“Are you sure about this?”

“Stop stalling, Baba,” Nil said. “Just hit me with all you’ve got.”

“I really don’t like this.”

“Just trust me, will you?”

Udit Roy adjusted his grip on the sledgehammer. He pulled the hammer back before putting his hips and shoulder into the swing. It struck Nil’s square over the sternum and immediately lost all momentum. It didn’t rebound, and Udit stopped in his tracks, too. The older Roy’s brow furrowed, and Nill could see his father’s engineer brain ticking.

“The wording might not specify you’re absorbing kinetic energy, but that’s just what you did,” Udit said after hitting his son again. The effort already had him panting and rubbing the small of his back. “Fascinating. The hammer didn’t bounce back. Despite the lack of follow-through and getting stopped in my tracks, I didn't face any rebound. You stole the hammer and my kinetic energy.”

“I thought so, too,” Nil said. “Layla explained that the Schema gives the Summoned an innate multiversal translation ability. Perhaps it failed to translate things right.”

“Or it goes past kinetic energy and warps the rules of physics. Hence, the Schema doesn’t want to narrow down your view by using it. You essentially broke all of Newton’s laws using Absorb.”

“So, it encompasses kinetic energy under certain conditions but also goes beyond it.”

Udit nodded, studying the hammerhead. “If it absorbed all kinetic energy, it would’ve stolen heat from the impacted surface, too. You can have a lot of fun with this.”

“Do you feel better about this whole Summoned business now?” Nil asked. “Absorb protects me from almost all physical trauma—the most common variety of attacks while I’m out on missions.”

“My son is portalling off on interdimensional jobs, which is fatal for ordinary people? I’ll never feel better about it. However, seeing what you can do will help me rest easy. Have you thought about what you’ll do for work or to fill your time earthside? I know the quests pay well, and I certainly hope you won’t use it as an excuse to slack off.”

“When have I ever slacked off, Baba?” Nil laughed. “I know that I need to join a ludus—”

“A ludus?” Udit dropped the hammer, frowning. His eyes narrowed as he took a step back from his son. “Please tell me you’re not going to do something mad like compete in Apocalypse Arena. I know it is good money, but I hear reports of talented fighters ending up crippled or dead every day.”

“A ludus isn’t just for arena training. It's a good place to meet other Summoned and learn about quests. They have infrastructure and experts who can teach fighting and survival techniques. They’re great for mastering one’s power and adapting it to one’s personal style, too. I—”

“Why does it sound like you’re reading off a brochure?” Baba didn’t appear convinced. “I know you wished to become Adrian ‘Wildshaper’ Wilson when you were younger. I certainly hope you grew out of that idiotic dream.”

“There are government luduses now, too, you know? Not all quests pay well, and some people do the minimum demanded by the Nexus. Summoned police officers, soldiers, and other national service workers live in luduses, too. I’m not saying I want to become a government employee or become an arena fighter. A ludus might help me become the best version of myself.”

“I hear they’re terribly expensive, though. Unless you do jobs for them or take on other employment, won’t they eat up most of your Schema tokens?”

“Honestly? I haven’t figured everything out yet.” Nil sighed. “I can’t afford to join a ludus right now.” The fact frustrated him since, despite days of searching and investigating, he couldn’t find any legitimate means of getting involved in anything related to Apocalypse Arena, paying fights, or any athletics without joining a ludus. “Currently, I’m waiting out the minimum wait between missions so I can make more money and get this place fixed up.”

“I don’t need or want you to do that,” Udit said. “I can manage everything just fine.”

“Baba, I love you, and with all due respect, you need to get over that nonsense. Things are falling apart in here. You’re unwell and past retirement age and have two minors to support. I can’t live with myself knowing that I have the means to make decent money and am not doing anything to support the household. Especially after the great life you and Mum gave me.”

“That was our job as your parents. We didn’t do any of that with expectations of repayment.”

“Well, this is my job as your son. Arguing will do you no good. I’m almost thirty and can do what I want.”

Udit glared at his son for a solid moment. He sighed when Nil’s gaze didn’t falter. “I know you’ve been sending Emmy money all of this time.”

“How long have you known?” Nil asked.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“When she claimed to have a National Insurance number at fourteen. No legit job under twenty brings in what you were giving her. Your sister isn’t particularly discreet when she’s on the phone, either.” Udit chuckled. He gave his son a hug before taking a seat. They stood in the garage littered with incomplete DIY projects and junk that needed fixing. A dismantled radio and two broken drawers sat on the workbench behind Udit. “Things were hard after your mother passed, and I really appreciated the help, Son. Thank you.”

“So you’re okay with all of this Summoned business?”

“Oh, hell no! However, I respect that you’re a taxpaying adult and capable of making decisions. I just worry about you ending up like that friend of yours. What was her name?” Nil’s heart sank as he guessed the subject of his father’s point. Her visage stood leaning against the garage wall, watching and listening. He hadn’t told his family about their relationship at her request. She worried chatter would get back to her family. They lived a forty-minute bus ride away, but the news spread swiftly through the Indian and especially the Bengali community. “That’s right. Aisha. She was a lovely girl, and I know you had a bit of PTSD after her passing. Just thinking about what her parents went through gives me—”

“Well, I picked Brutal Battery, so things like that will never happen again around me,” Nil told his father. “I nor anyone around me will end up like that. Now, do you want to watch me use Expend? I would really like to break some of these old projects you wasted my Saturdays on but never finished.”

