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Max wasted no time, heading straight for the library. With Mal and Sherlock's guidance, they swiftly accessed the library interface and found the book “Grand Oaks Reserves Resource Output, YR 2110 - 2220”, exactly what the investigator needed.
As Max maneuvered past the librarian, a quick wave sufficed, since she was engrossed in assisting two young children with their palm chips, leaving her oblivious to his presence. Max was still feeling a little guilty knowing her cat was loose again and he hadn't stopped to get it.
Working his way back to the depths of the Utopia town records archives, Max was directed to the dust-shrouded back shelves. Initially unable to spot the necessary volume, he assumed it must be higher up based on the numbering system. In his determination, he vaulted upward, drawing a displeased hush from the only other occupant in the room, an elderly gentleman who cautioned him to avoid disruption. Grimacing, Max mentally replayed his glimpse of the titles from his leap, his pattern skills quickly revealed the exact location of the tome.
Determined to blend in. Max didn't want to disturb his fellow patron. He scanned for a suitable step ladder but found none. He pulled his grappler hook from its housing in his sleeve but shook his head. That would be sure to cause a ruckus. Mal quickly spoke into his head.
“[Max, this is a perfect opportunity to hone your control. The library is rich in utility fog. If you access the area surrounding the book, you should be able to acquire that Telekinesis skill you've been seeking.]” she suggested.
Nodding to himself, Max focused on his surroundings. Using his EM sense helped, as he could see the dense foglets that filled the library air normally invisible. He cast a broad Access request, but it failed to latch on to the foglets. He focused on a tighter area around the book.
[New Mind Skill Unlocked: Telekinesis 1 - Access local nano-foglets to manipulate and move objects without physical interaction. Further training enables improved range, scope, and agility.]
With a look of concentration, Max reached out with his newly honed skill. The wispy mechanical foglet responded to his mental orders, linking up and enveloping the distant record. With a rough tug, the book was dislodged, dropping down into his waiting hands.
Max nodded to the curmudgeon and walked past him. He opened up the book rifling through its contents. Mal and Sherlock opened an OverLayer display showing Max electronic records for the bio-machine forest. Dense columns and rows of numbers detailing energy aggregations and spending, gas collections, and the essential bio-manufacture of feedstocks that were created and shuttled into the Resource lines that flowed in parallel to the global hyperloop lines.
Max triggered his AV recording. In the modern age, any image or audio could be replicated, and authenticity would always be suspect. The MindWerks AV application included in his augmentations was admissible in court as an independent feed collection software, timestamped, and using extra resources to authenticate live real-world input.
As he flipped through year after year, Max’s pattern-matching skill was triggering, in a bad way. It failed to match any of the physical record outputs against the online display.
“I don’t get it. Nothing matches… it's not even close. The book records are almost ten times as big as the online figures.” Max whispered.
“[Precisely Max! Don't you see? Both are purported to be definitive and accurate records of the significant energy and feedstock production of the Grand Oak Reserve bio-machines. Someone has altered the official records, presumably the online version that everyone uses!” Sherlock said with gusto.
“You mean Dad’s hacker?” Max asked.
“[Precisely. Not as infallible as we’ve presumed so far. This is the first solid evidence of tampering. The Grand Oaks ties into our hacker somehow. I expect there must be something within those woods to complete this puzzle.]” Sherlock’s excitement and determination was palpable.
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Max felt free again. Finally able to be back and running the trail again up to the Grand Oaks; he felt a tension he hadn't realized he had started to drain away. He had ample energy in his augs and fed his [Speed] and [Tireless] skills easily, empowering his movements to the equal of a dashing cheetah.
He opened his senses wide as he ran, his [Scent], [ExaVision], and [DigiSense] skill gave him an awareness of the woods that felt preternatural. He was aware of Flip long before his first sighting and the little creature’s excited screeches.
“Sorry, Flip. No time for tree running. I got a mission to run!” Max said with a bark. As he sped along, the little squirrel's outraged chittering quickly faded. The trail wound upwards, the towering Grand Oaks standing like sentinels, welcoming him.
The artificial nature of towering bio-machines was obvious as the season was turning. The lesser wood’s tree leaves were changing to a riot of bright colors, but the huge Oaks leaves remained a deep green. As he approached the first massive “tree”, Max shot his Grappler out. He engaged the auto-winch in addition to a prodigious leap and landed on a low branch to take stock.
