Saturday. 20:00 Primary Armory

“So, this is what you designed?” Alice asked, “Gotta admit, this armor doesn’t look as mean as the Mark 6 set does.”

“And yet the armor on this one is significantly stronger than the old suit,” John was sitting at a workbench working on the hood.

Kristin and Andern were walking down the ramp to the armory. The door was open, and they could hear voices from within. They peeked in and walked around a corner to see Alice and John sitting at a table.

“We were wondering if you were…” Kristin stopped when he saw the new armor, “Now that, hmm, looks homely.”

John looked up from the workbench, “Once again, the armor plates are stronger than the old suit, it’s over sixty percent lighter and generates twice as much power as the Mark 6 suit.”

“Still looks like shit,” Andern shook his head.

“So, are we even allowed in here?” Kristin asked as she walked over to Alice.

“Got permission to work on this,” John pointed at the new suit, “Weekends and on PE days during the week. Bastards.”

“What are you working on there?” Andern was pointing at the device John was working on.

“An amplifier, or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be. Doing fuck all at the moment,” John shook his head.

“What’s it supposed to do?” Kristin asked as she looked over her back at John.

“It is supposed to amplify psychic signals,” John was looking at it with a magnifying glass, “Well, that explains one thing.”

John grabbed some tools and began working on the component that looked like it wasn’t working. The friends hung around and were looking at the different things in the armory. John was being fastidious about working on the device in front of him. Ten minutes later he plugged it into power and focused some psychic energy on it.

“Ok, I can feel that creepy feeling again. I don’t like that one bit,” Andern said.

“No shit, you shouldn’t like it. The energy your feeling radiating through you isn’t something you could produce anyways.”

John walked over to the reliquary where the prototype armor was and hooked the hood into a slot that would cover his neck and head. He placed another device in a slot between where his shoulder blades would be. The last thing he did was activated the suit by having it draw a minimal amount of power from the reliquary.

“Well, let’s see if this worked,” John was looking at the readings, “Not too bad. I need to build a new one, but this should at least suffice.”

John walked over to the locker to the right of the reliquary. He stripped down to his boxers and began putting on a combat suit. None of the group that was there seemed all that surprised at John changing in front of them. The reliquary hummed as the armor was mounted to the combat suit.

“That armor still looks like ass,” Andern gave his blunt opinion.

“He is right, that just looks weird,” Alice got up and walked over to where John was.

“What they said,” Kristin smirked, “It just looks so mismatched.”

John heard his friends diss his prototype armor. John wasn’t really paying much attention to them though; he was focused on the armor’s readouts. Specifically, he was looking at the amplification device and if it could handle the power the suit was sending it. It looked like it was holding steady.

“Yes, it looks like ass, it’s a prototype after all,” John waived at his friends then walked over to the practice area.

John began putting the armor through its paces. John ran some laps around, then sprinted down the center of it, stopped, and ran back. He then did some agility tests with it. Cutting back and forth as he ran. Rolling backward and diving in different directions, then seeing how easy it was to stand up.

“Is it just me or is he way quicker in it?” Alice asked.

“It’s not you, that is way quicker,” Kristin answered.

Andern was holding a spare armor plate, “You should feel this stuff,” He tossed it at Kristin.

“Andern…” Kristin caught the armor plate, the look of anger on her face changed to wonder, “This barely weighs anything.”

“So, he boosted the power and reduced the weight. All that powers gotta be doing something for the armor,” Alice said as she watched John zip back and forth in the test range.

The trio stopped talking and felt shivers go up their spine. The source of that sensation was John, the amount of psychic energy radiating off of him was substantially more than anything they had felt in the past. They knew what was being tested now. It was hard to believe but he was moving even faster around the arena.

The test went on until the top of the hour. John powered the suit's system down as he walked to the reliquary. It began taking off the armor plates. Ten minutes later John was changed back into his fatigues. Before he left the armory with his friends, he placed the armor plates in a device. The machine would reshape the armor plates but wouldn’t remove any material. The armor plates would be textured and angled to deflect kinetic rounds. Thermal attacks would be channeled away from their initial impact point.

John smiled as they walked out, “Got some work to do with the amplifier but I think we’re pretty damn close to finishing that bad boy out.”

“I’m guessing you’re going to spend most of the day down here tomorrow after PE,” Alice smirked as she took his hand.

“Of course, he is, he’s got a new toy to play with,” Andern laughed.

“Yup, though I would probably do the same thing,” Kristin smiled.

“Mind readers, the lot of you,” John laughed.

