerve gas, letting you breathe freely and not die. You needed some other stuff to set it up, but, Amanda would have made great activated charcoal for gas masks.

She screamed as the flames crept up the furnace towards her, her flesh starting to heat and burn. The metal on the incinerator started to heat up and Jonas banged on the furnace, his hands burnt as well. "Why did you do that? You could have-"

I spoke. "She's Jigsaw's apprentice. If she isn't, I fucked up, she's gonna die. If she is? I'm sure she knows a way out."

As I spoke, she lunged. Her flesh burnt, she breathed in toxic gases, and she grabbed the wheel to turn off the gases. If we had listened to the tape (which we didn't because I wanted Obi as my thug) it would have said that the devil would save her, and next to the wheel was a devil picture) I saw her sway. The heat must be distracting her.

Lesser desire for life perk activated!

She twisted, new vitality and energy surging through her body, the effects of the fumes vanishing as her perk cleared them. The flames turned off, and she popped off, looking crispy and well done and pissed off.

Several of the group looked surprised, and had sudden wary looks towards her.

"You asshole! She shouted. She advanced towards me. Obi and Xavier advanced towards her, weapons in hand.

She looked over them with predator eyes. I knew she was badass. She could take them both out if she went all out. But she had a role to play. I saw the calculation in her eyes, and then the mask came back up.

She backed away, and swore. "Fuck fuck fuck you're worse than Jigsaw!" She held her head in her hands and looked very stressed.

Poor Amanda. I'll cry you a river. I'm so sorry the death house you helped set up isn't fun.

Xavier leaned in and spoke. "Looks like she's- burnt up- about this." I laughed and replied.

"She looks fieryous." I said loudly Xavier slapped my shoulder and laughed louder. Amanda swore louder at us, pacing back and forth.

Xavier leaned in. "Should we-" He slid his finger across his neck. I shook my head. "She's dropping hints for us. So long as we toss Daniel in front of a trap, she'll disarm it for us. Soft spot for kids? I dunno her game, but she's just one woman. She's useful for now. Moment she becomes a problem though-" Obi and Xavier spoke. "She dies."

"Yeah."

Xavier stood there a while, spiked bat in hand, considering something, and spoke. "I play dungeons and dragons as well." He grinned, and walked off to join the others in searching downstairs.

Finally. A bro. Obi walked up, and spoke. "I have some ideas for Amanda." I looked at him. "Did you know that her original trap was a bear trap? Find something like that, and that will fuck with her head more than anything. There might be one down here. And by the way-" I handed him a syringe.

"That's… horrible. I love it." He said, and went off to look. Psychos were great. They were horrible people and would fuck up those around them, but point them at someone you both don't like? Amazing.

Jonas came up. "Hey, what gives. Why does he get a cure" I scowled at him. "I didn't see you coming to help when Amanda came to kill me." I poked my finger against his chest. "Hey, I think we should calm down." I shook my head. "I don't calm down. Where were you?"

"I'm not a thug like all of you."

I leaned in, all calm. "I'm your is something you can do though- you said you made pizza?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Did you ever burn the pizzas.

"Rarely."

"We can make a cure for the toxic ourselves, with burnt organic material. Could you handle that?" He smiled. "My lungs are hurting- this will stop that? Yes. Can I take Gus with me? A second guy to help would make it faster. And I'll get a cure for this?" I nodded. "Yeah. And you'll get to live longer." Amanda would have made the best burnt charcoal, but she was a boss and so had badass powers. We had a bunch of rags and sofas and things to burn. They got to loading it up.

Whilst everyone searched downstairs, and prepped, I decided to experiment.

There was some dirt down here. I took some of it, and focused my will on it. I felt the earth, felt it's call and-

Wisdom check 19/20 failed! You lack the emotional maturity to mold the spirit of the earth.

And I felt a rush, as my energy drained from me, and the dirt felt to dust. The nerve gas meter rushed forward. Not long now till my first health loss.

Well, fuck. I was close though, and wisdom was a popular award here. Maybe soon.

