Both Sasha and I were presented with a mist like wall.
"Just step on through and you will next be opening your eyes in a remote body. The mist is just to give a sense of transition for the mind; it can be a bit jarring otherwise." Aegis said. I looked at Sasha who just shrugged and disappeared into the mist. I followed a second later.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by a similar looking room to where I began this whole crazy adventure. I was currently laying down on a cool metal table and had a medical gown covering me. Aegis then appeared in my vision.
"How do you feel?" She asked me.
"Normal? I think? Am I supposed to feel different?" I asked.
"Nope at least not until you start doing stuff that goes outside of normal human limitations." She said.
I sat up on the table and took a better look at myself. I was still my female version of me… that was going to take some getting used to.
I turned around on the table and saw an equally confused Sasha.
"Elena do you feel any different?" She asked me.
"No? But you still have your cat ears and tail." I commented.
"I know, isn't it great?" She asked excitedly.
"So now what?" I asked my AI.
"Well I would recommend you get changed first." She said with a small smile.
"Wait, I just realized I'm not wearing my AR glasses." I said confused
"You are currently piloting an artificial body, your eyes have all of that built in already." She told me and that made me blink a few times. They still felt like my eyes.
I then felt Aegis grab my wrist and gently pull me. After two steps I realized that that should be impossible. I pulled my arm away in panic and felt it slip through her grasp.
"How can you touch me?" I asked confused and alarmed, this was all far too much.
"Elena all of your senses are in your mind, this body can emulate the physical interactions you would normally feel. I could hug you and you would feel like you are being hugged." She said with a smile.
"Wait really?" I asked, understanding some of what she was talking about.
"Yes" then she hugged me and I could feel her arms and body and heat from her.
"So what does this look like if someone wasn't wearing AR glasses…" I asked. I had a guess as to what this might look like.
"It would look like you are hugging the air." She told with her continued amused expression.
It was about that time that I saw a blur of limbs and Argus shouted "Help! She's taking me on an adventure!" And I heard giggling coming from Sasha.
"We should do something about that shouldn't we." I asked Aegis.
"Yeah… it's always entertaining to watch Argus flail around during this stage." She commented.
Sasha quickly darted into the women's changing room and I was just about to head in but stopped.
"You are a woman now, parts and all. Well except the proper hormone mix…" she commented.
"What was that last part?" I asked confused.
"We can talk before you go to bed tonight." She told me then indicated I should enter.
I took a deep breath, then let out a long sigh and pushed my way past the door. Luckily it was empty except for Sasha who was completely naked and digging in a locker with her name on it.
"Fuck sorry!" I shouted as I turned around in embarrassment.
"What's wrong?" I heard her ask from behind me.
"You're naked…" I said still not turning around.
"Yeah and? …. Oh! Umm one second I'm almost done." And I heard lots of movement behind me.
"Finished!" I heard behind me and turned around to see Sasha cat girl in dark green leggings and a tee-shirt tail slowly wagging back and forth. The outfit really fit her well.
I went over to my locker and opened it up. I was greeted by a similar outfit to what I had been wearing while in the digital space.
I was just about to take off my medical gown when I noticed Sasha was still looking at me. That got her attention.
"What? I was curious…" She said playfully.
"Your body does look quite nice." I heard Aegis whisper to me. I gave her a look.
"What? … I designed it after all…" She said indignantly.
I quickly got dressed once I figured everyone was looking away. It still felt weird putting women's clothes on but there was a comfort too that yes this indeed belonged. Also the panties had little hearts on them and I might have actually found them sort of cute.
"Alright I'm all dressed… Now what do we do?" I asked.
"Let's go to floor 214 there is an unoccupied rec room that has a climbing wall and stuff. You will both be pleasantly surprised as to what you can do." Aegis suggested.
We did so and were greeted by the equivalent of an adult jungle gym, as well as a rock wall, weight and all sorts of other odds and ends.
"Have fun, jump around you physically can't injure yourselves, you will also find that if you go past physical human tolerance you will get a sort of subliminal buzzing sensation. That is there to yelp you differently between your remote body and natural body." Aegis explained.
Sasha immediately started to climb up the rock wall.
"This is so cool!" She shouted as she nearly sprinted up the side of the 40 foot wall. The was at the top of the wall that turned into an under hang then she let herself hang by one hand.
"Elena, you have to try this, it's amazing!" Sasha called down to me, I could now see she was dangling by one finger.
I nervously approached the wall and started to climb it. It didn't feel like it took any more effort than anything else.
"See you can do it!" Aegis encouraged, at that I looked down and it was only a 10 foot drop to a thickly padded floor.
"Yeah this isn't so bad." I said as I continued to climb. Then I got to the point where it inverted and like a set of monkey bars I pulled myself hand over hand to Sasha.
"See you can do it no problem, it's effortless." She said smiling while still holding on with one finger. She was right as well, I was no more tired than walking on a level path. Then I looked down.
"Oh Fuck I didn't realize how high up we were!" I said in a panic.
"Elena just breathe, you’re in no danger!" I heard Aegis call up to me.
