Today we had taken the day off because there was a sudden downpour and the marble room was not to be destroyed again.

With this unexpected free time I focused on something that was in my to do list for a while now, fixing some issues with my matrix, the way other powers added to it became completely inefficient and too taxing to use, like the power to make packets o matrix, the mechanism that LED used to create buffs.

First thing to test is if I can use any other power that I have copied in my matrix to create a buff.

I make the changes for my matrix to use LED’s power and then start creating a buff; the matrix is created bit by bit in the way his powers do. It is a process I’m closely familiar with. So that was how LED could change how strong the buff was going to be, varying the amount of energy he puts on the construct.

I start with something simple creating the enhancement to thought speed Glassmetal has. I push the matrix construct out into the world and it manifests spinning on top of my palm, an electric blue oval.

Fascinating.

“You got LED’s power?” Swordjuice asks animatedly as she enters the cafeteria. I was training in.

“Yeah, want to see how it does?”

“Of course, it’s a different one from his, right? The color is similar to the mind one but still different.”

“Very sharp.” I pushed the buff to her with an easy thought command, feeling myself lose the connection to it as it touched her body.

Swordjuice’s eyes widened comically as she opened her mouth, but no sounds came out, her mind way too fast for speech to keep up.

“ThiiscrazyI’mthinkingsofastIthoughtofsomany-” A fact that Swordjuice didn’t let deter her as she spoke in a deluge of words.

“its fine, it’s fine,” I said, raising my hands to forestall her incessant deluge of gibberish. “I get how it is, breathe and just ride it out in your head.”

She took a breath, saying then at an only slightly faster than normal speed, “okay.”

I smiled at her. This was fun, wish it was more efficient. I could at most make 5 of these weaker ones and then I’d need to let my matrix recuperate all the energy, a shame to not have unlimited powers.

I wonder if there’s some power that makes the energy from the core universal in some way, probably a power that can power up or empower other powers, something to keep an eye on.

Now to test I wanted to test something that could change everything it ends up working, making the buff a permanent addition to someone’s matrix, that would make me able to power up my friend’s powers and then make people who don’t have powers have them as well, and then they’d probably awaken to an additional power as well

I make it in my matrix, using LED’s power to build up the matrix already separated from mine starting from the bit of energy I put into it as a false core, I copy how I connect my different powers into whole pieces, adding in the instructions for the matrix to do the same with the matrix it encounters when it latches into it.

I send it to Swordjuice, who accepted to be the test subject again, and she gets the effects of the sped up thought just as before. We wait while talking; she getting more used to the fast thoughts can now talk with me at a more reasonable speed for communication.

Sadly, the effect runs out at the same time as before, so it certainly didn’t become permanent

Maybe the instructions about how to connect with her matrix weren’t clear enough? It is something that I have to normally guide. I re-created the buff just as before, looking at how I did it, and it should have worked. I reinforce the instructions by putting it as the first thing it does.

Maybe I have to look into it. I can connect with her while the buff takes effect and see if there’s anything missing then.

I connect with Swordjuice before sending her the buff this time, even letting my awareness of the real world fade away as I focus completely on the matrix construct appearing close to Swordjuice actual power matrix.

It goes and does as the instructions I send tell it to, completely fusing with her matrix, it seems to have worked then, but then I realize it’s not taking in her energy to function, instead only using up all the energy I sent with it until it runs out.

When the energy ends, Swordjuice energy tries to take its place because of the connection that were made, but all it does is burn the rest of the matrix construct away. It disappears completely.

The energy of the cores itself aren’t compatible, when I put another power into my core, the energy it spends to use the power is exponential higher than when I’m simply using mine as it was intended to, but not only the powers but the matrices itself are incompatible, the only reason I can use these other powers at all is because I’m the one who created these matrices, I do copy them, but they’re created by my matrix, with, I imagine, the energy from my core.

So a power cannot use other power’s energy, and a matrix cannot be powered up by a different power. That’s certainly good to know, but also a bummer. To make modification to other matrices, I need to find someone with a power to direct interact with other powers.

There must exist some, and possibly they function copying the particular whatever it is that makes powers unique and incompatible with each other.

I still know so little, but that’s only more incentive to keep learning.

For the last test, I decide to mix things up, instead of trying various small buffs to just try a really crazy one, and I create the buff, taking various parts scattered around my matrix and ending up creating a miniaturized power.

