෴Raz෴

෴Midnight෴

෴Hex෴

෴Nicolette෴

෴Fidel෴

෴Jim Hunter෴

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Hit the Ground Running

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Raz watched Sia talking with Fidel and some other guy as he pondered Midnight’s energy situation.

What the hell is taking him so long to recharge? How does this guy ever get anything done if he always runs around with nothing in the tank?

[Look at him. He looks beaten already. Do you remember when we talked about basic health factors affecting energy regeneration rates?]

Yeah, you were really different back then. He’s getting enough food, but he does seem to always look tired. Do you think his state of mind is affecting his energy situation?

[State of mind affects your regeneration in every way I can measure. Another possibility for his slow regeneration is that his energy pool may simply be very large.]

Oh right, I kind of forgot that was a thing. Has my energy pool increased?

[Yes, quite a bit. Notes and my own observations imply that usage of the energy pool increases its size over time. You have made heavy use of your energy this past week. Just like using your Catalyst reservoir and Capacity increases total storage. The gentle upward pressure you specified in your downtime regeneration procedure seems to be helping in that way as well. This is good, as with White Fire, you have an ability that can truly tax your regeneration rate.]

Yeah. Spark Gap sucks down a huge chunk of power. How much bigger is it?

[I cannot tell. Every time I try to see that level of detail, I am informed that I lack the ability and or permissions to ‘View Metadata’. This ability is listed as being available in th—.]

Raz felt the now all too familiar stirrings of anger.

Uh oh, here it comes. Don’t say it, let me guess, this is something that Enhanced Cognition gives you.

[Indeed. I knew you’d be thrilled.]

He clamped down on the irrational anger, feeling sharp splinters of irritation break off and try to latch onto anything that was bothering him at the moment. After what felt like a long time, he mastered himself and managed to feel in control again.

Can you at least make a guess?

[Yes. Extrapolation from earlier ability use tells me that some abilities consume energy on a percentage based rate, and increase in effectiveness as that consumed energy increased. Abilities that do not consume energy based on a percentage of your total have appeared to consume less and less energy as the pool increases in size.]

You gotta get better about burying the lead.

“Hey Raz!” Sia called out.

Raz looked over in time to see her pointing to the fit black man that had come through the gate.

“This is Jim, he’s with—well, he’s with us, whenever we come up with a name.”

Raz waved to Jim and gave him a nod.

“Hey Jim, welcome to whatever this is.”

Sia then took the new guy aside, leaving Fidel standing there alone. The short, well-built Russian didn’t seem to know what to do. He glanced around the shop, looking overwhelmed until his gaze latched onto Raz. A beatific smile came over his face. He took a step, then turned and dug around in the large duffle bag at his feet.

Midnight tensed up in his seat next to where Raz was standing.

No no no, we don’t need an incident.

He laid a hand on the unexpectedly warm metal cloth covering Midnight’s shoulder and bent over to whisper in the older version of himself’s ear. “Be cool, he’s a friend.”

Fidel pulled out a familiar brushed aluminum case and held it up proudly in Raz’s direction. “I have it!” he called out loudly, prompting quick glances from others in the room before they returned to what they were doing.

Fidel carried it over and set the case down on the table in front of Raz. “I have done as you ask.”

Raz opened the case and ran his fingers along the outer metal surface of one of the gauntlets. He noticed the faint reddened skin on Fidel’s hands and forearms and shook his head slightly. “Whoops, I should have warned you not to try them on,” he said, indicating the marks.

Fidel looked at him with a mixture of chagrin and something else Raz couldn't read. “Is ok. Would have done it anyway. Once, they were mine.”

He looked up at Raz with an amused expression. “In another life.”

Brock shut down the transit door, and caught sight of the two men looking at the gear. He hurried over to join the conversation. He didn’t miss Fidel’s marked skin either.

“Jah, when this one,” he elbowed Raz, “makes a tool his own, he is not subtle about it!”

Fidel gave a wry smile. “Dah, this I felt.”

Brock looked at the gear on the table, then inspected Raz in the one piece armor with a critical eye. “Can you really power it all?”

