Norbert Ebersol thought about his childhood, remembering when he realized he really was so much smarter than everyone around him, including his own parents. He wondered how different it would have been if he had instead been surrounded by people who were as smart as him, or as Talented with him, with teachers and parents who were his equals, and not his inferiors.

The Tribes, Russians, and Wakandans did that for their kids? He could only imagine the impact of that kind of brainpower working together!

“How do they control it?” he had to ask, sipping at his drink again. “I mean... that much brainpower, shouldn’t they be all taking over everything, knowing they are better at everything?”

“The Hag and The Great Bear,” muttered Mr. Hill, and Norbert found himself flushing. Yeah, you just didn’t fuck with those two. PRIMUS didn’t fuck with those two. Hadn’t The Hag cut an alien battle cruiser in two in space from down on the planet?!

“And not just that way. Schmot Guys will just think they can out-prep, out-think, and out-plan anyone who isn’t Schmot like them. The king and queen of Schmot People on this planet are The Hag and The Great Bear, and make no damn mistake about that,” Dynamo added.

Norbert blinked at Dynamo, who had admitted that without blinking an eye. “Seriously?” he had to ask. “I mean, they aren’t known for brains...”

“Huh,” scoffed Mr. Hill, blowing out a thick sparkly blue smoke ring casually. “You gotta read some non-Murican histories, Schmot Guy. The Hag takes the Tribes from basically hunting and gathering ta post-industrial age in two years, proceeds to kick the European settlers out of half of the continent despite everything they try, then bombs the shit out of New York City with aircraft the rest of the planet doesn’t have, all the while The Great Bear wages a war against the Lemurians when the rest of the world barely knows about them. He beats the fuck out of them, despite them having a tech level similar ta the Atlanteans, while also detonating the world’s first atomic bomb and formally making the world’s first superheroes and super-soldiers on demand.”

Dynamo added as Norbert pursed his lips, “She came in to do a dissection here on the Negative Zone races, and she had every genius in that room waiting on her hand and foot. The Tribes and Russia are where they are because those two drove them there. Staying ahead of the rest of the world is done by the rest of their countries with their guidance.” Dynamo took another drink, keeping his eyes. “I know Muricans despise the fuck out of her, but most Muricans can be pretty dumb and believe what their own revised history tells them. You go out into the rest of the world, and it’s a very different known story... and one that agrees with the Tribes, not the Murican versions.

“My best guess is that the two of them are sitting on Intellects of 50 or close to it.”

She timed it right, and Norbert spluttered his drink all over. “Fifty?!” he protested in disbelief. He naturally knew the Core Discipline Ratings, it was just hard to get Assessed.

“They reign over the biggest collections of Schmot people in the world. You don’t do that without being smarter than them,” Mr. Hill sort of agreed. “Fifty, tho?” he had to ask Dynamo.

She just pointed at Norbert. “They have to dominate post-Ten Schmot Guys with Talents.”

“Huh,” Mr. Hill grunted thoughtfully, sizing up Norbert. “Makes sense.”

Even to Norbert it did. “So, where am I?” he had to ask, desperate to know where he stood on the scale.

Dynamo lifted an eyebrow, and her mesmerizing green eyes flashed once. A second later, there was a Holo in front of him.

-------------

Norbert Ebersol, The Fixer

Male Primos Human/2 (The Genius Obsession)

Artificer (Techno)/13; Warrior/2; Expert/7, Vizard/6

Strength: 9->12

Dexterity: 15->18

Constitution: 12->15

Intelligence: 20->29

Wisdom: 10->13

Charisma: 8->11

Notable Talents/Traits: Engineering Genius; Natural Tinker, Math Whiz

----------------

Norbert slowly set his glass down, and stared at his Stat lines. Then he grabbed for his scroll-screen, and very hastily punched up the Core Disciplines and the explanations he wanted, although he was pretty sure his memory was correct.

He looked up the data and how to interpret it, and his face fell. “What is this from?” he asked quickly, always willing to blame an error in the instrument.

“Assay effect. No, there’s no error. You’re not wearing Divination Wards, I’d know it. This is basic, fundamental, no-frills magic. I’m not saying it can’t be subverted, but YOU would have to be the one changing the results. Are you?” she asked him blandly.

He didn’t know magic, so of course he wasn’t. His face was kind of ashen as he looked at it.

Three Civilian Classes. Only his Intelligence was high enough to be called extraordinary, and he hadn’t even reached Human/3.

For one of the smartest people in the word, he looked like, in video game terms, an NPC.

Even if Artificers were the coolest things around...

“I, I don’t have a second thoughtstream,” he blurted out, scanning through the notes on Intellect.

“I think there’s a footnote that the second stream is sometimes waived by specialists for doubled thinking speed instead,” she offered. “Probably more important in your line of work to be a really fast thinker than be able to talk and do design work in your head at the same time.”

“And these, what, Talents, Traits?” he pointed out. “What do they do?”

“Engineering Genius is +4 to all checks concerning Engineering. So, you’re superhumanly smart in all areas, meaning you can understand theory even if you aren’t an innovator in the abstruse stuff. But you’re equivalent to a 37 Int when it comes time to make theory a reality.

“Natural Tinker gives you a +2 when repairing or upgrading technology. Math Whiz means you can juggle complex math in your head without issue and solve such things quickly.

