෴Raz෴
෴Hex෴
෴Brock෴
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
Breakfast of Champions
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
A dull ache in his chin woke him. Opening his eyes, Raz found himself on the floor looking at dust bunnies and errant grains of sand under the bed. He did a mental inventory and found himself ok aside from the ache in his chin and jaw. Struggling to his feet, Raz activated Somatic Recovery on himself.
He felt the bruise and micro-tears in his left mandibular ligament vanish. Several minor bruises across his body vanished as well.
Gotta admit, an active healing ability is pretty useful. So I’ve got white fire now?
[It is assimilating. You have also gained the passive resistance ability ‘Insulation’]
[Warning. ‘Insulation’ includes a permanent -1 to energy regen.]
Oh no, please tell me that’s not like overload all over again.
[It is not. I am not sure you’ll even notice it. When your energy regeneration procedural chains are engaged, the slowest one you have used will still massively over power this small reduction in your natural regeneration. Your natural regeneration increases with every new ability unlocked. If you relied solely on natural energy regen, too many passive abilities could start to be a problem.]
Always something unexpected and bad. At least it doesn’t sound too bad this time. What does Insulation do?
[It is a specific resistance ability, effective against White Fire direct damage and related effects.]
Hmm, I seem to recall you said specific resistances are the most bang for the buck. That conversation feels like so long ago.
[That is true. Additionally, several notes indicate that this tree is the only location for White Fire specific resistances.]
Well, yeah. That’s what we were looking for. When can I try out the ability?
[It will take some time to assimilate, but it is activated now. You should expect to gain an instinctive knowledge that you have the ability as soon as it is ready.
Please tell me we’re talking about a reasonable time frame.
[The neural reset too—] Raz swiped it away angrily.
By the way, thanks for nothing with that warning. I had literally just gotten up, and you couldn't warn me a few seconds early so I could just stay sitting?
[That reset occurs at the end of the activation, so it was not visible until committing to invest the full amount. I passed the message as soon as I had it.]
Ok, fair enough. So what's the timeline like?
[Non specified. Looking at the progress, I’d say minutes.]
Raz willed the progress onto his display and watched it crawl upwards at a glacial pace for a moment before hiding it.
Oh. That still looks like a while.
He brushed the floor dust off him and headed out to find Hex.
He found her sitting at a table with Brock. The two were chatting like old friends. Brock seemed to be in a good mood. She was dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, although her clothing also looked clean. Brock was wearing a similar outfit as they’d first seen him in, minus the helmet, and with the addition of some kind of backpack-like device strapped onto his upper back. They each had an empty plate in front of them. The scent of fried meat and something buttery filled the air.
Brock had a translucent floating block of text hovering over his head. The text was a countdown with the words ‘Planetary Scan’ flashing above it. Raz almost said something about it before the impact of the food smells hit him.
“Whoa. I just realized I am starving. Please tell me there’s more of whatever you two had.”
Brock grinned, looking like a friendly, but still a little crazy, clichéd mad scientist. “Yes. There is plenty, more than you can eat.”
Raz sat himself down and seven heaped servings later proved Brock wrong. When the inventor threw up his hands in surrender, Hex laughed and patted Raz’s unchanged belly. “I don’t get it. Where is it even going?”
“That was the entire veek's vorth of food I made ahead of time! Bah, now I vill have to cook again! Is this your first time eating or something?” Brock exclaimed.
Raz rubbed his hands through his hair and then tugged at his beard. How did I get so shaggy? Have I really been neglecting to shave so long? I really need a haircut.
“I don’t know. I actually feel like I could still eat some more. It’s not like it was though. I’m just ‘regular’ hungry, not—whatever that was.”
Brock stood and put his hand on his hip. “Good thing too. I’d have to start charging you for food if you’re going to be eating like that.”
Hex pulled him in for kisses. Between kisses, he felt her slip something into his pocket. “So, Brock has been telling me about how his doors work, and how he’s finding his wife. It’s very odd, and far over my head, but sounds pretty cool. I thought it might be something like how I move, but it seems to have almost nothing in common.” She said in a normal conversational tone.
Raz replied with a kiss of his own. “If it has to do with those doors, I’ll assume it’s over my head as well.” He got up and headed for the door toward the guest room. Hex asked Brock a question about his wife.
Inside the guest room bathroom, he found a note in his pocket. Written in small neat letters he recognized as Sia’s handwriting was a terse message. “Confirmed gloves + set now useless to others, basically unsellable.”
