Phantasm frowned at Kraken, but she was smiling inside.  For a split second, her mind turned toward memory.

***

Dillon was hard at work finish off the security on the safehouse when he turned to complain to Phantasm for the third time.

"No, I agree, there's half a dozen holes in our security.  But we've gone over this.  Smart guys like to be right, and powerful guys like to have the upper hand.  And rich guys like to know they've got the best toys.  If we're lucky, we'll get a rich, powerful, smart guy that feels like helping a charity case.  If we're not lucky, well, at least he won't feel threatened.  And we're going to have too many people at this meeting anyway, it wouldn't be a good idea to stay here after."

Dillon grumbled, he hated bad workmanship and purposeful security breaches just seemed counter-intuitive, but he finished the work as they'd planned.

***

Letting her frown smooth away, Phantasm replied with just a little bit of wounded pride.

"Hey, when you're working on a low budget and no manpower, you have to make do with what you've got.  And we've gone with more of a quantity over quality strategy anyway.  Nothing here we can't leave behind, no traces to the next bolthole.  That said, we'd be a lot better off if we didn't have to take that approach, but we'd need a little more help..."

" Understood," Wheelman said as they flashed past The Assmbly of God, heading east. " Sit down and strap in, keep your limbs inside the vehicle." Seconds later, the sleek supercar swerved violently, and aimed directly for the side of the road. The suspension heaved violently and the car and passengers left the road and sailed through the air in a trajectory that would drop it into the murky waters of the Pelton Canal, which was currently swollen with rain water. The windows slammed into place and external vents sealed themselves off before they hit with an almighty splash. Sinking almost instantly, the car was soon out of sight of their pursuers. As soon as they were fully submerged the now submarine began to move downstream. " I'll take us down to the Rochor River, then out into the harbour. If you want to make contact with whoever it was that came through that portal I can hack into the city's CCTV and broadcast systems. Otherwise I suggest we make ourselves scarce, maybe head for KL or Jakarta."

The iris of a portal discreetly opened at the edge of the crowd, depositing Gale on location and closing behind her.  Slider elected not to come through, but could still communicate with Gale by custom earpieces.

Spotting Johnny, Gale zoomed up next to him.  "What's the situation?"  She hovered next to him, eyes quickly scanning the crowd and picking out the other novas.  She cracked her knuckles.  She wasn't opposed to a fight with anti-nova protesters.  "Want me to zap something?"

Jennifer was, even a year later, not fully recovered from the hit she took at the UN building.  She lacked the enhanced constitution that many novas possessed, and the rapid healing common to all novas did little to help her through her convalescence.  In her fragile state, Jennifer "Slider" Landers chose to play tactical support for Gale.  With a quick squeeze on Gale's shoulder and a warning to signal if she needed help, Slider closed the first portal and opened another above the scene to get a better view.

Operator withdrew his hand from the open window, unsure of what was about to happen but certain he didn't want to ignore the warnings of the car. He normally didn't mind ignoring warnings cars gave him, check engine, service traction, low pressure, that sort of thing. This wasn't that car. Unsure as to whether his attempts had suppressed the aerial threat or not, he strapped in and held on.

As the car careened over the water, Operator found time to reflect on his past. How many combat drops had he made? Dozens upon dozens. HALO, HAHO, night drops, helicopter assaults, even one or two SCUBA insertions from a submarine. All of that didn't really compare to...this. The car hit the water at 300kph, cut through the surface like butter, and then swam away. Operator blinked. Not a crack in the windshield, nor a dent in the hood.

"Yeah, but what kinda highway mileage does it get?"

Operator checked his weapon, cleared the chamber, and safetied it. Hate to poke holes in James Bond's car.

"Ok Wheelman, from where I'm sitting, we've bought ourselves a breather, but not long. If any of those flying novas has a Q-Bolt to spare for us, they'll be able to not only see us in the water, but penetrate that water. I know I can, rather handily. I didn't bring my SCUBA gear, if you get my meaning, so lets get on out of here. I think linking up with the reinforcements is the way to go. Lemme see what I can get from them from here."

Operator reached out with his mind to find the familiar El Dragon, who blitzed past them right before they took a dive.

