The next time Anita is on the bridge in the course of her duties, she has the opportunity to look at the weapons locker but, as she suspected, she finds that it is empty of all weapons and all of the heavier armor. All she is able to find and bring back is a set of blue and black Kevlar but it is better than nothing. Lars thanks her for it and tries it on and ensuring that it fits. It does and he puts his outer clothes on over it to see how noticeable it is. He looks a bit more heavy set than normal but it is not overly obvious. Nevertheless, he removes it. He will keep it stashed away until needed.
With only a couple of days left until they reach Razor City, the group meets in Dale's cabin to continue probing their newfound abilities. Dale scans constantly to ensure that no one is probing or spying on them mentally.
GM: Each person has already discovered a number of talents and abilities. Each person can choose one additional ability that they discover in the next few hours. Just send a turn indicating what you learned and how you learned it. In other words, role play it.
LARS: With the issue of armor somewhat settled, Lars continues to probe his abilities. He already knows that he can survive in the vacuum of outer space without ill effect, that he can fly - with a couple of different modes, and that his hereditary knife has become extremely sharp and can drain the strength of others attacked with it (though he can't always control whether a knife attack becomes a normal attack or the STR draining attack). He then considers other powers from legend and lore and begins to wonder whether he has gained any sort of ranged attack such as a lightning bolt or blast of cold. With this thought in mind, he chooses a pillow across the room and tries to concentrate on damaging it. At first he tries simply concentrating on the pillow and willing it to destruction. When nothing happens, he begins to incorporate hand and then arm gestures. After an hour of trying, something finally happens. It is not the total destruction of the pillow he had envisioned but rather an almost imagined tiny burst of energy that comes off his outstretched hand when he gestures in a certain way and thinks certain thoughts. The energy was reminiscent of an electrical but tiny to the point of being barely noticeable. He tries again. After five more tries, he is able to repeat the first success with a tiny discharge of energy that travels about 6 inches from his hand. After five more attempts, the energy reaches halfway to the pillow but Lars is exhausted by his meager efforts.
LARS: After resting for a minute or so, and thinking about how he might better trigger the new found ability, he tries again. This time the energy leaps from his hand and destroys the pillow. The success is so spectacular that Lars and the others worry that some sort of fire or electrical alarm might be triggered and they work quickly to drench the remains of the pillow and dissipate the smoke. Fortunately, no alarm triggers and, after a few minutes, the group breathes easier again.
DALE: While Lars is practicing his attempts to destroy the pillow, Dale decides to try a more subtle tack. It may become necessary to trick the enemy in order to separate them, after all, so he decides to try to figure out how to use his mental powers to trick someone else. Not wanting to take chances on discovery, he practices on some random passenger while spying on them from hiding. Just trying to get the feel for how to do it, he concentrates on something subtle, like making them believe that a crewman has come around the corner rapidly and is about to collide with them, convincing them to dodge the pedestrian. It takes him quite a few attempts, but eventually the passenger sidesteps with alarm, and reacts as if seeing exactly what Dale has imagined. Dale then goes on to experiment with just how difficult it is to make more unusual visions appear, without doing anything too extreme or life-threatening. Toward the end of his practice he even interferes with a conversation in a group setting, making one of the passengers believe that one friend has switched places with another. Once he has confirmed that this works, he will retire to his quarters. When Lars mentions that he was exhausted after only a dozen attempts, Dale thinks about it a bit and says, "I don't seem to be that tired physically, but it seems like my mental energy must have a limit too, I just haven't reached it yet. I guess I will have to experiment with that a bit too. Meanwhile, I should just make sure I'm rested before we make any attempts on the kidnappers. I may be able to trick one of them away from the others, by the way, or trick them into thinking their enemies are their friends and vice versa. Obviously someone with a strong mind like Li Cheng will be harder to trick, but every one of them can't be that strong.
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