Our wandering was a lot more dangerous than I had first thought. The zombies constantly followed us, and appeared when we least expected it. Well, calling them zombies was a bit pushing it. Though it looked like, and definitely shambled like zombies, the lack of a rotting smell and the flickering of their holographic shell definitely gave it away.
Luckily, we encountered a sporting and exercise goods store and stocked up on some makeshift weapons. Golf clubs were the main go-to, but there were also baseball bats as well. Everything else was either too light or not made for swinging.
"Is there a reason why you aren't putting down your things?" The father, a man by the name of Johnny, asked. He was a muscular-looking man, with a bit of a belly, and a beard on his face. His daughter, Maria, followed slightly behind him, gripping to his trousers as she stared up at me. Glancing at her, she quickly ducked back behind her dad once again.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Not much. They cost quite a bit of money and I would rather not spend it again." I hefted the tools and box in my other hand. "Unfortunately, I don't have insurance that covers villain attacks so that's that."
Johnny nodded his head. "No job?"
I shook my head sadly. "University drop out, I'm afraid." Humming, I saw a group of zombies round the corner and started shambling towards us. "I'm still in the midst of piecing my life back together so…" I tilted my head from side to side. "You know how it is."
The first swing broke through the zombie's skull. With a shower of sparks, the illusion around the zombie faded before it dropped like a sack of bricks. As I tried to pull out the putter, the clothes surged forward, swinging and taking out the other zombies. Due to their light frames, even a decent blow is enough to take them off their feets. Once downed, it was easy for the group to mob them and swing their weapons until it stopped moving.
"If you want a job, I could hook you up with one." Johnny said as he brought his nine iron to a zombie's knee. The metal frame crumpled in on itself as the motor was utterly decimated. Unable to bear its weight, the zombie scrambled on the linoleum as it tried to crawl towards him. But another swing and its face was caved in.
"Where?" I furrowed my eyebrows. I didn't think there was–
"The Dockworker's Union." He stated.
Ah. There was always that option, wasn't there? I frowned slightly. It was a good idea in theory. A way in with Danny Hebert, and by extension, the Queen of Escalation herself, Taylor. But this was Taylor we were talking about. Assuming I could befriend her, what would that accomplish? I would be in a position to be close to her and maybe even recruit her if the opportunity arose. But what would that further accomplish? I now had the Queen of Escalation. Did I want to give a person with that title and 'sociopath-on-demand' incredibly dangerous equipment?
I could even… No, I couldn't. Taylor triggered after winter break which ended in about two days. What the hell could I even do that wouldn't draw a massive amount of attention to me? A vigilante breaking into a school to save one specific girl from what was consistently described as 'bio-terrorism'. Even if the outcome was good, the attention and questions it brought was certainly not.
I let out a soft sigh. I guess it didn't matter right now. The Celestial Forge was bullshit, I suppose. It wouldn't be impossible for me to get something that could render my concerns a moot point. If that's the case then it was better to be in a position to use it than not. As the saying goes 'Luck is when Opportunity meets Preparation' or something like that.
Turning my attention back to Johnny, I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure. If you would have me." I extended a hand. Grasping it, we shook hands.
"Great. I'll pass your name to Danny once this is all over." I took a look around. The moment we had a method of fighting back, these smaller zombies weren't too much of a problem. However, I doubted this was all Leet had in store for us. In zombie apocalypse games, there were two forms of challenges, either the sheer number of zombies which meant resource and bullet scarcity or via more 'advanced' and dangerous types of zombies.
Since Leet's tech was more likely to break the more he made something similar, I don't think he could do the first one. Then again, he has quite a number of tinkertech zombots here so maybe I was wrong.
Looking at the downed drone in front of me, I tried to use Hammer Jammer to try and figure out a method to repair it. The description the Forge gave me was that it could repair anything. But that wasn't quite true.
It could make anything 'workable' again. As good as Hammer Jammer was, it wasn't going to be repairing anything esoteric nor magical in nature. It worked on scientific principles, and therefore wouldn't be able to handle tinkertech which was absolute fucking bullshit on the way it worked. At best, it could rip out whatever that wasn't working and replace it with something that could replicate its effect. Though to a much worse extent.