Raz started to nod, then shrugged. “I think so? It didn’t seem like a problem before. I haven’t really had a chance to try.”

Brock smiled. Something about his smile made Raz nervous. “Vell, there is, as they say, no time like the present!”

Why do I feel like he’s setting me up here?

“Well ok, let's give it a try.” Raz replied with a confidence he didn’t feel.

He slipped the gauntlets on. Flexed his fingers and felt the articulated armor move with him. He raised his hand in front of him and formed a fist. With how right it all felt, Raz couldn't hide the contented smile that came to his face. When he started to try and attach the bottom edge of the vambraces to the gauntlets, Brock looked at him with disappointment.

“I gave you the manual! Did you even look at it?” He asked with an exaggerated shake of his head.

Raz looked at him in confusion. “I glanced at it. I got the armor all on once already and fed it some energy. It’s just kind of awkward getting everything attached and lined up at first.”

Damnit. Should have made time to read it sooner. Stop wasting so much time! Should’ve brought them with me in the first place. Should’ve, should’ve, should’ve.

Brock huffed. “Glanced at it, he says,” He jostled his way past the two men and picked up the oblong back plate. “Well, you say you’ve worn it once. I guess we’ll see if you’re telling me the truth soon enough.”

What does that mean?

“You, what’s your name?” Brock asked Fidel, pointing with the thick chunk of armor.

FIdel gave him a slight bow. “I, Fidel Chavez, am pleased to meet you. My abilities are сила, er, I mean strength and прочность. Ahh, pardon, um, dureza. No. Is difficult to injure me. I have some small ability with fire as well.” Fidel blushed under his swarthy skin and beard, and looked to Raz for help. “Raz call my abilities, ‘Armored Juggernaut and—”

Brock made a spinning motion with his hand. “Didn’t ask for your life story. I need to show Raz here something. Turn around for me.”

Fidel looked to Raz with a question in his eyes. Raz shrugged and nodded.

Fidel turned away from Brock, which put him facing the rest of the room. Jim and Hex had finished speaking, and were sitting near Nicolette at a work table.

Brock tossed the plate of armor at Fidel’s back. The plate thumped off his back with a soft sound and fell to the floor with a loud clang. If everyone hadn’t been watching him before, they were after the noise. Fidel turned around and picked up the back armor plate.

Brock turned to Raz. “Turn around.”

With a bemused smile, Raz set the arm-length vambrace down on the table and presented his back to Brock and the rest of the room.

Brock waved off Fidel’s silent offer to return him the armor. “Throw it at him. Gently. In fact, just throw it near him. You don’t have to aim at all.”

With what looked like greatly exaggerated care, Fidel gently tossed the armor into the air in Raz’s general direction. The toss would clearly barely make it to Raz’s feet. Anyone could see he was significantly off target as well. At the zenith of the lobbed arc, the armor abruptly flipped on its axis and spun to orient itself. The armor launched itself at Raz and struck him between the shoulders with a dull thump. It hung there like a magnet on iron without visible means of support.

Brock smiled and grabbed the first vambrace. With a motion reminiscent of collecting up a fanned-out deck of cards, he collapsed the vambrace into a wide chunky torc bracelet. He collapsed the second one and offered them both to Raz.

“Put them on. Does not matter vhich side.”

Raz smirked and put one on his forearm beneath his elbow next to the gauntlet, and the other above his bicep on the other arm.

“Ok, they’re on.” he said in a slightly mischievous tone.

Brock nodded. “Good. Now if you read manual. You know vhat to do next.”

He willed the armor to engage. The various pieces drew on his energy and sprung into motion. The bracelets slid on his arms as though greased, and locked onto the glove or back plate, whichever was closer. The vambrace deployed from there and extended up or down his arm. He felt something shift on the back plate as they all moved. It felt like it spread out and shifted to fit the shape of his back. The whole process took less than two seconds.

Brock smiled. “Sehr gut! Now, can you collapse them all the way?”

Of course. No problem.

With a slight effort the vambraces collapsed down into a pair of upper arm torcs. The back plate didn’t seem to move.