Oh you know me so well babe. That is good information. Now I just need to dangle some lures and see what comes up.
He used the bathroom and flushed the note.
Out in the main room Brock was going on about how much his work and the work done by his wife had advanced both of their knowledge.
In a momentary lull in the conversation, Raz threw out the first bait. “So, I meant to ask, did you want to know the other fatal flaws?”
Brock shook his head dismissively. “Nah. You were right. You’ve acted in good faith, and you only offered the two. We have a new deal for the message delivery now, and that is enough.”
Failure. Note to self. He’s intensely, almost obsessively interested at first, but that interest peaks and then fades. Need to be ready to capitalize right away, on anything that might catch his curiosity. But.... Maybe he just needs to be intrigued all over again.
“That’s a good thing! I really admire your being so stoic about it all. Being able to let go of the past is important.” Raz announced in an enthusiastic but uncertain tone.
Brock looked at him with an uncertain expression. “I do not understand your meaning.”
Raz lifted his hands as if to concede the point. “Oh no, I’m serious. I totally admire that. I don’t know if I could do it myself, but I admire your self control.” Raz could almost see the series of vague statements creating questions that set their hooks into Brock. “You see, someone recently destroyed my home.”
Brock frowned, tilted his head in confusion. “Sorry to hear that. Vhat does that have to do vith—”
Raz leaned forward and rested his head in his hand just long enough to sell it. He tapped into the seething mass of emotions he’d been keeping tightly under wraps, allowing him to fill his voice with a potent and genuine mix of confusion, loss, and anger.
“I don’t even know why. They destroyed my mother’s home as well. There’s just something about the sanctity of the home. It was a violation.”
He shook his head with a frown. “Not knowing why has been killing me. I’d love to know who did it. Maybe I could do something about it. Maybe I could do something about them.”
Brock’s face looked conflicted. His body language became more intensely agitated by the second.
Raz shrugged and let out a long breathy sigh. “I mean, maybe I couldn’t do anything, but knowing who it was would be the first step. Not knowing who or why, it just eats me up inside.” As he said it, he realized he still wasn’t acting, just revealing what he’d kept bottled up so well.
Brock looked at him with curiosity, but said nothing.
When Brock didn’t respond, Raz forced a smile that came out as a pained grimace. “I guess having your shop broken into and robbed just isn’t as big of a deal to you. I can totally respect your commitment to forgetting about it, letting go, and moving on.”
Brock’s eyes narrowed then opened wide as he tilted his head in confusion. “Vhat are you driving at?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Raz faked a confused expression. “What do you mean?”
“Vhy are you speaking of this?!” Brock nearly shouted, his composure finally cracking.
Gotcha.
Raz shrugged and raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Oh, you know. I mentioned before that I was kept a prisoner by the people who probably stole those gloves from you. I really admire your ability to let it go, I just thought you might want to know more about who robbed you.”
Brock opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water for several seconds before finally blinking several times and nodding. “Do you know who did it?” he asked with wide eyes.
Raz made a show of considering it. “Well, I was a prisoner, not a guest, but I know the names and faces of the people in charge there.” He shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. “No promises, but if you got any video I could probably tell you who it was. Worst case, I can tell you where the place is, and who was in charge when I was a prisoner.”
All technically true, if not exactly up to date information.
Tensing up slightly as she heard him say that, Hex covered up her spike in tension by turning her attention to one of the display cases. She asked Brock a question about the unadorned metallic shaft inside, but so great was his focus on Raz, he didn’t appear to even hear the question.
Brock was breathing faster. His veneer of disinterest in tatters. He stood there staring at Raz with an expression that looked uncomfortably like naked lust.
Raz played it cool and turned away, wishing once again the shop had surfaces he could mirror. “You know, I’m going to step outside for a few minutes.”
Hex stood up and met him at the door. “Want me to come with you?”
He leaned down and whispered. “Tell him all about the houses being destroyed, don’t give him any info about the facility at all!” He kissed her and then spoke in a normal volume “It’s ok babe, I’m just going to stretch my legs and get some air.”
Brock spoke up unexpectedly. “I’d recommend staying inside the circle. My sensors registered some large creatures in the area. Let’s talk vhen you back inside.”
Raz nodded and stepped through the mantrap and outside.
Hex turned back to Brock. “It really was terrible.”
Brock looked at her with interest. “Vhat vas?”