“Fine.” Udit sighed. “Show me what you can do.”

Nil targeted an old cannibalized dining table. They had removed the middle rectangular sections and only used the bordering semicircles. One half served as the base. Meanwhile, the table legs held up the other half of the circle. It was rough but solid. Udit and his son were supposed to sand it together, but things always got in the way. Then, they moved on to something else.

An axe kick while empowering his movements with Expend turned the half-finished shoe rack into splinters. Next, Nil targeted a sideboard he had twisted his ankle unloading. His parents bought it from a charity store before his mother got sick. The drawers and doors needed fixing. Udit had tinkered with the hinges and handles but never found adequate replacements. They were supposed to sand and polish it, too. Father and son never got to it. A haymaker took care of it. Then, Nil broke the rest into smaller pieces so that the weekly rubbish truck would haul it away.

“Aren’t you just using half the ability?” Udit asked, rereading the description Nil had written out for him. “It looks like you’re only enhancing your movements and not releasing any energy through touch.”

“That’s difficult to do without blowing my load,” Nil answered.

“Wording,” Udit stated sternly.

“Wording.” Both men burst out laughing when Nil repeated the word. “Controlling how much energy I drain while empowering my movements is hard enough. I tried it again while hanging out with Andrew, and it’s impossible not to empty the battery in a flash. The aftermath isn’t particularly comfortable either.”

“So what is it like? An explosion.”

“Not quite. Perhaps it’s easier to show than tell.”

“Are you sure?” Udit frowned. “I don’t want you getting hurt showing things off.”

“It’s fine. I just need to focus on the point of Expend and keep a stopper on the balloon.”

“Stopper on the balloon?”

“It’s how I imagine it,” Nil explained. “Absorb inflates the balloon, and Expend deflates it. I just have to keep my fingers on the mouth so I can pinch off the balloon when I’m done using its contents. If I’m too slow, I lose more than I intend. When Expending with touch alone, the pinch—”

“That’s enough pinches and balloons. Just show me without destroying the house—” Udit paused, glancing between his son and the wall. “—or yourself, of course.”

The battery was still mostly full from the antics at Andrew’s scrap yard. So, Nil didn’t worry about his energy stores. However, he had concerns regarding damaging his family home. So, he targeted an old apothecary table. Nil pressed his finger against its narrow side, ensuring he pointed away from the house and not at his father’s car. He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly before releasing the balloon’s mouth only for half a second.

Even though Nil tried to restrain the released energy, the balloon deflated to half its size. His fingertip burned, and it punched through the thick wood. Several cracks and miniature explosions sounded from within the apothecary table. Then, an eyeball section of the opposite side blew out. The woody shrapnel flew several feet. A couple made it halfway across the driveway.

“Damn that stings.” Nil winced, retrieving his finger and sucking on the tip.

Udit inspected the apothecary table closely. The energy had blown through the entire length of the table, cutting a neat circle through the first couple of drawers. The shape lost its uniformity around two feet into the chest-like piece of furniture. Meanwhile, the exit hole was an uneven oval with rough edges. Cracks surrounded the holes furthest from the entry point. They spiderwebbed through the wound.

“I hope you’re not planning to use that on someone’s head,” Udit commented. He grabbed his son’s hand and studied the burnt fingertip. The skin had charred around the point of contact. Concentrating the energy through such a minute point appeared to have significantly increased the damage. “Yeah. It's best if you don’t use it until you understand the ability and have better control of it.”

“That was the idea. It feels like a last-ditch move.”

“What about recoil? Could you use it to jump a long distance or increase the length of your strides?”

“I’m not sure,” Nil answered. “Layla, my Nexus caseworker, says intent has a lot to do with how these powers function. Perhaps my unwillingness to deal with recoil has something to do with the overheating and burns. I’ll get back to you on that once I get better.”

Father and son chatted and tested Brutal Battery’s abilities for several hours. It was Sunday, but Udit still had a lot of work to do. Nil took care of the man’s chores before helping his sister and cousin with theirs. Udit’s poor health, aches and pains, and other issues became more apparent as the day went on. So, once Nil got a moment away from everyone, he checked the data Andrew had given him and finally called the contact. A short conversation later, he had a power demonstration and possible fight lined up.

Nil had no intention of becoming Adrian Wilson. Wildshape wasn’t just one of the few Gold Realm fighters in Great Britain. He had also opened a chain of luduses and equipped them with devices from Arthurtech—owned by his brother, Arthur ‘Technomancer’ Wilson. The pair had found fame and fortune, and their influence had played a significant role in Summoned rights and privileges. Nil lacked the tenacity and opportunities to rise to the same level as them. He only wanted to do well enough to better provide for his family.