Ultimately, I decided it was in my best interests to fake some degree of Thinker ability.
I was on the fence about it for a while, if I was being completely honest. On the one hand, having a Thinker power on record would give my opinion and any information I provided more weight. No one admitted it, but if you had a Thinker power you were usually trusted to be in charge of how to respond to things - even if that power didn't make you smarter or more effective in that role. There was a reason Tattletale was the de-facto person in charge of planning all the Undersiders operations.
On the other hand, having a Thinker rating on record when I knew Coil was probably getting set up in the city still put me on sort of a clock. I already knew he had a tendency to press Thinkers into his employ as a way to get the most out of his own power. He'd done it with Tattletale and Dinah, and since I didn't currently have the shield of the PRT to ward him off, I was in pretty much the perfect position for him to press-gang me.
Actually, that made me wonder, had Tattletale already been recruited yet? I'd searched for Lisa Wilbourne and Tattletale a few times, but hadn't actually found anything of note.
Probably because I only at that exact moment remembered that her real name was Sara Livsey.Not Lisa.
"Sir?" Merlin queried me, snapping me back to the situation I was in.
"Sorry, got distracted. What's the card?"I asked him mentally, glancing at the single playing card the lab tech across from me was holding up.
"Ace of Diamonds. I believe the test will be ending shortly." He replied and I dutifully repeated his determination to the tech, who turned the card around to show the Ace of Diamonds.
"Do you know how this information comes to you, or do you simply know?" The tech asked, sliding the card back into the deck and shuffling it. "Some Thinkers experience their power as a form of synesthesia, while many others feel as though their power is just a database they are querying."
I ignored the thin red line highlighting the position of the card in the deck, along with the veritable rainbow of other colours highlighting other cards. This exercise hadn't been difficult. When we had started - about forty-five minutes ago - I had effectively just been guessing at random. Partially because I was trying to puzzle out how I wanted to proceed, but mostly because I was so unenthused by the low-budget test that I'd mentally checked out from the minute it started. Of course, the researcher showed me every failed card before shuffling them back into the deck, and Merlin had obligingly kept track of them for me.
Hence the highlighted cards.
As we had proceeded, Merlin had been able to use that knowledge to make decent guesses at cards he hadn't marked. Since there were some fifty-two cards in a standard deck, and we'd only really tagged about ten of them by that point, he'd used other methods to shore up his predictions. Honestly, if he wasn't stapled to my brain as a base requirement for being active, I'd be terrified at the efficiency with which he went about it too.
For one thing, maybe thirty or so tries in, when my success rate was roughly twenty percent or so, he started taking snapshots of the researcher in front of me and doing something, with the image that let me see the reflection of the card he was holding. In hiseyes.It wasn't perfect, but oftentimes a suit or a number was all Merlin needed to determine what card was being held in front of me.
Now we basically had a one hundred percent success rate - if only because we'd tagged literally every card in the deck.
"Not really. I feel like I just sort of passively absorb information and then know what to do with it later." I answered with a lazy shrug that actually took significant effort to make visible through my suit.
"How's Soph?"I asked privately, while the Tech pondered my statement, giving me this sort of considering look like he was trying to puzzle out if he believed me or not. Which was unfortunately perfectly reasonable of him. I knew for a fact that a lot of Capes went out of their way to hide their full capabilities, even from the PRT. Well, the smart ones did anyway. Admittedly, my view of what it meant to be a Cape was heavily based on things I had learned from reading Worm, which meant that my outlook was actually kind of villainous in nature. Buuut it hadn't steered me wrong yet so I'd just keep running with it till it stopped working.
"She is presently on a treadmill to your left. They appear to be having some difficulty - I suspect that many new Capes who come through this testing facility lack any kind of equipment that might skew their test results. Because the Second Skin is very obviously Tinker Tech, they are having issues determining if it is assisting her performance in any capacity." Merlin answered, and a vague red outline appeared in my peripheral vision that showed Sophia through the wall, her vague outline bobbing up and down in a fashion consistent with a brusque jog.
Again, the fact that Merlin could accurately put that outline there using only information garnered from a generic cellphone in her pocket boggled my mind. I was a Tinker, which meant I was what most people loosely saw as one of the 'smart' Parahumans, but the truth was I was not anywhere near smart enough to figure most of this crap out without my power holding my hand. I was not an innately smart person.
