Once Vanessa rounded everyone up, they went outside to find the dragons hunkered down in their makeshift burrows.
Jared raised his voice.
“It’s time!” He paused for dramatic effect, but it only yielded an awkward pause. He cleared his throat and continued. “If you’ve made arrangements with one of Scarlet’s brothers, please go stand by his side.” Immediately ten people walked over. Maria and Casey chose Ashazad and Kynderri. Vanessa lingered by his side, and Jared nudged her.
Slowly, she placed one foot in front of the other and approached Malsour. Timidly, she reached up a hand to his head and closed her eyes. Jared caught a small snippet of telepathy from Vanessa, and then it blended in with all the other conversations occurring around him.
Scarlet flared her nostrils and huffed in amusement next to him as she watched human and dragon match up for the bonding. When she didn’t share her thoughts, Jared questioned her.
“Scarlet?”
“I should have known. Ashazad has always had a fascination with the human body, and Kynderri is… a glutton.
It felt like a vise closed in around his mind before Scarlet uttered that last part.
“Did you lock down your mind before you said that?”
“I did.”
Jared laughed, a full, uncontrollable belly laugh. It hurt so good as tears streamed down his face. It wasn’t even that funny, but for whatever reason he found it hysterical in the moment and couldn’t control himself.
“What would your brother do if he heard you say that?”
“I—” Embarrassment flooded through him, her emotions bleeding into the bond once again.
“Twice in one day you get embarrassed. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re just a child…“ Jared let the thought hang in the air, erupting into another fit of laughter.
Everyone around them looked at Jared and Scarlet with slight frowns on their faces. All but Kynderri that is. If looks could kill, Scarlet should have been feeling concerned.
“I don’t think it matters that you shut your thoughts down. Body language speaks louder than words, you know. I’m fairly certain Kynderri knows all about this little chat. Though, perhaps because we kept it private, he won’t scorn you too bad?”
“I should not think so of my brother.”
“If the shoe fits…”
“The shoe? Fits? What—”
“It’s a human expression, don’t bother. It’s not worth the time to explain.” Jared calmed himself and apologized to the crowd. “Scarlet and I had an enlightening conversation, and for whatever reason I found it hilarious.”
Jared tried hard not to peek at Kynderri from the corner of his eye. The massive dragon could eat him in a single bite, and he eyed Jared with barely restrained hostility.
Treading carefully, Jared continued his explanation. “I am sorry for my outburst. It was uncalled for.” He said it as much for the water folk as he did to appease Kynderri. “Let’s continue, please.”
One by one, the other water folk took up a position next to each of the dragons they’d spent time with. Eleven people and eleven dragons.
Awesome! thought Jared. This was exactly what he’d hoped for. Vanessa and Malsour still faced each other. He didn’t know if it was a normal conversation or if Malsour was engaging in a mind meld. In either case, Jared had no doubt they’d find kindred spirits in each other, even if it took them a bit longer to decide to bond than the others.
Jared handed each of the water folk a booster and instructed them to sit down.
“You all bore witness and felt the pain when you said the vows to Scarlet. I believe this pain is worse, but this time you’ll have your bond mate to assist with the pain. Carla, did you experience pain during your bonding?”
“I did.”
“Pete, what about you?” Jared turned to the man.
“Y-yes, it was p-painful.”
“More than the vows?”
Pete nodded his head vigorously.
“As you can see, it was painful for everyone so far. I want to prepare you as much as possible for this. As I told Vanessa just a few minutes ago, the pain will be worth the price. Of that, I have no doubt.”
The moment he’d said Vanessa’s name, she turned around to face him, a huge smile on her face. Jared glanced up to Malsour, who nodded his head once.
Jared mirrored Vanessa’s smile and walked over to hand her the final booster. He gestured to a place near Malsour’s side and indicated Vanessa should sit. Then he returned to the center of the gathered humans and dragons and turned in a slow circle, addressing Scarlet’s brothers.
“Please do what you can to ease their pain. Scarlet helped with mine, knocking me unconscious before it became unbearable. I know you can isolate the pain in your own bodies, but please prepare yourselves to assist your new companions as well.”
Jared had no further instructions for those undertaking the process. With nothing else standing in the way, Jared motioned for everyone to proceed. He readied himself to assist in any way he could.
Screams erupted from their throats as they pressed the plungers home. Several dragons roared, echoing the pain their human allies experienced. For those slower to inject the nanites, it made them pause, the color draining from their faces, but as Jared watched, those frightened expressions transformed into resolve. Less than a minute later, all eleven of the water folk initiated the process. All eleven screamed in agony.
Jared’s heart broke as he watched Vanessa wriggling against Malsour’s side. Her body, rigid and taut against the pain, looked frail. He wished there was something he could do to help, but he knew anything he did was a pointless gesture that wouldn’t do anything to alleviate the pain.
