CHAPTER 34: ARENA OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Hiro cracked her neck back and forth before tugging at the neck of the skintight black body suit she wore. It had short sleeves and pant legs. Moria said it was what all folks who could conjure armor wore as a skin layer. It was a little too tight for her, but at least she had clothes on if her magic failed or she lost concentration on it. Plus it was cut-resistant.

She wasn't allowed to conjure anything until after she entered the anomaly. It was part of the process. The last two days had been filled with tests and mapping of her channels. There were lots of questions both hers and the professors. She had been able to maintain the lie about her fourth core. It had helped she had formed the pool underneath making it harder for the professor to get close.

Moria had shown up that morning to take her to the anomaly entrance. She brought the skin-tight suit and gave her some advice, "Be creative, and stay true to yourself and you'll do fine."

Hiro had tried to ask follow-up questions but Moria shook her head and told her she just had to experience it. Then she switched the subject to telling Hrio about a visit to Duffy she had missed. Moria and Natia visited the evening Hiro had been working on her change. She was going with them on their next visit.

Now she stood before the anomaly waiting for her turn. A large rift in the fabric of the world rippled before her. A stone archway rose around it. The archway was cut into fantastic reliefs showing all sorts of folks fighting creatures and closing anomalies. She was the third to go in for the day. New sparks went through for testing a near-constant trickle. Only one could go in at a time. Even with the time dilation on the inside, the line could only move so fast and all new Sparks had to go through as part of intake.

The stabilized anomaly in front of her rippled. It sparked in a rainbow of purples, blues, and greens before a bullheaded boy with cloven hooves stepped out. He was the one who had gone in before her. He glanced around dazed and confused. His standard-issue clothes were slightly singed and dirty. There was a purple crystal clutched in his hands. An iron-ranked guard walked forward and escorted him to one building to the side of the anomaly. The building was labeled "Scheduling," according to the spirling sign she had Button decode.

"Alright Cadet, you're up next." Another iron-ranked guard motioned to Hiro to step up to the rift.

Hiro nodded to him before taking a deep breath in. "Into the breach," she muttered stepping forward as the rift flared in its cool-colored tones.

An electric tingle rolled over her as she entered. The world bent around her until it became a smear of color. When it cleared a new world was in front of her. The only thing that remained the same was the archway around the rift. She was frozen in place. The world was flat and empty. A grey-white sky and a black stone floor. Both stretched endlessly into infinity.

Whispers reached her ears as if from a great distance and echoing. They overlayed one another in a confusing layering of sound. Hiro could pick out some phrases.

"She's one of yours..," "No one of hers" "It can be both you fools." The three phrases echoed over one another until another set joined their echos.

"A seal?" "Fascinating," "It's been eons," These three echoed over one another until the first set rolled over the remaining echoes.

"Her mana," "An interesting solution," "A lost art," The echos of that floated away until a singular voice cut across all of the mutterings.

"She hears us." This voice didn't echo. The whispers went quiet and Hiro couldn't make out anything but the susurrus of the mummers.

A simmering indistinct vaguely humanoid form appeared in front of her. Hiro continued to stand there unmoving frozen as if paralyzed. She was oddly calm as the shimmering form spoke.

"Hello there, it's not often one is awake as we shift through your memories to prepare to weigh and measure you. Forgive us. You will be moved through soon."

Hiro was desperate to ask the explosion of questions this statement caused. The figure seemed aware of this. "Oh, what a curious one you are. I'm afraid I cannot answer your questions. That is not why we are here."

"We're done," "Send her," "This should be interesting," The first set of voices echoed out clearly before fading away.

"Good luck out there child." The shimmering form grew brighter until Hiro's eyes watered blinding her until suddenly she was blinking away the light spots in her vision.

"I thought light couldn't blind me anymore," She muttered, looking around to find the figure and get some answers. "What the hell was that? Who were they?"

"There is nobody here Miss." Button said helpfully, "If you have had a negative reaction to walking into an anomaly that is quite common."

"Thanks." She said flatly trying to get her bearings.

The landscape was vastly changed. She was facing an ocean. A sandy beach crunched beneath her feet. Water lapped at the ground. Double suns rose in the sky. She turned to see what else there was. A little ways away palm trees marked the edge of a rising slope of underbrush. A pebbled path cut through to the right. A gigantic rocky outcrop stood to the left a leaf-covered door just visible set into the stone. Looking up the slope she could just see the tops of buildings through the trees in the distance from her vantage point on the shore.

Everything had a strange shadow cast over it so she kept looking moving her eye upwards. A city-sized rocky formation rose above the landscape before her. Dark creatures flew between them, screeching calls she could barely make out. Massive chains stretched from the largest of the floating rocks as if to anchor it to the ground beneath.

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"Are you seeing what I am Button?"

"Indeed Miss, though I cannot process quite as much information as you without access to the processing power of the network. So I only get the general impression of the world past ten feet or so."

"Do you get the impression of the thing in the sky?" Hiro asked him.

"Yes, Miss."

"Do rocks normally float like that in this world?"

"Some worlds yes." Button chirped.

"What am I supposed to do here?" She asked him.

"Whatever you feel is right Miss Skylark. As you make decisions various challenges will appear before you. How you handle those challenges is what is weighed and measured." Button informed her.

"I thought it was called an Arena?" Hiro was confused.

