Group
An hour later, Phesx and Pheli sat near a barn filled with machinery and tech tools for farm life. The moon was a complete half, showing from the ground like a proud, growing eye trying to open. Lifeless and magnified. They picked a few blades of grasses and threw them at the side, sitting on a wide bench.
“Marrying, how funny it is.” Pheli said, staring up at the uncountable stars littering, surrounding the mountainous half a moon. Phesx blew air through his nostrils, letting a tiny breath of coldness seep into the air before turning his head to look at her.
“It isn’t that bad. If you let aside selfishness and focus on doing the same, just bonded and with a future life together. Figuratively forever.” Phesx spoke from his heart, from what he’s seen, and the positivity of those times.
Pheli looked at him with her chin high up, eyes narrowed to an almost close, appearing delicate. Seeing that little dumbfounded light in his eyes, trying to hide it, she felt contented from her heart before opening her luscious lips under the moonlight. “Marry me. Then, you can prove it.”
…rustle.
Phesx stared at her for several seconds before resting his head on her lap. She looked up at him, blatantly enjoying her smell, before going, “I have nothing to prove. To anyone, to anything, from the past, right now, or later. Nothing. None at all.”
He lifted his hands, tapping her cheeks and nose with his fingertips, ‘jumping’ and skipping across her face. “Except you, Pheli. Mn, and that old fart, I suppose.”
The sudden change in his tone on the latter half of his words caused giggles to escape Pheli’s throat. She looked down, bending her back a bit before caressing his hair. Phesx gulped, feeling 1 part embarrassed and 9 parts… adored under her celeste eyes’ scrutiny.
“It’s too early to marry. What are you thinking? Are you in a hurry? Fret not. I’ll keep us both alive. It’s not much, but with my hands, I can make enough money to buy bread and milk so we can-”
“Oh, hush.” Before Phesx could continue bullshitting, Phesx slapped his chest and held the top of his head with her left wrist, treating him like a baby while caressing his cheeks and nose. “I know. There are many possible irregularities not even Instructors can deal with, let alone us.”
“I never said no.” Phesx reminded. Pheli looked down at him before lightly whispering, sounding delicate. “I never believed you would’ve.”
“Now, you’re just saying that because you are pretty and everyone loves you wherever you go.” Phesx said with a tone. Pheli smiled even with her eyes before mimicking his voice, “Now, you’re just saying that because you’ve suffered wherever you go, by the people, the land, its nature.”
“Sigh.” - “Sigh.” Both idiots sighed before falling silent, enjoying the quiet and beauty of the night. Pheli eskimo kissed him with eyes closed before looking up. They stared at the stars around the moon. Pheli then commented, feeling a bit silly, “Wow. There are way too many stars tonight.”
“Hmm… Lest you go back on your vows.” Phesx voiced after a second of pondering. Pheli smiled thinly, with a dimple appearing on her left cheek. She cutely said, “I don’t need vows.”
Her soft words put Phesx to sleep, who didn’t hesitate to let his heavy eyelids close. Likewise, Pheli dared not move, caressing his eyelids as slightly as possible, blowing into his face as if to take care of him, and whispering with a sweet, hushed voice to sing to him.
. . .
A week later. Riverlye HQ.
Phesx was in the workshop’s back room. There was no ‘testing room’ in the workshops. Those were individual modules only Instructors could use in Riverlye, be it here or any other base across Lýmoca. Thus, the best they got was the training/sparring rooms or these back rooms.
At this moment, Phesx was in front of Pheli, practicing with their invented bion. He wore a bulletproof light vest, while she wielded a small pistol, with a submachine gun at the side. Before, they would’ve used weapons that fire bullets like those needles Instructor Mel uses.
However, with time, the ‘Pivot’ became too efficient with ‘toy guns’. Thus, long after abolishing all its flaws and with Pheli’s recognition as a bion, they started using firearms. Today was just another test, but not just of the pivot.
Phesx’s strange body was still a mystery to everyone, including himself. He has barely been shot, even directly, from the missions he’s been doing these past 2 months and a few weeks. But when he did get shot before, his wounds healed noticeably faster than others. It wasn’t a matter of a few days prior, which can happen, but 1 or 2 weeks.
They weren’t monstrous injuries, but it was still something the human body could only do after costly medical equipment, such as skin partitions, to heal skin and even others to nurture flesh regrowth. Yet, since neither Phesx nor anyone would’ve like to test their injuries in a mission, where a simple error causes death, they opted to test his body through this bion practices.
Like this, getting injured a few times, Phesx measured the extents of his ‘healing’ capabilities. Helpless to understand any of it, Pheli supported him. She couldn’t feel anything other than gladness if Phesx had a naturally higher survival than others.
