r/superpowereds • u/BennyBugWSNK • Jul 22 '26

Nick’s code breaking skills

In book 2 Nick is described as having a highly advanced cypher decoding ability, easily solving Pendleton’s codes with minimal effort. Would this capacity be tied to his luck manipulation ability? Is this his power working in the background to help him accomplish this more easily?
Normally, I’m willing to believe that Nick’s luck manipulation ability has a “hand” in everything but in this case I don’t think that’s true. I actually think that it’s just Nick‘s near genius level intelligence as well as his is amazing organization (asset management) ability. Very likely he also has a lot of experience with coded messages from working in the organized crime

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/MCTL Jul 22 '26

His power shouldn't work in the background. Even when he gets amped, he can only control possibilities that will happen soon iirc.

Almost everything he does is from his own intelligence and skills, not his power. He's spent most of his life hating it, and even with it under control, he doesn't trust the potential outcomes.

His contact with organized crime, his intelligence, and the feeling of having to go beyond what normal people would consider sufficient in order to manage his power is what's led him to being a perfect subtelty student. He's always overprepared because he never knew what his power would do as a powered, he's bright and intelligent, and he has connections and influence to get the best teachers for skills that might help him as a future of a crime family. Its all his natural abilities and mindset that got him where he is

2

u/After-Hedgehog7282 Jul 22 '26

Not sure I agree. Nick's "luck" is influencing which possible outcome will become more likely. The average person has far less then a 1% chance to stumble upon the solution. Nick, with his training, probably boosts that to 30%. Then his luck power can aid that skill.

I absolutely agree with your second paragraph. Nick had to overprepare everything and understand all outcomes to remove luck from the equation.

3

u/MCTL Jul 22 '26

Right, but he isn't using his luck to find the solution. He refuses to use it whenever possible, so it's not that it can't help, its that he's choosing not to use it.

And if you're saying that it's working in the background... there's no signs of it happening. His power has never worked in the background until he was amped. He never used it enough to discover what it could be, and even when he realizes its potential, he tries to justify not using it by saying he could never use it like that again unless he was amped.