Sheetal followed Parvati M’s orders as she took control of Ash’s treatment. The middle aged woman was proving to be quite a feisty doctor the way she ordered both her and Jay 83 around.
“You, girl! Lift him up.”
Sheetal jumped in to help only to be smacked on the top of her head with a roll Parvati M had pulled out from satchel on her back.
“Not with your hands girl. With your powers.” She ordered.
It would have been difficult for Sheetal to juggle two tasks at once earlier. When she hadn’t had the war mode. But now even when it was off, the information it left behind in her mind, the task became far simpler.
She used her polar forces shard to levitate her on the spot and used her gravity shard to turn the gravity just under Ash lower. The result was that Ash floated up from Parvati M’s hands like he was in outer space.
Parvati M took that moment to reach into her, what Sheetal suspected was her med bag, to take out instruments and ordered Jay 83.
“83, get a gurney, and a mat. Also Start a shower. We’ll need to clean him up to get proper readings.”
83 ran to the jeep tank troop carrier to do her bidding.
Parvati M took that moment to take a knife to cut off Ash’s shirt.
Sheetal almost screamed “Stop!”
Parvati M flinched and then shot her a hard stare “What!”
“I’m sorry. But…” Sheetal paused and quickly rushed in to explain “Don’t tear off his clothes. That will make him annoying and whiny and grumpy. Nobody deserves an annoying, grumpy, whiny Ash.”
“We don’t have time for this.”
Sheetal shook her head and stood her ground. She did not know why she was doing this. But one look at Ash and her protective instinct began to rise up. He looked so slight compared to his muscular self. He was three sizes smaller but compared to the emaciated husk that had passed out on the dirt
Parvati M rolled her eyes and with Sheetal’s assistance took Ash’s clothes off. Then together with Jay quickly rinsed off the blood, mud and ash from his body.
Then when he was clean Parvati M laid him on a gurney and look out a white hand from her satchel and replaced her right hand with it.
Sheetal with horrified curiosity watched Parvati test out her new hand. Blades, lasers, probes, wires and other strange things came out from the new appendage.
“Oh… Uh…”
“83!” Parvati growled out and pointed at Sheetal “Take the warder away.”
“Hey!” Sheetal protested.
Parvati M looked at Sheetal with hard eyes “Listen girl, I need to make sure that your brother hasn’t fundamentally damaged himself. If you haven’t noticed, this dumb boy burnt through the potentiality of fifty odd kills and his, to forcefully level up a shards. His body has cannibalised its fat, muscle, and even his bones. And I need to check if his shard is harmonically resonating with his soul or causing damage.”
Sheetal looked at Parvati M blankly and asked “What does that all mean?”
“It’s going to get messy.” Parvati M snapped and ordered “Go take a shower!”
Parvati M141’s hand whirled and stopped upside down. A small opening appeared on one of her knuckles. She placed it over Ash’s chest and a red laser bit into the boy’s skin.
Sheetal instinctively moved forward only to be stopped by 83’s hand on her shoulder. She looked back and saw the middle aged man’s empathetic look.
“Lady warder. Come with me, please. Let the medic work.”
After a moment of hesitation Sheetal followed 83 into a square cubical made with the same projected light that his shield was made off. It was an opaque mirror from one side. Inside, it was transparent. Sheetal wordlessly walked in and started taking off her clothes. It was hard. She didn’t feel anything below her thighs so taking off her skirt and undergarments in an enclosed space was always hard. But she had done so in numerous trail rooms and she managed.
She started to drape her soiled clothes on the light barrier when Jay 83 quickly took them and instructed her not to do that.
“Don’t do that lady warder. These curtains are made out of light. They will heat up your cotton and burn them. Also don’t stand in them for more than a few seconds.”
Sheetal looked at the curtain and nodded “Lasers.”
“Yes.” 83 smiled “Good, that means you don’t come from a completely backward world after all.”
“What gave you that idea?” Sheetal frowned.
“Well, you don’t have any equipment or weapons that would show your technological progress.”
Sheetal looked at the large man for a moment and then realised that he was right and just wordlessly stood there. She couldn’t even blame herself from not noting that. Her mind was running in circles replaying what she had done. She had killed a man in cold blooded rage. And at that time she hadn’t even felt bad about it. As a matter of fact she had revelled in the power to exact justice. Now her brother was lying unconscious and getting stabbed in the chest by Parvati M141. She was surrounded by cyborgs who had their own agenda and she was all alone.
Noting Sheetal’s thoughtful look 83 hit a button on the side of the vehicle to start the shower.
Sheetal was surprised when water started dropping on her from what looked like a large ring light. But she was more surprised when the water droplets which were supposed to fall on her, deviated from her body. They moved away from her and fell on the metal platform where they drained off.
That annoying development was enough to take Sheetal out of her funk. Sheetal hesitantly switched off all her shards. It would have been harder to do that before. But after the knowledge that was dumped into her mind by the war mode, it was easy to slow the flow of potentiality to the shards into a trickle and then shut them off one by one until only the polar forces shard remained.
That was one shard she knew well. With her previous purchase of the knowledge and then the data dumb she had received she almost knew it instinctively. The whole idea scared her to the bone but right now the shard worked for her and she used it to just let her levitate and hover in a spot. The water came down on her and she lowered herself just a foot over the ground letting the waters rinse off her blood, sweat and hide her tears.
In the middle of her musings, Jay 84 and Taran E65 had walked out of the trial. They stared at each other and waited for the door to disappear into golden potentiality. For a few minutes they just stood there. Then with some sort of mutual understanding they opened their armours and stepped out of it and into the open.
