The morning saw me munching an apple while viewing my new, updated stats.

ANDREW DRAKE (BELESSAR)

LEVEL 6

CLASS: UNKNOWN

FACTION: DRAGONFLIES

XP 4165/7500

ATTRIBUTES:

STR: 18 DEX: 13 VIT: 13

INT: 20 WIS: 21 CHA: 11

PER: 13 ATT: 15 LUK: 9

HP: 130/130

PP: 300/300

MP: 420/420

CP: 264/264

AP: 195/195

PSYDEF: 47

$ 188,405.00

XP: 4165/7500

Ethics: +252

The battle had netted me a whopping 9,000 XP, pushing me up to Level 6. Almost half of that experience was from the rescue - which meant Anne also got a share.

The Ethics score of +252 had also unlocked a new Title:

KNIGHT-ERRANT: YOU FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AND RESCUE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. +50% SUCCESS RATE FOR ANY TESTS DURING A QUEST FOR EITHER JUSTICE OR DAMSELS.

+1 ATTRACTIVENESS, +1 CHARISMA.

Psydef was a new statistic, and one that interested me - it reduced the damage from psionic attacks, or in essence prevented telepaths - and Masters - from tearing my brain apart. The fight with Dreamspeaker had taught me an important lesson, however - all the armour in the world wouldn’t help me if I didn’t get some mental defences in place.

Which led me to one last, and very interesting, notification:

NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: MINDSTRIKE.

LASH OUT AT YOUR ENEMY’S MIND DIRECTLY BY FOCUSING YOUR POWER INTO A SINGLE, DIRECTED BLAST. THE FOUNDATIONAL SKILL OF THE PSIONICS SKILL TREE. DISRUPTS THE ENEMY’S CONCENTRATION AND PREVENTS THEM FROM USING ANY SKILLS FOR 2 SECONDS.

REQUIREMENTS: 15 INT, 15 WIS, DEFEATING 1 PSIONIC.

LEVEL 1: +10 DAMAGE, BYPASSES ARMOR, COSTS 30 MP.

The Psionics skill tree was… intriguing. I had a deep-rooted distrust of Masters, but it seemed my power came with the ability to fight them all the same. Something to think about.

Other skills had also upgraded. Lawbreaker was now Level 8, and gave me a 90% chance to avoid legal consequences for any crimes; the notification had also mentioned that any crimes against known villains would not get me into trouble with the cops. Truly, my power seemed determined to encourage some degree of villainy.

I'd also checked out Lady Lumina's comment about pagers.

Searching for 'ultrahuman pager' led to the web page of the Stratospheric Ultrahuman Response Global Executive, www.surge.org. A department of the Stratospheric Guard, which registered and provided 'facilities' to ultras.

SURGE was responsible for alerting ultras whenever the aliens breached the shield - a task which they did through a specialized inventech pager. One which was listed as 'immune to being tracked'.

I had my doubts about that.

The FAQs section on the website included the question: 'How do I get a SURGE pager', and the answer was quite interesting:

'SURGE pagers are reserved for the use of ultras willing to take part in an alien defence, and are not issued to the civilian public. Applications for a SURGE pager may be filed by any qualified attorney acting as legal representative of an ultrahuman, but not by ultrahumans directly.'

So to get a SURGE pager I needed a lawyer.

That reminded me of what the public defender had told me - ultras hired lawyers to represent them in most matters, including getting paid. I probably needed to find one myself. Especially if I wanted to keep my word to Lady Lumina.

As I was pondering methods to secure legal representation, Anne walked into the room, yawning. “What time is it?”

“Eleven.”

“Eleven…. I don’t have to go to school today, do I?”

“I called in and told them you were sick.”

“Thanks.” Anne yawned again. “Five a.m. doesn’t give me enough time to sleep.”

“Before you go, how’s your XP?”

“Eh…” Anne shrugged, “I think I got a level up message last night.”

“Check it.”

“... ‘kay…. Hey it says I’m level 3.”

“You should have two boosts, then.”

“Umm… Andrew, I don’t have boosts.”

“... are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

I frowned. “You didn’t use them by accident, did you?”