But in order to repair or even replace something, one must first be able discern what that part was used for. Although it was tinkertech and therefore completely irreparable to Hammer Jammer, fundamentally it was made by human(ish) technology. And therefore, even though I couldn't repair it, Hammer Jammer could provide a decent guess as to what each component was supposed to do.
Much of the zombots important bits were in its head, unsurprisingly enough. No other place had the space for the components needed. There were two parts that Hammer Jammer could discern its uses and a third that it could only provide a vague guess. The two parts in question were a signal receiver and a power source. And the third was too smashed up to discern its use. But from how it connected to the receiver and power source, plus the remnant circuitry, it was probably a computer or processing unit.
Sighing, I turned my attention away from the zombot corpse. It didn't tell me much other than, just like real zombies, these things can be killed efficiently with a shot to the head. Checking with the others, everyone was a little tired but could still move.
"The number of survivors is now 70!" Leet's voice suddenly cut through the air. Several people flinched before staring up at the ceiling. "It's now time to up the stakes a little bit. Uber will now be patrolling the mall, eliminating any survivors he comes across. Do try to keep moving and pray you don't encounter him. Prepare well, survivors!" The speakers cut out as he finished his update.
Just as he finished, the Celestial Forge thrummed and awakened once more, breaking my train of thought. The longer thread shot out to the Quality Efficiency Constellation. And somehow missed every single low hanging fruit in an attempt to reach one of the higher level Stars, barely out of reach. Biting my lip in frustration, I let out a low growl as the thread of energy pulled back for another attempt.
'I swear to fucking god… If I don't get some bullshit OP power, or if this fucker somehow hits a lower Star when going for a higher Star… Someone's going to die.' I sent a prayer to whoever was in charge of this stupid thing.
"Mister." Maria looked over at me. "Are you upset?"
I looked over to the young girl. She was pretty short, at around 70cm? With curly black hair and wide innocent eyes. She was wearing a yellow blouse, with two matching yellow ribbons tying her hair into a two-side-up style. Shaking my head, I replied. "A small annoyance. You don't have to worry about it."
"Mmm…" She hummed as she reached into her pocket. "You can have this." She reached out a hand and dropped a piece of candy into my palm. "I always feel better after eating some candy."
I couldn't help but smile a little at her offer. "Thanks." I popped the candy into my mouth. It was grape-flavoured.
"We have to keep moving." I turned to Johnny who nodded. "Uber's got those massive arms that somehow kept up with Laserdream. Best not to stare that down a corridor."
A smattering of nods came from the group. With our decision settled, we started moving through the mall at a slightly slower pace, keeping an eye out for any zombie groups that were roaming around. Though it wouldn't do anything if Leet was specifically targeting us. Although they were villains, they still streamed their exploits, which meant they required some amount of entertainment value, right?
The mall wasn't exactly a big space. It was sizable for sure, but it still had only so much space to work with. As we walked, we made sure to check every exit door we could find, hoping that maybe one of them slipped through the cracks and we could escape. However, even after half an hour, we were still stuck.
"Do you think the heroes have arrived?" The single girl, June, spoke. "They must have, right?"
"If they did, then whatever Leet's using to lock the place down is more robust than expected." I replied. God that tech would be so useful but I needed a way to observe it before I could possibly use Hammer Jammer to try and see how it worked. Much less recreate it. Plus Hammer Jammer wasn't a skill for reverse-engineering anyway, being only a side-application of its main skill of crafting and repairing.
"Hey, isn't that–" Johnny pointed out. A blonde was leaning against the wall, with several zombot parts scattered around her. All of them looked like someone took a cannon to their faces, smashing the skull to smithereens, leaving little else behind. She didn't look injured thankfully, just out of it and tired.
"Laserdream." I finished. "Well, let's see if she's willing to help us." Walking over, Crystal spotted our group arriving and had a small look of surprise.
