I was a stylin’ fool. Seriously. The girls were still messing around with their suits, figuring out the perfect sort of designs, and in Mindy’s case, she’d actually figured out how to use the video circuitry to create a sort of active video… her hands and feet were white, and crystalline frost moved and rippled across the surface of her armor. So cool. I was very very quick to steal the 8-frame player she adapted for the other armors.
Yeah, pretty much everyone was better at software than me. Akyo was even in the process of getting a version of Linux to run on hers, she said that being able to adapt other technology and its drivers could be incredibly useful. I just hoped people weren’t playing Tetris while they were supposed to be fighting.
Mine had a more...physical adaptation. The energy storage methodology tied into my hard workout sessions had left my body looking like I spent more time in the gym than I did. Something about the body cultivation I was doing was leaving me looking pretty cut, especially since I’d grown almost an inch in two months! At Mindy’s suggestion, I had altered my armor, enhancing the shoulder pieces, increasing its fluidity, and making it look a bit more like a tight jacket and pants combination. It was a little… snug now, but she just smirked and said it would help keep me from getting hurt.
Yeah, yeah. I’d had to do some waxing that made me extremely uncomfortable, and now I didn’t have much hair anywhere except my head. Silly-sounding, but the tighter the armor lay against your skin, the better it distributed force.
Any air pockets, such as from body hair, ran a risk of breaking the force distribution flow lines. Unlike the girls, though, I had a special piece of armor I wore UNDER the suit because I wasn’t going to wear a skin-tight structure that basically outlined my junk. One super-tech athletic cup coming up! The thing was fairly heavy for what it was, but it was made of a molecularly-realigned tungsten-titanium alloy I had specially blended for the purpose, and it would probably survive a harder hit than any other part of my armor OR my body.
If only it didn’t itch. At first, I was shaving, but Candace convinced me to try waxing, and after an hour in the bathroom I never wanted to think about it again, I was finished and convinced I’d use depilatory creams in the future. Maybe it got easier the more you did it, but I certainly didn't envy swimsuit models and porn stars.
“So this is what you call low profile?” I heard Abbey’s voice buzzing in my ear. We were assembled for the team duel, waiting for the Arena to open up for our fight. Abigail’s new name, though, was Network, so I should start thinking of her as that in costume.
Quantum entanglement. It turned out that boron, when replicated with a blueprint, was occasionally entangled, as were several other semiconducting elements. The secret was that, unlike all the fabulous stories about quantum entanglement, the mostly transferred information could be loosely defined as ‘temperature’ because it was vibrational frequencies on a subatomic scale.
Boron was the secret, but not the end. When sandwiched between microlayers of another semiconductor, like silicon, and a directional conductor, like carbon, it could be used to send pulses. Not clean, not consistent, but it worked.
But, after messing around for a while, I came up with a crystalline gallium nitrite, thanks to our friendly neighborhood toxic pit, doped with manganese and sandwiched, like the boron, in layers of tightly-woven silicon and carbon nanostructure. I blame HAM radio for the idea.
It cut down heavily on electromagnetic interference, exactly what was breaking modern wireless communications, and while the eventual quantum entangled signal was not what I considered ‘clean’, a good squelch circuit and a ton of amplification, and the paired quantum vibration was able to replicate the sonic vibration of an actual voice.
Gallium nitrite was able to expand the ‘band’, and as long as each ‘set’ of helmets contained a modified blueprint, it was able to send a decent analog signal to every helmet… I didn’t even need to make an entire pinhole processor and could focus on the reception. About an hour to blueprint-clone the new quantum transmitters, thirty seconds to imbed and tune them for each helmet, a bit of micro-circuitry work to tie it into the computer network for hopefully later software updates, and the team was now capable of communicating at any range.
And by any, I meant ANY. As far as I could tell, quantum vibration didn’t have a max range, the sympathetic vibrations just happened regardless of where they were located.
Abbey wasn’t even close to the arena, but she was in the circuit and set up to be exactly the sort of chair guy I wish I could have been… with her ability to retrieve information in seconds, she was simply more valuable there than I was, so I guess I had to relegate myself to being the tech geek instead of the hidden research nerd.
“What, no one can hear us. As far as I can tell, the only person who could even have the potential to hack this would be… well… you.”
“Are you planning on distributing comm networks with the new armor?”
