Sonya and Chunhua held one another’s gaze. A silence stretching out between the two of them. Chunhua’s expression fell for a moment before she closed her eyes and sighed. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head, “You really don’t take half measures,” She muttered and looked up at her. She smiled, though the expression was one with a bit of pain in it, concern. She scratched the back of her head and looked over at Marta, “Do we have what we need in case something happens?” She asked, “I’d rather not have Miss Savior here bleed out on the ground of a dungeon.”
Marta’s stoicism broke for a heartbeat at Chunhua’s words and she returned the smile, “Miss Chernovna will be fine, have faith in her, she’s come a long way from the first time.”
Sonya on the other hand was standing off to the side looking for a place to sit down. She stretched her back all the way into an arch and rolled her shoulders, “Sure, sure, still gonna hurt like a bitch though,” She grumbled before plopping herself onto the ground, “First thing I’m going to do is merge together a few powers in my warehouse ahead of cramming them into my core ability.”
“Speaking of which,” Chunhua said, crossing her arms, “You gave me almost all of your memories, but you left out the name of your core ability. It changed again, didn’t it?”
Sonya looked up at her and pursed her lips. She cleared her throat and looked away, heat rising to her cheeks and burning at her ears. She rested her hands in her lap and twiddled her fingers a little, “So I left a few things out, not that big a deal,” She trailed off.
Chunhua tilted her head and Sonya returned her stare. Now that Chunhua wasn’t being all mopey Sonya felt squirmy under her gaze. It was annoying. She pushed the feeling down and pressed her hands down against her feet. “It’s just-”
“It’s embarrassing, the name is extremely arrogant, she was really proud of it at first but after saying it out loud in front of me she got like this,” Marta teased, giving Sonya a smug side-eye.
Sonya crossed her arms, Traitor, she grumbled inwardly, squinting at her.
Chunhua laughed, “Okay now I have to know,” She said and walked over. She stood over Sonya and looked down at her. “You really don’t want to tell me?”
Sonya’s gut twisted and she clenched her ankles, looking straight up into Chunhua’s eyes. She felt her entire body tremble for a moment and not in a bad way. She cleared her throat and looked away quickly, “D-don’t do that,” She breathed, squeezing her ankles tighter, “Please? I don’t think we’re anywhere near there yet,” She said, “D-don’t look at me like that, from that angle, I can’t deal with it,” She said hastily, fumbling over her words. She reached up and played with her hair before catching herself, “I-I’m not mad! I’ll tell you, just uh… just don’t?” She murmured.
Chunhua practically jumped ten feet backwards before sliding to a stop, blinking furiously. Marta held her hand over her mouth and looked away. Sonya glanced up at her, red-faced, and saw the small grin under Marta’s hand. She grumbled and twined her fingers together before exhaling hard. She looked up at a red-faced Chunhua who seemed to realize exactly what she had done. The world's number one hero scratched her nose and cleared her throat, “R-right I should have known better, sorry.”
Sonya huffed and crossed her arms, “It’s fine, just-” She blurted before moving on quickly, “My core ability is Deus Ex Machina. God from the Machine.”
Chunhua mouthed the words for a moment before tilting her head, “The literary element?” Sonya nodded in response and Chunhua pursed her lips, “Does it do something different from… oh what was it… Cyber-punk?”
Sonya rubbed her fingers, “Cyber-punk was more like a receptacle. It didn’t add any specific instincts on its own,” She said, “I could cram compatible powers into it pretty easily but that's all it was good for,” Sonya explained, “The new version is so, so much more,” She said and trailed off, examining her hands, “I instinctively know that it works hand in hand with Broker’s functions, seamlessly. It also has some weird functions to deal with personal narrative. I tried testing it on Lillian Landrey and Ollie Anders but I haven’t seen any impact, don’t think I’m doing it right.”
“Personal narrative?” Chunhua asked.
Sonya shrugged, “No friggin clue,” she sighed, “It’s a very vague understanding, anyway, the most important feature of the ability right now is that it has a stupid amount of efficiency when merging in new abilities and a better understanding of how I should merge them, like a feeling in my gut. I haven’t tested it though.”
Chunhua frowned, “Why not?”
Sonya gave her an even stare, “I haven’t been in the right headspace to endure a merger, Chunhua, for a while.”
“Oh,” Chunhua cleared her throat and rubbed her arms, “Sorry.”
Sonya sighed, “It’s fine,” She said with a wave of her hand, “Let’s leave it be. I’m going to get started. Keep an eye on me, will you?”
“Absolutely,” Chunhua said, squaring her shoulders. “I’ll also keep an eye on the passage.”
Marta moved quickly to stand behind Sonya at a small distance, “And I will be right here for you.”
Sonya nodded, “Thank you, both of you,” she took a deep, deep breath and exhaled, “Let’s do this.”
Merger, Access Warehouse.
She fell back into her own mind and saw her warehouse stretch out in front of her. It was filled with countless common and uncommon abilities, over a thousand mundane abilities, and the many others that she had collected over nearly two years of handshakes. She wandered the mental passages for a moment, browsing the shelves as she experienced it for the first time in a very long time. Her eyes fell shut and she let her head roll back, her hands falling to her sides. She grabbed the first two she wanted to try to cram together.
Proceed.
In her mind's eye she stood in her warehouse with two glowing disks in her hands. Both were a vibrant purple. She watched as the two drifted from her palms before pressing against one another. There was a flash and fortunately, no pain. Not until she merged them into her primary ability, anyway. She watched the two lights meld into one until a new red-colored disk appeared in her hand.