"Nathan?" She glanced at me before looking at the rest of the group. Glancing behind me, I could see several looks of surprise and curiosity when she said my name. "Are all of you safe?" She asked as she looked us up and down.
"We're fine." I replied. "Have you figured out what's happening outside? Any updates on how long it'll take to get in?"
Crystal shook her head. "No. Leet's signal jammer is even working on my phone as well. But from the glass outside, several heroes are already here and trying to find a way in." I nodded. Something that could isolate an area like this was probably a drain on power and resources. It didn't look like it should be capable of lasting indefinitely.
"Let's take a break then since we have Laserdream here." A few sighs of relief resounded from the small group. Cracking a half-smile, I shot a glance to Laserdream who didn't look like she minded the work.
As the group sat down, I excused myself and started walking away. With a little bit more time, I could pick around Leet's zombots a bit longer. And if anyone asked, it could just be brushed aside as curiosity about tinkertech. The internet might have some other thoughts, but frankly it was the internet. I just hoped that the Leet's drone bothered some other group while we were resting.
"It shouldn't last for too much longer at least. Everyone knows Leet's tech will backfire on him, most of all Leet himself. If he had any sense, the moment he detects that his tech is failing, he would get out immediately." I muttered. Walking over to one of the zombots, I looked down at it. Unlike the others, this one's head was relatively intact, having its spine and neck blown out instead.
From the damage, it looked like Crystal struck it from below, taking out a portion where the brain stem would be on a human. Turning it around, the power source was blown to bits, thereby rendering the entire machine useless. Suppressing a grin, I started poking around inside the skull. Sitting down, I withdrew some of my tools and started pulling out the destroyed machinery in an attempt to peer deeper inside.
Unlike the first skull which had a golf club put through it, this was a lot more intact. Hammer Jammer still was not happy at how tinkertech simply went 'fuck you' to the laws of physics and made tech that shouldn't otherwise work work. But I was doing my best at wrangling it to try and reverse-engineer the tech.
The skill worked by allowing me to craft things that I otherwise couldn't. For example, one of the 'gadgets' I wanted to make was a taser that didn't require wires to enter the target's body. There was no way I could actually make something like that with my current knowledge, so Hammer Jammer provided me with said knowledge to help me understand how to make it. But in essence, that knowledge wasn't necessarily 'mine', in the same way that just because you could Google it, didn't make the Internet's knowledge yours.
However, this knowledge would then be stored away by Savant's and integrated into my existing knowledge pool. Which then allowed me to use Hammer Jammer to think of other ways to create an item. Which was also integrated into my knowledge pool. And it became a pseudo-reinforcing loop that just constantly made me smarter. Or at least more knowledgeable.
By doing so, I could abuse this newly acquired knowledge to figure out how tinkertech worked to a certain extent. I saw the components and poked and prodded my skills until they spat out the knowledge that could help me understand it. Then reapplied the knowledge to the component to see what else glean from it.
It wasn't perfect, and it very much relied on Savant's Understanding to help me comprehend and remember all the knowledge given to me, but I definitely could understand Leet's work a lot better than before. The exact principles still eluded me but I could discern specifically how the components worked instead of being provided a half-educated guess half-blindshot as to what its purpose was. Or suggestions of poor recreations.
And the results were… interesting. The receiver was a more compact form of any old signal receiver except it had a little something to act as a node in a network of receivers. When it received a signal, it would propagate to other receivers nearby, creating a ripple effect of sorts. Of course due to how fast such transmissions worked, it was practically instantaneous. A much better observation compared to 'the thingy receives signals'.
It certainly cut down on the need to send one signal multiple times, effectively controlling a horde like a hive mind instead. Though why he didn't just make a hive mind was beyond me. Maybe because he burnt his tech tree long ago?
"Hey. We're ready to leave." Crystal's voice came from behind me. Dropping the skull, I glanced behind me to see everyone was stretching and picking up their stuff. Packing up my stuff, I twisted and felt my spine pop satisfyingly. Checking my phone, it had only been ten or so minutes since I sat down and started looking at Leet's tech.