“Yep. I got it.” Raz replied.

Brock nodded. “Now collapse the hand shoes.”

The gauntlets don’t collapse, do they?

He tried to do it for a moment before Brock took pity on him. “These are different. They vill only collapse as a group vith the rest.”

Now you tell me. Trying to make me look stupid. I’ll—

Raz gave Brock a tight smile and bit back at his surge of anger. With a thought, he armored back up, then willed the armor to fully collapse. The gauntlets rolled back into thick black metal wrist bands streaked with a blue glow. Raz played with the armor system for a moment, willing it off and on, watching it in motion even as he moved as it positioned itself.

“Ok, this is pretty sick. Thanks again.” He said to Brock with sincerity.

“I sent you to play errand boy. You brought mein Leibchen home through the fire. It is I that owe you thanks.” the short, stout man said with fervor. He looked over at Hex. “I owe you both.”

Midnight scoffed. “That does look pretty damn cool. No arguments there. But what’s the point of armor that leaves your entire torso exposed?

Raz shrugged at Midnight’s comment and pushed energy into the armor and the dark grey jumpsuit then stopped as the gear immediately informed him it was full.

Holds a charge better than a phone battery!

He rolled his shoulders and relished the feeling of the armor moving with him.

Midnight scoffed. “Seriously, are you planning to cosplay a barbarian, or maybe a gladiator? That so-called armor leaves your entire torso exposed.”

The subtle change in Raz’s stance must have alerted Brock that more trouble was brewing. He reached up and put a hand on Raz’s arm, his fingers reaching over the edge of the vambrace and tapping his arm through the armored undersuit.

The unexpected contact was surprising enough to slip in through Raz’s chain of anger.

“He is right. This armor vas an experiment. It does leave your body wery wulnerable. If not for this,” he tapped the armor plates hidden within the undersuit, “you vould be exposed. Still, if it vorks as it should, it may be useful to you. It has a wery good effect when you strike a target vith the gauntlets. Have you done this?” He spoke to Raz conversationally, both of them ignoring Midnight.

The memory of the desperate fights against chimeras brought an unexpected smile to Raz’s face. “Yeah. That I have.” he said with a glance at Hex.

“Gut! It vill be better still with the full set. For the user that can keep this gear fed, it gives many benefits.”

Raz waited for him to continue, but he just turned and walked over to his computer and started typing rapidly.

“Wait, that’s it? You’re just going to tell me ‘oooh, mysterious many benefits’ and then walk off, and ignore me like I’m not even here? What the hell man?” His gaze flicked to Midnight before returning to Brock, “Is talking in mysterious fortune cookie sound bites contagious or something?”

Hex called out. “Raz, can we borrow your friend there?” She pointed at Fidel.

Raz nodded to her and looked at Fidel. “You mind helping her out with whatever it is she needs?”

Fidel patted Raz on the back, the Russian man’s callused hand slapping on the armor plate with enough force to stagger him.

Midnight got to his feet and approached Raz. “You mind stepping outside for a chat? There are things you need to know.”

Picking up the low tone and mood in his voice, Raz just nodded and followed him outside.

As they headed for the door, he heard Hex start speaking to Fidel. “So Fidel, you ready to hit the ground running? Jim—uh, your interviewer, says you check out. More importantly, sorry Jim, Raz vouches for you too. We need you to do something very imp—” her words were cut off by the second mantrap door.

I wonder what she needs him to do? For that matter, I wonder what ‘old me’ wants outside. And isn’t that a weird thought.

Outside, Midnight walked out past the perimeter without a care. Raz didn’t sense any of the subterra—land sharks around, but kept his senses wide open for them.

Course he doesn't care. Even in those ‘street clothes’ I bet he’s wearing a couple hundred pounds of exotic alloys. That clothing turns into armor pretty damn fast.

For several minutes they just walked. Midnight clearly had something on his mind. A scan confirmed it.

[Scanning, results sorted by range.]

[[[Enhanced Consciousness ‘Midnight’ detected.

Current status: Seeking verbal clarity.

