I don't know when I became this well connected.
A month ago, I couldn't imagine that, with a few phone calls, I could legitimately challenge the protectorate. At least, the protectorate in the bay.
But, after I told Amy about the recent attack, the younger generation of New Wave was out in force. The Travellers, I expected, to some extent, after, all they needed me to manage Noelle's condition, but who I really wasn't expecting was Faultline's crew.
Apparently, news of my healing had spread, and one of my upcoming clients - a member of the Elite called Uppercrust decided not to risk the Empire taking me out before he could come in for his consultation. So, as I met up with my security forces to talk about what happened yesterday, I ended up walking into the room with fifteen different capes ready to help me deal with the Empire.
In one fell swoop, I had gone from basically alone to part of the largest group of parahumans in the bay. Even the Empire only had twelve capes since purity did us all a favour and fucked off.
And the best part? I was able to tag all their powers.
Some weren't really worth it. Faultline's power was another repackage of telekinesis, though one that gave me a few ideas on how to optimise my Tinker package. But there were others that were utterly fantastic.
Labyrinth's power was astounding. Perhaps the most expensive power I had ever seen, but if I could afford it it would have been utterly worth it.
From what I understood about it, her power held multiple pocket dimensions outside it and had an extremely complex interface system that could teleport people into it or just transport light, or any number of other things that let her reshape the world around her.
Hers was limited, but even then, it would take at least fifteen hundred charges to even come close to what she had, at least, with the way I could make sense of her power.
That didn't mean that there wasn't so much more to learn from her though.
The big thing was a reminder that powers did transdimensional stuff. It was expensive for me, but not impossible - the real cost of her power were those mutable pocket dimensions and the specific fine control she had over how you could interact with them. I couldn't do too much just yet, and I'm not sure if I'm interested in exploring the power too much right now, but I was starting to put together rough plans for that ability.
Newter's ability was also interesting, but only as much as the toxin they produced could teach me. It wasn't truly a poison. Instead, the agent was a complex piece of biotech, entirely new to me, but it made so much sense after all the work Panacea and I had done on the TB cure.
I'm totally going to have to tell her about it.
Though, it was interesting to confirm that my suspicions were right. Case 53s were vial capes. That was a whole can of worms I didn't want to touch right now. But it was giving me some hints into where the vials came from.
I'll have to do more research into Case 53s.
I had already taken a little time to convert my main clinic space into a meeting room, but I mentally made a note to hurry up the renovations on the mall and the adjacent plot. I should have had my first superhero meeting in a proper base, not this lame-ass thing with plastic chairs.
I nodded as I floated over some snacks to the table - no need to be rude.
"So, that's what I have on current Empire movements. Victor, Krieg and Rune never made it back to the Rig, so Othalla has probably got them back on their feet. I think they've confirmed that my shield is autonomous, and it works against explosives, so assuming that they are still trying to kill me, I think they will try chemical weapons. I mean, they haven't used tinker tech in the past."
Faultline shook her head, "They used to have Purity. They definitely have the resources to get a hold of a few weapons, if only through their connections with the Gesellschaft. Tinker weapons are definitely on the table."
I frowned, "That makes things difficult." Behind me, one of the safes sprung open and a small slab of material floated out, "I've been working on upgrading my costume. Long-range energy weapons are a priority. I've been considering this as a possible solution, but I haven't been able to confirm it - and I don't want to waste time and resources on something that doesn't work."
Laserdream grinned, "Well, I can use my lasers to test it."
"Probably not here though." Panacea interjected, "Halcyon still needs to see his patients here."
I nodded, "You can take that outside, the lot across the street is going to be made into a park, so you can run some tests there without breaking anything important." The window opened under my telekinetics, and she took the cue to hop out the window.
Perdition looked at me, "Well, that's all good for you, but what about us?"
"Needless to say, if you are going to be aiding me against the empire, the least I can do would be to do my best to ensure safety. I will provide healing of course, and I should be able to cover the expense of additional armour. I'm not sure this particular composite would be the best solution, but I've already been looking into options for my security teams, and adjusting that to include inserts, plates, or even armoured costumes should be within my resources."
I didn't quite understand what the face they made was. Did I screw up?
I saw Trickster elbow the other Traveller, "Thank you, that would be really helpful."
Faultline nodded, "Are the three downstairs all the security?"
I winced, "Well, yeah - before now I didn't think we would need more than that. But I'm hiring more. I'm running background checks on a bunch of people, so I'll probably have more soon. I actually wanted to speak with you about that."
Faultline nodded, "We can talk about that a little more later."
"So, yeah. I'm not entirely sure what to do next. Attacking them right now seems a little dangerous."
"It might be, but I think that waiting here for them to attack us is worse." Trickster argued, "I mean if they don't have Tinkertech weapons right now, we shouldn't give them a chance to get them. I mean, we know where they meet up, why shouldn't we try and take them out before they can get ready."
Faultline shook her head, "No those are mustering points for normal gang activities. The capes probably won't be there. From what I know, they tend to keep themselves mostly separate from the rest of the Empire." she motioned to the little map that I had put tokens on, "the increased activity is probably just Kaiser posturing to the rest of the gang to keep them from thinking about the fact that Krieg, Rune and Victor were all taken out by one new cape."