84’s armour developed a vertical seam then slid inwards in panels that overlapped each other. Out of which a more muscular version of 83 stepped out. E65’s armour on the other hand bloomed open like a flower. Its alien petals swayed in a non-existent wind in some sort of horrific version of beauty.
“So that’s what it really looks like.” 83 muttered from outside the light curtain.
Sheetal raised herself and looked at the two men instructing their respective armours to stand guard next to their vehicles. The two empty armours turned and obediently walked with thumps to the vehicles stopping next to Sheetal’s cubicle.
83 glanced at her and looked back at the two men glaring at each other “You can take your time you know. We aren’t going to run out of water anytime soon.”
“What do you mean?”
83 reached inside the barrel and took out a stone from the barrel he had carried “This is ice seven. Don’t touch it without protection. It will freeze you in an instant. It is…”
“Compressed water. It must require pressures more than one hundred kilobar to create. How is it stable? How are you holding it? How was it even created?”
“Ahh…” 83 looked sheepish for a second “I don’t know. I am not a science kind of a guy. That would be E65.”
“T?” Sheetal asked in disbelief.
“Yes. Look, the ‘A’ in our name stands for assault class, the ‘M’ represents the medics, ‘E’ stands for engineers etc, the ‘F’ are flyers and so on and so forth.”
“Huh! E.” Sheetal tasted the alphabet.
Sheetal looked back and saw both the men take a fighting stance in the open. Well, not truly open, They were still inside the storm encompassed shield. That lit up the ground in streaks of red lighting.
Sheetal, who was clean now but enjoying the feeling of warm water on her skin, lifted herself higher off the metal floor and asked “Hey 83, is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Jay 83 nodded and added “They just need to get this out of their system.”
“What do you… mean?”
Just as Sheetal voiced her question T charged at 84 landing a vicious punch that staggered the larger man.
“What in the flip?” Sheetal squeaked.
“It’s politics.” Jay 83 dismissed.
Sheetal watched T hit 84 three more times before the big man responded and threw T face first into the sand.
“Politics?” Sheetal asked.
“Yeeaah.” 83 elongated the word with a grimace and began to explain “84, Needles, and I belong to the old guard. We are the most numerous members of the continuum forces but we are not in power. Well we were, until Athena 8 started her own faction.” 83 grumbled the last bit in a lower voice.
“Athena who?”
“That’s the general who E65 works for. They didn’t think we knew about their Perseverance Faction. Well we didn’t know its name but we knew that she was working behind the scenes. We are not enemies but we are annoyed. She could have taken over the old guard, she could have led us all, instead she is doing this. Whatever this is.” Jay 83 hardened in the end.
The large man shook his head and then handed three containers to Sheetal.
Sheetal looked at them. They were labelled soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Sheetal looked from them to Jay 83 bald head.
83 snorted “These belong to 141. I don’t think she would mind you using them.”
“Thanks.” Sheetal opened a bottle and sniffed the soap.
"Theory." 83 smiled "That's my name."
"Theory." She nodded and continued “T said that you guys were Augs and you believe that augmented were superior than normals?”
83 rolled his eyes “Is that what the kids are saying these days?” The bald man sighed and explained “And we are not Augs. Our commander was an aug. Augs are augmented. They are humans transitioning from biological to mechanical. "
"What?"
"They have a point you know. When everything in this gods cursed desert is out to kill you, why not have bones made out of steel? Why have concussions and damage your wet wear when you can replace it all with a solid state grey matter.?"
Sheetal shivered "But, how do you simulate emotions? Those are driven by hormones. And what happens when you loose something in copying your memories."
"Oh you loose quite a lot when you transfer into a new body, not just memories. Emotions, they are even trickier. They are simulated by an algorithm which you an aug can switch on and off. But as I said, we are not augs. We have bionic limbs. Our left hands." Theory nodded at the other Jay "JJ and I, have the energy shield. Needles, our medic, has medical trauma package."
Sheetal looked at needles stark white hand and asked "So, augs are racists?"
Theory sighed "No. It's worse. Augs are leaving humanity behind and hate the fact that we are not uplifting ourselves like them. In their mind we are choosing to be less. They don't like that but they can't do anything about it because of the purist. But they also have extreme views like by human and only human can we uplift ourselves and class up. Then we the old guard. JJ is a member of that faction. They have close working relationship with the augs, because of their leaders being together. Still there are many conflicting views in the old guard. And obviously there are the annoying fence sitters like me. And everyone hates me. I can see why. I am Jay 83. A biological clone of Jay Chandra. The warder who created the continuum. I should be an active old guard or a purist who follows his teachings."
Sheetal was relaxing under the listening and even enjoying Theory's rich baritone “And those were?” Sheetal asked .
83 smiled “Protect those who need it. No matter what it costs.” And added “Like we did today.”
Sheetal smiled back “Thank you for that.” and winced when she heard a loud thud and grunt from the fighting men.
83 waved Sheetal’s words aside and turned to look at the ongoing fight. After a moment of silence he sighed and in a gruff voice muttered “It was mostly your brother who did that. He saved us in that flooded trial too. Honestly, I didn’t think we would be able to make it out of there at first. But then he just charged into the enemy throwing them into a disarray.”
Sheetal sighed “Yeah he is really annoying but he does that.” She paused and then in an irritated voice asked “Why does everyone keep calling him my brother?”
Thwack. Thwack. Thump.
Three staccato sounds penetrated somewhere inside Ash’s haze filled mind and roused him up from the dreamless sleep he was in.
“Oh yeah baby!” 84’s throaty voice called out and asked “You like that?”
“Yes I do. Why don’t you do that some more?” E65 responded.
84 chuckled “Oh no. This time I am going to do something else.”
Thump. Thud. Thwack. Thud.
“How about that?” E65 asked while panting.
84 grunted “Oh. You like being on top?”