Energy: 48%

Energy Gain rate: 5 (per minute)

Energy Usage rate: 2 (per minute)

Estimated HP: 100/100

MHP: 9/10]]]

[Multiple small animals omitted from results.]

At the scan, Midnight looked at him sharply. “You know I can tell when you do that right?”

Raz nodded. “Yep, when I let you.”

Midnight stopped short and turned to face him. “Interesting. Do you mind doing it again? Try to keep me from noticing it.”

Raz shrugged, reveling in the feeling of the armor smoothly articulating and moving with him.

Subtle scan.

[Scanning in low profile mode, results sorted by range.]

[[[Enhanced Consciousness ‘Midnight’ detected.

Current status: Curiosity.

Energy: 48%

Energy Gain rate: 5 (per minute)

Energy Usage rate: 2 (per minute)

Estimated HP: 100/100

MHP: 9/10]]]

They went back and forth several times until Midnight accepted that he really couldn’t feel it when Raz didn’t want him to.

When they started walking again, Raz didn’t say anything until they’d been walking long enough to put the workshop as a small dot in the distance.

“Did you have something to tell me, or are we just taking a walk?”

Midnight chuckled. “I’m trying to think of a way to tell you something in a way that doesn’t sound as terrible as it sounds in my head.”

Raz shrugged slightly. “I know how that feels. Usually it works best to just say it.”

“Yeah, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

They continued to walk for another few minutes before Raz tried another tactic.

“You know I almost died last week,” he said, apropo of nothing.

Midnight snorted. “Me too. How’d it happen to you?”

“Fell off a cliff. You?”

“Fighting Mercator. How bad were you hurt?”

“I’m trying hard not to think about it, but you say I looked bad when I got here? I’m willing to bet I was in a lot worse shape at the bottom of that cliff. Short answer, I was broken in half, and just very, very messed up. I kind of wondered if you had anything to say about that.”

Midnight frowned. “What would I have to say about it?”

Raz shrugged. “Just wondering. I talked to someone that night that seemed a lot like you. Different in some ways, seemed older, but a lot like you. Now you’ve shown me your face dancer mojo, so I figured it might have been you.”

“You sure you weren’t hallucinating? That can happen if you’re severely injured.”

“Pretty sure. He left me with some sheets of metal just a little thicker than paper. He pulled the metal sheets right out of his armor, with the writing already on it. That seems like the kind of thing only you could do.”

“You know, that reminds me. I’ve been wondering how hard it would be to make a business card.” Midnight stopped and pinched his armor, pulling out a blob of metal that flowed like modeling clay. He let it snap back into place, and tried again, focussed intently, he managed to slowly extrude a thin sheet of metal. What emerged was like a sheet of metal roofers flashing. Sharp edges and a shiny but irregular finish. The sheet had no writing on it. Midnight pushed it back into his armor and started trying again.

Raz noticed with alarm that Midnight’s energy reserves had dropped several percent during his efforts.

“Hey, whoa. Does it usually take so much energy for you to use this, whatever it’s called, ability?”

Midnight shook his head with a grunt and let the next attempt snap back into his armor. “Metalopathy, and no. It takes a lot more when I’m trying to do something really fine detailed, without a template. Making my car, for instance, takes very little energy. But if I try to tweak it, it starts draining my energy something fierce. Thanks again for the new car template. I like it.”

Raz nodded. “No problem. But let's save that exploratory stuff for later. I’ll take your word for it, you’re not him. Have you ever met anyone with better metal manipulation abilities than you?”

“Oh hell no. First off, Metalopathy is the Ultimate ability in the Metal Manipulation chain. Second, I use it in conjunction with my foundation ability to get more functionality out of it,” he sighed and glanced at the horizon, “I really wish more people had foundation abilities. But no, everyone wants laser eyes and super speed, without considering what it takes to have and use those abilities.”

“True. Honestly, if I hadn’t been a little drugged, things might have gone very differently for me when I was first exposed to Catalyst. You said Metalopathy is an Ultimate ability. I’ve come across the concept of Ultimate abilities. You wouldn’t happen to recall how much of your Metal Manipulation tree you had done when you got it do you?”

