Chapter 151

Shedding Your Youth

Tuesday

Just arriving in her universe, to her home planet, Alexa could feel the moment she and by extension Gina who was still gripping her hand tightly both passed the invisible boundary that separated her Earth from the rest of the universe.

There were so many thoughts that raced through her mind. With but a thought she allocated her 760 Free Attribute points evenly between her Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Intelligence, the four Attributes that did not receive a single Attribute increase. That gave her a base of 340 minimum for all attributes and meant that every future level would increase that number by five points. Similarly, she would also increase her Attributes by one per hour, so long as she just stayed within a dungeon. She almost thought about throwing all 760 towards her Intelligence Attribute, but she figured that would make her the equivalent of a glass cannon, and she already knew she had a hard time competing with the higher-level warriors on even footing. Meaning if she wanted to continue to grow and succeed, this was the only way for her to continue to push herself beyond her current mental boundaries. But she knew she had to be judicious with how she used her time.

From this point on, she had 41 days left until the integration. Compared to where she started from that was a monumental amount of time, but in reality, it was just a drop in the bucket of what she would need to catch up to some of the true monsters of the universe. Monsters that now knew her name, thanks to having fought and mostly won against Summoned Aspects, which were clearly far weaker than the real entity being represented. If Alexa had to guess, she would assume that the Summoned Aspects that she was facing were but a tenth of the true power and abilities of the beings they represented. Meaning, that if Alexa tried to pull the same stunts she had during her Trials of Ascension, she would likely be destroyed.

Of course, with her Secondary class of Precursor Sage offering one Attribute point per hour, Alexa couldn’t help but notice the seemingly divine irony being posed to her. Right now, with her four lowest Attributes, she could max them out by just sitting around in Bottomless Gorge. Right now, she was down by 980 Attribute points in each, or just under 41 days. Meaning that if she spent the entire rest of her time from now until the time of Integration within Bottomless Gorge, she would max out her Attributes. However, she knew such a future was impossible. First, she needed to talk to her mother, to work with Captain Johnston. She wasn’t certain if she wanted to get her GED and automatically register along with the other members of her pack to become full fledged Supers, meaning they would bypass the Highschool and go immediately to state funded universities that had people more powerful than Mackie running the curriculum, also speaking of Mackie, Alexa knew that she needed to introduce Kelvin to his father, though a quick mental nudge told her that Mackie was not on Earth currently.

Then her mind whirred to life, and she realized that there were yet two more, well three more major events that were set to happen within the week. The first was Thanksgiving, then the next two were her father’s viewing and finally the public funeral.

Alexa had been warned that an attack was likely to occur at either the viewing, the funeral, or more than likely both. That was part of why Alexa had pushed so hard to get to this point, to be here.

Tingling sensation.

As her body adjusted to the sudden influx of Free Attribute points being infused into her system awakened body, Alexa felt more alive than ever. She knew that this infusion, the joy she felt at being alive was also odd, that many would hate the idea of constantly having their muscles and body pulled and stretched the longer they stayed in dungeons, but for Alexa her bond with energy was different, and utterly enjoyable. In fact, the tingling sensation felt like she was just now coming alive. Part of her wanted to level up as much as possible, to hoard these Free Attribute Points for times in the future when she could apply them all in one fell swoop again, so amazing were these sensations.

Gina just watched Alexa the entire time, never taking her eyes off Alexa. With the gaze, Alexa could feel and all but see the analytical powers of Gina’s class coming to life. Now that her class was fully Awakened, now that she herself was fully Awakened, it was as if everything had changed, and nothing had changed at all. She could still feel the ambient energy of everyone with a class around her, but now she could all but differentiate the different currents of energy if she all but focused on them for a moment.

Gina’s was unique in that it all seemed to be based on her eyes, which made sense as she was an Oracular class which were known for their gift of foresight and ability to divine possible futures from what they saw. Alexa found that she appreciated Gina’s form of a class better, as Alexa felt that it was more grounded in fact than anything else.

Alexa stared at Gina and could feel that a dozen or so questions were coming to her mind, she locked gazes with Gina. There were so many things that she found, so many things that she wanted her opinion on. First and foremost, she wanted to know what Gina thought of those other Oracles, the other One of the Chosen, whatever such a designation meant.