Pheli and Phesx looked at each other’s eyes. They didn’t count down before acting, nor did they show signs of moving through their expressions. Then, Pheli’s finger pulled the trigger just 5 meters away.
Bang! Pf-clink… pfsha~. Phesx reacted the moment his ears heard the small pistol’s trigger being pulled and its mechanism in motion. His eyes contents shrank just a bit before his right wrist motioned. His veins gained strength as he rapidly moved his wrist.
Throwing something from under his waist level, Phesx saw the pivot fly into the air. It looked like a thick pen wrapped by diminutive chain-like dark gray ropes. Phesx threw it into the air with its upper end facing ahead. Its ropes separated as its structure easily shot forwards. It seemed to have as much initial power as a bullet when shot, but it immediately stopped a millisecond later.
While it was a short-lived impulse, by then, it had already spread its ropes and formed a twirling, spherical-ish fan. It stopped rotating, advancing forwards to the incoming bullet. An indiscernible warp spread between the ropes and what looked like tiny arrowheads pointing forwards at each rope’s end.
It was barely noticeable by Phesx and Pheli, who made the pivot and have practiced with it for a few weeks now.
As the pivot’s extended flight mode met the bullet, it slowed it down, even though it didn’t directly hit the bullet with neither the arrowheads nor the ropes. The bullet continued shooting towards Phesx at an incredible speed, but Phesx’s eyes tracked it with slight ease. He side stepped to his right, evading the bullet 3 inches from his left upper arm.
Phesx grinned, just a bit. Pheli sidestepped to the left, evading the pivot, before spraying Phesx. The latter immediately heard it but had no time to put a long face. He motioned his left wrist, throwing the other pivot, and stabilizing his feet on the floor.
The pivot revolved forth, meeting a few bullets out of 11, and deviated them while also slowing down the others. But with so many shots being fired and encompassed by the pivot at once, its efficiency was drastically reduced.
Phesx read the deviated bullets' trajectory, which were even slower than arrows let loose towards him, deducing them with a multitude of possibilities. He avoided them with ease, but just a few were nothing compared to the majority, which shot towards him with their speed and force barely reduced.
Phesx tried moving to the right and avoid being shot in the vest, but he was too slow. The vest was struck near its border with his shirt. Phesx was caught in between. His body jolted backwards, but it was only the first time of many.
Immediately after, Phesx’s torso was hit with bullet after bullet as his body retreated until his force was no longer enough, and he shot backwards to the floor.
Plop. Phesx silently groaned before letting out a bemoan. He was helped up by Pheli, who smirked at him and his sorry state. Phesx asked as he felt the new bruisers beneath his clothes. “Is this revenge for last time? Not fair.”
“You made me remain naked for the rest of the day after that,” Pheli said, defending herself with a shrug. Phesx frowned, playfully. “It was after our date, and it was at my home! You could’ve said no and go home, but no, you stayed. Let me tell you, the pizzeria complained to me when I worked there a few days later. So much noise and many ‘confessions’.”
Pheli rolled her eyes and pushed him, failing to conceal a blush. She further couldn’t hide a smile forming on her lips. Pheli traced Phesx’s jawline and pinched his left cheek before voicing, “You’ve seen it’s obvious weak force. You need to work on the next model so it won’t be as bad. Now, what did you want to show me?”
“This,” Phesx said after grabbing her left hand and lightly pulling her towards him. He showed her a smallish device with his left hand. Pheli took it between her fingers and looked at it up close. It was about 3 inches long, and a blade, about 2 millimeters thick, that hung a few steps on its rear, the opposite side where a diminutive double-edged wide tip was located.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It was a finger and a half wide, with a metallic brown color. The steps on its lower rear looked retractable, which arouse Pheli’s interest. She frowned a little, darting her eyes towards Phesx. “You built a retractable step system?”
“It’s a blade, and it is for rapid purposes. This one is only the first layer. Each piece is meant to have a few more underneath to discard and reuse.” Phesx took the retractable blade back and took his vest off. After lifting his sleeve, he placed it atop his forearm and strapped it with thin threads. Pheli immediately noticed they were the same material and color as the pivot’s ropes.
Then, with the blade’s lower rear as support, whose retractable step system was just 2 cm tall, Phesx covered it with his sleeve. He made some brusque and soft motions, appearing silly and painful at first to activate it, but the rest were efficient, rapid, and secure. Pheli nodded in praise.
Phesx paused and said, “It is meant to not hurt the user. It extends when the wrist and hand move in a certain way. I had to research for 3 weeks before finding a series of ‘microscopic’ motions.”
Pfsst. Suddenly, Phesx moved the base of each of his fingers, bent his knuckles just a tiny bit, and the veins below his palm tensed an intricate amount. The blade suddenly shot from his sleeve, appearing just a few centimeters past his extended fingers.
