CHAPTER 35: SKY HIGH
Hiro's eyes danced with light from the two suns hanging above her. How could she not explore the floating islands first? They were the only thing in this anomaly world that was completely new at first glance. She needed to see them, and she wanted to fly.
She had some success with hovering around the room in the lab, but Hiro was excited to have the wide-open sky above her to stretch her proverbial wings.
"Button, I'm going to try a few things, hold off on any updates until I check them."
"Of course Miss," Button replied.
Hiro closed her eyes and focused on her Sky concept. It allowed her to position herself in the atmosphere wherever she wanted. Right now she wanted to lift off the sand. She let her mana flow and her toes tipped down as her magic supported her heels and then her whole weight. Opening her eyes she hovered about two feet off the ground. This is what she had done in the lab, but now to take it to the next step.
She reached out with her concept of Magantism grouping for this false world's magnetic field hoping it had one. It did, but it was strange. She couldn't pinpoint why, but it would serve for what she wanted. Her arms bent at the elbows as she lifted her hands feeling the flow of magnetism of the world before her. Closing her eyes once again she spent some time visualizing the magnetic field around her before reaching out with her and and her power and grasping at one of the fields and pulling.
It was strange, like swimming but with no resistance. Almost like a standing roller coaster as she felt the air wiz by her. She opened her eyes frantically trying to slow herself down and plan trees and bushes loomed large in her vision.
"Right, no flying with my eyes closed. That should've been a given." She muttered. But everything is working! Time to test drive! Text fly? It doesn't really matter, let's go!"
Hiro's heart soared as she channeled her magic through her and flew through the air. A few gusts of wind made her wobble here and there but otherwise, she could pull herself through the air and magnetic field with ease. She had to focus more on flying than she did in the concept caverns, but she had barely had the power a minute before her change, so she didn't have a lot to compare it to.
Hiro played around with flying poses. She could hold herself in any position she wanted, she could zoom around like Superman or Peter Pan. She could just keep her arms to her side. Shoot she even messed around with flying with her whole body facing the direction she was going in like she was walking in the air. She decided that felt and probably looked weird, so she stopped doing that.
She settled on a head-first approach but with both arms down. She could always throw an arm up to protect her head, and she practiced a few moments where she turned her body to throw out a knee or an elbow to hit an invisible foe. She wasn't about to go head or even fist first into a fight. Apart from a fist fight she got into in high school, she had never fought before in her life.
She did remember a self-defense lesson one of her mom's suiters gave her after she had come home bloody and bruised. He was a contractor and was one of her favorites, even if he constantly had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He taught her to throw a punch, without breaking fingers but suggested using her bony elbows and knees to make strikes when possible. That and go for the eyes and nose. According to him, eye gouging and broken noses can deter a lot of fights from continuing.
She awkwardly practiced a few strikes in the air before dropping to the sand and doing a few on the ground. A few haphazard swipes made Hiro shake her head and her ineptitude. She would have to rely on her magic in a fight unless whoever she fought was worse off than her. She eyed the flying creatures flying around the sky islands. Hopefully, they weren't hostile. Either way, she was going to find out.
"Alright Button, how'd I do?" She asked clicking an icon blinking in her HUD.
> New Ability Defined!
>
> Sky Ability- Levitation
>
> Novice 24%
"Ooh! 24% already! Nice!" Hiro said excitedly as she checked the next blinking icon.
> New Ability Defined!
>
> Confluence Sky/Magnetism Ability- Flight
>
> Novice 12%
"Why is flight still so low? I thought I was doing well?"
"I'll have to finish my analysis when you are in combat or otherwise distracted," Button replied.
"Oh, ok, and I know it doesn't have any of my magic to it, but do I get a self-defense skill to keep track of?" Hiro asked excitedly scanning her HUD for any other icons.
"Uh," Button's voice was oddly hesitant. "I could add one, but I don't think you would appreciate my assessment."
"Why?" Hiro asked curious, she knew she didn't know much, but she at least knew something right?
"Well, let me show you where you'd rank currently Miss," Button flashed up a new ability for her.
> New Ability Defined by User!
>
> Physical Ability- Self Defence
>
> Remedial 0%
"That's cold Button."