I put the source of energy taking almost all that was left in my core and making it the core of the buff, wrapping around it granting the person an energy absorptive body and the capability of using the energy to produce shadow lighting to saturate said body, Araphel’s powers

“Wanna have a taste of Araphel’s powers, Swordjuice?”

“Absolutely,” she says. Nodding eagerly.

I manifest the buff I just made to a much more dramatic effect than I had thought, it’s a three-dimensional construct instead of simple circle, one of those triangles that have no ending or beginning but it seemed to not be just an optical illusion if that make any sense, the color was also a shadow of white.

That’s crazy, Swordjuice murmured, entranced. I sent the buff to her. It slowly drifts to her as she extends her finger to touch it, it becomes a 2d imprint on her hand’s skin as Swordjuice's expression becomes even more bewildered.

She slowly raised her hand, almost in a trance. “I can feel it, another power.”

“Can you use it?”

“I think so,” she says, nodding slowly

I nod to her to go ahead

She takes a breath, preparing herself

And then lets out exactly half a second of black energy.

We both blink, the effect so fast it was difficult to tell if it really happened

“Well, that’s certainly unusable,” I said, laughing at Swordjuice’s betrayed look etched on her face.

-

I had to wait around for my power to recharge before doing more tests, so I did my part of the chores around the base and relaxed reading some laying down, I tried looking at the news but it felt bizarre seeing the manufactured articles, having a life now that was so crazy the boring everyday news were even more mind numbing, and all the boot licking that the press did to the regime wasn’t endearing as well.

But after around 3 hours I was once again feeling full o energy, this time I was going to go I the farm, Dan had mentioned that there was a lot of area to make tests and stuff and I wasn’t planning in making anything too destructible,

I let led know that I was going for a walk and took the elevator out of the under barn, exiting the actual barn and looking at the very stormy sky, it was fine though, at this point I really wasn’t afraid of just some rain,

I set towards one of the empty fields I remembered seeing on the walk here, glad that I had put some good hiking boots.

Arriving at the field, which was left to grow and to feed some cows, I exhaled. What I wanted to test now was using LED’s power to instead of making buffs just straight out manifesting my matrix on the real world

I always used it like a tool with its useful tentacles and it would be interesting to see them in action in the real world.

To make it work, I had to put LED’s power in my matrix in place of my transformation one, that would limit the actual usage of it, even more so because projecting the whole tentacle was much more than the brief expulsion of the matrix constructs that normally happened.

The way it worked was that the portion of the power that created the manifestation was separated from the creating process of the buffs, that one created a construct of matrix separated from the rest with a bit of energy as a core.

The manifestation part was like wrapping it in a blanket and pushing that to manifest, it used some energy to ‘push’ the matrix onto the real world, it would work but I imagine ill have to keep feeding this wrap with energy as I want to keep controlling the matrix tentacles, the channel has to stay open then.

I prepare everything and wrap the tentacles in their dimensional-boundaries phasing-blankets, all comfy as they appear in front of me.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but they were mesmerizing. A multitude of colors and hues because of the bits and pieces of so many powers that composed them. LED’s power, as far as I understood, manifested different effects as different colors. The two arm length tentacles that I created seemed like nebulas of crystals.

The colors were strong and distinct and yet reflective, shining in each other’s lights. But even crazier than that was the over shape of the tentacles, sure they had that overall form, but they seemed composed of interlocking cells of those 4d gifs.

The shadows made little sense and yet here it was before me; it was confusing to look at it for too long.

I moved them around, marveling at the show but noting how even moving them would spend more energy. I had one minute more at most of this and then I decided to test their strength.

I snapped one against the ground, making a boom and a plume of dust, it had elongated with the mental command with no delay and carrying surprising strength, sadly that much action had drained almost all the energy, they would stay for 20 second more at most if I didn’t move them

If I hadn’t gotten any sort of copying power and just took LED’s like this, I think this would make it possible to latch onto to other people’s matrices, as the tentacles had that function they could then touch someones matrices though their physical bodies, but that was unneeded.

It would be much cooler but way more energy expensive and I’d need to change the power from the transformation, the tentacles started dissipating again and I rearranged my powers again for their normal mutation state as I sighed, more waiting around to do more tests.

Victor had heard from LED and we would test in him how the buffs interacted with unpowered people’s bodies. That would be interesting to see, and who knows, maybe we’ll get another powered into the ranks.