“Are there other combinations with dart we could try?”

“Typically no. We can always do some field testing later, during training, but for now, let’s keep moving on. Shield + any offensive focus tends to produce some sort of melee weapon. We can always give that a shot.”

“Do these typically land in archetypes? Should I just try to imagine what will happen?”

“Yes as ultimately it will be your own physical aptitude that determines your effectiveness.”

“Let’s start with Shield + Blast.”

“Okay. Go for it. You can see what you're manifesting on the monitor. The arms of the device are engraph units so you should be able to use the weapons a bit.”

Hmmmm.I find myself musing over design. What’s direct, able to defend, and has a good blade for smashing against/into something. I find myself conjuring an axe looking weapon. Looks kind of like a bladed two-handed hammer. I swing it. Certainly feels like I could smash something with it. I decided to see if I can modify it or change its nature depending on the image. I try to imagine the hammer side capable of blasting out a shotgun like blast. I sense through the VALENT and engraph units that I indeed have created a series of small barrels in the hammer face. “Is there something I can test this on? I want to see how creative I can be with these images.”

A panel on the wall pops loose and to the side. What looks like a grey lump of an unhappy sandbag, is motored out. “Here. Take a whack at mister grumpy. Testing feedback is also good practice.”

“Why does it have a face?”

“Because he does. He has to express his frustration at people being weak somehow.”

“Are you sure he isn’t grumpy because you made him that way?”

“How dare you accuse me of meddling with the manufacture of a nonsentient punching bag for my own amusement.”

“Hope you don’t like it. Well if this works that is.”I puppet the weapon into a swing, hammer side to the bag. I pull the trigger on contact, focusing on the blast element of the focus.

Krakoom!

“Whoops? Hey, at least I didn’t destroy the room this time. It’s only a little messy. Was that real sand in that thing?” a grimace spreads across my face. “That’s going to be one hell of a mess.”

A meek whimper of a sound is just barely audible over the screen, “Meep… Mr. Grumpy. Don’t go.”

I think now would be the best time to pretend that I didn’t hear anything. “Should we test anything else? I think this one works alright. Should have interesting practical applications.”

A clearly marshalled expression pops on to the monitor. “We can try the Rail + Shield might give you something interesting based on the available output on the rail focus.”

“Yeah, that does sound promising. Let’s give that a go.”

“Switching”

I get the go ahead and try to lean towards a more defensible option. Something like a Lance and shield. Something that I could use when backed into a corner. I think we can work a trick into this weapon as well. I work on developing the image of a lance with a pistol grip and a brace running along my arm. Giving me a well-supported lance to thrust with. I try to visualize a piston attached to a trigger in the handle. I’m thinking, with a ‘surprise’ spike thrusting lance, I might be able to catch someone off guard. I go with something similar to a tower shield. I create a nock to lock the lance into, and a foot to brace it on the ground with. My thinking is, I can go a bit all out with the penetrator spike and still keep good position. “I hate to ask… but is there another target to use?”

“What kind of madness are you planning now.”

She seems to be losing it a little. “Well, it’s just a lance. It’s intended for thrusting. I thought I might try something more defensive.”

“Fine Mr. Happy will be glad to assist you.” Another lump of a sandbag was motored out. This one had a kind of manic grin on his face. I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I give it a little poke. The material doesn’t yield. This is clearly not a sandbag. I figure, what the hell. Now is as good as ever to test the penetrative force on this spike.

I clamp the foot into place on the ground. I place the tip just a couple of inches away from it. I pull the trigger.

KaTHUNK!

“You monster! What the heck did you do to Mr. Happy!? You monster. You clearly aren’t human!”

I consider my handiwork through the monitor. A nice clean hole has been punched out of the front of Mr. Happy...the back is another story. A good third of the back is just blown off in a jagged damage cone. “Well, I think that works alright. I think this should give a defensive position a little punch.”

She seems to be pushing through some feelings. Clearly, she wants to be done now. “Lets quickly go through the elemental bias...in the 4:1 room and see if we can’t wrap this up.”

“Okay. Do I need to go anywhere or is this where I still have to be.”

“Oh, you will stay right there until we are done.”

She is clearly losing it. “Okay so how do we start?”

“We are going to just go through a series of numbers 1 through 10 and I will say the number and the element, and you will try and visualize it. Whatever you have a high affinity for should manifest as whatever you’re trying to visualize.”

“1. Fire”

Nothing happens.

“2. Water”

Nothing happens.

“3. Earth”

Nothing happens. I’m starting to get worried.

“4. Electricity”

A little arcing happens.

“5. Metal”

Little small jaggy blades start growing.

“6. Psionics”

Nothing happens.

“7. Force”

A small little shockwave pops into existence for a moment.

“8. Light”

A small laser-like beam shoots forward.

“9. Dark”

A small globule or gravity-defying inky mess clings to my hand.

“10. Entropy”

It happens a little too fast for either of us to be prepared for. The dark little swirling mass from before explodes out and starts covering things and belching out a black miasma. This keeps repeating itself every time this gloopy mess can completely cover something it bursts, and the cycle continues. She quickly punches in some buttons and the room becomes brilliantly white for a moment. “Uh what happened? I think that was bad…”

She is starting to look pretty tired at this point. “You managed to fuse a dark element and an entropy element together resulting in a virulent mass. It was attempting to infect everything with entropy. Hence why I have another lab that is largely a write off at this point.”

“I feel like I messed up. Did I do something wrong?”

“It’s not that you did something wrong, but that there were too many unknown factors going into this. We would normally have at least a couple of years of pre-data to work with, but this was just so much flying blind. I get it. You are worried. I’m just tired. I now have to document all of these accidents, and that’s before we get going on your training.”

“So? Do we have the budget for a training montage?”

She is clearly quite frustrated at the outcome of my test, my shenanigans, at this point aren’t helping. “Go clean up.” she sulkily huffed. “I have the measurements and the data. Go grab something at the commissary and meet me back here in an hour. I will have your gear ready by then. We will transition to the rumpus room when you get back. You’ll pay for what you did here. You’ll pay.”

With an ominous feeling, I disconnect the port from my socket and move to retrieve my engraph unit. I notice that it is no longer there anymore. “Hey! What gives? Where’s my arm?”

“Oh, that old thing?” It’s in storage for now.” I noticed a malicious grin spread across her face. “Have fun getting food!” She sweetly sang. Her face clearly a mismatch to her voice.

I turned and headed out the way I came in. I realize I don’t have much time if I’m going to figure out where I am going and get food. I have the feeling I better eat while I can. I think I may have just created my own worst nightmare.