The inside of the Gadget Forge was unnaturally quiet late in the evening. The sounds of tinkering and machinery were gone, replaced only with an uncomfortable silence. In an unusual twist, Lightforge wasn’t alone this time. He was joined by a prospective customer, a woman named Zone.
She had a bob of black hair punctuated with a splash of bright green. She wasn’t very tall and the compact, muscular build of a gymnast. Her outfit looked like a martial arts gi, loose and comfortable for fighting in, done in seemingly every shade of green imaginable. It all matched the green aura that she’d put on display during her desperate approach to the shop.
It looked a whole lot more comfortable than what he had to wear, which made him a little jealous. But that was the only thing about her situation that he envied. She’d been through a lot, and needed all the help that she could get.
And she’d come to him.
She was slowly gathering herself in a chair off to one side of the room. She flinched at sudden noises, but she was gaining control of herself little by little. As he watched her, he made a choice. He pulled up his menu screen and sent a message to his healer friend, Gray Guardian.
Lightforge: Hey Gray, I have a huge ask for you. Are you busy?
Gray Guardian: Can’t ask over chat? I’m a little far.
Lightforge: Take your time, just drop by when you can.
Gray Guardian: Will do.
By the time the brief exchange ended, Zone was finally calmed down enough to meet his eyes and give a grateful little nod. She took a deep breath and smiled.
“Thank you for letting me in. You didn’t have to be so kind to me.”
“‘Kind’ would have been chasing off those [BLEEPS] from the start. I did the bare minimum. So long as you’re inside this shop, I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”
“No guarantees?”
“Sorry, but no. I’m strong for Chancery Hills, but I’m still a small fish in the grand scheme of things. I know my own limitations.”
“I… I guess that’s fair.”
“Now, how about we get you kitted out so you can protect yourself? I know you have Aura Manipulation, but what’s your other power set?”
“Enhanced Awareness.”
“Ooh, that’s cool. Do you have any cool synergy skills?”
“Synergy skills? What’s that?”
Lightforge whistled to himself. The existence of synergy skills wasn’t a secret, but people didn’t tend to go out of their way to explain it. All the same, since most people would stumble into at least one of them, it had quickly become common knowledge. Her ignorance of the topic went a long way to show the level of isolation that she’d endured so far.
“Synergy Skills are special abilities that you gain from using both of your power sets together. For example, my hard light weapons do extra damage against mechanical enemies because my gadgeteer skills give me insight into the best ways to damage them.”
“Huh. That’s really cool. But I don’t have anything like that.”
“Just keep trying to combine your powers and I’m sure you’ll find a few. Now, let me think…”
Aura and perception. Not exactly a heavy-hitting combination, but it had a lot of utility. Tough to hit, decent defenses, decent attacks, it was a well-rounded combination that didn’t have any standout strengths or weaknesses. Unfortunately, that meant that there wasn’t an obvious choice for what type of equipment to give her.
He considered her situation. Whoever her pursuers were, they wouldn’t stop just because she got away once. That counted double since they knew where her base was, which raised an important question.
“You don’t happen to have your Gate Controller with you, do you?”
She nodded and said, “I’ve had a lot of time to think about my escape attempt. I wasn’t going to leave it behind.”
“Well, that’s good. That will make it a lot easier to stay safe. But now for your gear. Were you looking for something in particular? Protection, weapons, utility? A lot of this is going to depend on you.”
“Protection. Definitely protection. And something speed-related if you have it. It would have been nice to get here more than ten feet in front of those [BLEEP]-holes.”
“Ok, ok. I can do that for you. I can put together some simple armor for you in just a few minutes, but the other thing will take longer.”
“Oh. I guess I’ll just hide out and come back?”
In general, that was the idea with his shop. While he had a few things out on the shelves, a lot of gear that he built was custom. Customers would drop by, give him their order, and come back a few days later. That was fine for most, but most didn’t have people actively hunting them. This was a unique situation, and he would need to treat it as such.
“Normally, yeah, that would be the plan. But I don’t feel comfortable sending you back out there without some protection. Why don’t you just wait there and I’ll get to work.”
She nodded and relaxed back into her seat. It wasn’t entirely convincing; there was a stiffness to her posture that gave away the nerves that continued to gnaw at her. Lightforge wasn’t the smartest person out there, but he was self aware enough to know that he was no therapist. He had exactly zero trust in his ability to comfort someone else, so instead he focused on what he could do.
Armor for a mobile fighter with excellent senses. Something that would synergize with her aura abilities. It wasn’t exactly rocket science, but it was worth more than a few moments of thought. It didn’t help that every time he looked at her he saw his own potential to be in her position.
Slapping together some scrap metal into armor would have been easy. So easy that it was exactly how he started. He’d learned a lot from his recent weeks of effort and experimentation, and this was one of the best chances to demonstrate that fact. He gathered a few relatively simple components and carefully built them into the armored layers.
After a few minutes of fiddling, he called Zone over. She looked at him skeptically, especially when he held out the rough metal vambrace with wires still connecting it to his computer. But Lightforge just smiled.