Oddly fast, but the signal receiver itself wasn't as complex as I had thought. I was certain that with more complex tinkertech like say Armsmaster's halberd I would be spending a few months using this method at the very least. Since this worked the way it did, it was probably for the better that I constantly pinged Hammer Jammer to provide me with more knowledge.
"Let's keep going then." I called out as I continued to mull over Leet's receiver. I felt like I was missing something but I couldn't put a finger on what it was.
The rest of our time in the mall wasn't particularly interesting. With Crystal here, we could easily handle any zombies that appeared and we moved quickly enough that we weren't overrun by zombies. Though after we met up, the number of encounters were increasing by the minute. I wasn't sure if it was Murphy's Law or if Leet was actively fucking with us.
It was probably the latter to be honest.
Checking my phone, it was also an hour since the attack started. So hopefully, the heroes broke through Leet's barrier soon. Or maybe a catastrophic failure would occur and they were forced to retreat. Both options seem pretty likely.
"And we're down to our final seven survivors." His voice came over the speaker. "And we have entered, Sudden Death!" I did not like the sound of that. "Uber, as well as all the remaining zombies shall converge at your location. Survive for ten minutes, and you'll win! Prepare well, survivors!"
I glanced around. One, two, three… "We're the last ones left." I remarked. "Ah shit." A thunderous crash punctuated my words before Uber's massive frame came into view. Upon closer inspection, the arm muscles weren't exactly muscles. They certainly looked the part, but they were more just a mesh placed over all the actual machinery that handled his movements.
Behind him, a veritable horde of zombies slowly came into view. By my count, it was practically every zombie that had first teleported into the atrium. Gathering around Uber, it cut an imposing view. Crystal stepped in front of us, her fists already glowing as she floated into the air. Glancing at us, she spoke gravely. "When I give the signal, run as fast as you can away."
"May the Sudden Death start in 3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"GO!!" "RUN!"
Crystal shot forward, crossing her arms and sweeping two beams of bright red concussive force across the corridor. Immediately, a chunk of the horde was simply turned to scrap while Uber was blown back by the force of it. His arms now sported two deep gashes, revealing the machinery within.
However, it seemed to work fine as he used his arms to push off and launch himself at Crystal. Dodging to the side, a beam of red slammed into his body midair, causing him to crash into one of the shops to the side. A roar and he burst out of the ruined store, swinging his fist at her. But her smaller form allowed to easily dodge.
While the two had their second match, the zombie horde was still moving, charging towards us like a skittering tide (heh). Spinning on my heel, I immediately started running the other direction.
The rest of the group followed for fairly obvious reasons. But there was no way that we were outrunning the horde. Not only were they properly running unlike before, but they were also, y'know, robots? They didn't tire, didn't get fatigued. So as long as they ran a little faster than us, we would quickly fall and get mobbed.
My thoughts were interrupted by the Celestial Forge shooting out the lengthening tendril of energy for the fourth time today and, finally! It has managed to attach itself to one of the Stars. The Star pulled energy from the tendril, glowing brighter and brighter before exploding and finally shining brightly. The excess energy from the tendril broke off once the Star was stable, returning to its dormant state. Although the Star that was awakened was on the Enchanting Skills Constellation, and a fairly low one at that. No matter, at the very least I now had something else to work with.
The new perk was 'Loremaster'. And it allowed me to… look at objects really well. Not what I had expected really. I was hoping for a more… tangible ability? Making my equipment better? Runic inscription and all that jazz? Not a worse version of the "Observe" skill found in every Gamer fic ever written.
In simple terms, it allowed me to look at an object, and given enough time figure out how it was enhanced and the effects of each enhancement. Furthermore it was something that had to be trained. For now, I could look at an object and tell you the bare basics of an enchanted object. But with time and training, I would be able to practically map out the structure of a magic item's enchantments.
