Predictably there was no ‘Magic Tinker’…Thanks dad.

Perry cruised through the classes, the System reacting intuitively to his desire to navigate it.

Tinker:

The base of every Tinker, unlikely to excel at any particular strategy, but without any glaring weaknesses.

Perks:

Tinker Twitch: User modestly alters reality as they make their creation. Makes Tinker Tech difficult to replicate or steal, with performance that beggars belief. Often only works for the tinker in question, with a few exceptions.

Generalist: +4 Free points per level.

Per Level:

HP: +2

Body: +1

Stability: +1

Nerve: +2

Attunement: +1

Free points: 5

Choose Tinker?

Yes/No

No.

Let’s look at the next one, Perry thought, moving on to the next class.

Space Tinker: The Tinker who dreams of space. This specialist has benefits to various tech necessary for space travel.

Perks:

Tinker Twitch: User modestly alters reality as they make their creation. Makes Tinker Tech difficult to replicate or steal, with performance that beggars belief. Often only works for the tinker in question, with a few exceptions.

Enviro-tech: Any self-contained life-support system or self-contained environment is automatically drastically more robust and fail-safe than it might otherwise be.

Advanced propulsion systems: More easily design and fabricate advanced propulsion/navigation systems, culminating in warp-speed FTL

Per Level:

HP: +1

Body: 0

Stability: +2

Nerve: +3

Attunement: +1

Free points: 1

Okay, Perry thought, thumbing his chin. The answer here is obvious…Perry dismissed the whole list and backed out.

I have no idea what the stats do, so I need to look that up.

Perry then focused his attention on his Status and each individual Stat.

Body: Increases the body’s strength/speed and resistance to damage, including poison and disease, longevity and healing. Each point multiplies the user’s natural qualities by 1.05, compounding.

Okay, so if it’s compounding, then use the rule of seventy-two.

72/5=14.4

About 14-15 levels of Body will double physical attributes, 22 to triple them, 28 to quadruple, etc, etc. with a hundred and thirty-one times physical stats at 100 Body.

Next stat.

Stability: Increases the mind’s natural resistance to damage from trauma, depression, psy powers, magic, includes resistance to mind-control, both power-based and magical. Each point multiplies the user’s natural qualities by 1.05, compounding.

Simple enough. Next.

Nerve: Increases the performance of nerve cells throughout the body. Increases the user’s senses, reaction time, learning, intelligence, and coordination. Each point multiplies the user’s natural qualities by 1.05, compounding.

Next.

Attunement: Part of Claudette’s Hippie Bullshit. Attunes the user to The Tide. Multiplies the power of class perks by 1.05, compounding.

Perry’s brows rose. That’s interesting.

He went back to the Class list and began narrowing down what he wanted and why.

He spent an entire day at school copying down the different classes and doing long-winded cost-benefit analysis in his notebook while the lessons flew by. Eventually he narrowed it down to three, and finally, with a great deal of regret, Perry dismissed AI Tinker and Industrial Tinker.

Leaving one of the more lackluster choices, but perfect for Perry.

Garage Tinker

Garage Tinker: A garage tinker is a master of making the most of limited resources, patching together small projects that punch above their weight class.

Perks:

Tinker Twitch: User modestly alters reality as they make their creation. Makes Tinker Tech difficult to replicate or steal, with performance that beggars belief. Often only works for the tinker in question, with a few exceptions.

Spendthrift: load-bearing structures and armors are stronger than they should be, reactions are more powerful at lower concentrations, contaminants have less impact on the finished product, and materials/components behave as if they were more expensive alternatives.

Generalist: +2 free point per level

Per Level:

HP: +1

Body: +1

Stability: +1

Nerve: +2

Attunement: +2

Free points: 3

The reason Perry begrudgingly chose Garage Tinker over AI tinker which promised loyal AI servants, or Industrial Tinker, which guaranteed wealth and power, was the Spendthrift perk, specifically:

Reactions are more powerful at lower concentrations,

and,

Materials/components behave as if they were more expensive alternatives.

Both of those phrases seemed to suggest that they might increase the potency of magic rituals.

It didn’t say ‘chemical reactions.’ It just said ‘reactions’.

It didn’t specify what kind of materials or components would be improved, Just a blanket statement. If magical ingredients fell under that blanket, - which Perry suspected they would – then the perk literally increased the potency of magic cast by any tech he created.

