Now in your nightclothes, you laid on your bed, closing your eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep. You had nightmares mostly every night at this point, but... tonight was different. Tonight, you had a vivid dream... no, it felt like more than just a dream!

You had found yourself standing in a field of golden clouds, it was pleasant... nice, even. You felt a sense of relief... something you hadn't felt for months, but... you couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. "Wait a second... Shit! I'm dead aren't I!? Fucking god damn it!"

"Hey... can you shut up? I'm trying to, heh, come to terms with my death here." A girl's voice from behind you spoke, and you turned around. You... hadn't really had much interaction with other people for a while... not in person. While you weren't in terrible shape or overweight, you weren't in good shape either. Seeing as you could never have enough spare personal credits to get anything more than the barest essentials, and you never really left your Preventative Safety Cage on work hours in the warehouse, you'd kind of given up when it came to personal appearance. Some people had good enough jobs that they could spare the personal credits for going out clubbing or drinking... not you though.

"Well excuse me for being upset about dying, princess." You didn't like the tone that the girl had taken with you, so you immediately tried your hardest to think of a comeback... but you ended up just half-quoting an ancient meme at the girl, who smirked. Her skin was pale, and she had black hair. It didn't look like she saw much sunlight at all... and the bags under her eyes indicated that somehow, her lifestyle was even less healthy than your own.

"Wow, really? That's the best come-back you had?" She crossed her arms at you, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "How'd you end up dying anyway? I think I died while using my computer, I guess I just hit my limit."

"Dunno, I think I died while sleeping." You answered honestly. At least at the end of everything, it turned out that there really was life after death, and you didn't struggle for nothing... maybe you'd be able to find peace in heaven?

"Sucks. But at least it was relatively painless, right?" She was... awfully chipper for somebody who just found out she was dead, and you had no idea how that could be the case, even if there was the relief of your struggles having come to an end... people should always have had their regrets... it wasn't right for somebody to be so... happy!

"You... don't strike me as the sort of person to really be acting this confident." Judging from the girl's appearance, she looked like the typical antisocial NEET who had somehow managed to completely cut themself off from the world as a whole.. she was probably mooching off of her parents somehow.

"What are you talking about? This is a dream. Why would I not be confident in a dream? I'm just dreaming about heaven, I guess... I trained myself into being able to have lucid dreams ages ago!" The girl nudged you and smiled. "Look, I'll give you an example. I'm gonna hold my hand up, and then a big red ball is gonna appear on it!" Oh, so that's what it was. Denial. The girl seemed to believe that she was simply dreaming about having died. She held out her hand, and... nothing. "Uh... huh... gimme a second, usually these lucid dreams are a little more..."

"Or maybe you're not dreaming? You can't control me, and you can't control the world around you. Yet you're perfectly conscious, right?" You didn't want to be in line to the gates of heaven or wherever you were going to end up going with somebody who was totally delusional, so you decided to set the girl straight.

"B-but... t-then... I'm... I'm actually dead?! And... you're real!?" The girl fell backwards, clearly having been embarrassed by her previous behavior towards you, now knowing that you were a real person. She was definitely the sort of person who browsed the same sorts of site as you, though... she was far less adjusted to society... not that you'd call yourself at all adjusted, but she was obviously far worse than you were.

"Sure am, I'm Andrew... though people used to just call me Andy." You gave the girl your name, and she nodded.

"I'm... Uhmmmm... Melody." The girl quickly said her name before getting off the fluffy looking floor of the place you had ended up. You looked around now, and in the distance, you could see a few people somewhat nearby, similarly confused and looking around. Had you really died?

"Greetings, five thousand!" A booming voice caused you to jump and you turned towards the direction of the voice, you could see forming out of motes of light was a ginormous figure of a woman with 4 sets of angel wings. "I am the Goddess, and each and every one of you has been summoned to this place for a single reason!" The woman's voice radiated around the cloudscape, and there was enough power in her voice that you could feel it. "Each and every one of you has a powerful wish for change! Each of you wish to change the world you live in, and I... shall grant each of you the power you need for such a thing! The power to change the world!"

"You've got to be kidding." You looked at the Goddess with suspicious eyes. This sounded just a little too good to be true, so there was certainly going to be some sort of catch, but... Melody didn't seem to be nearly so suspicious of the so-called Goddess, her expression brightening by the second. What sort of ulterior motive could be behind giving so many people 'power to change the world', as she called it?

"Wow! It's just like an anime!" The girl started to laugh wildly. "Maybe I'm the main character!" Oh great, she was back to being completely delusional. But before you could say anything to the girl, the Goddess started to glow brightly, and you covered your eyes to protect yourself.

"My brave champions! You shall go back to your world with my blessing, you shall change the world with my boon!" The voice commanded, and a pulse of golden energy radiated from the goddess that knocked you off your feet and robbed you of your vision for a few moments. In the palm of your hand you could feel there was now a small metal object... a key?

When you regained your vision, you could see that Melody had already gotten to her feet, somehow before even you, and that she was cradling some sort of object in her arms as if it were a baby, it was only when your vision got clearer that you noticed that while you had for some reason been given a key, Melody had been given a katana, because of course she had.

"Each of you have been given one of my boons in the form of a magic object, and you are to be henceforth known as Keepers! Through killing another Keeper, you gain control of their boon as well as any boons they may have gained from others!" And there was the catch! A blatant suggestion to murder each other in order to get stronger! Fantastic! Even better was that of all the boons to have gotten, you had something that was represented by a key! What were you going to do with a damned key?! Open doors?! "Now, return to your world, five thousand!" With that command, the world went black, and you woke up in bed in a heavy sweat.

"Just... a dream?" You uttered, before feeling the cold sensation of a metal key in your hand. "Shit. Guess not." You looked at the key, sighing, trying to find out more about the key, but, to your surprise... when you looked at the key in detail, a screen popped up in your field of vision, as if you were wearing AR goggles! "Gah! What the fuck!?" You jumped backwards in surprise, but the screen followed you, and you couldn't help but read it.

[Golden Key of the Goddess: Quality: Ultimate]
[A boon from the Goddess in the form of a small golden key]
[Quality Adjustment: Two times a day, upon inserting the key into any sealed container with a keyhole, the container will open, and a random quality modifier will be applied to the item within. If there are more than one items, one will be selected at random. Each sealed container can only be used once before being considered 'opened'.]
[Item Observation: By focusing on an item in detail, information about that item and its abilities can be read.]

"Fuck me... It's like a fucking real life lootbox maker... God damn it!" You held your head, nursing a migraine while you waited for the screen obscuring your vision to disappear, fucking lootboxes. This certainly wasn't how you wanted to spend your Tuesday... but you did have at least two lockable containers in your apartment, your medicine cabinet and a drawer on your desk you kept your personal documents in... as much of a pain in your ass this whole situation was, you... sort of wanted to test out your key... just to test if it was real or not, lootbox or no...

In the end, you ended up deciding to test the key's effect on...
>A kitchen knife.
>A notepad.
>A t-shirt.
>Some Tylenol.
>A bandage.
>Write-in...

>>5125218
>>A kitchen knife.

Interesting start so far!!

>>5125218
>>A t-shirt.

>>5125218
>A notepad
Nice start. The premise looks fun.

>>5125218
>>A t-shirt.

>>5125218
>Write-in...
laptop

If not acceptable than notepad

>>5125303
A laptop will be acceptable, but Andy's laptop is old and barely functional.

>>5125218
>>A notepad.

>>5125218
>>A t-shirt.
>A t-shirt.

lets hope for some kinda armor, other chosen are probably gonna be coming after us after all.

>>5125218
>A t-shirt.

>>5125218
>>A notepad.

>A t-shirt
Roll me 1d1000
Best of 3, I think I'll go with.

Rolled 731 (1d1000)

>>5125757

Rolled 927 (1d1000)

>>5125757

Rolled 64 (1d1000)

>>5125757

>>5125218
Interesting quest so far.
Shame I was too late for the vote.
We need to get our hands on a gun ASAP.
Assuming we don't have one.

"Ah screw it, I should at least test if this actually works, or if I'm really losing my mind." It would really suck if you had started to hallucinate about stuff like this... you'd never suffered from hallucinations before though, and... while you had taken some drugs in the past, you were clean now, and you never took any hallucinogens in the first place.

With a conviction to actually test your new ability, you grabbed a T-shirt from one of your drawers and unfolded it. It was a cheap unbranded T-shirt that you picked up at some thrift shop not too long ago, it wasn't particularly high quality, but it didn't have any inherent flaws either... it was something you wouldn't miss if you lost it, so it was pretty much a perfect candidate for testing if this ability was bullshit or not.

Opening up the lockable drawer and taking out the documents that you had been storing inside of it, you folded the T-shirt just enough so that it wouldn't get crumpled up by being forced into the relatively shallow drawer, before you fumbled with your keys for a moment as you looked for the one that actually locked the drawer... you probably should've kept it locked anyway, but who the hell was going to break into your apartment for the sake of stealing your bills anyway? You were a nobody... though if this Key actually ended up working, that... wouldn't remain the case for long.

You eventually found the key that you were looking for after testing a few of the miscellaneous keys you owned on the lock, and with a small amount of effort, you could feel the tumblers of the lock snap into place, and you pulled the key out of the draw with a greater amount of effort after it got stuck in the lock. "Piece of shit." That's just what you got for buying second-hand budget furniture, you supposed.

With the drawer now locked, you took the Golden Key and slid it into the lock on the drawer, and it actually unlocked the drawer with a greater ease than the actual key to the drawer, changing its shape just as it neared the lock. Hell, it was even easier to pull out of the lock than the proper key, so... there really did seem to be something at play here... but magic? It was impossible to believe that after so long believing that the supernatural was just something that schizos yelled at while they were being abused by their own tulpas, magic really did exist... and it didn't even seem to be discreet at all! How the fuck had they kept this a secret for so long? Or... could it be that this new development was going to take the entire world by surprise? Nah, it wouldn't surprise you at all if there was some secret government agency dedicated to this sort of stuff... god damn it, does this mean you were going to start actually being hunted by the glow-in-the-darkies?

Trying to put that particular fear aside, you opened up the drawer after slipping the key into one of your pockets. The moment you started to open it, golden light shone out from the drawer and a celebratory fanfare played while confetti dropped down on you from seemingly nowhere for a few seconds, before the light finally subsided, and you could see the shirt lying within.

[Cotton T-shirt]
[Quality: Legendary] (****)
[Comfy and easy to wear, a T-shirt is a common item of clothing in the year 2033.]
[Added Effect:] [Bullet-proof: This T-shirt is completely resistant to any bullets fired from pistols and rifles up to .50 Caliber rounds.]
[Added Effect: [Self Cleaning: This T-shirt will slowly rid itself of any foreign elements staining it. Never needs to be washed.]
[Item's Stat Modifiers] [Pierce Resistance: +1000%] [Stab Resistance +1000%] [Fire Resistance +1000%] [Acid Resistance +1000%] [Comfort +300%] [Insulation +400%] [Durability +1000%]

"Holy shit..." You could only utter a few words of disbelief as you looked at the t-shirt, all the modifiers that had been applied to it, and... Legendary quality? Weren't items with a quality like that normally some of the best that you could get? At least if you followed video-game logic, anyway... which your Key seemed to somehow be functioning off. Even so, a T-shirt that could shrug off .50 Cal rounds was almost nonsensical... sure, material sciences in the past decade had advanced a pretty great deal, but even soldiers in armored exoskeleton suits weren't going to shrug off being hit by a round like that!

While holding up the T-shirt in awe at the increased effectiveness it now had at defending you, you found yourself wishing that you didn't live in this state... while new gun laws in almost every state now made it difficult for anybody to get their hands on a firearm, in New York, it wasn't just difficult, but almost impossible, and you'd be arrested just for possession of one unless you had a permit that cost way too much. Pretty fucked up how the once unalienable rights of the people of the country had been stomped all over, but it turns out that when stacked up against a fuckload of money, the document written three hundred years ago lost out. If this Key was able to turn something like a T-shirt into a piece of personal armor that was far superior to anything that was in use today, there was no telling just what it might be able to do to something like a handgun.

You quickly got dressed out of your nightclothes and into your casual clothes... including the T-shirt, which was far warmer and comfier than you were used to. You technically had to go to work today, but fuck that! Why would you go to work now? Not only was this Key your ticket to a better life than you already had, but... other assholes who got given powers were going to be coming for you, and you didn't want to risk everything by doing something like sticking to your schedule... for all you knew, there was a way for the authorities to detect people like you... Keepers, was what the Goddess called you... you supposed that made the Key your Keepsake, if you wanted to keep in theme with the name the Goddess referred to you by.

You looked at the clock, you woke up about half an hour earlier than normal today, so you had time before you were supposed to go to work... you could use this to experiment with your ability some more, but the only other lockable container in your apartment you could think of was the medicine cabinet, and... that wasn't very big. Your vision slowly moved to your computer, you could try researching what was going on, maybe ask if anybody else experienced something similar last night? It was unreliable, but there was a chance that you'd encounter somebody who shared the dream from last night with you on /x/. Then your vision finally settled on your door. Maybe you should just make a break for it? If the authorities have a way to track Keepers, then you'd quickly be uncovered by them if you just stayed in your house.

>Use the Key on another object. (Has to fit in a small medicine cabinet)
>Browse /x/ looking for answers.
>Make a break for it. Take what you can carry and get moving.
>Write-in

>>5126037
>Use the Key on another object. (Has to fit in a small medicine cabinet)
Do we own any camo clothing, preferrably a hoodie?
Otherwise...
Shoes.

>>5126050
Andy owns a pair of camo pattern cargo pants, but they are too big to fit in the medicine cabinet.

>>5126037
>Use the Key on another object. (Has to fit in a small medicine cabinet)
notepad

>>5126037
Would a pair of shoes count as one object or two? If we're going by game logic, it's one, but that's not a given that it will work exactly like in games. But I think shoes are a good option, given that Andy might have to do some running soon. Shoes are the equipment most likely to give speed or evasion bonuses.

>>5126064
Shoes count as a single object, as do gloves and other articles of clothing where there are technically more than one individual piece of clothing.
For other things though, it'll be a case by case basis.
For example, if you used the key on say, a bag of potato chips, you wouldn't just get one Legendary quality potato chip out of the entire pack.

>>5126037
>>5126064 +1
Next we should look online for either p.o boxes locked mailboxes nearby where we live and\or cheap containers with keyholes of varying sizes

>>5126067
Makes sense. Alright, then:

>>5126037
>Use the Key on another object. (Has to fit in a small medicine cabinet)
>Running shoes

>>5126037
>>Use the Key on another object. (Shoes)

>>5126037
>Use the Key on another object. (Shoes)
I like the concept so far QM.

>>5126037
>>Browse /x/ looking for answers.
HEY GUYS I HAVE A KEY THAT DOES SUPER COOL SHIT! CHECK IT OUT! I GOT FROM A WOMAN IN A DREAM! IS SHE A GODDESS OR A DEMON???????

>>5126037
Given the amount we will end up with maybe a google doc inventory is a good idea.

Also here is a lit of items I think we should upgrade
Painkillers
Bandages
A bunch of cheap jewelry
A toy weapon, preferably some side arm from power rangers or a knock off since those often have a ranged and melee function

>>5126106
It's also worth looking into whether the key can stack enchantments. If we unlocked our shirt again, would it become an even better shirt?