The pain level appeared different for everyone. The only pair that didn’t experience as much pain, was Ashazad and Casey. Besides the initial shout from Casey and grunt from Ashazad, neither of them spoke or moved. Casey didn’t succumb to unconsciousness for many minutes. He sat there with wide eyes, seeing something only he could see. Jared suspected it was the encoded message left by Igor, but he could’ve read it over three times by now so maybe it was something else.
Jared suspected it was Casey and Ashazad’s understanding of the human body that enabled them to endure or redirect the pain. Thankfully, the others’ screams only lasted for a moment before they lapsed into unconsciousness. Even the dragons eventually closed their eyes and lay on the ground. All but Ballog, who seethed and growled in obvious discomfort. His sides heaved and steam curled around his nostrils.
“Scarlet? What’s wrong?”
“I do not know.”
She bounded over to his side and bent her head to his. A moment later, he too fell into unconsciousness. Scarlet guided his head to the ground so as not to crush Jax sitting below him.
Jackson, Jared had become accustomed to calling him Jax on account of others adopting the nickname he’d given the man. Jax usually kept to himself, so Jared barely knew him. Other than their initial meeting and a few random exchanges, they hadn’t spoken more than a few sentences to each other. Jared promised himself he’d remedy that. If Ballog saw something in him worthy of the bond, then Jared needed to get to know him better. He needed to get to know everyone better. This journey would help him accomplish that.
“He could not block the pain. He was not entirely truthful with us about the severity of his injury. It is much worse than we thought, and the continued exertion these past couple days made it worse.”
“Will he be okay?”
“In time, yes. Bonding will enable him to regenerate faster. It is wise we stopped here to do this before continuing onward.”
“We’ll take all the time he needs to recover fully. We need everyone at full strength. If the city somehow catches wind of our direction…” Jared let the thought trail off. He didn’t need to spell it out for her.
They couldn’t let that happen.
“Thank you. It will take time before everyone comes around. We should establish a watch throughout the day and night until everyone successfully completes the bond.”
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea to me.” He looked around for Carla and Elle, waving them over. “We must keep a watch while they’re out here. If you need to sleep before tonight, please do so. I’ll keep an eye on them for now.”
The girls walked off to get some rest and Jared sat next to Scarlet, gazing at the scene before him. It was surreal. After today, they’d have thirteen dragon-bonded members of their small colony, one griffon, and a giant feline. They were a burgeoning force and they’d grow in strength to become even deadlier.
“Incredible.”
“Yes, yes, it is.” Jared nodded at Scarlet, agreeing with her completely.
Most of the bonds had completed by the following morning, but Ashazad and Ballog were still motionless, as were Casey and Jax. Several times Scarlet checked on her brothers and found there were no complications. The most surprising news was when Scarlet told Jared Ashazad and Casey had figured out how to enter a shared thought space already, and immediately explored their bodies and nanites after the bond completed.
Neither of them wanted to end their connection for fear they wouldn’t be able to reestablish the synchronicity created by the initial bond. Jared had no intention of interrupting that connection. Anything they could do to increase their skills and abilities faster was a welcome boon to their mission.
Shortly after they’d woken, Jared asked Scarlet to scout the area. Specifically, he wanted her to check back the way they’d come to ensure nothing followed them.
“Please take Kitty with you. If you so much as catch a hint of a drop ship, Kitty can investigate further. I’m still not entirely convinced we shook our tail. If everyone didn’t need the rest, I’d pick up and leave as soon as the bonds completed. Unfortunately, I think we’d have a riot on our hands if we moved now, given it looks like we stayed ahead of our pursuers.”
“We are three, nearly four days’ walk from the city. We lost sight of it in the sky a couple days ago.”
“You’re probably right, but after what we watched them do with those probes, I don’t want to take the chance. If we had to move quickly, do you think you could wake Ballog and Ashazad?”
“Yes, but at what cost? I do not know how it would impact the bond. That should be a last resort.”
Throughout the rest of the day, Scarlet and Kitty kept up a regular cadence to their scouting. At least once per hour, they swept the area in a wide arc, ensuring they’d have no unwelcome guests.
The longer they stayed here, the more the tension he’d felt before returned. By the end of the day, he continually cast furtive looks back the way they’d come. Scarlet had just returned from scouting, but it did nothing to allay his fears.
Finally, toward the end of their second night there, Ashazad and Casey came around. Ballog and Jax remained catatonic, and Jared worried for them, but Scarlet assured him there was nothing wrong.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Jared patted Casey on the back. “I trust your bond was…enlightening?”
Casey looked up at him and Jared flinched back in surprise. Casey’s eyes had changed. They looked like a dragon’s or cat’s with vertical pupils. The gaze he directed at Jared bored into him and made him uncomfortable.
“Casey?”
“Jared, this—” Casey’s voice halted, and he cocked his head to the side.
Casey’s pupils morphed from the slitted cat-like eyes, shrinking to their normal size to reveal crystal clear blue irises. They looked like gems set against his pale skin. Just when Jared thought it couldn’t get weirder, they morphed again, shimmering through a kaleidoscope of colors.
“What’s happening?”
