For what felt like the hundredth time that week, Lightforge had just run off a bunch of heroes and villains who had been fighting right in front of his shop. The only people remaining were himself, his friends, and one terrified low level player. As he escorted the young man inside, he realized that he hadn’t even checked for his name, an oversight that he immediately corrected.
Player Info
Name: Pulsewave
Level: 4
Current Alignment: Hero
The young man looked about ready to faint, and Lightforge felt the mask come a little loose. He was legitimately annoyed by the antics of the man and his friends, but he also knew the desperation driving those actions. He understood why they had done it, and he could empathize with them. His grip on the other man’s shoulder loosened.
“You’re not going to believe me, but I just did you a favor, Pulsewave.”
The sound of his own name made the man stiffen, but only for a moment. Then he looked over at Lightforge suspiciously.
“I never told you my name.”
“No, you didn’t. But I wasn’t kidding before; underestimating a gadgeteer in his own workshop is never, ever a good idea.”
“Right. Of course it had nothing to do with the little posse that you brought along to help you.”
“Who, them? No, they’re just friends of mine.”
“You can’t be serious. The woman in purple practically has “villain” tattooed on her forehead.”
“What woman?”
Sure enough, Circe was gone once again. No one else was fazed, but Pulsewave halted in his tracks and looked around wildly, searching. Lightforge just chuckled and pulled the man into the shop.
“Look, the cloak is Gray Guardian. They’re a healer, just here to make sure no one gets hurt.”
The healer in question shook their head a bit and said, “More like I’m here to put the pieces back together after they get hurt.”
“Oh, come on! You’re gonna scare this guy.”
“You’ve already done that pretty thoroughly.”
Pulsewave was backing away slowly, looking for all the world like he was about to make a break for it. He kept looking back and forth among the group, jumping slightly as he tried to create some distance between them. He pointed a shaky finger towards Cannoneer and Sunbird.
“Sure, that’s a healer. And what about them? They came in like meteors.”
“Oh, don’t mind them. They’re probably just looking for some… toys.”
Cannoneer’s face went bright red, but Sunbird’s eyes lit up with mischievous glee. She clearly had some ideas with regards to that particular topic. Between the two reactions, the tension finally broke. Lightforge started laughing and the others soon joined in, with even Pulsewave nervously adding a chuckle or two.
Lightforge went over to the discarded gun that the hero had tried to steal earlier and picked it up for inspection. It had the fins and sleek appearance of a 1950’s science fiction weapon. It had been an experiment that had turned out a lot better than he’d expected, which was why it had made its way onto the shelves. He held it out towards the hero.
“You’ve got a good eye. From the name, I’m guessing you have some sort of energy powers, right?”
“Yeah, I do. Blaster and Barrier.”
“Nice combo, I bet that synergizes really well.”
“It does… why are you being nice to me all of a sudden?”
Lightforge tilted his head back and forth a few times, considering how to respond to that. There were a lot of answers that he could give, and a lot of them would even be true. There were a lot of aspects that he could focus on, but he decided that he wanted to keep it simple.
“Because I prefer to be nice. But that’s not always an option. I’m trying to stay out of all the fighting, but some people will always see that as a sign of weakness. They think I’m a pushover because I’m not ‘taking a stand,’ or something like that.”
“So what? All the threats and stuff are just an act?”
“Not really. I’m both willing and able to carry out those threats if the need arises. I just prefer not to if I can help it. And besides, you’re a customer! You have nothing to fear from me.”
“Ah… Ok, I guess. Though now I’m a little embarrassed. I can already shoot energy blasts, so I’m not sure why I even wanted a gun. I was just feeling desperate.”
Lightforge nodded and held out the gun to him with a smile and said, “I get that, but you just so happened to pick the perfect weapon for you.”
“I did?”
“Yes, you did. This is called a Focus Blaster, and I made it with people like you in mind. You see, it uses your own powers as its energy source. It basically takes one of your energy blasts and condenses it down until it’s so dense that it’s basically solid. Wanna try it out?”
Gingerly, Pulsewave took the weapon and aimed at a target set up against the back wall. It was made of layers of scrap metal stacked atop one another and welded together for extra strength. Blue-green energy surrounded his arm all the way to the elbow. It flowed out from his skin and down towards his hand where it was absorbed into the gun itself, making it glow with the same light. After a few seconds of charging he pulled the trigger.
There wasn’t an enormous flash of light or anything so spectacular. Instead, a brightly glowing pellet shot from the front of the gun and zipped across the room until it hit the target just off-center.
The resulting explosion rattled the windows. A full layer of scrap metal was shattered and another was barely hanging onto the target. Everyone in the room stared at the aftermath, and Sunbird whistled at the display of power.
“Well, [BLEEP]. And here I thought it would be useless. Can I go back and buy that from you, Lightforge?”