“You can also choose how much to retract it, just like this.” Phesx showed the plastic plaque, a rectangular tablet as long as his forearm and thinner, where he put the blade’s steps. Then, he grabbed it with his left hand, pressing it in a way only his left hand could before swinging his right arm again. It went below his knuckles, 5 inches past his fingertips, and barely at his wrist.
“It has a safety switch hidden in the plaque. It is the main source of how it works. I’m working on thin gloves to hold it in case it breaks or is damaged, or jammed.” Phesx said, showing numerous way it could work.
“Well…” Pheli gulped the accumulated saliva in her mouth before voicing, “With just these many safety measures, it already classifies as a possible void bion. What about the plaque? Is it the one reading your wrist and hand movements?”
“Yes,” Phesx nodded, taking everything off and showing it to her. Pheli carefully grabbed the plaque, tracing her fingers after her eyes discerned it wouldn’t be damaged. She soundlessly gasped, darting her eyes to him again, “Phesx, this material, it seems…”
“I built it out of chips. I had to be careful using your melter. It’s a bit dirty with some chips’ remnants.” Phesx scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. Pheli looked at the plaque’s lower side with more interest and focus.
“You built it to read the specified movements you researched as the most efficient, right? It… did it become used to it because of repeating those motions?” Pheli asked the unthinkable. Phesx nodded, adding, “The only efficient way to not trigger it by mistake, even by a baby or an idiot.”
“An incomplete circuit… a microchip’s value turned into… a specific pattern by merely repeating the movements of… the body. A homemade, ‘true’ biological semiconductor?” Pheli shook her head a little as she thought aloud. She smiled when she arrived at the silly deduction.
Phesx shrugged, explaining the origins of how the fuck he made it work. “In the farm, the old man’s old tools were weird. Some would work well as long as I just ‘guided’ them to react in some ways whenever it turned off erroneously or glitched. I got electrocuted a few times, but the old man gave me some equipment to not die immediately.”
“Shut up, your past life-death events don’t matter. Phesx, you’ve done a crazy little thing… It’s not complete, I presume?” Pheli smiled, this time brilliantly, as she played with the blade, putting it on and trying to activate it by mistake, even forcefully trying to switch the safety off with her other hand.
“It needs many tweaks, yes… I was hoping a lovely lady would aid me… help me complete it.” Phesx worded. Pheli stopped testing the thing and looked up at her man, this stupid, delicious, smartass young boy who couldn’t care any less about the magic trick he just pulled off.
“It seems half-complete. We’ll have to share-” Pheli lifted her eyebrows but squinted her eyes, reminding him. But, amidst her words, Phesx hugged her waist and rubbed his forehead on her from side to side.
“You will bore me to death if you ask me if I’m sure. Take it. That’s it and it, alright?” Phesx whispered to her face, Pheli’s eyes widened, becoming dreamy as she suddenly moved her hand in such a way. Phesx’s ears tingled, and his spine shivered for an instant.
Pfsst. The blade on Pheli’s right forearm extended. Phesx Caolia saw her victorious smirk after getting the hang of the movements after seeing Phesx do it a few times. Phesx’s left wrist was cut through and through, bleeding around his wrist.
Phesx looked at his woman before flashing his left hand to the barely discernible bulge below her jacket. Under her disbelieving eyes, Pheli felt the blade disengage, dropping from her sleeve like a small animal suffering a heart attack and dying. She was awestruck. Wasn’t is supposed to be assault-proof?!
Plop-clank. The blade fell to the ground. At the same time its metallic noise rang, Phesx roughly pushed her back with his right hand towards him, closing his face into hers. Their hot breaths battled on each other’s faces as he voiced, whispering and tempting.
“Naughty… It’s weird. The words you always melt in my arms with didn’t work. I’m losing confidence now,” Phesx didn’t let Pheli speak. The instant she opened her mouth, he charged into it with the tip of his tongue first.
The pair of fully opened celeste eyes drowsily closed. Sounds were emitted from their dancing lips, playing and struggling as Phesx carried her up and drove her bum onto an open metallic drawer. Taking her undergarments off with ease and expertise, hearing her gasp in thrill, Phesx was stopped as Pheli grabbed his head from both sides.
“You’ve… gulp… earned it.”
Her words made his eyes expand. His lips moved faster than lightning, or at least it felt that way, as he probed. “Are you talking about-”
“Eat me already… please don’t make me wait.” Pheli bumped her forehead on his. Thereon, a most intimate, naughty moment developed. For Phesx, the man, duty called.
. . .
When they were done talking about life, Phesx and Pheli were just exiting the workshop, closing it for the night before going on a date. The days were getting chilly more often, and Phesx just knew he had to enjoy more nights like these with Pheli.