As soon as Alexa heard it, she knew she too fell into that category, as both Gina and her own instincts all but screamed that she was One of the Chosen. In her mind, she understood this to be a pair bonding, she was bound to a Seer, or an Oracle type soul mate. At first, this would have been her brother, but it seemed that destiny either wasn’t carved in stone, or that it was more flexible than people normally give fate credit for, as her brother was miserable as an Oracle.

Looking at Gina, the fact that she was willing to sacrifice so much to be with her made Alexa feel truly alive.

The rest of the pack came forward, everyone congratulating Alexa, patting her. The entire time everyone came, she never broke her link to Gina. From their grip it was clear that the two had grown. That or Alexa finally realized how important Gina was to her.

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“Congratulations.” Luke said, coming up and giving Alexa a hug. Alexa returned the hug with her one free hand, and while she felt awkward, as showing emotions was always something she struggled with, at the moment she felt that it was getting easier to do these social situations.

“So what will you do now?” Julie asked as she came up for her congratulatory hug.

“I’m going to go heal people.” Alexa said.

At that, everyone that heard her comment paused to stare at her.

“You aren’t going to take a rest?” ‘Lecia asked.

“Oh, I do intend to take a nap. But then after that, I intend to go out and heal everyone I can.” Alexa admitted.

“But why?” Kylie asked.

“Today is Tuesday, and today is the day I go and heal the sick.”

Hearing her words, the entire pack looked flustered at first, but then slowly began nodding as they realized they couldn’t expect less from Alexa.

“Aren’t you afraid that you might be targeted again? You know, as in another attack?” Lily asked, a note of concern in her voice.

“I almost expect them to, but if we hide from our responsibilities, on the chance of what might happen then we have already lost our freedoms.” Alexa said.

Then turning to Gina, she asked, “would you want to come with me?”

At that question Gina felt her heart flutter in excitement. Everything had been going so quickly, but to be asked by Alexa one of the most powerful Supers on the planet if she wanted to go with her, it proved a few things to Gina.

In her mind she could already see the calculations going off. She could see the different permutations and meanings of the words. Alexa had already groomed her, Julie, and Luke to be pillars of the pack as they were all the first to have had their classes awakened, without ever having to go through a Trials of Ascension, but now Gina was being asked to go out on charity missions. While these were the easiest missions to accomplish, they also had to be done with a team of people you trusted. By doing this, Gina realized that if this mission went well, then she could be asked to go on more.

Badump, badump, badump.

Gina’s heart raced with the implications of the question. Everything up until now had been for this point, to see Alexa become a Super, to get her class. Now that she was a super, Gina had sort of expected to take a back seat, to be stuck waiting for Alexa to return safely from missions. Yet, that was not the case, at least that was not what Gina was reading as the intent from Alexa currently. Here, her intentions seemed to be clear and unmistakable. Alexa wanted to do missions with her. The look in her eyes, the ones that all but demanded that Gina come with her, proved her intentions. It was hard to see and most people that looked at Alexa, even an emotionally aware version of her like she was now, would likely miss the tell-tale signs of her intent.

Gina then remembered Alexa’s parents, how they always went out on missions together, and never once looked back. There was a mental pause as Gina too realized that her own parents did much of the same, while her parents were on the different end of the spectrum from Alexa, her parents bonded for life and conducted many of their own forms of missions together. Of course, her parents had been drug cartel leaders and would have squared off with Alexa’s parents had the two ever gone on diplomatic missions to South America, but that was beside the point. Well beside the point that Gina wanted to latch onto at this moment, namely that they had yet more in common. Their families were forged by having two fully Awakened parents who went out and had each other’s backs during missions.

Realizing that, and seeing the trust that Alexa had in her, made Gina want to double down, it made her want to be worthy of having such trust placed in her. In her mind, she remembered the way the other Chosen Ones had looked. They were all Oracles who lost their counterparts. And worst of all, they all looked to be broken in some way.

