To be able to give myself mutations and, on top of that, implement powers into them. I need to get much better at manipulating and creating whole new matrices, capable enough to pinpoint perfectly what each area, each piece, of the infinitely small fractal machinery did.
The level I need to reach is one of being able to build a whole organ out of cells, or maybe using the subcellar building blocks even. At that point, I’ll be able to change my powers at will, keeping pace with the battle as I made new powers to take advantage of my enemy’s weaknesses.
To speed up the process, I’ll need powers that make me better at understanding biology. I can think faster and have a better baseline of comprehension already, and the extent that I’m able to manipulate my matrix is a testament to that.
The quicker method is to copy mutations directly, the way these powers operate, as I’ve found out after giving Dan’s his new powers, is that the matrix has specific locations where it interacts with the body, it gives that body part special properties or an active power.
That makes it easy for me to hijack the matrix construction, altering the properties it will give my body, creating then a custom ability. well, as custom as using another piece of copied power goes.
I would need to test to see if it is a process that’s actually possible and not just theoretically possible.
In the core, the matrix describes exactly how the biological and powered halves fuse; it shows where in relation to the matrix is the access to that specific body part, and in the mutated part there was a separated piece of matrix that dictated, or described, what the powers were.
In Dan’s case, it created a seed, a seed which itself had a matrix of its own. It was a matrix first organism. The matrix described its everything, including its genetic code. That made the two intrinsically linked, making the seeds the plant produced have parts of its original power, leading to new possibilities of combinations when cross-fertilizing with the other plants of Dan’s powers.
Did this sort of thing happen with other mutants? perhaps with mutations that took over the entire body. If it mutated all the cells to have 'x' properties, that could lead to the gametes having such a mutation as well. Maybe the mutation had to interact with the DNA specifically. Were there already children born powered somewhere?
In other countries there might be more incidence of kids born with powers, specifically mutations. But here, and I imagine it might be like that in other countries too, that would only aggravate the purists, I’ve never heard of it happening but thinking back to what I saw inside that pit in the Sulphals laboratory it’s clear this country doesn’t allow the mutants to flourish and build families.
Anyway, not going into that tangent right now.
Besides the inspiration on how to implement new powers through mutations, the matrix-biology of Dan’s hands also described how the power could use the body as an additional fuel source, and maybe I could change that to use electricity.
Dan’s power also could convert sunlight into energy, albeit slowly, and that was why he had green bits on the pods.
A potential weakness was that with how integrated the matrix was with the actual biology of the new organ, if a person lost them it could be a problem, Dan’s matrix had inbuilt in it how it would heal as long as there was some part of it still intact, like a liver, but if he lost it completely, there was no hope of it growing back.
Only with a healing power that could heal matrixes and body parts, and it would depend heavily on the type of healing power and what it considered healing because if it used the DNA as base it could not work as I don’t know if mutation powers always change the entire genetic makeup of the person.
I copy over what I can from Dan’s powers, leaving it mostly untouched, only integrating the new way of taking energy from the sun and from my fat reserves not trying any mutation for now.
The first step would be to pay close attention to how my matrix interacted with my body in the next bouts of training. I can ask people to force my transformations to occur while I concentrate deeply on my matrix.
They get a punching bag; I get scientific advancement and, well, more power.
We left Dan happy with his new powers, even if he would still need at least two weeks to one month before the other seeds were ready, the ones on his lobes possibly taking more time.
I checked on the plant he had already planted. From outside it was just a normal plant, but connecting to it I could tell it was a matrix construct, a self-sustaining one, where the core would normally be there was just a reservoir of energy, completely encased in the layers of matrice around it.
The matrix was the plant’s everything, every little cell and how those absorbed sunlight to generate energy, how it would make pollen and egg cells inputting parts of its matrix into them, these fractals were the densest and even to understand the little I did was mostly through intuition, I could gather that the resulting seeds would be like mini buff constructs, with a reservoir of energy of their own, as well as the fruits themselves giving a buff of energy and disposition to whoever ate them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Dan might be up to an interesting challenge breeding the plants together to get the most interesting new strains.
It also had a connection with Dan like a type of command center where I could see Dan’s matrix would fit right in. Guess he’d be able to understand what the plants need and command them to redirect their energy to grow the way he wanted.
I already had a copy of how it dealt with energy from Dan’s powers and as much as it was interesting to create gametes with matrices, I don’t understand the matrices well enough to know how it would interact with human biology instead of the plant it came from.
It was an interesting power, mainly from a biological standpoint. It didn’t increase my powers but gave me lots to think about and might have revealed some new ways that powers are shaping the world and society.
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The drive and willingness to push her limits that Swordjuice showed were really awe-inspiring. Every single day since I told everyone about the serum — the name we ended up giving to the purple healing liquid — she hadn’t stopped working out until her body was close to collapsing.
