Chapter 22

Jack-in Rockman, Power Up!

With Kohn’s idea of imbuing the armor with changing magic formations, all three projects were accidentally combined into one.

The Space Suit became enhanced armor that would add enhancements when in an area with atmosphere, and when it was in space or submerged in water it would turn into a spacesuit. Sealing off any exposed areas with shields.

In order to have the multi-functioning suit they needed to make it layered with thin sheets of metal. While not as effective the layering was still strong enough without any magic in it that the suit could still stop a careless attack. On the plus side though it decreased the overall weight of the armor so the weight magic was reversed to increase the weight of the suit. Not only that, but they could customize the suit to look really cool.

Kohn was giddy with how it turned out.

The chest, forearms, feet and head were the thickest part with what appeared to be solid armor. Inside was the layering with multiple changing magic formations.

The upper arms, legs, hips and neck were all covered in a thinner metal mesh-like armor that allowed freer movements for combat. Some extra armor was added to the quads and shoulders which took away from the nostalgic appearance that he was going for but everyone convinced him that it was necessary.

He did manage to get them to keep the face plate open though. At first they wanted to create a real solid helmet, but immediately found a fatal flaw when Numbers Four and Six strapped the prototypes to their heads.

“Can’t see!”

“Can’t. BREATHE!”

So the solid round helmet was changed to a more human shaped version with an open face. When needed a magic shield would cover the face and allow the user to breathe.

A steady supply of air and heat had actually been the most challenging part of the whole ordeal. Turns out that except for an underwater spell that collected molecules of oxygen from the water, magic had never developed something useful for space.

Then again they didn’t really know what happened to life once out there. Either they died or they didn’t seemed to be the main consensus.

A short but graphical explanation later…

The assistants all looked a little sick. The Armorer was trying to look strong and powerful but he kept his arms crossed, almost as if he was constantly hugging himself.

Maybe he shouldn’t have gone into such detail?

But they managed to solve the problem by using magic to compress air into tanks. Then, using a process similar to water purifiers on Earth, they created carbon strips that collected the C from C0 and C02 to get a little more oxygen out of the tanks.

“How much air is in these slim packs?”

“We figured that someone could spend a week in the suits if they don’t get too excited.”

“What about if they have to go into combat?”

“Maybe 3 days. We can’t be more certain than that since each person is different.”

“How did you test it? I thought we couldn’t go out into space?”

“We can’t go out into space- damn it! Now you’ve got me saying it. The Deep Dark.” After talking so much with Kohn the Armorer and his assistants were starting to use the same names as him, much to their chagrin. “Dark Vessels were designed to be solid and not allow anything in or out until it lands on a planet. We dropped an idiot into a water tank for a couple hours and then measured how much air had been used.”

When he had nonchalantly said ‘idiot’ his head had unconsciously pointed his chin at number four.

“How was the suit?” He asked him.

“I could breathe. It was warm and there were no problems with the changing magic formations.”

“Good. So there were no problems? Was it comfortable?”

“We designed it for you so it was a little bigger and smaller in some areas but other than that it was comfortable.”

Manly pride filled Kohn up when he heard that his suit was a little bigger, but his ego quickly deflated.

“The butt in particular was bigger and felt like something was caressing me in the water. The head and feet were also for your body so they were too big for me. The arms, legs, chest, back and crotch were all tight on the other hand.”

“I-is that so…?”

Luckily before his ego could fall into depression the other group popped in with their prototypes. The boots and Buster Arms in their hands were pristine and cleaned, unlike the sweaty, grime covered and slightly burnt men that held them.

“We finished them!”

“Help me put them on.”

“The boots have two primary magic formations now. In Space they are your version of jet packs, with little bursts of magical fire to push you.”

“We’ll test that out later when we figure out how to leave the ship.”

“Yes, but the other magic formation is similar, but more of an enhancement magic.”

“Why not just have the jet pack formation?”

“Because they don’t have a lot of effect. The distance from the jet pack boots is similar to the distance of just jumping.”

“Oh, that’s disappointing.”

“True… but we went off another idea you had. You wanted to imbue enhancement magic onto your fist so that you could punch harder right?”

“Yeah, but we left it as just the weight increase since we couldn’t put thick gloves on the suit since they would block the Buster Arms and make it harder to use weapons.”

“Right, but we can put enhancement formations on the boots to make you kick harder!”

“!”

Kohn immediately tested it out. Jumping 10 feet straight up.

“Nice!”

“Its fun, but the spell is more effect when you try to do a quick sprint forward.”

“Hmm?” Kohn activated the spell as he tried to sprint forward. “WHOA!” It launched up towards the wall 20 feet away. Unprepared he smacked face first.

“Oww.”

“Sorry. I did say it had more effect that way though.”

“Yeah. Yeah you did.” He couldn’t even be angry since it really was his own fault. That and because it was just like from the game. The dash-skip ability!

Afraid that he was upset with them, the assistants hoped that he’d forget about it if they talked about his Buster Arms.

“The Buster Arms work just like you wanted though!”

“Oh?”

“Just activate the formation and the longer you keep the formation active the greater the power. To fire you simply stop giving it mana.”

They setup a target since they knew he’d want to test it just like them. He was worried though when they put up shields behind the target and a couple of assistants went behind him to push against his back.

“Okay… activating?”

The magic formation was setup to take a minimum amount of energy but could also change to accept a user input level.

His first shot was a small Mana Ball roughly three inches in diameter. It only took a second for it to be ready to shoot. When he held the spell for longer the Mana Ball grew tremendously in size.

Five inches in diameter. Ten inches. Twenty inches. Forty. Fifty.

The thing was so big that Kohn was actually getting worried and the assistants panicked and told him to fire.

BZZZZ-ZUUU!

The kick back knocked all of them back several feet. They watched the Mana Ball in a daze as it gave off a weird cackling sound it flew and hit the target, instantly obliterating it.

‘Oh shit!’

But the Mana Ball didn’t stop at the target.

Some of the energy had been bled off from the spell when it hit the target but there was still a lot of mana in the shot when it impacted on the shield behind the target.

The Mana Ball seemed to stretch and flatten against the shield, sending pulses rippling along the shield for a short time before the shield collapsed. Everyone in the room hoped that would be the end of it but it then hit the wall and burned through the inches of metal… rock… whatever the ship was made out of.

Klaxons and alarms were going off as the assistants and Kohn just laid in a pile.

He managed to say one word in awe.

“Perfect.”