>>5126106
I might create a pastebin or something for the next update.
Speaking of which, there seems to be a consensus for shoes.

so I would like another 1d1000 bo3

>>5126108
If you want to find that out, you'll have to test it.

Rolled 417 (1d1000)

>>5126122

Rolled 316 (1d1000)

>>5126122
Nat 1000 come on

Rolled 635 (1d1000)

>>5126122

Things to research:
Do we still have banks ? More importantly, do they still have deposit boxes ? Because that's a low profile way of getting one random enchanted item + whatever is in them. Could be trinkets like necklaces and rings, and who knows what kind of enchantment we can get on these.
Also, that shirt is great, but we need to do that for some other clothing.We need a set of "god clothes" that cover every part of us in overpowered gear. A hood that covers our entire head, goggles for the eyes. A scarf. Long socks. Cargo pants (potential extradimensional pockets). Something for our arms and a pair of gloves.
If we get that, most things can't hurt us. And at that point, not having guns is secondary.
We can just keep moving and rerolling with whatever junk clothing we can find until we get good stuff.
Just gotta stay alive until then.

>>5126157
Does our apartment door have a lock and count as a container? If so locked rooms are gonna be no issue for us

>>5126157
>low profile.
If you think going into a bank and leaving after unlocking other people's shit isn't going to get our ass FBI'd, you're out of your mind.
Our key unlocks unlocks, right?

>>5126172
>unlocks unlocks
Meant to be only unlocks.

We should try the key on a pair of glasses at some point.

A gym locker room maybe. Does it count if we bring our own padlock(s)? Only one way to find out.

What if we locked a person inside a container and used the key on them?

>>5126218
Holy shit, imagine getting a 950s roll. Come out looking like gigachad. Lel.

I definitely like knife and flashlight but was wondering if using it on a credit card or ID might put us on the map so to speak. A backpack, fanny pack, or empty wallet might get interesting results.

I was thinking about worthwhile expendable items, if true to trope, would be more beneficial but temporary. Smoke bombs, energy drinks, fitness protein drinks, vitamins, bandage like QM suggested.

>>5126230
>Smoke Bomb
>Roll 1000
>Engulf North America in cloud of smoke
The perfect getaway.

I'm also curious about mediocre and poor rolls.

Put a Monster drink in. Roll 500. Get a Bang drink?

>Team up with other well meaning Keepers
>Enclose entire world in a Dyson Sphere
>Unlock world
>???
>Profit

>>5126169
In general, for the purposes of your ability a sealed container is something that only has a single lockable opening, so a room with only a single lockable entrance and no openable windows would count, but your apartment sadly does not, also if you attempt to use the key on multiple items at once that can't be considered a single item, a single item will be randomly selected from the items in question.

>>5126157
>Do we still have Banks.
Yes, while every citizen's personal accounts are taken care of by a centralized server, banks exist to provide services for companies as well as loans and morgates for citizens.

So are we going to get something like the Talaria with our shoes, or are our rolls not good enough?

Somewhat excited by the potential of your ability, you decided to spend the second use of the key you had a day to experiment on something else... namely, the trainers that you were wearing right now. You'd already managed to turn a simple T-shirt into a piece of armor that would shrug off most anything short of a rocket launcher, so surely a pair of trainers would be able to make you fast enough that you could evade capture from anybody who might already be coming for you. You looked at your computer for some time as you considered the idea of maybe going online to research, but... the odds of giving yourself away like that were fairly high. The site theoretically shouldn't even exist legally, and a part of you believed that it was only allowed to exist to act as a sort of honeypot for people who used it to post information that was of interest to the Megacorps and their puppet government. People had learned to stop being whistle-blowers pretty quickly when whistle-blowers picked up a tendency to commit suicide a few days after leaking information.

Deciding against using your computer, at least for now, you took off your shoes and quickly moved towards your medicine cabinet, jamming the cheap trainers inside the small glass box before you shut the door and used the key that was actually just left in the lock of the cabinet to close it, then you once again grabbed the Golden Key from the pocket you had transferred it to when you changed into your actual clothing. This time, as you inserted the key into the lock and opened the cabinet once again, there was confetti, but... no victory fanfare, and the golden light you received when you opened your drawer with the T-shirt within it was replaced by a less triumphant looking silver... you knew just from this that you had managed to roll a lower quality on the trainers than you had on the T-shirt, but... you still had hope that they'd be good enough that this didn't turn out to be a waste.

[Trainers]
[Quality: Rare] [**]
[A pair of cheap trainers, decent for running in.]
[Item Stat Modifiers] [Friction +60%] [Durability +300%] [Comfort +75%] [Acceleration +70%] [Max Speed +50%] [Fall Damage -60%] [Jump Height +60%]

Despite only being rare, and by the rating system, two stars, the trainers were still plenty useful, the fact that they increased both your ability to run faster in addition to how fast you could run meant that you weren't going to be caught by anybody on foot any time soon, hell, last you checked, you could run the 100m sprint in about 17 seconds... with these, you'd be able to finish the race in under ten seconds! Hell, with the increase to your max speed as well as acceleration, you might just be able to get the world record if you competed with these on! But you weren't a runner, and you'd certainly be investigated for your performance, and you'd then almost certainly have your status as a Keeper revealed to whoever it may concern... and then you'd be totally fucked.

You slipped your upgraded pair of trainers back on, and took a look at the Golden Key, whereas before it had a sort of glow to it, now, it was dull and looked almost unpolished... that must mean that it's out of power, it did say that it was only capable of being used twice a day on the item's description... but now that it looked completely mundane, you could safely put it on your key ring, and nobody would bat an eye at it... probably. You were really hoping that Keepers couldn't just sense other Keepsake holders when they were in proximity of them, but there was simply no way of knowing... but if you did end up being confronted by another Keeper, you could just say that your shoes were your power, and with any luck, they'd believe you. Somehow you doubted it would be a good idea to let other people know that you had the ability to create powerful items from mundane ones.

You started to jog lightly around the room and almost fell flat on your face as a result, your body was not yet adjusted to the increased acceleration and speed that you were capable of moving while wearing the trainers. You were lucky you weren't trying to actually go fast, otherwise you definitely wouldn't have been able to have avoided tripping up.

With the key out of power for the day, you still needed to actually decide on what you were going to do next, with the upgraded shoes, you felt confident that you could make an escape if you felt like you were being chased, not only would you almost certainly be faster than your pursuers, but your increased ability to jump and take less damage from falling would allow you to actually attempt to use parkour to escape... though it would probably look fairly embarrassing considering you'd never actually attempted parkour in your life.

>Get going, the sooner you hit the street, the better. You couldn't keep living here, that was for sure.
>Research on the internet for any information you could find out about what was currently going on, try to organize a meet-up if it's at all possible.
>Write-in.

>>5126357
>Get going, the sooner you hit the street, the better. You couldn't keep living here, that was for sure.
Trying to organize a meetup would result in us either getting GLOW IN THE DARK'd or btfo'd by a half-decent keeper. It'd be wiser just to be on the run for now until our power is recharged

>>5126357
>Get going, the sooner you hit the street, the better. You couldn't keep living here, that was for sure.

>>5126357
>>Get going, the sooner you hit the street, the better. You couldn't keep living here, that was for sure.

No meetups. Best wait for other Keepers to fuck up and make themselves known, while we up our power level.

>>5126357
>Research on the internet for any information you could find out about what was currently going on, try to organize a meet-up if it's at all possible.
We could try teaming up with Melody irl.

>>5126357
rolling a 1d1000

I organize a meetup and become the cum keeper above all, a godly buttslut who uses their unlocking power to transform sex toys and genitals alike into the mind blowing everlasting nonstop sex objects they were always meant to be to blast cum in my ass and right back out of it at 10000 psi like a far range cnc machine.

Checkmate, glowies.

Here's a bin that will contain Andy's current up to date inventory.
http://controlc.com/f73d0745

>>5126357
>Write-in: Pack Your Bug Out Bag. Get documents, toiletries, booboo kit, a couple, flashlights, lighters, notebook, a couple knives, pens, food, drinks, can opener, spare socks and drawers and a few other things together and throw on a hoodie and your camo cargo pants and... what else did I need???

>>5126357
Supporting >>5126444

>>5126376
I wonder if all Keepsakes have a similar progressive power? Is the Key unusual in that it can grow in strength like this, or do others have some way to improve over time?

>>5126357
>Check the paranormal boards to see if any Keepers were stupid enough to post there. Don't post there yourself, and don't taint your search history.

While you wanted to check your PC and research what might actually be going on in the world as a result of the world changing so much thanks to so many people getting what were effectively superpowers, the fact that things seemed so... quiet right now meant that not much was actually happening in New York City right now, and the people who had been chosen to become Keepers were likely still figuring out their new abilities... just like you had done. You wondered just what other people's abilities would be like... you had no information on anything right now, and that really worried you quite a lot. The world was going to change massively over the next few days, and all you had to protect you against the massive upheavals that were surely to come was a nice pair of trainers and a really good T-shirt... you needed at least a few days to get properly set up... you needed to get a full ensemble of enchanted clothing together... just to protect you. You'd feel a lot better about not having any real weapons of your own if you had something that made you effectively immune to most conventional forms of attack.

You grabbed your backpack from a hook, and started to quickly shove your belongings inside it, your personal documents, some basic toiletries, and all sorts of other things you might find useful, you also ended up putting on another layer of clothing over what you were already wearing, it was Spring right now, so the weather wasn't that bad, but... considering what had happened, you may well end up sleeping rough, so you took a blanket too. You didn't know what the future held for you now, but you knew that your days of being a wagie had come to an abrupt end, whatever ended up happening with your life now... it wasn't going to be decided by anybody other than you. Or that was the idea, at least. With the essentials packed away, you opened the door to the outside world... and while you were expecting to be embraced by some sort of rush of freedom, it... didn't really feel all too different to how it normally would to leave your home... even the knowledge that you were leaving your crappy apartment for the last time didn't do much to change that feeling.

But as you were about to leave your apartment, you... had a final thought, and your attention drifted towards your PC once again. You had almost just left it there, willing to relinquish all the information anybody could ever want to the first agency to get their hands on it, but... you didn't have to let that happen. Opening the computer to access the parts inside, you swiftly disconnected the hard drive from everything and shoved it in your backpack along with everything else. It didn't really contain that much info about you, but you really didn't want them being able to build up some sort of psyche profile about you based on the information stored on you computer... they could easily link all of your accounts together and quickly build up a comprehensive document of pretty much everything you hadn't anonymously posted on the internet with the information kept on your computer.

Now, with everything sorted out, and the odds of the glowies being able to find you significantly decreased, you set off, leaving your house and taking the stairs down to the bottom floor... you'd take the elevator normally, but not today. You knew for a fact that the damn things could be stopped on a button press, and you didn't know just what sort of enemies you were actually up against just yet. Not just other hostile Keepers, but the world as a whole... you didn't know if Keepers existed before last night, but that was only more of a reason to be concerned, it meant that if there was some sort of agency charged with taking care of people like you, they were efficient enough at their jobs to have made it so that not a single Keeper's existence ever became known to the public... and though you may have just been paranoid... you felt like the situation called for it right now. You didn't want to end up like an overly inquisitive journalist prying into the affairs of the elite!

You managed to get used to the increased speed of your trainers by the time you had reached the bottom floor of the apartment tower complex, all the way down from floor fifty... it was quite a walk, but... you weren't so out of shape to be all that winded by the descent... though it was a pretty huge reminder as to why you always took the elevator back when you were secure in the knowledge that you weren't being hunted by either bloodthirsty power-hungry psychopaths who wanted to steal your power or Keepers.

You walked out of the apartment building with no fanfare, and quickly moved onto the street, pulling your hood up over your head to try to obscure your identity a little bit... it wasn't like it was that uncommon to be wearing a hood, it might not have been freezing, but it was still a fairly cold day for April. You moved with the crowd, and the true monumental scope of what was going on finally started to dawn on you. This was it... the world was going to finally change, you'd be at the forefront of tearing apart the dystopia the world had become!

As you started having thoughts of the world being turned on its head, a distant but loud explosion sounded out and you struggled to stay upright as hundreds of people began to panic and scream as they fled in terror, not even knowing what the explosion was, but fearing for their life. "So... it's starting already." It didn't exactly take long for things to start happening, and you knew that the chances that the one responsible for the explosion was a Keeper were remarkably high... but the question was... should you seek whoever was behind it out? It was obviously an invitation for others to come and find them, but if it was a challenge to fight, you'd be screwed. You had no way of dealing with somebody who actually had a power which allowed them to act offensively, not right now, at least.

>Go towards the area you heard the explosion come from.
>Flee, the sooner you can escape from the city, the better, this was evidence of that.
>Write-in.

>>5126828
>>Go towards the area you heard the explosion come from.

I doubt explody can sense Keepers nearby. At the least we can check it out to gauge other Keepers' power levels going forwards.

>>5126828
>Merge into the crowd running away in terror as to not make your speed powers apparent. You can always gleam the breaking news through a TV shop window when you're a safe distance away.

>Flee, the sooner you can escape from the city, the better, this was evidence of that.

>>5126828
Supporting >>5126874
No need to give ourselves away. People are going to be moving away from the explosion, it's a perfectly normal reaction. Just act natural.

>>5126828
>Flee, the sooner you can escape from the city, the better, this was evidence of that.

>>5126874
Support.
We've used our powers for today, and we don't have a weapon.
Sooner we use our ability on a knife, the better.
Actually what if it's too sharp?
We'll need to use our power on a sheath for it too, right?

We should find a set of Motorcycle Leathers.

>>5127600
Could we spare the money for it?

You made a snap decision, you needed to get away, but you couldn't afford to be caught out for your enhanced speed... right now, your best bet of getting away undetected was to blend in with the crowd of fleeing people... the sooner you managed to get out of the city and into the countryside, the better off you'd be. Though most people had been forcibly relocated to the major cities, there were still a few people who refused to submit to the new life that was being chosen for them by their authoritarian overlords... though even the few people remaining to a degree outside of the system would soon find themselves caught up in it. The corps were simply too powerful and too all-encompassing to allow anything else.

Doing your best to blend in with the rest of the crowd, you allowed yourself to follow the direction of the surging mass of people as they hurriedly attempted to flee from the explosion... if it was a Keeper who was behind the explosion, then they could be dealt with by the cops or another Keeper for all you cared, you couldn't afford to try to team up with somebody else right now, your ability, while powerful, wasn't capable of making you a threat to people who could cause explosions that were able to rock the entire city on what must've been a whim. Besides, even if they caused the explosion to try to get the attention of other Keepers for the sake of teaming up, you didn't really consider somebody dumb enough to draw global attention to themselves for something so relatively minor to be a good potential ally.

As you traveled away from the explosion with the crowd, you noticed that there was a pretty significant police presence on the streets today... even more so than normal, and these weren't just officers responding to the current crisis, it only happened a few minutes ago... no, this increased police presence must've been planned! That could only mean that... somebody must've known something big was going to happen today.

"Everyone, remain calm and orderly! We have reason to believe that there are terrorist agents among the crowd, so we are going to need to check and verify everyone at a security checkpoint before you are allowed to leave the area! Please do not panic, you are completely safe!" A woman's voice echoed through the streets, and you could spot the officer a fair distance away, standing on top of one of the patrol cars with a loudspeaker in her hand. "Please have your documentation prepared when approaching a checkpoint, or you will be escorted to a detention center temporarily for your own safety!" Holy shit, they really weren't fucking around here.

