“Ahahaha!” Heather kicked her heels and clutched her stomach. “Oh my god it hurts.”

“I’m not getting it.” Brendon said.

On the TV screen was a still image of Hexen and The Mechanaut facing down a single dark-haired teen on the sidewalk, both of them radiating disapproval. The young man was faced away from the camera but Heather obviously knew who it was.

Under the image was the caption:

Hexen and Mechanaut see eye to eye on teen truancy

I knew I was gonna hear more about it, but from Heather? That burns.

“Did you guys wanna see what I was working on, or what?” Perry asked, crossing his arms and trying not to blush from the sheer unadulterated humiliation of having his parental scolding caught on camera.

“Sure. Sure.” Heather said, wiping the tears out of her eyes.

“But why was it funny?” Brendon asked.

“That kid was Perry. He got a talking to from the two supers on the scene. Including the cowl.”

“Hah!” Brendon chuckled. “That is funny as long as he didn’t get hurt, I guess.”

Ah, Brendon. Never change.

“Right this way,” Perry said, motioning for them to follow from the living room to his room, where his current experiment rested.

“Is it um…underneath the cardboard?” Heather asked.

On Perry’s desk was a seemingly innocuous single sheet of cardboard, about the size of two palms. Unremarkable, save for two thick copper wires sticking out of either side.

Perry had converted it into a battery by taking advantage of the corrugation to house the diluted chemicals. His Class perk had smoothed out any of the unfeasibility of the process, and strengthened the finished product beyond what was logical.

“It is the cardboard!” Perry said, slipping on some thick rubber gloves before he carefully grabbed the two wires and held them close to each other.

ZAAAAP!

“Holy-“ Brendon took a step back as electricity arced three inches between the two wires. “What the hell?”

“You made this, didn’t you.” Heather said. It was not a question.

“…Yeah.”

“So you got a Tinker power from your dad.” Heather said, appraising the cardboard with a critical eye.

Not by choice, Perry groused internally.

“What!?” Brendon’s jaw dropped, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “What!?”

He turned to Perry, his eyes twinkling. “Are you gonna apply to the Nexus and go fight crime and stuff!?” he asked. “Does your dad fight crime!? He’s a Tinker, right!?”

“Most Tinkers don’t actually fight crime. They work for the city and provide support items for the Wall and the Nexus,” Heather said. “Like Perry’s dad. It’s a lot safer and more productive than galavanting around in power armor. That take a special kind of idiot.”

“Oh…yeah, that makes sense. Not quite as cool, but makes a lot more sense.” Brendon deflated, taking it hook, line and sinker, as usual.

Thanks. Perry mouthed. Heather shrugged. There was a bit of an unspoken agreement between them to keep a lid on the amount of information about their respective families that got into civilian hands.

And while Brendon lived in the same neighborhood which was crawling with supers, that was more luck than anything else. He was still a civilian.

After his friends left, Perry sat down and had a real think about what Heather had said.

It takes a special kind of idiot to galavant around in power armor.

Was Perry that kind of idiot? He’d wanted to do what his mom did since he could remember. Because it was awesome, and even though his parents had ruined the mystique of the cape/cowl dynamic for him, it was still more appealing than working a regular job or being one of the Nexus’s pet Tinkers.

And would you have saved that woman from Dave if you were smart?

And that adrenaline rush… felt so good.

I guess I AM that kind of idiot, Perry thought, running his fingers through his hair.

New Quest: Make a suit of power armor, idiot!

Reward: (400XP)

Before we get to that, I need to figure out where to assign my extra points.

Perry pulled out his calculator and began running the numbers.

If I put all three points into Attunement, that would bump me up to 5 Attunement, arguably my most build-relevant stat.

Perry punched some numbers into his calculator.

1.05^5=1.2762

A little over a 27% boost in material efficiency from Attunement, where currently it stood at 10.25%

Perry glanced over at his Body and HP stats

But if I’m gonna do this thing, don’t I want a bit more survivability? Longevity means extra levels. Can’t level if you’re dead.

Perry did not like that he’d be vulnerable after only two hits.

Body itself offered its own form of defense. If he raised the stat high enough he’d be able to shrug off bullets regardless of whether or not he had HP.

But that would take dozens of points. Dozens, all the while my inventions would only improve at a modest rate.

And I mean, I don’t wanna be a musclehead.