The group made some idle chit-chat and decided to go on a double date the next weekend after the football game. Kristin asked about the wedding and Alice was more than happy to share some additional details about it. Andern was only curious about what food was being served. John gave him the disappointing news that he’d have to wait until after Christmas break to find that out. When they got back to the quad, John and Alice headed to their dorm.

21:30 Co-Ed Dorm

“So can we talk about this whole genetics’ thing?” Alice sat down on the couch next to John.

“Sure, though I’m not sure what more there is to say.”

“So, you don’t know what it all means?”

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“I mean, it is what it is,” John shrugged, “At the end of the day it just means that physically you’re a bit smarter, faster, stronger, and agile than the baseline human.”

“What about lifespan and disease?”

“Well, that’s where it goes from hard science to assumptions. We’ll probably live longer, and it stands to reason that our immune systems are harder. But just like regular people can have compromised immune systems that can happen to superiors as well.”

“So basically, it doesn’t mean much.”

“I would say there’s way more that we don’t know than we do.”

“So did you ever find out why Patrice was targeted?” Alice wanted to change the subject.

“Officially it was a result of corporate espionage,” John shook his head.

“That sounds made up and idiotic.”

“Because it is. Patrice’s family was convinced to have their oldest daughter get married off to some Mercantilist with connections.”

Alice paused a moment, “Wait, so the connection was the man that sent the two monsters?”

“Seems to reason they were there as an insurance policy, they just arrived later than expected. Which in hindsight was a damn good thing.”

“How many of us would’ve died trying to get out?”

John stood up and walked to the cupboard to get a snack. “You don’t want to know.”

“No, I do. Tell me.”

John leaned up against the wall, “One or two of us get out alive.”

Alice was stunned, “Had you heard of them before?”

“Rumors and insinuation only. This was the first time they were confirmed to have operated in Confed territory,” John took a bite of the granola bar, “I wasn’t lying about their lethality. Pure happenstance is the only reason any of us are still around.”

“So, that new armor is a hard counter for them?” Alice laid down on the couch.

“That would be an added bonus. The amplifier will allow me to do some practical tests with my powers rather than the theoretical tests I run all the time. Plus, it will give me some hard analytics regarding my training.”

Alice crawled off the couch and walked over to John, “Be careful, I want you around for the long haul.”

John smiled as he leaned in and kissed her, “I will.”

“Well, I’m tired and we have PE at 06:30 and you have toys to play with tomorrow. So, let’s get to bed.”

Sunday. 09:45 Primary Armory

The entire group was relaxing in the armory of all places. Kevin, Thomas, Nathan, and Brian were walking around looking and touching everything. The girls were huddled around a small table doing some homework. Andern was sitting at the table John was peppering him with a barrage of questions regarding the amplifier he was working on.

“Look bud. I get that you want to know why it feels weird. It just does.”

“I know, but it doesn’t just feel weird. It’s totally unnatural.”

“Right, to you. To me it isn’t unnatural,” John set the tools down on the table and leaned back in his chair.

“I’m just saying that it’s that out there unnatural.”

The boys heard the conversation and joined in. Much to the consternation of John. Explaining psychic things to those that didn’t have the gift was nearly impossible. It was effectively a form of magic they could never hope to understand.

“You said those two are super powerful. Anyway, to make that power radiate something that makes them feel that way?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah, wouldn’t you just be changing the wavelength or something to it? Since you’ve got an amplifier, it shouldn’t be too hard to modify the signal.”

John paused what he was doing and looked at them, “No, I need the amplifier to strengthen my powers. And running a second module on a different resonance wouldn’t work. But what if there was a gun or tool that was directing it at them.”

Thomas took a look at the amplifier, “Looks like this is keyed into your wavelength, whatever that may be. Would the weapon even be effective?”

“Problem would be range right?” Kevin said.

“I doubt it’d be effective unless you were in close proximity to the target. Then the risk would be it’d affect the user too,” John was shaking his head, “Keep working on the practical in your free time and let me know what you come up with.”

Kevin and Thomas began having their own conversation about how to make this anti-psychic gun work. Andern joined into that conversation because he was bored but realized they were talking about things he had no clue about. Kevin and Thomas now knew what it was like to deal with a bored Andern, and they were hopeless to stop their friend from asking dumb questions.

John got back to working on the amplifier. He believed he was done with the wiring. A circuit check he was running confirmed that. He poured in a shock-resistant resin to give the circuitry some added protection. He sat back and cheated with the guys about things. He was multitasking though; he was trying to find a better interface than the combat suit.

John was looking through what the special forces were using and came across something interesting. There was a new void suit the marines were testing. It wasn’t in wide circulation, but the initial tests were promising.