Most of the crowd started fumbling around in their pockets for their state-issued ID card, and contrary to what the woman suggested, people clearly started to get more and more panicked. The fear of the attack would almost certainly lead to some sort of riot, if people believed that they were incapable of getting through to safety.

>Break away from the crowd into an alleyway.
>Try to incite a riot so you can escape in the confusion.
>Just stay in the crowd, it'll be fine... right now, nobody knows who you are.
>Write-in...

>>5127904
>Just stay in the crowd, it'll be fine... right now, nobody knows who you are.

>>5127906
>>Just stay in the crowd, it'll be fine... right now, nobody knows who you are.

>>5127906
>Just stay in the crowd, it'll be fine... right now, nobody knows who you are.
I don't like this option. If they knew something was going to happen they might have a means of detecting magic. But I think it's the best of bad options. Starting a riot is insanity, and breaking from the crowd would look even more suspicious to anyone watching. I can't think of any good write-ins, either. Let's just hope we pass by safely, I guess.

>>5127906
>Double-check you have whatever bullshit papers they're asking for, but first try to get a look at the kind of people the suits are suspicious of—make sure you don't fall into that category.

>>5127906
Yeah, >>5127937 is good. Adding supporting that to my vote >>5127933

>>5127906
>>5127937
Support

You rummaged through your backpack for a moment in order to grab your ID card, that should be enough to bypass any sort of security checkpoint... unless they were actually looking for you right now... but you doubted that even the glowies would've had the organizational skills to have organized something like this in less than an hour since everyone seemingly actually got their Keepsakes, this... was more likely just a ploy to try to keep things contained, the best they'd be able to do in the time that they had. Of course, by scanning your ID Card, they'd have a record of where you were going. You were incredibly thankful in this moment that you weren't dumb enough to fall for the government's microchip scheme, a 'more convenient' ID card? Yeah right.

You got into the line of people waiting to be seen by the police at the security checkpoint, and it became painfully obvious at just what a rush job this all was... but at the same time, it was quite terrifying that the Megacorps and the government were capable of mobilizing their forces so quickly, they must've either been aware of that explosion and been responsible for it themselves... or they were simply waiting for something to happen. Either way, you knew that being anywhere near the city would be bad for your continued health... if not for the shady government goons, then for the potentially psychotic superpowered Keepers that now almost certainly existed. Hell, you were a failed shut-in who was forced to get a job yourself, so it's not like the qualifications for being picked were very high... or even existed at all.

You felt your heart rate begin to rise as you got closer to the security checkpoint, and you could feel that you'd started to sweat a little out of nervousness. The police were doing an excellent job at maintaining order in the crowds, their fear of authority was apparently winning out over their fear of the unknown explosion right now... though the fact that a lot of the police were armed with assault rifles was probably scaring the already terrified crowd into submission.

Finally, you were at the front of the group, and you were standing face to face with a female police officer... she had blonde hair that was tied back and looked bored out of her mind as she stared at you. "Name?" She asked, and you sputtered a little before responding, your fear at the current situation nearly causing you to freeze up totally.

"It's... Andrew Onofrey..." You managed to choke out, terrified that the police officer was somehow an agent of... well you didn't know the name of whatever organization might've been after you just yet, but you were certain that they existed, they must exist... you refused to believe that they didn't.

"ID or Chip?" The bored woman asked, clearly she was already fed up with her current task, didn't she know that there had been an explosion not too far from here? How the hell was she so calm at a time like this?

"Uh... ID." You showed the woman your ID, and she swiftly took it out of your hands and swiped it on a device, which lit up green to show that it was a genuine ID and not some cheap knock-off. "Can I uh... go through now?" The woman looked at the screen of a nearby laptop for a moment and seemed to actually press the delete key for some reason.

"Mmm... actually, I have one more question for you, Andrew." The police officer smiled at you for a moment, and you really didn't like where this was going... this was supposed to just be a normal security checkpoint, right?

"Uh... what's that?" You really hoped that it was just a reminder to get your microchip or something, and not anything more serious.

"What power did the Goddess give you?" In that moment, the woman shifted in such a way that you were able to see a golden pendant tied around her neck, in the center of the pendant was a intricately designed eye of silver and platinum with a ruby center that was trained on you. FUCK.

>"What are you talking about, Mrs. Officer?"
>"Why, did she give you something too?"
>Attack her before running.
>Run! Run now!
>Write-in...

>>5128349
>Attack her before running.

Her power appears to be tracking other Keepers. We can attack her, possibly kill her, and then run.

>>5128349
Man, what sort of population distribution did the Goddess do? Only five thousand Keepers total, and three of them (including us) were within walking distance of each other. Maybe she only targeted this city?

So, I'm not sure what to do. I really wasn't expecting there to be a magic-detecting Keeper so close to us. The only idea that really comes to mind is "shout that she has a bomb, then run during the panic". I think it would work, there was just an explosion and she's probably been acting suspicious today. But I'm worried about what would be on our conscience if shots were fired and they hit someone in the crowd.

>>5128349
>Run! Run now!
Hand to hand vs. a cop seems a poor idea.

>>5128437
I notice the shoes have a Friction Stat. I'm betting we can do some wall run/Prince of Persia shit to get the high ground and hopefully aid our escape.

>>5128349
>Run! Run now!

I like my bomb accusation plan for the sheer "fuck your expectations" of it, but I'm not comfortable with the potential for people to get hurt. Guess I'll just go for running.

>>5128349
This might be stretching it a bit but stick with me.
>Take a second to compose yourself.
>Calmly and menacingly say
"It's right behind you."
>The moment her eyes are off of you, kick her in the chest (our shoe powers may be more useful than we thought, and if not, it will at least disorient her for a moment).
>Beeline THRU the checkpoint AWAY from the crowd as fast as you can, and try to pull up your hoodie to reduce the amount of people who can see your face.

We can't let her live, she's a police officer and she's seen our face. If this goes well she'll be dead on the pavement and we'll be hightailing the fuck out of City 17.
It's not foolproof, but it can potentially eliminate a lot of trouble for us later on.

>>5128653
also keep in mind we can limit scary cop gun damage with our magic T-Shirt, and that would be a lot harder to do standing still in the middle of the fuzz.

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>>5128510
making the mother of all omelets here anon

can't fret over every egg

>>5128349
>Run! Run now!

>>5128437
Tecnically, if we assume that the prediction that in 2033, Earth's population will be around 8.7 billion is correct, and the prediction that in 2033, New York City will have a population of 22 million or so, and the odds of being a keeper are 1 in 1.8 million, then there should be at least over ten Keepers in the urban area of New York City alone, at least statistically.
That's just going off of real life statistics though, in this story, the population of New York is actually closer to 30-35 million.

>>5128349
>Run! Run away!
>>5128653
I don't think attacking is a good idea, we're surrounded by cops.
There's nothing to say she's even hostile, she's being way too open here.
>>5128939
So what, there's like 20 fucking Keepers in close proximity?
Fucking population density!

>>5128349
>Run! Run now!
We've can't do shit besides run, picking the shoes was a wise call, we might *just* be able to get away assuming she isn't a speedster of some sort.

>>5128349
>>Write-in...
"Magic Shoes"
>>"Why, did she give you something too?"

>>5128349
>Run! Run now!
If you guys wanted to attack the first enemy we saw, we should've lootboxed a knife instead of shoes.

>>5128959
Being a keeper is the only motivation she needs, and at her yelp all those guns could be honed right on us. Better to have them shooting at us while we're running at superhuman speed.

Immediately after the woman asked you that question, you grabbed your ID card from the table next to the laptop, and started to sprint as fast as you could, you weren't going to risk anything here, and this woman... it didn't matter if she was another Keeper or a member of some secretive government agency. You just needed to get the hell away from her.

"H-hey wait a second! Stop!" The woman called out for you to stop, but you were already well away from her by that point, your increased speed thanks to your trainers was great enough that the cops who tried to actually catch up with you were quickly outpaced, and after about five minutes of running faster than should've been possible, you ducked into an alleyway, breathing heavily. There was CCTV all over the city, so you knew that you wouldn't be able to hide for long, you had no choice but to escape the bounds of the city now, it wasn't really all that much of a surprise that you wouldn't be able to rely on the cops to help you, but it was still kind of disappointing.

You had a moment to think now, the cops couldn't be trusted, they were either full of Keepers or glowies, but... if it really was a trap set up to catch you... wouldn't it have actually caught you? The woman seemed to be more interested in stopping you from running away than she was actually catching you, because if she was interested in that, she could've just called out to the other officers to open fire on you. Your shirt might've protected you from being hit on the torso, but your unprotected head, legs and arms would have been entirely at risk of their guns. It was either that the woman was actually an opportunistic Keeper, or the glowies were way less competent than you thought they'd be.

Maybe the police had simply been set to high alert as a result of the dream you apparently shared with almost 5000 other people last night? All it would take was for a higher ranked member of the police to have awoken as a Keeper, and they would've known to have taken precautions for the sake of the city... it was unlikely to be that woman though, she didn't actually look particularly important. But at the same time, you were having difficulty believing that all of this had come about through coincidence alone.

In the far distance, you could hear what sounded like a tremendously loud roar of some sort of animal followed by multiple explosions... whatever the hell was going on back there, you were glad you got the fuck away from it. Your power wasn't a particularly good one in a direct fight, not without at least a week or two of time to build yourself up. If you had a gun with the same quality of your shirt... you could only imagine how much damage it could cause, and what sort of modifiers it would have on it. Would you be able to punch through sheets of solid steel with a simple pistol if it got a decent enough quality?

You leaned against one of the alleyway's walls as you caught your breath, all that running had taken a lot out of you, and you were glad you had the foresight to improve your shoes before leaving your house, otherwise you would've never been able to escape that woman. You wondered for a moment why they didn't shoot at you, but if they did something like that, it would've almost certainly incited a riot... you got lucky.

"That was pretty impressive, how you escaped, I mean." A boy's voice called out to you, and you looked to the entrance of the alleyway. A child? What the hell was a kid doing here? He looked to be about... 12 years old? "I was actually watching, interesting ability... but is running all you can do?" The boy walked closer to you, and you tensed up. Despite the fact that it was only a child, you were worried, this kid was almost certainly a Keeper or related to a Keeper somehow.

"Stop fishing for info, kid. I'm not gonna reveal what I'm capable of doing to some random- Gah!" The boy immediately appeared in front of you, as if by magic, and you leapt backwards in surprise at the sudden appearance. What the fuck?! He could teleport?! You got a better look at the kid, and... he was dressed really quite well, especially for the streets of New York City. A black silk waistcoat over a white dress shirt and suit pants. His piercing blue eyes looked into your own, and you took a few steps back.

"Did I scare you, Andrew?" The kid started to laugh. "That's my Keeper power! I can teleport!" He disappeared, and you heard his voice behind you. "Isn't." Then he was a distance away. "That" Then he was in front of your face again. "Neat?" The kid was obviously showing off, and you were kind of annoyed that somebody else got an ability as powerful as teleportation.

"Do you have any idea how much danger you're in, kid?" You were frustrated with the kid's antics, you had just fled for your life from the police, and here you had a kid just... playing around... it was actually irritating that he was able to completely ignore the danger of the current situation.

"Danger? If I got in danger, I could just teleport away!" The kid's logic was sound... and it pissed you off! "I'm Nathaniel by the way. Nathaniel Smythe." The kid gave you his name, before teleporting away from you again. "So... what's your power?" Why the hell did everyone keep asking you that? Annoyingly enough, you wouldn't even be able to run from this kid, he'd probably just teleport after you no matter where you went.

>"I don't see why I have to tell you."
>"I think I just have increased mobility and durability."
>"I can enchant items."
>...knock the kid out.
>Write-in...

>>5129929
>>"I don't see why I have to tell you."
>Ask him why he got a power. You thought Keepers were made to change the world.

>>5129941
+1

>>5129929
>Write-in...
>"Nothing worth killing me over, but I'm sure some asshole would do it anyway."
>"Look, I agree that your power is good for getting out of trouble, but you should still be careful. What if there's someone whose power can counter yours?"

>>5129929
>Write-in: I can run fast at least. How do other Keepers keep finding me?

>>5129929
>I think I just have increased mobility and durability."

>>5129955
+support

>>5129941
+1
I don't like the vibes this kid is giving off.

>>5129929
>>5129941
Support

"I don't see why I have to tell you anything, kid. It was your decision to tell me that you can teleport, and I didn't agree to tell you what my ability was just because you revealed what you could do." You denied the kid's request to know more about your power, you needed to keep your capabilities secret from as many people as you could until you could actually use your ability to increase your strength enough that you wouldn't actually have to run away from absolutely everyone in the future... maybe you should've invested in a weapon sooner, at least that way you'd have a plan B in case running failed. Of course, you didn't regret your decision to improve your T-shirt and your shoes, if not for your shoes being improved, there would've been no way you managed to escape from the police earlier.

"Aw, that's no fun at all." Nathaniel was disappointed at your choice to keep your ability secret. "But, I guess it's fine. If you want your power to remain a secret, I mean... it's like, you're that cool mysterious character from Dragonraid Squadrons!" The kid brought up a name of a franchise that... in truth wasn't all that familiar to you, you might've heard of it in passing, but you weren't familiar with the cartoon... you were assuming it was a cartoon, at least. It could've also been a game, but you felt like you would've recognized the name if it was. "Have you watched Dragonraid Squadrons?" The kid had now leaped into talking about something utterly irrelevant, and you shook you head.

"No, I haven't, and I don't think it matters now anyway, Nathaniel." You addressed the kid by his actual name. "I'm actually more wondering something here." The boy tilted his head at you in confusion as you glared at him. "During the dream last night, the Goddess said that the five thousand people she had selected had something like a desire to change the world... so why were you picked?" What could a pre-teen kid want to change about the world? Nathaniel hardly struck you as the sort of person who had the conviction and desire to actually want to change the world.

"That's... wow, you won't tell me what your power is, you won't even talk to me about Dragonraid, and you wanna start asking about stuff like that?" Nathaniel locked eyes with you, before doing a gruff imitation of your voice. "I don't have to tell you anything." He was clearly satisfied with his answer, before he teleported again, and you quickly caught sight of him balancing atop a dumpster before he teleported off of it. Obviously, unlike your power, Nathaniel's ability was one that he could spam as much as he wanted, seemingly without any sort of ill effect either. It simply wasn't fair, your power was potentially a strong ability with a few weeks of time to prepare, while Nathaniel here just got to make the concept of distance his bitch. It did tell you just how powerful some Keepsakes could be though, when it came to abilities, teleportation was absolutely no joke. Especially if you were capable of teleporting other people and objects in addition to yourself. It was lucky that Nathaniel was a kid, because there were few things a person could do to survive having a rock the size of their fist teleported inside of their skull.

"Do you not understand how serious the situation is, Nathaniel?" You demanded an answer from the boy. "Do you not know that the people who are going to be pursuing me... going to be pursuing you... they wouldn't even think twice about killing kids! Don't think that just because you're a kid, you're safe!" You yelled, but Nathaniel didn't appear to be scared or cowed by your attempt to lecture him at all at all.

