Turn 88: Scouting Out The Hunters

--- Maya Williams ---

Eventually she decided that her best option for the headset was to make something more protective, (after all if you're going to be building a headset you might as well make it into a proper helmet. Our brain is our most valuable asset.)

(That and she can't afford any more head injuries. We're kind of operating at the limit of functionally insane already.) Her inner madness confessed.

Regardless, this meant that she restructured her headset far more thoroughly than she'd initially planned. Which is why instead of reusing her existing circlet shape, she spent the next couple of hours using her Alchemy program to shape and mold the plastic she used into a mix of hard and soft forms vaguely large enough to cover her entire head.

Once everything was in place she took a look at her reflection in one of the hospital mirrors. "Well on the plus side you definitely can't tell who I am under here… In fact you can't really see my face much at all."

(On the downside we now look like we're half cosplaying that one vigil, what was his name Mercy?)

"Eh, this is just an early build as long as it works I can make it more… Me eventually." She assured herself as she took the helmet off. "For now let's see how much damage this thing can take before actually putting my tech in it."

The end of this experiment was more than a Sonic Burst but less than a Heavy Weight.

Scene Consequences

-Head Set Upgraded to MK 2.0

--Upgrade: Armored Helmet: Headset now grants Armor, reducing incoming damage, this is doubled for ranged Crits.

---

After spending so much time using her Alchemy() to work on plastic the day before, Maya decided that it was high time she upgraded one of her oldest programs. (I mean it's been years since we touched this thing!)

(It's only been a couple of months.)

(From your perspective.)

Ignoring her own insanity, she began picking apart her program and slipping in a few new variables into the code. A process that she found to be significantly easier than she'd originally thought when first coming up with this idea weeks ago.

(That's because we've leveled up Hacking Reality enough that all the Tier One programs are easier to make.)

Once more ignoring her insanity, (which is rude by the way) she began to modify the program responsible for manipulating the physical shape of her plastic through micro vibrations and careful applications of heat energy to soften the matter into a more malleable state. Instead shifting it to be more useful for a wider range of materials, such as the scrap metal she used for the vast majority of her physical projects.

Unfortunately, while this broad approach would allow her to greatly decrease just how much scrap metal she was wasting while working on everything, it would do nothing to help reduce how many electrical components she had to cannibalize. And possibly worse than nothing if she tried to use it on her more organic materials.

(That is how you cronenberg something.)

Still, if she continued to expand upon this program Maya was sure she could use it for more delicate materials… eventually.

(Eh, I'd say V2.0 will have that as an upgrade choice… depending on our other levels.)

(You are really going in on this RPG life thing aren't you?)

(Because an RPG life would be awesome, and we are already taking steps to make life a game with our Scan.)

(Point.)

Scene Consequences

-Alchemy upgraded to V1.4 (Mem. 5)

--All Scrap costs have been reduced by 1. (Minimum of 1)

---

Despite herself Maya slowly found herself growing bored of chipping away at the mildly (extremely) monotonous task of changing all of the 'plastic' constants in her Alchemy program into far more flexible 'matter' variables. Something that she was ultimately able to correct by removing the first and then having a small bot go through all of the errors and replace them with the later variable before finally personally fixing any follow up errors.

And it was in this boredom that she found herself revisiting her idea of talking to some of the local Hunter groups about selling them some of her tech.

Of course, she couldn't just give her tech to just anybody, which is why she began to go through all of the larger groups in the city starting with the same group that her family had used to help break Tommy out of the Slaver effect manipulating him.

Hack & Slash, was a recently migrated team made up of four people publicly identified as Jack H. Wright, a Practitioner. Susan Berkely a Psionic. Crystal Hunters a non-Deviant. And Jason Smith an M.A.D.

"Meaning they probably don't need me to make them any tech…" She sighed.

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(Hey, hey, hey! Our tech is clearly superior to whatever this asshole can make.)

(And even if they're uninterested it's possible that a collaboration could prove useful in the same way our trips to the M.A.D. club help us.)

(You mean by us swiping spare parts from them like the trash panda we are?)

"Hey!" She frowned. "I haven't done that in weeks…"

(Still while a professional right-off, it might be helpful to look into them more if only for another collaborator in the same vein as Artemis.)

"Maybe…" She sighed, eyeing a picture of the quartet on the red and black website covered in weapons, arcane script, and fake blood. "Then again, something is kind of unnerving about these four…"

With a shake of her head she moved onto the next group, playful dubbed 'Stoker's Slayers' a trio led by the eponymous Sarah Stoker. A blonde woman and apparently a second generation Hunter, having inherited the company name from her father.

The other pair were what she could only describe as a 'pretty boy' blonde with long hair and a scruffy looking man with short hair and a five o' clock shadow. Both of whom were apparently Practitioners specializing in a number of fields that Maya showed absolutely no respect towards.

"Well, at the very least since they have no 'tech guy' I can probably sell something to them… I just need to figure out something they might want to buy." She noted, before giving this group a much firmer 'Possibly' than Hack & Slash's hesitant 'Maybe'.

