Chapter 9 A Blue Milk Run

“What do you mean ‘Sink or Swim’ isn’t a viable teaching tactic?” - Pele, B Class Cape, known for throwing her students into volcanoes.

The Gate was almost unnoticeable at a distance. Smaller than a football field, it was little more than a distortion of light, like a heat haze that covered a clearing in the forest.

“You all ready?” Freddy asked one last time. Isaac by his side idly muttering as he checked a strange rod-like contraption.

Alexis nodded, hands fidgeting with each other.

“Unlikely,” Aiden replied, “but might as well.”

“Canwewaitanylonger?” Jun asked with a sarcastic voice, or maybe it was totally serious. It was hard to tell.

“Right,” Freddy nodded in affirmation, “entering Bleed radius now.”

Taking a single step forward, his leg seemed to meld away, like a stone dropped in water. Freddy seemed to ripple away as he walked inward, slowly disappearing from sight.

Alexis went next, walking straight into the Bleed area. Disappearing quickly as Freddy did.

Jun tentatively tested a foot first, which got a snort from Isaac, “Hurry up.”

She pulled down an eyelid, and maybe stuck her tongue out as well, Aiden couldn’t tell with the mask. Before she too entered.

He followed immediately after. Taking a deep breath before he went past the threshold.

Aiden let out a hacking cough the moment he passed. Throwing up spit and vomit onto the dirt below. His lungs felt choked as he fell on a tree for support. Clutching his throat as bits of his breakfast left his body.

It took him a moment, but he finally gathered himself. Only now feeling a sense of utter unease. Something unlike any other. A primal warning perhaps. As if there was a tiny, minuscule detail that he was missing. That if he just realised that detail he would notice the beast behind the brush, he would see the predator stalking him.

He put away this feeling and saw the vomit and spittle he left on the ground had crystallized into some kind of purple amber. He almost picked it up if the last of his spit crystallizing on the ground hadn’t reminded him of its origin.

Eyes scanning his companions, he saw that Freddy didn’t seem to have any sort of reaction to entering, Alexis was similar to him, still hacking out drops of spit onto the earth, while Jun only had an uneasy look on her.

Hearing footsteps, he looked behind him to see Isaac stepping in. He looked disgusted for a moment before he spat out a glob of spit that quickly crystalised to purple.

“You may be noticing your reactions are differing,” Freddy began. “Reactions to Bleed differs greatly from Awakened to Awakened, but as a general rule,” he gestured at Jun, “Self-improving powers like exemplars tend to adapt the most quickly since their power is based on reinforcing their self.”

Helping Alexis up, he continued, “Whereas you two have powers based on changing the world around you, so naturally, your own body is less reinforced.”

“What about you two?” Aiden weakly asked as he leant against a tree.

“We’ve been around enough Bleed areas that our Humes have just adapted,” Freddy answered. “We’re not physically or mentally tougher of course, but we’re a lot more used to Gates and Bleed in general. It’s a thing of getting used to it.”

Groaning, Alexis muttered, “I don’t think I can ever-” She paused, eyes suddenly crossed in focus. A look as if she was trying to find a piece of food stuck in between teeth with her tongue. Quickly she spat out a purple pebble, “Blyat! That thing crystalised in my mouth!”

“It gets better the more you’ve been through,” Freddy assured. “Though that feeling won’t get better.”

“Youmean…”

He nodded, “Remember that feeling of uneasiness, that feeling of alienation. It’s a sure sign you’re in or near a Bleed area no matter how little the actual reality disturbance is.”

Aiden nodded fervently, eyes finally taking in the area around them. They looked like they were in any neck of the outback forest, but the colours were off. Everything looked slightly redder, as if on a filter. All leaves were gone, and where they once were, there was now only bubbles of a clear watery substance. Held together by the branches of trees and bushes almost like a jelly. Or perhaps unbroken surface tension. When a drop fell to the ground it flashed in multicolour hues before evaporating into white ash.

“This is low-level reality disturbance?” Aiden muttered in incredulity.

“Hey, at least gravity still points downwards,” Isaac replied. Looking around, he asked, “What EWF was this Frederic?”

“Cnoc, Vento and Dark,” he answered.

“Feels more like a Loam,” he muttered in response. “Pretty low level either way.”

“Regardless, check your Status all of you,” Freddy reminded.

“Oros?” he asked and the serpent appeared. Crawling out of his shirt and unto his wrist, but as it did so, Aiden noted a tinge of black on the tip of its tail.

“Mymaskpaintispeelingoff,” Jun muttered. Glancing at her, he noticed she was tugging at a bit of flaking black paint with her right hand. Now that he had his glasses, he noticed that the yellow symbol was a half sun symbol.