"Oh right, I'm the one who doesn't understand how bad the situation is, because I'm the one who can't teleport who's shouting at the top of his lungs in an alleyway after having run away from the police, right?" Nathaniel actually turned things back around on you, and you glared at the kid, he was deceptively intelligent for his age, though judging from his name and clothing, that could almost certainly be put down to the highest quality of education that you could get... while the general idea of classes were a thing of the past now, it... wasn't ever that simple. There were still the super elites and their direct underlings, the sort of people who received favorable treatment from the system in exchange for helping to keep the system propped up. A vicious cycle, but one that's only become more easy to observe since the New World Order really started to kick things up a notch with all the anti-individualist policies that were enacted almost world-wide. The Illuminati, the Committee of 300, or whoever the hell was on top... the world before today was a result of their near complete victory over all others.

"OK, fine. Maybe you do understand how serious things are... but how are you OK with the idea that people will be trying to kill you?" You tried to get things back on topic as you continued trying to convince the boy of the threat that now lurked around every corner for keepers like you and him.

"That's simple, if they try and kill me, and I can't escape from them... I'll just kill them instead!" It was a terrifyingly innocent answer, and you wondered for a moment if Nathaniel even considered the world to be real right now, or if he considered that he was simply dreaming, or perhaps in a VR machine. "Oh right... you might've not told me your ability, but... would you mind following me?" The boy disappeared and reappeared in front of you once again, and you were actually starting to get tired of his teleporting antics.

"Why?" You weren't going to do anything without actually knowing the reason why you were being asked to do something, it was a great rule of thumb to follow, at least generally.

"You were a little late out of your house today, right?" You nodded, and Nathaniel pointed to a sewer cover. "That right there is one of the entrances to my secret base! I'm... well, I'm not actually working on my own. I've teamed up with some other Keepers who also got their abilities this morning, and we're uh... hiding." Nathaniel shrugged, he was far more aware than you thought he was. "I didn't want to take the risk of accidentally recruiting somebody working for those people." Those people? What did that mean? "My dad, he uh... he actually works for them, so I know about the people you're worried about." Nathaniel was actually very well informed, especially for a child his age. "I was asked to test anybody before recruiting them, but... now that I know the sort of person you are, I think it's safe to go back to the others."

>"But I don't want to meet your friends."
>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"
>"Sorry, but I'm still not interested in making any sort of team or group."
>Write-in...

>>5131873
>"No, fuck off."
No way this isn't a trap.

>>5131873
>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"

>>5131873
>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"

>>5131873
>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"
>Write-in...
>"I mean, I can't teleport, so getting lost in a sewer is a real possibility for me."

>>5131873
>>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"

>>5131873
>>"Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though?"

You looked at the sewer cover for a moment, before you turned back to Nathaniel. "Does it have to be down a sewer pipe though? I can't teleport like you, and... well, I don't know what you think, but sewers... well they don't tend to smell great." Of course, it was a fairly decent place to put your secret base, not many people would think to actually search in the sewers for fugitives, mostly because it was tremendously difficult and impractical to navigate them, and the amount of trips in and out you'd need to make would be ridiculous in order to stock up on supplies... not to mention that it's a sewer, so it literally smells like shit.

"Yeah, I know that they don't smell good, but... we've set ourselves up in an old disused maintenance room that used to take care of the power for a city block, it's not all that big, but... if you didn't know it was there, you'd never be able to find it! We even have power down there, Bill is an electrician, so he's hooked the maintenance room up with power he's siphoning off of the grid!" Quite impressive, but you imagined that there was already a functionality like that built into the room when it was still being used, after all, what purpose would the people who actually maintained the electricity for the city have in giving themselves a way to have their own electricity turned off?

"Bill? How... how is that there are so many Keepers already gathered together?" It didn't really make that much sense, had you just gotten out of your house too late? It felt quite suspicious that so many people were already forming these little cliques somehow, but at the same time, it felt impossible that this was some sort of elaborate trap to lure you by the authorities, seeing as you had already managed to escape them at the security checkpoint, it was obvious that while they were both terribly organized and well equipped, they weren't omniscient, and they were also still quite fallible.

"There's only four of us, including me. Alexis... she's our leader. She's got a power that makes her really lucky, so she used her ability to track down other Keepers, like me and the others." Powers that controlled luck? So something like probability manipulation? That was even more powerful than just being able to teleport around! You kind of felt like you might've even gotten a bad deal with your Golden Key, the power to effectively just enchant items wasn't all that fantastic compared to what you were hearing that other Keepers were capable of... you wondered for a moment if it would be possible to use your ability on another person's Keepsake, but... you felt like it probably wouldn't work, and you honestly had no idea what might happen if you tried to use your ability on another Keepsake like that.

"So... how much do you know about Keepers, Nathaniel? You seem pretty well informed about all this." It was quite irritating that the kid seemed to know more than you did about... well basically everything. The kid must've been some sort of genius before getting his power, or at the very least some sort of prodigy.

"I just know what Alexis told me, really. She bumped into me first, and she convinced me to help her out. She wants to group up with as many people as she can early on for the sake of amassing strength in numbers." Strength in numbers, or an opportunity to take multiple people out at once? You really didn't think that you could trust a kid's judgment when it came to somebody being trustworthy or not. Even if he was intelligent beyond what his appearance would dictate, he was still a kid, and just through a lack of experience, would be naive and easy for somebody to trick. "It's not even that long a journey through the tunnels, it's down a few access tunnels, but there's a side-path for the entire trek, there's no wading through raw sewage, if that's what you're worried about." How the hell was a literal child more acclimated to doing stuff like this than you were, anyway? You were the adult here, yet here Nathaniel was, accidentally making you look like a coward somehow for not wanting to wade through a sewage pipe.

"And... you're sure that you can trust her?" Your mind was all over the place right now, you didn't know who you could trust, but... if Alexis really could manipulate luck or probability, the fact that a piano hadn't fallen on your head by this point meant that she wasn't outright interested in killing you... right? It really depended on the limits of everyone's powers. Were your powers different in that you were limited to being able to enhance two items with the Key a day, or did other Keepers have similar limits to what they could accomplish? While your ability was something that would allow you to effectively amass an unlimited number of immensely powerful items over time, the fact that you were limited right now was dangerous. It didn't appear as if Nathaniel had any sort of limit on his power though, considering how much he was teleporting around earlier... could that mean his limit wasn't how often he could use his power, but the distance at which it was effective? It was useless guessing anyway.

"Huh? Why wouldn't I trust her? She was the only person who was willing to tell me what was going on after a bunch of people wearing suits showed up at my house early in the morning and I ran away!" You wondered if those same men in suits were planning on coming after you at some point, and you were even more glad that you escaped your house when you did... for all you knew, they might've actually been taking the elevator up to you when you fled the building! This was a confirmation that not only were the glowies absolutely undeniably real, but that they had the ability to somehow detect Keepers too! So... that could only mean that Keepers weren't a new phenomenon either! Just how deep did this rabbit hole go? "You don't have to join us, but... I think you'd be better off with somebody to watch your back, Alexis told me that a lot of Keepers are already using their powers for evil." Nathaniel shook his head. "I actually checked the source of that explosion, by the way."

"And...?" You were curious to find what Nathaniel knew about the source of the explosions, and... the roaring.

"A dragon. Somebody summoned a dragon in the middle of New York City." Jesus Christ what the fuck?! You could understand if it were just an ability like the power to spontaneously generate explosions, but... summoning a dragon?! How the flying fuck was that fair? You could make a legendary pair of bootleg Nike trainers, and some other asshole gets to summon King Ghidorah? That's total bullshit! Fucking god damn it! "Now... will you please follow me?"

>"No. I don't need any help."
>"Sure. Let's go."
>"Can't you teleport me?"
>Write-in...

>Write-in: "OK. I'm sold. If you were lying, you'd say something more believable."

>>5133219
>>5133190

+1

>>5133190
>"Sure. Let's go."
Eh, it's not like Nathaniel couldn't kill us if he wanted to anyway. It's easy for a teleporter to shank someone. So might as well trust that his story is honest, even if we don't know if these other people are safe.

>>5133190
>"Sure. Let's go."

>>5133190
>>Write-in: "OK. I'm sold. If you were lying, you'd say something more believable."

>>5133190
>>"No. I don't need any help."

"OK, I'm sold, if you were lying, you would've at least tried to have made your story believable." Honestly, a dragon? It was so unbelievable, that you had absolutely no choice but to believe it. Nathaniel might just be a kid, but he was smart, and you figured even a child would be smarter than claiming that the cause of the noises you could hear from elsewhere in the city were an actual dragon, especially when they were actively trying to convince somebody to do something for them. Therefore, considering everything else that had happened already this morning, you had to believe that in addition to organizations that remained out of public knowledge and effectively magic, dragons existed too. Well... you'd already accepted the existence of magic, so somebody summoning a dragon wasn't too far-fetched. Of course, the dragon wasn't the only far-fetched piece of information that you'd been given, but it was easily the hardest of the revelations to believe, you could easily buy that other people had abilities like the ability to teleport or control luck, but the ability to summon an actual dragon was... well it was a little harder to believe.

"Great! Then just uh... follow me, oh!" The boy reached into one of his pockets and pulled out what looked like two small cardboard boxes. "Take this, it's not much, but it'll stop the smell from seeping into your clothes... I think I've got a limit to how far I can actually teleport, so I've decided to always keep a couple on me for stuff like this." He tossed one of the boxes at you, and open reading the front cover, found that it was a disposable plastic poncho. Pretty smart, especially considering that he'd need to actually guide people through the sewers and couldn't just rapidly teleport his way through them.

"Thanks." You quickly took the plastic poncho out of its packaging and put it on as Nathaniel did the same, and you moved over to the sewer cover and started trying to pull it open, but... it was no good, you couldn't get a grip on the cover, even if it wasn't all that heavy, there was no way for you to get a grip on it. "Uh... how did you open this, anyway?

"Oh, it's uh... easier from the inside to open it, hold on." Nathaniel disappeared for a few seconds, before he returned... holding a crowbar in both hands. It looked brand new, hell, it even still had a price tag on it. "Here, this ought to let you open it up, right?" He handed the crowbar to you, and you quickly grabbed it off the boy.

"Uh... yeah, thanks." You swiftly put the crowbar to work, and started trying to get some leverage on the manhole cover for a moment until you found some purchase and popped the cover right off. It was clearly much easier to open from below, but opening from the street without a crowbar or some other means of prying the metal cover off of the pipe was practically impossible. "You mind if I keep this?" It was stolen anyway, but you still asked the kid for permission, he just shrugged, clearly he didn't care all that much either way, considering he obviously just stole it from some hardware store. It wasn't much, but it could open pretty much anything you needed to open in addition to serving as an especially deadly bludgeoning weapon if you needed it. Unless somebody got some form of super durability as their power, you were fairly certain that being smashed in the skull at high speed by a heavy bar of metal was going to fucking kill them. "So... just down here?" You pointed down the hole to the sewers, and already you found yourself regretting the decision. This was gonna suck.

"Well... it's not the one I would've preferred going down, but... I spent some time earlier memorizing most of the entrances and ways to get to the base..." Nathaniel paused for a second. "Actually, hold on, I've got an idea that'll make this better for both of us." He disappeared once again, and you found yourself starting to get tired of the boy's antics of constantly disappearing and reappearing, he clearly wasn't doing it just to show off anymore at this point, but you couldn't help but feel just a little jealous. After a few minutes of waiting, he returned, though this time he had two gas-masks.

"You're... really kind of a kleptomaniac, huh?" Nathaniel was just stealing absolutely everything that he needed or might need at this point, but you weren't upset or annoyed by the fact the he was stealing things, not at all, it was better than simply attempting to busy something, considering that it didn't leave any sort of paper trail like actually paying would. "Good job though, you're pretty good at this... why did you wait until now to grab them, though?"

"I didn't need them until now, and unlike the poncho, they're... well they're more like a luxury for going through the sewers, and they're too big for me to just carry around at all times, and I'd be pretty damn comspiciuous if I just wore the mask all the time." The boy had a point, however...

"Conspicuous... it's conspicuous, not comspiciuous." You corrected his incorrect pronunciation of the word, a good reminder that despite how bright Nathaniel appeared to be, he was still just a kid. "Anyway..." You strapped on the gas mask before you used a spare piece of fabric to fashion a sling for the crowbar to fit on. The crowbar would be very useful to you in the future, but it was by design a pretty heft chunk of metal, and it wasn't easy to carry without actually physically carrying it around in one of your hands. "Let's go." You approached the open sewer, but gestured for Nathaniel to go first. "I need to close the grate, so they don't get suspicious, alright?" They'd probably eventually figure out where you went anyway, but actually closing the sewer entrance before the police reached your location would at least put a good few hours on how long it took for them to figure out your current location.

Soon enough, Nathaniel had entered into the sewers, and you followed close behind, putting the manhole cover back in place a few moments after following. The sewers... well, you could hardly smell anything thanks to the gas mask that you had been given, so that was really a blessing. "This way." You didn't know if he actually knew the path he was following, or if he was just trying to go by eye... the constant sound of dripping water was starting to get on your nerves too, and Nathaniel didn't seem to be in a talkative mood as he led you through hundreds of meters of sewer tunnels, and he was right about the fact that you never once had to actually step off of a maintenance path into the sludge flowing through the city.

Finally, you ended up coming across a door, the fact that it had maintenance written all over it, as well as a few signs saying OFF-LIMITS and KEEP-OUT told you that this place was absolutely where you needed to go, and... this would be your first meeting with a group of Keepers who had aligned themselves with one another, so this could be your chance to gain some powerful allies, especially if their powers were as ridiculously broken as some of the other stuff you'd seen before. Would it be worth telling the group your abilities? If you wanted them to trust you, you'd have to reveal something, right?

>Remain secretive about your abilities.
>Tell the truth about your abilities.
>Tell some of the truth, but downplay yourself.
>Tell some of the truth, but say you're more powerful than you actually are.
>Write-in...

>>5136062
>Write-in...
Tell them that we're a speedster, There's zero need to actual reveal our power yet and it would be supported by the kid's testimony

>>5136066
Big brain, +1.

>>5136066
Supporting this.
We're a kinda shitty speedster though, so might be an idea to try to get higher quality shoes.

>>5136062
>>Write-in...
Tell them we're personal physical enhancement. We've got some durability and speed.

>>5136062
>Write-in: Tell them you can upgrade mundane items but its pretty random and the shoes seem to be your big success. Don't tell them you use a key to do it... yet.

>>5136062
>>5136188 +1

No doubt they will eventually find we've got more powers than just toughness and speed if we keep upgrading items

>>5136062
>>5136066
Support. No need to tell them anything more.

>>5136188

+1

We should enchant a small runners pack, something with some storage but won't get in the way. See if we can get a bag of holding.

>>5136062
>Tell some of the truth, but downplay yourself.

You made up your mind as to what you'd tell the rest of the Keepers about your own power. You didn't want to reveal the extents of your abilities just yet, especially not to people you didn't know could be trusted. It was all well and good trusting Nathaniel to be telling the truth here, but... he was just a child, and children were typically easy to fool no matter how smart they might be for their age, you needed to remember that. But what could you say your true power is? You could say you could randomly enchant an item without any control over what you enchant once a day, maybe? No, that's too close to what your actual power is to be able to work as a decent lie, and it sort of defeated the point of hiding your power anyway... maybe you could tell them that you had the ability to enhance your body over time? It would certainly explain the fact that you were able to run as fast as you did earlier, and Nathaniel could testify to seeing that as well... yeah, for now, you'll just tell them that you think your power has something to do with being fast, and not elaborate any further than that.