I frowned, "So where could they be found? I mean, I don't trust the PRT to really handle keeping them locked up, but if we literally dropped them off at the Rig, they'll at least be out of the fight until they are moved somewhere else."
Shielder and Glory Girl snorted, "Yeah, that was bad." she said, "Still, They aren't that bad, the Empire had Hookwolf and Victor had a tracking device on him. If we check them properly next time it should be fine."
I didn't believe her, but this wasn't the time for that.
"That still leaves the issue of where to find them."
Shielder looked at the map again. "Well, if they aren't in the middle of anything, Hoowolf is supposed to hang out at one of the dogfights or pit fights most of the time." he pointed at one of the markers, "I think there was one near here. We fought him a couple of months ago and I think it was over here."
Victoria nodded, "He got away, but I think it was on albert street?"
"He's probably running another ring near there then, but I don't think he's stupid enough to run it in the same place."
Oliver shook his head, "I wouldn't be surprised. People like him like to do stuff they think they can get away with because they can get away with it. We've had to deal with people like him a few times before, and half the time they were pretty much wherever they had been caught earlier. Easiest way to get in touch with those sorts of people."
I deferred to his experience.
Faultine nodded, examining the board once again, "My research into previous Empire actions suggest that we wait a couple of days. Right now, they are probably over-investing their resources into establishing control over the rank and file of the gang after the defeat of three of their capes."
Laserdream flew back in with the armour, visibly scorched and dented. "That sounds about right. I remember when we took out Fenja, Menja and a Hookwolf that one time. There were videos of Kaiser making speeches for weeks afterwards."
I examined the scorched plate, "Won't it make sense for them to attack me again? To prevent me from being able to prepare while they show that They could deal with me?"
"If they act too quickly they might come off as scared. The Empire isn't as worried about you as it is about making sure they don't look weak." Faulltline explains.
Gregor nodded, "They claim that they are strong and powerful, that the empire cannot be defeated. They don't want you to seem strong when they attack you, they want it to seem like you were crushed by the power of the Empire.
I stared at them, "It can't be that stupid."
Newter and Labyrith burst out laughing. And Faultline shook her head, "Ignore them. Labyrinth did the same thing when we explained one of our previous jobs to her. But no, it's not as stupid as it sounds, the problem of building your powerbase on an image of strength and superiority is that your followers expect that from you."
Newter clamed down a little, "Yeah, no kidding same face and everything. And yes, it's stupid, and any sane person could tell that it's stupid, but these are literal Nazis. Of course they're stupid. Kaiser is less stupid because he knows just how stupid most of his thugs are."
"Still stupid though." Glory Girl pointed out.
Newter snorted, "Like that was in question."
Faultline stared at the three of them, the disapproval shining through the visor of the welding mask she wore. "Stupid people don't run a gang that basically rules half the city. We can't risk under estimating them."
Gregor pointedly poked Newter in the side, who ran his gloved hands over the side of his costume, "Sorry."
Glory Girl nodded, "Yeah, sorry."
I sighed, and we got back to work.
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I asked Panacea to stay back after everyone else left and put the block of organo-ceramic mesh on the table the thin tile was scorched on every side, but as I hammered away at it, we could both tell that it hadn't taken too much actual damage.
She looked at it, "That's amazing."
I laughed, "And I already know how to make it better." She sared at me and asked me to go on, "I got a chance to look at Gregor's shells, and damn if they aren't tough. Plates made of this wouldn't have been able to stop anything better than a pistol, but not only was I able to figure out how to get some better thermal conductivity to help with energy dissipation, but I even managed to get the durability up. I think I can make scales of this stuff that would take a bullet from whatever it was that Victor shot me with. Probably not many of them, but enough to survive an attack like that."
She grinned, "Did you get to see Newters stuff?"
"It's so cool isn't i!?" I echo, "It's just so elegant, how it reacts to repeated stimuli, it's practically intelligent in how it works."
She nodded, "I mean, we could probably improve it a bit, but only really by making it specific for a few species. Like, right now, it basically worse off of repeated ion interactions for a wide range of possible exitants, but basically everything on earth uses potatissium and sodium ions. Sure we'll have a few cases 53s that can't be effected, but honestly, that's a really minor case."
"I was actually thinking of altering it for anti-viral properties. The toxin has some incredible propagation characteristics, it gets through skin like it isn't even there!"
She considered it, "Eh, it wouldn't work too well, I think. The current infection vector is too optimised for multi-cellular organisms. It would probably work as like, a vaccination thing."
I sighed, "Chemo maybe? Like, adjust the trigger to be some sort of non-standard protein arrangement?"
"Wouldn't work." Amy shook her head, "I think the propogation mechanisim only works because it reacts to ion differentials, and trying to get it to work on enzymatic processes wouldn't be useful…"
I sighed, and picked up the block, "Well, we can get back to that some time later. For now, at least, we should probably see if we can incorporate Newter's goethite into the composite, adn let's see if we can get a pattern going for the scale maille. We promised to send the others the forms for the new outfits soon."
"You know you could have asked for so much money for that, right?"
I looked at her, "What do you mean?"