“I can see, Jared.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“No, I mean I can really see everything. I see the modifications to your eyes, the dense field of nanites surrounding your body, the thickness of your skin, and I can even tell where the nanites suffuse your muscles to provide bursts of increased performance. Jared, this…”
Casey waved his arms around to encompass himself and Ashazad. He gawked at everything in an entirely new light.
“Your eyes? Is that how you can see?”
“Yes. No.”
Jared scratched his head in bewilderment. He knew how confusing all of this could be, but Casey wasn’t making any sense.
“My eyes are just my eyes, but I can manipulate them at will to see what I desire. I understand them. I know how they work. The information Ashazad shared with me allows me to understand every cell in my body.”
“So, when you look at me, what is it exactly that you see?”
“I think it is the nanites that make up your body. Because they infuse every cell, it enables me to understand them and their functions.”
“And you get all that from a single glance?”
“Well, I need to instruct the nanites to modify my vision to see them. I’m sorry, this is all so difficult to explain. Maybe Ashazad can clarify.”
Jared looked at Ashazad with a newfound respect and had to take another step back in shock. He’d changed. Morphed, right before his eyes. A bony plate seat had already formed on his back. The spikes and claws extended ever so slowly, pushing into the sky above and dirt beneath.
“How?”
“Body Manipulation.” Ashazad turned to Jared. “Rather than assigning nanites to specific categories, Casey and I determined that we will assign everything into Body Manipulation so the nanites remain free.”
Ashazad emphasized the last word, uncertain if it was the proper way to describe the way the nanites used to remodel, regenerate, and increase Natural Armor.
Casey Nanites Available – 100%
Body
Physical Augmentation
Body Manipulation – 100%
“So… you’re telling me I could’ve kept them all in the one category and changed my body on the fly?”
“It—” Ashazad paused, seemingly uncertain how to proceed.
“I think what he’s trying to say is no, but yes. Like I said before, it is something we understand because of our knowledge of the human body. Before Ashazad, I wouldn’t have known how to do this, as I’d never studied at the molecular level, but he opened my mind. It seems trivial now to adjust individual cells rapidly to perform various functions.”
“So, you can do everything I can now?”
“No. And yes.”
Jared sighed. “All right, this is super confusing. I think we need to do a mind meld to understand this better. It’s just not clicking for me. Scarlet? What about you?”
“I understand some, but I, too, am at a loss. Though we did explore the possibility of using the nanites to permanently change your physical and mental attributes.”
Casey’s frown eased. “Ah, I see where the confusion lies. I…we, are not permanently changing anything. As you can see, Ashazad is making some permanent enhancements to his body. The rest remain free nanites, but we can rapidly construct and deconstruct cells.”
“Brother, did you at least assign some into Skin and Scale Hardening?”
“A portion of them, yes. Though, I do not know why you use percentages for the interface you created. Why not use the actual number of nanites?”
“To you and me the numbers are negligible, but to the mind of a human?”
“Wait, what numbers are you talking about? You actually know how many nanites you have?”
“We do.” Scarlet and Ashazad intoned at the same time.
“And?”
“Jared,” Scarlet said, a hint of concern in her voice. “The numbers are less important than the general allocation of nanites. Each cell in a human body is made u
p of forty-six chromosomes. Each of those is formed by two DNA strands. There are roughly thirty-seven trillion cells. If you recall what we already discovered, the nanites automatically replicate to match the number of DNA strands—”
“Alright I get it.” Jared held up a hand. “I see your point.”
“Now, the nanites you’re able to assign do not factor in that number, but it is still a large number. The percentages that Scarlet chose encompass the surplus beyond the DNA infused nanites.”
Scarlet turned back to her brother. “May I see your assignment to understand your development path?”
Ashazad bowed his head to Scarlet and they remained like that for several minutes, giving Jared time to digest everything that Ashazad revealed. At the same time, Scarlet shared Ashazad’s choices with him.
Ashazad Nanites Available – 100%
Body
Physical Augmentation
Body Manipulation – 85%
Physical Defense
Skin Hardening – 5%
Scale Hardening – 10%
When the dragons finished conversing, Jared said, “I want to see it. To understand it better. Everything from the abilities you have to the number of nanites. Ashazad, would you be open to a mind meld? And can you facilitate Casey into the meld?”
“I have not tried to renew the connection, but Casey’s mind needs rest.”
“Okay, let’s try this once you wake up. I’m extremely intrigued by the possibilities here. Also, do you mind spending time with Scarlet to work on our technovirus problem? We still haven’t isolated it sufficiently to implement a cure, or at least contain the virus so it stops killing us for good.”
“It is curable.”
“Wait, what? How—” Jared snapped his mouth shut and held up a hand. “Don’t worry about it now. Let’s wait for the mind meld so you don’t have to break things down to a layman’s terms.”
“Very well.”
Jared could barely contain his excitement. It was closer to jubilation, and it made the events of the past few days seem worthwhile. Not only had Ashazad and Casey stumbled upon a way to grow drastically stronger in a short time, they also had a cure for the technovirus plaguing mankind.
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 26