“Yes. And now I am going to…”
Gagging sounds roused Ash from his slumber.
The grunts and strained voices did something else and Ash woke up. He didn’t open his eyes but the words made him curious. Were they? Could they be? Could he peep a look? How would they ever know if he did? He needed to see this. And he needed to get himself an eye full off wherever they hid under that heavy armour.
Ash slowly opened his eyes with a cheeky smile and stopped. His smile faded away when he saw a stern looking armoured soldier leaning over him. Her eyes spelled doom. Her frown looked like death. And her thunderous expression meant pain. Thankfully she wasn’t looking at him with that death glare.
Still he gulped when she twitched. Her right cybernetic hand whirled three sixty degrees. First to the left and then to the right. As if that wasn’t enough Parvati M141 twitched her finger and a drill flicked out of it and spun up with a whiny noise.
Ash’s eyes widened. The sound of that dentist drill made his butt cheeks clench. He stilled, held his breath and decided no to move an inch in hopes she would just go away. Instead of going away Parvati M141 growled from the back of her throat while more of her fingers transformed. One became a scalpel, two became pliers, and her thumb transformed into a small hammer.
Ash watched the multi tooled hand drop an inch towards his face and reacted.
He pushed away from her, jumped to his feet, overcompensated and decided to turn his fall into a cartwheel. Not knowing his new smaller dimension Ash’s hand didn’t come down where it was supposed to and he flew sideways. His confusion soon turned into surprise when he saw the ground rising to meet his face.
Ash gasped in a sharp breath to brace himself and everything around him stopped.
Class 1 Abilities Unlocked.
Ability - Moment
Duration - 1/10 Second
You use your Class 1 Dense Soul in a combination with your sense shards to create a moment of clarity.
Ability - Blur
Duration - N/A
You use a surge of potentiality to your four speed shards to speed up all your movements.
Warning - Excessive use of blur might tear muscles and harm.
The notifications one by one popped in front of him, startling him for a moment and Ash flicked them aside to see… His palm was still floating over the ground? His other hand was also stuck reaching out to steady him over the ground. He tried to move his hand to support himself and land on his feet…
Congratulations!
You have advanced and merged a shard with your soul.
Shard Type - Density.
The roots of your soul rests upon the fabric of the universe.
Passive Effect - Soul Resistance
Your body has been saturated by dense potentiality from your shard reaching class one. It has been optimised bringing it closer to your soul’s true nature.
Ash was once again distracted by the two notifications and looked for the multi coloured orb to shut off the notification. He didn’t find it. He closed his eyes waiting for the impact. It didn’t come either.
He opened his eyes and flicked his notifications aside. And once again looked at the ground. He watched as his fingers on his hand twitched. He smiled. This was like when he was fighting earlier. He was faster than everyone. Was he faster than the ground now? Of course he was. He was…
“Aweso… Uff!” Ash fell face first into the sand under him.
Ash raised his sandy face and looked around. He expected everyone to stop what they were doing and look at him. Instead he got a passing glance from Parvati M141 before she looked back at the two men fighting and screamed.
“Hey! No eye gouging!”
Ash spat out dirt and muttered “Well that is disappointing.”
“What?” Sheetal asked from somewhere behind him.
“I thought it was plap-plap not thud-thud, you know?” Ash replied drowsily while looking at the two unarmoured men.
Sheetal hissed “Ash! Stop it with the visuals will you?”
“Huh?”
Ash, who somehow instinctively knew where Sheetal was, which was somewhere behind him, turned to give her a confused look and stopped. She was behind a swaying curtain wall of light. Ash took a second to process what he was seeing and what he was feeling from her.
Sheetal was putting a brave face on but her insides were tangled into a mess. Whenever she wasn’t being distracted a small voice in her mind would start chanting “I just killed a man. In cold blood. Gods help me. I just killed a man in cold blood.”
Ash realised that he would have to handle all that but first he needed to know a few things starting with “Why is there sand up my butt cheeks?”
Sheetal blinked. The light was being projected downwards from the top of the heavy continuum personnel carrier lit her confused face up. Her arms which were blurred by the curtain of light came up in annoyance and turned into fists.
“Really? You wake up from almost dying and ask that?”
Ash expected her to be a little shy about bathing in front of everyone but Sheetal just kept going and Ash ignored her. After all who was he to judge, he was naked himself. Wait, why was he naked?
Ash looked around wildly for a second. Both for enemies and naked Asian men. Finding none he shook his head in disappointment.
“Okay, I give up. She, what the hell is going on? Why does that one have a hand that is torture device? Why aren’t the Jays hunky Asians? And why are you shampooing your hair?”
“Hunky Asians?” 83 asked while pacing an intricately carved pipe on his lips.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Don’t ask.” Sheetal quickly spat out and turned her glare at Ash. She hissed “What in the heck is wrong with you?
“I’m hot, hunky and horny. And I want an Asian man.”
“Excuse me?” Sheetal asked in a high pitched voice.
“Yeah. They are longer and thinner. And they hit just the right spots. I want one. Right now!” Ash, whose voice had changed, tried to reply in a frustrated growl. It came out in more of a whiny snarl.
Parvati M tuned and looked at Ash in disbelief. Jay 83’s mouth flopped open with his smoking pipe barely dangling by an inch. And Jay 84 and T, who were supposed to be killing each other stopped and looked at the crazy warder who had just slammed his foot down and was looking at the two men wrestling on the ground with glazed over eyes
Jay 84 who now had T underneath him with his forearm pressed on his face paused and muttered “I don’t like that look in that boy’s eyes.”
T who was reaching up to rip the older man’s face off stopped and nodded “Yeah, and I don’t think we should be this close when he is looking at us like that either.”