“All the Classes you have are high skill-point, knowledge-based Classes that work off Intellect, save for Warrior, which you probably picked up just by being in some fights without your tech on you. Expert just tossed tons of skill points at you, so that’s where a lot of your scholarly science knowledge base is coming from. Vizard is there to give you Feats, so you probably picked up areas of skill specialization to really double down on your Engineering skills.

“Artificer is, of course, the Class that makes your personal brand of Weird Science work.”

“Where is Stark on this?” he demanded, looking a little frantic.

“One, Stark is higher Level than you. Given his career and background, that should not surprise you in the least. Two, he’s a Human/4, and you’re a Human/2. So, it should come as no surprise that he’s sitting on a nat 34 Intellect, and his Talents are no worse than yours.”

“A 34...” Ebersol swallowed, the smoking cigar forgotten in his hand for now. “Richards?” he asked faintly.

“Richards is superhuman. It’s not a fair comparison. He can change and adapt his own brain to add skill points or Skill Focus specializations or similar things. Totally cheaty. But he’s a nat 36 last I looked.”

“You?” he finally dared to ask.

“I have none of you guys’ Talents, but I’m a nat 38, boosted to 42 most of the time.”

“You-you have eight thoughtstreams!” Norbert exclaimed.

“So does Dr. Richards. Stark has two, and did the double speed thing, like you. Basically, he has social charmer stream on voice, and the super genius streams work away from his mouth.”

Norbert turned to Mr. Hill, who was listening to all this with half an ear. “And you?” he had to ask.

“Show him, girl,” The Mountain ground out casually, heavy eyes low.

============

Mr. Hill, The Mountain, Terra’s Fist*

Primos Human/3, Avatar of Earth/15*

Scout/7, Vizard/5; Melee/14; Martial Artist/10 (Crystal Dragon)

Strength: 18->59 (73+)*

Dexterity: 11->18 (34 Reactions)*

Constitution: 18->55*

Intelligence: 9->16

Wisdom: 10->20

Charisma: 12->22

Notable Talents/Traits: Brutal Brawler; Money is Important, Stubborn

Terra’s Fist Template Characteristics: Strength of The Mountain; Vigor of the Mountain; Veins of Quicksilver; Toughness of Adamant; Bones of Diamond; Travel the Earth; Weight of the Mountain; Roots of the Mountain; Feel the Earth

=============

Norbert swallowed. So that is what a high Delta-Level Powered looks like...

“Terra’s Fist is what made him The Mountain. The Avatar Levels are what have made him stronger over the years. The Colosseum fights were godsends, as he got to fight a bunch of very skilled and powerful people, really helped him out,” Dynamo explained drily. “So, the first thing you should remember is that he is big, and he moves slow because he doesn’t want to squish soft, wet things like you. The second thing you should remember is that he’s got a 16 Intellect, and he’s in the upper 1% of the general population in brains, he just took them in a different direction than you.

“The third thing is that both his Charisma and his Wisdom are higher than his brains, so he doesn’t overvalue yours, the same way you value practical tech over airy theory tech. He’s grounded.

“He is also very, very good at what he does, and he’s got two decades and more of doing this stuff under his belt. He’s seen Schmot Guys come, and Schmot Guys go. He’s seen them die like punks.

“You may be smarter than him, but by his standards you’re a self-obsessed nerd and probably a fool. Mr. Hill is grounded in all the ways, he is brutally practical, and wow, if you try to play him, you are so dead.”

Mr. Hill’s face didn’t move, but his stone-gray eyes seemed to gleam like diamonds for a moment. Norbert Ebersol found himself shivering.

He’d never felt like this in front of a Brick before. Hells, that idiot Cain Marko over there didn’t deserve any respect from him, other than getting out of his way once the dolt started walking.

Yeah, he was smart. But that was the ONLY thing he had on The Mountain, and even then, The Mountain was a genius by the standards of normal people, if that 16 was real.

Who’da thought that? He’d had no idea...

“You’re a mess, kid,” Mr. Hill said bluntly, blowing out more smoke than human lungs could hold lazily. Somehow, it didn’t linger or get into anything. Magic, Norbert assumed. “Human/2 is the Obsession Level. You’ll never amount ta shit as long as you stay there. You didn’t even become Forsaken at Seven, which is almost crippling since you didn’t take any magic. Your combat skills suck. You’re one of the top three inventor Schmot Guys in the States, and you’re still a Thirteen, don’t even have a 30 Int, and if it weren’t for your Talent, you couldn’t even wait at the side of the big brains’ table.”

Norbert shivered despite himself, but couldn’t refute the cold, casual words.

“Part of that’s because you’re an anti-social, obsessive nerd. If you want ta accomplish great things, you need people you can work with, not just buyers and sellers. You need ta make the effort to break the rut you are in, the one that keeps you in dark places laughing ta yourself, instead of bringing out your tech ta shine before the world.

“You want ta sit at the big brain trust table, you earn that right. You ain’t got it.

“Oh, you are a fucking master at picking up their stuff and making something new and shiny out of it. I ain’t denying you what you are good at. But you want ta sit up with them, you gotta do more.

“Seen way too many of your kind die in the dark, what tech survived ‘em credited ta others who stole it. Even Dynamo here was going ta take the revenue from you, mostly because you’re a crook, but also because if you wanted ta do something about it, she could cut off your head, put it in a jar, and hook it up ta a golem-mod or something to drain all your secrets before she got rid of you at her leisure.”