Perry wanted to defy reality, not punch things really hard.

I’m not saying punching things hard isn’t good, it’s just so…limiting.

Perry’s decision was made.

God hates a coward, he thought, dropping all three points into Attunement.

For a moment, Perry got the conflicting impression that his senses were expanding out of his body, and also that there was nothing beyond his room. That if he opened the door, there would be nothing outside but a pitch black void.

Then the feeling was gone, and his senses seemed to retract back inside his skull.

That was weird.

Perry shook his head to clear it and glanced at the tidewatch on the wall of his room.

The tidewatch looked like an old-timey thermometer, a vial filled with a red liquid.

It measured how strong the Tide was. It relied on amplifying and displaying the same simple mechanisms that caused the ocean to rise up to meet the wall. Something that normally was too small a fluctuation to be felt by the body.

Gravity.

Still normal. Perry thought, glancing at the tidewatch.

Back when the Tide had first started, scientists had bent their every effort on figuring out what was causing the fluctuations in gravity.

Some even succeeded. Those poor bastards.

Perry shuddered. Anyway, let’s see about testing the new limits of our materials.

Cardboard was sitting at 30.6 times it’s original strength, and each of his original materials also got a healthy uptick in their durability.

30 layers of cardboard is not bulletproof.

Nobody ever said Perry had to use cardboard, but he’d like to use it as a large portion of the load-bearing structure, because he could incorporate the battery technology he’d prototyped to make the load bearing structures double as batteries.

Incredibly lightweight, powerful batteries.

I could make a suit of power armor that weighs less than ten pounds…

Perry cocked a brow. That lends itself really well to flight.

Perry kicked his rolling chair over to his desk and began brainstorming ideas. What he needed was a composite material. Cardboard was far too soft to stop a bullet, but a handful of milimeters of steel could do it, because a large portion of stopping bullets was causing the bullet to shatter on impact, and steel was simply harder than lead.

I guess I’d have to hope that the opponent didn’t have a Prawn gun.

So I’m gonna want a tiny bit of super thin steel sheet for hardness, cardboard as a light but (relatively) strong filler material/battery, rubber sealant for flexibility and to protect the components from leakage, and duct tape because that video where the guy couldn’t shoot through a roll of duct tape was awesome.

Perry could get away with using thinner metal sheeting than was strictly recommended for stopping a bullet, because of his Spendthrift perk.

Steel sheeting isn’t terribly expensive, but it’s not super cheap either, so the modifier is probably 18 times.

The problem was, Perry didn’t have any steel sheeting.

Would aluminum work?

The aluminum that hadn’t stopped small arms fire had been as thin as a human hair.

Perry pursed his lips and scooted back over to his computer, looking up a handy chart giving him the different hardness, strength, toughness, and ductibility of various materials.

Aluminum was ductile as heck. It’s hardness wasn’t great, but wasn’t that what the Spendthrift perk was for? At approx. 30 times strength, It would only take handful of milimeters to stop a bullet, and be lighter than steel besides.

Another thought occurred to him, and Perry started researching

Is aluminum foil actually aluminum?

Yes.

How thick?

Heavy duty = Approx 2 soda cans thick. 1/5 of a millimeter.

Perry frowned.

Don’t we have some of that in the kitchen?

****Several hours later****

I think it’s safe to say we’ve got our armor material, Perry thought. The armor was about a quarter inch thick, with multiple layers of aluminum foil sandwiched between rubber sealant, with cardboard battery on the inside, and a cardboard façade on the outside.

Perry didn’t have to put cardboard on the outside, but he’d decided to do it because it made him look like a complete idiot. People wouldn’t take him seriously until it was too late, and a couple extra seconds of confusion could make all the difference.

Taking a page from dad, I guess. Plus the cardboard made it easy to modify the outside and concealed the guts of the armor. People would begin to assume it was high tech under the cardboard façade eventually, and he didn’t wanna dissuade them.

Now that we’ve got a material, I just gotta figure out a design for the armor and some spell-discs that I can actually fight crime with.

Perry flipped through his spell ingredient acquisitions from the day before.

Tomward’s floating dazzler: (neophyte difficulty)

Nope, takes too long to grow the crystals. Should get started on growing those ASAP, though. Good crowd control.

Perry grabbed the phantom jellyfish salts and some string, placing them on top of his Glowstone growing tub, to be given his complete attention later.