“You should have seen the houses. They were razed to the ground. Nothing but ashes and rubble left behind.”
“What do you know about the place where he was imprisoned?” he asked, curiosity clear in his low voice.
She smiled, all sympathy and agreement. “Oh gosh. I wish I could tell you more about that horrible place. That’s really a question better asked of Raz. You just have to hear what he could tell you about the place.”
*** *** ***
Outside, the brisk morning air felt bracing. Raz looked at the various weapon emplacements, but they appeared inert, so he ignored them and looked to the hazy sky.
I always thought of it being really hot here. Being breezy and a bit chilly was never even on my mind.
Raz took a quick couple of laps around the building to stretch his legs and get the blood flowing.
[The integration of Somatic Restoration: Give and Take has completed.]
Faster than I thought.
[It did not involve much in the way of physical alterations. However, during this time I have come to a troubling conclusion.]
I am starting to think there are no other kinds. What is it?
[We should not be alive.]
I’m gonna have to disagree with you there.
[This is serious. At the time, I had neither the cognitive nor experiential data available to realize it, but the quantities of injected catalyst we received should have been lethal.]
Well yeah, I felt like I barely survived that time with the—
[No. I mean that with the possible exception of the very first injection, as I did not exist, and your sensory data for that traumatic experience is somewhat unreliable, every injection Braithwaite hit us with had more than enough catalyst to give a lethal result. The kind of lethal results that give the rare human chimeras, as with the end state of opponent designate Hutch, or the ‘melters’ that lose cohesion from the molecular level upward, resulting in cellular, tissue, organ, structural failure.]
Yeah, thanks for the disgusting reminder. But what does that mean?
[I don’t know. I’ve been looking over the logs and your recollection, looking for an answer. I don’t have one, or know what to make of it. You are in some ways better at intuitive leaps, so I just thought you should know.]
Why now?
[During the third rank of Somatic Restoration integration, additional information has become available to me. Specifically information about the human body and yours in particular. Look at yourself.]
Raz stopped walking and looked down at himself. Superimposed over his vision was a map of his body. Bones and blood vessels, muscles and nerves. He was able to focus inward and see past his muscles into his abdominal cavity. The food from breakfast was making its way through his small intestine in a series of small pockets of liquid.
“Well that’s cool yet a little gross. A lot like that—into body experience I had when it came on.”
[It is an artificial sense I’ve created using the input from your vision, as well as the input from sub abilities Diagnose 1 and 2, and Perceive Status.]
So, will this work on other people?
[You’ll currently need to be in contact with them to use the requisite sub abilities, but if so, then yes.]
Would this let me see if something is still compromising her mental state?
[I believe so. However, the sooner the better. One thing I’ve learned about mental alterations, is that if they stick around long enough, they become the new normal.]
That is exactly what I’m worried about. If we find a smoking gun, how do we fix it?
He’d lost count of the laps around the ‘yard’ as he jogged around the inside edge of the ring, as he waited for Bee’s response, Raz felt something from beyond the ring. Some tiny sensory input had come to him like a sonar ping, revealing something moving out beyond the ring. He stopped and looked, but nothing was visible, and nothing moved that he could see. The sense of slow, deliberate motion from somewhere out in front of him remained.
Ok, well that’s kind of creepy. I guess we got lucky on the way in.
He did two more laps, and discovered three more places surrounding the workshop where he could sense something out beyond the ring, but still not see anything. Whatever it was, had the place surrounded.
Those are new. Pretty sure they weren’t there before.
[I think you’re right. As for that smoking gun, the next level in Somatic Restoration is idiomatically called “Life Support.” It has four attached sub abilities! Just like Advanced Interface three. I don’t know with any real certainty, but it seems reasonable that this might be where the ability to resolve those inflicted statuses will be found.]
I hope so. For now, let’s hope that was enough time to let Brock simmer. If not, maybe I can add this ‘your home is surrounded by invisible monsters’ puzzle to the fire.
Back inside, Hex had clearly been doing good work. Brock’s pained expression looked almost constipated as he glanced over at Raz several times.
Raz didn’t care about any of that. He advanced on Hex with a will, taking her into his arms and whirling her in an impromptu dance with a dip. As he did, he engaged Diagnose and Perceive status.
[She’s healthy, and no signs of an active influence on her. We may never know what permanent effect she suffered if any.]
Raz leaned into the kiss, surprising her with his intensity.