“The limit is different for everyone, but if you ever get to less than 50% then you gotta get out,” Freddy warned, “be careful with your power usage here. Every action you take will spend Hume. The cost will lessen the more you’re around, but if you get too low then you know what happens.”

“Bleed,” Aiden muttered. The image of his sister bound to a hospital bed appearing in his mind. And she could be considered one of the lucky ones.

“Regardless, this is a pretty routine mission. We just need to escort Isaac to the source of the Bleed and have him seal it.”

“How does that work?” Aiden asked.

“Just watch and learn,” Freddy replied as he strolled forward. “It’s not like something you guys can learn on a whim anyway.”

“Are you taking this casually or seriously?” Isaac complained.

“Where you can take something casually, do so. No need to waste the extra effort.”

‘That is actually… semi-decent advice,’ Aiden thought, ‘if worded poorly.’

“Just know that Isaac will be in a vulnerable state while he does it,” Freddy said as they walked. “Make sure to keep an eye out for when it happens.”

Though he wasn’t addressed directly, Aiden pulled out a few pieces of paper from his pockets. As they walked around, he quickly folded an origami rabbit. Animating the creature with the leftover rabbit tattoo. ‘Luckily I don’t need to spend memories for a premade animal.’

“That’scool,” Jun quickly said. “CanItouchit?”

He raised the rabbit to her hand. She gently patted the creature, “Woah. Itfeelsjustlikearabbit.”

He let her pat it for a while before he held it close to his belly. It still held the concepts of rabbit and obey. “Keep your ears up, if you sense something, warn me by kicking me.”

The rabbit immediately kicked him.

Then it did again.

And again.

“Uhhshoulditdothat?”

Crossing his eyebrows, he realised he didn’t specify what it should sense.

“No, I made a mistake,” he replied calmly. “Forget your last orders. If you sense something dangerous, then warn me by kicking me.”

The rabbit stopped kicking him, staying still in his hand. “Better,” he said, ruffling its ears as it stood tall on his shoulder.

“Smart move,” Freddy spoke.

Isaac moved closer to him, eyes studying the rabbit, “How does that power work?”

Aiden once again gave the same explanation of his abilities he gave everyone else. A spawner power that created tattoos that controlled inanimate objects. Difficult to make new ones in succession. No idea about limits. His explanation only lacked one key detail.

“Fascinating,” Isaac said. “You need to quickly figure out your range and if they deteriorate over time.”

“I see, thank you. I didn’t think of that.”

“Bleugh, don’t worry about it. I only mentioned it because range is important in classifying gadgeteers and contrivers.”

Chuckling, Freddy added, “Isaac was misclassified as a contriver early on because one of his hoverboards stopped working about 10 kilometres from him. Spent his whole first year getting pity looks when he tried to tell them he was a Gadgeteer.”

“Bah! Those idiots were fools who couldn’t even do their own research.”

“You two were students together?” Alexis casually asked. Aiden raised an eyebrow at her, remembering that wall with all those crossed-out names.

“Isaac’s two years below me,” Freddy explained.

“It is my eternal displeasure to be younger than this manchild,” he explained. Strangely, he sounded almost fond when he spoke.

Raising his head, Freddy glanced towards 4 o'clock of them. “Feel that?”

Jun was already ahead of them, head rapidly jerking around, “YeahIcanfeelthat!”

Following behind her, Aiden finally felt it.

That alien feeling seemed to greatly increase, like suddenly switching your hand from a cup of ice water to a 2 minute ramen bowl.

“How’d you sense that?” Alexis asked as she nosed around the area.

“It’s been gradually increasing as we walked,” Freddy explained. “It’s hard to catch at first but you’ll get used to it.”

Isaac looked at Freddy as if he suddenly grew three other heads, “Get used to it? Frederic just how many Gates have you been clearing in the year I was gone?”

The man shrugged, “Just a few here and there, honestly, it’s their fault for needing me to fix so many.”

Shaking his head, the gadgeteer said, “We’ll have a talk about this later.”

Freddy shrugged, simply walking forward.

It took only a few steps before they saw it.

Like a scar in reality. A crack in glass that appeared in three dimensions. It burned in multicoloured flares as strange images and shapes ebbed and faded like mist around its vicinity. That feeling of unease was strongest here, and conversation seemed to have died on everyone’s lips as Isaac took a step forward.

“This is gonna be a bitch,” he muttered, scratching his bedraggled head. Standing next to the Gate, he held his forehead, closing his eyes as if deep in thought.