“Here, put it on. I need your help to test something.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s meant to work with your powers. I can’t test that without using your actual powers.”
She nodded and slipped the armor piece onto her arm. Lightforge checked the materials and connections quickly before sitting down at his computer and entering a few commands. Finally he nodded.
“Perfect. Now all I need you to do is focus your aura into that arm.”
She shrugged and complied. Green light glowed up and down her arms and began to flow and move around her. The vambrace glowed softly in response and the aura continued to move, drawn towards the armor. Lightforge watched it carefully, adjusting settings and adjusting the hardware that he’d equipped to the armor.
It took about ten minutes to get the result that he was looking for. The aura coalesced on top of the vambrace, coating it in a layer of energy so dense that it nearly appeared solid. The rest of her arm had only faint wisps of aura surrounding it.
Lightforge grinned and said, “There. That’s what I was looking for. On top of working like normal armor, that will greatly increase your aura’s defensive capability. You’ll be giving up your attack power, but that’s just the price you’ll pay.”
“Wow. This is really cool. Do I just get the one?”
“No, no. That one’s just a prototype. Now that I know how to attune it to your powers, I can make the real deal.”
“That’s awesome. Could you add other settings too? Boost attack power instead when I need it? Or speed? Or recovery?”
“Maybe, but that would take a while. What I did here is pretty similar to my own power set, so I have a lot of practice with it. Those other boosts would have me starting from scratch. Besides, you should save those types of requests for when you’re a higher level.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Why?”
“Because you’ll outgrow these eventually. By the time you hit level 10 they’ll probably fall apart from your aura being too powerful for it to handle.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that.”
“I’ve learned the hard way that all components have their limitations. As proud as I am of this, it’s made from low level parts. Now give me an hour or two and I’ll have something you can really use.”
She returned to her chair, and this time her ease wasn’t feigned. She leaned back and watched with rapt attention as he went back to work.
#
True to his word, Lightforge was done a little over an hour later. He hadn’t stopped with just one vambrace, either. He had completed the set and added a chestplate that would provide a good general defensive buff.
Unlike his rough first attempt, these pieces of armor were sleek and exceptionally put together. Experiments could look rough and terrible, but he wasn’t sure that the crafting system would allow a final product to look unfinished. He handed them over to a grinning Zone, who had gotten restless and started walking around the shop. She had been doing experiments of her own, trying to discover what secrets her powers might hold.
Now her eyes went wide as she took the armor and checked the description.
Name: Auramancer Armor
Type: Armor Set
Quality: Uncommon
Maximum Level: 11
Effect:
* Passive:
* * Reduce incoming damage by 3%.
* * Increased damage reduction for actively intercepted attacks
* * Maximum Reduction: 10%
* Active: Channel aura into the armor.
* * Reduce incoming damage by 10%
* * Increased damage reduction for actively intercepted attacks
* * Maximum Reduction: 18%
* * Offensive Aura Ability effectiveness reduced by 90%
Lightforge couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. He was incredibly proud of the armor as a piece of crafting. In fact, it was likely the best item that he’d made so far. The simple satisfaction of that fact was enough to make what he said next easy.
“Take them and stay safe. No charge this time.”
“What? I couldn’t do that.”
“You can and you will. I’ll put my cards on the table here: I’m not doing this job for the money. At least not yet. Nobody has any money in low level areas like this. I’m really after the XP more than anything. Building those gave me that, so I really haven’t lost anything.”
“But you do charge other people, right?”
“Yes, but never the actual price of a piece like that. Any price is just to help me buy more parts.”
“Then I can do at least that much.”
“No. You’ve struggled enough so far. Keep it and pay me back once you’ve made some progress. Fair?”
“Fair. I guess it’s time for me to head back out there.”
“It is. Come back in a couple of days and I’ll have something to improve your speed. And I’ve been keeping an eye on your tormentors, and they’re waiting a couple of blocks from here.”
The color drained from her face, but she nodded.
“Thanks for telling me.”
“Don’t mention it. And go out the back.”
“The back?”
He motioned to the small office space, and the back door that was poorly hidden there. She smiled at the sight of it and thanked him again before heading out and disappearing.
As soon as the door closed the smile slid off of Lightforge’s face. He shuffled through his components and quickly slapped together a screen with a power source and an internet connection. He attached it to the front of the shop, facing out so that anyone approaching would see what was displayed there.
He’d long since connected his drone, Jeff, to his personal computer, both of which were also connected to his goggles. It wasn’t difficult to add the new screen to the little network. He pulled images from Jeff’s memory and ran them through the player directory.
In less than five minutes the screen finally had something to show. It was a simple display, with the images of the four people who had been chasing after Zone. Below each picture was their name, level, and alignment. Above the pictures was a single word in large, bold lettering.
“Blacklist”
The sign had been up for less than thirty seconds when Elvis darted to the front doors, a low mechanical growl coming from unseen speakers. He had more guests. Three in total, which was more than he’d expected. These were not the villains that he’d just banned from his shop. They were the watchers that were keeping an eye on him.
Their expressions were all guarded, with one notable exception. The one who’d arrived first was visibly annoyed. Lightforge suspected that the others had only revealed themselves to not be left out. He decided to identify the angry woman first.