Midnight made a gesture with his hand. For a brief instant Raz saw a pale blue rectangle not unlike a screen appear and then vanish. He started working with it like he was holding a tablet.

Bee, see if we can get a look at that screen.

[I believe we can. However, my suspicion is that he’ll be aware of it.]

“So, you can share that screen with people, right? I think I saw you showing it to Hex once.”

Midnight nodded absently. “Yeah, I can. I have to set some things up then I can just share what I’m doing on the screen at will.”

“Is that screen part of your foundation ability?”

The older man kept swiping and tapping at the air. “Yeah, I mean no. I mean, it is, but I had to build it practically from scratch. It’s basically a huge mess of crappy code. I sometimes wish I had some technopathy abilities. I have a feeling it would have helped a lot in getting this little OS put together. Between you and me, I owe a lot to the open-source movement. Just learning how to program helped me get this together, let alone seeing how other people solved their own problems. So, it looks like I had about three-quarters of the entire chain activated before the Ultimate ability popped up as available.”

“Thanks, that’s good to kno—” Raz shook his head sharply. “Wait, you didn’t know any programming?”

Midnight shook his head. “Well, I knew the basic stuff dad and mom had us learn in grade school. But dad was involved with Catalyst research since I was about ten. He knew this would be the next big thing in the world, so he started teaching me how catalyst code works.”

Wow, what a hugely different life he must have had.

“Wait, so if he knew it was the next big thing, why didn’t he bring me in on it?” Raz tried to hide the hurt in his voice.

Midnight’s expression told him he hadn’t hidden it well enough. “That’s probably my fault. I mean, this gets into weird causal territory. When I talk about this, it feels like there’s a lot of guesswork, and I have to keep in mind not just this current loop, but the one before it. You see, this time I barely made it back ten years. That means in this world, I was probably already here, working with dad for a while.”

Midnight crouched down and rested his hand on the cool red dirt. “This all seems crazy. I wish I had good answers for you. All I know for sure is, when I loop less far back than the previous time, everything I did still happened, but I’m never here. I’ve thought about it a lot, but I don’t have an answer for that.”

So dad had an older, wiser son who already knew things he was interested in, to spend time with. Why bother with me? I was still wasting my life away like the lesser son I was.

His pulse raced. Raz could feel the self-directed anger starting to ramp up and couldn't seem to muster the will to stop it.

“So you’re saying you were already there, when you crashed in and killed him?” Raz asked in a dull, lifeless tone.

Midnight started to reach out and put his hand on Raz’s shoulder, only to draw his hand back at the look he received.

“You know, when I started using the Incursions to give myself more time to try again, dad almost always brought you, well, the present-day me, the younger me, you know what I mean! He generally always brought you into the lab to learn about Catalyst and start working with it.”

The thought of the time missed with his father caused a sharp ache in Raz’s gut. “What changed this time?”

“Not just this time. I don’t think he’s done that in the last ten or fifteen loops.”

“Why not?” Raz demanded, feeling his anger looking for any outlet.

Midnight shrugged. “I wish I knew. Things started changing about that many loops back. It was a couple of loops after I got lost in space. I don’t know what changed, since then, it seems like I work harder, and for less results. This time around, well, it’s never gone worse than this one.”

“Well yeah. Starting a time loop off with killing someone should be bad! Even aside from it being my, or our, father.”

Midnight nodded and put out his hand. “Ahh, that’s what I’ve been looking for,” something deep underground started rumbling. Raz could detect something highly conductive with electrosense. The ground shook as what had to be a large chunk of iron moved toward the surface.

“You’re right though. This loop has been screwed from the start. If I hadn’t promised myself to stick them out and learn all I could before the Incursions open, well over a hundred years ago at this point, I’d have long since bailed on this loop early.”

He glanced at the sky. “I mean, I usually end up as some kind of enemy of the state. The simple fact that I’m an agent of change, and the change I bring decentralizes power away from the state, that's more than enough to make me enemies in government. But this time has been bad that way. Ever since the start, even when I try to do good, I get labelled a terrorist.”

Raz shrugged. “Media only tells the side they want told. Their agenda comes first, second, and only.”

