Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

  “That’s different from what mine looks like. What else do you see?” Gus asked.

  “There’s a French-curve swirl with compartments on the bottom right corner which symbolizes my total health. Each compartment is filled and there’s a fraction… eight-twenty-four over eight-twenty-four… nestled in a hollow rose-shape attached to the pattern.”

  “Really.”

  “I see MP represented by an orchid with multiple blooms alternating left and right along a large stalk on the right. There’s a similar hollow bloom with the value one-thousand-fifty-six in the topmost flower.”

  “What’s the matter?” Gus asked when she paused for a minute in silence.

  “It’s just so beautiful…” she said absently as she took a moment to just admire the different colored tabs and menus.

  “Sounds like I got the no frills display, Nick,” Gus said.

  “Oh, you want flowers? I can do flowers…” Nick snarked back.

  Gus saw Aurora’s eyes flit around; presumably she was searching tabs, seeing her stats for the first time.

  “Ah, here it is, I’m level fifty-four.” A huge grin spread across her face.

  “Now what?” Gus asked as Aurora’s smile turned into a gasp.

  “Tell me about stat points…”

  “You get them every level to raise your six basic stats: Strength, Perception, Intelligence, Agility, Constitution, and Luck.” Gus stopped as if slapped. “Have you not allocated any stat points?” Aurora shook her head. “How many are we talking about?”

  “Two-seventy.”

  Gus and Nick simultaneously whistled in appreciation.

  “I never was one of the powerhouse supers, but I was always determined and consistent. The assessors at the academy said I was making good progress on my abilities, but I never expected this. Those mercs aren’t going to know what hit them,’’ she said with a huge smile.

  Gus just stared, as she almost exuded energy. Until her eyes rolled back and he barely caught her as she went limp. Lowering her to the floor, he pulled her tousled hair to the side and gently tried to rouse her.

  “Nick, is she okay?”

  “Oh, she’s more than okay. She’s just experiencing level-up euphoria multiplied by fifty.”

  The moans and squirming took on a different meaning with this new information.

  “I’ll have what she’s having,” Nick said.

  Gus tried to imagine what the post-level euphoria for fifty-four levels would feel like and gave up. Post-level euphoria for only a couple levels at a time was intense enough for him. He had twenty stat points of his own saved up, and thought he was doing well. But two-seventy!

  At last she settled, a serene smile spreading across her face, but she was still trying to catch her breath. Finally her eyes fluttered open.

  “How are you doing?” Gus wrinkled his brow as Aurora released a long wistful sigh and slowly stood.

  “That was a mind scrambler!” Aurora gasped. She held up a finger to forestall any more questions, and leaned heavily on the wall for support. Gus waited in awkward silence as she panted to get her breath back.

  “Whooo. What was that?” she asked when she had regained some composure.

  “Well, I think it’s kind of a reward for hitting another level. A massive rush of endorphins and whatnot. It seems to mask any discomfort with improving muscle tone and body changes associated with leveling.”

  “Wow, I definitely can get used to that. I’m sorry Gus, what were we even talking about before?”

  “Somehow it slipped my mind,” Gus admitted.

  “Stat points,” Nick offered. And Gus repeated it as if he had remembered. “You should think of how you want to allocate them. If your abilities work like mine, a lot of them improve based on stats and your MP, HP, and Stamina pools should grow a lot too.”

  Gus watched as Aurora gazed in wonder at discovering the nuances of her display. He heard her mutter to herself as she tried to figure out how to navigate the tabs and menus as well as how to allocate her points. Recognizing that this could take a while, Gus turned his mind to the next set of preparations. It wouldn’t be long before the other supers would come, but Aurora had said they didn’t know Methiochos wasn’t here. He could use that to his advantage, somehow. Give the illusion of strength so that they wouldn’t dare an outright storming of the manor.

  He would need to check out what options the manor had in terms of decoys and subterfuge. He thought he had seen some other items in the same menus as turrets and sensors that warranted more research. Plans began to form and Gus itched to confirm his suspicions, but Aurora was still exploring in her own little world.

  “Aurora, when you’re done, let’s head up to the control center. We can plan up there; it has access to multiple cameras, and you can get a feel for the layout of everything. Then maybe we could head to the dispensary and you could pick out some clothes,” Gus suggested.

  Aurora nodded. She stood numbly and slowly shuffled out of the cafeteria. Gus took her arm and guided her around some chairs so she wouldn’t collide with them.

  “Have you made any decisions yet?”

  “I’m still checking out all my abilities. I’ve always had a vague sense of the MP costs and recharge time, but it’s so much clearer now. I actually have been holding myself back; my available MP has outpaced my expectations. I’ve always avoided bottoming out because I get these fierce migraines that persist for days afterward. This makes that so much less likely.

  “Okay, I think I know where I want to allocate these points. You were right, my HP and MP are rising, but not by as much as you said. Wow. Damage for Ion Storm jumped to three times its normal value.”

  “Where are you putting the points?”

