Shaper of Metal Post-Apoc Progression LitRPG

As Jack stared, he heard murmurs and groans from around the room, but also laughter, which revealed that the majority of it was sarcastic — various utterances intended to take the piss out of friends. 'Aw, shit, not him again!' and so forth.

"B-but you were-, you had-" Jack sputtered at the woman in front of him, unable to parse it and fighting off his prior embarrassing memories involving her. His brain immediately mocked him in response.

'Why don't you show her your superhero abs?' No! Shut up! Argh!

Lighthouse's hand patted his shoulder supportively. "Condolences, dude. This spooky lady has a thousand personas and wears almost as many hats. Expect the unexpected."

Jack glanced at her, then InSite watching nearby, and then turned back to Bermuda. They were all so damn amused. He shook his head and huffed. "What a total scam job."

Bermuda shrugged. "You can gripe on your own time, Steel. We're on a tight timetable because many of our members need to be in the field first and foremost. Fully review your mission details if you haven't already and get with Sato." She pointed behind him.

Jack turned to see a man, maybe in his forties, with 'cop' written all over him, in the next row looking right back at him, as relaxed and placid as a person could be. He nodded; Jack nodded back.

"Roger that, ma'am." He rose and made his way over to the row. Sato got up to shake his hand before they both sat down. Sato was a grizzled man with deep lines in his face and shrewd, sharp eyes. His hair was only slightly more than a buzz, with some kind of stylized, shallower curve on one side.

"So, before you even look over the stuff in your noggin," Sato began, "you should probably know what I'm about and can do. Are you familiar with the Quirked?"

Jack blinked and shook his head. "Not at all."

"Right, well, it's a secret we deliberately keep tight-tight-tight, but I'm one of them. Some people get a little smidge of Memoria's gifts instead of a dollop. Or something in between. You might remember your powerset labeled as 'Superior.' That means your Access Level cap is up where you'll never reach anyway. You might be predicted to get to thirty or forty with veteran accomplishment in the field. Most of our bona fide ANPs are either Superior or what's called Bracketed. The bracket makes a cap on the high end and reduces personal power use and development, depending on the cap. Relevancy varies. You might work with Bracketed and never know it. They don't usually advertise it, and their functional Access Level is pretty legit."

Sato shrugged. "And then there are people like me. Stuck at the lowest level, and even my SSR is reduced. Never had a prayer at making ANP. We fade into the background and don't take the special handles for the sake of protection through anonymity. It's not like we're a cut above most of the time. I got the smidgiest of the smidge, stuck at Level 0. I'm sure I made Mother grimace when I was awakened. I don't even remember it because I started out sick, unable to handle the energy. Put me in a nasty fever."

Jack was a bit stunned. He also knew a little more about why that could happen. The corruption, the Marring that Neex and Q-Loth talked about. Poor guy. "Well, at least it's something, right?"

Sato nodded. "Aren't you going to ask me what it is?"

"I dunno, is that polite?"

"In my case, it's better to know. People can get annoyed, otherwise."

"Alright, then — go ahead and hit me."

Sato grinned. "I can read minds." His face went back to deadpan. "But I can't read minds — just so you don't get the wrong idea." More deadpan, in which Jack just stared back. Sato shrugged. "Sorry. That's just what all psychics are supposed to say. I like to amuse myself."

"Riiight…" He immediately felt the alarm and discomfort of being around a mind reader. He was somewhat surprised to find it was rather mild in himself, though.

"I don't have to be a mind reader to see that I just made you uncomfortable. But chill out, big guy, because I can't get jack shit from ANPs. Level 0 is quite limiting. Any greater Access Level is immune to surface thought pick-up. And that's basically all I do — hear whispers as I focus deliberately, usually with a subject in mind, and only if they aren't too strong-willed, distracted, drugged, fuzzy, or a dozen other complications. I can get really strong emotions even from ANPs, that's it. If you really hated me and wanted to kill me, I'd feel it. If I were trying to, that is. Which I'm not."

"Huh. Well, go ahead, then. Try it on me and tell me what you get."

"I really shouldn't do that… eh. Guess it doesn't matter." He sat up a bit, and his eyes squinted slightly at Jack. "Nothing. So you're either merciful or a cold killer, as far as I can tell. All I get from your noggin is static."