Senor Ranger, this is the Operator. Wheelman and I have found some cover in the river. What's the status topside? I took a shot at those fliers but didn't see how it went down. We've got a hot mess here and we need to fix it, but we can't do that while the bullets are still flying.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
22:42, Mon 30 Sept 2013: Operator failed (no successes) using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((6,5,6,6,3,2)). Crap

---

A confused screeching filled Operator's mind as his attempt at telepathy failed utterly.

"I think I just leaked mission critical details and information to a Carp. I can't reach them on the Operator Phone, we'll have to try something else."

Operator flipped open his phone. One bar. He texted El Dragon: Me N Whellmn r underwater lol, cant psifone you frm here. sTatus?

Stepping through the portal, Gravitas kept it open long enough for the other two to join him before dropping the concentration required to keep it open. Space-time reasserted itself as the hole sealed itself shut. He began to take stock of the situation. He recognized Operator in a car, he saw the pursuit. There was an easy way to handle the fliers. "I'm bringing the fliers down," he announced, raising one hand.

Earth's already-potent gravitational field was magnified in a small region, sufficient to catch the fliers and send them careening toward the ground. Even if they might recover, the interruption would hopefully prove useful in aiding in the escape of their allies.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Gravitas rolled 5 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,10,6,3,1,10,6,4,7,9, 3,5,10. Wit+Grav, 3 mega. Grav field

The first 10 is 3, the second two are 2, so this is actually more like 9 sux.
Welcome to 1+9=10g's fliers!

---

Daphne had been excited to get to join Laura for her concert, but the autograph signing had become somewhat repetitive before some guy started making a scene by trying to force his way to the front of the line. Daphne had been keeping an eye on the very cat like fan who had been waiting semi-patiently for her turn to see Laura and was somewhat annoyed by the man who had pushed her out of the way. It was nice of the woman with him to try and make up for it.

Daphne gives Baroness a smile. "I am certain everyone is ok, it is understandable to be excited to meet Serenade. Though maybe a little less enthusiasm next time would be appreciated by those around you." Daphne gives a small laugh before turning her attention to kitten

Before she can begin to invite Kitten back over, some of the lights go off and chaos breaks out. Daphne helps Laura to her feet and puts herself between the crowd of people and Laura. "Laura I think it might be a good idea to get you out of here and quickly. Do you think you can do something to calm some of these people while I keep them from you?" Daphne looks around to make sure the cat like nova was ok while also trying to make more difficult for people to get to Laura.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Daphne Ward rolled 7 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((4,8,2,10,4,8,1,7,5,2, 4))

That is 7 sux for force field for a soak of 18 from FF. Activating super heavy armor makes that 46B and 41L total soak.

---

Off the Coast of Singapore

Joe frowned as he felt the stirrings of alien life entering the ocean. It was spreading. Standing up, he flipped the switch to aweigh the anchor before heading towards the mast to fix the sail.

"No time. Singapore's about to blow up. I don't know what's going on exactly, but whatever is happening it can't be good for you and me. A wooden sailboat is nowhere to be if novas start blasting each other and all that."

Terri scrunched her face, processing it.

"I'll go put away the caviar and see how much fuel we have for the engine."

Joe nodded, deciding to forego the regular sail and let a complicated wave of water flow from his outstretched hands and replace it. It would require more concentration to keep the surface tension together, but hopefully it would give them the edge on making the harbor entrance compared to the other boats that would surely be rushing to open water alongside them.

Kitten, like her namesake, recovered quickly. "No problem. You know, I'll just... be second in line. Again." She was prepared to wait the extra minute or two it would probably take to get the burly one and his date through the line.

And then there were terrorists. One of her large triangular ears twitched. "Why can't I just have fun outings like normal people?" she asked of no one in particular.

As the lights dimmed, her pupils dilated, still taking in the scene without issue. "So, I'm just gonna stick with you folks," she said hopping nimbly over the table to take up a position next to Seranade opposite of Daphne. "If you don't mind, that is." She looked over to them and graced those present with a nearly-contagious grin. "I'm Kitten, by the way. As if the ears didn't give it away." As a matter of fact, she also had a tail.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Kitten's suite of MegaSocials and enhancements, plus pheromone-based body mods are all designed to make people like her. She's incredibly cute in a somewhat childish way (she looks to be a teenager as it is). Assume the MegaAppearance enhancements Halo Effect, Kawaii, and First Impression are all in effect for her (MApp2, if it matters). She's adorable. She also flips on Soothe and starts to release Interrelationship pheomones (see A New Flesh page 224 if you care how those work or whether they affect you. Toxin Rating 4 for this scene). Mostly only First Impression is intended for the PCs, the rest are to make nearby rioters calm the fuck down. They sort of hit everyone though.