It was a bit of a gamble, but Perry wasn’t too terribly concerned with it. Any Tinker would inevitably become rather wealthy if they lived long enough, and the Garage Tinker promised that he could get by on cheap parts for a long time, meaning his start-up costs would be negligible compared to another Tinker.

And he could still make AI, (and using cheaper parts) just not as good as a specialist.

So even if this was a mistake, Perry wouldn’t suffer too badly.

Probably.

Choose Garage Tinker?

Yes/No

Yes.

Perry wobbled in place as a strange tingle spread through his body and mind, not quite pins and needles. Like his entire brain had fallen asleep.

A minute later, the tingles faded, and he was left alone with his thoughts. And the System.

Congratulations! You are now a level 1 Garage Tinker.

Paradox Zauberer (Perry Z.)

Class: Garage Tinker

Level 1

HP: 2

Body: 1

Stability: 1

Nerve: 2

Attunement: 2

XP to next level: 1245

Current Quest: Do your homework

Reward: (5XP)

Alright, now what do I need to do?

Now Perry needed to figure out some kind of numerical representation for the Spendthrift perk’s effect on a spell, if any, as well as the effect it had on other designs.

Now how am I gonna do that… Perry thought, rubbing his chin. In order to figure out how much difference the Perk made, he needed a control sample. Preferably someone he knew didn’t have magical or tinker powers, or powers of any kind.

Someone suitably stupid, who wouldn’t think too hard about why they were doing what they were doing. But also agreeable and eager to do science under the right circumstances.

AHA!

***The next day***

“Yo Brendon,” Perry said, sliding into his seat beside the jock.

“Sup, Z?” Brendon asked, his meathooks wrapped around one of the massive tuna sandwiches his mom made for him.

“You wanna do some science at my place?”

“What kind of science?” Brendon asked with a hint of suspicion.

“The fun kind,” Perry said with what he hoped was a conspiratorial smile. He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “Did you know my dad has an indoor gun range? How would you like to try a prawn gun? The kind they use on the wall.”

“AWESOME! Say no more, I’m in!” Brendon said, his voice disappearing into the general chaos of the cafeteria.

Or at least, Perry thought it’d disappeared.

“You’re in what?” Heather said, sitting down beside Brendon and eyeballing Perry.

Shit! Heather’s not stupid! There was a good chance that Heather would put two and two together and realize that Perry had a superpower now. It wouldn’t be super obvious what it was, but she would get suspicious.

But at the same time, Perry had just tried to extend an olive branch last week, and if he snubbed her now out of some misguided attempt at secrecy, she was probably going to go right back to being his nemesis. Not that she’d completely come around, but her just being here was a big step, as normally she didn’t bother to sit within two tables of Perry.

While Perry was agonizing over his choices, Brendon made it for him.

“We’re gonna go shoot some stuff at his dad’s indoor range, you wanna come?” Brendon asked around a huge bite of tuna and mayo.

Perry bit his lip as Heather’s emerald gaze pinned him to the chair. “Yeah, you wanna come?”

She deliberated for a moment, then gave a languid shrug.

“Sure. I gotta trade off custody of our superbaby anyway.”

“How’d that happen?” Brendon asked. “I didn’t think either of you had powers.”

“It’s Mr. Rogers’.” Perry said.

“You and Mr. Rogers?” He asked, staring at Heather. “I mean, I could see that, I guess he’s pretty cool for a teacher, but isn’t that Illega-“

“Do you enjoy playing dumb, or what?” Heather asked, resting her chin on her palm and glaring at someone else for once.

Brendon took another slow bite of his sandwich, his brow furrowed in intense concentration.

“So…Mr. Rogers has a superpower?” he asked.

“You know what? I would be glad to join you guys at the range,” Heather said, changing the subject with a bright smile that spelled doom for all who opposed her.

Brendon still looked confused, which was ideal.

***

“Hey dad!” Perry yelled down the bright-white hall that led to his dad’s primary lab

“What!?” Dad yelled, ducking his head out of the room, welding goggles perched on top of his oversized forehead.

“Can I borrow some guns!?” Perry yelled.

“Tinker or conventional!?” Dad yelled back, his voice echoing down the hall.

“Conventional!”