All in all, we had a solid haul. Observation and scavenge were up to level 99 from the group, and we had-

9 unused gas tanks (empty)

1 old toolkit

1 stepladder

3 clamps (courtesy of the dummy)

1 chair, metal

1 table, metal

9 assorted pipes

40 glass bottles

40 string

40 rags.

1 toy cars

A lot. Jackpot. That toy car was the foundation of our survival, and Addison had found it.

She coughed up some blood, and I handed her the syringe. "Here. For you."

"Thanks." She said, and jammed it in her neck, injecting our magical non toxic cure into her neck.

"You did well. You're solid. With more like you, we could get out of here fast."

But first, we needed more.

Jigsaw had said something to me, a while back, about finding things.

"When you're good at anticipating the human mind, you leave nothing to chance. The mechanical nature of each device matters, I won't say otherwise, but you need to think about why each object is there. What the purpose was, what the previous owner was thinking. You need to research locations. Then you can find the steel needle in the haystack."

There was a trapdoor under the safe leading to Saw 1 leg saw toilet room. This house was close to it. In my time on the computer I had looked up floor plans and housing pictures for this location, and I had found a map. Locked in the stair room was the door to the kitchen.

To complete my gas mask recipe I needed calcium chloride. I had seen some pictures of the old house here that had inspired me.

I had a lockpick.

"Ok, everyone, bring it upstairs. I'm gonna see if I can crack the lock there."

I went upstairs, and began fiddling with the lock. I looked back. Daniel and Addison were carrying a heavy load of loot upstairs. Obi was looking thoughtful. Xavier was looking for something to smash. Amanda was glaring daggers at me as I snuck into a forbidden zone. Gus and Jonas were downstairs, prepping our charcoal. Back to work. After a little time, a notification popped up.

Journeyman level lock. Time to pick- 29 minutes 30 seconds.

Ah shit. I couldn't waste that much time!

100 perk points drained! Perk activated. Master thief.

I felt a draining and a burning sensation as memories rushed into my head. I saw myself- female- creep into a store. I saw myself picking a lock. I saw myself disable security devices. I felt a rush inside myself.

Kayla. I had to save her.

Then I was back in the moment. And the lock was unpicked. What was that?

Gamer's mind (upgraded) under assault!

A new mechanic has been unlocked! Due to dissatisfaction with the gender bending nature of your previous life, when perk points are available and a needed skill from your life is needed, it will be automatically unlocked.

I went over master thief.

Master thief. Master level perk. Years of effort stealing and breaking sophisticated corporate locks has made you extremely good at what you do. You can see things to steal, steal them, and take what you want!

What the hell were you doing Laura? And why was the game inventing new mechanics every single loop?

I guess it was better than having this by surprise at the start. I shook my head.

"Tada!" I said. "Come on in. Jigsaw sucks at lock making." We all filled into the kitchen.

Xavier ran towards an open cabinet and pulled out a can. "Food." I nodded. "Yeah, this place is packed. Been a long time since this place was open, years or maybe a decade. Look for honey, hardtack, ghee, dried corn, dried beans, maple syrup, pasta, ramen, oats, salt, soy sauce, sugar, tea, vanilla extract, white rice not brown, vinegar, or powdered milk. No meat. If it smells rancid or there's a slimy filth or mold, toss it." Although I could probably grind my disease resistance. I might try some. "And, whoever finds this gets the next antidote we find- pickle dill."

Everyone ran off at that. I had provided what all good leaders provide to their troops. Food.

"Ugh. This is repulsive." I said, as I ate a whole, rotten chicken from a tin.

"Is this what worshiping Nurgle feels like? Because Slaneesh, was way more up my ally. Or Tzeentch. Either mad pleasure, or mad magic. Why did I have to get disease powers instead? Send me to corruption of champions next, or dishonored to learn magic from the outsider." I said, sucking on a diseased chicken leg.

Disease control levels up to level 20!

With an effort of will, I crushed the disease in my mouth, so I wouldn't stink, and ran my mouth out. The things we do to grind.

I coughed up some blood. Shit. Reached the first nerve gas tick.

Addison came up to me. "I found- what were you doing?"