Midnight nodded. “You’re preaching to the choir. I gave a quick interview within an hour of arriving. I know that sounds cold, dad was gone and I was in shock. Talking to the media is part of my intro routine. I usually try to establish a good relationship with the media so they aren’t motivated to paint me as a bad guy too early. I can’t imagine what it did to you, or how you saw it, but being responsible for dad’s death messed me up badly. It’s why I blathered on in the interview, let them get all the crazy soundbites they wanted. It was probably the worst day of my life.”

Raz crouched down next to him. “Yeah. Me too.”

I think that’s the worst thing about him. He hits all the negative beats about dad, without the positive memories. That makes him uniquely qualified to push my buttons.

The mass of metals flowed and coalesced around Midnight. As the armor formed, Raz had a thought.

“So if it wasn’t you, and apparently it can’t be you from another loop if you always disappear when the next loop starts. Who was that I met that night?”

Midnight shrugged. “You got me. You say it was someone that seemed a lot like me?”

Raz squinted against the winter sun and cocked his head to the side in thought. “Well, yes, but not exactly. The armor was a bit different in style, and apparently, he was better at using that metal power. Mostly, he seemed even older than you, and you sometimes look really old.”

Midnight let out a soft chuckle. “Gee thanks, just what a guy likes to hear. It’s true though. I feel pretty damn old some days.”

“Something else I was wondering. You seem pretty nervous about this fight. Is there something else I need to know?”

The armor suit continued to bulk up as metal flowed into it. “Mental note. I gotta remember to detour by a NASA scrap yard for some exotic materials on the way. And yes, you knowing everything I know about the Megiror would help a lot. But, the main thing I’m worried about is that every time I’ve lost a fight with Mercator, the next fight with him is much, much worse. He’s a hell of a fighter. I feel like once we’ve fought, he’s got a much better sense of my capabilities.”

Raz felt some land sharks approaching. “That does sound bad. Is that why you want to bring backup? Am I just a wildcard in this equation?”

The land sharks slowed, and three signals broke apart and began to circle the two men.

I wonder if packs of three are just the norm for these things?

“Yeah, bringing an unexpected, unknown element to the fight is important. But also, the big thing that made for a problem last time is that mom is right there. I can’t go all out with her too close. I’m hoping bringing you helps with that.”

As Midnight put the finishing touches on his much bulkier armor, Raz watched the land sharks with electro and bio senses.

“So, on an unrelated note, we’ve got some of those land sharks coming in. You want to avoid them or take them out?”

“Can you do that thing like you did with the snake and show me where they are?”

Raz smirked. “Yep, easy.”

Of course, if you screw it up, I’ll be ready to take them down myself. Share target location only with him.

Eight rods of metal shot out of Midnight’s armor, forming a set of legs that lifted him from the ground, and anchored him in place. Three more thick shafts blasted out of him into the soil, each visible to electrosense as a tapering column of highly conductive material stabbing downward through the earth until each one impaled it’s target. He could see the way each blade of metal virtually exploded into a razor-sharp ball of spikes once inside the target.

Yep, that looks horrible. Mental note, never ever let him hit me with one of those.

The spikes retreated, and an instant later his armor had returned to his previous state. Raz noticed that all that had only cost Midnight a couple percent of his energy.

His energy costs are weird.

“That was a very interesting experience. I didn’t see anything. So it wasn’t like the snake. It was just like, I somehow knew right where they were. Are there any other targets?”

Raz shook his head. “None I can feel. I would have shown you how it all looks to me, but that is a pretty alien experience. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

Midnight gave him a wry look. “I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”

“Ok here it is.”

Share full sensoria with him for ten seconds.

He watched with amusement as the barrage of sensory data overwhelmed his older self nearly instantly.

Eleven seconds later, Raz extended his hand to help Midnight up. Midnight took his gauntleted hand in his own armored grip and let Raz grunt and fail to lift him for several seconds before getting to his feet himself.

“Yeah, I’m nearly at battle weight. You’re not going to casually pull me up, but thanks. Also, what the hell was that about? That was downright trippy. I don’t even remember falling down!”