  “I raised everything to a base of forty, then kicked my Constitution to fifty, Agility and Perception to sixty, and the rest in Intelligence so it’s at eighty. I’ll admit, I’m a little excited to see how things have changed with these upgrades.” She blinked a couple times and her eyes came back into focus as they neared the elevators. “Where were we going again?”

  “Control center.”

  “Yes, yes, control center. Let’s go.”

  “Aurora, why do you think Purple Faction didn’t train you about all this from the get-go? Wouldn’t you all be much more powerful? It doesn’t really make sense.”

  “I don’t know. We had assessors in the academy who would come and give you a status update each month, evaluating your performance and seeing how you were progressing. Maybe they were reading our stats and levels? They always carried a holopad and took copious notes. Maybe after reaching a certain level of control, they would tell us? I really don’t know.”

  “I guess that sounds plausible. The academy isn’t really life or death, is it?”

  “It can get pretty bad. You just wish you were dead with how they hammer you with training. It’s like boot camp, but they can tell just how much to push you, even more than you know yourself. And they do. Relentlessly. I think part of it is they want to make it so miserable you bond with your fellow trainees. Whatever the reason, it works. You learn how to rely on your team for support.”

  “I can see that. I’m glad I was able to level up as I went. I don’t think I would have survived without those stat bonuses. That reminds me. Aurora, I have a question for you,” Gus stammered, uncertain again.

  “Okay,” she replied, a little on guard from his serious tone.

  “I have an ability called Leech that I just got for defeating Methiochos. I can steal abilities from an enemy’s Nth.”

  “I remember you briefly mentioned it before, but how does it work? I’ve never heard of someone getting an ability from someone they’ve defeated before. Could be very powerful.”

  “Well, after I touch a super, I can see their skills. I can take or copy some but the exact amount depends on how high their levels are and I think my own stats and level limit how much of that ability gets transferred. There’s a yellow bar on the bottom of my
display that shows how full my buffer is for the abilities I take.”

  “You can copy my abilities? Here try.” She reached out a hand and Gus took it, activating the skill. Among the abilities, he found Ion Storm and selected it. The yellow bar filled a little past half-way on the bottom.

  You have chosen to leech Ion Storm (Level 12).

  You have chosen to copy and erase skills, are you sure? (Y/N?)

  Gus saw where he could toggle some of the presets. He carefully made some adjustments.

  You have chosen to leech Ion Storm (Level 12).

  You have chosen to only copy skill, are you sure? (Y/N?)

  The bar was now red and extended off the end of the display.

  “Hmm, that’s weird. It fills the buffer much more to only copy than to steal an ability.”

  Gus carefully selected no and closed out the ability. Gus breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he hadn’t tried to merely copy abilities when fighting with the other supers. They would have surely gotten the upper hand in the time it took to figure that out and recalibrate.

  “So, there’s a limit to how much you can take at one time. How much time does it take to activate?”

  “Once I trigger it, it takes a couple seconds to take the skill, but thankfully they get stunned while it happens, like they’re being tased.”

  “I saw that. Can you touch them more than once if they have a lot of abilities?”

  “I… don’t know. Maybe. Definitely something I should try; that’s a good idea. So far, all I know is that I need to get in close and touch them without being interrupted.” Gus looked at Aurora, worried she might think less of him. He saw the placid face of a tactician who knew what it took to win battles. He continued on when she offered no objections.

  “Any cooldown?”

  “There’s none listed. Plus it stuns them afterward, so I can get them to the brig.”

  “I can help with that. If you give me prison access rights, I could help stow away some of the unconscious supers. Or ex-supers. Whatever.”

  “Okay, great. Did I mention the brig has a field that turns off your powers?”

  “Whoa, like a SuperMax?”

  “I guess, I didn’t know that was part of those prisons.”

  “Kind of has to be when you’re dealing with supers. It takes a ton of energy though. Plus the technology is regulated by supers, so no regs get their hands on it and use it as a weapon. Can you imagine?”

  Gus shook his head as he stared ahead. He’d never even considered that a super could lose their powers, temporarily or otherwise, before his experiences on the island. The image was always one of immutable power. He just assumed it was true. Seeing Aurora look at him expectantly he continued talking. “I’ll admit, part of me has a problem with erasing the powers. The other part says that this is war and I need to do what has to be done.”

  “I agree with the Purple Faction tenet that ‘might makes right.’ Sometimes you have to make hard choices, and if that’s not popular with some people, so be it. Life beat me down until Purple Faction helped me become stronger and overcome. So yeah, I think you should take and erase those abilities. I’m not sure if that’s what you were asking, but don’t give people an opportunity to screw you. Especially if they’ve already shown you their true colors.”

  “That’s what I was thinking, thanks,” Gus said, more secure in his decision now that two people had affirmed it. “Here we are,” he said as the elevator doors opened.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Threshold

  As they walked into the control center, Gus gave her a little tour and showed her how to use the cameras. She checked some of the monitors and a panel that showed the status of the entire island on a holographic projection in the center of the room. She walked around it, nodding in appreciation. They found seats and got to planning their defenses. Gus smiled to himself, grateful to have Aurora’s experience on board to help resist the upcoming siege.

