I walked out of the lab to the marble room, seeing Swordjuice and Glassmetal watching LED spar with Victor

The man had bags under his eyes that he contrasted with a vicious smile. He was fighting with his power like he had it for years; the metal surrounding him flowing to defend from attacks and then counterattacking.

It reminded me of elemental manipulators fighting, but he seemed to have some tricks to throw in the mix as well.

I approached the duo, watching the spar. “Has he absorbed a lot of weapons already?”

“Only a pistol and a knife for now.” Glassmetal answered, nodding at my arrival. “He’s testing it slowly.”

“Even if he’s taking it slowly only those the entire night? “

“Yeah, it turns out the process is actually really taxing on him, and it’s also much slower than yours, Matrix. The metal has to take it in slowly.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“The things he can do with those mods are crazy too, so we spend a lot of time testing them.”

“Mods?”

“Yeah, the modifications. He mentioned them yesterday. He can alter any aspect from the weapons he absorbs, but only one at a time.”

“What counts as an aspect, and what are the mods again?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll explain everything.” he was still watching the fight while talking to me, so he pointed at them. "Oh, there. Look.”

I turned to see victor spinning the mercury like metal around him in a circle, LED seeing that crouched and jumped just in time to evade something, something that was only visible by the line it cut on the marble.

“More flying cuts?”

Glassmetal laughed, “yeah it works a bit like Swordjuice’s powers, that is the enhance effect, it amplifies an aspect of the weapon, as you can see its very versatile, at first he was using it only on the physical things like durability and the actual sharpness.”

“Then while trying to enhance the sharpness one of these times it just enhances the actual cut, we’re thinking that these effects that he has can influence not only the physical aspects of the weapons but the actions that they perform as well.”

“That’s crazy and way more versatile indeed, and he doesn’t even need to keep the weapon’s shape to use it.”

“Yeah, he can make it, and that’s the most basic use. He made a knife and then moved to making any swords, sables and daggers. I think it’s more about the material than being specific about weapons like Swordjuice’s powers”

“It is specific, though. It can only absorb the materials from weapons and use them as weapons.”

“That’s true, there’s a lot of wiggle-room in that though, like he just used, spinning it like that, making its an effective attack and defense in one. He can build up from that.”

“True. What did he get from the pistol then? Can he make the gunpowder? Are the projectiles made from the silver metal?”

“Yes to both,” Glassmetal said nodding, “What we’re extrapolating is that he can copy any material integrated in the weapons. He might even be able to copy energy weapons, him being able to make sword cuts makes that even more likeable.”

“Sword cuts are energy?”

“It’s not cutting energy, that just doesn’t exist.”

“Hmm, you said it was enhancing the action like, the cutting action, it could be extending an edge that we can’t see and couldn’t see, like splitting the air molecules or even the space in that line that extends from the edge.”

“That would be pretty wild, but how would it get that from just an edge?”

“Well, as it’s enhancing the cutting ability, it could be just making something extremely sharp and what victor is sending off is just too thin for us to see.”

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“I think that might actually be that. Like a hair thin thread with a like, nanoscale edge.”

“That would definitely cut things.”

“Oh hey look, he changes to the pistol mode when at distance.”

The fight now progressed to LED jumping around, evading Victor’s line of sight. All Around the scientists’ back was a flat circular array of silver metal, with various bulbous chambers at set intervals around the circumference with nostrils expanding from them, trying to pin down the moving target by expelling a barrage of bullets.

“LED really needs to be careful now. Victor always went crazy on his tests. He knows so much about guns, it’s crazy.“

“Shrapnel bullets, more penetrative bullets, quiet shots and shotgun shots, altering the caliber at will. He can do any design it makes for a very versatile weapon besides playing to his strengths.”

LED’s fantastic as well, being able to be erratic enough that Victor simply couldn’t pin him down, as he never kept to the same pattern of movement, always staying in front of the line of fire.

It always was a mental battle on top of a physical one against LED. His enhanced mind demanded that you had something to play on the same level or get out-strategized.

“His only strength,” Swordjuice said, a little exasperation in her voice. “He really can’t last that much for now.”

And it was true, as I could see the metal losing shape, turning into much more liquid as the firing stopped completely and Victor dropped to a knee, panting hard.

