Chapter Text
I’m just going to say it: Spending three days going over the regulations of Tinker Tech weaponry sucked. It sucked so badly. Apparently all devices had to be submitted for rounds of rigorous testing, especially if they were intended to be used on other humans, parahumans or not. Just, making a ray gun and going to blast someone with it was not standard protocol. Whoever had tried to convince me it was, was going to probably be investigated, looked into, and possibly fired for misleading me.
In the meantime, I had five charges bubbling away in my brain, plus a fair few inventions of Leet’s I could toss into the hopper of my Duplicator to earn more if I desired. Which, I did. I had my sights set on a good mastery to pick up during this week.
I wanted Metallurgy. Specifically, I wanted to get so far into metalcraft that I was making new alloys never before dreamed of. All this gear, this armor, was good, but it could be made out of much better things, much better bases. Plus, who was to say the creation of the new metal itself wouldn’t inspire me to make new inventions, or someone else for that matter?
I slowly spent my five weekly charges on metallurgy, getting to the point where I realized that all my gear was made of…sub-standard stuff. Sure, it functioned, but it could be better. I was now at the point where I could properly program my duplicator to make ingots of a spacefaring civ’s idea of feedstock. Which, to Earth, would seem like highly advanced alloys. The sort of thing you would use to make the plating on space-going vessels was now the sort of thing I could make, which offered a great increase in durability.
I offered over five of Leet’s inventions to the hopper over the course of the next few days, not satisfied with what I had already managed, and finally got somewhere where technology was bordering on magic. Not that it hadn’t already been. Self-repairing metal was great and all, but I think I had to call it quits when I got to something that decidedly, other people would have decried as pure witchcraft if not for the bullsh*t Tinkers could pull off.
The penultimate charge I put into metallurgy had gotten me three…very familiar recipes. I had played modded Terraria before, and, well…the idea of ore from the most frozen of areas, ore from near an undersea volcano, and ore from a jungle being refined into Scoria, Cryonic, and Perennial bars was bad enough. Each one having their own ups and downs, of course. But the next charge, well…
Life Alloy. The ability to combine the positives of all three without the downsides of any of them, to make a bar of near-limitless power. This…this could change a lot of things.
The problem, of course, would be getting the stuff to refine into it. I prodded my power and got a begrudging answer that ore just from volcanoes would work fine, it didn’t have to be from an underseas one. Which was good, because frankly, I didn’t want to have to imagine what it would be like trying to excavate metal ore that specific from around Levithan’s domain.
Ore from a jungle might be nearly as bad, a whole lot of, shall we say…less fortunate countries hadn’t come off of the introduction of parahumans nearly as well as the US had. Some were attempting to forcibly conscript those with powers into their own personal hit squads. Some were trying to force humans to become Parahumans via induction of Trigger Events.
Still, there should be a…semi-stable government somewhere in the world, right? Somewhere where there was plenty of ore and a careful approach to conservation, so as not to disturb the jungle above it. That was paramount to being able to refine the ore, I got.
Mining in an arctic area might be a little bit…harder. Those places tended to be under conservation watch a lot, thanks to the idea of climate change. If I asked for ore from a nearly frozen place, I might get looked at weird.
In fact, all three components of Life Alloy would bring me more trouble than answers if the PRT wasn’t as well-connected as I liked to think it could be. So instead, my lust for metal-knoweldge spent, I put my last six Leet inventions into the hopper, intent on getting charges for Transportation.
It started out small. Little vehicles one could ride around on rails. Then it got upgraded to cars and hoverboards. Pretty good stuff.
Spacecraft was where things were getting good. Little one- and two-seater shuttles intended to putter around the systems they were in, reliant on warp beacons to accurately chart the depths of space. Of course, I didn’t have those deployed throughout the galaxy, so all one of those would be good for is a day trip out to the far reaches of the solar system and back again. Assuming, of course, that the winged pigeon in orbit would allow one to take off.
My last charge I spent on Transportation got me what I was looking for. Namely, the knowledge of short-range teleportation devices. I wasn’t going to use one myself. Not without a greater understanding of the sciences, which might take a whole other category to achieve. No. But with this knowledge, I could combine it with my ‘Home security’ knowledge thanks to my knowledge of engineering-
There. A teleportation interdiction device. Meant to protect the home from sudden, unwanted invasions. I could even see how to build it, how it would function. I didn’t, of course. I mean, I wanted to make one powerful enough to protect the PRT’s buildings. That way, if Lung were ever taken in, Oni Lee would not be able to get him out so easily via just teleporting in and breaking the lock on the door. But I put a bookmark in that and instead combined the knowledge of the interdiction device with my ‘battle gear’ knowledge-
Ah. Yes. A smaller, portable device, meant to be integrated into the armor. Something I would be doing post haste thank you very much. That would be my anti-Oni Lee trump card. Making that and making it part of my set would be everything I needed to take the fight to the ABB. All the gangs were terrible for Brockton Bay, but seeing as how the ABB only had two Capes at the moment, they were the easiest to plan for. Even if one of the Capes was…well, Lung.