“Knock yourself out!” Dad shouted, slipping the welding goggles back down onto his face. “Just make sure you clean them before you put ‘em back!”

“Gotcha!”

Brendon stood there, his eyes wide.

Heather looked significantly less impressed, which made sense, given her dad’s occupation.

“Your dad is so freaking cool.” Brendon whispered reverentially.

“Give it time,” Perry said, waving Brendon and Heather toward the armory.

Perry entered the code and the door slid open to reveal arms bliss.

There were a lot of guns, with multiple copies of each kind. From .22 varmint rifles all the way up to the prawn gun, which was essentially a modified Nitro Express.

And that wasn’t even including the lasers, plasma rifles, sonic lances, etc.

The real dangerous stuff was stored separately, but dangerous was relative, as any one of these guns would kill a non-powered individual just fine.

“Is this legal?”

“Some of them may be Illegal but it’s not enforced,” Perry said, grabbing a nearby cart and placing a couple different pistols and rifles of varying caliber, from the .22, to the 7.62, and because he’d promised, he added the Prawn rifle to the bottom of the cart.

Heather watched what Perry grabbed and picked out boxes of the appropriate ammo on the fly.

Brendon didn’t think to wonder why Heather knew what ammo went to what gun, which was exactly why he was here.

“Whaddya mean not enforced?” Brendon asked. “This has gotta be-“

“Listen, Brendon,” Perry said, putting his arm over the ox’s shoulders “When supers started running around, what do you think happened to the demand for guns?”

“It…went up?”

“It went down, Brendon. Because the guns weren’t working, nobody wanted a weapon some rando in tights could ignore, and their value tanked. Some people, like my dad, wound up buying a bunch of them as collector’s items, to use for target practice as a hobby. The law overlooks this too, because the law is supers. They have super-strength, tinker-tech that sheds most conventional rounds like water off a duck’s back, so they don’t care if a private citizen has a little more ammo than normal, or have conventional guns with no serial number. You think they’re worried about an unregistered AK-47 when The Mechanaut has lasers that can melt city blocks?”

Heather snorted, trying to hold in her laughter.

“I guess not,” Brendon said, nodding.

Of course more than half the weapons in the armory were illegal. Most of the conventional weapons weren’t, though. Perry hustled Brendon out before he could ask about all the shiny weird guns on the other side of the room.

Perry escorted them to the shooting range, where he’d set up dozen upon dozens of ballistics gelatin dummies.

Science was all about controlling as many variables as possible, then only changing one at a time, so you knew what caused the change, if any.

If that meant Perry and his friends got to stand there and unload AK-47’s on dummies to establish a control, then all the better.

After each volley, Perry went downrange and noted exactly how deep each bullet from each person went through the gelatin.

Perry was a bit disappointed to see that the gun he held did not shoot with more penetrative power than the others. It seemed that Spendthrift only applied to things he had created or assembled himself.

Note to self, tear gun down and reassemble to see if there’s an uptick in performance. Bullets too?

Once the control was established, it was time to science!

“This, lady and gentleman, is several brand-new types of material my dad just invented!” Perry said, revealing last night’s creations with a flourish.

It was a variety of simple breastplates he’d made out of plywood, plastic, aluminum cans, compacted dirt, and plexiglass, fitting snugly on top of their respective ballistics gel.

“Your dad made a new kind of plywood?” Heather asked, brow raised.

“Yeah. He did. Shut up.”

Heather’s expression clearly indicated she didn’t believe him.

“He made a new kind of dirt too? Is this like, Terra cotta or something?” Brendon asked, poking the dirt breastplate.

“It’s…dirt.” Perry said. “just gotta have variety so you can get more data, you know?”

“Oh, okay.” Brendon nodded.

Heather looked suspicious.

“Anyway over here we have the controls!” Perry said, moving on to unveiled the sheets of unprocessed material.

On the cart were sheets of plywood, plastic, empty aluminum cans, plexiglass, and…a sack of dirt. Perry had avoided directly touching them, nor made them into armor, so hopefully they still had their natural resilience.

“Who’s ready to do some more science!?” Perry asked.

“What’s really going on here, Perry?” Heather asked, her arms crossed.

“You wanna shoot some guns or not?” Perry asked, tone flat.

“Ooh, ooh, I do, I do!” Brendon said, waving his hand in the air.