Beep virrb. Pheli stopped and took her phone out, frowning as she read the message. She spoke as she turned to Phesx, “Phexie, I’m on a group mission. The HQ just convoked me to the briefing zone.”
But when she turned her head, Phesx also had his phone out, and he was looking at it with a curious face. Not only that, its contents were just similar to hers, only he wasn’t called weapons master, but Artista crafter.
“We’re going, I think.” Phesx stored his phone and said to Pheli, who had a pensive expression, trailing off a bit, before blinking. When she reopened her eyes, they became gentle and punched his shoulder. “Sigh. Yeah. It seems you’ve brought plenty of attention to your ass. Come on.”
Pheli cocked her head before leading the way. Phesx put his hands in his pants pockets and followed her through the corridors.
… When they arrived at a wide room in the briefing zone, they entered to a small gathering of a few dozen people. Phesx immediately recognized Pheli’s circle, which, by now, it had already become his circle, too.
They walked towards the group, whereas Phesx found the medic and a few others missing. Teon, Layo, Imán, Gesán, and Waleks were still there, with Waleks’s girlfriend and a couple of others around them.
“Pheli, you… two are the last to arrive. The Instructor will come soon,” Teon walked to them and said, turning around to face the empty space between the dozens of Artistas.
Hearing that, Phesx lifted his eyebrows and tensed a bit. He waited beside Waleks and Imán as Pheli and Teon stood in front of the group. A few minutes later, a stout, dark brown man with many wrinkles in his face, hanging skin, and visages of life’s experiences walked to the middle.
Everyone placed their attention on the person. Phesx didn’t know who it was, and he couldn’t, so he just crossed his arms like others and waited.
“I am Instructor Omar,” the Instructor introduced himself with his thumb poking his chest. “You’ve been selected to form part of a large group heading into Coalely. It’s just 4 hours in our flight route. This mission consists of various steps, some of which will be achieved by lone wolves.”
“We’re departing tonight, so check with your group before 10 PM. Report to the administration way before that. Ongoing!” The Instructor said before leaving. The groups in the room looked at each other before their leaders walked to the center to debate. They did it openly, not hiding their words or disposition. Phesx could see some ‘heat’ when the group leaders vied for more roles for their people.
At last, Pheli and the other group leaders faced the crowd and announced. A blonde, elegant white young man raised his voice, “We’ve determined a few things. Everyone who wants to participate in covert objectives or direct battle will be decided after we board the chopper. Those whom I will name next have been selected for solo and rescuing targets.”
The young man named 4 different names before looking at Phesx, knowing just where he stood. Pheli also looked at him at the same time, and so did the others around him. The young man voiced, as expected. “And Fox.”
“Let’s meet in 40 minutes. Let’s go!” The young man said. The group leaders stepped out and returned to their groups. Pheli faced everyone and loudly said, “Get your things. We may return in 3 days or more. It’s going to be a little hectic, so don’t save anything.”
Focusing on Phesx, she continued, “Go wash yourself. The others probably did out of habit already. Get used to it, although your performance here will decide whether you have the chance to again or not.”
Knowing how much it had to mean to be selected for the solo and rescuing missions, Phesx solemnly nodded at Pheli, who placed such a role on his shoulders, before stepping backwards. Turning around, he headed to the bathrooms. He had not many ideas why he must wash now, but he credited it to the incoming long trip in helicopter. Phesx wondered how different it would be compared to helitaxis.
… When he arrived at the bathrooms, it was mostly alone, with a few guys looking at him, surprised and expectant. But not because of a little bit of fun.
After realizing who he was, and the possibility of him being involved in the newest group mission, they started to think…
Phesx found the bathrooms changed. He only used it during his training, where he couldn’t afford to return home some days and had to stay with Emer. Only able to shower for a few minutes at best to save time.
The products were replaced. The ‘new’ ones had a medicinal property and were very relaxing to put on his body and head.
By the time Phesx finished bathing, he felt like a new man. It was still 10 minutes before 9 PM. But when he exited his booth and returned to the steamy open space, he found a cute black young woman waiting for him outside. It was that young beauty he found Pheli speaking to the other day. She stood confidently, showing her magnificent abs and petite, delicious body.
Phesx went mute. The young woman walked to him and smiled. She voiced with a trembling in her throat, sounding seducing, “Care to waste 10 little minutes with me? Ah, I can see you’ve half agreed.”
The young woman walked to him, but then, Phesx grabbed her left hip, feeling her toned abdomen, those muscles, and her tantalizing skin. Phesx looked down and said before walking past her. “I saw you in the briefing room earlier. You’re very beautiful, but I don’t want to. Waleks is a good lover, I’ve heard. If you’re just looking, try him.”
With that, Phesx left, leaving the young woman a bit confused. She wasn’t insulted, but she pouted as she fell pensive.
…