---

" Almost 500 miles to the pizza, actually," Sean quipped. " I'm linked into the communications network now, I've boosted your signal strength so you should have no problem communications with this, Dragon. How's our client? The 7 point harness and head restraint should have kept him from serious injury but the sudden deceleration couldn't have been good for him." Once they had cleared the narrow confines of the canal he accelerated to around 200kph and headed for the deep water of the harbor. " I'm guessing none of those flyboys can operate underwater, we should be safe here for the time being."

Operator checked on the passenger. Unconscious, thankfully, but still alive.

"Live and unconscious. I've moved a lot of people long distances and through silly circumstances to get them out, with or without their permission. I've always found that consciousness is optional, and not preferred, when doing stuff like diving underwater at breakneck speeds."

Operator returned to his position in the car and paused a moment to take in the wildlife and the whipping by underwater landscape.

"I'll have a martini. Shaken, not stirred."

Operator reflected that, aside from saying that just now, and being in an underwater car, he had nothing in common with James Bond. Heck, he was a beer man, leave the martinis in San Fransisco and pop him open a Heineken any day.

In reply to Operator (msg # 18):
" Actually, I haven't figured out how to create an energy/matter converter yet, that and jump drives are seemingly a bit above my current skill set.  I can offer plenty of very not fresh seawater though.
Speaking of salt, and salary, do you think we're more likely to get a bump in our commission on this one, or if we're more likely to get raked over the coals and have our wages docked?  I hope for the former, but am giving the latter 50/50 odds.  Which reminds me," Wheelman connected to HQ, "HQ, this is Wheelman, Operator and I have our client, safe and sound although unconscious, and have eluded our pursuers, at least for the time being.  Once the client has regained consciousness, I assume that legal will want to talk with him about renegotiating our fees, yes?"

In reply to Wheelman (msg # 19):

Operator blinked.

"In my experience, blowing an op like this usually gets you dropped in a river with concrete shoes, or otherwise disposed of. We'll have to see how things boil down in the end. Did we blow it, or salvage it? It's a matter of press. Speaking of which, can you tune me into whatever is live right now? I need to start trying to fix this, now that eyes are off of us."

Operator steeled himself. To spin what was happening away from himself and his mission would be difficult. He needed the identity of someone they opposed, that way shifting blame could be beneficial. He didn't want "who is this mysterious nova?", rather, he wanted "look at how bad this bad nova is. We should be friends with the other guys, like Comstock and his bros," or something to that effect. He pondered this while watching fish swim past the submersible car that was talking to him.

"This is weird."

Illinois Safe House



Dillon's frown, on the other hand, was genuine.  The Flagstaff Safe House or Lincoln Safe House would have been more ideal.  The Nicaragua and Bolivia Safe Houses weren't done, but showed off more capacity.  This, the Illinois Safe House, was just a bolt hole, one of a dozen.  It had no storage and could be destroyed by precision bombing or surrounded by police with relatively little fuss.  He'd made improvements on the tiny basement, but it had taken quite a lot of work to dispose of the several tons of extracted material without causing a scene.  Calling the meeting here made zero sense.  But he trusted Phantasm's judgment.

He mustered up his charisma anyway, trying to flatter Hell Kraken.  "You're a smart man, Kraken.  Secrecy at this stage keeps our enemies from discerning our form.  And we're making a network, not a fortification.  At least for now."

He led the way to the next room, which looked empty enough but had been converted into a lift that descended to the basement.   He'd built the ceilings tall enough to accomodate Kraken's carapace, at Phantasm's suggestion.  Down here, the dominant material was steel, shaped with Comstock's hallmark touch: no welds, just smooth molecular joins creating a solid frame.  A trio of flatscreen displays was hooked to a server box of Phantasm's devising, and when Dillon came near the displays unlocked and began to feed information from agents in the field and news organizations.