I heard Argus then suck in a breath through his teeth. I didn't hear him say anything but he must have communicated something to Aegis as she responded.
"Well she's going to learn one way or another." She replied to Argus.
"What was that?" I said in a panic.
"Nothing dear, you'll be fine." Aegis said with a wide smile.
"Oh…" Sasha said under her breath a moment later.
"Are you all talking behind my back?" I asked while still panicking.
"Yes…" Sasha said and she looked like she was about to start laughing.
"What?" I was in the middle of asking when I felt the synthetic rock give way under one set of fingers then the other.
“SHIT!” I yelled as I fell down to the ground and landed feet first. To my utter surprise other than a minor jolt of impact I didnt feel anything.
“Okay… that happened.” I said wide eyed as I looked around.
“Don’t worry we will eventually work on desensitizing you to heights. It's a common and real phobia.” Aegis said to me.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“So is it going to be a lot of that kind of stuff soon?” I asked, trying to calm myself down.
“Unfortunately yes… much much worse… Argus and I will be required to do things… obviously right now we just want you to get used to this.” Aegis said with a hint of melancholy.
"I think I understand better why you try your hardest to help elsewhere. It's your method of trying to make up for some of the harm you are going to cause." I said.
"Yes… and while we are not perfect we have a pretty damn good idea what helps." She said.
"So is that why you keep trying to pair me with Sasha?" I asked jokingly.
Aegis started to laugh.
"No but she will become your best friend if you let that happen. You're going to need more than 2 crazed and demented AIs as your friends… we will work on a support network if you’re willing. As well as a willing partner you can engage in sexual activities with." She said with a knowing smile.
"Wow… really you are just going to slap me in the face with that?" I asked shocked.
"Yup like I said just treat me as your older degenerate sister that just wants to see you happy." She said teasing.
"What the fuck did I sign up for…" I muttered to myself.
"Elena, are you ok?" Sasha asked me.
"Yeah…" I said.
Sasha was in the process of climbing down the wall.
“Why didn't you just let go?”
"I tried but I just couldn't even after I saw you land." She said.
"Wait but you were holding on with one finger." I said confused.
"Yeah but that didn't mean I could let go…" She said.
"Alright well let's both go up again and drop to the floor. This body feels completely fine even after falling 40 feet…" I said.
"Wait really?" She asked.
“Yeah… it’s the quickest way we are going to get used to this…” I said, now that I was far less worried about breaking my legs.
We both quickly climbed back to the top and were hanging on like a couple of kids on some monkey bars.
“Alright on the count of three we let go.” I said.
“Umm… can you hold my hand?” She asked.
“Sure” I said and I let go with one arm. She grabbed on and I could feel her grip tighten around mine.
“Alright… three… two… one… release…” I said and let go, luckily she let go as well or else I could have become a pendulum. Once on the ground we looked at each other and started to giggle.
After we got used to falling a few more times we started to look around for something else to try. I quickly found a bench press sort of thing. Then I tried to think at Aegis my question… I really needed to practice this whole subvocalization thing.
"What is the maximum weight this body can press?"
"Did you just try to subvocalize a question to me?" She asked in my head.
"Yes" I thought very hard at her.
"Alright I'll disable your body's mouth and voice for a moment then you can ask."
I then felt a sort of click in my mouth and throat. Then I tried to say "Wait, you can do that?"
"Yes" Aegis responded.
"That feels fucking weird…" I commented.
"So what was the question Dear?" She asked.
"How much can this body bench?" I asked.
"Test and find out, I am now reactivating your mouth and throat." She told me, the. I felt another click.
"That felt weird…" I said after the fact.
"You ok?" Sasha asked concerned.
"Yeah.. tried to subvocalize a question and it became a whole thing… end result I was told to figure it out myself…" I said.
"Okay…" she said, only mildly concerned.
"Well let's set this to max and see what happens." I said to myself, the bench appeared to have the weights attached to a complex pulley system. I found a digital dial on the weight and kept spinning it until it stopped.
The dial read 1400kg.
I lied down on the bench then attempted to press the bar upward.
"You have never tried to use a bench press before have you?" Sasha asked, her face appearing upside down in my vision, making her just above me.
"Umm no…" I said a bit sheepishly.
"Right, let's switch and I can show you how to do this properly." She said, as we were switching she looked at the weight.
"1400kg are you flipping kidding!? That's impossible." She said then set it back down to 60kg.
"Alright so you are going to need to be my spotter which means you will need to stand near my head." She said and I got closer.
"Alright you need to keep a small amount of force on the bar but not enough to assist me. The idea is if I am struggling then you can add the needed support to assist me in lifting up the bar." She told me and I think I was following.
She then positioned herself on the bench such that the bar was currently in line with her chin. She then pressed up on the bar and moved it to about inline with her chest.
"Again you don't need to apply any force, you just need to help lift if I am struggling." She said.
"But I'm barely touching the bar." I said.
"Wait really?" She asked then did several reps.
"And you're not helping through any of that?" She asked after we reset the bar.
"Nope" I replied.
Sasha then set the weight to 120kg. "I mean 60kg… let's try 80kg" she was rambling to herself. She started again.