Raz smiled. “Same thing happened to me the first time I tried it. It takes some time to get used to it. I’m not there myself. ‘Seeing’ behind me with those senses is very tricky to get used to. Bee helps me with it.”

Midnight pursed his lips in thought. “Bee, that’s what you call your foundation ability, right?”

Raz shook his head. “No, HUD is what I call that. Bee is the part of the HUD tree that I can talk to and interact with.”

Midnight’s gaze suddenly seemed very far away. “That must be nice. Being able to talk to your ability set sounds so much better than my way. My foundation gives me a lot of instinctive knowledge, but if there’s something to talk to, to really interact with, in a freeform way, I’ve never found it.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with it at first, but HUD is actually pretty awesome.”

[Hey thanks, always nice to be appreciated. Do I need to make a speech now?]

Ha ha. You’ll be more funny if you don’t try so hard.

Midnight didn't respond, just looked toward the horizon with a melancholy expression.

“So, what did you mean by ‘they’ve been here before’?”

The older man shook off whatever he was thinking about and turned to face Raz. “Look at our ancient cultures. I’ve looked into myths and legends, and most cultures have stories about powerful beings with horns. Sometimes they have wings. Sometimes they have tails. Sometimes they have tusks, and bestial faces. You get me?”

Raz nodded, “Yeah, I’ve read my share of mythology. So you think there’s a connection?”

Midnight swallowed. “I feel sure of it. Even the cultures that don’t have mythos that specifically addresses these creatures, tend to have art that bears a certain resemblance to them. The thing is, the Megiror we’re about to go see, Mercator? He’s just one ‘flavor’ of the Megiror. I don’t know how they work, biologically, but they come in a wide range of appearances. What doesn’t change is their insatiable appetite for destruction.”

Midnight glanced at the sun. “We should get back. I think I’m as ready as I can be. Every passing minute is starting to freak me out. I know she’s really your mom, but I care about her, and I don’t know if I can handle losing them both.”

“Well, I guess I’m glad you haven't lost our parents often enough you got used to it, but you’re still barely at half energy. How much longer will it take to get full? Why does it take you so long anyway?”

“Only half? Are you sure? I feel more or less like I do when I’m about full up.

Raz shrugged. “I’m seeing you at 52%, down from 54% a couple of minutes ago. I’ve got a proposition for you. Do you mind trying something with me?” He held out his hand.

Midnight arched a brow. “Proposition? You know we’ve both read ‘The Man Who Folded Himself’, that’s a hard no.”

Raz drew his hand back and took a step back. “Whoa, there tiger, not what I meant at all. I do wonder how many of the same books we’ve read. Would it be all the same ones up until you showed up in this loop and changed things?” he waved that thought aside, “In any case, I wasn’t propositioning you, as you damn well know. But on second thought, out here isn’t the place. Race you back to the shop!”

With that Raz turned and started running. Midnight took to the air and passed him almost immediately. When Raz tried to Spark Gap all the way there, he became aware of a limitation of the ability.

[Error: Spark Gap maximum range approximately between half a mile and one kilometer.]

Ugh, why don’t I learn about these limits ahead of time!? Can’t let him win!

Raz picked a spot and lightning surged. He landed on the run and then jumped again. He managed to reach the edge of Brock’s perimeter a fraction of a second ahead of Midnight.

“Hah! I got you! You’re fast but I’m faster—” he staggered and abruptly sat down. “Whoa. That took a lot out of me!”

[Two maximum range Spark Gap’s in a row consumed a large portion of your energy. Energy costs rise sharply with distance.]

I want to be mad about learning that the hard way, but hey, we won the race!

Midnight looked at him with anger and disgust. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have raced you. I’ve seen that sudden dizziness and weakness before. Please tell me you didn’t just blow all your energy doing that. We don’t have time to waste on you regenerating your energy!”

Raz shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I kind of went all out there for a second. Don’t worry, give me a minute and I’ll be full up again.”

Midnight went inside with a scowl, leaving Raz to drink in the energy outside. Less than a minute later he was full, and went inside as well.