"Hm, I'd like to try another test then, if you have the time." The researcher finally spoke up, and I hesitated. I didn't reallywantto be here. I didn't want to out myself or show too much of what I could do. This entire exercise was purely in trade for help securing my neighbourhood against literal Nazis - something I had to actively avoid thinking about, because to my mind 'fighting Nazis' was something that everyone, everywhere should have been doing without prompting. I shouldn't really have to trade favours to get it done.
And yet here I was.
Hesitantly, I shifted my upper body so that it was obvious I was turning, and shot a look to Dervish - who until that point had been barely paying attention. Less than ten minutes into this exercise she had taken up a position leaning on a nearby wall, withdrawn her - presumably PRT issue - cellphone, and had been playing around with it ever since. When she noticed me looking at her though, she paused, lowering her phone slightly.
"Everything okay?" She asked, glancing between me and the researcher - obviously not having been paying any attention to the conversation until just now.
"He wants to do another test, but we haven't actually gotten to my Tinker power yet, and uh... I don't really want to be here all day..." I put forth carefully. I tried to make sure my obvious dislike of the situation showed through in my body language, but when you're wearing what amounts to an armoured spacesuit, little tells like swivelling your head back and forth tend to get largely lost in translation.
"It shouldn't take long, just fifteen or so minutes - to see how your power responds to the test!" The tech hurriedly explained.
I looked from the tech back to Dervish, who was shooting me this pleading look - and sighed.
"Fine," I grumbled - then I groaned when the guy pulled one of those thousand-piece image puzzles out from under the table.
"So the goal is to see if you can complete the puzzle faster when all the pieces are in front of you or not." He began - and I swear my soul just about left my body at how annoyed I was.
——
Unsurprisingly, when I just sort of grabbed the box and dumped all the pieces in front of me, it took Merlin approximately thirty seconds to map a vast majority of the pieces purely by shape. What he didn't reason out that way - because some of the pieces were physically identical - he got by examining the tiny portion of an image on the pieces that remained.
It honestly took me longer to follow his instructions to start building the puzzle than anything else. My AI offered to take control of a Psychokinetic Hand to help me, but I felt like that might be showing off just slightly more than I wanted to today - which seemed to annoy him, even if he did understand why I made that choice.
I was beginning to get the impression that Merlin had a need to prove he was better than everyone else, which was ironic because his only actual contemporary was Dragon.
At length, and well before I actually finished the stupid puzzle, the tech started asking me questions about what I was doing, and when I explained that I knew where all the pieces were supposed to go within a minute of seeing them, he took me at my word and let me skip the rest.
Thank god for small favours.
Regardless, I had been keeping tabs on Sophia the entire time and was therefore unsurprised when I finally left the room only to find her tapping her foot anxiously right outside of it with Miss Militia, who seemed amused if nothing else.
"Hey, how'd you're thing go?" I asked casually, even as Dervish and Miss Militia shifted around the two of us to be standing closer together.
"Ran a bit. Shot some targets. Lifted some things." She said noncommittally
"They attempted to determine the limits of her phasing ability through various objects. I cautioned her to stop before they could determine her weakness to electricity." Merlin chimed in. I could tell he had probably just informed Sophia of what I had been doing because of the way her head tilted slightly. I hoped that wasn't too obvious on camera, but I wasn't holding my breath. It was fine if they just assumed we had some way of communicating privately - it's not like I was going to offer any details, and more importantly, a Tinker who couldn't even think of a communication device for their team wasn't a very good Tinker in the first place anyway.
Granted, I was basing my understanding of what was absolutely required for a team to function on what a team in Starfinder would use, but as with many of my assumptions, I hadn't been wrong yet.
"Huh. I just sort of guessed at cards and did a puzzle." I put forth, equally lacking in details, and entirely unnecessarily. I mostly did it to fill the silence brought on by Sophia's characteristic lack of conversational skill, and to a lesser extent, because it would be weird if I didn't say something.