A few pallets of stuff with tarps thrown over them filled one side of basement.  Mostly boxes of emergency foodstuffs, water, medicine, and clothes.  One pallet drew Kraken's attention however: concealed beneath the tarp were metal bars.  Rare, precious metals: gold, tungsten, iridium, rhodium.  Several hundred pounds of the stuff, in fact.  A fortune ... for one that could make use of it or sell it, anyway.

Comstock moved past the pallet without a care and checked on the two events underway.  Singapore seemed well in hand, with Sol, Dragón and Gravitas doing him a big favor with the assist.  The riot in Texas looked more unstable and uncertain.  "You've said it yourself: Utopia doesn't want progress or innovation anymore.  They won't call up T2M to protect anyone outside their influence.  Not anymore."

"So I've built my own group.  And we're growing.  We have three objectives: protect and police novas, because the world's governments and Utopia haven't; enforce the Quantum Powers Non-Proliferation Treaty; and hold Project Utopia accountable for crimes against humanity, for the actions of Proteus and the administration."  He turned back to the Hell Kraken.  "I can't leave this to the Teragen.  Or Utopia.  You have humanity's interests at heart; I've seen that.  I want your support."

Either Comstock was just another petty nova chieftain dreaming of power and concealing it behind pleasant rhetoric, or he'd become an uncompromising idealist intent on taking on the world because he felt no one else could.  For Kraken's benefit, he outlined the basic structure of their 'underground railroad'.  Prior to now, Vigilance was primarily delivering information to new novas, giving them options and a way out if they felt trapped, and helping them build new identities to escape Utopia and the Directive.  Today, they were moving into the next stage:  responding in force to threats the way that T2M typically would.  "We won't play mercenary for you; you have armored drones for that.  But your interests are the world's interests.  And Vigilance can protect them.  You could even play a more direct role yourself, maybe provide jobs and homes to novas with nowhere else to turn."  Phantasm had said that Kraken loved recruiting into his corporation.  That's how it had grown from startup to megacorporation in only five years.  With an impenetrable expression, he waited for Kraken's reaction.

Daphne got a much better look at Kitten once she was on the same side of the table and couldn't help but smile at her new acquaintance. "Well nice to meet you and I don't mind a little help in keeping us safe. I'd make conversation, but riots don't put me in a good mood."

Daphne looks around for a place to get out of here with hurting as few people as possible when she spots Gale in the air and waves for her. "I don't know if Gale can help get us out of here unharmed or not, but the only other option I see is trying to shove our way out back behind the stage."

Singapore
The ex-Team Tomorrow members still acted with the grace and coordination of a well-practiced team.  Gravitas hovered above the scene, his gravity field pinning one nova man to the ground and throwing another wildly off course.  Dragon, landing in front of the motorcycles, destroyed the bikes of all of the baseline riders and one of the novas.  Solitaire stayed back as reinforcement, watching the scene and waiting to move in where needed.

Wheelman and Operator were less practiced, but were doing quite well for having only been on assignment together for two days.  Wheelman slid into the water, altering his form to a submersible mode.  The water slowed his movement significantly but helped to shield them from the remaining flyers.  On the way into the sea, Operator managed to force the flying novas to take evasive action, the woman thrown off course and partially immobilized by Gravitas fell into the water with a splash as the remaining flyer strafed by the elite's position while attempting to dodge the hail of bullets.  She hit Joe's boat with a stray laser blast in the process, but failed to land a shot on the submersible vehicle.

The two remaining nova motorcyclists exchanged a glance as they landed on the other side of Dragon's force field.  The situation had shifted dramatically, from overwhelming advantage to being hunted by some of the world's most dangerous novas.  The two split, one taking an exit ramp, while the other hopped the median and sped back in the opposite direction, quickly accelerating to 200kph.

Wheelman's transmission was met with the calm, pleasant voice of a DeVries agent.  "Wheelman and Operator, we are aware of your situation and are sending an agent to extract our client.  Hold back for a few moments then return to the docks once the other novas on scene have taken care of the last of the assailants. And please rest assured that you are going to receive extra compensation for your efforts.  Anna wants you to know that your work, while not discreet, will do wonders for the agencies reputation.  Avoiding 6 novas while protecting the client was an amazing feat."  The signal dropped a bit there at the end, as the elites passed under a boat racing out to open sea.

