Chapter 23:

The next day, Will woke up in the early afternoon. Even a month later, he was still seriously enjoying not having to worry about getting to a regular hourly job. Not that he was lazy, as his current obligations meant he never really took a full day off. Doing something he actually enjoyed just made all the difference in the world to him.

Walking out of his room, he thought about what he should do with the hours before he went up to poke around at branch HQ. He was remembering his night vision trick from the night before, plus the success of suppressing his energy to avoid the senses of another Operator.

Both of those techniques were things he had thought about before, but hadn’t actually explored. It made him realize that his training to date had been extremely limited. He had focused purely on developing the physical side of what he could do now, in the form of strength training and steadily infusing his tissues with aetheric energy.

With that in mind, he decided it would be a good idea for him to consider some of the other aspects of his abilities. He was almost positive there were some things he could do now that would give him some extremely handy utility in a pinch. It was also an attractive prospect, as he thought he might be able to come up with something that could help with activities like what he needed to do that night.

Tapping on his earbud, he asked Artie a question.

“Hey Artie, how hard would it be for the Cube to fabricate some kind of suit that could provide some armor without causing me to overheat? A little protection, combined with something that could help me be a bit more stealthy. I’m pretty good at being quiet, for someone who is over six feet tall, but a stealth character, I am not.”

After a brief pause, he added, “Oh, but it absolutely cannot look like tights. It would definitely have to avoid looking like something out of a comic book as much as possible.”

Artie’s reply came quickly.

“It should not be overly difficult. Though, depending on the complexity it may take some time. Were you hoping to have something ready before your planned activities for tonight?”

“Is that possible? I only really thought about it now, since I’m pretty resilient as it is. I was thinking about how I used a hoodie to hide myself, and the glow from my crest, last night. If I could get something with some level of camouflage, it could make a huge difference.”

“Something with a bit of protection that conceals your crest should be doable, but the camouflage will require time. It is one thing to apply that effect to a rigid structure, but to do it for a material flexible enough to serve as armor is something else. It’s certainly possible, but will take some time to achieve. Would you like me to prepare something for you to use in the meantime? I believe I could have something adequate ready for tonight, since the other things I was working on were mostly completed while you rested.”

“That would be fantastic. Thanks, Artie.”

“Of course. Hold still for a moment.”

Will did as he was told, and a drone materialized into view in front of him. Pointing in his direction, the drone shot a laser at him. The laser steadily swept his body up and down, while the drone rapidly orbited his body. Will guessed it was measuring him.

“Neat. Is that the type of drone you’re sending with me tonight?”

“It’s very similar, though an upgraded version. Your clothing request might pose a beneficial opportunity for us. Would you mind if I incorporate a mount for the drone on one of your upper arms?”

“Not at all, but can I ask why?”

“In the event of aetheric interference, I can program the drone to use that mount as a main docking location. With that in place, even if something unexpected occurs, it will not be difficult to bring the drone out of the situation without encumbering you. Also, I could manufacture a control unit, in time, and add it to the uniform to give you the ability to use the drone yourself.”

“That’s pretty awesome. Can you make it so the thing for getting through locks attaches to the inside wrist of my right arm?”

“Consider it done.”

“Awesome, thanks again.”

With that conversation done, Will turned his attention to thinking about techniques. Sadly, the first thing that popped into his head made him cringe from embarrassment. That forward leap he’d done when fighting Cierra had been laughably awful. There was just nothing redeeming about it he could think of at all.

Realizing that, he decided to use a mantra in his mind on a regular basis. “I am NOT an anime character,” should do the trick. He probably owed Cierra big time for not constantly making fun of him for the rest of that day.

At that point, he figured a trip to his spot in the desert was a good idea. That way, he could easily practice anything he came up with. Hopefully, that would also prevent any other anime-leap-style embarrassment in the future.

“To the spot!”

About 30 minutes later, Will got to his spot, and a random thought hit him.