“Agreed.” 84 nodded back
“Should we?” T asked in a whisper.
“Yeah.”
Both of the men looked at each other and disengaged awkwardly.
Ash, who was leering at the two muscular men, frowned in disappointment and tried to adjust his pants forgetting he had none on.
“Right! Why am I nake…” Ash asked while looking down at himself.
Everyone who had turned to watch the bi-play of the two combatants turned to look at Ash with sheepish grins.
Parvati M 141 got to her feet with a smile “Warder Ash. We needed to run a series of tests on you which by the way came out very well. Now if you…”
“Hold on.” Ash raised his hand to stop needles “Where is the rest of me?”
“As I was trying to tell you warder, your body needed mass to transition one of your shards to class one. That means you lost some height, quite a lot of your muscle mass, and almost all of your fat. You are also dehydrated, and need a lot of nutrition.”
Ash glared at Parvati M “I am not talking about that. I am talking about my greatness.”
“Greatness?” 83 asked in a stage whisper.
Sheetal sighed and groaned “That’s what he calls his, you know.” She looked at Ash and yelled “Will you ever stop talking about it?”
Ash whirled and screamed “Well it wouldn’t be talking about it if… if… What the hell happened again?”
“Ash. Calm down. It’s not that bad.” Sheetal tried and failed to hold her grin while watching Ash poke his erect greatness.
Ash looked up and glared at her. He stomped towards her and ordered 83 “Hey! You, not Asian guy, open this thing up.”
83 looked from Ash to Sheetal with an “Umm…”
“Ash what are you doing?” Sheetal asked
“I am going to pull your hair.” Ash yelled.
“That’s very mature.”
“I don’t care!”
“Calm the fudge down!” Sheetal screamed back.
Ash, who was looking for a button, spotted one and hit it with a loud “No!”
The light in front of Sheetal started to fade and She turned to hide herself with a scream.
Ash saw his target and jumped in to grab Sheetal’s hair. Sheetal felt the tug on her head and reacted instinctively. Her shards flared up splashing water everywhere and flying Ash upwards.
Ash screamed in shock and frustration “Ahhh…”
Sheetal turned back just in time to catch Ash before he face planted onto the metal sheet underneath them and hurt himself.
“What the…”
From the corner of her eyes Sheetal saw 83 closing the curtain behind her and avert his gaze. Sheetal nodded at the man and closed her eyes to catch her balance.
Ash got to his feet and flicked Sheetal on the nose.
Sheetal opened her eyes and glared down at Ash. In a threatening voice she growled “I should have let you fall!”
Ash started to scream back “I should have… What the… She!?”
“What!?” Sheetal yelled.
“Wait. You have hair on your knockers?”
“Huh?”
“Why do you have bob hair?”
Sheetal covered her chest and looked up. Only to see the cyborgs looking at them with curious expressions and recoiled. She took a deep breath and announced “We were in the middle of a desert. There were no places that could take care of that kind of stuff.”
“Really?” Ash squinted up at Sheetal.
“What?”
“You didn’t have the time to order waxing strips but had the time to order, dragon slayer five thousand?”
“How do you…” Sheetal stopped “Did you steal my new Dragon Slayer?”
Ash grinned back at Sheetal savagely “Yes. Your dragon didn’t get tamed. Mine did. A lot.”
Sheetal nodded once and then punched Ash. She screamed in pain when her hand connected with Ash’s head. She wanted to punch him again but since his reaction was much worse, it momentarily satisfied her.
Ash held his ear “You… You punched me in the ear?”
“More like slapped?” 83 said from behind the curtain.
“Hey you! Non Asian guy. Stay out of this.” Ash spat out.
“Yeah!” Sheetal concurred.
83 nodded, hit the transport on the side to reveal freshly cleaned clothes and began walking away while announcing “I think I will go smoke my pipe with the two people who were trying to gauge out each other’s eyes a few seconds ago. They seem more balanced.”
Sheetal leaned down to glare at Ash. Ash jutted his head up and glared right back at Sheetal.
“Stop that you two.” Parvati M pointed at them like a school teacher and shook her head “It’s clear you both need to sort out some things. Do it now. It’s healthier to have things out in the open.”
Ash looked at Sheetal and then Parvati. He also momentarily glanced at 83 slinking away.
“Fine.” Ash grumbled.
Sheetal nodded sternly “Oh no. Not fine. Why did you steal from me?”
Ash shrugged and exhaled “I needed to throw an orgy. There were spies to catch. What better way to do that than the slayer and a hospital full of psychedelics?”
“What?”
“You wanted an answer. I gave you one. You don’t like it? Take it up with RAW guys monitoring the initiative.”
“RAW guys? Who?”
“Figure it out for yourself.”
Sheetal screamed in frustration “Aah!”
Parvati M turned to Ash “Now you. What is bothering you?”
“Well….” Ash started hesitantly and then pointed at Sheetal “She snickered at it.”
“What? That’s it? I…” Sheetal didn’t know how but kept the laughter from her voice “I was just surprised at your reaction.”
“You just smiled.” Ash accused.
“No, I didn’t”
Ash pointed at Sheetal’s face “Not with your stupid face. But you know, inside. You smiled!”
Sheetal held up her arms placatingly “Okay a bit.”
Ash visibly restrained his next words and then in a small voice asked “She, you’ve seen it before. Tell me honestly, what do you think?”
Sheetal looked down and snorted.
“She!” Ash said warningly.
“Sorry! It’s not you. It’s the situation.”
“Sshhee!”
“What do you expect me to say?”
“Just shut up and tell me it looks okay.” Ash pleaded.
“Yeah. Yeah. It looks nice… and cute.” Sheetal answered with a straight face.