I was torn. Seriously, I was agonizing over it. On the one hand, good battlefield communications were going to be our team’s ultimate ace-in-the-hole and give us an unbeatable edge.
On the other hand, with the comms, a few hours of labor on my part, and some inexpensive materials, hunter teams, Kaiju teams, and even unpowered supercops could survive in the face of certain extinction… Was my safety and anonymity worth the lives of those who risked their lives to protect my home? I would be the first to admit I was selfish, but this kind of selfishness was damned close to murder.
“I am not sure yet. A quantum radio could land me right at the bottom of a black site.”
She whistled slowly. It caused a hint of feedback, and Chinook spoke, “Ouch. Seriously, though, there IS a solution to the black-bag game.”
“What’s that?”
She chuckled a little, “Always make sure that at least two of us are sleeping with you at all times. That way, if someone does try to snatch you, they will have to get through two other alphas to do so.”
“That’s not a terrible idea. You don’t have to do anything sexual, but if you move around between our rooms, that adds a huge layer of complication to any attempts to disappear you. Also, if you start to distribute the outfits to the other students and they don’t find out about the comm circuits until there are plenty of them out there, no one official could touch you… The ones that have them would protect their source, and the ones that WANT them would start a riot.” Glacier Girl pointed out.
I nodded, as the doors to the arena started to open. “So… start showing them to the fourth-year students and taking orders first? Unless we lose this, then I guess the Phoenix team gets them first.”
“Uhh… Blueprint?” Akyo whispered.
“Yes?” I said as the light started to leak in as well as the noise.
“I don’t think letting the fourth years know is going to be a problem…”
The Arena was packed. Normally, for a duel, even team duels, there would be a few normies watching the action, some teams or solos keeping an eye on the action to gauge their competition, teachers and evaluators to grade activities and keep things safe, and any other students and staff that happened to be wandering by and interested by the action sports.
But now, well, while the Arena was not completely full, that was reserved for interschool competitions but damned if it didn’t look like a good majority of the school hadn’t turned out. There were alpha students in their uniforms, and based on the attendance at seven on a Wednesday night, I imagined that a lot of people had either cut evening classes to watch or the teachers had just tossed their hands and told people to go.
“What… The… Fu…” I started to say, but Glacier interrupted me, “Is this for us?”
“Yes and no.” Network answered. “There’s been a lot of buzz on the school forums about Chinook’s armor and the mysterious handsome alpha boy that always shows up surrounded by girls, made the armor, and whose power set is nearly completely unknown since you managed to display both super speed and healing abilities.”
“You are supposed to be actually fighting tonight, and there’s tons of curiosity, and some of the fourth-years took advantage of the buzz to schedule duels afterward. I also got a few...umm… special bits of info about you, Blueprint.”
“Dare I ask?”
She laughed, “Yeah, I peeked into Flashwork’s messaging. She’s been bragging on Cruise that after the fight she’s going to drag you into taking her on a date so that she can hopefully put the mystery at rest.”
“What mystery?” I grumbled. “I talk to you guys all the time, never dodge teacher questions in classes, run my mouth in tactics class, and say hi to anyone that says hi to me, even if I have no clue who it was that just waved at me.”
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“Yeah, umm… more like social mysteries.”
“Social mysteries?”
“Yep,” said Chinook. “Who you are dating, if you are gay, if your body really looks as good without clothes as it does in uniform, personal tragedies, dick size, all that sort of rumor bait. Mostly they already think you are a nice guy cause you don’t constantly talk shit, and rumors of your… nakedness have already gotten around, but some of the girls are ready to claw their eyes out to find out more. Hell, Twitchblade said she’d pay a thousand dollars for anyone that can get a picture of you with an erection, so they can find out if you are a shower or a grower.”
“Thanks, Chinook. Now I can’t get that out of my head.”
“Hah! You know I could use an extra grand. Hell, YOU can use an extra grand, I’d split it with you. Five hundred apiece. I’d even be happy to be your fluffer to get you ready for the picture. Maybe relax you afterward.”
I sighed, “Right. If you didn’t try I’d think something was wrong with you.”
“No, I am actually serious. You said you won’t date or have sex with an alpha. There’s lots of things we could do…”
“Shush. We are being called.” Glacier girl said, irritably. We all trooped out once the judges and safety said they were ready for us, indicated by a green light on the giant doors. “Do we all know our role?”