You took a deep breath before pushing the door, and... well it was locked. "What... were you expecting? Did you really expect that we'd have just left the door unlocked?" Nathaniel looked at you like you were stupid, and you frowned. Why they decided that they needed to keep the disused maintenance room locked up, you had no idea. Did they really think a simple door lock would be enough to stop anybody who was pursuing them all the way down into the sewers? It would give them maybe a minute of time at best... though the more you looked at it, the more you felt as if the maintenance room door might've not been as easy to break down as you originally thought. The hinges weren't exposed at all, and the door itself wasn't made out of wood, but rather solid steel.

"What the hell? Why does the door look so... overly fortified?" While you weren't paying attention before, focusing more on the signs plastered onto the door, the actual physical construction of the door was incredibly solid. You doubted you'd be able to break through this particular door even if you had a whole day to beat away at it... this is the sort of door that would need specialized tools in order to break through. Like a blowtorch or some sort of metal cutting tool.

"Alexis said it had something to do with the room needing to be water-tight in the event of the sewer pipes flooding, so the equipment inside didn't get damaged? Something like that." Nathaniel shrugged, he probably wasn't paying too much attention when this Alexis explained the point of the door being so fortified. As far as safe-houses went though, this one was both secure and out of sight... it was probably the best sort of safe-house you could expect within a city... shame about the smell though. Nathaniel knocked on the door in a particular pattern, leaving clearly purposeful intervals between every knock. Ah, a secret knock to let the person behind the door know that the person outside is a friend?

A small slit opened in the door. "Password?" This Alexis... she sounded like she was a step more paranoid than even you were! Not only a secret knock, but a password as well? You were impressed by just how organized these people were... it made you feel a little inferior in comparison, you only just about managed to pack your bags, but here other Keepers were, with secret hideouts and the begginings of what was effectively some sort of gang.

"The password...?" Nathaniel paused. "It's password." He smiled as you heard the door starting to unlock, and you really couldn't believe the audacity of actually making your physical password to open a door something that everyone had been warned not to do on their computers for decades now. But... weirdly, it worked. Ironically, somebody actually guessing that the physical password was so simple was astronomically unlikely. You couldn't decide whether it was genius, or fucking stupid, which was probably the point... maybe?

With the door open, you could finally see the interior of the maintenance room, and... the other three members of Nathaniel's group. The first member you saw was the black haired woman who had come to the door to ask for a password, and who you presumed to be Alexis. Her outfit was horribly impractical for the area she had chosen to hide her safe-house in. A white blouse with a business suit and skirt along with a tie. You admired the dedication to remaining professional, at least. "Good to see you, Nathaniel." She quickly greeted the boy, though by her expression, you could tell that she was clearly a little ashamed at having to send a literal child out to go on missions for her. "And... you brought along a newcomer, I see." She turned her attention to you, before holding out a hand. "I'm Alexis Harper, before all this kicked off, I was the city councilor in charge of keeping the infrastructure running... including the sewers... technically, that's still my job, but I could see the writing on the wall when I became a Keeper." She wasn't some sort of expert secret agent, but she was someone who had a fair amount of power and knowledge of things before getting her ability, so she was using that knowledge to the best of her ability. "You've already met Nathaniel, this here is Zack." She pointed over to a man messing with a TV-set, he had a neon blue mohawk, sunglasses (despite literally being underground), and a tattered looking leather jacket. A... strange get-up, but whatever.

"Sup." The man nodded in your direction, before he went back to fiddling with the TV, he must've been trying to get it working.

"Zack is our electrician and specialist in all things relating to electrical engineering, his ability lets him control and generate electricity, so he might just be the best electrician in the world right now." You looked over at the man, who looked quite ridiculous even by most standards. Was he trying to make a statement with that neon blue mohawk? Because the only statement he was making was 'I'm a dickhead.' You turned to look at the last member of the group, and were surprised to see a pretty brown haired high-school aged girl, about... maybe six or seven years younger than you were? It wasn't nearly as much of a surprise as Nathaniel, but it was still a surprise. "That's Haley, she's... well, she's a little bit shy, but with her power, she's our building specialist. Her ability lets her remove and store as many meter cubes of non-living matter that she wants in some sort of... well, I guess a pocket dimension? Then she can use whatever she's got stored to create... well, relatively basic things right now, I think it's tied to anything she can create with her own knowledge." Wait a second, isn't her ability literally just Minecraft? Alexis frowned. "Nathaniel, did you find a book on firearm creation yet?"

"Sorry, but I saw speedy over here running from the cops, so I decided to help him out instead." Nathaniel shook his head, apologetic in his mannerisms as he explained just why he didn't have what he had likely been sent out to get.

"Speedy?" Alexis repeated, looking in your direction. Well... wasn't this just the perfect opportunity to lie about what you were capable of?

"Yeah, my power seems to have something to do with empowering my body, right now though, all I've figured out how to increase is my speed, and even then, it's not to some incredible degree." You downplayed your ability, saying that you had enhanced speed but not much else, but also leaving yourself a way to explain things if anybody got suspicious about any of your equipment that might end up increasing your other abilities... you just wanted to make sure you could trust these four before telling them just what you could actually do.

Alexis paused for a moment as she seemed to consider your power. "Interesting... it seems fairly rare for a power to actually be able to enhance a person's physical abilities... from what I've seen so far, Keeper Objects don't generally allow the owner to actually increase their own physical abilities, so... you could have a rare ability..." Huh... so the typical Keeper was actually really, really physically weak when it came to their actual bodies? Maybe your ability to create ability enhancing equipment was far better than you were giving it credit for? Shame about the fact that it has a usage limit though... and that you didn't even know if anything you attempted to improve would even turn out good or not.

"So... what's your ability? Nathaniel said that you were lucky or something, right?" You noticed that you had a pretty good explanation as to what everyone else was able to do, but you hadn't yet been given any information on her power.

"Something like that, it's a little bit complicated, but... I can sort of... force something to happen if it's possible for it to happen." Alexis shrugged, unlike everyone else, she was clearly keeping her cards close to her chest as to just what she could manage with her powers, but that was understandable, her ability was probably the only reason that you had gathered together, though from how she described it, it sounded even more ridiculously powerful. The most powerful form of probability manipulation, basically. Of course, it wouldn't allow the impossible to occur, but you'd really be surprised as to just how much wasn't impossible thanks to the power of probability. Not knowing just what her limits were, you'd have to be very careful around Alexis most of all, though at this point, you really doubted that any members of the group were planning a betrayal. That wasn't to say that they might not start having treacherous thoughts in the future, but for now, they were probably trustworthy... probably.

"So uh... I assume that you've got a plan, right?" You hoped that she had a plan, and she wasn't just gathering a bunch of people together for no real reason, though considering who she had already gathered together, it was obvious that she was planning on putting together some sort of organization of her own.

"The plan for right now? Well, mostly it's just to lay low, with Haley's ability, it should be possible to turn this maintenance room and the area underneath it into a large underground fortress. I've done the calculations, every hour, Haley can shift or place around 25 cubes of material, each a meter in each dimension before she gets tired, meaning..." Alexis was obviously about to trail off on some convoluted planning scheme but you held your hand up to stop her. "Ah, sorry. Thought that this was a council meeting." She recomposed herself. "Why do you ask? Do you have a better idea as to how we should be spending this time?"

>"Not really, I'm down to wait for things to cool off in a couple days time."
>"Yeah, actually. We should be bringing the fight to them, the organizations tracking us!"
>"Your ability is powerful enough that you shouldn't have to resort to Nathaniel to recruit other people, why not go yourself?"
>Write-in...

>>5137525
>"Your ability is powerful enough that you shouldn't have to resort to Nathaniel to recruit other people, why not go yourself?"
Bet she's a glowie.
Bet they're all glowies.

>>5137525
>"Not really, I'm down to wait for things to cool off in a couple days time."

>>5137525
>>"Not really, I'm down to wait for things to cool off in a couple days time."
>>Write-in...
"So, got any tips or advice for how to survive as a keeper?"

>>5137663
+1

>>5137525
>>5137663
Support

>>5137525
>"Not really, I'm down to wait for things to cool off in a couple days time."
>Write-in
>"We should prioritize making an escape route, though. I got spotted at a checkpoint by an officer who could tell I was a Keeper. I don't know if the government has some sort of magic-sensors or if that was just her Keeper ability, but either way we should plan for this base to be found."

>>5138074
This. Also adding this write-in to my choice.

How did Big Brother even realize Keepers had come into existence like 5 mins after the fact? Of course there were Keepers in the police but is the Gestapo that fast in this future?

>>5138113
It's possible they knew about it in advance. If there is some secret magic police, then they could have known that this random goddess was about to empower people. Or maybe it's all just bad luck, and all their existing protocols for terrorist attacks just happened to catch us like this.

"Not really, I'm down to wait for things to cool off for a few days." Not only that, but if you waited for a few days, you'd be able to enchant a few more items before having to confront the world outside once again. "But uh... have you got any tips or advice for how to survive as a Keeper?" Alexis seemed to be more comfortable with being a Keeper than you were, and was far more organized to boot. That might've just been a result of her abilities making things pan out in her favor, but she definitely seemed to be more informed about everything that was going on.

"Honestly? I'm not certain of the best strategies for survival as a Keeper, but for survival in general, you'll want to keep a low profile, not go into populated areas, and avoid the authorities at all costs, of course, you shouldn't avoid them to the degree that running would make you appear more suspicious than simply following along... you shouldn't just run from every cop you see and make yourself a target." Well, that's obvious, no need to give them a reason to actually chase you down. Nothing says 'I'm guilty of a crime' like running away from a police officer for seemingly no reason. "Getting any information on Keepers though, it's... well it was difficult."

"Information on Keepers? It exists? How the hell could it exist already, and how the hell did you get it? Is the head of infrastructure for New York City given a direct line to the archives of Area 51?" You asked sarcastically, while you didn't disbelieve what Alexis was telling you, you were curious about how she managed to find such information, hell it shouldn't even exist in the first place!

"Well, it exists already because... well, this isn't the first round of Keepers that has been brought into the world. The data was mostly expunged from the documents, but... when I was looking through declassified CIA documents... I used my ability to pick the documents out that might hold any relevance... and I found one, almost all of the data had been expunged and blacked out, but... there was a single occurrence of the word 'Keeper', capitalized, that they managed to somehow miss. This was... a document on the formation of new agencies, dating back to... 1983? Fifty years ago."

"Then... are you saying that Keepers have existed before? How the hell didn't the world find out about it then?" It didn't make any sense. How the hell could something like the existence of people with actual superpowers be covered up?

"I don't know, all I know is that the evidence is pointing towards there being an organization that was created specifically to handle Keepers, yet with so much data hidden about them, it's hard to find anything concrete. All I know is that we are all being hunted. That much I know for sure." Alexis did have a lot of information, but nothing that really told you what you needed to know, all you knew is that there definitely was an organization after you, and you already suspected that anyway.

"Hey!" You turned your head to the source of the noise. "I think I might know how nobody figured it out, check this out." Zack called over to the two of you, apparently he was listening in on the conversation, and he'd managed to get the TV working, it was actually playing a news report right now. Looks like the electrics expert had managed to get a signal about a dozen meters underground.

"Earlier this morning, we received reports that an unfortunate accident when a dragon balloon being prepared for a parade in a few weeks time was inflated with illegal hydrogen gas, which tragically caught a spark which led to the confirmed deaths of 34 people, with hundreds more injured. Police are treating this incident as suspicious." The screen cut to some footage of a large dragon shaped parade balloon going up in flames just above New York City, starting fires all around it. The footage they were showing looked completely legitimate, and there wasn't anything to suggest that it was faked, which it most certainly was.

"Hey! That's not how it happened! There was a dragon, an actual dragon!" Nathaniel shouted as he pointed at the TV screen, annoyed that the news report was actually playing the officially given cover story already.

"Press are either in their pocket, or completely unaware of what actually happened." Zack explained to the kid, who didn't seem all that happy about the explanation. Of course, the media were never trustworthy, and it's only gotten worse in the past decade.

"But... what about... what about like... phones? And... and... messages?" Haley spoke up, asking Zack a completely reasonable question, and the man shrugged, obviously he didn't know how they could manage something like that either. It didn't make sense for any sort of organization to be able to basically wipe out any and all information that could lead to the discovery of Keepers becoming public knowledge.

You stepped in now. "Maybe some sort of... blanket filter on the internet? I don't think that these sorts of incidents are likely, but... what if the people we're up against have so much power that they can just prevent the information from leaking? What if the reason they seem so dangerous... is because they're Keepers, like us?" The room seemed to grow cold as you suggested that. "What if we're not just being put up against each other, but against people with far more experience and time to grow their power? Can you imagine how far somebody with the ability to always force the odds of something happening would be, Alexis? You could become the president in a few years with something like that!" Really, the power that a Keeper could amass given the right circumstances was ridiculous. "Who's to say that there wasn't already a Keeper with the ability to simply... disallow the propagation of information?" If there really were already Keepers before this morning, things were a lot more fucked than you originally thought. In fact, the world itself might actually be run by superpower wielding lunatics, operating from the shadows.

"Right, just because an organization was likely formed to combat Keepers, it doesn't mean that said organization wouldn't have recruited them, either." Alexis seemed to realize just how serious the situation could actually be, now that not only were other Keepers going to be in pursuit, but other Keepers with the full support of effectively every single authority in the entire country. "I hadn't even considered that our enemies might have powers like us..." The woman was showing her weaknesses now, she was great at planning, but she'd managed to overlook a key aspect of things that she definitely shouldn't have. "Damn it!" She walked off and started to look at some sort of city plan that was laid out on a table. With Alexis distracted with her plans, you looked around the room, it wasn't very big, but there was enough space for now. Zack was flicking through the TV channels, trying to find something decent to watch, Haley had started to read a large book, while Nathaniel was just wandering around aimlessly, lost in his thoughts it seemed.

>Go ask Haley what she's reading.
>Watch TV with Zack.
>Ask Alexis if you can help with the planning.
>Talk to Nathaniel, see what's on his mind.
>Just keep to yourself and pass the time.
>Write-in...

>>5138237
>Watch TV with Zack.

>>5138237
At least there probably aren't many Keepers from the old generation. We know that Keepers inherit the powers of those they kill, so you'd expect the powers to consolidate around the "winners" of the last generation. Probably not a singular winner, though, eventually you'd reach a point where everyone is powerful enough that you don't want to risk a fight. Plus, there's an advantage to having minions, you'd want to keep some Keepers around because they're more useful working for you than you having to take time out to use their Keepsake yourself. Still, if there were as many Keepsakes last generation as this one, you could still have a few dozen Keepers, each of which are wielding dozens of powers. Yeah, that's some scary potential threat.

>Ask Alexis if you can help with the planning.

>>5138237
>ask alexis for planning
We could try to enchant a book or something and create a deathnote or whatever. Information is crucial. We need more information before we decide what to do/enchant

>>5138237
>Write-in: Spill the beans about how your power works. Say you had to know more about them but not coordinating powers is more dangerous than not keeping the secret. Say you'll start working on items for stealth for the team.