“Cute?” Ash asked.
Sheetal gave Ash a baffled look and then looked at everyone. They either had winces on their faces or were avoiding eye contact with her.
Sheetal shrugged “Yeah cute, what's wrong with cute?”
“She, if you look at men in the nude and think cute, then I can finally understand why you are still a virgin!” Ash screamed.
“Hey! I am not a virgin.”
“Oh, yes you are.”
“I am not.”
“Your dragon slayer 3000 doesn't count. Because your dragon didn’t get tamed.”
“Oh my dragon got tamed. It got so… tamed.”
“Yeah, then why the hell was it lying unused in your bedside drawer for days?”
Sheetal’s eyes locked on to Ash and she growled “Oh no, you didn’t!”
Ash winced at the dangerous glint in Sheetal’s eyes “Ummm…”
“You stole the charging cable.”
“Fluids! Body fluids! It shorted out the five thousand’s cable. I had to get a new one. And they have proprietary connectors.”
“You mo…” Sheetal reached out to grab Ash only to be pulled back by Parvati M
“Warders!” They both looked at Parvati M who was now standing just inside the enclosure glaring at them like a stern school principal on the verge of suspending them for a month.
“First of all I don’t know what is going on with this slayer weapon and why it would malfunction with blood. And why does it tames dragons when it’s called a slayer? But whatever this weapon is, it is not here. And it’s in the past. Can we please put it behind us?”
Ash gave Parvati M a confused look and asked “What?”
She put a hand on Ash’s mouth and cleared her throat “Yeah, we can.”
Parvati M gave Ash a pointed look.
Ash pouted “But…But…” He pointed at Sheetal and complained “She called my greatness cute.”
Parvati tried very hard not to look down and failed. She inspected the instrument and announced “It looks proportionally adequate Warder Ash.”
Ash looked at himself and then turned to Sheetal “She?”
Sheetal looked down at Ash and with a deadpan expression replied “I am sure you will find a man or a woman who won’t judge you too harshly on your new found cuteness.”
Ash gritted his teeth “Oh no you didn’t.”
“What? Do you expect me to lie?
“She. I will get back at you for this.”
“Bring it on flicker.”
“Oh I will. I will. I promise.”
Ash’s words sent a shiver down Sheetal’s spine but she steeled herself and glared right back at the brat.
Parvati watched the warders glare at each other . When they didn’t try to hit each other she nodded and stepped out of the bathing enclosure and closed the curtain behind her.
“Now, both of you, clean up while I go look at my husband and his new found friend’s wounds.”
“Husband?” Ash asked
Sheetal jerked her head at 84 “She and Jay 84.”
“When did that happen?” Ash asked.
“You missed a lot.”
“Well remind me never to rely on you again. I go to sleep and people are trying to kill each other, Indian cyborgs are smoking English pipes, women are turning their hands into alien probes, and cyborgs are getting married. Meanwhile, you are shampooing your hair.”
“Well at least I don’t have my thingy pointing everywhere.” Sheetal spat back.
“Thingy?” Ash looked down at his diminished greatness and after a second responded “You have honka hair.”
Parvati turned away from the bickering warders and She walked to her friends with a baffled expression. She looked at E65, and then walked to her wide eyed husband.
“JJ. Did you have to get punched so many times?”
84 who was holding his jaw looked at his wife and muttered “I needed him to think he was winning.”
Taran E65 scowled first at the warders arguing inside the shower then at Jay 84 getting special treatment from his wife.
83 put a hand on his shoulder and muttered “Don’t make that face. You will get used to it.”
T looked at the bald man with a pipe in his mouth and asked “Do you mean the warders? Or the medic with the conflict of interest.”
He didn’t care about the sharp look Parvati M shot him or the smug face of 84 which was getting the treatment before him and ignored the pair altogether.
83 blew out smoke “I mean needles here.” and then pointed with his pipe “Nobody can get used to that.”
Everyone followed the 83’s pointing pipe and listened for a minute.
“What do you mean you let them wash my clothes?” Ash screamed in a shrill voice.
“They were dirty, bloody, smelly, and muddy!” Sheetal shouted the last word.
“She? That polo is Dior and my cargos are Todd Snyders. They have specific wash requirements.”
“They are futuristics cyborgs. I am sure they can handle some clothes.”
“You are a scientist and you can’t!”
83 turned from the arguing pair and looked at his compatriots “Why do they keep trying to make us believe that they are not siblings?”
Everyone but E65 chuckled and 83 nudged the younger man “Come on T, don’t be like that. We all get our buts handed to us once or twice.”
T began “Don’t call me T. And also I believe them. They are not siblings. I don’t know what happened or how it happened but the system is doing things to draw them closer.”
“What do you mean?” Parvati M finished with Jay 84 and moved to E65.
T didn’t respond until 84 gave him a pointed look and asked “Do I need to kick your butt again little T?”
T winced at Parvati M’s rough touch and began “Fine. Do you know why we started our operations? You know we could have waited for a more opportune time. We had a plan and everything. Then those two appeared and General Athena received a mission from the system. I don’t know what it is, so don’t ask me. I just know that those two are a big part of it. That’s why I was sent to retrieve them.”
83 eyes lit up “A System’s conspiracy?”
Jay 84 closed his and groaned “83.”
“83, shut up.” Parvati M chided at the same time.
84 shook his head and asked “What were your orders?”
“Save them and persuade them to join the continuum.” T replied.
“Persuade them?” 83 coughed out some smoke “Just look at them?”
Everyone turned to look at the warders again.
“Hey, She? My butt is flat.”
Sheetal groaned “You shrank, remember?”
“But yours looks bigger.”
“No, no, it’s the same.”
“No, I know butts, and armpits, and feet, and…”
“Ash!”