“Come closer,” Freddy said, nudging them forward, “otherwise you won’t feel the laying.”

Aiden hesitated on the first step, the closer he was the stronger that feeling of something utterly alien watching him felt. The other two clearly felt the same way, hesitating. Before Alexis seemed to make up her mind and boldly strode forward. Though he noticed, her hands were shaking as she did so. Gasping for breath when she finally made it beside Isaac.

Spurred on, he and Jun tentatively went forward. Every step was torture. Every step that primal monkey part of his brain told him to turn around and run. Get as far away as possible. Do not interact with the things he cannot understand or comprehend. Do not poke the sleeping bear.

Do not try the monster’s maw.

And yet he made it.

Standing next to Isaac, he spat out the last of his breakfast. And would’ve vomited out more if his stomach wasn’t empty. The pressure… it was almost too much.

Every single moment, he felt like if he looked behind him, he would see that monster. Its jaw wide open to welcome its newest visitor.

For some reason, Lu imagined that monster as his father.

“Simple expansion,” Isaac spoke and the monster was gone.

Instead, it was replaced by a sudden, contemplative calm.

The red tinge of the Bleed cleared around them, the crack seemed to shrink and for a moment, there was an area centred around Isaac where the Bleed didn’t exist. Where all was normal. Then the crack disappeared, fizzling out of existence and the Gate was closed.

“What-” Alexis stuttered, “what was that?”

Freddy walked forward and caught the falling Isaac.

“Simple Expansion,” he answered as he held the unconscious gadgeteer. “It’s a thing known as a Meta Technique which you can be trained to do, where you interact with your Hume level in a way not based on your power.”

“Andhedidthat?”

“Yeap.”

“Is he alright?” Aiden asked.

Silently, Freddy raised one of Isaac’s arms and poked his finger through it. Passing through his flesh easily like mist.

“To answer your question, no. Absolutely not,” he continued, “Simple Expansion essentially pushes all your Hume out in a circle around you. It normalises nearby reality and plugs a Gate, but it makes you less real.”

He hoisted the man onto his back. “He’s vulnerable in this state. Currently, he’s less real than even a normal person. If I’m not reinforcing him then he would be succumbing to Bleed.”

Freddy looked over each of them, “And now my final lesson for today. Meta Techniques. You will need someone who can do at minimum a Simple Expansion if you ever want to close a Gate. A Shaker power that can alter the environment works as well, but at a significantly slower pace because their power passively prevents them from overdrawing their Hume.”

“Have you all been doing those exercises I told you?”

“Theimaginingthing?”

“Visualising my environment?” Alexis said.

Aiden adjusted his glasses, noting it was still there. Originally he chalked it up to the specific features of this Gate not affecting its material, but now…

“Meta Techniques essentially focus on using your Hume in a way that isn’t originally ascribed in your power. They’re extremely useful, you can reinforce your body to be more real, making powers and Bleed less effective against you, or imbue objects to be able to function in Bleed environments and shrug off some powers and of course, Simple Expansion,” he finished, gesturing at Isaac behind him.

“So if I use this on my glasses, I’ll never have to worry about them breaking?” he immediately asked.

Freddy nodded, “Yeap, though it’ll have to be a constant thing, non-living objects don’t hold extra Hume well, they tend to scatter it all out after a while.”

“That sounds very useful, but…” Aiden began. Already seeing the potential caveats.

“Since you’re interacting with the measure of how real you are, overuse can make you disappear from existence outright,” Freddy stated, “not to mention, since you guys are Manifested, you will likely never be able to use all Meta Techniques.”

A questioning look from all three of them. Alexis began, “Is it just a problem of time or…”

“No, not at all,” Freddy replied, shaking his head, “it’s a feature of your powers outright. Alexis, how many of your blocks can you have moving at any single moment?”

“Only one at a time, though until I dismiss them they’ll exist in the place they landed,” she replied.

“Your powers have rules to them, it makes them stronger in a direct clash, but also less malleable. Where a Geneline might just have liquid manipulation, a Manifested like me will have liquid manipulation in specifically enclosed spaces. Our powers have more rules to them, which affects our Hume and makes it harder to use.”

Pursing his lips, he continued, “Think about it like this… A diamond and a chunk of coal are made from the same substance, carbon. But the way the carbons are arranged makes the diamond shinier and harder. Whereas the coal piece you can probably tear apart with your hand. Due to the specific rules of our powers, our Hume is arranged differently. Whereas a Geneline with fewer or no rules can move it on a freer scale. Make sense?”

Aiden hesitantly nodded.

“Yeah,IthinkIgetit.”

“Confusing… but yeah.”