"We're actually making very good time. These tests usually take much longer. All that's really left is to go over your Tinker power, although that could take a while depending on what you and Armsmaster agree on." Miss Militia explained carefully, waving for the rest of us to follow her further in the facility. It wasn't lost on me that Dervish shifted around to be behind us while Militia was in front - probably on the off chance one of us went insane and started trying to pick a fight. I understood that it was just a safety precaution, but it still felt like I was being hemmed in, and it made me antsy. In particular, because of something Miss Militia had said.
"Armsmaster?" I asked carefully.
"He's the only qualified Tinker on the team, so he has to be present to ensure the safety of all Tinker participants in any given test." Militia told me plainly without turning around, once more reminding me that she didn't particularly like me - which was super weird coming from the character I had come to associate with being kind of an all-loving pushover.
"Yeah, I could totally watch you build a death ray, but I wouldn't know if it was likely to blow up and kill us all until it did." Dervish chimed in, and I shot her a dirty look just for implying I was even capable of such shoddy work. She couldn't see my expression through my helmet, but she seemed to have gotten at least sort of accustomed to my personality because she just snickered at me when I did so.
"So I have to wait for him? 'Cus I have better things to do," Soph added in her usual blunt manner.
"Well, most of the other Wards should be around." Miss Militia replied - way too quickly if I'm being honest. The irony of the situation was that I could see the basic psychological tactic at play. After all, most teenagers want to hang out with other teenagers. In particular, a new Parahuman would definitely be interested in seeing other Parahuman's their age. It would just be one more thing on the pile to push them to join the PRT.
Unfortunately for the PRT, Sophia was not wired the same way as your average teenager.
"What would be the point?" She asked, seemingly meaning it, and not just saying it to be a bitch. I had to remind myself that Sophia didn't despise the PRT the way she did in canon because even though she considered the Wards useless, she hadn't been personally subjected to their rules and limitations yet. To her, it was purely academic.
"Maybe you could get a few spars in? See how you stack up?" Dervish jumped in deviously when it became obvious that Sophia's blunt dismissal of the Wards as people worth interacting clearly threw Miss Militia off too much for her to formulate a quick answer to the question.
Sophia's steps hitched for a second and I knew that Dervish had her, even if it wasn't for the reasons she probably thought she did. See, I knew at this point that Sophia now wanted to meet the Wards, but it wasn't to train or spar or whatever. Dervish had basically just presented Sophia with a totally justified reason to assert her dominance over the 'known' heroes. Something I knew she would succeed at because, quite frankly, Sophia was a fucking monster when it came to combat. She didn't really have hobbies the way normal people did. She literally just spent all her time fighting, getting ready to fight, or thinking about fighting. It would be an endearing character trait if she wasn't thirteen - making the entire scenario mostly just super messed up.
Knowing there was nothing I could do to stop her at this point, I stopped in the middle of the hall and put my hand on her shoulder to get her attention.
"All right look, I won't stop you - because I can't - but Shadow Stalker, please for the love of God, don't be a bitch to the Wards." I cautioned her, ignoring the stricken look Miss Militia got on her face, and the snort of amusement Dervish released as I spoke.
I'm sure the two of them expected this to instantly become an argument, but if there's one thing Sophia isn't it's ignorant of the kind of person she is. She was very well aware that she was a huge bitch to most people. She didn't do it because she was ignorant. She did it because she didn't carenotto be. Which meant that as long as she knew she had to be on her best behaviour she... usually... managed to keep herself under control.
"...Fine." She responded, swatting my hand off her shoulder.
"And be nice to Vista. Like, really fucking nice. I swear to god, someday they'll give that little girl a gun, and I don't want to be on her shit list when that day comes." I continued.
"I got it!" Soph huffed at me, crossing her arms across her chest which - because of the colours involved, had the weird effect of making them look like they had disappeared.
"We wouldn't give Vista a gun! Very few Protectorate Heroes use firearms of any kind." Miss Militia decided to rejoin the conversation, obviously deciding to bypass everything else to pounce on the one thing she cared about.
"Which is - no offence - stupid as hell. You understand that with good use of her power Vista could sit on top of a skyscraper someone and snipe people who are inside buildings right? Just load the bloody thing with tranquillizers or something. It makes her more effective in her role,andkeeps her well away from anyrealdanger because she'd be so far away from the action. Keeping the Wards safeispart of the point right?" I countered, only slightly annoyed at her.