He could feel the beginnings of signal interference; the edge of the collective EM jamming effect the Grove produced. Slightly unnerved as realized his ability to connect to his home and friends was compromised, he said.
“[Okay, Sherlock. Against all advice from my family, we are here. Any ideas what type of clue might serve to understand the hacker's connection to these machines and his motivation?]” Max asked.
“[Ah, that is the rub, Max. We don’t know what we must find yet. This hacker’s long history of alterations to the records implies a deep involvement with these bio-machines. Remember, these are machines and not trees. The root cave where you found the tesseract should be your target, I think. Replaying your memories of the event, spoke to me that the roots may have been interfacing with the device.]” Sherlock advised.
Max nodded although there was nobody to see, a habit formed from flesh and blood acquaintances. He secured his footing and slowly began working his way across the treetops, deeper into the reserve, towards the grove where he had fought the monstrous fox, the Kitsune. He barely needed to use his Grappler, with his high strength, claws, gymnastics, and leaping skills active. He reserved it for bridging large gaps between the tree branches.
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[SkillZ: 2.85/1.0/0.90 (Input= Swim 1.0, NanoCraft 1.0, Brachiation 0.85) (Output= Katana-1.0, Kempo-0.90)]
Max quickly review his augmentation SkillZ ability. The skill trading/training application was awesome. Musashi had confirmed that with the added body/mind memory of the katana skill that he was indeed now proficient with a blade, although true mastery would require lots of use.
He saw that his latest trade-in skill, brachiation, was close to leveling up the SkillZ track and giving him another training bonus. He couldn’t wait to see what options he would get. As he swung through the branches, he wondered if most modern skills were grafted on like this. If so, he could easily learn anything. Be anything that he wanted to be!
His eyes, enhanced to see in all spectrums of light, scanned the bio-mechanical entity, searching for any anomaly. As he progressed deeper, he noticed that about every hundredth tree was different. The infrequent “trees” were bigger in height and thickness, but the leaves seemed stunted. Now that Max had categorized the differences, they stood out, impossible to ignore. He landed upon one, taking a breather and a closer look.
The artificial leaves for the special tree-like machines were different as well. Instead of dark photosynthetic fibers, these leaves were traced in metallic struts and threads. They glowed significantly more than their brethren in the EM spectrum. The other tree resonated with electromagnetic emissions, but these were emitting powerfully.
[I need a quick break. I’m going to rest for just a second. Let's take the opportunity to look closer at this big boy here.]” Max said internally. He wasn't really that tired, but the EM jamming was grating on his nerves now that he was aware of it.
[Max, it might seem overwhelming, but can you activate all of your senses? Maybe we can all take a piece of the sensory data while you rest. I’m thinking Musashi can sample the visual and thermal band for tactical oversight, Boone the audio and scent to best utilize his woodcraft, and I can monitor the EM band. Sherlock, you know best what you might need.] Mal asked.
Max agreed and triggered his entire suite of sensory and mental skills. Seeing the significant draw on his energy, he concentrated on a meditative mindset to improve his energy regeneration. It was interesting seeing the daemons dig into the sensory feeds.
Musashi’s attention shifted like lightning from one to another tree looking for threats. With Max’s DigiSense he was exquisitely aware of his position and readiness. Musashi demonstrated a subtle paranoia about his “blind spots” and frequently checked his 360-degree view using Max’s other non-visual senses. Boone was categorizing scents against what he knew, although his familiarity with odors was only human and Max’s enhanced range was a little beyond him.
Mal was trying to filter out the EM jamming. As annoyed by the noise as Max was, Mal was feeling isolated and she was projecting a bit of fear into Max’s head space. However, Max was quickly drawn to Sherlock’s actions. The daemon flitted from feed to feed, but also settled on the EM noise.
Max watched as Sherlock began to decompose and mix the signals. He called that night exercise. Leah had commented about the trees talking. Max focused on the noisy signals.
[New Mind Skill Unlocked: Decode 1 - A step above Pattern recognition, reveals deeper meaning in hidden signal. Additional training can decode more complex encryption.]