"It is indeed. That is the most common form for the anomaly to take. However, various landscapes can appear to various people. It is adaptable thanks to Evolution's influence when stabilizing this particular anomaly for use."

"Ah," Hiro said feeling at a bit of a loss for what to do. "I don't know what I expected, but I think I was expecting more guidance while here."

"Hey! Listen! I have an idea based on our previous interactions," Button interjected

> New Quest: Complete the Arena of Weights and Measures

She rolled her eyes "Very helpful Button." She said dryly.

"Thank you, Miss!" Button's voice grew more cheerful than normal.

She shook her head and moved on, doing a few torso twists and touching her toes limbering up for whatever came next. She wanted to go into whatever this place offered as prepared as she could. She conjured some armor over her skin-tight black suit. Hardened light formed into modern-day body armor she saw in movies. If she was going through a jungle-like forest she wanted maneuverability and agility, not plate armor that could slow her movements.

She felt safer, covered in a flak vest, pants with armor panels, and a helmet. She also conjured a bow and some knives. Stealth Archer was a classic build. Who was she to argue? She could always pull out literal big guns if needed. A pop-up interrupted her view.

> New Ability Defined!

> Light Ability- Counjur Armor

>

> Novice 5%

"Button! We defined my first named ability! Fitting it was also the first thing I did in the cavern too," if she wasn't counting that happened when she touched the time core anyway. She dismissed the pop-up.

"Indeed Miss. The progression of your ability will be ranked against others who use a similar power. The more you use it the more accurately I can gauge your understanding. My enhanced connection to your physical and magical systems is allowing me to give you real-time updates. You and Cadet APE are trialing this system so please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve your experience. Most Sparks get this information through repeated trials and tests like your homeworld's grading system in school."

"I like this much better. It's like being in a video game. I suppose if my armor gets hit by something depending on how much of a beating it can take will help you gauge how well I understand it?"

"Yes, I will be conservative in early numbers so early growth will feel much faster as I adjust the number to try and align it with your true understanding and use in the field."

"Awesome! Well then let's try and figure out what to do. Oh, Button if I'm in the middle of something like a fight or reading, hold any of those pop-ups. I don't want to be distracted if I'm focused on something ok?

"Of Course Miss."

"So I could choose anywhere to go? There's no right choice?" She turned her attention back to what she was going to do in this stage arena.

"Correct. It seems you have an open-ended Arena."

"What stops me from just sitting down or flying away and not engaging?"

"That's also a choice Miss. However, I don't recommend taking that route. Folks that don't engage fully with the Arena and their training get put on remedial courses and get terrible postings," Button's voice grew serious as he said this last part.

"Remedial courses? No thanks. I wasn't going to do that anyway. I was just curious about what would happen." Hiro didn't like the sound of remedial courses or terrible posts.

"Excellent Miss!"

She mulled over the choices presented. There was a path through the jungle brush and a door in the rock she could investigate. She could also jump into the ocean and see what was under the waves. There were floating rocks she could fly to, but they looked protected by some flying creatures. She tried to identify them but an error message stating they were too far away popped up.

Her brow furrowed at that. Button's usefulness seemed greatest when attached to the network on Headquarters or its bases. Isn't that a gaping flaw in the system? What happens when anomalies happen off-world? She supposed the technology still seemed new in the grand scheme of the multiverse. Maybe one day the network could stretch across all of everything. But here and now it wasn't moving her forward.

Moria had told her to be herself and be creative. So taking the path seemed the most straightforward, well, path. So she mentally crossed that one out. She was dying to fly up and explore the floating islands, but would she have to fight with the massive flying things she saw darting between the rocks? She turned back to the ocean waves behind her. The water was a beautiful green-blue hue.

She closed her eyes before pulling forth both her water and light power. When she opened her eyes her vision cut through the waves to see into the depths of the water. A coral reef teemed with life below the waves, a shipwreck that wouldn't have been out of place in the 1800s nestled into the colorful vista. Sweeping her eyes out she saw, were those buildings? Looming shapes too regular to be natural formations rose in the distance like Atlantis.

"There are so many things to explore," she whispered a smile coming to her face.

"Indeed Miss!" Buton broke across her thoughts.

"Alright Button, not everything I say needs a response. I talk to myself a lot ok?"

"Right you are Miss," Button lapsed into blissful silence.

When she was done raking her eyes across the ocean she noticed a blinking indicator of an orb with a lightbulb and wave on it and mentally chose it.

> New Ability Defined!

> Confluence Light/Water Ability- Peer through Water

>

> Novice 7%

"Perfect choice on indicator, keep it up." She told Button smiling. She dismissed the pop-up and looked between what she saw as her four main choices. Hiro could fly to the floating rocks, explore the jungle path, see what was behind the rocky door, or finally, she could jump into the ocean and see what the underwater city was about.

She slowly spun in place considering what to do with a big dose of decision paralysis. Each one was new and fascinating, maybe she would be able to explore more than one thing while she was within the Anomaly. She drew four pictures around her in the sand representing each of the four options, a wave a door, a rock, and a path.

She stood in the center closed her eyes and raised a hand pointing straight out. She spun and spun until she fully couldn't remember where any of the drawings lay. She slowly stopped with only a slight stumble. When she opened her eyes she smiled at what her hand was pointing at. Time to explore!