“I should name this place. Ummm… okay, got it. The spot is officially to be known as The Ring.”

Satisfied, Will was moving on when his earbud chirped, and Sil’s voice came through.

“I’m aware you were speaking to yourself, but I feel obligated to point out that name is truly uninspired.”

“Eh. Bite me. I’m bad at naming things.”

“Telling a person with no mouth to bite you could be considered quite rude.”

Considering that for a moment, Will responded with humor in his tone.

“True, but I stand by it until you can kick my ass.”

“I don’t have legs either.”

“Exactly.”

“Well played, sir. Have fun in your spot.”

“It’s not called that anymore!”

Sil ignored him, leaving Will to chuckle and go about his day.

Before getting started, Will looked back at all the changes to the area in the last month. The Ring was considerably different than it had been when he first picked the location. He had been planning to dig a circular pit, but an unexpected storm had shown him the problem with that. It turned out that the dirt in a desert didn’t absorb water very quickly. His pit had been flooded rapidly in the rain, and the water had taken a couple of days to evaporate.

To avoid that pitfall, he wound up essentially digging a moat to create a small island. He dug about four feet down and three feet across, and outlined his little island. He used all of the dirt to build a small wall around the edge of it, and was happy with the effect. It wound up being roughly rectangular, and about thirty feet long by twenty feet wide.

In one corner, he had thought about setting up the weight bench Jake had picked up for him, then remembered the storm and realized that would be a bad idea. Instead, he just kept his boulder collection laid out against one wall. Mostly, the Ring functioned as a place for his and Cierra’s regular matches, so a few obstacles weren’t really a bad thing.

He had made a point to get boulders that were large enough he could use them to help build his endurance. As for strength training, his options were pretty limited. The weight bench at home didn’t really work to train his strength anymore when he was maxed out on energy, as it just couldn’t safely hold enough weight.

That fact had actually proven beneficial, though. He had decided to try doing the training while throttling his energy back as far as possible. Doing this, his physical strength had definitely grown quickly.

It didn’t really seem to speed up the process of empowering himself, but it did feel like the process had become more efficient. It had definitely proven beneficial, based on his results. Plus, the active throttling of his energy had significantly improved his overall control of the power in his body. He knew he had a long way to go, but his activity the night before had proven the value of that training.

Coming back to the present, Will decided he may as well take the time to do a full training session. With that in mind, he started with a basic warm up using the boulders. Feeling loose after that, he moved to practice adding bursts of energy to his movements.

Focusing, he channeled as much energy as he could into his legs and back, while jumping straight up as hard as he could. It had been a couple of weeks since he last tested these basic movements at full power. He wound up getting a lot higher than expected. Coming back down, he landed hard having totally misjudged the landing due to his jump height.

Getting up, he dusted himself off, and decided to never share that magnificent lack of grace with anyone.

At that point, he decided to try something new. Remembering the strike plate at Cierra’s compound, the idea of punching a boulder seemed like a decent idea. After all, it couldn’t be worse than punching solid steel.

Once again channeling his energy rapidly into the correct areas, he slammed a fist into one of the smaller boulders.

At that point, two things happened simultaneously. First, his fist, wrist, and arm exploded in pain, leaving him sucking air in preparation for some fantastic swearing. Second, the small boulder exploded in a cloud of dust and small chunks of rock, causing him to cough, sputter, and choke on the curses attempting to leave his mouth.

After the dust settled, Will stood with his arm held close to his body, focused on breathing through the pain. When he was ready, he examined the limb in question. The knuckles of his first two fingers were clearly broken, and he suspected some of the small bones in the back of his hand had shared that fate. Fortunately, the wrist and arm mainly felt strained. He had clearly missed something in this equation.

Waiting for the little bones to knit, he tried to think of what he was missing. He knew there had to be something, as otherwise there would be no point in having something even more solid to use as a punching bag. Unfortunately, he didn’t come to any useful conclusions, and realized he would just have to wait and ask Cierra about it.