There was also a secondary effect of being able to argue stupidly well against someone else. Since, apparently, the act of arguing, digging into someone's words to find the unlying logic, thoughts, biases, etc, was similar to digging into someone's enchantment to find the unlying logic, structure, flaws, etc.
"You're falling behind!" Another voice cut through my thoughts. Blinking, I realized that I was at the very back of the group. Picking up the pace, I matched with the rest of them while breathing a quick thanks to Johnny.
Luckily, it didn't seem like they were built to run with their specific weight. Due to their lighter frames, they would often trip over themselves and be crushed underneath the horde while attempting to chase after us. Still that wasn't going to be thinning out the crowd anytime soon.
Bolting down a hall, I turned the corner to see another horde coming our way. Pivoting on the ball of my foot, I gestured for us to run the other way. And then again. And again. And when it happened for the fourth time, I was starting to get a little suspicious.
Barely two minutes in and we were already flagging. Forget the five minute mark, we were going to be downed in three. But something felt a little off. If Leet really wanted this to be unwinnable, which it was, all he needed to do was chase us around until we collapsed. Hell, if he had extra zombies, he could use them to box us in.
So why were they coming down seemingly random corridors?
I had a good feeling that they weren't. With Savant's Understanding, I could call upon a mental map of the mall. And from that, figure out the path we were talking as well as the corridors from which the zombies came from. It wasn't too difficult but I did almost trip and fall, only to be caught by Johnny again. "Thanks." I breathed out.
The zombies were pushing us away from the center of the fifth level. Now there were really only two reasons why a villain wouldn't want people to go in that direction. The first was because it was where all their stuff was placed. The second was because it was where they were hiding.
And I had a good feeling it was number two.
Since he probably was preemptively sending the smaller groups, it would be easy to bait out his zombies. On the other hand, there was a much easier thing we could do.
"Let's split up." I shouted in between breaths. "They can't catch us all if we're split up."
I got a few nods as we approached the next fork. The group split into two very awkward parts. June and I took the left path while the rest took the right path. I sorta knew this would occur since there was no good way to split us up. However the horde only followed the larger group, leaving me and June alone.
A thought suddenly occurred to me. Leet can't splinter his horde once they've been grouped up. Or at least, he can't splinter the group without making all the zombies spread out. Due to how the receivers work, any commands propagate throughout the horde. So he can only make them do one command at a time.
"Huh? Why were we–" June started before I grabbed her arm.
"No time to explain, we gotta go now." I sprinted down the corridor. Turning back around, I shouted to the rest of the group. "Split up as much as you can! He can't break the horde up!" Leet had to send a new horde to deal with us. In that time where we had nothing, I needed to get as close as I could to him. Dashing down the corridor, June ran off in a separate direction, muttering a brief thank you as she left.
"Where is he…" I muttered underneath my breath. Getting deeper into the forbidden zone, the zombies weren't hordes. Not yet anyway, being loose groups of a few idling zombies. Swinging my club, I took them out while still searching around. "Shard. If you can hear me," I muttered a prayer. "Please fuck him over right now."
Nothing. I frowned slightly. Think. Where can Leet be right now? He was definitely somewhere hidden. Probably not in public view. But somewhere that he can coordinate and control all the zombies from. He had access to the speakers… I glanced up and my eyes caught sight of the… security cameras.
Of course, the security office. He would have access to all the cameras, allowing him to precisely control the movements of the zombies. Plus, that's how he could know where we were heading despite only having one streaming drone.
Although I knew where Leet was, getting to him was another challenge altogether. Who knew that the mall didn't exactly want people going to their security offices? Which reminded me, where were all the security guards when this occurred? I guess Uber and Leet took them out beforehand but still, we didn't see a single one.
As I searched through the mall, I kept an eye out for any zombies that were coming my way. I did see the occasional group patrolling, but they were easy enough to evade. In fact, they didn't even bother searching properly, just kinda walking around in set routes. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my stun gun and opened the packaging. Fighting a tinker was suicide but… it was Leet. How bad could he possibly be?