>>5138237
>Watch TV with Zack.
Time to chill with our mohawk bro

>>5138237
>Ask Alexis if you can help with the planning.

>>5138799
Changing from >>5138345
To this.

Also lets plan the next two enchants in advance?

I vote for some kind of information gadget. For example a book or something.

I've been waiting for the vote to clear for a while, but it's tied.

>Watch TV
>>5138244
>>5139485

>Planning
>>5138327
>>5139583

>Spill Beans
>>5138799
>>5139705

>>5140522

Changing to plan

"Uh... Alexis, do you mind if I help you plan? I might not know a lot about the situation going on, but... well, I've always had a suspicion that there was more to the people running the world than met the eye." You asked the woman who was currently sifting through all variety of papers and blueprints that she had managed to get her hands on, government buildings, the city's sewer systems, disused railway stations... there was a massive amount of knowledge that she had gotten her hands on. Hell, if a terrorist group had access to this, they could very well attempt to fight a guerrilla war in the under-city of New York... wait... was that what you were now, a new recruit of a terrorist organization? Feels bad, man.

"Well... I certainly wouldn't mind if you gave some insight on things, Zack and Haley... don't really have much of an interest in this sort of stuff." The woman sounded a little disappointed in her two allies, though Haley was probably too young to be of much help anyway, and Zack... well Zack seemed like the sort of person who just did what he felt like at the time. Not the sort of person to meticulously plan out his next actions... which was kind of a fatal flaw, considering that just by being a Keeper, he'd basically become one of the most wanted people on the planet. Alexis must've recruited these two for their abilities, and not for the knowledge... much like Nathaniel, you supposed. It was a bit concerning that the people that Alexis had already recruited were the sort to naturally follow rather than take a lead of their own, but it wasn't really something you ought to focus on, especially not right now. "How much do you know about the military?" Alexis asked a strange question, and you just looked at her.

"The... military? What have the military got to do with all this?" They were probably involved, sure, but... why exactly was she singling them out? You didn't imagine that the military were any more involved than the CIA, the FBI or any number of private paramilitaries that had been set up.

"Because... there's a military stockpile in a warehouse not too far from us... I want to get the equipment inside it so that we can better defend ourselves, and... it's too well guarded and has too many cameras in the place for me to be able to simply send Nathaniel... wouldn't want them figuring out that there's a teleporter, and a kid like Nate... nobody would believe he was working on his own." She looked over at the boy, before she pulled out the blueprint for the warehouse. "Managed to sneak this off of a secure server, the mayor had been in talks with the boys in green for a good long while about allowing them to stockpile weapons and equipment in the city. See, the good part about being able to mess with the odds of something... means that guessing passwords becomes super easy." She smirked, and you realized that her power was able to effectively break into absolutely any sort of security immediately... of all the Keepers you had met so far, Alexis' was the most powerful by far. It felt like one of those invincible powers, honestly. A power that was absolutely impossible to overcome if it was being used by somebody who knew what they were doing... or at least that's what it felt like, you didn't know enough about her power to properly establish her limits, but... that was clearly on purpose.

"So... you're telling me that you want us to steal from the military?" That sounds... dangerous.

"Of course. Nathaniel can teleport, but... he's not very strong, physically, which is why if I want to go through with this, all of us are going to need to be involved. Zack to get us in by overriding the door locks, Nathaniel to deal with the security room, Haley to store the weapons... and you... well, with your powers... I guess you're the guy we're gonna need to take out the guards... and any back-up." Alexis informed you of your role in this coming mission.

"So, you want me to actually... what, knock out the guards?" You weren't in the best of shape, but... you supposed that if you used your ability, you could have something that would help you out when it came to dealing with them... maybe enchanting a pair of gloves would enhance your strength? There were 6 metal lockers built into the wall, so that at least gave you some sealed containers to work with... shame you'd have to wait till tomorrow.

"Well, if your physical abilities have been enhanced, you might just be our best bet for dealing with hostiles... I don't exactly want to kill anybody, and relying on Zack's powers to take out the guards is just gonna end with deaths. Electrocution tends to be pretty fatal." She shook her head as she looked at Zack, who wasn't paying attention, he'd found some subtitled foreign film to watch... it was pretty gory, just based on a few seconds of looking at it.

"Anyway, are you up to it? Everyone else is already onboard." You looked around the room, and nobody spoke out against the plan. "It's in two days. Are you in or out?"

>"I'm in" (Choose 4 items to enchant before the raid)
>"I'm not sure this is a good idea."
>Write-in...

>>5141378
>"I'm in" (Choose 4 items to enchant before the raid)
Try to re-enchant our shoes
Enchant the Crowbar
If there's any gloves around, enchant them
Maybe our pants too?

>>5141375
>>"I'm in" (Choose 4 items to enchant before the raid)

>Knife/Hammer/Any tool
>Pants
>Crowbar
>Gloves

OP, mind answering what kind of tools are around, or is that something we need to wait until the next post for?

>>5141430
Screwdrivers, a sledgehammer, wrenches... basically whatever you might be able to find in the average toolbox

>>5141435
Okay, thanks!

>>5141378
>Crowbar
>Helmet
>Gloves

Picking between these, but eye-goggles are also likely around:
>Pants
>Sledgehammer

I'm sure we can carry everything with the shirt buffs... Let's just see what everyone else comes up with in the meantime.

>>5141378
>>"I'm not sure this is a good idea."
>>Write-in...
Zombie Apocalypse Rules. The first place people think to go to are military stockpiles and we know there are glowie keepers. This is probably bait.

>>5141378
>>"I'm in" (Choose 4 items to enchant before the raid)

>Hoodie
>Pants
>Crowbar
>Gloves

>>5141378
>"I'm in" (Choose 4 items to enchant before the raid)
>Pants
>Sledge Hammer
>Gas mask
>some sort of bag we can find or get Nate to grab for us

>>5141378
Backpack for bag of holding. You wanna carry a bunch of military hardware this is the way to do it

>>5141430
>>5141534

Ok, here's a solid inventory that branches off my old vote:
>Pants
>Bag
>Crowbar/Sledgehammer
>Gas mask

We already have the strength buffs for the shirt. The gas mask will be useful when we need our noggin covered from stray bullets.

>>5141866
Support.

>>5141866
Looks like this wins
I will need 4d1000 best out of 3.
>Cargo Pants
>Bag
>Crowbar
>Gas Mask

Rolled 307, 538, 961, 553 = 2359 (4d1000)

>>5142132
Check this out

Rolled 49, 100, 492, 8 = 649 (4d1000)

>>5142132

Rolled 410, 223, 74, 257 = 964 (4d1000)

>>5142132

>>5142154
One hell of a crowbar.

>>5142211
With that roll we might as well change our name to Freeman, because we're about to dish out some FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES.

>>5142211
The others are pretty mediocre though. Do we need to start whaling for this gacha?

"Alright. I'm in." You didn't really have much of a choice in this, really. If you decided against the plan, you didn't exactly have your own to replace it with, and getting your hands on a great deal of military quality equipment was definitely going to be useful to you especially. The better a piece of equipment before it was upgraded by your powers, then the better it would be upgraded, to an exponential degree. For example, a gun like a pistol would be an excellent weapon if it were upgraded to something like Legendary Quality, but something like an Anti-Material Rifle would be so much more powerful than it was before that it would be ridiculous. It was clearly better for you if you had better quality items to upgrade from the start. If this ended up working, it could really only be beneficial to you.

"Great." Alexis nodded, satisfied that you were prepared to along with her plan. "Haley?" She asked the girl who was currently reading a book. "How's learning how to create beds going?" The girl was slow to put the book away as she turned to face the de-facto leader of the group.

"I think I've figured it out, now, I don't think that what I create will instantly fall apart... now that I know how joints work." It was clear that Haley before all this kicked off... wasn't the sort of person who knew much about creating anything at all.

"Excellent." Alexis nodded as she walked over to a corner of the room and lifted up what you had originally thought was only a wooden board on the floor, but it turned out to be a trap-door, leading down into what you could only assume to be another level of the maintenance room. Of course, there shouldn't even be another level, it felt unnecessary. So... where was Alexis going? "Remember that uh... I don't think I actually got your name."

"Oh, sorry. I was so distracted, I forgot to tell you. I'm Andrew." You felt kind of embarrassed for forgetting to tell the woman your name, but everyone was so caught up in what was going on, that it was an easy mistake to have made.

"OK, Andrew. Haley? Can you please make Andrew a bedroom on the sub-floor?" Ah, that was what it was. Haley was the one behind the second floor, with her powers, it made sense. It also allowed for a far larger amount of space than you first imagined you'd have... in fact, you'd even have your own room! You weren't expecting it to be all too comfortable though.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Time passed, and you got to know your fellow Keepers a little better over the course of the next two days. Though you all mostly stuck to yourselves still, the tense atmosphere between the five of you had started to clear up a little, as you all came to trust each other a little more. Zack mostly stuck to watching TV, though there was never anything good on, and absolutely nothing on the news that could even indicate the presence of a Keeper, if there was anything, it would've just been sanitized by the censorship so thoroughly it was impossible to determine. Couldn't exactly follow every crime, disaster and accident that occurred on a world-wide scale. Haley spent the vast portion of her time reading DIY books, to get the best use out of her power, you supposed. Your own room was... well it wasn't actually as bad as you thought it was going to be, thanks to Haley's ability basically allowing her to recycle any sort of material she can get her hands on, she had enough matter stored up to be able to basically do whatever she wanted... at least on a small scale. Your own room had a wooden floor, a bed and a wooden door... not much in the way of furniture, but you couldn't really help that.

Over the past few days, you'd been waking up early in order to use the lockers as containers to activate your lootbox ability on, and... well, the past 3 times you did it, you... couldn't be disappointed with your results, but you weren't exactly happy with them either... not when you knew how much stronger that the three of the items you had tried your ability on so far could've ended up being.


[Duffel Bag]
[Quality: Rare] (**)
[Good for carrying around gym equipment, break-in equipment and torture equipment alike!]
[Added Effect] [Spacious Lvl 1: This bag can contain twice as much inside it than the exterior would suggest.]

[Gas Mask]
[Quality: Rare] (**)
[Military Grade Gas Mask, filters out toxins from the air.]
[Added Effect] [Emergency Reserves: When in an environment without any breathable oxygen at all, this Gas Mask can provide three minutes of breathable air.]
[Item Stat Modifiers:] [Pierce Resistance: +200%] [Stab Resistance: +60%] [Comfort: +40%] [Durability: +140%]

[Cargo Pants]
[Quality: Rare] [**]
[A pair of camo patterned cargo pants, while the jungle camoflauge pattern isn't very useful in a city, the additional pockets are always useful.]
[Added Effect:] [Deep Pockets Lvl 1: Through some strange compression of space, each pocket can hold two times as much as it would be appear to be able.]
[Item Stat Modifiers:] [Pierce Resistance: +100%] [Stab Resistance: +100%] [Comfort: +20%] [Durability: +100%]

That wasn't to say any of them were weak or anything, but the thrill of the lootbox was starting to get to you already. The disappointment of only rolling a two star drop when you could've gotten something so much better. Still, you did have one more usage with the Key today, and... you had one more item that you wanted to empower, too. You picked up the crowbar that you had left by the side of the door, before jamming it into one of the lockers and locking it shut. Fortunately, the keys were all in their relevant lock, so you didn't need to even go looking. With the crowbar inside, you inserted your Golden Key into the lock, and waited as it started to open... golden light started shining out of the container as it opened, and... loud sounds of party poppers went off around you as confetti rained down from the sky.

You silently cheered as you inspected the newly created item, and your eyes widened.

[Crowbar]
[Quality: Mythical] (*****)
[Rise and Shine, Mr. Freeman...]
[Added Effect:] [Indestructible: This Crowbar cannot be destroyed by any conventional means.]
[Added Effect:] [Prying Eyes: This crowbar can be used to pry absolutely any locked door open with relative ease.]
[Item Stat Modifers:] [Bludgeoning Damage: +5000%] [Piercing Damage: +2000%] [Critical Chance: +70%] [Disarm Chance: +40%] [Stun Chance: +20%] [Attack Speed: +100%]

Mythical quality? It must be the level above Legendary! More than that, though... it was completely fucking busted in terms of what it could do! If you swung this at somebody, you were pretty certain that they'd need to be cleaned out of the floor, walls and ceiling!

"Cool power." You froze as you heard Nathaniel's voice from behind you. "You can enchant things to make them better, right? Why'd you hide it?" He must've heard the god damned party poppers going off! What's worse, he'd managed to discern what your power was as well!

>"Can't be too careful, Nathaniel."
>"I don't think I can trust everyone yet."
>"It's not like everyone else explained exactly how their power worked. Why should I?"
>Write-in...

>>5142933
>>"Can't be too careful, Nathaniel."
>>"I don't think I can trust everyone yet."

>>5142933
>>"Can't be too careful, Nathaniel."
>>"It's not like everyone else explained exactly how their power worked."

>>5142933
>"Can't be too careful, Nathaniel."
>"I don't think I can trust everyone yet."
>"It's not like everyone else explained exactly how their power worked. Why should I?"

>>5142933
>"Can't be too careful, Nathaniel."
>"I don't think I can trust everyone yet."

"You can never be too careful, Nathaniel, and I don't think I can trust everyone here just yet either." It was an understandable reason for your caution. There was no telling who you could trust right now, and while Alexis seemed to have something resembling a plan for survival in the long term, you just couldn't know how trustworthy she was, nor could you completely trust Haley or Zack either. A part of you understood that you were all in this together, but another part of you understood that there was also a chance that anybody could betray the team, be it through wanting to take each other's powers somehow, or possibly through coercion from the agency in charge of controlling the Keepers.

"You think so? Everyone seems nice, though I don't think anybody is really talking to each other enough..." Nathaniel was right, for the past two days, everyone had effectively kept to themselves, though Haley spent a fairly large amount of her time performing upgrades and expansions to the base at Alexis' command, while Zack mostly just made sure that the electricity was wired correctly... but other than that, there wasn't much done. Everyone was still too on edge right now, far too much to be able to trust complete strangers that all just happened to have woken up with a superpower like them. The only person who really tried to make an effort was Nathaniel, and that was only really because he was a child who the entire group was willing to trust.

"Well... it's hard to explain. I just don't know anybody here well enough to know what they're actually thinking or planning. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong not to trust everyone about my abilities, but... the better I make my powers sound, the more problems I might run into from people coveting them." You needed to keep a low profile to survive in a world like this one... you didn't actually know the mechanics behind actually taking other people's Keepsakes right now, but you knew that it at least had a possibility of happening.

"I guess that makes sense... but you don't trust them and you want to go on a dangerous mission with them? Why?" Nathaniel tilted his head as he asked his question, clearly curious about what exactly you were thinking by going along with Alexis' plan. Though you would be the one to benefit the most from having higher quality equipment, you didn't want to say that. Even if you felt like you could trust Nathaniel, you didn't know if you could trust him not to talk about your powers in detail to everyone else.

"It won't be that dangerous, according to Alexis, the building is barely staffed for the sake of remaining discreet, and on the surface appears to be a simple storage warehouse for other miscellaneous junk. The Military grade stuff being hidden in there is basically a state secret." Thanks to the secrecy of the warehouse, at best they'd only be one or two security guards, and they wouldn't exactly have the best equipment on them either. It was actually against a few regulations to store so much military grade hardware in population centers like cities, too.

