"We also have people who have altered physiology but no powers at all."

"There are parahumans whose only power is something about their body, such as armored skin or things like that."

"But not, like, 'their skin is blue' or 'reproductive hermaphroditism.'"

"No, never just those things."

"Huh."

"It's a little odd that physical changes are a thing at all, if it's not genetic."

"Some powers are always-on. Other powers cause physical changes only when they are activated. The intersection is what results in parahumans who always look different."

"...Huh. Are the changes always related to the power?"

"It might depend on what you mean by 'related'."

"Oh?"

"There is a rogue called Canary who has yellow feathers growing in her hair. Her power relates to singing. This is not directly related but seems thematically appropriate."

"Yeah...I would love to try to figure out how powers work for you guys but that seems, uh, intractable and comparatively irrelevant compared to the problems that we currently have."

"Yes," Rete agrees. "I think Lorica has finished her exploratory disassembly and will be able to report on what she needs to make further progress, if anything, soon."

"Oh, that's good."

And indeed presently Lorica lifts her head. "These things are pretty cunningly put together for non-Tinkertech, but I think you're right that it really isn't Tinkered. I'm going to need more interesting tools and more software-bearing stuff than what I have onboard in my kit, though. A small pile of salvaged laptops, a solar generator I can use or fix, and forty minutes in a hardware store or several hardware stores nonconsecutively will probably do me to get this up and running Rete, if that's what we want."

"What's a laptop?"

"Computer that goes on a lap. I can do it with desktops too but might need more and will probably have to strip them down for portability."

"Mm. If we had better anti-Sentinel weapons we could raid the school. I could make some stuff like Cerebro and the Blackbird and see if there's anything you can use in them? And we can probably find hardware stores. I don't know where we would find intact computers but I can keep an eye out."

"What are Cerebro and the Blackbird? And they don't have to be very intact, I can cannibalize some for parts for others."

"The blackbird is a jet; we used it a lot more when there were more of us but now it's mostly more efficient for me to just grab Edie and fly myself; Cerebro is a telepathic amplifier. They both have nonzero circuits in them but I learned to make them by rote, we didn't really have time for engineering lessons."

"Well, presumably if there's a useful piece you can make just that piece a lot, that'll help."

"Yeah, I'm pretty good at duplicating things."

"I could use more of this," she says, holding up a chunk of Sentinel. "It's a decent processor."

"Okay," she agrees, and sets about duplicating the indicated object. 

"Odds on finding a solar generator?" She directs this question slightly Ediewards, since Emily is busy.