On Metaregions

If you can define metahumans as a person who has manifested and metamaterials as a thing that has manifested, then a metaregion is a place that has manifested. A metaregion is problematic because not only can it not be removed or destroyed, in many cases it is more beneficial to preserve them. This is because it is easier for metahumans, metafauna and most importantly metamaterials to manifest within, Even if only conditionally. Most metaregions are temporary or conditional to some degree, such as the short lived Blue Manhattan metaregion which lasted for only three days or the japanese Lunar Rivers metaregion which only occurs during a cloudless full moon.

~Later that day~

Mickey was lounging in the control room of his dungeon idly moving energy around, pulling heat from one side of the room to warm up the other. This was harder than he first anticipated since he also had to prevent airflow between the two sides. It was similar to pushing and pulling with your arms while holding a door closed with your back.

A ripple of wrongness and suddenly he was aware of four additional people in his extra reality pocket.

He recognised them by the crests on their pectorals.

The teens were back.

Alphonse led the way into the dungeon for the second time with slightly more caution. After confirming there were no dangers in the entry room he removed a sports bag from his shoulder and pulled out a pair of cricket bats and two sets of shin guards.

“Here Dozza, put these on and we’ll go smash those fuckers.”

“Sure thing Al. Hey Cass, your chest is glowing.” Dolphin pointed.

She looked down in surprise.

“Oh hey you’re right. AH! Do you reckon that means I can use my kicking skill again? I only managed that one kick yesterday.”

Benji enthusiastically interjected with “That would make sense a lot of metaregional effects are only temporary or are weaker outside of the metaregion or even vanish completely. There was this time people and animals got the ability to fly and as soon as they left the region SPLAT! So maybe you can only use skill shortly after leaving or a limited amount of times or- ”

“Well I’m glad I can still wear all my tops. Also are we going to explore the other room before the rats? Because I don’t want to explore covered in rat guts alright?”

Big Al deflated a bit before agreeing. “Yeah, let's check out the other room first. Then Vengeance!”

“Yes. Your glorious vengeance. Against rats.” Dead panned Cassowary.

“They were big fucking rats okay.”

The group of four headed toward the left door and hopefully victory.

In the control room, Mickey readied the expected rewards. A simple flail, a pair of bracers, a “Rod of identify” which would provoke a status prompt on whoever touched it, and finally a long knife. These he placed into a simple wooden box, with a slightly wider, shallower box inverted on top to act as a lid.

Mickey then moved to a glass humanoid statue filled with cloudy water. He placed his hand on it and prepared to imprint the muscle movements and nervous impulses through the simulacrum into the skill templates connected to the statue's base.

I need a way to automate this. This and loot.

In the first obstacle course the group had found the first obstacle. The elevated stepping stones.

While the others were trying to decide who would go first Cassie settled the matter by sauntering over the first stones. As she got further in, the widening gaps between the steps forced her to start stepping with care and before long she was pausing on each rock in order to make a slight jump to the next pillar and to regain her balance each time.

Finally Cassowary made it to the last stepping stone. She was breathing heavily both because of the constant exertion to get this far and because the last gap of almost 2 meters gave a good view of how far she would fall if she didn’t make it. Enough to break bones but probably not enough to kill her, if she judged correctly. With one last deep breath she launched towards the goal from a standing jump.

Landing with a stumble she released her breath and walked away from the edge before sitting down, glad to have the space to do so.

Mickey pulled the free floating psychic energy produced from Cassowary’s stress, exhilaration and fatigue and separated it into shares. The majority he twisted and molded into an agility skill, part intent, part recorded physical and neural memories and part psi energy. The resulting skill form was imprinted into a blank template with a headache inducing effort. The smallest share, roughly a fifth, he kept for himself as a kind of service tax.

Before long the other teens had joined Cassie on the far side and were standing before the climbing wall. Mickey was mentally holding the energy he got from this trial in two chunks, one to be used to imprint skills into the delvers and the other his “tax”.

This time Big Al led the charge pushing himself up the wall making good use of the reach his size gave him. Mickey hadn’t intended the first few rooms to be real challenges, rather they were more of an intro to let the challengers learn the ropes before facing real risks. So he was surprised when the smallest member fell off the wall at the last stretch.

Benji hit the ground with a thud, his breath exploding out of him.

“BENJI! Are you okay?” Alphonse yelled from the top of the wall.

“Urgh. Yeah I’m okay. Just bruised my back and sides I think.”

Benjamin gingerly got to his feet and eyed the wall with reluctance.

“I don’t think I can make it up. The last hand holds are too far for me to reach.”

“Nah mate we got this. Look” Alphonse layed down on his stomach and held his belt over the side of the wall.

“You can grab my belt and I can help pull you up.”

With significant difficulty Benji made it to the last hurdle and gripped the belt tightly.

“Ready?” Asked Big A

“GO!”

With a growl Big Al heaved the smaller teen upwards, accompanied by the sound of his feet scrambling on the wall for purchase. Shortly Benji got close enough to grab the top of the wall with his free hand and he pulled himself up assisted by Alphonse. They both lay on the ground panting with exhaustion.

The third and final obstacle still laid before the team. Within short minutes they would be at the end of the trial.

It was at this time that Mickey realised he hadn't included any kind of quick exit.

Fuck

Fuck fuck fuckity fucking fuck.

Okay think. they haven’t got a good look at the rewards platform. I can put an alcove on the side here. With a tunnel. No, a slide to prevent people bypassing the trials. Put the exit in the corner of the stepping stone pit near the ladder for people who fall in. Done.

Mickey ignored the delvers, who he assumed would have no difficulty with getting past the horizontal bars. The bars would slow them and force them to crawl and climb but had no real chance of failure. Meanwhile Mickey had to hurriedly pull material into a tube running along the side of the chamber for the exit slide. He added a pair of hinged one way doors, angled so that a body sliding down would push them up and open. Anybody getting up the slide past those doors had earned a reward, so no harm if they bypassed the trials that way.

After finishing Mickey sighed with relief when he saw that they were taking longer than expected because they were going slow to be sure the small one's injury wasn’t aggravated.

With this Mickey relaxed and prepared the Reward Skills for the party.