“Sorry, you’re too late. I’m afraid that our new friend here has dibs. If he wants it, of course.”
Pulsewave was standing as still as a statue, mouth agape as he continued to stare at where the attack had struck. They had to call his name three times before he finally stirred and looked at them, his complete lack of comprehension plain on his face.
“Huh? Sorry, did you say something?”
The group all broke out in a fit of giggles as the man was nearly drooling over the new toy that had been placed in his hand. He shook himself free of the stupor and looked to Lightforge.
“Can I really have this?”
“For the right price. I take it you’re impressed?”
“Of course I am! I didn’t think I’d have that sort of destructive power for another ten levels at least. This is amazing! But aren’t you worried about selling things like this?”
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“Why would I? I’m a gadgeteer, so weapons are kind of a big part of the job.”
“But what if someone uses them against you?”
“In case you missed my little demonstration outside, I keep the best goodies for myself. But most of the time it doesn’t come to that. Think of it like this: let’s say that you buy that gun from me. It works exactly how you hope and you’re happy with your purchase. Then you hear that some idiot is trying to use my own weapons against me. How would you react?”
To his credit, he didn’t answer immediately. His eyes flicked back and forth as he mentally ran through the scenario. Slowly he nodded as he came to a conclusion.
“I would be pissed. I would have a vested interest in protecting your store. And I’m guessing I wouldn’t be the only one.”
This time it was Cannoneer who stepped forward, looking the other man up and down and studying him. He gave an approving nod and said, “You’re pretty quick, aren’t you? It pays to have people watching your back. And while customers aren’t as solid as allies or friends, it’s better than nothing.”
“Sure,” Pulsewave said, “but aren’t you all enough? I mean, you all seem pretty high level compared to me.”
Lightforge nodded and said, “You’re right. If I’m being honest, our little group here is close to being too high level for this area. But as the saying goes, quantity has a quality all its own.”
“Oh, right.”
“So, do you want the gun? I’ll even give you a special deal on it.”
“Well, to be honest, I barely have any money. Earning it is a lot harder than I would have hoped.”
“I understand that. And you’re lucky, because my price includes very little cash. I have three requirements. Care to hear them?”
“Sure.”
“Perfect. Number 1: 20 Bux. I do have operating costs, after all. Number 2: Exposure. When you’re wowing people with that weapon, make sure they know where you got it. And number 3: a Favor. Just help me out when I need it. That’s all. How does it sound?”
Even Lightforge knew how it sounded: too good to be true. It was the kind of deal that put people on edge just by hearing it. A good number of potential customers had backed out at this point in the negotiations, and the gadgeteer couldn’t blame them. Most people in this world balked at giving someone else the sort of blank check represented by an ambiguous favor. But the lower leveled hero had seen the power available to him, and he had yet to loosen his grip on the gun.
Finally, Pulsewave nodded. This was the edge that he needed, and he knew it. And besides, he knew what kind of favor the gadgeteer shopkeeper had in mind; they’d just discussed it, after all. He didn’t mind helping protect a store with products this useful.
Lightforge smiled and slapped the other man on the back. His voice boomed as he said, “It’s a deal!”
Sunbird cheered from where she was standing and said, “Good for you, new guy! Now that that’s over, we can move on to more serious business. Lightforge, you said something about toys? Because I have ideas. I’ll even pay full price rather than exposure.”
She tossed a wink at Cannoneer, whose face had instantly flushed at the return to that particular topic. Lightforge ignored the discomfort and just shrugged.
“Sure, I could. But you two pay double.”
“Double? Are you [BLEEPING] kidding me?”
“I have a monstrous debt to a certain illusionist all because you couldn’t keep it in your pants. The least you can do is help pay it off.”
That was enough to snap Cannoneer out of his own embarrassment. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Lightforge warily. Cautiously he said, “What are you talking about? Because it sounds like you’ve been betting on your friends’ relationships. But that can’t be right, can it?”
Everyone went very quiet as the good humor drained from Lightforge. He was trying to think of a good way out when Gray Guardian decided to helpfully intervene. They just shrugged.
“Technically, your relationship had nothing to do with it. It was just the sex that mattered for the bet.”
That was the moment when Lightforge decided that it was time to close up shop for the day. He dropped a smoke bomb and sprinted for the doors, quickly trailed by the sound of explosions and blasts of energy.
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Two days later, Lightforge was somehow still sore. Normal aches and pains weren’t part of the game system, but the annoyed lovers had found a way to make it happen. Gray Guardian had been too busy laughing to be of any help whatsoever. And Circe? She had never deigned to reappear and face the music for her part in the whole debacle.
Lightforge was spending his time working on his drone. Its electrical attacks were a nightmare to maintain, but they were so useful that he would never dream of complaining about it. The myriad of different colors of electricity were the key to its success.
