Recently, I've had the desire to make a reaction-based character. I don't just want to make a street samurai, I'd like to be good at something other than just killing. But still, I'm planning on having my reaction at the augmented 9, perhaps by starting with 5, getting level 2 Wired Reflexes, and level 2 reflex enhancers. The idea of being unnecessarily fast appeals to me, and I actually have one question: The book described wired reflexes as everything being slowed down, but to what extent? Can I see a bullet whizzing by my head, and catch the shrapnel from a grenade? I need to know the limits of high reflexes.
With Wired Flexes you aren't actually "sped up" but your perception of time changed and your REACTIONS to situations are sped up. Everyone around you just seems to do things soooo slowly because of the "thought time" involved in moving.
Best "currently world" example I've heard was given by a GM back in college. A person with wired reflexes feels, all the time, like you do when you're in a hirry at the store and you end up behind some 80-year-old "little old lady" who's buying $20 worth of stuff with pennies... And she's counting them out one at a time. 1... 2... 3....
Wired Reflexes do not effect your speed, they eliminate the natural lag time between noticing something, processing what you've seen, deciding on a course of action, then informing your muscles what to do. By way of example:
You, Luther, Frank and I are playing two synched Wack-A-Mole games. You have Wired Reflexes 3, Luther Has Flexes 2, Frank Has Flexes 1 and I'm purely natural. Before you guys had the modifications we were pretty much the same and on average we'd tie in a series of games. Now, however, there's a marked difference.
1. We'd all 4 SEE the mole pop up at the same time.
2. Our brains would all identify the mole at the same time and formulate a "plan of attack" on the mole at the same time.
3. Our brains would SEND the signal to our arms on what to do to hit the mole.
4. Here's where it would get diferent:
a. The signal from your brain to your arm would travel faster that all of us, so your arm would move first
b. a split second later, Luther's arm would move since his signals were faster than the signals for Frank and me
c. Frank's arm would move a split second after Luther, because his signals are faster than me
d. I would finally move my arm because my signals were moving the slowest.
However, every part of the movements would be going at the same speed. You swing your arm at the same speed I do, you just swing first.
5. And here's where the biggest advantage of Wired Reflexes shows. You smack your mole first, and your muscles report back the task is complete and they're ready to go again. The return signal is just as fast as the sent one, so you "reset" for another hit faster than the other three of us as well (followed by Luther, then Frank, then me), meaning you now have the time to identify, plan and execute another attack before we can reset from the first hit.
All the hits and movements are the same speed, it's just that the time required to inform the muscles how to make the hit as well as the "returned information" on the hit is seriously reduced.