“Yep, Terracotta and I play wall. You and Blueprint play set-up, and then we knock ‘em down.”
I nodded even though no one could see it. “All three of you play finisher games. I have my ‘special suit weapons’ approved, but I’d rather not let this many people know about them. Chinook, keep your ears open. I have a few ideas to give you an edge, but I will need to see these people in action before I try them. Terracotta? Remember to slow the hell down. I know you are tickled pink about your new suit upgrades, but only go into overdrive if you absolutely have to, It would be a hell of a surprise in whatever challenge you whip it out in, so I’d like to keep it a surprise.”
I looked around the Arena, it wasn’t set up with any special environments this time, simply a series of pylons rising from the ground to help break line-of-sight and to prevent easy running or flying takedowns. Like us, the other team was splitting from their doorway, heading behind the pylons.
“Remember, the enemy’s gate is down,” I said jokingly. “Wait, uhh… who the hell is that?” I asked, noticing that rather than the grey suit I was expecting, the lumbering fellow who had treated me at the clinic was diving towards a pylon, wearing what looked like a wrestling outfit.
“Shit, they have a ringer. That’s Oahu, he’s a fourth-year, and currently rank three. Unbelievably tough, and he gets stronger the more hits he takes.” Chinook said.
“Is that… legal?”
“Yes, although them pulling in a fourth year instead of forcing Quiet Code to risk millions of dollars worth of expensive drones might be considered a little unfair.”
“Millions?” I gulped as I dived next to Chinook, breaking the line of sight from this range. I could still tell where they were from the coiling pools of energy at their cores, but it was a poor sort of vision. I should put some kind of vision enhancement or pulse sonar in the suit.
“Yep. Did I mention most of us are stupidly rich? Not me, the Nation can’t afford to blow that kind of cash, but Quiet Code? With her gifts, the data syndicates have probably been desperately throwing toys and gobs of money at her since she was a first-year.”
“Uhh… most likely the Phoenix put out a call based on financial risk. Does Oahu know your powers, Blueprint?”
“Some of them, not all. We’ve had a few nice discussions at the clinic, but not usually about anything but healing techniques and girls. He’s a great nurse.”
“Then he probably volunteered. There are some people that would cripple you on purpose if they got the chance just to prevent future competition, like Phantom Pane. She’s done that twice already. He probably volunteered so that someone like that wouldn’t get the chance.”
I grumbled “I’d like to see the bitch try.” quietly under my breath, but based on the silence I guess my team had heard me.
“Chinook, new plan. I am going to kinetically strip Frost Phoenix when she shows up. I know you prefer to go toe-to-toe, but with Oahu in play, I want you to try and push your wind, and get him a strong updraft, I'll assist. Terracotta? Keep Bengal busy until I can refocus. Glacier? Your plan will probably work great on Caroline instead of Frost, but we have the edge against her gas… try to see if you can maneuver her and Bengal together. Hell, we might wind up adding Oahu to the mix if we can, he’s a kinetic absorber, and I’d like to see what her gas does to him.”
I could actually hear Oahu thundering through the maze, and with a flash, I saw a blue streak trailing a line of frost shooting toward me.
Okay, I don’t want to brag, but Frost Phoenix was a total amateur. I mean, look, I KNOW about the microkinetic drain. I used it like a scalpel, and she used it like a snowplow, probably because of her endless energy. The thing is, when it came to microkinetic drain, her nearly mach one speed couldn’t even come close to the speeds I was FORCED to work at when stabilizing and manipulating trillions of molecules.
I casually started blocking off her kinetic drain of all of the air and ground molecules around her body, and she glanced at me with shock, realizing I could see her perfectly well as I stuck out my tongue.
In a moment she stopped, and then burst into flame.
“Shit!” I yelled. “Code one.” I started dashing towards the burning, screaming girl. After a moment I got there and realized what was happening. Without her absorption, the kinetic molecules around her were doubling, tripling, or even more in molecular motion. That meant that the air around her body was literally catching on fire, something she was almost entirely unable to deal with.
I grabbed her, and hauled her off the ground, away from the burning flooring beneath her feet. The air was bad, but something I could handle, as I started to siphon off the molecular motion. At least THIS energy, momentum, was utterly mine, and I could feel it filling me to overfilling in seconds. The girl might be limited, but she was powerful as HELL, converting the Chaos energy directly into momentum a thousand times faster than I ever could.