As the bones in his hand finished repairing themselves, he marvelled at the technology now flowing through his skeleton and blood. Not only had they rapidly repaired the damage, but he knew there would’ve been all kinds of other aspects to the healing process. Just bypassing the bit where his hand swelled up like a water balloon was amazing to him, and he knew that had to be only the tip of the iceberg.

Flexing his newly repaired limb, he experimented with balling a fist, and was satisfied when the motion didn’t cause any pain.

“Okay, fuck that noise. I guess it’s time to move on to why I actually came out here.”

He may have sounded a bit disgruntled.

Unfortunately, that left him not really knowing where to start, so he decided to take a seat on the ground and focus on flooding his body with energy while thinking things through. As the power roared into his system, he noted the familiar electricity. He realized he would definitely need to explore that side of his abilities soon, but didn’t feel confident doing so without his companion to give him some guidance.

Then he noticed something new. On the skin of his arms he could feel a very slight tingling. Focusing, he realized his energy sense was sending him new feedback. He was picking up on a new type of energy.

Feeling it, he figured out what it was pretty quickly. It gave him the same feeling as the desert around him, and he was almost positive this was heat energy. With that in mind, he decided to focus on drawing the new energy type into his system. He quickly discovered that it didn’t behave like the two energy types he was familiar with.

Thinking it through, he remembered what he had been told about channeling, and took a different tactic. Instead of trying to suck it up, he focused on guiding the energy to concentrate in the palm of his right hand. Almost immediately he felt the surface of his skin where the sun was hitting it get slightly cooler, and the palm of his hand began to heat up rapidly.

Trusting his body to tell him if he needed to cut it off, he sharpened his focus and began to include all of the heat energy he could feel. Rapidly, his hand got a lot hotter, and the skin of the rest of his body felt noticeably cooler. He realized that he was absorbing all of the heat he could reach, from the entire surface of his body, and focusing it all into a single hand. He also realized the heat steadily dissipated from his palm, showing that he couldn’t hold on to it like he could with his primary elements.

Finally opening his eyes, he realized his hand had gotten a lot hotter than he realized, as it looked like it might be starting to glow a bright orange color. Amazingly, this wasn’t causing him pain, meaning his flesh had gotten resilient enough to handle this level of energy. He continued channeling the heat, and his hand developed a very noticeable glow.

At that point, he decided to cut off the flow, and watched the energy slowly bleed out through his skin into the environment. He also noticed that some bled out into his wrist and arm, but not anything he controlled. With the energy dissipated, he got an idea for a new test, and once again began channeling all of the heat he could into his right hand.

About two minutes later, his hand was lit with a cheerful orange glow, and he got to his feet. Walking over to another of the smaller boulders, he placed his hand on the face of it and began refocusing the heat energy. Steadily, he felt his body becoming a conduit for the power he was channeling, sending it flowing directly into the surface of the boulder under his hand.

After another minute, he pulled his hand back and cut off the flow. The boulder had gained a similar glow to the one his hand had shown. He wondered if eventually he might be able to channel enough heat to actually melt solid rock, but he was almost positive he would need more heat than he could access by just existing in a sunny desert.

Next, he touched the glowing portion of the boulder, focusing on channeling all of the heat energy in the rock to the opposite hand. Rapidly, the boulder grew colder, and when he sensed he wasn’t getting more energy out of it he pulled his hand away.

That gave him another interesting surprise, as the boulder where his hand had been touching now showed a thin layer of frost. It was like it had been through a very light freeze, but only where the surface of his hand had made contact. Reaching up, he rapped the frosted spot with a knuckle, and a noticeable amount of his hand print instantly collapsed into dust and fell away.

Seeing that, he decided to knock away the remainder of the surface outlined by his hand print. He was left with an imprint in the rock about a half inch deep, and almost perfectly in the shape of his hand.

“Well, that’s one way to leave my mark on the world.”

The groan from his earbud confirmed he had said that out loud.