Having seen them, Gina realized the harsh truth, that Alexa was 87% likely to eventually die on a mission. The odds that she lived to retirement were 0%, with her power rating, Regeneration, and ability to adapt and absorb energy, Gina realized that she was more likely to be cut off somewhere and not able to return, or worse to be caught in some time dilation chamber that made it so she could only return much later. Those events as infinitesimally small were far more likely to happen than for Alexa to make it to old age. Realizing that, Gina felt a surge of hope blossom in her, as she realized that despite everything, her being there with her would mean the world to her.

There was a pause, as Alexa’s face slowly changed to concern.

It took Gina a moment to realize that she had been shocked still in silence as her mind processed everything going on. Finally, she answered.

“Would I want to go and be your partner in crime? Are cilantro and coriander parts of the same plant?” Gina says a note of excitement in her voice.

At that everyone but Alexa looks mildly confused by the comment, as apparently everyone else has taken the moment to hear Gina’s answer. Gina feels slightly nervous from all the attention, but then giving a quick glance around the room, she gestures “yes. The answer is yes. Of course, I’d love to be your partner, in this and all things.”

Hearing that Alexa smiled brightly.

“Can I go too?” Kylie asked.

“Me too.” Lily seconded.

Kelvin who had been sitting back in the back watching everything asked, “you are going to go to the school where my father is?”

At that Alexa raised one finger, as if she was ready to break the bad news to Kelvin, fortunately her brother saved her from answering the awkward question.

“Your father is currently off world in a Dragon Trial Dungeon.” Luke answered. Then a slight quirk came to his face as he realized something, “wait, when did you learn English?”

“English?” The boy asked, but then realized from context what Luke was talking about. “Oh it was a gift from the dungeon, while you all were over here, talking to Alexa, the dungeon saw fit to reward me with a language crystal.” Kelvin said as he rubbed the top of his forehead, as he clearly sought to remove any lingering pains that he might be suffering from, thanks to having absorbed the language crystal.

Seeing him in pain, Gina couldn’t help but sympathize with the boy, as her own head still pulsed slightly, thanks to the forceful memories being pressed upon her.

“Well, I say we make it a pack thing.” ‘Lecia said.

“There is only one problem.” Rachel began, with that everyone turned to her. “We don’t have any Super costumes. We can’t just go as is.”

At that Gina just stared brightly, “have you met my girl here? She can create Super costumes for all of us, where do you think she got hers that she is wearing now?”

With that, Luke decided to cut in, “With that, I think I have come up with our official pack motto.”

Everyone just stared at Luke, wondering if this was going to be something absolutely brilliant, or a complete bust.

Luke for his part just looked around, “what isn’t anyone going to ask what it is?”

Hearing that, Julie let out a sigh, but still went along replying back in a completely mono-tone dead pan reply, “oh please wise one, tell us of your wisdom so we might bask in your glory.”

At that Luke went from looking excited to seemingly hurt. “Hey, can you wait until after you hear it to mock it at least.”

“Fine, fine. Tell us.”

“Well, ‘Suit up.’” Luke said, jazz hands out as if that was a big reveal.

Crickets.

Finally, after a second of silence, Kylie was the first to speak. “At least he’s cute.”

At that Julie nodded in agreement, “he is cute.”

“Hey!” Luke said, slightly hurt, but clearly just playing along. “Okay, fine, what would you say our motto should be?”

“Mottos are dumb.” Erica said.

“Okay, fine. I get it…” Luke began but was then cut off.

“No, I mean it the motto should be ‘mottos are dumb.’” Erica said.

“And you said mine was bad.” Luke huffed.

“Well, that one is bad as well, just not as bad as suit up.” Kylie exclaimed and then everyone nodded.

Alexa seeing this stepped in for her brother, “enough we are wasting time. Let’s get these uniforms made so we can all go together. As one pack.”

“Oh, I like that,” Lily said.

“What?” Erica asked.

“One pack.” Lily admitted.

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought about it, and seemed to all agree by remaining silent that this would be the packs motto.

***

Two hours later, a group of twenty-four supers covering a spectrum of classes and capabilities appeared at the heart of Dawning Light Academy before they began moving as one towards the motor pool, only to find that the line of cars that were normally prepped and ready for Tuesday were suddenly missing.

Seeing the mostly empty motor pool, Erin asked the most pertinent question, “so, exactly how will we all get to the hospital?”