She let out a breath, it was a success. A pure flight ability and based on the color it was heroic. She smirked to herself and drew out the next pair. This one might be a bit weird, but I’m really curious to see what happens and frankly I’ve hated using Share the Path every time I’ve used it. I’d rather put it to more practical use. I don’t want the temptation to dump my past on anyone else ever again. She thought as her attention momentarily drifted to Chunhua, Just a little longer, I have things I want to say.
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Sonya raised her eyebrows a little, Now that’s interesting. Okay, proceed!
The purple and green disks slammed together without much prompting, flashing to life and burning brightly for a moment. Sonya could almost feel her fingers tingle as the abilities molded together, their core elements, functionality, layering on top of one another to create something greater than the sum of its parts. When the light faded a red disk floated above her palm. She stared at it, surprised, Heroic? I figured at best a peak epic.
What the hell does that do? She wondered, touching it briefly and pulling it out of her warehouse and into herself. She felt the instincts wash into her and felt more confused than anything else. Her instinct was just to watch people do things and she would understand what they did. That’s still a little vague, I’ll have to use it to properly get it I guess. I’ll be merging it into Deus Ex Machina anyway so it doesn’t matter. It’ll probably change again.
She set her second red disk aside before pulling out the two colored abilities she had. She was about to begin working with them when a message came up.
Sonya frowned, What? Do I need the other colors? Alright I guess, I’ll hold off.
She pulled out two others and set them aside, she wasn’t going to merge them with anything ahead of time, she had a good feeling about bringing them in as is. They were Storage Space, which she should have done much earlier. She’d been using it for brief periods at a time rather than keeping it on all the time. And she also pulled out Digital Illusions. I have a good feeling about that one in particular.
Next she grabbed three abilities from her warehouse and pulled them out, she’d be cramming all three together at the same time. It was also a bit risky since she could lose access to a feature she really liked but on the flip-side if the compatibilities were good she could come out with a really nice payout.
She was about to begin when another ability whipped its way out of her warehouse of its own accord. A mundane light-gray disk that spun at the center of the three. The fuck? She frowned at it and touched it, Perfect Coffee? She chuckled a little, Why? She glanced around the warehouse and squinted at it only for a pair of pink eyes to stare back at her for a heartbeat. She blinked and relaxed, Oh okay, not the power acting up, just me being crazy. That’s a relief.
She snorted at the absurd thought as the compatibility rating popped up.
“Okay what the fuck!” She barked vocally this time, she sensed Marta and Chunhua react before she tilted her head and shut her mouth. What the hell do you know that I don’t? She waited and got, of course, nothing out of Ishtar, Bully. Fine.
Proceed.
Four abilities crashed into one another like magnets that had been held apart. A blinding flash filled the warehouse as colors shifted and bloomed. Her fingers quaked and stung for a moment before a new disk remained behind. A brilliant orange. No fucking way.
She would have whooped if she didn’t expect to startle her guardians. She instead chuckled a little to herself, Mythic. Beautiful. She thought and set it to the side with the others she planned on pulling in. She rubbed her hands together, So much backlog! She thought greedily, really getting into the whole thing. It has been way too long since I last did this. This is fun! She thought and pulled out the next two that she wanted to merge. I really liked your ability Brent.
She hesitated a little and cleared her throat, speaking with her eyes closed, “Marta, are you sure about that power I offered you?” She asked.
“I’d rather you have it, Sonya, I’ll feel better if you do,” Marta said behind her.
“But I just got a swank healing power,” Sonya joked, “I could live without it.”
“It’s fine Sonya, I’m a one woman army already,” Marta said proudly.
Sonya chuckled, “Fine fine, you win.”
Fun as you are, you’re bad for me, she thought as she looked at the disk symbolizing Duplicate floating over her palm. She got the sense that Ishtar would approve of her decision too. She glanced at the compatibility message.
She pursed her lips, Interesting, I wonder how that’ll work. Proceed.
The two disks crashed into one another and flashed, light blooming once more before a new orange disk was left behind.
She read the name again, Unbound? So it’ll become something else once combined with Deus Ex, then, I get it. She nodded along as she pushed it aside and grabbed one last pair. This one she had been thinking about for a while. Her gut told her that this would be the most interesting combination of the lot. She practically rubbed her hands together with glee as two orange disks appeared in her hands.
She grinned, I want nothing to do with that power of yours, Masque. Might as well put it to good use. Lets see what happens when you combine the ruler of plants with the king of the fae. She thought with amusement. It had been a long time since she acquired Sylvan Monarch and she had only used it once to any real effect. It was a useful power to be sure, but it was better used as part of a merger.
Another perfect, huh? Makes sense that they would match up well. She thought and nodded, Proceed.
FWOOM!
Light erupted from the point of impact, force pushing out from Sonya’s body so forcefully it became physical. She heard a pair of gasps as the two women standing guard over her nearly toppled over from the short-lived burst. Sonya’s hands ached, her body quaking for a moment as her warehouse shuddered under the weight of what she had made. Disks ripped from the walls of her warehouse too fast for her to see, pulled in by the hungry thing forming in her palm. Light bloomed and condensed before revealing an orange disk. It was different from the others. Not a solid color. It was cracked, its surface tearing apart at the seams. Golden light shone out of it as yellow sparks leaped off its surface. Sonya marveled at how it literally felt heavy despite not touching her metaphorical skin.
Woah.