“[Damn, Leah was right! The trees really are talking. That's not a jamming signal. We’re just being drowned out with their cross-talk.]” Max said to his team.
“[It's not any known language on record, human or machine code, but it does seem to be a communication of some sort. This may take some time. I need more sampling. Maybe from different regions...]” Sherlock said until Boon exclaimed and interrupted.
“[Sumthin’s wrong, boy! Listen!]” Boone yelled over the internal com.
Max tensed, listening, but he didn’t hear anything.
“[I don’t hear anything, Boone.]” Max said hesitatingly.
“[Damnit, that’s what I meant. All the critters went silent. They only do that if there is a predator..….]” Boone was interrupted in turn by Musashi.
“[Move Max!]” Musashi bellowed. Max half jumped and twisted, his arms coming up as he sensed the heat source closed behind him.
Max shielded his face from claws and feathers, tumbling from his perch due to his attacker's force, despite his enhanced balance. The massive owl surprised him by striking his head with its wings and clawing at his arms. Falling, Max activated his shocking touch, stun, and strobe skills simultaneously to force the bird to disengage.
Max was thankful for his Scrambler course training and reflexes. As soon as the owl retreated, he shot his Grappler to the branches above. The move didn’t completely stop the fall's impact, but it was mere inconvenience instead of damaging.
Max caught the scent a millisecond before a massive form hit him from behind. The musky scent of a familiar bear filled his nose as it slammed into him driving him into the turf. Max rolled away from the beast getting tangled in his Grappler line.
Max struggled. The owl that had knocked him down had recovered from Max's energy attacks and continued to harry him. The bear charged again and pressed down on him. Max struggled to hold the bear off as the owl continued to buffet him with its wings. Max employed his shocking grasp again and managed to throw the bear off.
Max’s head whipped back as lines of fire raked across his face with a flash of red. His grappler started to retract, but it got hung up as he was thoroughly tangled in its lines. Max's vision cleared and refocused, the red multi-tailed fox stood in front of him holding the end of his grapple line. In a burst of adrenaline, Max moved…and dropped as all his limbs were entangled tight in his grapple line. Max struggled as the line tightened. The fox snarled, as it approached it through the end of the line down and picked a bag up off the forest floor.
Max refused to give up and triggered his [Hulk] skill. His augmented muscles flexed, and pain riddled Max as he felt and heard a series of loud cracks and pops. He gasped, coughing up blood, and realized in horror that the noises were not his bonds breaking. Notices flashed in his head as he reeled in pain.
[Body Skill - Hulk +2, Hulk reaches level 3]
[Hulk Skill aborted, severe damage detected - 32 counts of deep skin laceration, 16 counts of muscle damage or distention, 5 counts of reinforced bone break, spleen rupture, lung puncture, 77 counts of tissue hematomas]
[Endurance +2, Vitality +4]
[Body Skill - Regeneration +1, Regeneration reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, Tier 3 Skill - Transformation Skill Unlocked]
[New Third Tier Body skill: Transform - adaptation of your augmented form beyond standard humaniform configurations]
[Body Skill - Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, +2 Endurance]
[Max E. Mitchell level +1, Max advances to Adept Stage, level 13, awarded +10 free stat points]
[Body Skill - Painless +1, Painless reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, +2 Endurance]
[**Alert** Energy 0/233 Regeneration suspended]
[**Alert** Energy 0/223 Unbreakable suspended]
[**Health Emergency Override** Unlock and Activation of PowerCore Skill]
[New Skill Unlocked: PowerCore 1 - Advanced augmentation system power requirements far exceed bioenergy availability, PowerCore module activated. Feed and cycle power into the Power Core for energetic boosting advancement. Complete depletion of Power Core may damage the system.]
[**Alert** Energy 223/446 Regeneration skill resumed]
[**Alert** Energy 123/446 Unbreakable skill resumed]
{**Alert** Energy 78/446 Painless skill resumed]
Max moaned as the pain receded. He sensed the energy coming from his previously hidden core. His augmentations drained the extra power greedily. He tried to focus, looking fearfully up at the fox standing over him. The beast crouched down, its exposed teeth filling Max’s sight.
“Bad. Dog.” the kitsune snarled as it wrapped the bag over his head.
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