  Gus checked what it would take to add Aurora as someone the manor would recognize. It was essentially as simple as ‘employing’ her and giving her a position.

  “You were a lieutenant on the ship, how would you like to be the manor’s first lieutenant?”

  “Suits me just fine. What is your official title?”

  “Master of the manor, I think.” He flushed a little and scratched the back of his head. “It’s really been a non-issue with only me here.” He turned his attention to the console to enter the information.

  New employee added to the registry. Employee sync complete. Leadership role has been assigned. Legacy FP added for Master of Manor to utilize. New employee level: 54. Added 47,000 Legacy FP.

  Gus whooped and told Aurora the good news. So that was how Methiochos had planned on getting the manor outfitted and upgraded to a decent lair.

  “Why don’t we find you a place to stay, and I’ll show you where the dispensary is located so you can see if there’s anything you’d rather wear.” Gus tried not to notice as Aurora looked down at the baggy jumpsuit she had picked up at Manticorps and seeing the dirty smears and smudges all over her face, reflected in the glass of the monitor.

  He authorized Aurora to access FP and facilities upgrades and sent coordinates for her room and other unlocked facilities to her display.

  A prompt showed up on the screen:

  Enable communication mode? (Y/N)

  Shrugging, Gus entered yes.

  “…you could really make a difference, Aurora—”

  “Hello?” Gus thought, hearing a woman’s voice other than Aurora.

  “Oh, how do you do?” the not-Aurora voice replied, sultry and seductive.

  “Sorry, I just enabled communications between us. Should I turn it off? I didn’t mean to invade your privacy.”

  “That’s odd. Usually to communicate in a party the party leader has to send an invite and I have to accept it. Can we filter this, or is it always on?” Aurora asked warily.

  Gus found that he could toggle the comms on and off on his display.

  “There’s a little microphone icon on the bottom left corner, I can turn it off and on.”

  “Oh, I see it now.” Aurora turned the mic off, which put a big circle with a slash over the mic. “Can you hear this, Gus?” His expression stayed passive. “Gus, your fly is down.” Still no response.

  It was a joke that always worked on the noobs at the academy, which were not-so-lovingly referred to as ‘fawns.’ The jumpsuits they wore had no fly that could be unzipped, and still the fawns would always look.

  A lot of her fellow supers in training complained that there should be a minimum time being a super before they were allowed into the academy, but most instructors thought it was better to get them fresh before they learned any bad habits they had to train away. In light of them keeping Nth and leveling a secret, she wondered what else was not what it seemed, as far as her training was concerned.

  She repeated herself more emphatically and still, Gus was unflappable. He didn’t even check. “I’m convinced,” she thought and clicked the mic back on. She heard Nick’s voice say, “She sounds like Blanche. I’d prefer Bea Arthur, but you take what you can get—”

  “Okay, I’m back,” Aurora said, trying the manor’s communication link, pretending she hadn’t heard Nick.

  “Well, this should make things easier to plan,” Gus thought and said. “What should we call your N.I.C., Aurora?”

  “We haven’t really discussed it. Did you have any preferences?”

  “Who me?” Gus and the female voice asked in unison.

  “I’ve always been partial to Daphne,” the voice purred.

  “Okay, Daphne it is! Well, now that’s settled, we need to plan,” Aurora said.

  “What do you think they are going to do next?” Gus asked.

  “Well, with their scouts not coming back to give them intel, I think Basileus will send a small group to suss out what happened on the island. They still think they’re going to encounter a large prepa
red force here, so we need to maintain that façade.”

  “I was thinking that same thing. Here, let me check something.” Gus opened the defensive measures menu. There they were, at Tier 2, just what he needed. Gus checked his available FP, recalling that it should be around 1,200 with his recent level up. His eyes bugged out a bit when he saw 48,675 FP available to use. He had to restrain himself from grabbing his wish list and buying everything as Aurora elaborated on how Manticorps would most likely proceed.

  “I estimate Basileus, their leader, will give them a day or two before he sends someone else but it could be sooner. If they find out it’s just us, the jig is up and things will get more difficult. They will most likely send drones or wear cameras for recon that will transmit live, to determine threat levels. After that, we will have lost some of the element of surprise, and they will be on guard and harder to catch unaware. I imagine that they will be cagey, ordered to retreat if they meet a superior force.”

  “I can unlock some things in the Foundry that I think will help us give that impression.”

  “Good. Another advantage we have is that these guys are mercs. They are not a cohesive team that has worked together often for common goals. We can use that against them. If we play it right, they will get overconfident and overcommit. Maybe even get them to compete against each other for bragging rights of who beats us.”

  “That’s not as encouraging as you may think,” Gus murmured.

  Aurora continued as if she didn’t hear him. “I don’t know who they will send first, but I’m hoping that there will be some abilities that you can use against them. I only got a brief look at them but there are all types of different supers with different specializations.”

  “Do you have any idea of what they have available?”

  “Only a general idea of some of their abilities, but nothing specific, I’m afraid.” Aurora shrugged. “There are a lot of them, more than forty supers, give or take.”