“What?”
“You are thinking about things and your thingy is getting happy again.”
“Oh. Wait, let me look at your butt.”
“Whaaa?” Sheetal’s words were cut off when Ash’s hands blurred to turn her around.
“Yuck!” Ash said in disgust and muttered “It’s the most unappealing behind I have ever seen in my life.”
Noting the dangerous look Ash held up his hands placatingly “But, its rounder.”
Sheetal who was about to blast Ash stopped and tried to look behind her “Is it?”
Sheetal touched her hips and felt a ripple go from her body to her polar forces shard, and back again. As she followed the ripple she noticed that there wasn’t just one string going from all her shards to her muscles, bones and skin but hundreds. They were all holding on to her body. Keeping it together.
Sheetal blinked and looked at herself “It’s my shards. They are pressing on my body and making it more streamlined. The result is that I am curvier.”
Ash shrieked “Stop looking at yourself and smiling. I have a flat butt! Do you know how many squats I had to do to get a cake butt?”
83 looked at his friends and mouthed “Cake butt?”
84 shook his head and asked “What does desert have to do with behinds?”
Parvati looked at her husband “Sweetheart, you do know that desert has calories? And those calories settle down in places you like?”
“Oh.” 84 nodded and then turned back to T “So, what was that you were telling us how you planned to manipulate the warders into joining the perseverance faction of the continuum?”
T glared at 84 and sighed “To be honest, I didn’t have to say much. They were quite agreeable. I think it’s because Sheetal was curious about our bionics.”
84 rubbed his jaw with a fading bruise “Is that it? Nothing else you were doing out here?”
T gave the man an annoyed look and hissed “Yes, what do you think we are doing?”
84 responded “Collaborating with the Raks.”
Parvati M added “Cutting a deal with them behind our backs.”
“Why would we do that? And why would the Raks even be interested in doing that?”
83 snorted “Weren’t you in there with us T? An asura showed up and all he wanted to do was talk. You can’t tell me that they don’t want to make a deal.”
T stopped and considered 83’s words “Yeah, that was strange.”
Everyone looked at E65 baffled expression.
“You don’t know.” 84 stated
“Know what?”
“Well that strikes off that theory. This new faction is not dealing with the Raks.” 83 concluded and then asked “But explain to me, why suddenly one third of the continuum shot into action if you are not doing that?”
T closed his mouth and looked away “That is classified. If you want to know more you will have to talk to the General.”
84 nodded “I will then. It’s been a while we haven’t spoken face to face but I think it’s past time we did.”
83 chuckled “Yeah and somehow deliver crazy chickens… I mean children, to her safe and sound. If they don’t kill each other before that.”
Everyone turned once again to look at the two Warders just in time to see Ash fling his hand in the air.
“That’s it. I'm done with you and this nonsense.”
“Oh but I am not done with you.”
Ash dodged Sheetal’s hands that were coming to wrap around his throat.
Sheetal screamed in frustration “Why are you being like this?”
“Because I am angry and horny!”
“Angry? Angry! Why because you lost a few inches?” Sheetal asked in disgust
“A few inches? A few inches!? Look at me. I look like a scrawny teenager. And I am horny like a teenager.” Ash paused and continued “No. No. Actually I know why I am horny. It’s because someone decided to act like a virtue signaler and block me from my fun.”
“I did no such thing.” Sheetal dropped her hands.
Ash looked at her in disgust “Yeah, you did. And then when you made a mess of things by starting that investigation. What? Did you expect everything to go back to normal after that investigation? Nobody wanted to talk to me after that.”
“I did. Geez!” Sheetal turned around when Ash suddenly opened the curtain and walked out.
“Oh hold on to your bumpers.” Ash hit a spot in the air and the curtain covered Sheetal again.
“Ash.” Sheetal gave the boy an apologetic look “I am sorry about that. I did not know what was going on and after I did, I was there for you wasn’t I?”
Ash looked at Sheetal and exhaled “Yeah but you don’t count She.” Ash waved his hand side to side “Especially with those mountains on your chest. Why couldn’t you be normal?”
Sheetal folded her hands on her chest “I am normal you dimwit. I am just not Asian and you have an Asian fetish.”
“So? Are you going to kink shame now?”
“No, I am going to fling you in the air now.” Sheetal snarled.
“Hold that thought. I might have volunteers for that in a moment or two.” Ash turned to look at the cyborgs.
The cyborgs looked at each other and then back at the naked wet crazy warder.
“So, why are you all sitting in the dirt talking about meaningless drivel while avoiding the elephant in the room?” Ash asked.
He got a clueless look from the four people sitting in front of him.
“What’s an elephant?” 83 asked
“It doesn’t matter what an elephant is non Asian guy.” Ash yelled.
“Ash, calm down. They saved your life.” Sheetal shut off the water and looked for the button to lower the curtain.
“Right hand side just above your waist.” Ash instructed Sheetal without turning away from the cyborgs.
Sheetal hit the spot and rushed to her clothes while muttering “How did he see that?”
Parvati M who was just finishing with T cracked her back and began “Warder Ash. You are frustrated and I know why.”
Ash shook his head “Oh no. First you are going to answer my questions and then if you don’t annoy me I am going to listen to your recommendations, hands.”
“What do you want to know?” 84 asked while his hand inched towards his rifle.
Ash caught the motion but ignored it. Now that Sheetal had stopped having a mental breakdown thinking about some meaningless pawn she had yeeted out of existence and had started thinking about him everything was right with the world. And now he needed to get some answers. And depending on those answers he would either have to fight or run or both.
“Why are you all being so friendly with each other when you weren’t earlier. What are you conspiring about?. And where is that scary ball of death? The one you call Marshall Lara. I can smell it but I can’t see it.”
