Max was running to the street, calling for an AutoPod, when Charlie and Leah caught up with him.
“Hold up, Max!” Charlie yelled.
Max turned to see Charlie waving him over to the cars parked and lining Main Street in front of the Academy building. Max was confused until he saw a car in front start up and open its gull wing doors. Max wasn’t familiar with cars other than the autopods. His family had sprung a couple of times for a luxury air sedan for trips to NYC for Broadway holo plays, but this was a ferocious looking vehicle. He recognized the logo on the front, “Dodge Subaru”. It had the smart matter landing struts holding it up and extendible wings with a pair of massive core power jets along the sides.
“I think this will be faster! Pile in troops.” Charlie said with a smirk as he slid behind the wheel.
“Shotgun!” Leah yelled and slid into the passenger side front seat. Knowing he missed his chance, Max grumbled but dove into the back seat.
“You’ve been holding out on us, Charlie. How long have you had this?” Max said as he piled in.
“I’m tired of living like a hermit. I spent most of my life savings on my augmentations and this training program, but this beauty was a bargain.” Charlie began as he accessed the vehicle. Max could see the status screen flash a litany of messages. Charlies access link, superconductor rings energized, air matrix wings cycled, and the charging struts retracted. The craft bobbled slightly as it settled on its EM field suspension. Charlie chose to control it with a control yoke and cranked it forwards. The air car smoothly slid down the street.
“I shopped it on the IndyNet. Dodge Subaru can’t market a new model without at least 10k hours of monitored flights, but I was able to get in on the pilot program for the CamAero ‘23 for a pittance. Once it’s licensed and vetted, they can sell it on the MakerNet, this beauty will market for 30K credits minimum without all the extras.” Charlie continued.
The craft continued to quickly slide on invisible rails down the street. In the front display, the road was painted with a blue glow and much further down as the road exited the “downtown” area, the glow terminated. Max was a bit worried as they approached the termination area at an ever-increasing speed.
Charlie whooped as they crossed the line and the car’s jets engaged. Max’s claws dug into the back of the seat as the car lifted off at a steep angle, careening at a slant upward and to the right.
“What the hell was that glow all about?” Max asked.
“That was the EM field provided by the town. The maglev system is very energy efficient and keeps all the cars hushed in the downtown area. Without the maglev, I need to crank the air thrusters and jets. The newest cars don’t cause much of a racket, but they can produce some annoying pulse of wind.” Charlie explained.
They were a half mile high in no time at all and their target was already in view. Charlie pushed the car even faster and dropped into the familiar open lot at the entry to the Grand Oaks reservation. The car bounced once before it stabilized over their parking area, and the landing struts extended.
“Hmmm, I should file a report on that so they can fix that glitch before final release.” Charlie said with an embarrassed grimace.
Max was already out of the vehicle and consulting his scanner, as soon as everyone was out of the car, he started a light jog down the path. He started retracing his path from the last night in the woods, his friends close behind. As they ran, Max smelled a familiar scent, and a chittering confirmed his nose’s alert. Flip ran quickly, crossing the path, and racing up a nearby tree.
“Sorry, Flip. No time to play today, we are on a mission!” Max said, racing past. Max, Leah, and Charlie made good time and soon they came to the top of the trail. Their meditation rock and the top of the falls was picturesque as always. Max shuddered remembering his accidental trip over the edge during the night before with its painful conclusion.
With an eye on the scanner, and no new signals yet, Max knew the Tesseract must indeed be inside the Grand Oaks. He turned to his friends.
“Ok. Last night I took to the trees to avoid some of the wild animals roaming about. I can already smell something new, I’m guessing a couple wolves, maybe. The scanner only has a range of a few meters, so….” Max lost his train of thought and looked pained.
“So, I’m such an idiot. I spent a lot of last night traversing the forest high, in the upper decks of the Grand Oaks, so I couldn’t have gotten a signal until after I dropped down to investigate Tyler’s little camp. I guess that means we should have less area to search at least. If we retrace the river slowly and watch for animals, I’ll keep my eyes on the scanner. Hopefully we get a hit before we get to the Alcohol tree grove where Tyler and his friends were partying.” Max said.
“We’ve got your back Max. We can help you find it.” Leah said.