"Making myself strong. I'm used to this." And there was Xavier eating honey out of a jar instead like ice cream. Ugh.

"That seems dangerous."

I shrugged. "I'll be fine. What did you find?"

She spoke. "I found the pickle dill! It was buried in a cupboard way back.

"Yes!" I shouted. "Everyone! Bring your snacks. To the basement!" And went back down.

We had found many things of value in the kitchen. Knives, pots, pans, paper. My observation and scavenge had leveled up to 99, and were slowly ticking up in exp. But most of all, most valuable of all the items behind the pickle dill, was the duct tape.

Duct tape fixed all.

Using a string and some duct tape, I knocked a hole out of the bottles. Jonas and Gus had finished making the charcoal, so I mashed that up into a fine paste and mixed it with the dill, cooked that some more, and grind it up again.

You were meant to give it a lot more time, like 24 hours, but the furnace was pretty hot, and we didn't need perfect protection.

Activated charcoal in the bottle, rags around the bottle in case of hits, duct tape around the mouth and nose with some cloth to keep it secure, a string to keep it on, some rags across the opening to keep the charcoal in-

Crude gas mask. Using household materials you have made a basic gas mask. Increases poison tick time by an hour. Durability, 2/2. Special trait, poison resistant.

"Perfect I-" I felt a sudden pounding headache. My head was on fire. I felt like burning needles were stabbing into every neuron, ripping me apart.

For leveling up three related common skills- observation, scavenge, and crafting- to uncommon level at the same time you have unlocked a new synthesis uncommon skill. Survival.

I saw four machines in my head. One, a spyglass, covered in eyes that saw all. One, twisting tools of bone and metal that floated around with no connection. Another of a machine, made of rusted cogs and dull plastic, smash together. I felt a tearing pain in my brain as it expanded.

I killed, and was killed by thousand predators. I made a thousand devices, and was ripped apart by them. I saw a thousand monsters, some as vast as worlds, some with far too many eyes, and was seen by them in return.

I heard a word be shouted, as loud as the world breaking. "Summer."

And I flopped to the ground. The last thing I heard was Amanda's laughter.

A new badass ability is unlocked. All it cost was making Amanda happy by collapsing. And yeah, as someone who has done a lot of research on chemical weapons, this film was by far the most offensive and sadistic film to my senses.

Sarin doesn't cause you to randomly bleed! And nerve gases impact your nerves, not your circulatory system. And there's no magic antidotes to them, you can't be around them without being fucked up. Plus, I am pretty sure they didn't change Danny's clothes. Sarin can outgas off clothes, his daddy or anyone who found them would be fucked up. Uggggh.

The gore and murder was pretty cool though.

Arkyong. Because I post most days, and 2000-4000 words a day is my limit.

Dr. Cookie Deleter. Sure then, Jigsaw will get a cutscene where we see what happened to Amanda's foot later on then. We can see what he was thinking. A bit of time for that. Amanda is cooking, but she's not yet done for an assault. Too many perks left.

DG2. Yeah, Jigsaw is fair. She got out. She has a bunch of powerful perks so she can survive a lot. But all those perks have a timer of a day or more.

Acespeedninja. Thanks. I hope for many more fun endings.

Watermelonninja. He totally could tie people up for shit and giggles, but in Saw, love and romance tends to be more about murdering people for your loved one and cutting off body parts. It's not the most romantic of film series. He would have to go far against fate to make Saw into a romance. That said, he would lol if he managed to make Saw into a harem anime.

Dikr1229. Yeah, he is getting a lot of stress relief. He's bonding, he's working hard, he's making friends, and he's getting to fuck over his captor more. And we all have a little Obi in us. Our inner Obi must be directed towards the cause of good, and all will be fine.

Thorison. Tune in soon to see!

Gatling2745. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action. Jigsaw is wary, but he's not yet upgrading security, though the house is a bit reinforced above the norm. And the butterfly effect will be in full force soon. Events will change mightily, before Saw 2 is over.

Next time, we shall be back to traps. And we shall see why the racing car is the best tool in the house.