Honestly, I was a lot more irked with myself for speaking up. I was already well aware the Militia didn't particularly like me, and I didn't think criticizing her or her organization like this was doing me any favours in that department. Unfortunately, I - like many fans of the franchise - had very strong opinions on the PRT's hilarious misuse of its resources.
"The Wards aren't supposed to be getting into dangerous engagements at all, so she has no need of that kind of thing." Miss Militia replied primly. I practically bit my tongue off restraining my response to that.
Instead, I just shrugged and turned to continue walking. The rest of the short trip happened in relative silence
At length, Miss Militia and Dervish left me in a medium-sized room with walls covered in shelves and clearly labelled bins of stuff, with a small table at its center before peeling off with Sophia to let her beat the shit out of the Wards. It had actually surprised me to learn - mostly from them following me around while we patrolled - that almost all of the canon Wards had triggered and joined up already.
The only ones missing were Kid Win and Browbeat. Which made sense, I guess. I didn't know the specifics of Kid Win's trigger, but he was a Tinker so by default it had to be an extended form of stress which meant he could trigger any day now.
I made a mental note to secretly point out his specialty to him. It'd be weird coming from anyone else, but by the time I met the guy, I'd be a nominally more experienced Tinker than him with a Thinker power, so I could reliably lie about how I knew.
Which, you know, was half the reason I allowed the PRT to saddle me with a Thinker rating at all, despite the danger it posed to my continued well-being.
I continued to glance around the room, ignoring Armsmaster who Merlin had tagged the second I entered the room, but who had decided to be a cheeky asshole about it, standing next to the door in such a way that if I didn't turn around I wouldn't immediately see him or realize he was present.
I was practically salivating justlookingat all the resources in this room. None of this stuff was rare or expensive, I definitely wasn't being given my pick of dangerous isotopes or anything like that - but thiswasa whole bunch of largely mundane stuff that I would have to go out of my way to get in anything even vaguely resembling decent quantities. I could do some good work with the stuff in this room.
Which made the fact that I couldn't keep what I built here all the more annoying.
"Hey, let's make a deal," I called into the room, not bothering to turn around to look at Armsmaster, who likewise, didn't startle or otherwise give any outward indication he was surprised I had addressed him.
"I'm not sure what kind of deal you think I'm even authorized to offer you. I can't provide you with anything more than you see before you." He replied, walking into my field of view with his arms slack at his sides and his halberd slung over his back. He had obviously misunderstood the nature of my statement. I don't know what mostothertinkers would make of the selection in front of me, but I had no complaints. There was no way for anyone to provide me with any of the esoteric materials I would need even if I wanted them to. Most of them were blatantly magical.
"Right. Look, I gather this is supposed to be a test of my Tinker capabilities and whatnot - but if I'm being honest, I don't have a lot of motivation to comply. Do I get to keep what I build here?" I asked blandly, even though I knew the answer already.
"Unfortunately, no. Anything made on the premises belongs to the PRT. It will be examined by an expert to ensure there are no dangerous side effects of the technology, and then placed in storage or dismantled for parts." He replied flatly. I glanced at him, his expression completely impassive, almost bored looking.
"Yeah, see, you say that - but since I figured as much, I don't really have a reason to build anything useful. I mean, you know I could just build a crystal-based toaster and move on with my life right?" I pointed out.
"If that is what you think is best." He responded neutrally.
"You seriously can't work with me even a little bit here?" I half whined. I admit that, while I had come in intending to play hardball - possibly not build anything at all - Ireallywanted to go down my bucket list here. I probably wouldn't get access to easy resources like this again for some time. Or... ever, really. I was probably going to have to continue to jury rig solutions to my problems indefinitely unless I joined up with an established group that could procure things for me. Something I obviously didn't want to do. Yeah, I could join the Protectorate, or New Wave or something - but I didn't really want to. Which sucked, because I wasn't seeing any easy solutions otherwise. I was already getting close to the point where I wouldn't be able to keep advancing my tech using stuff from a radioshack.
"...do you know what your specialty is?" Armsmaster queried in response to my question. I jolted slightly because I had been expecting a flat rejection.
"...even if I did - which I won't promise - what's it matter to you?" I asked suspiciously.
