Reroll

We level up to eleventh that night.  I pick up Quicken Spell and more magic Talents. We upgrade the mothership with more power and some actual weapons: A Heavy Plasma Torpedo Unit on the turret and Super Nuclear Silo on the front.

Yeah. We had a discussion about that. It's an orbital weapon that will make a circle of devastation about one mile in diameter (five thousand feet, specifically), obliterating basically all buildings (the “ten feet of concrete” variety will generally last more than one hit - it will average 1350 damage to structures in the area, and stone has 900 hp per five feet of thickness) and killing basically everyone there that's not Empowered like we are (and a lot of them, too; 14d12+7 works out to 98 average damage… which is “three inches of steel” levels of wreckage).  I don't LIKE it, but we will, EVENTUALLY, need the Big Stick.

We also upgrade our personal starships, of course. I don't personally have anything orbital, but I do have basically the best single target Heavy Starship weapon, an Adamantine Mount Persistent Particle Beam, on my turret. Also a Signal Basic Drift Engine, a Mark I Dounode computer (mostly for analyzing planets…), and a Laser Net on the front (it's a point defense weapon, good for taking down incoming missiles)... and honestly, that puts my ship at about the limit of useful upgrades. Oh, I can armor it up, upgrade the computer a little, add a second turret mount and migrate the Laser Net to said turret mount so the point defense works at any angle, a few other odds and ends… but in terms of actual combat capabilities? It's at the point of diminishing returns. To get a meaningfully better ship, I need a bigger hull to support a bigger reactor… which means I won't be able to dock with the mothership for refueling anymore, and will need my own Fuel Synthesizer and maybe an Industry.

After that, I spend my time until Sunday building up a ‘library’ - using Permanent Image on my Create Reality class feature for more minions.  Mostly I make Mage archetype minions with a wide variety of magic talents… basically everything that doesn't have restrictions that my shadow minions can't satisfy: So no Advanced talents that require a caster level above ten (a companion with both the ‘Unwilling’ and ‘Mage’ archetypes has eleven hit dice and a general caster level of eight; the ‘Gift for magic’ trait can boost that by two points for a specific school… these things are fragile, and I can test if they passed the will save easily enough by assigning them to the Industry for a day to trigger the skill check clause, so I can find out if they're hostile in a ‘safe’ environment), no Advanced talents that have more than four or five requirements (Mage companions don't get many talents known; six at most), and no talents that can't be had by minions... but I can have as many as I like, so I get almost all the magic talents on standby.  Of particular note is that Circle Casting is available to the new Mages at eleven hit dice, so I no longer need to waste the actions to use Create Proxy (unless I need them to spend the feat for an Advanced Talent instead).

I also make a few extra ‘Alice’ builds, as I really do expect more violence… and of course, an army of combat builds (Starfinder weapon and armor proficiencies plus Shadowstuff Armament on an otherwise normal Companion build gets interesting), and a bunch of skill specialists (three per skill, each optimized for that specific skill).

I also of course sync up with Betty and Ed; we exchange all the expected buffs.  As Eternal Steel is Permanent (and my mages have enough bandwidth to actually have it now), I drop that and it's requirements in favor of a Warp talent, Extradimensional Torpor (twice) which lets me store creatures in a sleeping state… which I use to keep my Eidolon (pre-summined), my Companion Vessel, a few Pilots and Engineers, plus my ‘library’ of Shadow minions. My Wild Cohort I keep out most of the time, as I need to feed her. Yes, I can recreate the shadow minions easily, but that takes setup time and they won't have the full set of boosts if I'm in a hurry, while willing minions stored in Torpor can all come out at once if needed: An instant army, each armed with megatech weapons and armor that can take down tanks in a few hits while deflecting most bullets.  Oh yes, and as I'm at eleventh, I can create armor, a weapon, and ammunition for the weapon all at the same time with Shadowstuff Armament (my fighting minions can't do three items just yet, because I'm not risking Unwilling on creatures that can make weapons that can be an actual threat).