The memories of my Solar life was primarily as a craftsman, but we… (they?) were also master martial artists. The specific form I was focused on was the defensive Crane form, mostly to stall for time for actual combat Solars could arrive and protect me. Granted I now didn't have any Essence that would turn my punches and kicks into divine fury. However, I'd like to think I was familiar enough that I could reasonably pull off some of the easier skills.
Though this body was also very weak so it was really up in the air.
I had to move quickly and keep myself off the cameras as much as I could. I didn't need a full group to descend on my position right now. The doors to the security office were locked behind keycards. Not particularly difficult to bypass, I could use the screwdriver and hammer to pry off the casing and bridge the relay to unlock the door.
Ahh… Don't you love it when bypassing electronic locks also falls under DIY?
"Don't forget the anti-tamper system…" I slipped the screwdriver underneath to hold the spring in place. And… a soft beep came from the door. Pulling out my hand, I pushed the door open and fixed the casing back into place. Slipping through the door, I shut it behind me.
"You!" The mad scientist appeared before me. The controller hung from his chest, displaying a screen with a minimap as well as several dots that most likely corresponded to the zombies. "You must be a cape right? How about this? Join the Uber and Leet crew and–"
"Sorry." I interrupted him with a hand. "I'm uhh… Not a cape." I lied through my teeth.
Leet blinked and stared at me. "Really? What about the stuff that you carry?"
"I'm just broke and I don't want to buy a new fan. Stun gun for self-protection. Tools for maintenance." I shrugged my shoulders. "You know, university is expensive and…" I rolled my hand in an 'on-and-on' gesture. "Yea. Not buying a new fan after I just purchased this."
"You looked at my tech?"
"It's not every day you get to look at tinkertech y'know?"
"You bypassed the lock without triggering the alarm?" He pointed to the door behind me.
"That's just poor lock design. Like, you could probably do it given some practice. Uber definitely could." I shrugged. "God, not everything has to be powers." I sighed. "Anyway, I don't suppose I can't ask you to peacefully leave?" I cocked my head.
Leet scoffed. "You're facing a tinker, boy. You don't have anything to threaten me with." He laughed at my face. "I'll admit you're pretty good but–" I dropped my box and charged straight at him, catching him off-guard. Flinching, he reached towards his belt and tried to pull something out.
But I was already on top of him. Grabbing his arm, I held it in a vice grip while I tried for a quick strike to his throat. Coughing, Leet stumbled back but I pretty much held onto his arm to stop him from getting too far away. Stepping forward, my other fist struck his sternum and I felt my hand hitting something hard.
Wincing, I took a step back. It felt like punching steel. Laughing, Leet rapped his fist on his chest, making a strangely off-sounding muffled tang sound. "You think I'll be so stupid to not have any protection?"
I shrugged. Chest was out but I don't think the same material could be used for all parts of his body. It was most likely just a single form of chest protection, to prevent his power from fucking with it and making the armour suddenly unravel or something. Taking a measured step forward, I let my Solar memories and instincts guide my fists.
Unfortunately, there were several things working against me. Firstly, my body was not fit enough to handle fighting intensively for pretty much any period of time. Secondly, Crane was a defensive form and not an offensive one. It required my opponent to try and attack before I could land a serious counter. So it wasn't like I could end this in a single strike which meant the battle dragged on.
And lastly, I had to fight. I had no idea what Leet had underneath his lab coat of surprises so I had to keep pressuring him to stop him from pulling out anything that could turn the tides. Breathing heavily, I tried for another neck hit but Leet kept his arms up and blocked it. Clicking my tongue, I pulled back for a moment to catch my breath.
"Hah!" Leet laughed. "Tired already?" He reached to his belt only for a loud bang to echo through the hallway. Letting out a cry of pain, his hand flew to the air as smoke billowed out from a ruined piece of technology from his belt. Seizing my chance, I lunged forward for a sweeping strike.
Leet leaned back to dodge. Taking another step forward, the sweep flowed into a palm uppercut which forced him further back and off-balance. And finally, a leg strike that knocked him fully over. Falling over, I jumped on top of him and started whaling on him. A tinker without his equipment was nothing. My knuckles slammed into his mouth and cheeks, the only vulnerable parts to his face.