"Our records are currently based on my earliest guess as to your specialty - torture devices. Obviously, we would prefer for those to be accurate in the event we have to work with you, say, during an emergency, and so would greatly appreciate your assistance in this matter." He rattled off at me.
"Basically, it's easier to counter me if you know my specialty." I simplified for him.
"The information is purely for the sake of better cooperation between the Protectorate and any Independent capes that we-"
"Look man, if you've been paying any attention at all you'll know I have enough of a Thinker rating to realize you're lying right now. If not to me, then yourself. If I tell you my specialty can I keep what I build here?" I cut him off, already starting to walk around the room to examine the different bins lining the walls.
"...We may be able to come to a compromise."
"That's not 'yes'. In fact, that sounds alot like 'only if I'm not interested in what you make'. This isn't hard man, do you want a Toaster or a Forcefield Belt." I said dryly. Listen, just because I'm aware of the bureaucratic bullshit happening in the background, didn't mean I had thepatiencefor it. Of course, I knew I had fucked up the minute I decided to give an example of what I could actually make, because of the way Armsmaster's head twitched towards me when I said 'Forcefield Belt'.
So I immediately tried to backtrack.
"Not that I can make one of those, but you know what I mean." I lied smoothly.
I'm... not entirely sure he bought it, but at least I had tried.
"...Agreed." Armsmaster finally stated, now eyeing me speculatively. I didn't care, because I was already grinning like an idiot under my helmet and going down the list of shit I could make with what was laying around this room. I felt like a kid in a candy store. There was so much I wanted to do I had to resist the urge to physically start bouncing up and down in joy.
Stupid teenage body.
Of course, then Douchemaster had to go and rain on my parade.
"No weapons or armour. Nothing that could be used to harm another person. Small devices only. Now, whatisyour specialty?" He ordered before asking, and I got the distinct impression he had been waiting for someone else to confirm all that for him. Probably Piggot. That woman would have a vested interest in making sure I wasn't even tangentially related to the concept of bio tinkering.
Annoyingly, that simple limitation drastically cut back on what I could reasonably build here, especially because I was sort of on a time limit. I didn't want to be here for more than another few hours. The longer we stayed the higher chance there was of Soph pissing someone off, or Auntie noticing we were missing.
Well, probably not Auntie. I'd already noted how little attention she actually paid to us. But Terry might notice, which was it's own problem.
"...Space Travel." I ground out in annoyance, having long since decided to use that as the catch-all for what my powers did for me. It wasn't even a lie really. It just drastically undersold what I meant by Space Travel because there was no real way to explain all of the related magical bullshit built into my power.
"Can you elaborate on that?" Armsmaster asked sharply. I already knew where his mind must have gone the second I'd opened my mouth. Sphere. Or well, Mannequin now. The Tinker who had tried to build a base on the moon - and gotten subsequently targeted by the Simurgh for it. I had zero intention of actually going into space while the winged bitch was hanging out up there, so I wasn't too worried, but I could definitely see why the connection might make people uncomfortable.
"Space Travel. You know, environmental shielding, communication in the void, weapons that won't punch a hole in the ship and kill everyone. Space Travel. Or well, I guess any technology people would need while engaged in Space Travel." I stated bluntly.
"Fairly broad," Armsmaster noted suspiciously.
"I'm wearing an armoured spacesuit. My cape name is Starfinder. It's not subtle dude." I groused.
Armsmaster didn't answer me, but that didn't matter to me much at all because I was already trying to figure out what I wanted to build. It had to be something I wouldn't be able to make back at the hideout. Something quick, but only possible with an abundance of materials. Also... something I couldn't hurt anyone with. Hm. I had a couple of ideas off the top of my head, but a lot of them showed off stuff I'd prefer the PRT not give me any shit over. Depending on whether or not Shards counted as Psychic, a Pulse Ray might be seriously debilitating to Parahumans - but I didn't want the PRT to know I could effectively make a handheld version of the Simurgh's Scream. I could build a Multiverse Mirror, but despite the simplicity of the things effects, anything that could connect me with Haywire tech - stuff that let you go to alternate earths - was a big no-no.
I ran down my mental list for a bit, thinking. Lots of Starfinder tech would ping on the PRT's 'kill it with fire' radar, which was annoying.