Kolath’s floating Armaments (intermediate difficulty)

Ingredients: Areonite, vivant root, mindtaker ichor.

Render the Areonite into a liquid using a forge. Mix with powdered vivant root. 1 pinch per jangle of areonite. Pour into molds of the desired shape. Be aware that the floating armaments are five hundred times bigger in every measurement, and plan accordingly.

At this stage, the areonite alloy will begin to react with the vivant root, and most likely degrade within three weeks.

Make sure there are no bubbles or holes in your pouring, as those will result in holes in the floating armament. Finish the final details with jeweler’s tools as desired. Make sure any weapon is sharpened, as a casting will not come out able to cut flesh.

Once the details are complete, inscribe a unique symbol in mindtaker ichor on the finished product anda matching one on the controller themselves. Accuracy in the crafting of the anima and the control symbol increases the longevity of the casting. A poor casting will only last for a minute or so. Excellent castings have been known to last days.

King Javneh went into battle against the Murk with six perfectly cast floating armaments, and was said to have fought for seven days before –

Boring…, Perry skimmed the impromptu history lesson.

Consumes the areonite alloy upon activation.

OOooh, yeah, now we’re talking. Perry set those ingredients aside, being sure not to touch the bad Areonite. The silvery metal had rootlike streaks of black oxidation running through it, which would no doubt foul up the spell, save for Perry’s Spendthrift perk minimizing contaminants.

Hopefully. I really don’t wanna necrotize my tissues. I like my tissues.

Perry tired to look up the melting temperature of Areonite, but couldn’t find it.

Guess I’ll just have to science that shit. What’s next?

The next spell had notes written in his mother’s handwriting in the margins.

Sacrifice to Gintax: (intermediate difficulty)

Ingredients: Bone, Areonite

Create an alter out of bone (any kind) in the design pictured below. Accuracy is vital. Kill something with an areonite dagger on top of the altar to charge the death-metal with the power of their life-force. Can be used to self-heal, or power unlife.

This spell is forbidden for many obvious reasons, but it is detailed in this book to spread awareness. If you spot someone creating something like this, seek a representative of The Council.

Mom’s notes were as such:

TRAP! The ancient Zalesh language shown here are actually insults to the blood god. The council were power-hoarding jerks, and any credulous dipshit who attempted this would invoke Gintax’s ire. Below are the proper symbols, inscribed from a successful casting by a necromancer I re-deaded.

The areonite dagger does not have to be the cause of death, merely present, and I have found that Gintax is just as happy with roaches and mice as anything else.

They actually make really good roach motels that pay magical dividends.

Perry didn’t have any bones at the moment, so he set that one aside.

I’ll come back to that one.

Dregor’s Flacidity: (advanced)

Ingredients: Corsian bat shriek, dried Gol fruit, Hul horn, Muck-slime, silver bowl.

Mix the powdered Gol fruit with the Hul Horn in the silver bowl, 1:5 Ratio. Add muck-slime until the mixture becomes a paste. Coat the inside of the bowl. Induce the Corsian bat to shriek towards the bowl, such that the silver begins to hum. Face the concave side of the bowl towards the intended recipient. If the spell was successful, the target will lose rigidity and melt. This is harmless to living creatures, and they regain their shape in a few minutes. Inanimate objects re-harden when the effect is over, but do not regain their shape.

Note: This recipe is labeled as Advanced as it appears to be very difficult to reliably achieve. Dregor invented the spell as a joke, but it rarely worked beyond the first time.

Still, it HAS worked, often enough to consider it a true spell. If an unreliable one.

I like this one. It sounded like the silver ‘bowl’ acted as a satellite dish, and when it resonated with the bat-screech, transferred those vibrations to the mixture and concentrated them on a single point.

It made sense it didn’t work very often. Not every silver bowl had the exact same dimensions and not every bat screeched the exact same way every time.

Perry intended to control the variables.

He wrote it down, along with a few notes about how it could work.

Alright, we’ve got two spells we like and can begin to work on right now:

Dregor’s Flacidity and Kolath’s floating Armaments.

Perry glanced over at the death-metal sitting ominously on the desk.

He jotted down another note.

Test Spendthrift’s contaminant mitigation properties on harmless reactions before live-testing Floating Armaments. I like my tissues.