Not the colors themselves, that was just a visual indicator. The real trick was that the electricity bypassed most inherent electrical resistances. So while the stun effect was relatively weak, it was also nearly impossible to avoid. It may well be the accomplishment that he was most proud of.
It was the result of many hours spent staring at the output of a taser that he had put inside in his multispectral analyzer. Hours and hours studying the properties of electrical energy and endless experimentation into how to manipulate its properties. The end result was truly spectacular, but not without its problems.
The biggest was the upkeep. He was twisting the energy out of its natural state, and it resisted him at every turn. The system burned itself out after three or four uses and had to be replaced. That was annoying, made all the worse by the other major issue.
The process of modulating the energy into something else was horribly inefficient. Given the components at his disposal, a regular bolt of electricity would be able to fully stun whole groups so long as they didn’t resist it. But it wouldn’t have any effect on those with resistances, so he’d decided to split things down the middle.
Now, whenever he had a little bit of extra time, he continued his experiments into fixing those weaknesses. Logically he knew that there were probably better strategies, but this one was just so cool that he refused to give up on it. As far as he was concerned, it was the key that would make Jeff complete.
He’d decided to name the drone Jeff. The guard dog was Elvis. He was tinkering away at his pets at the moment because he was waiting for someone to finally interrupt him. He didn’t want to be engrossed in a bigger project when they finally built up the courage to come inside and talk to him.
Jeff had noticed the young woman coming towards the shop nearly an hour earlier. She was creeping from one hiding place to the next with a level of patience that only deep paranoia could provide. He was checking on her periodically, but he wasn’t willing to go out and meet her outside the walls of his shop. He’d been making too many waves recently, too many declarations of his own power. It was time to be a bit more lowkey.
At last she rounded the last corner and sprinted towards the shop’s open front door. She was halfway there when shapes began emerging from their hiding places to intercept her. Under different circumstances her run toward him might have been enough to convince Lightforge into intervening. Unfortunately, the pursuers weren’t the only observers. People were now watching the shop around the clock, waiting for evidence that he was favoring one side or the other.
And so he watched and waited as she sprinted toward him. She was faster than her opponents, but not by much. When she got within ten feet of the door her body glowed with the light of aura manipulation and she leapt the rest of the way. She crossed the threshold and rolled to protect herself just as her enemies fired attacks toward her.
Jeff was there, intercepting the attacks with its short-lived force field. Lightforge and Elvis stepped up next to it in the doorway, staring out at the pursuers as they hesitated. Lightforge had his hammer in hand and used it to point at them.
“I’ll thank you not to attack my customers. So long as they’re within these walls, consider them under my protection.”
One made a move to respond, but a heavy glare from the gadgeteer held him off. Ever so slowly they retreated back to the shadows, doubtlessly planning to wait until their target emerged. Lightforge nodded to himself and turned to check on the woman.
Player Info
Name: Zone
Level: 2
Current Alignment: Neutral
Oh, wow. She was very low level. The next round of newbies were due to arrive in a little more than a week, so her level spoke to a serious level of adversity on her part. She was laying on the ground where she’d landed, curled up in a protective posture in anticipation of the attacks that wouldn’t come.
Lightforge knelt beside her and said, “They’re gone. You’re safe for now.”
She unwrapped herself slowly but didn’t rise, staying on the ground and staring up at the ceiling. While there was relief on her face, it was only around the edges, fighting with fear and a dozen other emotions for pride of place.
Eventually she spoke, slowly and full of uncertainty. She said, “I heard a rumor, but I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe it.”
“About me? I’d like to think that I’m more than a rumor by now.”
“I haven’t gotten out much for the past few weeks.”
“Oh.”
The pieces clicked together, and anger boiled up from the pit of Lightforge’s stomach. He looked at this poor woman and knew that without some intervention from his most annoying ally, he could have been in her exact same position.
“They’ve been camping at your base’s entrance, haven’t they?”
Her shudder and shaking hands answered even before her nod confirmed it.
“How many times did they kill you?”
“Four.”
His blood ran cold. Her revival pod would only have one charge left, though it was probably close to regaining one depending on how early on she’d been killed the first time. She’d risked everything to come chase down a weeks old rumor that might bring her some hope.
With a few quick hand gestures he sent Jeff outside to continue patrolling. He was regretting his choice not to attack the woman’s pursuers, watchers be damned. The least he could do was keep an eye on them.
He nodded to the woman and walked over to the shop’s doors. He pulled them closed before turning back to her and saying, “Shop’s closed for now. Take all the time you need to collect yourself.”
She nodded shakily as she slowly rose from the floor, stumbling over to a chair that he provided. What he didn’t say was that he also needed the time to collect himself. Well, that and to plan a few murders of his own.