"I hope you're right." Nathaniel sat down on the floor with his back against a wall. "So..." He looked at the crowbar that you were holding. "You wouldn't mind telling me about your own power, would you? I've explained what mine can do..." He teleported to the other wall for emphasis. "I have... more difficulty teleporting through solid objects, and unless I push myself, I have a travel limit of about... a kilometer? Mostly, I just need to be able to see where I'm going. A window is easy for me to teleport through, but a brick wall is something I need to take my time with." Nathaniel happily explained his ability to you in greater depth without prompting. "I already know you can enchant things... but seeing how you've only done it a few times... I'm gonna guess you have a limit to how often you can do it, twice a day, right?" He successfully guessed, and you tried to hide your immediate frown. He might be a kid but damn if he wasn't sharp when it comes to stuff like this.

"Huh, why'd you think that?" You tried to feign ignorance, or at least find out how he managed to figure out your limit so quickly.

"Well... if you didn't have a limit and could do it all day long, I think you'd have done everything you wanted to do yesterday, right?" It was a fair guess, even if it meant that he was aware what you were up to yesterday as well. You kept reminding yourself that he was just a kid, because he was constantly astonishing you with how observant he actually was. He hadn't quite figured out your limits entirely, but the fact that he managed to guess one of your limits was still alarming. "I actually wanted to ask you if you could enchant something for me..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an ornate looking antique silver dagger.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Why do you have that?!" It was absolutely a weapon designed to kill other people, but why the hell did Nathaniel have something like this?

"This? It's a family heirloom." The boy looked at it... I was thinking... because I'm still young... even with my ability, I won't be able to help much... I can't even fire a gun without hurting my wrist. So... can you enchant this for me tomorrow?" He already knew that you wouldn't be able to enchant the dagger today, but the fact that he was already thinking about his limits despite his power... his intelligence really took you off guard. Though... was he really prepared to become a killer? Because that's all that he'd become with a weapon like that.

>Accept.
>Decline.
>Take the dagger off of him and promise to get him a more suitable weapon.
>Write-in...

>>5145534
>do it
More equipment he needs
>stealth coat
>pistol with a silencer
>night goggles

We need an assassin

>>5145534
>You just need a more appropriate gun, like a Beretta Bobcat 21a or better yet a pair of them just in case one jams. A 22lr with subsonic ammo and a Suppressor should be nice and gentle. You drop that dagger in combat and it gets linked back to your family? Bad news, man. Though it is pretty cool."

>>5145534
>You're a kid. Thinking about killing somebody and actually doing it are two really different things. You'll need to be able to defend yourself though so maybe some concealed armor and something to blind someone like a powered up flashlight?

Yeah, just ignore that post about a pistol. Bad idea.

>>5145534
>>5145689
I'll support this. He's just a kid.

>>5145534
>>You're a kid. Thinking about killing somebody and actually doing it are two really different things. You'll need to be able to defend yourself though so maybe some concealed armor and something to blind someone like a powered up flashlight?

>>5145694
No hes an assassin in training.

>>5145534
>>do it

Also give him this talk >>5145689

>>5145717
Agreeing, he needs a weapon but also a talking to so he doesn't become a hero.

Sorry for the lack of updates, quest isn't dead, but I've had some IRL shit I need to sort through.

>>5147578

NP OP take your time

>>5147578
its fine i'd prefer a small break then it dying

While we wait... lets brainstorm!
Legendary perfume makes us super attractive.
Legendary eraser deletes physical objects.
Legendary car key starts any car.
Legendary house title makes you the owner of a mansion.
Legendary condom hardens and becomes a dick seeking, unich-making throwing star.
Legendary energy drink keeps you up for 24 hours with unlimited stamina.
Legendary 4Loko fucks you up so bad you shit your pants.
Legendary ritilin works like those pills from Limitless.
Legendary weed lets you fly like that scene from Half Baked.
Legendary Antibiotic Ointment heals wounds super fast.
Legendary Muscle Milk gets you sick gains fast.
Legendary acid tabs turns your hallucinations into holographic projections for the duration.
Legendary digivice becomes real Strong AI.
Legendary shrooms actually make you hilarious for the duration.
Legendary Lucky Rabbits Foot actually grants a +1 bonus to all rolls.
Legendary mirror grants insights to your own being.
Legendary trucker hat gives you the ability to drive a semi truck well.
Legendary Guitar sends out shockwaves of sound that can break glass.
Legendary lockpicks make picking locks a breeze
Legendary balaclava makes people forget who you are while worn.
Legendary USB Cable lets you download data straight to your brain but the speed isn't amazing.
Legendary cattle prod shoots lightning bolts.
Legendary Propane Torch burns hot like a lightsaber.
Legendary Lighter spouts flame like a flamethrower.
Legendary antiaging skin cream actually makes you weeks younger.
Legendary banana peel is hella slippery bro.

Rolled 185, 436, 248, 984, 654, 116, 950, 132, 970, 311, 314, 893, 279, 615, 86, 549, 921, 349, 652, 998, 743, 409, 935, 955, 752 = 14436 (25d1000)

>>5149860

based autism. Now to test the dice.

Could we lock a garage and make a supercar/plane/bike/scooter/vehicle?

File: REZplNyp6SFVm3CA7LFiU8og2(...).png (891 KB, 960x834)

891 KB PNG

This still confusing me why the fuck are going to a military base again? Is it for weapons? Armor? We have police station for that and its not kill on sight when they spot us they probably going to capture us first than shooting us, if its material we have like IKEA or something.

I feel there is much more better option than fucking raiding a military base.

>>5150945
Its not a base right? more of a warehouse/stockpile in the city limits that only people with privileged information even know of it so minimal security for discretion
yea its a stupidly risky move and we have to put a lot of trust in Alexis and her luck but I think it can be worth it for the gear since I can't see a fully staffed police station being easier to gain access to.

>>5149956
I dunno but would could be getting high and flying around our mansion at top speed between shitting our pants and propelling ourselves using the flamethrower lighter screaming the tianamen square copypasta in Mandarin after we downloaded it into our brains.

>>5150974
Ehhhh fuck it, plot armor will save us when something goes to shit

>>5150974
>we have to put a lot of trust in Alexis and her luck
Shit bros. Has any of you read Worm? I suddenly don't feel so good about trusting the "boss" with the luck manipulating powers.

>>5151295
Yeahhhh gg

>>5151295
Honestly, killing her in her sleep now is probably a good idea. Shes too powerful.

>>5152251
>Killing a girl that controls luck
Yeah good luck with that

You know we should try to know what are the limits of their abilities.

Also another thing we are going in a raid with people that we don't even trust turning our backs on, another recipe for disaster.

“You’re a kid, Nathaniel. Thinking about killing somebody and actually doing it are two totally different things.” You shook your head as you refused to take the knife from the boy. You weren’t about to hand a kid a lethal weapon… made even more lethal with your powers, hell, you weren’t even sure if you trusted yourself with your own abilities! “But… you’ll need something to be able to defend yourself, so… how about something like a set of concealed armor? Or… hmm maybe an empowered flashlight to defend yourself with?”

“Are you sure…? But what… what if there’s a person who I need to fight?” The boy sounded confused, and you realized for the first time that he might not be all there, at least not morally. You don’t know what might’ve led to his meeting with Alexis, but… considering how messed up that outlook on life was… it definitely couldn’t have been good.

“Look, you might be able to teleport, Nathaniel, but chances are, if you get into a fight with an enemy Keeper with a dangerous ability, a knife isn’t going to make much of a difference for you, even a really sharp one.” You didn’t want to take the knife away though, if it was a memento of his family, it may well be all he has to remember them by.

“I… suppose that you’re right about that.” Nathaniel shrugged as he put the knife back into a leather sheathe and slipped it back into one of his pockets. “But… I just want to be more helpful… and if we get into a fight, I don’t want to slow everyone down.”

“Slow us down? How could you even manage that? You can teleport right?” You looked at the boy. “If there’s enough danger that you think you might cause somebody to be distracted, can’t you just teleport away from it to your own safety?” It was an obvious thing that a teleporter could just leave the moment things started getting dangerous for them, so their allies shouldn’t actually have to worry about them.

“Well… I wouldn’t want to leave everyone behind in danger like that.” Nathaniel’s response was really very admirable, and showed a great deal of bravery. Right now, even if you were still all mostly strangers, you all knew that sticking together was one of your only chances of survival, and Alexis’ plans so far hadn’t let you down. Though you wondered what she was looking for in the military cache.

“I wouldn’t worry about that, Nathaniel, we’re all more than capable of taking care of ourselves, I’m pretty sure of that.” While Haley’s ability wasn’t fantastic for combat applications, your own ability had swiftly become great for getting into a fight. You were pretty sure you’d be able to bash and pry even military vehicles like tanks apart with your new crowbar. “If a situation ever looks like it might become dangerous to you, just get out of there. I’m sure everyone else will be able to fight more easily if we know we don’t have to watch out for you.”

Nathaniel frowned for a moment, as if he was going to deny your request, but he just nodded instead. “Fine. But if things go wrong because you don’t have my help, I’m gonna let you know all about it!” What a childish and nonsensical thing to say, what does that even mean?

The sound of climbing could be heard from behind you, with Alexis quickly making her entrance in the room, she was still wearing that business suit of hers… in fact, nobody had really packed any changes of clothes, so you were stuck wearing your clothing from a few days ago… not that it really bothered you anyway considering your clothes were vital to your power. Somehow, Haley’s clothing always appeared as if it had been freshly ironed, which was impressive, but the rest of you were stuck wearing slowly degrading clothes… aside from your T-shirt.

“Oh, it’s just you two, you’re already up?” Alexis looked at the two of you as she wandered over to a counter and started making herself a coffee. “God, I hate living here so damn much…” She frowned as she waited for the antiquated coffee machine to hurry up and boil the water. Even if she was the one who had the idea to set up shop in a place like this in the first place, it looked like she didn’t exactly enjoy it. Not much of a surprise, you imagined that her government job paid enough for her to afford a nice luxury apartment… not like your crappy place.

“Yeah, we were just talking. So… about the raid today, I thought about your idea for it and I think we should…”

>Go with the plan to sneak in and then open the doors from the inside.
>Create a distraction elsewhere in the city to ensure that all eyes are elsewhere.
>Sneak in as quietly as possibly, have Haley use her abilities to tunnel in directly.
>Go in hot. Smash and grab what we need in the shortest amount of time.
>Write-in...

>>5152719
>>Go with the plan to sneak in and then open the doors from the inside.

First option is the most solid unless you wanted to use Electro to depower the city.

>>5152719
>Go with the plan to sneak in and then open the doors from the inside.
Let's stick to the plan until we have a reason not to.

>>5152719
>>Go with the plan to sneak in and then open the doors from the inside.

>>5152719
>>Sneak in as quietly as possibly, have Haley use her abilities to tunnel in directly

>>5152719
>Go with the plan to sneak in and then open the doors from the inside.

"I think we should follow the plan, sneak in and then open the doors from the inside, it’s our best chance at getting in and out with as few issues as possible that I can see... do we know the schedule of the patrolling guards yet?” You casually asked the leader of your group, and the woman nodded.

"There’s a guard change-over every six hours, and considering there are only three or so guards in the building at any one time, it should be our best bet to sneak in. I’ve kept an eye on the news over the past few days, if there were any other Keepers showing up, they’ve been lost to the information blackout... the military aren’t on high-alert right now either, as far as I can tell.” Alexis stretched a bit before taking a sip of coffee. "Still, that doesn’t mean that we can get complacent.”

"Right, all that the lack of any sort of high-alert state means that if there were other Keepers who decided to try and go public immediately, they were put down pretty swiftly by the powers that be.” You didn’t exactly have a brilliant frame of reference for how strong these other Keepers might’ve been, but Alexis’ ability seemed pretty ridiculously powerful. Of course this just meant the odds were fairly large that somebody at least as powerful as she was had attempted to go against them and ended up dead or captured as a result... after all, there haven’t been any news broadcasts declaring a new regime anywhere in the world.

"Exactly correct.” Alexis sipped her coffee again. "Our plan isn’t one without any risks, but... after we grab the high explosives, I’ll be much more comfortable about our current situation.” You sputtered as she casually revealed what she was after in the stockpile.

"W-wait! High explosives?! What for?” It was the first time anybody had said anything about looking for high explosives and you were worried about what the woman might be planning with the stuff, you just thought you were heading there to grab guns, armor and ammo.

"Trapping the entrance to our hideout and for destroying the buildings of our enemies, of course.” The woman shrugged. It sounded like she wasn’t just planning to start bombing random places at least, but how exactly would your enemies even be defined? You didn’t even know who was after you right now.

"You... are you sure you’re OK with that? Innocent people are gonna end up dead if we just start bombing things!” You might’ve become an enemy of the state because of your new status as a Keeper, but that didn’t mean you wanted to become an enemy of the people too.

"Of course I’m not OK with it, but I don’t see how we have a choice about it. The world for all of us changed overnight, and if we can’t make the tough choices... we’re not gonna survive in it.” She slumped against a wall. "The organization that is after us has had decades to plan for this day, not to mention God knows how many Keepers in their ranks, just waiting for the time they’re needed again.” If you didn’t know the woman was completely correct about what she was saying, you’d have happily called her a conspiracy theorist. Unfortunately, reality for you had become conspiracy. "How do you expect us to do anything if we’re not playing by the same rules as they are?”

"I... guess you’ve got a point, but I don’t like the idea of dragging innocent people into this.” For all that had happened so far, you didn’t really enjoy the idea of getting innocents killed. You might’ve wanted to change the world, but was violence really your only option?

"Yeah? Well our enemies don’t care. They’ll happily send as many cops and soldiers without a clue as to what’s actually going on after us. You need to remember that.” Alexis sighed, taking another sip out of her coffee. "Besides, I’m not actually gonna use the stuff unless we can discern the location of this agency and their HQ.” Oh, that sounded far better than you had originally assumed, and you didn’t have much of a problem with bringing down the HQ of your enemies either.
"Fine, I guess I can accept that. We shouldn’t be arguing among each other right now anyway.” You nodded. You still didn’t like the idea of doing such a dangerous mission just for the sake of getting a whole bunch of explosives, and you believed that Alexis was definitely hiding at least a few things from everyone else. Somebody with powers like her wouldn’t have any difficulty in finding information about your enemies, no matter how well they might’ve hidden themselves away. Of course, she didn’t trust any of you fully just like you all didn’t trust her yet, so keeping her cards close to her chest was... unfortunately probably the best move she could make. She might end up trusting you more later down the line, but right now, things were still totally uneasy between everyone... except Nathaniel, everyone trusted him.

"So... are you ready for this? The first guard shift changes at 12:00PM, and security during the day is lighter than during the night.” Alexis revealed casually, she knew quite a lot about this place... you hoped that her information was accurate... or that this wasn’t some bizarre attempt at a set-up. Though it being a set-up didn’t make any sense to you in your head, she’d had you trapped underground for multiple days now, so if she was working for the secretive agency, you were certain you would’ve already been swarmed by a dozen armed police or something.

"I guess about as ready as I’ll ever be...” You shrugged.

A few hours later, you were positioned outside of an unassuming looking warehouse, having all left the sewers, the city appeared almost completely normal, something you found to be more unnerving than reassuring. There were now hundreds of people with superpowers just lurking about, and the world had seemingly not changed a single bit. In its own way, that was far more terrifying than the alternative.