“Smell it?” Parvati M asked the young boy.
“Mmm… Hmmm” Ash nodded.
84 whose hand had stopped just over the stock of his rifle relaxed and smiled “I see. And I think you already know the answer to that.”
Ash smiled and nodded “Yes, I do. But I will still need you to answer my question.”
Sheetal floated next to Ash and stopped “Ash?”
“Not now, She.” Ash said without looking away from 84 and added “You need to protect yours. I respect that. But you need to understand that I am trying to protect what is mine.”
Sheetal watched Ash tilt his head towards her and frowned.
84 nodded curtly “Very well warder. Marshall Lara is at the base. When we go into a mission we carry a thread of her. That way she can monitor our progress, send reinforcements when required and…”
“Keep you in line?” Ash asked
“Yes. And at each other’s throats. So we play to that. And pretend that we of the old guard don’t like the perseverance faction, the purist, the moderates, etc. ”
“What happens when you don’t fall into line and do as she says?”
“The augments we have. She can shut them off to discipline us. Or she can hit the kill switch to blow them up.” 84 stated, while clenching her teeth.
Sheetal turned to look at 84 with an open mouth “That horrible. Whose idea was to give an AI that much power?”
“The aug queen Athena A07’s idea.” Parvati M replied.
Sheetal turned to glare at E65 “Your boss?”
T shook his head “No, my boss is General Athena 8. Different people with different philosophies.”
“This is confusing.” Sheetal grumbled.
Ash, who had a thoughtful expression on his face, looked up at Jay 84 and asked “So what happens when we switch her back on?”
83 who was watching the boy warder asked “How do you know we can switch her on? How do you know if she is even okay?”
Ash snorted “An AI that powerful? One that you depend on no matter how much you hate it. you will do everything to save her. And not let anything dissect a portion of her. In fact you must treat her like a national treasure. Do you have nations in this desert?”
83 shook his head while giving Ash a thoughtful look “No, there are no nations here. But this is not our world. It is a trial governed by the aratas.”
“So I will come back to my initial question, what happens when we switch her on?”
Parvati M looked at the looks on her people's faces and answered “Then we go back to being short with each other and hating on T here. We won’t have to worry about a lot from her, we are just grunts. She will be more interested in you. She will question you. Understand your motives while she decodes your soul pathways, and analyse your shards to create methods to effectively neutralise you. Especially you warder Ash, after the changes you have gone through.”
Ash grinned “Thanks needles. Geez guys ask you one simple question and all I get are harrumphs and grunts. I should have talked to the woman in the group earlier.” Ash turned to face Parvati M “So Mrs Medic you were telling me why I am feeling so…”
Ash waved down at himself.
“Yes.” Parvati M cleared her throat “You are feeling libidinous that is affecting your thoughts and actions.”
Ash, who had opened his mouth to respond, stopped and looked at Parvati M “What do you men by Li..Libilibi…Libidee…?”
“Libidinous!” Sheetal said in frustration and explained “It means horny.”
Parvati M looked back at the warders and pointed to her armoured truck “Get your clothes and dress up. I’ll explain.”
Ten minutes later both Sheetal and Ash were standing in front of the vehicles while the rest of the continuum prepared to leave.
Parvati M walked to Ash aside and began to explain “You, levelled up one of your shards. And a primary one.” Noticing the blank look on Ash’s face she elaborated “A primary shard is one that is located in a vital area. When it levels up it has certain side effects. Like transforming you to the way you picture yourself in your mind.”
Ash frowned and looked down at his bare feet “You mean I think of myself like this?”
“Do you?”
Ash bit his lip “I… Uh… I don’t know. I have always wanted to be hot. Is this hot? But I lost my gyatt. Am I hot without my gyatt?”
Nothing the clueless look in Parvati M face Sheetal rolled her eyes and began to clarify.
“Skinny.” Sheetal stated “I believe that she wants to ask you if you wanted to be.”
Ash shook his head and started to explain “No. But sometimes I wished I was dainty. You know the kind you manhandle and throw into the bed. Then burry my head into a pillow while taking me from behind, twice.”
Sheetal watched Ash release a wishful sigh and snapped her fingers in his face “Well you are that now. Only more girly.”
“Huh. So you are saying that because I wanted to be more delicate the shard made me smaller?”
“No.” Parvati M shook her head and thought about her next words carefully. She finally began “A soul shard is an amplifier that connects to you soul and amplifies its will over your body. You used a density shard. When you levelled your shard up, it made your soul denser. And that dense soul projected itself from wherever the souls exist to the material world. Changing your body in its image.”
Ash blinked “So my soul wants me to be dainty?”
Parvati M closed her eyes and exhaled “Maybe?”
“That’s fire. But then why am I horny?”
Needles opened her eyes with a pained expression “Ash your body is practically new. Your nerve ends are new. Every sensation on your skin is new. Intellectually you know what everything feels like but to you every sensation you are feeling is brand new.”
“Is that why I feel so strange?”
“Yes.”
“Still doesn’t explain why I am so…”
Parvati M cut Ash off with “Add to that you are straight out combat and still amped up blood lust…”
Ash shook his head “Nope. I have been in plenty of chaotic and violent situations. Also, did you forget that I am a sociopath? I don’t feel things the way you all do. So, why don’t you cut the nonsense doc and tell me what is really going on with me.”
Parvati M looked at her husband and his best friend for a long moment and the conflict in her thoughts was visible in her eyes. Jay 84 must have felt her gaze because he looked up and smiled at her.
Parvati sighed “You know we are clones right?”
“Yes.”
“That is because the continuum started as a political movement in our world. The original Jay, Taran, Parvati, and Aditya came together because they wanted our civilisation to continue beyond the apocalypse we were heading towards.”