LED approached the man, extending him a hand, which Victor took.

“Good fight, Victor, you already have a very good handle on the function of your power. You need to learn more about conserving your energy, though, making attacks only when it’s opportune.”

“Yeah, I get a little excited about being able to swing this much power around.”

“We all know the feeling.” Glassmetal said, extending a bottle of water that Victor gladly accepted.

Swordjuice and I also approached, and Victor nodded, seeing me.

“You got a real crazy power victor,” I nodded back. “I’m almost jealous.”

“Ha, as if, come to reap what you sowed?”

“That’s an ominous way of putting it, but you know me. I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass.”

“But why didn’t you use more buffs back there?” I asked.

“oh, those, they’re crazy, but they’re just as expensive.”

“Hmm, is maintaining the power too energy intensive? Maybe it’s the modifications to the base weapons.”

“Yeah,” he nodded pensively. “I noted that altering them drains me more, but the upsides are so great that I thought it a better fighting style.”

“I mean, it is your fighting style. Do what works best for you.”

LED nodded. “I said the same. If he had training with those weapons in their base form, he could use a more common fighting style and conserve energy, using the Mods and the modifications to catch people by surprise or to set big attacks.”

“But, as he would need to learn that from the basics, maybe it’s best to just learn how to demolish the opposition quickly.” Glassmetal concluded.

“that’s good, but try to learn the base fighting style as well. It can’t hurt.” I told him.

“You’re an overachiever Matrix,” victor laughed. “I’m already killing my ass here and I’m not even moving that much.”

“It’ll get easier. Your power can probably grow in resistance.” Swordjuice said to him.

“Yeah, at the start, I could only make one buff for a couple of minutes.” Led said, nodding.

I nodded as well. “Most powers grow at the minimum in that area, stamina. But I have another question that might apply to that.”

“What is it?”

“Do you produce the silver liquid biologically, or is it generated by your powers? And how is the lost mass replenished, during the fight consuming even more energy, or only after?”

“Well, from what I noticed, it regenerates during the fights and seems to form more out of what I already have, so I guess it’s created from my powers”

“You could learn to limit that then. The mass will slowly diminish over time, but you could fight for longer then. Probably.”

“Yeah, using projectiles might not be the best choice as well,” Glassmetal said, nodding along.

“True, but does it just stay there?” I said, gesturing at the energy flowing over victor’s skin.

“I don’t really know. It’s like a piece of me. It just feels natural to have it around.”

“Can you unconjure it?”

Victor concentrated, but then shook his head. ‘No, I don’t think so.”

“It can get infinitely small and thin, right?”! Swordjuice asked to what victor nodded. "Can’t you pull it through your skin?”

Victor made a strange face a little scared, his eyes and face sliding to the right as he thought about it. “I- I guess I can.”

“You should do it.” Led said, “if you can’t make it disappear the next best place is inside you, at least you don’t have to swallow it and spit it out.”

“Yeah, that’s certainly. An advantage,” victor said.

“You can spread it under your skin, like a layer of armor, then you’re always protected. Even more so if your mass limit increases.” I said happily

Victor sighed, nodding. He extended his arms and closed his eyes, concentrating. The liquid flowing over his skin settled and wiggled about slowly. But by bit decreasing as it disappeared under his skin.

We normally don’t notice, but everyone has an undertone to their skin, changing the skin’s appearance. And now the undertone of Victor’s skin was quite unnatural, sitting in silver.

It was subtle but made him look a little weird in a way that was hard to pinpoint, a little sickly looking maybe. Certainly very pale.

“It is done.” Victor said, looking at his paler arms.

“Now you really look like you never saw the sun.” Glassmetal joked.

“A proper crazy scientist.” Swordjuice said, laughing together.

Victor huffed, “lay off of me. I’m done for today. I think.”

“What do you mean today? You’ve been going at this since yesterday.”

Victor laughed sheepishly, and everyone joined him.

“Let’s go to the lab then,” Glassmetal said. “Matrix will want to have a look at your power, and we may as well sit around.” He glared at Victor. "And please leave the weapons for after you sleep. You had to stand in place for an entire hour to absorb a simple knife don’t go picking up our energy cannons.”

“Sure, sure,” Victor said, leading the way to the lab as he yawned loudly.