"I believe your temperature is within normal range." Button said missing the point
Hiro rolled her eyes, she hadn't done that bad! "And since when was there a rank below novice!?" She asked annoyance coloring her voice.
"Usually there isn't a level below Novice." Button Informed her, "The few movements you displayed are so far below what Sparks who grew up in this life started at. I wouldn't have given you a rank until you took the basic combat class. This was the best word I could come up with for your skill level since you asked that I provide one."
"Yeah, no, let's go ahead and scrap that one for now then." She lapsed into some muttering and grumbled at Button's annoying but probably accurate judgment.
"I know!" Hiro clicked her fingers and then thought about what she would label her Time Concept. Since she hadn't told Button about it, he wasn't measuring it so she could make up her own mental list.
> Hiro's Unlisted Secret Concepts and Abilities
>
> Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
>
> New Abilities Defined!
>
> >Time- Platinum Rank- Time Lord 100%
>
> >Time Stop- Maximum Length Untested
"Yes, that would do nicely," She thought to herself.
"What do you know Miss?" Button asked. She had trailed off and never finished that thought out loud, and she wasn't going to share now.
"Nothing Button," Her brow had furrowed though, she just remembered something that one of the echoing voices had mentioned. Hadn't one of them mentioned a seal? Did they refer to how she had sealed the information about her Time concept from Headquarters or was there a seal on her magic? She had gone through her mana channels a lot in the last couple of days and everything looked normal. Better than normal really. Or was there another seal on her? One she couldn't see.
Her eyes drifted to the sky islands and her thoughts about seals slipped away without her realizing. Instead, a new sensation was crawling through her. She felt full and like she was vibrating. Hiro was itching to move. Two suns drifted across her vision once more. Of course! She was soaked in light from two golden suns. She had been charging this whole time, absorbing the mana they gave off in their light.
She could naturally recharge from eating or resting, but sitting in the sunlight or really in any high-intensity light, allowed her regeneration of mana to be off the charts quite literally. They tested her mana regen yesterday and the difference between her passive natural regeneration and in light was insane. However, she had never just stood in a double sun for close to fifteen minutes while she came to grips with what this Arena that wasn't an arena was trying to see her do.
"No time like the present," She said, lifting herself off the ground again. "I need to burn some of this power off anyway."
"Indeed Miss."
She focused and with only a slight wobble lifted from the ground and pointed herself in the direction of the sky islands. She flew at a pace no faster than riding a bicycle. Once she got closer, Hiro was able to make out some of the details of what was going on up on the top side of the floating rocks.
She approached one of the lower and smaller rocks. It had some moss and lichen on the side and a few ferns growing on its top, like hair. She reached out and touched it curiously. The whole thing sang to her as she touched it. "It's magnetic!" She used her identify on it.
> Floating Rock- Unknown Metal Core- Size Tiny
She pushed against it with her magic and it bobbed ponderously away from her. When she stopped flexing her magic it slowly floated back to where it originally floated. She pushed harder, propelling it faster. It obliged skating through the air like an extra large bowling ball. At one point she felt a faint pop. She let off the pressure from her magic and the rock slowly came to a halt wobbling around like a magnetic toy until it found a new place to settle in the air.
"Huh, Neat!" Hiro continued cautiously into the air eyes peeled for any of the fly creatures nearby. She wandered close to a few more rocks and boulders confirming that they all were some type of metal-cored rocks. Some had dirt on them with large plant life. Once the craggy and curved surfaces grew larger than the size of an average kitchen, more diverse plant life started appearing. Trees and flowers became more common as she rose in the air.
The islands grew larger and larger as she rose. She caught sight of a few more of the flying creatures, but they seemed to avoid her. She went so far as trying to follow one around the curve of a house-sized island and it had disappeared before she could follow it. They were nimble and quick.
She did get some additional information about them. They were scaley with webbed wings with natural green and brown colorations. The main body seemed to be the size of a bony horse, with a wingspan twice as wide. They were faster than the size would seem to suggest. Finally, the flying lizard-like creatures looked suspiciously like a cross between a nineties dinosaur with a long dog head.
She was content to leave them be if they didn't mind her presence and instead pointed herself to the massive central island that was chained to the ground below. This island was like a mountain-sized iceberg in the sky. Large enough to hold a small city on its surface if folks didn't mind the slopes. A few stone ruins hid within the thick foliage in registers across the contours of the slopes. Their fallen walls and columns were made of dark grey stones.