“Yes! And once your device is safe, we can find that alcohol tree, huh?” Charlie amended. Leah punched him promptly and gave Max a sympathetic look. Before they could start their hike, Flip ran up chittering again.
“Not now, Flip. We have to go.” Max said. Boone appeared again in Max’s OverLayer. Max shared the OverLayer with his friends so they could hear any directions Boone might give.
“[That animal ain’t actin’ natchrul. Ya’ll be careful. There are loads of critter sign, and not the pleasant sort like that there squirrel. Sumthin’ got this lil’ guy riled up.]” Boone warned.
Exchanging looks, Charlie morphed his “belt” back to its full Bo staff form and Leah prepared her slingshot. Max stalked slowly into the woods following the river with an eye to his scanner and his nose alert for trouble.
As the trio traveled deeper into the reserve, the tension never did lessen. Max scented a lot of animals, who according to Boone were likely using the river as a water source. A significant number of the smells were not ones that Max recognized. However, something about their taste yelled predator in his brain, causing Max to cringe at every sound. To make matters worse, Flip was still trailing them and screeching from nearby trees. Even the kindhearted Leah eventual became agitated enough to serious consider sending a sling bullet at Flip to scare him off.
After over an hour of cautious movement north, tracking the river, Max called a halt and motioned to his friends to come close.
“I can smell some very fresh scents of both bear and fox. Extremely fresh. We need to be very quiet and careful. It smells like the bear that chased me and she’s very fast. Be ready to run if we need to.” Max whispered.
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As if on cue, the comment elicited a roar that came from over the slight rise of the bank. The trio froze. Max noticed that Leah’s skin had turned a greenish brown and Charlie’s did as well a second later. Max heard a ding in his head and didn't need to look down at his own skin to confirm it.
[New skill unlocked - Chameleon 1: augmentation skin chromatophores enable active blending ability to hide from opponents.]
Max waved to his friends and was about to tell his friends to slowly back away when he saw the scanner had lit up. An active signal! The Tesseract was nearby. He silently showed it to Charlie and Leah as they got closer. The hidden bear over the rise was continuing to make a racket, grunting, and thrashing about in the trees. Charlie got a stubborn look and suddenly his skin color shifted to a bright red color.
“I’ll take care of this beastie. Remember that I’m faster than you. You keep searching, while I draw it away!” he hissed and ran over the top of the rise. Leah looked terrified, but quickly said.
“I need to follow him; in case he runs out of luck. You can find it, right?” Leah said. As he nodded, she sprinted after Charlie. A roar from the copse of trees was a good indication Charlie had indeed found the bear. Max groaned. If he had learned one thing on family movie nights, it was this: In horror movies, you never ever split up. It always ended badly.
Shaking his head, Max quietly crept up the rise as the crashing and growling sounds got fainter and fainter. At least no sounds of Charlie or Leah screaming. Max saw signs of the bear by the damage to the nearby trees and ground, but Charlie and Leah had been successful in luring it away. Max hurried straight, following the scanner’s directional indicator, to a Grand Oak immediately ahead in the clearing.
This one seemed a bit thicker than the others, the leaves slightly less pronounced. Its roots were partially exposed, the slope of the ground and perhaps burrowing animals had created a root lined cave at its foundation. With grim determination, Max crept forward into the dark musky shadows of the opening, activating all his sensing skills.
The cave glowed with more heat than Max would have expected. The roots lining the ceiling and walls of the cave illuminated it further with the telltale blue glow of his EM sense. The artificial nature of the bio machine was clear using his enhanced senses. The fields shimmered and flexed. It drew his attention to one specific area, a small and faded section, that seemed to be a focal point of the flickering pattern.
[DigiSense +1, DigiSense skill reaches 9]
[ExaVision +1, ExaVision skill reaches 4: Telescopic vision unlocked]
[EM Sense +1, EM Sense skill reaches 5]
[Pattern +1, Pattern Skill reaches 8]
Max gasped. The Tesseract was there. It was embedded in the roots; tendrils, threads, and whiskers of plant matter encircled the tiny marble.