Ash felt Sheetal stiffen next to him
Parvati M141 who was lost somewhere in the past didn’t see her reaction and continued.
“When Jay Chandra first got his warder shard he roamed around the trials for years looking for a way to save our world. He found it in the form of technology which made cloning possible for five people. He chose our progenitors based on three factors. Muscle and bone density, so that they could fight. Mental strength, to continue to keep fighting. And finally hormonal and emotional balance, so that we would always be stable. Our progenitors were exceptional in all three factors except for the Jays.”
“Why? What’s wrong with the Jays?” Sheetal asked.
“They are more emotional than the rest of us. They also showed exceptional leadership skills until Athena 8 was created by the AIs.” Parvati M smiled.
“Created?” Sheetal asked and was flicked in the arm by Ash.
He put a finger on his lips and shushed her.
Ash looked back at Parvati M and asked “So, me, horny, how does that fit into things?”
Parvati M chuckled and in a hesitant voice explained “Well, when my JJ levels up a shard, he goes through something similar to what you are going through. Every time a shard levels up, it makes your body better than it has ever been. That means its hormonal levels spike, too. When that happens to my husband, I usually take a few days off and spend some time with him, until his mind acclimatises to his new hormonal levels.”
Ash watched the older woman smile shyly and hissed venomously “Seriously?”
Parvati M was taken aback by the heat in Ash’s tone and defended herself “It is fun. I thought you of all people would be open to that fact.”
“Yeah.” Sheetal nodded.
“A few days? When, it wont settle down?” Ash asked with a pained expression and screamed “Heck no!”
Sheetal started to look down only stopping when Ash glared at her.
“Sorry, I was…” Sheetal apologised and added “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Ash gave Sheetal a look “I know what you were thinking.” He turned back to Parvati M “Okay doc, since you have brought this up. Tell me how you plan to fix me.”
Parvati smiled “Well, there are two ways. We can give you a private space to work on yourself and relieve tension. The other way is to give you hormones to offset the current ones.”
Ash gave the medic a look “HRT?”
Parvati gave Ash a confused look.
“Right, English.” Ash shook his head and continued “What are the side effects? I hope I won't start growing in my chest.”
Parvati snorted “That is impossible. Your body is now defined by your soul. But there are side effects. When we take you off the balancers, all your repressed feelings will come back and will be amplified until your body and soul reach a balance.”
“I don’t know what that means but okay, let’s do it.”
Sheetal who had been standing beside them silently finally spoke “Ash, are you sure about this?”
“Yeah.”
Parvati M also looked at the boy warder “Warder Ash, think about it. What you are trying to do is defer the pain for later. I would suggest taking some time off. I am sure someone would be happy to partner with you for a duration and nobody will judge you for it. ”
Ash shook his head “No thank you. If I am a virgin again, I am not going to waste all of my new hot dainty self of some pro in a dusty dark corner.” Ash waved at his skinny self.
Parvati M looked at the boy in front of her in disbelief and clarified “I never said you were a virgin.”
“Didn’t you say I have a new body?
“Yes but your mind isn’t new.”
“Who cares about that? I don’t judge a person by the content of their character. I judge them based on their hot pics.”
Sheetal rolled her eyes “You can’t be serious. You can’t mess with your hormones just like that.”
Ash turned to Sheetal with a scowl “Of course I am…” Ash stopped and pointed at his lower half “She, look at this. It’s like I am overdosing on ten Viagra and fifteen of its cheaper Indian alternatives together. I am not saying I have done that but it sure feels the same.”
Sheetal narrowed her eyes “Stop trying to distract me. As this is serious. Messing with hormones means messing with your mind.”
“She, I know. Believe me I know. But what happens to you when I have someone in my mouth with my hand tied above my head and someone comes for you.”
“I am not going to look for trouble and I can take care of myself.”
“Of course you caaa….”
Ash turned back to Parvati M with a hand on his neck where a throbbing vein pulsed in anger “What in the…”
Parvati M held up a finger which had a long needle protruding from it “All done. Give it a few seconds and you will feel the difference.”
Ash scampered back from Parvati M’s white hand and hid behind Sheetal. He pointed at the medic accusingly and complained “She, pointy hand fingers.”
Sheetal looked down at Ash “Are you okay?”
Ash rubbed his neck and nodded “Yes, but don’t let her do that to me again.”
Sheetal looked at Ash and rolled her eyes “Oh come on you big baby. It was just a needle.”
“White hand of doom, needle.” Ash grumbled
“Well at least you are no longer thinking about what’s in your pants anymore.” Parvati M looked at Ash pointedly.
Ash blinked and slowly nodded “Yeah. Wow, that was fast. In fact I am not thinking about it at all. Which is really strange. Because I am always thinking about it. I like thinking about it. It is awesome but now…”
Parvati M smiled at Ash’s confused expression “Oh you will, after the meds run out of your bloodstream in a day or two. You will be going about your day normally, and then it will hit you all at once. And it will be stronger than this. So come to me when that happens.”
“Alright everyone, get in the transports.” Jay 84 announced from the side of the large transport vehicle.
E65 who was busy inside his trike opened a wing door and waved “Warders, you are with me, in the trike.”
Sheetal looked from the three wheeled vehicle to the storm raging just outside the shield “We are going to drive in that?”
T smiled “Oh no. Marshall Lara, she is going to do the driving. She also has some questions for you. I suggest you be truthful. Our cooperation will depend on your answer.”
Sheetal noted how T was holding himself. He was completely different from before. And behind his casually smiling face was a hint of weariness she wouldn’t have picked up if she hadn’t spoken to the man before.
“Okay.” Ash shrugged “Let’s talk then.”