“As an example, I have never managed a Simple Expansion. I managed to Imbue some objects that had water in them,” a single dagger floated out of his sleeve, dancing in the air as he spoke, “and eventually managed Simple Reinforcement, but with the specific nature of my power, I will probably never manage a Simple Expansion no matter how hard I try.”

Gesturing towards Jun, he continued, “Whereas Jun will have an easier time managing Body Reinforcement, and Aiden might find it easier to Imbue an object with Hume, it’s all dependent on how your power specifically works. But most likely, you will never use more than two of the Meta Techniques I mentioned. Where a Geneline would be able to dabble in all three with varying degrees of efficiency.”

“That sucks, so if we want to close a Gate but don’t know Simple Expansion, we’ll have to drag along someone else?” Alexis asked, gesturing at Isaac.

“Pretty much,” Freddy answered, “though, do note that a Manifested who uses Meta Techniques, tends to master them more often than a Geneline.”

“And how do we do a Meta Technique?” Aiden asked.

“Dunno,” Freddy answered. “A Geneline family will have passed down lessons and instructions on how to manage one quickly. For you three, there is no way for someone else to know all the specific nuances of your power. So it’s pretty much just self-discovery for you.”

“Though,” he quickly added, “some methods seem to work pretty consistently. For Expansion, imagine the area around you and your power affecting it. Reinforcement and Imbuing, you clearly imagine either your body or an object near you and how you would use it. For many Manifested, this stuff happens accidentally.”

Looking at their increasingly confused faces, he continued to explain, “Early on, some capes realised the costumes they wore were unaffected by Bleed when they wore it. It was how Meta Techniques were discovered in the first place. The Awakened of that era realised that they were passively Imbuing their Hume into their costumes. And it became even easier with the first generation of Genelines.”

“It’s a matter of focus and use. That’s why Simple Reinforcement is the easiest, and all Awakened are able to do a lesser form of it to deal with Bleed. You’re always stuck with your own body.”

“You just said it’ll be unlikely for us to dabble in more than two?” Aiden asked. “Does that count Bleed resistance?”

Shaking his head, Freddy elaborated, “No no, Bleed resistance is its own thing. It leads to Simple Reinforcement, but Simple Reinforcement is specifically when you manage to apply that to other powers, making them slightly less effective against you.”

“Simple Reinforcement isn’t actually that useful,” he continued, “it’s best when you stack it with a Brute power, but alone the reduction you get from it is minuscule at best. You might be able to tank one more hit or adapt to a Gate a few seconds faster.”

Aiden nodded. “I see.”

Looking at all three of them, Freddy finished, “You don’t need to fully understand this yet. It’s specifically a Third Year thing. You can test it out if you want but you won’t have to fully explore it till your final year.”

“Whyareyoutellingusthen?” Jun asked.

“Slow down for the rest of them,” Freddy added, “and I’m telling you because you’re Manifested. The curriculum is made mostly for the Genelines who make up over 90% of the student body. They’re at higher risk of un-existing themselves, but the specific limitations of your powers make that difficult to occur accidentally. Those rules I keep mentioning.”

“Our powers are both safer but more limited is what you’re saying?” he asked.

“Essentially.” Clapping his hands, Freddy said, “Now, this is a lot to take in. Let’s start heading back and-”

Freddy’s head suddenly jerked to the left of them. Eyes squinting in the distance. “Shit.”

The Awakened threw his hands out to their right, “All of you! Start legging it towards the-”

That sickening feeling returned. That feeling of alienation. That feeling that there was something different.

It all happened in slow motion. Innumerable daggers flew out of Freddy’s clothing, a waking beehive as he stared towards the encroaching thing.

Jun was already moving, grabbing Aiden’s shoulder and starting to run towards Alexis.

It was too late.

It hit them like a wave. The sky turned black as ancient eyes opened and stared down at them. The trees cracked and burned like water and stone as the sound of silence rang through them like a great bell. The toll of sleeping things woke and dreamt of unreal things.

“All of you get out of the Bleed areaaaaaaaa” Freddy’s screaming voice faded as space suddenly elongated, turning the distance of a few steps into a thousand.

“Weneedtorun!” Jun yelled, seeing their companions disappear in a moment, opted to save who she can.

“Wha-” she barely gave him time to react.

Jun ran, dragging Aiden towards the edge, where the Bleed hadn’t hit yet, but no matter how fast she was, every step she took the ground beneath her lengthened by three more. No matter how fast she was, she could not catch up to the wave spilling out.

Until eventually, she stopped, huffing and puffing, gasping for breath by a rock as they were trapped in a second Gate.