The third group she pulled up was actually a duo featuring a small blonde woman that looked like she couldn't hurt a fly and a massive wall of muscle that could probably murder a bear with nothing but his hands.

"Guy and Daisy's Eternal Horizon's Hunting Service And Paranormal Dispatch." She read across the top of the page in a professional if mildly colorful font.

The pair had been together for roughly a decade with the woman -Daisy- being a practitioner, and the large man being more 'physically' capable during their hunts from what she could gather on the pair.

Like with the other Hunter groups most of their 'cases' were little advertised, discretion apparently being a big part of the profession. That said, in a more public setting she found numerous gun and shooting awards belonging to the smaller woman. Enough so to give her at the very least a vague idea of what this pair might want to buy.

"Not sure if I want to be selling weapons on the street though…" She admitted to herself as she realized just what she might be signing up for here.

(Eh, we can give them the obsolete shit we replace as we upgrade our own Dakka.) Her inner Madness tried to reassure her.

"I guess…" She sighed before moving onto the fourth of the city's official Hunter Groups. One she'd been avoiding due to their name of 'The Southside Coven' both due to sounding more like a gang name, and the clear implication that this was an all magic group.

A magic group that had her freeze as soon as she pulled up their picture.

A picture featuring Artemis, Audrey, and a third girl with a baseball bat.

(Well… at least we now have a reason to want Artemis to introduce us to her friend?)

Scene Consequences

-Maya has scouted some of the local Hunter groups.

--Maya is now aware of the fact that Artemis and Audrey are part of a Hunter group.

---

"What's up, oh mysterious M.A.D. girl?" Artemis's voice drawled when she answered. "Got another fun project to hash out?"

"Uh, no… and yes?" She answered a little unsurely.

(Maya, your social ineptitude is showing.)

"Okay… mind elaborating?" Artemis tried again.

"Right, so you know that I'm an M.A.D.?" Maya began just to have a starting point.

"One dabbling in something extremely close to magic, but yes." The other teen confirmed.

(Heresy! Burn the infidel! Burn her at the stake!)

"Going to ignore that." She frowned, before explaining that. "I was recently thinking about selling some of my tech to the city's Hunter groups to get more funding for bigger projects when I found out that…"

"I am in a Hunter group." The huntress finished with a sigh.

They both fell into an awkward sort of quiet for a moment, one that slowly ate away at Maya until she also admitted that, "I just found out like… now… the picture has been on my screen for like… five minutes and… I don't know…"

"Right… Right…" Artemis sighed. "I'm not trying to be rude here but I'm not sure we really need any tech given our own stuff and how I'm already upgrading our kits… right now."

She couldn't help but grimace at that, if only because she had more than one reason for wanting to meet with the group. (Or more specifically one particular member of the group.)

"I get that, I do. I just figured I should… offer since I've actually met you and stuff." She told the other teen.

Artemis was quiet for another moment before letting out another sigh. "Alright, what the hell? I won't make any promises but if you think you've got something that can impress us I'll take a look at it and then we can show it to the girls if it's really something."

"¡Muy bien!" She grinned.

"Though, I am going to warn you it's probably going to have to wait a bit while I deal with some… stuff on my end. I'm kind of wrapping up a big project right now, and will have another going soon enough." Artemis confessed.

"Perfectly fine." She nodded, (after all… I'm going to need to figure out what I want to show off in the first place.) "Better than fine even."

"Right… I'll let you know when I've got a bit of free time to see whatever you want to show off." Artemis told her with only a touch of reluctance. "Though I'll warn you now, you're going to need something big if you really want to impress the girls."

"Don't worry, I'll blow them away."

Scene Consequences

-Artemis is willing to set up a meeting with Audrey and the rest of the Southside Coven. If you have something worth sharing with the group.

Short Term Goal Added: Create something that you think a group of Magical Hunters might like.

---

Given how she didn't actually have anything that could 'blow them away' and Artemis had explicitly warned her about the need to really impress the rest of her 'Coven'- (Cough, hippies, cough.) (You know that doesn't work when you say 'cough' right?) (Cough, bitch, cough.)- she decided to go through her various projects for something she could produce to impress the group of Hunters.

And given what she knew about said group, and the druidess she wanted to meet with, she took a bit more of a focus on her organic projects given how they were something that she could produce en masse with enough time if she were to set up that greenhouse she'd been thinking about.

Unfortunately, while her 'Fodder' was useful for her own purposes and her 'Healing Herbs' could prove useful to others, she didn't think they'd do much to impress a group capable of rapidly growing combat plants and using healing 'magic' of their own. Which is why she proceeded to once more dive into the depths of the internet for any information on biological projects she could use to impress the other teenagers she was trying to make friends with.

(Please don't word it like that…)

(Yeah, you're making our Deviant arms deal sound lame…)

(Hmph.)

Scene Consequences

-Maya has gained 1XP to Biology.

--Currently: Lv. 4 (4/10)

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