I felt like I was going to explode. I started desperately trying to compress the energy as it flowed into me. It was rushing through my channels, feeling like I was burning almost as badly as Frost Phoenix had, but she wasn’t as badly damaged as she probably thought. I imagine she felt like she was dying, but fortunately, I wouldn’t have to do a reset, her hair and costume were falling off, and she had pretty serious second-degree burns, but from my point of view that was an easy repair job… her cell structure was basically normal for an alpha, and reconstructing her outer layer was well within my new range.
After a few moments, I’d burned as much energy as I could reconstructing her, and regrowing her hair. I didn’t know how long it was originally, but I NEEDED a way to burn off the extra energy she was feeding me a thousand times faster than I could spin it up and compress it, so after regrowing her eyebrows I just manually forced millions of hair cells to grow, giving her about four feet of lustrous red locks. This was probably a good thing since the fire had completely consumed her costume and right now she was naked as a jaybird and had finally stopped screaming and started to hiccup.
I heard Chinook screaming, “Forfeit! Forfeit!” as I subsumed my consciousness and started running in place, even holding the girl, trying to dive into a deep enough meditation to handle the immeasurable stress of getting filled like a water balloon on a fire hose.
***
Whoah. Cool.
Where my energy had felt like a gas before, right now it was flowing like a river. A rich, powerful stream of energy. It still couldn’t match the blitzing roil of nova energy that your average alpha could pump out, but it was amazing to watch.
Even as I watched, coils of spiraling liquid were catching wisps of overloaded energy and forcibly liquefying them into the roiling mass of liquid. I was incredibly glad that Sabrina had coached me into keeping the cycling going day and night, awake or asleep, or the overloaded mass would have probably ruptured, destroying my powers and possibly even turning me into an even bigger torch than Frost Phoenix had been a few seconds ago.
The thing was, what I was doing I wasn’t alone. I could feel another source of energy stretching, expanding, and swapping out energy with mine. The nasty unformed energy was gone, turned into clean, smooth motion, and each of our cores could easily absorb, roll, and return the energy of motion and momentum.
Both my soul space and, I guess, Phoenix’s were scarred, with a thin hairline of cracks like an egg running through their overextended lengths which seemed to be slowly reforming as we swapped the energy back and forth, the liquid movement like a pair or twin whirlpools swapping water back and forth with each revolution.
To be honest, it was a little amazing, especially since Phoenix was a complete stranger I couldn’t even remember seeing around the school until our match, but after this, I wasn’t sure if calling her a stranger would be right. More like a twin sister I had never met. I couldn’t peer into her mind or anything, and I was pretty sure she was unconscious, but her energy was… comforting.
“I didn’t know he could fly.” I heard somewhere in the distance.
“He isn’t flying, he’s floating,” I could hear Glacier Girl’s voice. “I can feel the energy coming off of him and Katie.”
“Should we try to separate them?”
“I wouldn’t,” a deeper voice, Oahu? Remarked. “Whatever he’s doing to help her has set up a back-channel. She’s not pulling on the source right now, she’s pulling on HIM, and whatever he’s doing to absorb the kinetic feedback is fragile, like a fishing net of kinetic strands barely held together with spit and hopes. I don’t think we should move them until whatever this is comes to a close, let alone trying to separate them.”
“Don’t sweat it,” I heard Senpai Bob say. “Arena’s closed. Full energy shielding went up the minute Chinook hollered and I realized that Phoenix wasn’t supposed to literally rise from the ashes. From what I can see, it looks like he’s trying to stabilize his flow and hers at the same time. I don’t know if it is fortune or misfortune that their powers are so similar that energy swaps work.”
“Probably misfortune. I have never seen anything like that before. It was like her connection to the core erupted. The only time I’ve seen something like that was when a powerful male self-destructed when his secondary node unlocked,” a mysterious female voice added.
Bob coughed, and I caught the last bits of his words as I delved deeper into the pool of power at my core, to start reconstructing the savage-looking cracks I saw in my soul space. Not just mine, but hers as well.
“I don’t know if you will say that when she gets her power back under control. She’s already a two-core, and that looked a hell of a lot like she just unlocked a third major power. She’s probably going to be weak for a while, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she went up a class or two from this. Now please, you are his team, go gather up the pieces of his armor while we wait...”