"Alright, you remember the plan. Zack, fry their lights. They don’t have any windows or skylights, so being plunged into darkness like that should disorient them, then while they focus on going to check out the generator, I want you to sneak in, Nathaniel.” Alexis gave the basic plan, but...

"How exactly am I supposed to get in to open the door if there’s no way to see inside?” Nathaniel sounded concerned, and Alexis frowned, clearly she’d managed to make an oversight somehow.

>Offer to approach the front of the building with Nathaniel to try to find an opening.
>Give Nathaniel your crowbar to let him break a small hole in the building to see through.
>Screw it, you may as well just open the door yourself.
>Ask if you can’t just have Haley use her ability to open a path.
>Write-in...

>>5159209
>>Offer to approach the front of the building with Nathaniel to try to find an opening.

>>5159209
>Ask if you can’t just have Haley use her ability to open a path.

>>5159209
>>Offer to approach the front of the building with Nathaniel to try to find an opening.

>>5159209
>Ask if you can’t just have Haley use her ability to open a path.

>>5159209
>>Give Nathaniel your crowbar to let him break a small hole in the building to see through.

>>5159209
>>Ask if you can’t just have Haley use her ability to open a path.

"Hmmmm... why don't we just have Haley use her ability to open a path?" You looked over at the high-schooler, who seemed stunned by the suggestion, clearly she hadn't been thinking about her capabilities in the best way she could... of course, a lot of that probably stemmed from the fact that despite having a theoretically tremendously powerful ability, she was practically just an interior designer and room constructor, not the sort of person who'd think of using their abilities for infiltration.

"That... might not be the best of ideas, there's a very high chance that the alarm will go off if the perimeter is breached, and if that happens we'll have about ten minutes before a fully armed rapid-response SWAT team arrives to deal with the intruders, and another ten minutes after that before Special Forces sweep in... not to mention that our enemies in the agency might be able to arrive even quicker." Alexis didn't seem entirely fond of the idea of breaking in directly, but Zack stepped up.

"It's not a problem, if I go with her, I can use my abilities to trick whatever perimeter alarms they have. I've been practicing what I'm capable of, so something like that should be fairly simple." Zack declared with confidence, and Alexis looked at the two of them with apprehension, clearly she wasn't certain if such a deviation from the plan was a good idea, but... you'd already come all this way, to get foiled by there not being any windows in the building would be pretty damn ridiculous.

"Alright. Then go ahead, but if I hear an alarm, we're getting the hell out of here, understood?" She ordered Zack, but the man just shook his head, as if her command was totally ridiculous.

"You wouldn't hear it anyway, place like this would absolutely use a silent alarm, wouldn't want the trespassers to know that they'd been found out, right?" Zack shrugged, clearly he had a lot of experience in systems like this one, and it made a lot of sense, nobody needed to tell any burglars that they needed to hurry up because law enforcement was on the way.

"...Brilliant." Alexis just pinched the bridge of her nose. "Go on then, go break in." She sounded a little bit defeated at the revelation that there would be no alarm, and that if the two of them fucked up somehow, there would be absolutely no warning as to what would come down on you like a hammer very quickly.

Haley and Zack quickly approached the wall of the warehouse, and Zack reached out to put his hands on the wall before he gave Haley a quick nod, giving her the go-ahead to use her hammer to break in, to which the girl quickly obliged, lightly tapping the wall with the hammer and opening up a hole in the wall that was a meter tall and a meter wide before she tapped just above it to make the hole two meters tall. You, Nathaniel and Alexis quickly rushed after the two of them, but before you could enter...

"Sorry, I gotta hold this... alarm's a little more sophisticated than I thought, I can't redirect the alarm pulse backwards without direct contact with it. You'll need to grab what you need without me." You nodded and went inside regardless of whether Zack was coming or not, and you were immediately alarmed by the wide variety of military crates positioned around the room... the explosives that Alexis wanted had to be in one of the crates, not to mention all manner of military equipment that would be perfect for your abilities.

>Go and deal with the guards, just in case they somehow stumble across you or notice the draft from the hole.
>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.
>Write-in...

>>5165093
>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

>>5165095
>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

>>5165095
>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

>>5165095
>>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

>>5165095
>>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

>>5165095
>>Help Alexis and the rest open as many crates as possible, get in and out as quick as you can.

Alright, you didn't have the time to screw around going after the guards, every second wasted going after them is another second where you expose yourself and the rest of the group. Even if you could potentially neutralize a threat, you don't actually know where they are, and if they're armed with firearms, even with your equipment, you could end up badly injured... or worse.

"Alright, let's see what we got." You spun your crowbar in your hands for a moment before walking over to the nearest crate, popping it open with the same amount of ease you might have had when opening a can of soda. The enhancements to the crowbar made it so whatever locks were keeping the military crates sealed shut snapped instantly. "You guys, check what's inside and take it if it looks useful." Alexis, Haley and Nathaniel nodded, and you continued to break open over two dozen of the military crates, not even bothering to check inside of them in most cases. The advanced electronic locks on the rugged crates would've probably managed to withstand an explosion at close range, but against your crowbar, they meant nothing.

Fortunately, you didn't seem to attract any attention from whatever security was supposed to be patrolling the place, no doubt that the crates had in-built GPS and they were confident that any attempt to actually break into them would require something like a breaching charge which would obviously make way too much noise for them not to immediately call for back-up... being able to break into this advanced military tech with just a crowbar really meant that most of their intended defenses were worthless. Though it did make you wonder just how Alexis originally intended to break into the crates... was she relying on just using her power to open them somehow? They did have a keypad on the front, so you supposed that it wouldn't have been impossible for her to just... guess the override code without needing a key code or fingerprint scan.

"Got it!" Alexis approached one of the newly opened crates, immediately realizing the contents were what you were looking for. About 2 dozen blocks of C4 as well as way too many grenades to count. Enough to easily take down a building if the support pillars were targeted. "Alright, now we need to get out before anybody notices what's up." The woman started to pile as much as she could carry of the C4 in her backpack, in an action that was copied by both Nathaniel and Haley... you walked back over to her, scanning over the contents of the rest of the crates as you hurried back. You probably had time to grab about two items from the opened crates before the three of them would be ready to get out.

You scanned over the other opened military crates, examining their contents for a moment. Sets of body armor, M4 Carbines, military grade helmets equipped with Night-Vision Goggles, SIG Sauer M17s, and a real beauty in the form of a Barret M82 Anti-Material Rifle. You could probably only justify grabbing items from two crates, but... you could definitely grab more than one item at once. You needed to come to a decision as to just what would be the most useful for you to pick up, would the Barret, being by far the most powerful and rare item here, be the best for you to take? Or would you be better off grabbing half a dozen M17s? You needed to come to a decision.


>>Pick 2
>Grab the Barret M82.
>Grab 3 M4 Carbines.
>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
>Grab 4 Helmets equipped with Night-Vision Goggles.
>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.
>Write-in...

>>5168938
Man I'm concerned.

Is upgrading the weapon platform itself the same thing as upgrading the ammunition, and then, are we still beholden to the laws of physics regarding the energy of any rounds we use, when using our power on a weapon?

Surely the Barrett would kill a battleship, but would it also break every bone in our body and liquidate our brain upon firing? Would the M4 dislocate our shoulder with the baby 5.56? Would the M17 break our wrist with a 9mm?

>>5168938
>3x HK Mark 23 Pistols with Suppressors and Spare Magazines
>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.

>>5168938
>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.
The Barret is flashy, but how often are we going to want to blow up a battleship? Let's grab something more immediately practical.

>>5168963
Considering the crowbar didn't tear our tendons apart when we used it to crack open crates with a military-grade lock, I'd say the laws of physics are quietly weeping every time we use one of our gacha items.

>>5168938
>>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
>>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.

>>5168938
>>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
>>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.
Are we giving the armor to the others?

>>5169357
One to the kid, at least until we can unlock a decent shirt for him. Then They'll go to our electrician and minecraft chick.

I don't trust lucky girl.

>>5169368
Eh, I don't see a reason to not trust her yet. Though the suits probably should go to those two anyways, since they're the least protected.

>>5168938
>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.

>>5168938
>Grab 6 SIG Sauer M17.
More odds to get something good
>Grab 2 sets of Body Armor.

It would probably be for the best that you took a lot of smaller weapons, rather than any of the larger stuff, there were more chances that you'd end up rolling something incredible on one of the pistols compared to the far more limited chance you'd have if you took, say, the Anti-Material Rifle. Hell, even if you rolled Legendary or something on a weapon like that, what would you use it for? In the case that you needed to say, snipe a battleship, maybe blow up an entire convoy of vehicles with one bullet? It was entirely unfeasible that you'd ever even end up needing a weapon that could do so much damage, hell, your crowbar right now was powerful enough to cleave through practically any material like a hot knife through butter!

So with that in mind, you took six of the SIG pistols as well as two sets of body armor, if you had a little bit more time, you definitely could've carried more, but time was short, and you honestly didn't have much time at all before everyone else would leave... you wouldn't blame them for leaving you behind if you just decided to spend too long searching through the open crates in order to steal stuff unrelated to the original mission you had come here for... well, you'd blame them a little, actually. Quite a lot, now that you think about it, but... you'd also share a lot of the blame if you did do something stupid like that.

Fortunately, you weren't greedy, you had enough weapons and equipment for now, and there would always be the opportunity to get more in the future anyway... getting your hands on this military equipment alone had ended up being... well, you didn't want to call it easy, but... it really had been easy, you'd just walked in after breaking in and faced absolutely no opposition, everything was in your favor here, your group together was able to basically walk through every security measure that they had put in place for the warehouse, whatever their physical defenses were didn't matter because Haley's abilities allowed her to just cut right through them, whatever sophisticated alarm system they might've had in place was rendered pointless thanks to Zack's ability to manipulate electricity and electronics as a whole, the secrecy of the place amounted to nothing thanks to Alexis and her ability to cheat probability in her favor, and you were able to easily bust into the crates without damaging the contents thanks to your own abilities. Honestly, the only member of your group who didn't end up being helpful to the mission was Nathaniel, and that was only because of an oversight on Alexis' part, his ability to teleport was still useful enough that it couldn't be understated.

"Alright, come on! We're moving out!" Alexis called to you as you finished stuffing your loot into your bag and you nodded, following the woman out of the warehouse and outside into the city once again. It wasn't a long walk to get back to the sewer entrance to return to the safe-house, and you'd be in the relative safety offered by the sewers before you knew it...

Or... so you thought.

Upon leaving the warehouse and entering the outside once again, the first thing you noticed was how eerily quiet your allies were being... the second was that there was a dozen gas-masked men wearing what appeared to be some sort of black tactical armor pointing assault rifles at the five of you. In the center of the group was a black haired man wearing a suit and sunglasses, smoking a cigarette. What the fuck was this bullshit?! How the hell had you been found?! It didn't even make sense!

"And... you must be number 5, I take it? Neat little group you've got here." The man smoking the cigarette tossed his smoke away as he smiled at you, he had the same sort of charisma one might expect from a used car salesman. "Still, you were kinda foolish for falling for such a blatant trap. I mean... come on, you really thought that we'd just leave something like this completely undefended in these... tumultuous times?"

"We? Who's 'we'?" Alexis asked carefully, wary of the fact that there were at least three rifles trained on her specifically... you didn't know if they knew about what each of your powers was yet... and Nathaniel had actually yet to disappear, which was fortunate... considering just what his disappearance could end up entailing for the rest of you.

"Well... you didn't think that you were... suddenly the king of the world now that you have one of those magic artifacts, did you?" The man frowned. "Did the four of you seriously not think that you were under watch from the start? Did you really think you were doing anything more than playing into our hand the entire time?" Alright, fuck this, fuck this guy in particular, too. This is totally bullshit.

"What the FUCK are you talking about you fucking glow-in-the-darky?" You stepped forwards and spoke with an incredible amount of scorn as the man pulled a pad out of his pocket and started to smirk like a snake.

"Zack, power to manipulate electricity and electronics... full capabilities unknown." He turned a page on the notepad. "Haley, power to manipulate non-living matter by either creating or destroying it... full capabilities... partially unknown." He flipped another page. "Alexis, power to manipulate probability... specifics unclear, capabilities... totally unknown. Nathaniel, power to teleport... seems to require an image of the place he teleports to, distance seems to be a factor... capabilities... partially unknown." Finally, he turned directly to you. "And that brings me to you, Andrew. You decided to keep your abilities a secret, didn't you? The ability to enchant items, was it? Interesting indeed..." You felt a chill run down your spine as the man revealed he knew exactly what you were capable of... exactly what everyone was capable of, at least to some degree.

"What do you even fucking want from us?" Zack spoke this time, clearly highly on edge by the whole 'having a gun pointed at him' thing that was going on.

"That's simple. I'm going to offer the five of you the chance to join our organization... or you can be shot dead here and now. Your choice." Oh, it was a forced recruitment into his little glowy agency then? This was meant to be his sales pitch, because of course it was, 'join or die' what a fucking fantastic sales pitch. You wanted to feed this man his own teeth. Oddly enough... Alexis... didn't seem bothered at all by the situation, wait a second... was she the one who set you up...? No, she couldn't be... right? "Now, are you going to surrender... or not?" You looked at the suited man with hate in your eyes.

>Surrender.
>Fight.
>Run.
>Just fucking pull out a SIG and shoot the son of a bitch.
>Write-in...

>>5179229
When we were in the warehouse, did we notice any other entrances/exits? Or is it just the one we went in through/left from?

>>5179229
>>Keep him talking. Ask him if there are others like him and how he knew about all of your powers.
>>See if there are any exits/openings around, anything you could use to your advantage to get you and the others out (except maybe Alexis)
>>Try to subtly pull out your SIG

Do we actually know how to shoot a gun or are we gigafucked?

>>5179229
>>Write-in.."Make the call, Alexis."

>>5179229
>>Keep him talking. Ask him if there are others like him and how he knew about all of your powers.
>>See if there are any exits/openings around, anything you could use to your advantage to get you and the others out
>Run when there's an opening

>>5179547
I don't think we'd have to dig through the wall if there was another exit.

>>5179712
Fighting probably won't work out well for us.

>>5179547
Sorry for delay, been distracted by ww3 kicking off.
There's only the hole you opened, you didn't explore long enough to see any other exits.

>>5179229
>>Write-in...
>Keep him talking
>Wait for an opening and have everyone run back into the hole.
>Have Haley minecraft the hole and set up blocks behind us when she can to delay them as we run to the other side and crowbar a hole there to escape.

>>5179229
>>Keep him talking. Ask him if there are others like him and how he knew about all of your powers.
>>See if there are any exits/openings around, anything you could use to your advantage to get you and the others out
>>Run when there's an opening

This seems like a really bad recruitment attempt. Doing it this way practically guarantees that any recruits resent the organization. It would have been better to just ask if we want to work for them. No threats, just saying "hey, we think you've got useful skills, we'd like you to work for us, we'll give you protection and a generous benefits package". And /then/, if we're not playing to ball, he can try for the forceful approach. It makes me think that this guy is probably an amateur, maybe freshly promoted to this role.

Oh shit.
Page 10.
I'll post the update in a new thread when it's ready.

The new thread will knock this thread off the board.