Anne glared. “No.”

“Well….”

“Has it struck you that maybe only you get boosts on levelling up?”

I frowned. Actually, it hadn’t.

“I’m serious, Andrew. Your power is some sort of superpowered learning. I doubt anyone’s learnt how to make armour as fast as you….”

“But I have the mental energy points and the agility points….”

“Your power, Andrew. Not mine. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait,” I said. “There’s something else you should see.” I turned on the television.

Our favourite anchor came on screen.

“In the aftermath of last night’s raid, stunning secrets about the Grunters were revealed!” he exclaimed. “Close to a hundred victims held hostage, in a shocking scandal, as a secret inventech base was concealed only a short drive away from central Tanisport! We now take you to our on-site correspondent for a special exclusive report!”

“Thank you, Brian! We are told by informed sources that a new hero, Belessar, was responsible for the daring takedown…”

Anne smiled. “Looks like your plan worked.”

“Good ideas on your part, too - especially calling the press.”

“Hey, we needed to break the Grunters’ reputation. They still giving him that award?”

“The Nigerian government has reconsidered,” I smirked. “Especially after they found a dozen local women being held hostage in a cargo container. Grumman has disappeared and the Grunters are scattered.”

+100 XP FOR A SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTED BATTLEPLAN!

RELATIONSHIP INCREASES WITH TANISPORT POLICE! TANISPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT IS NOW SYMPATHETIC TO YOU (+1).

RELATIONSHIP INCREASES WITH FORMER GRUNTER SLAVES! FORMER GRUNTER SLAVES ARE NOW LOYALISTS TO YOU (+6).

RELATIONSHIP DECREASES WITH GRUNTERS! GRUNTERS NOW HAVE ENMITY TO YOU (-5).

RELATIONSHIP DECREASES WITH BLACKHATS! BLACKHATS NOW HAVE RIVALRY WITH YOU (-3).

FOR YOUR CUNNING USE OF THE PRESS, POLICE AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION TO SHATTER THE REPUTATION OF YOUR ENEMY, YOU GAIN +2 WISDOM.

FOR AIDING YOU IN THIS STRATAGEM AND LEARNING FROM IT, ANNE DRAKE GAINS +1 WISDOM.

CONTINUE TO TRAIN YOUR PROTEGE IN THE ARTS OF COMBAT AND STRATEGY TO ENHANCE THEIR ATTRIBUTES!

I looked to Anne. “Did you get a notification just now?”

She nodded. “It says I got a +1 to wisdom for helping you carry out a ‘stratagem’.”

“And I got a +2. Our power seems to appreciate the use of cunning.”

“Your power,” Anne grinned. “But yeah, you’re right. The more clever, sneaky, or twisted you are in carrying out a plan, the more likely it is your power gives you a bonus boost.”

“My relationships with other factions also just updated; the Grunters are enemies, the former Grunter slaves are something called loyalists, and the Tanisport police are sympathetic.”

“That’s expected. You did save the cops a lot of trouble when you stormed the place.”

“The only funny thing is the Blackhats - they now see me as a rival?”

“Dude, that’s obvious. Your first attack was pinned on the Blackhats. And now that you’ve revealed an actual identity…”

“... they’re angry that I blamed them. Oh damn.” The pass-the-blame idea had slipped my mind in all the preparation for the raid.

“Well, you can’t do anything about it now. Did you spend your attribute boost yet?”

I shook my head. “I’m torn between Vitality, Dexterity and Intelligence. One boosts my survivability, the other increases my offensive options… I haven’t run out of MP in a battle yet, though, and AP keeps falling behind. So I’m wondering about Dexterity too.”

“Hmm,” Anne nodded. “Can you boost your Dexterity with more exercise?”

“I’ve been trying. It hasn’t helped.”

“Then maybe it’s time to use the boost. Agility helps you to dodge bullets, after all - that’s not something to sneeze at.”

“Makes sense.” I applied the boost and watched my AP rise to 210.

“Well, since that’s sorted, I’m definitely going back to sleep. Don’t wake me till lunchtime.”