And hell if it wasn’t effective, her torn muscle fibers and everything else she hurt in the training would heal overnight, turning into the modified cells that Rebeca’s powers created, they were already stronger than normal muscle fibers but they also could be exercised.
The purple muscles grew faster, adapting much quicker to the insanely demanding workouts. It was much more resistant to damage and had an easier time growing up as well.
What that means was that Swordjuice was getting ripped. Everyone was. We were close to looking like a team of decathlon athletes, really selling the Superhero look.
But in Swordjuice’s case, the different was astounding. In not even two entire weeks, she had come from an athletic-looking girl to an amazon.
“Well, people will stop doubting you when you say you’re going to overthrow the regime now.”
The girl was sweating buckets with her short blue hair completely frizzed up around her, making her look slightly electrocuted.
“Besides getting to look this good,” she let out, gasping for air, “the growth is addicting.”
“Yeah, I know. It almost makes me wish I could work that hard.”
She send me a deadpan stare to which I laughed. Being the only one who didn’t need to do a single push up to have a perfect physique, it almost made me feel guilty, almost.
Glassmetal and Spotlight had taken to the gym as well, while Payback and LED were only chiseling their already athletic physiques even more. This made me able to get a good grasp on the overall effectiveness of the purple cells over the normal ones.
They were about twice as effective, making someone about 50% stronger overall, but also increasing their stamina proportionately. That added up to twice, right? I was no mathematician.
What I knew for sure was that it led to some very intensive training. LED and Payback, who had military fighting training, teamed up to teach everyone how to fight.
Swordjuice gave tips as well. She had the most experience with kendo but also knew some judo and karate. Even Glassmetal and Victor were picking up the pace.
Our fights now were full of heavy punches and inhumane acrobatics, our flexibility and strength unmatched by even the most prolific athletes. This serum really was worth of being called that. I suspect it also helps with the neuron generation associated with learning, as well as creating and repairing nerve endings and cartilage.
So it was effective to ease old pains as well. Dan wasn’t taking part in our crazy routine, but he took the serum anyway since it was free, saying he hadn’t felt so light in years after taking it.
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I started training to mutate myself effectively, a big endeavor and one of the few things that would be strictly down to skill instead of simply being granted to me by my powers.
Not something that sat heavily in my mind. I just felt lucky to have such a great power, but after struggling so much to get it, it felt fitting. and there’s no way to know if it’ll bother me in the future.
I asked Glassmetal to help me train, for one because I didn’t do much activities with him.
And as he was one of the only two who could attack me and wouldn't get tired or perturbed by it, Victor also could keep attacking me while relaxing, but Glassmetal could create a bigger variety of attack types and it didn’t deplete his energy to do it.
After constructing a weapon, he told that maintaining its shape was easier than breathing.
“What’s the idea with this?” he asked me as the door to the Marble room closed behind him.
“I want something to trigger my transformations, so I can closely look at it while it changes, To see what transforms and how the changes in my body correspond to the changes in my matrix. We might need to design a lot of weapons and stressors to target specific areas or adaptations.”
“Hmm, I see. That’s for you to learn to implement mutations on yourself, right?”
“Hmhum,” I confirmed easily.
I had talked to everyone about my findings, not seeing much reason in hiding this information from my teammates. Who knows? They might even have some ideas that might end up helping me.
“Let’s start with a basic gun, then?” he asked, stretching his arms
“I’d like to use a laser one. I think we can really pinpoint it down to the skin.”
“Sure, that’s doable.” Glassmetal nodded, spreading his arms and letting himself fall back while he made the marble floor flow like a liquid, catching him and solidifying into a chair.
In front of him, he created a table and then made a straight barrel rise from its surface, with various long circles at the back surrounding the barrel in increasing diameters.
Finally, the wall behind Glassmetal opened up, showing lots of mechanical part and tools before it closed spitting a car battery on top of the table.
The last wide circle around the barrel grew two antennas that glued themselves to the battery’s terminals, and the gun took shape, hundreds of hair thin filaments started glowing softly along the barrel and painting the rings around it as energy arced in the empty space beween the rings and the barrel.
“It’s good to go,” he said.
“Is all the flamboyance really necessary?”
“Not all of it, but it’s cooler this way, yeah?”
“Sure.” I nodded to him and closed my eyes, concentrating on the connection I felt all the time with my Matrix, letting myself sink into it.
I let all the other sensations fade away, paying attention only to my matrix, entering a state opposite to what I lived.
Where normally my focus was on my body with my matrix existing in the back of my consciousness unless I focused on it, as I still had to move and navigate my surroundings. Now that was inverted, with the awareness of my body fading back from my mind.
After settling in this new frame of consciousness for a bit, I focused completely on the area I knew my matrix made the modifications that altered my skin.
“I’m ready,” I told Glassmetal, hearing only the whirr of the gun powering up as my answer.