“Hey, y’all find any Mark 3 Void Sheaths here when you were walking around?” John asked as he was searching through the inventory.

“Yeah, well there were some void sheaths, not sure on the mark though,” Kevin got up and began walking to where they were stored.

The rest of the boys followed along. If nothing else, they were getting bored being stuck in the armory. They found several Mark 1 and Mark 2 suits but hadn’t found any Mark 3 suits as they were rifling through the contents of the lockers.

“I found a Mark 3P. This what you wanted?” Brian asked.

“Well, it’s a prototype model. May as well give it a try,” John grabbed the suit and headed back to the table.

When he got to the table, he grabbed the interface and amplifier. He hauled the stuff over to the reliquary. He kicked off his boots and began taking off his fatigues. He put on the Mark 3 Void Sheath and activated it.

“Holy shit,” John said, “It might work.”

“So, if I’m reading this right it’s half as thick as the combat suit,” Kevin said.

“Just as strong but uses way less energy,” Thomas added.

“So, going to be running a diagnostic to see if all this stuff connects correctly,” John smiled.

He flipped on the interface. The reliquary had already detected the void sheath and the interface and was adjusted where to place everything. The back plate went on first. The pair of reactors ignited and hummed quietly. The rest of the armor plates went on just as easily as the first. As the armor was beginning its diagnostic John could hear the boys talking again.

“So that suit should shave off another thirty pounds,” Kevin said.

“Big deal, thirty pounds is that much,” Andern said.

“Remember the power to weight ratio. I would presume with the updates to the amplifier and this new setup I’ll see noticeable improvements,” John smirked, the readouts he was seeing in the HUD were amazing.

Eventually, the diagnostics were done. John jogged over to the test area, powered up the suit, and then began to put it through its paces. Everyone gathered around the same table and watched John test the armor. He was running around for about forty minutes.

That was when the unpleasantness began. The group of friends was assaulted by psychic energies radiating from the suit. They were feeling dizzy and queasy. John felt far worse in the suit. Thankfully as soon as it started it stopped. John dropped to his knees and tore off his helmet. His breakfast was vomited up and onto the training floor.

“What the absolute fuck dude?” Kevin yelled.

John was still trying to collect himself, “Fuck me. God damn thing was dialed way past eleven.”

“Are you ok?” Alice stepped back from John when she smelled the vomit.

“Yeah, need to recalibrate the amplifier and dial it down a notch or three,” John stood up, “Gonna clean that mess first though.”

John walked over to a washing station and filled a bucket with soap and warm water and grabbed a mop. He broke the first mop when he grabbed it. He just tossed the broken half towards the garbage and brought it with back to where he puked on the floor.

“So how long could you function at that level?” Thomas asked.

“Briefly,” John was cleaning his mess.

“What could you have done?” Andern asked innocently.

“More than I’d care to admit with that much power surging through me.”

“Any worries about it burning you out?” Jessica involved herself in the conversation.

“Technically, yes it could. In practice, it wouldn’t. Because no way in hell is I allowing that kind of setting to last long,” John was walking back to the station to put away the stuff he brought.

He walked back to where his helmet was. He bent over and put it back on. The amplifier had been successfully recalibrated. The sickening feeling poured out from him once he activated the amplifier. The tests went on for forty-five minutes. As John began to turn up the power the group of friends moved farther and farther away from the practice area.

John walked over to the reliquary. It removed the armor plates and stored them in them. He took off his void sheath and put that away in his locker. After he got into his fatigues, he popped the amplifier off and brought it back to the table where he had been working to check one thing.

“I need ten minutes then I am gonna call it for the day,” John hollered.

He sat down and ran some scans. The massive power surge that was forced through it didn’t do any damage. At least the design was sound. It wasn’t the most power-efficient item but perhaps Kevin or Thomas could find a way to improve that. John ran one last test and after that came back positive, he called it good enough. He put the amplifier back into the armor and kicked off one last recalibration.

John walked over to his friends, “Alright, I’m all done. I’m hungry as hell.”

Jessica shook her head, “You are disgusting.”

Alice and Kristin nodded their heads in agreement.

“They aren’t wrong, but I’m hungry and bored as fuck,” Andern smiled as he began walking up the ramp out of the armory.

The group walked back to the main dorm where the lounge and cafeteria they normally used. Andern still peppered John with numerous questions about why that energy felt so weird. John continued to answer it the same way each time he asked. Finally, John was getting sick of all the questions as they got to the cafeteria.

“Spooky mind magic Andern. Spooky mind magic causes all of this.”