Joe noticed the movement under his boat, the submersible had moved directly below him.  The flying nova was coming back around for another pass.  Joe had done absolutely nothing to deserve this, but that was life.  Or his life, anyway.

Operator, his mind still connected to what seemed to be a simple, happy-go-lucky magical carp named Otho, found himself caught in an inconvenient conversation.  "I believe that last woman, the one with the lasers, is coming around for another pass.  It would be polite if you moved out from under the boat, it has at least one non-nova on it, and she isn't likely to survive if the boat goes down." The fish was just being rude; he wouldn't let the connection go, and was now intimating that the elites were being inconsiderate to bystanders.

---

Dallas, TX
Serenade took a rock, or perhaps a brick, to the head when the fighting started, leaving her a bit dazed.  Daphne was there to protect her benefactor from further assault as the press of panicked people carried the stunned Serenade, and the cluster of novas surrounding her, toward the portion of the festival that still had light.  Kitten's calming presence manages to make the closest members of the crowd more civil and reasonable, but the larger crowd is still an issue.  As though to hammer home that point, Baroness's pet made a nasty slash in one of the protestors that was running up to their little group, waving his sign like a club before falling back in terror from the homunculus.

In the air, Gale hovered near Johnny, who was fiddling with his tool kit and calibrating his gear before taking action. "Lady, you were at this superhero business before I was even flying.  I was about to ask if you had any bright ideas.  Not sure how it started, but there's a full blown riot down there, and we need to stop it before any more people get hurt."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Didn't want to steal Johnny's thunder, so I din't reply much, just enough to let Gale move forward with the scene.

---

---

Illinois Safe House
Slider split her attention between the view-screens and her spy portal as she monitored the riot in Texas.  Antonio and Saul, two more of Dillon's invites to the party sat nearby watching the scene unfold.  Saul, aged body dressed in a new eufiber suit that he wore uncomfortably, spoke quietly to Dillon "I should be at one of these scenes.  Flare should be at the other.  There are people that need healing there I'm certain."

Antonio, health renewed and hygene vastly improved since first seeking out Dillon, shied away as Kraken walked by.  He didn't remember much of his stay at the "hospital" but there was a deeply unpleasant association buried somewhere in Antonio's brain.

Off the Coast of Singapore

Joe growled and cnidocystic arrays opening like wide-mouthed open sores on his skin began to wink on and off, waiting to catch the unwary. Even his teeth began to sharpen and his vision went black and white before he shook it off with a head shake. The stinging barbs in his hands actually made them sticky, clinging to the wooden teak of the classically styled yacht.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY BOAT!"

Inside the cabin, Joe's girlfriend cowered helplessly as his hormones raged and his anger and frustration built, her body betrayed by deep instinctual reaction to his sudden lack of control.

Joe snarled and the yacht made a sudden, drastic turn away from the sub's path aided by watery fins that spun from Joe's glistening skin like a spider's web. Racing across the water he pulled the waves from the prow, reducing drag, the wooden boat making a sudden knife through the harbor.

He spared a look over his shoulder at the flying nova. Stayawayfrommyboat!

Dallas, TX

She watched the brick fly and smack the poor superstar but Baroness held her ground. She looked back to the crowd with a frozen glare, a smile forming only as the protester ran from her twisted creature. She called out to the crowd, "Your numbers mean nothing here" she kept her first homunculus from charging the crowd but it still lashed and howled back, "You judge us? All I see is a pack of wild animals! Beasts with no decency! Cattle who would do well not to tempt the wolf," she threw the force of her appearance at the crowd, warping into a dark and intimidating figure, angry but from the shame of their violence. Her hand bubbling as a hint that it might drip like some horrific faucet and spill out more homunculi.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Thought I'd try that fancy dice roller ya got there!

00:43, Today: Baroness rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,8,5,1,7,4,2,5,5,2, 5. Mega[(ish))-Intimidation Activate!

So that's 4 successes with her Mega-App I believe. Numberz scare me, btwsies xD

---

"We read you, control. Wheelman out. Operator? Operator? We've lost all but one of our assailants, and command has instructed us to hold position until our client can be extracted.  I will drop to the bottom of the harbor until evac arrives."