I could also make a mass producible version for PRT squads, in case things got worse on the streets, what with my official announcement as being part of the PRT tickled Lung’s ire. Which it might. He’d set his sights on me, and I’d gone running to the government for protection.
Things were getting a little easier on my poor brain. Getting a charge and spending it, while spacing it out sufficiently enough for the knowledge to settle in, sort of…mitigated the headache a lot. And seeing as how I had three days with nothing better to do than learn regulations while also being tested on them via my PRT terminal (Something I wanted to tear out after the end of the third day), I had nothing but time.
Once my probationary period was over, I was called in front of Piggot again. “While you were being taught protocol,” she huffed, pushing a familiar gun across her desk, “The eggheads did proper testing on your device. It does work exactly as you said it would. It ran out of charge once they were done, so you’ll have to fix that. But otherwise, well…I can’t see a reason not to allow you to take it out as part of your arsenal. For one very specific threat.”
I had a feeling I knew exactly which threat she was talking about and nodded grimly. The moment the gun was back in my hand, my visor linked up with it again, showing the utterly drained battery it had. Instead of putting it away in my ‘weapon swap’ space, I holstered it on my belt so it could be charged instead. “What now?” I asked.
“Well…I’ve heard from security that you’ve slowly tossed in your pile of Leet scrap inventions into whatever device you have that mulches them up,” she said. “So…what did you become ‘inspired’ to make this time?”
Ah. Translation from Piggot-speak into what she meant to say got me the sentence of ‘what new headaches have you brought me now?’
“Well…one of them is a bit of a problem, I’ll admit,” I said with a wince. “But the other one could be very useful for anyone who has a villain with a Mover power like Oni Lee.”
She stared at me for a moment before pulling up something on her computer. “Continue,” she said, clearly prepared to take notes.
“I, ah, might’ve figured out how to make a teleportation interdiction field, as a device that can be either affixed to gear, or installed in buildings,” I said to her, getting her to blink before rapidly typing that into her notepad.
“I want one in both the Rig and HQ as soon as you can manage it,” she told me sternly. “Is it mass producible?”
“Yes, or rather, I think Dragon could make them quite effectively if I give the blueprints over to both her and Armsmaster,” I said with a careful nod. “My plan was to make a few in-house for our use, both the buildings and the squads, in case a certain demon gets sent on the warpath due to our announcement the other day.”
She grumbled at that but nodded begrudgingly. “I can see a point to your statement,” Piggot admitted. “Things have been almost too quiet ever since you officially joined us. It’s like all the gangs are holding their breath and waiting for us to make a move.”
“They’re waiting for me to make a move,” I said with a sigh, slumping in the seat I’d taken opposite her. “They want to know if I’m all talk before they go back to business as usual.”
“Well, with that, and your other gun, we might actually stand a chance at taking parahuman support away from one of the bigger thorns in my side,” Piggot admitted. “After that, we can turn the ABB case over to the police entirely. Which would be grand, if they actually managed to clean that problem up.”
“Without Oni Lee or Lung backing them up, it’d probably take,” I said with a slight nod. One step closer to my vision of a safe-ish town, of ruining Cauldron’s experiment. Of not having to worry about goddamn portals popping in while I’m at home or at work or just…around me at all.
“What’s the problematic one?” Piggot asked, and at that I chuckled weakly.
“I might have…also been inspired to make a new type of metal?” I offered. “Problem is, the components for it are…pretty hard to get. If I can get ore from three specific types of locations, then I can refine them, and then alloy them into something new twice over. Which should be useful for me and the other Tinkers on base.”
“f*cking Tinker bullsh*t,” Piggot grumbled, and I nodded with her. I did not ask to have Life Alloy stuck in my head, but if I could make it- “Drop your request off with the Procurement department and we’ll see about getting it for you once. If it manages to be useful for more than just you, we can talk about a more permanent arrangement.”
Well…she wasn’t outright dismissing the idea, so there was that. “I’ll do that, thank you,” I said with a nod.