What she said fits with available facts. Still not sure about letting that guy live, but he’s further down the todo list now.
She responded to his kiss avidly, her arm around his neck and waist.
He broke the kiss and smiled down at her.
She looked up at him with curiosity and laughter in her eyes. “Well, hello to you too! Do we need to get a room?”
Brock was facing away from them, muttering to himself throughout this. He turned and spotted them making out. Suddenly his eyes went wide and he stood up. “I’m going to get the next batch of food cooking in case your friend here turns out to need another five kilos of food for lunch.” he said to Hex with a wink.
At the door, his expression turned more serious. “Feel free to look at anything, I recommend you don’t touch anything if you’re not sure it’s safe.”
Hex rolled her eyes. “So basically don’t touch anything.”
“Jah.” He hurried off.
“Oh my, we have the room all to ourselves!” she whispered.
She shifted her grip a little lower and grabbed a handful “But, while the bed would be more comfortable...”
They extended the embrace. She looked behind him for a suitable spot, then pushed Raz into a nearby chair. Raz half sat, half fell, into the comfy office chair, and enjoyed watching her straddle his legs and sit astride him, face to face.
She leaned in close and kissed her way to his ear “So babe, are you in a good mood, or are you in a good mood?” she purred the last bit.
“Mmhmm, is both an option?” he murmured.
“You know it Mister! Think we’ve got time?” she giggled.
“I’ve got the time if you’ve got the energy!” he whispered urgently, starting to feel a bit constrained by his pants.
Brock’s voice cut through the quiet of the shop. “I gave you a room! Consider using it.”
Raz sighed. “Well, at least we could—”
“But be quick about it! The locator could find her at any time!” Brock finished.
Hex sighed. “Sorry babe, maybe we should give this a raincheck.” She popped off his lap and stood, offering Raz her hand.
“Well that was an abrupt mood killer. I guess, let's take a look at this place,” Raz said with regret, taking her hand and getting to his feet.
They looked around the workshop. The organization was haphazard at best. Items that looked completed sitting next to, and sometimes on, other items, including some that looked like they just had to be works in progress. Raz chuckled at a belt comprised of heavy metal linked plates and a sizable disc at the front. “Look at that thing. I can’t decide if I should make a dinner plate joke, or a professional wrestling joke.”
Hex chuckled at that. “I like that rifle. It looks badass.” In a much lower voice, “I’ve got him about as hooked as I can. He’s dying to ask you about the place and to get you to ID some people from the video. I’ve never seen anyone so obsessive about this kind of thing. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Raz nodded, “Yeah, me too.” he whispered in her ear. In a louder voice he replied to her overt comment. “The one that looks like a precision rifle without a barrel?”
She nodded. “Look at that thing in front of the chamber. I have a feeling the barrel isn’t missing, we’re just not seeing how it works.”
The sight of his familiar black gauntlets on a workbench along with the larger cestus and the vambraces dampened the mood for Raz. “You know. I think I’ll just sit back down and wait.”
Keep your game face on. Eyes on the prize and all that. Treat what you want as unimportant, and act like the concessions you give on the things you really don’t care about are a big deal, requiring solid reciprocity.
He started across the workshop back toward the chair. On the way he spotted a hammer laying on the floor in a warped divot carved into the steel flooring. He resisted the urge to kick it out of his way.
In her haste to catch up, Hex tripped over the same hammer. With only a minor use of slow time, Raz spun in place and caught her mid-fall.
She gave him a smoldering smile. “Mmmhm, good catch babe. I should swoon more often.”
Her come hither gaze got a smile out of him, but wasn’t enough to lift his mood any more than that. He plopped down in the chair and waited for Brock.
When the smith returned a moment later, he was greeted by the sight of Hex making her way around the workshop, and Raz looking around the shop with a bored expression.
“That was fast,” Raz observed in a disinterested tone.
Brock nodded fast. “Jah. I loaded extra food into machine in case you two remain for lunch.” He caught Hex’s eye, ”Or whatever this one calls it when he eats all my food!” He pointed at Raz with a rueful grin.
Raz’s bored expression vanished as he suddenly felt something he’d never experienced before. It crashed through him like a brand new sense appearing in his mind and body. Like seeing something with an eye he’d never had or feeling a new texture with an imaginary hand. Something was happening inside him. In the space of a few seconds Raz felt a sudden influx of a sure and instinctual knowledge of a directed energy ability. With that knowledge came a swell of energy unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
I have White Fire!