"That's all that's in there, anyway," Jack quipped, and Sato barked a laugh. So, he can't dig for stuff. Isn't even supposed to on agents, I'm sure. "So, you're an investigator, then? A detective type?"

Sato nodded. "With this other shit out of the way, go ahead and review what you've got in your noggin before we confer."

"Good plan…"

Jack digested the dense details, paying close heed to everything, once again feeling a charge of budding adrenaline. This was it: a relevant mission. Real shit. Only four guys going in for a Memorial raid? They had to be stretched thin. Presumably, it was mainly due to the clearance and sensitivity issues with PIMAD.

When he got to the end, he almost punched the link, but hesitated. He turned to Sato and asked, "Should I join the gestalt chat yet?"

Sato shrugged. "In a minute. First, I already have a mission amendment: if the kid is still in the separate room when we get to ground, a drop drone will bring Agent Thomas to the window there, where a drone will shatter it precisely, and he'll hop through to secure them."

"Ah. Sounds good. But then it's only three through the door, right?"

"Yep. You'll take Position Two."

"Hell yeah. I can probably neutralize any guns drawn simultaneously, by-"

"Okay, save it for later, champ. First of all, you get the plan for after we secure this grime hive, right? Legs and feet cuffed."

"Yeah. You start having a little chat and try to grab details from his surface thoughts."

"And what will you be doing while I do this?"

"Focusing entirely on watching your back and protecting your ass from any unforeseen complications."

"Perfect. Don't get distracted, and don't change that mindset unless you get a direction to the contrary. If someone else, for some reason, pokes your head privately to give directions? Let me know before you do anything." He tapped his temple. "That's not how things are supposed to go, but it does happen sometimes in our little world, since we don't shout everything out and compartmentalize a zillion different fraggin' command hierarchies. You can save everyone's asses by remembering to share with who's relevant to your actions around you."

"Gotcha."

"I need focus to do what I do, so only poke me if necessary. On the other hand, don't not poke me if necessary. Know what I mean?"

"Sure…"

Sato grinned wanly. "Being a rookie sucks, eh? You don't know frag from shit. You should've seen it back in my day… Nobody knew frag from shit. Anyway, you'll do okay. You'll scuff up here and there. We'll call you out on it after everything's said and done. Unless you really frag up, and then you'll hear about it sooner."

"Comforting."

Sato shrugged helplessly. "Point is, don't dwell on whether this or that thing you did was a screw up. Stay focused on the objective in front of you. Jump the hurdle and keep on truckin' down the course."

"Roger that, sir."

"Go ahead and plug into the gestalt so we can get this show on the road." He nodded over to the area Jack had originally walked from. Jack looked to see several faces watching him expectantly, including Agent Bermuda with her eyebrows raised.

"Yep, Roger that!" Jack quickly punched the 'CFLEX' link, approving his entry into the gestalt chat.

A bunch of names blipped with greetings, including InSite, Ooze, Lighthouse, Bermuda, Scaper, Switchback, and many, many generic agent names. He was able to easily access the member list and did not see Délight, to which he was a bit relieved. Girdle was there, though.

Eh. It's probably fine. We're not on the same assignment, after all.

Steel: <Appreciate the welcome, all.>

Scaper: <Do we get to hear about these capabilities, now, Agent Bermuda?>

Bermuda: <Yes.>

Admin: <The chat is now uniquely encoded and will be erased promptly upon the conclusion of the subject discussion.>

Jack was aware of something weird happening in his head. The whole chat became some weird code he didn't immediately understand, but then his brain magically managed to process and translate it. This definitely occurred slower than the thought-like Mem-text.

Weird.

Bermuda: <Don't mind that. Just a special paranoid precaution.