"Fu–!" Another fist impacted his cheek, cutting off his words. "Bas–!" A second fist struck his chin, slamming his head back down onto the floor.
After he stopped crying out, I took a deep breath and leaned back. Grabbing his zombot controller, I fiddled around with its control, sending a command to the bots to shut down. Fortunately, there was no need for a password or verification.
The Celestial Forge awakened once more. This time it aimed for the Magitech Crafting Constellation. And missed by a goddamn mile.
Stepping off Leet, he remained splayed on the ground, unmoving. Walking over to my stuff, I pulled out my hammer and whaled on the box, smashing it. Then I started using Hammer Jammer to try and figure out how it worked. It didn't take too long to understand. Hammer Jammer was a lot more cooperative with its knowledge when it was targeting something to be fixed. Though the precise methods Leet used to create such effects still eluded me much to my frustration.
The display and circuitry wasn't too interesting, being little more than a repurposed handheld device and console controllers. But the signal transmitter was really cool. It was the reason why there wasn't any phone signal at all in the mall. It hijacked it to transmit the signal to a specific point. But it wasn't very… efficient in its methods.
When transmitting many signals to the same general location, much of the finer details of the signal was lost as all of them compounded on one another. That's why the zombies propagated the signal when receiving it.
"Interesting." I tossed the ruined tinkertech aside. Reaching into my bag, I unpacked the stun gun I bought and sat next to Leet's body. I would behoove me to make sure he was arrested. Certainly drawing a villain's ire this early on in my career was definitely a Bad Idea™ but… it's the Celestial Forge! How bad could it possibly be?
Ah well. I looked around the room to find some handcuffs simply lying around. Stripping the tinker, I tossed all of his tinkertech aside, leaving him in his underwear. Then tied his lab coat over his face, and finally handcuff his hands and feet. Then, I took a hammer to the tinkertech and used Hammer Jammer to understand the effects the components produced.
The sound of metal slamming on metal echoed through the bleak hallway. Occasionally, I would pull out a specific piece of tinkertech and look at it before tossing it aside. Once all the tinkertech was smashed and Hammer Jammer had figured out its uses, I tossed the ruined machines beside Leet's body.
I mean. If I was going to piss him off… Let's piss him off all the way, right?
There was still the isolation barrier too… But I wasn't sure where it was. One would think something as powerful as an isolation barrier should be placed as part of the main energy grid. But this was tinkertech and it wouldn't be remiss if it was somehow just a thing attached to a fuse box or something.
Oh and I guess since I was here, I should deal with any unfortunate recordings right? Leet didn't unhack the cameras so I still had full access to the system as well as the speakers. I didn't need the latter right now so I ignored it. Instead, I quickly skimmed through the recordings and deleted those which showed me running around like a madman trying to find Leet, as well as the breaking and entering part. Then, replace the cut footage with some idle footage… And disable the camera systems entirely.
It probably wouldn't survive Dragon or Armsmaster's in-depth retrieval, but it should look… believable enough that they shouldn't check it in the first place. Not to mention this also falls under Hammer Jammer because it was apparently video-editing. Which falls under DIY. Letting out a sigh of relief, I quickly exited the security area and made my way to the atrium, passing the bodies of the disabled zombots.
A sudden bang resounded out. A loud piercing sound that made me duck my head. Barely a second later, a softer but still loud crack came from outside. "This is Armsmaster of the PRT! Uber and Leet, you are under arrest for…" Ah the PRT were finally here. I glanced at my phone which showed it had been about an hour since the attack started. I was half-tempted to tell them where Leet was, but I was certain that Armsmaster probably figured it out from studying Leet's stream footage or something.
Shrugging my shoulders, I made my way down to the PRT troopers who were evacuating the 'survivors'. Luckily, it seemed that most of them came out unscathed, with only a few carrying minor bruises. Walking down the escalators, I bowed my head as I exited the building and finally stepped into daylight.