Player Info
Name: Razorhawk
Level: 11
Current Alignment: Villain
Alliance: Shattered Chains
Alliance affiliation? That was new. Or maybe it wasn’t, once he’d thought about it for more than a moment. Few people below level ten were in an alliance, so there was no need for it to appear for them. This must have simply been the first time that it had come up.
Razorhawk scowled at him and said, “I’m Razorhawk. I thought you were meant to be neutral.”
“Razorhawk. I’m Lightforge, and I am neutral.”
She pointed accusingly at his new sign. A vein was starting to pulse in her head as she nearly hissed, “Then explain that! You claim that all are welcome, but now you start banning people? And only villains, I see.”
Lightforge was surprised by the venom in her voice, but stood firm. He waved away her anger and said, “That’s a coincidence. I accept all kinds, but I reserve the right to ban people who break my rules.”
“They followed your damned rules! They didn’t attack your customer, did they?”
“They chased her through the streets and tried to keep her from making it to my door.”
“That all happened before she was your customer.”
Ah, so that was the real purpose behind all of this. They were testing him, checking to see his exact boundaries. They wanted to know how far they could push.
Or maybe they hadn’t thought that far ahead and he was being paranoid. Either way, his answer was the same. He glared at the woman for a solid fifteen seconds before replying.
“I’m not an android, so you’ll find that I have little respect for technicalities. This was her clear destination, and they tried to use that fact to ambush her. I won’t allow such things.”
“Oh please! You expect me to believe that you would have acted the same if the roles were reversed? That you would come down on heroes like this?”
“You know what? Thank you for the reminder. My list isn’t done yet.”
He turned away from the onlookers and went back to his computer. He pulled up his blacklist and added three more names: Smoke Hydra, PanOptic, and Zephyr. Seven was a bit much to fit on a single screen, so the images started to scroll across it three at a time instead.
When he returned to the door, Razorhawk had taken a step back, still clearly annoyed but appeased by the additions. Instead Lightforge was met by another member of the group, a muscular man whose snarl revealed sharp fangs in his mouth. Faint lines like stripes showed on his face where none had appeared before.
Player Info
Name: Red Tiger
Level: 10
Current Alignment: Hero
Alliance: The Protection Agency
The man was quickly living up to his name as feline features became more prominent with each passing second. When he spoke it was almost more growl than speech.
“Why are heroes on your list? They weren’t even here!”
“Not today. But those three came to my shop with hostile intentions.”
“And you killed two of them!”
Lightforge raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t a surprising detail to be out there, but it was noteworthy that this man had known it off the top of his head. He was starting to suspect that the three had been pawns in a larger game. But they had been the ones to carry out the assault, so they would bear the consequences.
The gadgeteer took a deep breath to respond, but he didn’t get the chance. A hand came down on the bestial man’s shoulder and he froze in place. The owner of that hand was a woman covered in lean muscle who had so far been silent throughout the encounter. When Lightforge inspected her, his teeth clicked together as he forced his jaw not to drop.
Player Info
Name: Gale Force
Level: 41
Current Alignment: Neutral
Alliance: Lighter Shade
Everyone else in attendance fell completely still and silent. They all knew that she could kill all of them if she wanted to, and there was nothing they could do to stop her. She nodded slightly at their sudden deference and finally spoke.
“Both sides are treated the same. He’s neutral.”
The words came out with all the authority of a judge pronouncing a verdict. She was so sure of her words that there should have been no room to argue. And so no one did, at least not directly.
Razorhawk looked away from the screen for a moment as she appeared to have had a thought. She motioned toward the Blacklist and asked, “What will you do if any of these try to come around anyway?”
Lightforge shrugged. He said, “If I run into any of them on the street I’ll probably kill them on the spot. Actually, maybe not Smoke Hydra or Zephyr; I already killed them once. But all the others, yeah.”
“Openly attacking people in the streets? Now that sounds downright villainous.”
Another shrug.
“You can choose to see it that way. I prefer to think of it as being actively neutral. I won’t insert myself into your fights, but if you cross me then I won’t wait for you to come to me.”
Red Tiger growled again, only to be cut off once more by Gale Force. She nodded slowly, clearly considering something for a long time before she spoke. Her words were clear and seemed to ring out and reverberate through the store.
“I agree. The neutral alliance Lighter Shade will back your neutral stance. Settle your own problems, but if either side tries to break your stance with overwhelming force, we will intervene.”
With that said, she turned on her heels and blurred, shooting away like a rocket. She was so fast that Lightforge couldn’t even follow her movements with his eyes. He was stunned, and his other guests clearly felt it too.
Slowly they dispersed, and Lightforge should have felt relieved. Instead there was a sense of dread sitting deep in the pit of his stomach. He had officially attracted the notice of fish much, much larger than himself. Whether he liked it or not, he was officially being pushed into a world much bigger and stronger than the little neighborhood that he’d been running around for the last couple of months.
Despite the concern, he couldn’t help but smile. After all, a new world meant all kinds of new things to see and to make. How could he be anything but excited at that?