Agent Steel has the capacity to cleanse and cure a willing subject from the influence of PIMAD. He can potentially wipe it out or possibly just mitigate it; we don't yet fully understand the limitations or risks. Nonetheless, it may be a tool to rush to this or that situation if Central, and Central alone, makes the determination. Unfortunately, it's nearly one and done for a day due to the drain it puts on him. So, if we risk it at all, we do so for something critical.>

InSite: <Wow. Very strange.>

Scaper: <That's incredible! It would make my job so much easier! But it's limited. I wonder if the drain can be mitigated so he could do a little bit here and there? We should be assigned together so> [Scaper was muted for 2 seconds]

Bermuda: <That's enough, Scaper.>

Ooze: <This is quite a hope-inducing development! Excelsior! Veritas vincit — truth conquers!>

Sato: <I feel like he's assigned to our case to have him in the field, but not where he's heavily risked, nor expected to expend himself.>

Bermuda: <I won't confirm that specific assessment, but the assignment has multiple dimensions for him. It isn't desired to use his ability at all under certain thresholds of risk and reward. It cannot be ignored if the right deduced conditions occur, however. Agent Steel, let me be clear: do not use this ability without authorization. Understood?>

Steel: <Loud and clear, ma'am.>

InSite: <Catch-22, again? We collect those scenarios like bottle caps.>

Sato: <Tell me about it.>

Bermuda: <That should be all. Hit Operations, get disguises if necessary, and get in the air, team. Steel, just stick with Sato.>

Everyone began rising and heading for the exit, and they were fairly early compared to the others, so Jack felt good about that aspect, at least — he hadn't held them up too much. His general excitement about the entire business was starting to add a few butterflies. He could screw things up on this mission if he wasn't on the ball. He was focused, but there was such a thing as being too focused. He didn't want to be poised on a hair trigger, but to stay calm and collected.

He followed Sato out to the elevators. On the way, he jabbered with Jack about a few mishmashed basics — avoiding bystander eyes if possible, 'at the door' protocols, confirming Jack's gun disarm strategy, and so on.

The elevators were not the ones out in the lobby, but were in a hallway with eight of them in a row. A bunch of people crammed in, many of whom seemed to be eyeing Jack in particular. As they waited for the flow of people to fill or cut off, one rather thin woman in an unmarked uniform deliberately snaked her way through the crowd — to some responses of consternation, despite her wily maneuvers — so she was right next to Jack.

He already assessed who she was before she smiled and offered her hand. She looked a bit older than he'd have thought from her voice.

"Agent Scaper," she said as Jack shook her hand lightly and automatically replied with his own handle. She pulsed her grip with a little more strength, so he responded in kind. This made her smile a bit wider in appreciation. She appeared in her mid-to-late 20s, which made her a seasoned Non. "Nice to put a face to the name. I do hope we get to work together. Central must see synergistic benefits."

"I'm happy to help and work with you if the cards are right," Jack replied, maintaining friendliness but being cautious with his word choice. "Whenever that may be."

Scaper listened while staring up at him like she was looking at a puzzle. "It does take some luck to satiate curiosity in this world."

"You've gotten in trouble enough to know better than to still seek it out, Scaper," Sato said without looking at her.

Scaper pointedly ignored him, still staring at Jack with a pleasant expression. But a moment later, she turned forward suddenly, as if an inner voice had just then reminded her that a continuous, dead-eye stare was impolite.

She'd be a shoo-in for Containment if she weren't a Non.

"So, what can I expect in Operations?" Jack asked, directing it at no one in particular.

Naturally, Scaper was hot on the answer, talking over Sato a bit loudly to drown him out. "Well, it's as you'd expect!" Sato gave her quite the flat stare across from Jack as she continued. "Just getting your disguise work on if you need it, then hitting your locker, changing, and gearing up. With the whole 'all hands on deck' thing going on, it's a bit different. A bit rushed."

"Hmm."

Mini chimed. <Agent Scaper is requesting communication access. Grant?>

Jack sighed internally even as he agreed. Gotta watch it with this one.

Scaper couldn't hide her pleasure, smiling to herself triumphantly in the elevator as she sent a direct Mem-text. <Thanks for agreeing! Just wanted to save time in the event we need it. I'm not supposed to use the other way at all anymore, except in emergencies.>

Jack felt some trepidation at that mention. <Other way?> Meanwhile, the elevator closed shut, and they went up with a strong sense of pressure — way more than usually felt in an elevator.

<Of course! I thought you knew, sorry. I'm a psychic. Bonafide. I can send and receive thoughts. I won't read your mind, though — not without express permission from both you and Central!>

Oh, great.