[Quest - Find the Tesseract – complete. 100 XP awarded]
“How the hell did this manage to get here?” he asked out loud. Max reached out with his access skill. The Tesseract failed to register at all, and the Grand Oak resisted his access attempts. Max pried and pried with his fingers, unable to lever the device from the root ball. Eventually, he had to resort to cutting the marble loose with his claws.
With the device in hand, he was about to access it again, when he heard a frantic chittering outside.
“I said not now, Flip, I’m…….” Max lost his words as he heard a much closer noise and hiss. He looked up to the entry to see the five tailed fox filling the gap. It was twice the size of a natural fox and was standing with difficulty on its hind legs. Its eyes seemed to convey a deep hatred as they narrowed, seeing Max in its lair.
Max froze at the sight. The fox raised its arm to its own mouth and bit down hard, drawing blood. With a strangly satisfied look, it smiled with bloody teeth and it charged! Max dropped into his FastCog skill.
[Boone, Miyamoto! Help. What should I do?] Max yelled in his head to his daemons.
[Foxes rarely attack, although this’un ain't close to natchrul. Normal foxes hate loud noises, but if yur in its den it will be right aggressive.] Boone said quickly.
[Animals are not like humans, Max. It will seek out weak points to bite and claw. Soft areas inside joints, the neck, and sides. Be ready for it. If you can anticipate its strike, you can control the fight.] Miyamoto said with his stoic calmness.
Max wished he had Charlie’s strong stun and strobe attacks, or even his sword. Miyamoto reminded him that he did have the beginnings of the stun skill set, with his kyai attack. He sank into a low stance, ready for the animal’s charge. Sure enough, the fox dropped low, going for his knees.
Max struck out with a claw to the fox’s muzzle just before it could snap at him. He emphasized the strike with a stunning kai!
[Quest: Red in Tooth and Claw - Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too. Status 1 of 3 strikes complete]
[Stun +1, Stun skill reaches level 2]
The fox’s bite was deflected, and his claw dug deeply into its snout. The animal was bashed to the side of the cave. Max bolted for the exit with the way cleared but his foot caught upon a root, causing him to trip. Even in slowed time, he was unable to do more than roll into the fall. As he clambered back to his feet, he felt a searing pain on the back of his neck.
Max’s vision narrowed as if the whole of the world was at a distance. Pain coursed through his veins, and he responded on instinct. He flipped and tore free from the teeth embedded in the back of his neck. The resulting damage was a pinprick compared to the fire raging inside him. His animalistic nature surged forth, his only thoughts were to kill or be killed. As he tore into the fox and it responded in kind, a mass of thrashing teeth and claws. Blood flew, fur and flesh tore, as animal screeching and growls filled the small space. Max’s notifications flew past without conscious review.
[Agility +2, Endurance +3, Vitality +4]
[Resist Poison +1, Resist Poison reaches 2]
[Warning - unknown agent, active disassembly detected, MechanoVirus unknown]
[Resist Poison +8, Poison reaches 10: new skill unlocked, Skill cap reached 100 XP awarded]
[New Resistance skill unlocked: ANDD 1 - Active NanoDisassembly Defenses (ANDD) protects from UN contraband prohibited nanovirus weapons, report all instances to government agencies and regional Samaritans]
[Regeneration +3, Regeneration reaches 7]
[Painless +3, Painless reaches 5]
[Claws +2, Claws reaches 7]
[Skin +2, Skin reaches 8]
[Gland +4, Gland reaches 5: new chemical functions sedative, antihistamine, amphetamine, atropine unlocked]
[Quest Complete: Red in Tooth and Claw – Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too. 100 XP awarded]
Max’s awareness slowly returned as he found himself beginning to chase the fox from the den. He stopped as the pain began to recede, and he was able to think clearly again. He knew that he couldn’t give chase like his instincts demanded.
Casita! Where is the Tesseract? he thought. He doubled back and plunged into the burrow. Soon enough he found it on the ground amidst the splashes of blood and fur, some of it his own. Repulsed by the dim memories of his own acts, he grabbed the marble and rushed back out. Back to the woods, back to the river, he ran as quickly as he could. His torn body was already regenerated while his smart clothes hung in tatters from him. He hoped his friends had returned to the Meditation Rock to wait for him as he made his way there without looking back.
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