Yeah… I cheat.

Eventually Sunday rolls around, and I head over to the local hospital: My dog in storage; myself invisible, fully armored, and armed (being able to just recast the Invisibility is much better than having native Invisibility, because I can easily manage equipment by recasting); and a couple of hundred minions at the ready.

Saying the hospital has a big line is an understatement. The lobby has a giant line handled with stanchions (those pole and rope combinations commonly seen at theaters).  The parking lot has no cars… because the line extends outside the building, and MORE stanchions are managing the line, which literally fills the parking lot.  And it keeps going around the block.

And they're all waiting for Alice.

I review the contract unseen while my decoy holds it, and get a report from an ‘Al’: “It's basically what the man said.  Minor notes: If the contract terminates before you get things transferred to a legal identity, the hospital keeps any major assets.”  Yeah… the pay doesn't matter nearly as much anymore.  “Also, he has this booked as a ‘Faith Healing Event’, apparently for the legal protections afforded to religious activities.”  So Alice is a priestess now?  Okay… whatever.

I go ahead and have Alice sign, whereupon the CEO, Joe Negri signs as well, and hands Alice a business card… not his, my contact's.  I store it in my Warp Storage, and Alice gets to work.

She's much faster than I was the first go round: This one has an additional feat slot thanks to the level up which she spent on Circle Casting… and of course, I get out enough healing mages from my library to power her up with useful additions… Ranged Healing (so she doesn't need to touch her targets), Mass Healing (so she can get groups), Restorative Cure (heal and cure at the same time), Restore Capacity (solves speech impediments, leg issues, and the like), Restore Senses (solves blindness, deafness, and similar), Make Whole (fixes missing limbs), and so on… there's very little this team can't handle.  Mind, the healing mages from my library only exist for me, her, and each other… but that's enough for them to use Circle Magic so Alice can use those talents… so what everyone sees is one woman focusing a bit and everyone nearby being cured of all ills.

The news cameras standing on platforms Joe ordered set up for this get some good shots of it: He is milking this for all it's worth… and based on the crowds and the back line of people on hospital beds, it's worth a lot. And now, all I need to do is sit back and feed Alice some of my essentially unlimited spell points whenever she wants them.

A few minutes after we start, a bunch of big beefy clones that look like they could beat bears at wrestling come in, wearing dark sunglasses and police uniforms… this time, accompanied by a much smaller uniformed police officer.  Hmm. Cutting them off won't do it this time.  They're learning.

The small officer (relatively; she’s still at least five foot six, but she's standing next to borderline giants), presents some paperwork to the hospital staff… who do NOT look happy, but let the police through.

“A fight with this many civilians around would be BAD. Surrender peacefully to the actual human police officer,” I instruct Alice, “I'll vanish you in an hour or so.  Once nobody around can see you, please return here and wait for me.”

When the officer gets close, Alice calmly turns around and presents her hands, which the officer cuffs.  The officer frisks her (Alice is carrying exactly nothing: Her clothes are technically part of her, even), and takes her away.

I watch as the hospital CEO shakes his head and whispers, “I was hoping that would take longer… well, lawyer time….” he starts dialing on his phone.

I pull another Alice out of storage, and use her as a mouthpiece to interrupt him, “I don't really see how it's a problem,” I watch Joe's jaw drop, “My friends have some REALLY good tricks. Now that they have me in custody, let's get back to healing, hmm?”

Joe just blinks as the replacement Alice gets back to work.

The line continues… and they arrest Alice twice more before giving up; she's a very high profile arrest, so they can't let her die in police custody… and when she stops existing, they open the door (eventually) to try to figure out how she got out… which is when she actually escapes and comes back to me to become the next replacement.

There is one notable case: A young man in a dress walks through the line; Diagnose reports nothing wrong, but I have a hunch… which he confirms with… HER plea, “Can… can you make me a woman?”