"And you're seriously not helping?" She asked.
"Again no" I said, starting to chuckle at the disbelief.
After several more minutes of testing.
"Wow… 800kg is when I started to actually notice the weight." Sasha said.
Then she looked at Argus and asked "What is the maximum weight these body's can do?"
"Test and find out." He told her.
"You two are enjoying this aren't you?" I asked our AI companions.
"Yup, it's one of the more fun aspects of this job. To watch the disbelief. It never gets old." Aegis said.
"Right… mind if we switch?" I asked Sasha.
"Sure" She said and got up.
After seeing her I set the weight to 1000kg. Once she was in position I did what she had done earlier. Like she had said earlier, I could feel it but it wasn't really lifting weight exactly.
"Fuck it let's max it out again." I said and set the machine back to 1400kg. This time I was at least in a proper position compared to my first attempt.
"Ummm how does if feel?" She asked.
"Little different from the 1000kg." I said. I reset the bar and Sasha and I switched again so she could try.
"Yeah… Do we have anything heavier?" I asked our AI companions.
As it turned out we didn't need to. Sasha and I discovered the entire room's gravity was adjustable.
“Okay… I didn't even consider gravity as being an option… It’s sort of been consistent all my life…” I said only somewhat sarcastically.
“Well it is constant for most people still.” Argus said dryly.
It took the two of us several hours of tests but we figured out our bodies could handle anywhere between 15 to 30 times a athletics human body's strength. That admittedly depending on what area of the body was being used as well.
“You know what, I am going to try something that should have been obvious at the beginning…” I commented, then I positioned myself under the rockwall overhang and jumped up with as much force as I could muster… Which turned out to be much more than what was needed. I smacked head first into the artificial rock then fell back down to the ground.
As I lay there processing what happened I asked “Did you two enjoy that display?”
“Yes” I received in a chorus from the two AI’s watching the spectacle.
“Elena are you ok?” Shash asked in a panic.
“Yeah… just my dignity is injured… I mean I felt the impact but it didn't really hurt.” I commented, as I got back up to my feet.
“So what is the maximum fall we can handle?” I asked.
“You can handle any fall up to terminal velocity in Earth gravity at standard air density. The body may sustain minor to moderate injuries depending on landing but broken bones, torn muscles and the like are not major issues. In fact you could reattach a severed limb if it was a clean enough cut and have the limb back to 60% efficiency within 4 hours on its own.” Aegis said.
“That is both very interesting and sort of gruesome…” I said wide eyed.
“Some of the more gruesome simulations will put what you can mentally handle to the limit…” Argus said a bit reluctantly.
“So umm what else can we do?” I asked.
“You could always try running on the track, you will be astonished at what your mile time is.” Aegis commented.
“Or you could eat anything you want and not get fat.” Argus said with a faint smile.
“Was that a comment on my weight?” Sasha accused Argus.
“Umm no just a comment about food, which also means you can try out any alien dishes that would have been toxic to humans… well all except for the one dish that was sort of like green bubbling pudding… that stuff does not agree with any synthetic materials…” Argus said.
"So wait, do we need to eat?" I asked.
"Like everything you are discovering, the answer is complicated. The synthetic materials are mostly organic and some of the internal organs act as processors. If you are deployed in the field you may be required to consume unnatural sources of food to replenish some of the rarer materials. Not everything can be replicated via that process as well. When you get to that stage then the body needs to be recycled. As for the actual power supply the internal reactor can supply power for up to 400 days between refueling." Aegis told us.
"There are boat loads of other rules you will need to be aware of but if you don't damage it then you are not required to eat. Your mind might have more issues with not eating for long periods of time however." Argus said, trying to condense what Aegis was trying to cover.
I took Aegis's earlier advice and tried a cardio routine that turned into a session of how long I could sprint for. It was confusing in odd ways as I was not getting physically tired but I did feel a slow mental fatigue starting to grow on me. At this point Sasha and I had decided to split up for a while and try things on our own.
I stopped my jog of 60 kph for the past hour. It felt odd that I wasn't winded at all, or sweaty, or hungry.
"Hey Aegis, physically I feel fine but mentally I am starting to feel fatigued. What's going on?" I asked.
"Remember the body is synthetic and your brain is currently receiving its modified signals. Your brain is still in your body and is still 100% organic. You will eventually need to sleep." She told me.
"Ah… and do I need to transfer out of this body and back to my original?" I asked hesitantly.
"No, at least not for the next few days. Your body is currently in short term stasis. We will need to have you switch back for a day at least to ensure no damage occurred due to the link system. It's very rare but not impossible." She added.
"So I guess what should I do?" I asked.
"The recommendation is to try and keep a similar routine to what you had previously; it helps keep your mind anchored in reality. We still need to avoid a full blow dissociative episode and a few other problems that can come up psychologically but you are highly resistant to the more common issues. Again this all feeds back into a very rare intersection of genetic and neurological possibilities." She said, still continuing to ramble somewhat.
“So many things to keep track of…” I commented.
“I'll show you how to set up subroutines and reminders.” She said.