At length it dawned on me that the least revealing thing I could make right now was a Force Field module. A Force Field Module that wouldn't even go in my suit, because it only had the capacity for a single mod - which I was currently more than happy to use on my Jump Jets.
Naturally, I was very reluctant to waste this chance on something I probably wouldn't even get to use, which vexed me to no end.
"Merlin, thoughts?"I asked my AI companion, even while continuing to examine things at random just to keep up appearances.
"Perhaps an Ability Crystal? It should be within your means to create, and I'm certain the gentleman next to you would be interested to see it in use."He suggested.
And Ability Crystal was one of... three? Yeah, three ways for a Starfinder character to raise their base stats, making themselves stronger, faster, smarter and the like. Most of the other methods were highly invasive surgeries - either adding extra organs to ones self, adding extra machinery to your nervous system so you think faster - or using an Ability Crystal.
The Ability Crystal was the only non-surgical one of those options, and it worked by magically copying the characteristics of another person - typically some long-dead hero - and pasting them onto you. It wasn't a perfect one-to-one translation, but at the level I was at I could still make myself significantly stronger with one.
The problem was, I did have an imprint of an ancient hero to use, so I'd have to copy someone else - probably Armsmaster. And something told me he might take issue with me trying to scan him into a crystal for any reason, regardless of whether I explained it to him or not.
"No template for one. Anything else?"I pressed.
"An Irising Shield perhaps? Simple enough that it shouldn't give much away, and the miniaturization at work may interest Armsmaster." Merlin tried again.
"I can make one of those at home though!"I complained.
"An Enhanced Camera or Scanner would not go amiss sir." Merlin finally stated, in a bland tone that told me this was probably his first choice, and that the others were intentionally bad as a means of making it look better. Admittedly, all the little circuitry required for an Enhanced Camera would be hard for me to get otherwise, and giving Merlin - and by extension, myself - the ability to see into a whole bunch of other wavelengths of light could be useful...
But it was so boring!
Annoyed but accepting of the fact that I just wasn't going to come away from this as happy as I'd prefer, I gave up and started grabbing parts out of the bins with the certainty of someone who had been in this room dozens of times - mostly because Merlin was kind enough to highlight all the bins I needed the minute my decision was made.
"What will you be making?" Armsmaster asked curiously.
"Wavelength Scanner," I said, changing the name just so that he couldn't accuse me of making the most boring thing I could imagine in defiance of our agreement.
Which this... definitely sort of was.
"Hmm," He hummed in response, turning to watch as I rapidly began my work.
——
When I got home that night, I was tired, annoyed, and wanted an excuse to fuck with someone who deserved it. Which was why I had settled onto my bed, made sure Terry wasn't home, and then cast Know Coordinates.
Now, here's the thing about the spell Know Coordinates. It did somethingextremely usefulin a way that was extremely unpleasant. You see, in a space age game like Starfinder, the ability to find anyone who was on the same planet as you was useful but not game breaking.With an entire galaxy at your fingertips and space travel being relatively common, the chances of your average Starfinder playing using the Know Coordinates spell to great effect are pretty minimal.
I wasnot, however, playing Starfinder. There was absolutely zero space travel, and literallyeveryperson I could conceivably want to find was on the same planet as me. Just that slight change in context made the spell go from moderately useful to so good it could justifiably be any given Parahumans only power. The only problem was, again, the way the spell achieved this effect.
Basically, the spell Know Coordinates made an entire cybernetic augmentation ex nihilo, then functionally slammed it straight into your brain so it could use you as the processor for the bloody thing. You'd barely even consider that an inconvenience in a tabletop game, but in real life it was harrowing and painful which was the only reason I hadn't wanted to use it before this. I had been thinking about it, and I knew that havingaccessto it would be invaluable, but oh boy did I freaking hate it.
Just... imagine having an entire brain surgery performed on you, but at super-speed - so you feel all of it all at once. Then when the spell ends and the augmentation vanishes, it happens all over again.
It was all I could not to scream bloody murder, is what I'm saying.
So it was that the last thing I did with my weekend was to start a new PHO thread after having Merlin bounce my connection address around between as many servers as possible.
It was titled, 'The Exact Location of Jack Slash, (Updated Once a Day)'.
Because honestly, if you're going to give people the exact coordinates for shooting ICBMs at someone, you should really make sure they deserve it.