Chapter 39
Ryker
Like before, the oh-so-polite Silvar abruptly tossed me out of his home, and I was in free fall again. I found myself lying on my back, looking up into the distraught eyes of Amy. The moment she noticed me open my eyes, she started worrying over me like a mother would her sick child.
“Ryker, can you hear me? Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?!” I let out a groan as I tried to sit up, but Amy's black-clawed hand on my chest forced me flat. “I don't think so, mister! Until Red looks you over, you're not going anywhere,” Amy said.
My head was swimming from the little bit of effort that it took, and I was sore all over. I closed my eyes and thought to Ruby. “I feel like I was hit by a truck. What happened?”
A second later, Ruby was kneeling over me opposite Amy, looking just as worried and running her eyes and hands over my body with concern written all over her face. ”Oh, Ryker! You scared me to death!”
“Well, that wasn't my intention. Actually, I don't know what my intention was… Silvar has been keeping secrets,” I said.
Ruby’s look of concern was wiped clean and replaced by a storm cloud of emotions. I heard and felt a rumble begin to emanate from her fearsome form, then she said, “I agree the stupid worm has been keeping secrets. I will never forgive him for this!” Her eyes started to glow an ominous orange color, and both forearms slowly began to separate in the middle, revealing the frightening barrels beneath. She started to shake in anger, and the barrels began to spark and heat up.
Then I reached out my hand and tried to place it on her shoulder, but it passed straight through, and she froze. Tears appeared at the corner of her eyes, and all malice left her features, and she was back to her normal-ish looking self. She threw herself atop me, and I felt the sensation of her touch through my suit.
I mentally reached out to Ruby and gently said, “Ruby, I am ok.”
While Ruby and I were having our silent interaction, Amy looked on with an increasing amount of concern. When she saw me reach up and try to touch the air in front of me, she turned her head and called out, “Red, get over here! I think you hit him too hard!”
Red materialized in the air over me and came crashing down on top of Ruby's projection, and didn't pass through but bounced off like she was as tangible as me. The impact sent pressure into my gut through the suit, but other than that did no damage. Red took a place kneeling over me at eye level and said, “Nah! Don't worry, he is just fine. I have been running scans on him nonstop since I whacked him. His new ability nearly healed him back to full!”
I narrowed my eyes at Red and said. “Wait… you whacked me?!”
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Red leaned back slightly and had the good grace to look guilty before responding. “Yeah, I kinda had to. You lost your cool there for a minute, and I had to stop you before you hurt yourself more than you already did.”
Now I wasn't sure if it was Silvar's mind games or Red's whacking, but I was feeling more confused than ever, so I asked Red, “Ok…I have no memory of anything that happened after I drank that delicious mix you put in my big gulp. Do you mind filling me in on what happened?”
Red gave me a complicated look somewhere between trepidation and eagerness. She glanced over at Ruby's projection, and some kind of A.I. communication occurred then she gave us a curt nod and said, “Well after you finished the drink, you laid down with the rest of the humans, and then you started puking, out of the blue,when we tried to ask you what was wrong, you got extremely angry and started punching the stone floor. You kept punching down as hard as you could till you eventually broke every bone in your hand, wrist, and lower arm. Amy, Jeremiah, and Luke tried to bodily stop you but couldn't. You kept overpowering them and by the time I intervened with my security bot, you had already destroyed your arms to the point of being life-threatening. After you had been restrained for just a few moments you must have unlocked an ability because you started emitting a red aura of sorts and grew strong enough to break loose of your bonds. Then when you noticed you were healing yourself with yet another new ability, you stopped just long enough for me to whack you in the back of the head. After you were knocked out cold by yours truly, your body kept healing for another few minutes then you stayed out for about an hour and here we are.”
“Wow,” I said. The idea of me overpowering three people was one thing, but to think I could overpower Amy with her newly evolved form and two other awakened was hard to swallow. I took that quiet reprieve to access my status and see how things looked.
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*STATUS*
NAME: Ryker
RACE: Human
LEVEL: 1
VITAL ENERGY TO NEXT LEVEL: 5/10
STATS
HEALTH: 100/150
STAMINA: 30/100
MANA: 0/10
STRENGTH: 5
AGILITY: 4
CONSTITUTION: 5
ENDURANCE: 2
VITALITY: 11
PERCEPTION: 5
INTELLIGENCE: 2
MANA: 1
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“Well, well, well” I thought. “Lets see, I lost my mind…for some reason. Nearly killed myself by pulverizing my fists into the ground till they more closely resembled hamburger meat than hands. Somehow unlocked an ability that makes me stronger but makes me less durable, and unlocked a healing ability that seems crazy strong. On the whole…pretty cool.”
I decided that I didn't care how I felt; I was done laying around and pushed myself up to a seated position. Immediately, the clucking began. All three women started arguing and complaining with me about resting, but I wasn't hearing any of it. After the world stopped spinning, I got back on my feet and steadied myself with Amy's help. Throughout the ordeal, Ruby was flashing bright red and pushing on my suit that resulted in me feeling like I was being tinkle attacked. Red had her tiny arms around my neck attempting to strangle me unconscious, and Amy just watched on with an air of concern around her."
After shooing the two A.I.s off and giving Amy a comforting smile I reached my arms up over my head and stretched. Immediately I regretted the motion and tried to hide my wince. Unfortunately all three women saw through my deception and their overprotective tirade continued as I made my way to the gym area.