Dragón launched into the air after the one that cut across the median.  "Hey Sol," he said over the comm, "I saved you one.  The one headed down the exit ramp looks like he wants to play."  He grinned, then added, "Now don't play too rough with the poor thing, you know how easily they get overstressed.  The little critter is liable to keel right over if you scare him too much."

Then he shot forward in an arc that took him above the cyclist's line of sight.  When he was parallel with the fleeing nova and just to his left, he juked down and to the side, striking with a Pushing Hands technique that transferred Dragón's momentum directly into the cyclist's center of balance.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
01:28, Wed 02 Oct 2013: El Dragon rolled 6 9 successes using 16d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((3,4,2,1,9,9,7,2,10,10, 3,5,3,3,10,1)) Taijiquon "Shove" [NewF pg 83]. [He gets knocked back 1m x (Might [15] + net successes + 25 [from M-Str auto-sux])]

---

Operator took several measured breaths before trying to respond to the information he got from Otho. Such an action had to be...measured.

"I think there's a nova trying to hit us through the water, and they might hit that boat above us instead. Lets draw them away from the civilians if possible, shall we? While I'd rather not get hit, I'm much more opposed to using innocents as human shields."

That oughta do it. No reason to go into telepathic messages from fish.

"Roger that. He adjusted his descent to take them away from the shipping lanes, as far from civilian vessels as was possible.  " Of course, we could always take her down, I've still got enough juice left to get airborn.  Also, did you know that someone's been trying to reach you on your cell?"

If Comstock had planned to out-stoneface Wilhelm, a nova with no discernible facial features, he'd planned poorly.  Wilhelm didn't react visibly when shown the information system.  He didn't react visibly when shown the implicit bribe of the pile of metal ingots.  When the presentation was over his visage was as impenetrable as Comstock's, likely because it could be no other way.  The silence soon grew awkward.  Eventually it was broken.  "Talk is all well and good, but I'm afraid I need more.  An indication of your bona fides if you will."  Wilhelm paced back and forth for a moment, not necessarily thinking so much as composing.  "You seem loath to give me accurate information, information I would require if I were to help you.  I won't push you on it.  At least not for the moment.  You probably have your reasons.  An alternative.  You are familiar, no doubt, with Project Utopia's technological regulations?  Certain technologies are deemed so dangerous to established power structures that they're confiscated, never to be seen again unless in Utopia hands.  Sometimes the inventors of these technologies are similarly disappeared.  An unfortunate state of affairs.  No doubt too you have access to such technologies, either of your own devising or of someone else's.  If some such technology were to find its way into the public domain it would certainly go a long way to proving you mean what you say."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:05, Thu 03 Oct 2013.

This was less than what he'd hoped.  But still more than nothing.  "P?"  He turned, still frowning, looking for an assist.  "What would you say the public domain is ready for?"

The events over the world continued to play out.  Being here instead of out there took its toll on Dillon, and it was beginning to show.

Phantasm tapped out a rapid beat on the wall she was leaning against. An old Green Women song with Zero on lead vocals, Quantum Obscura, screamed in her headphones.  He's depending on me too much, he needs some confidence.  I want to give him ideas, but the choices need to be his.

"Depends on what you want to throw at them.  They've got all the entertainment they can handle, you ask me.  They don't need an upgrade to their cellphone or even faster opnet cables, they need something that either meaningfully enhances their lives, or something that qualitatively changes the human experience.  We may be a little early for that last one though, so maybe something in the 'life enhancement' category?  Drugs or gene therapies that make for more efficient people would be my first choice, no reason people shouldn't be able to use some of the gene research out there to make themselves better, but there's so many options out there...

For example, you could improve the infrastructure of a city, and let that city act as a template for others. You and Kraken have driven  development in Vegas for years, why not do even more there?  Imagine what the city would be like with a nova-age power grid... Take some of the super high yield solar cells R&D never released because of how they'd destablize world energy markets, update the grid itself with shielding, new materials, and better computers with more advanced programs to run things... Vegas would have nearly free energy, and the infrastructure for it would be an order of magnitude more resilient to natural disasters or terrorist attacks... There would be new jobs, not just in renovating the city, but in producing materials for other places interested in upgrades of their own...

But it all depends on how big you want to go, and how much you think you can get away with before Utopia or the big corporate powers clamp down on things."