“In the meanwhile, also drop off a list of what you’d need to make your Teleportation Interdiction Devices,” she continued. “I want those made and passed out before week’s end. If I know the gangs like I think I do, then that’ll be when the peace breaks. If we break it first, we might buy ourselves some time when the dust settles.”
“Understood,” I said, saluting a little as I got up from the chair and turned to leave.
“And Sprocket?” I heard from behind me as I got to the door. I turned to look over my shoulder, and Emily gave what on anyone else would be a grimace, but for her was a begrudging smile. “Good work. Keep it up.”
I smiled at that and waved as I left, eager to get back to Tinkering.
I placed a call, lying on my bed in my apartment as it rung. Once, twice, and on the third time it connected. “Hello, fuzzy. Or should I call you Sprocket? Or Boss?”
“Hello to you too, Tattletale,” I said with a slight chuckle of my own. “Your number was in Calvert’s database, so I took the liberty of saving it. How’s the team?”
“Eh, they’re anxious. They want to know if the money’s going to keep coming in, mainly. That was most of our concern, what with the old boss being pinched like that.”
“Fair enough,” I said with a hum. “I’ll make you all a deal. Not a one-sided one like Calvert would have. I got most of his accounts, by the way. The rest went back where it came from, but I funneled most of his cash into my own holdings.”
“...That explains why I couldn’t find anything. Okay then. Let’s talk. What’s this deal you want to make with us?”
“I,” I said, slowly coming to a sitting position on the bed. “Will pay you all to try and not commit crimes around the Bay area. I know you all want the money for various things. Half of them are even things I could find myself agreeing with as things that should be, need to be, done. I’ll leave it to you to work out the paperwork so it all seems like you’re gainfully employed, and I’ll pay you all to keep your noses clean and stay out of trouble.”
“That sounds like a pretty good deal. What’s the catch?”
“You’re very good at that,” I admitted, getting a laugh from the other end. “The catch is, you have to find and befriend a young girl who’s currently undergoing a bullying problem at her school. Such a bad problem, in fact, that she Triggered as a result of it. I want you to induct her into your little gang and keep an eye on her, make sure things are going well for her. And if not, I want you to keep her safe.”
“Wow…Okay then. Anything in the contract about paying back whatever idiots did it to her?”
“Tell you what,” I said with a vicious smirk. “If you manage to socially destroy the ones that made her Trigger while at her school, I’ll throw in a bonus. I think you might even have history with one of them, so be careful how you go about it.”
A not-so-subtle hint as to who might be behind it, and a reference to how she’d been ‘locked up’ later, I hung up the call and pressed a different series of buttons.
“Sprocket! My man! We saw! You joined up with the PRT! How’d that go?” Leet said through the phone line.
“Not as great as you’d think,” I groaned back, flopping back on the bed. “I made a sheepinator gun for dealing with Lung and spent the last three days being reamed about how I tested it on a person first. Which, fair, but I hadn’t read the protocols yet! They let me make up for it via reading and testing and ugh,” I groaned.
“Ah man, I hear you. My power’s been working great ever since you took those inventions from me. I can’t imagine going three days without being able to Tinker!”
“Yeah, well, I can’t exactly hang out with you guys whenever I want to now,” I pointed out, my tail flicking beneath me.
“Yeah, big shot PRT guy can’t afford to be seen with us low-life criminals,” I heard Uber jeer from somewhere else in their hideout.
“It’s more like I don’t have a civilian ID, guys,” I said to them, realizing now I was on speaker. “We’d have to arrange our playdates days in advance, making sure you’re in your civvies first, before I can come back for pizza, games, and junk disposal again. Which I kinda want to do? I mulched up all the junk I took from you before.”
“Aw man, dude, I hear you. It’s a plan! We’ll work out a day when you’re free and we don’t have anything going on, and we’ll hang out again. I got some new games and toys to play with!”
“What he means is, he wants to see if your armor defends you against his new ray guns,” Uber drawled, getting an indignant cry from Leet.
“Boys, behave. I’ll have to run it by Piggot first, but it might happen,” I said to them. “For now, keep your noses clean and we’ll see about that helping it to happen sooner. I’m gonna be busy for the next few days. I got inspired and I might actually be able to do some good around here.”
“Oooh, mystery projects are fun!” Leet admitted.
“I still remember your last mystery project. It destroyed our last couch! I liked that couch!”
“Well at least you ducked behind it first, otherwise it coulda been you.”
I laughed and hung up the call after bidding them good night, lying back on the bed.
Things…things might actually look up around here. The other shoe was bound to drop sooner or later, but I’d take the good news for the time being.