One expansive plateau rose above the sloping landscape of the island. A largely intact building stood proudly upon it. As Hiro continued to fly toward it the grey stone was the only thing that disconnected her from the vaguely Greek or Roman impression it gave her. In fact the closer she got the more like the colosseum it got.
Curious she approached cautiously and circled the building. There were many floors where the archways between the columns had fallen blocking easy entrance or egress. But many more were standing. One of the flying creatures fled from a mossy stick nest in one of the openings screeching in annoyance at her.
All of the surfaces seemed unadorned. The freezes empty with only a few lines and scratches on it. Hiro couldn't tell if it was weathered away or if there was never any decoration to begin with. She rose higher the cold air raised goosebumps on her skin. A shiver running down her spine she looked down upon the dome. Metal triangles and broken glass panes made up the dome letting light down into a densely forested zone below.
Dimples in the plant grow where entire walls or panes of glass block the foliage dotted the ground. In the center of the ground floor, however, there was a circle of stone clear of any greenery. The stones were white slashed with the more common grey. A thin spindly pedestal rose proudly and untouched in the center of the ring. Stone and wire surrounded it like a decorative cage. Within the cage, a bright white light brightened and dimmed as if breathing.
"Button, I bet you ten dollars that's where I'm supposed to go up here." She whispered.
"As a PGA I have no money and can only make purchases on your behalf if expressly asked to." Button said in a rote voice before his more chipper tone took over. "But even I can sense the light and magic coming from below. I would suggest investigating. Cautiously."
"Yeah. I think I should." Hiro took a deep breath before sending herself forward into the dome.
The whole place smelled like a greenhouse moist and loamy. She could hear critters rustling about but nothing poked their heads above the canopy below. She kept her eye out for where she could exit quickly if needed in case something left out at her but everything was calm and only the call of birds and insects greeted her ears.
As she approached the stone and metal cage around the glowing pedestal she felt what Button must have felt when he mentioned the magic coming off of it. Until she had gotten closer she didn't realize the hum of power that was condensed within the cage. It was pleasant, warm, and welcoming to her senses. She approached from the top so that she did not get bogged down in any of the foliage that surrounded the cage. Though the ring of stone tiles pushed back any of the life growing around it a few feet.
Cautiously she reached a hand out to touch the very top of the cage where a twelve-pointed star cast in some sort of non-magnetic metal. Its points arched away to create lines in the cage. Stone pillars came up to greet the metal. The star looked like a deep bronze color. Hiro scratched her nail on it to get through a little of the patina of age. The same bronze color what a slightly brighter version lay underneath the scratch line she dug into it.
"The metal is soft, non-magnetic." She said more to herself than anything as she analyzed the metal without the help of Button. Brass, copper, and bronze were often used within her work for bushings and fittings. She didn't need Button to tell her what it was unless it was magical or from a different planet.
She had a hunch, that if she could just reach out her magic and explore what this cage was all about, maybe she could figure out what she was supposed to do. Or at least something to investigate.
Tentatively she pushed her magic out like she did when she was pushing around the small floating rock earlier. A loud chime rang in her ears as her magic connected with that of the cage.
> New Quest: Discover the secrets of the caged pedestal.
"Huh, did you do that Button?" Hiro said with a snort.
"No Miss." Button said as she became aware of a pulsing behind her ear. "It seems it came from the anomaly. It was pushed through my system. I identified how it was able to bypass my programming. It seems the message went through the emergency alert system installed in all PGA's."
"I don't like that." Hiro said darkly, "But at least I have a direction to head now. Keep tabs on that channel Button, I want to know the next time you feel information we didn't ask for coming it."
"Of course Miss." Button agreed the little rainbow gem behind her ear still humming as Button processed.
"I guess we have some secrets to discover," She looked down at her arms, only the skin-tight short sleeves poked out of her bulletproof vest of light. She imagined having long plaid flannel sleeves poking out from under the vest. She waited for them to appear before rolling them up. Snickering at her own joke a little icon flashed and a small notification popped up.
> Light Ability- Counjur Armor
>
> Novice 6%
"Ehh, it's progress," she said before looking down at the bronze star, "Let's get to work."