Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

  Gus massaged his temples as Aurora continued speaking. That many? Yikes. That’s much more than we can handle at one time if they all attacked at once.

  “…we just have to stay focused and we should be fine. Do you have any problems using your Leech ability on them again?”

  “Oh, I have no problem with that. We’re outnumbered and are going to need any advantage we can get. I will need you to cover for me though; I’m a sitting duck while it’s activating. I’ve absorbed two stealth abilities, but I have no idea what they do, so why don’t we train with those tomorrow? Did I tell you about the training arena? It’s really helped me since it’s mostly virtual and can simulate a lot of things, provided you have Nth.”

  “It’s probably pretty standard compared to what we had at the academy, but I can join you. It would give me a better idea of where your skills are at, and I can give you advice and we can learn how to coordinate our attacks. If you’ve never had any training, I’m sure I could show you a lot about working as a team.”

  “Okay, I’m liking where this is going. How much time do you think we have?” Gus rubbed his hands together, eager to get some training from someone who actually had been to the academy. Anything to help him level and get more powerful before the other invaders came.

  “I would recommend we get ready as quickly as possible. I wish the abilities you took were available quicker, but it makes sense that it would take time to assimilate the data, tailor it to your body type and muscle memory, and update your own Nth. We’ll have to add that to our plans and hope that they don’t attack too quickly. Tell me more about those stealth skills you acquired from those supers.”

  “Yeah, one is called Camouflage and the other is called Phase-Shift.”

  Aurora bit her lip, nodding as she thought. “Those should be helpful, especially when you can sense when they are coming. One probably affects how easily it is for others to detect you. I know a super who can phase jump. He makes portals to create tunnels, using another dimension as a conduit. Much harder to detect but uses a lot more MP. I guess we’ll see tomorrow. We’ll also need to train some ambush tactics. How well do you know submission techniques?”

  “Well, what I did with those pirates—” Gus began.

  “That probably won’t work with someone with augmented strength or agility,” Aurora interrupted softly. “Depending on their abilities, we need something that can get you physically in contact for long enough for the ability to do its thing. What’s your Strength at?”

  “Um, let me check,” Gus said and opened his stat screen. He had 20 unassigned points from his level ups for defeating Methiochos that he still hadn’t assigned. Without the threat of the zombies, he wanted to give himself a buffer, allocating stats as his abilities developed.

  “My stats are here.” Gus found that while communication was enabled, he could slide a window with a screenshot of his stats over to Aurora.

  Agility: 30 (25+5)

  Constitution: 32 (27+5)

  Charisma: 23 (18+5)

  Strength: 23 (18+5)

  Perception: 31 (26+5)

  Intelligence: 32 (27+5)

  Luck: 32 (27+5)

  HP: 620/620

  MP: 540/540

  Stamina: 620/620

  “Hmm, everything seems pretty even. I would ask what type of build you were trying to achieve, but with Leech, it could be practically anything you want. I boosted Intelligence since my attacks are all MP-based. Where do you think you want to develop?”

  Gus was unsure. He had always hoarded points when playing RPGs until he figured out what class and profession he wanted to be. It was different when the stakes were real and stat placement translated directly to more power.

  “I have no idea. After the threat of protecting the manor was over, I just hoarded them, in case I got a new ability that was stat dependent. Placing points before was more of a desperation-over-inspiration type of choice,” Gus admitted.

  “Well, being balanced overall isn’t such a bad thing. What are your abilities? I know people are secretive and protective of their exact abilities, but give me a general idea.”

  Gus went through the list. Some of his skills seemed especially ridiculous as he read their descriptions and details out loud.

  “Hmm, that’s… a little odd. What do you know about the five schools?”

  “Absolutely nothing. I’ve never heard of them,” he confessed.

  “Well, if you classify powers, they tend to fall into five main categories. For most supers, they align along one of these categories: mental manipulation, matter manipulation, energy manipulation, augments, and supports.”

  “Can you give me examples?”

  “Sure. Mental manipulation builds are the telepaths, illusionists, and supers who can alter their own or other’s brain function to perform at superhuman levels.”

  “So that’s like my TimeSight ability that allows me to sense danger on a kind of subliminal level. It slows down time and allows me to react,” Gus remarked, thinking what in his skill set fit the category.

  “It doesn’t slow down time, it just speeds your normal brain processing so that things appear to be moving slower. But yes, this is a good example of a self-directed mental manipulation power.

  “The next is matter manipulation. Telekinesis used to be classified as a mental power until we understood how ether functions. Objects were not just levitating around; they were being moved by a tangible but less perceptible matter. The lion’s share of powers fall into this category. Most of the augments overlap in this manner. Have you ever wondered how a super can lift something like a plane without puncturing it at the point they grasp it and focusing all the force there? It’s because they are supporting the entire object with a cradle of ether and pushing this supporting framework through space.”

  The revelation hit Gus like a bucket of cold water. Things he had assumed about supers and their powers were totally incorrect, but what Aurora was explaining made more sense.

  “Nick told me that’s how flying works, that supers are pulling themselves through ether like that. I never thought about it as matter manipulation.”

  “The academy has you do all sorts of drills to determine the limits and range of your powers. Flying is assessed early, because the more powerful supers have affinities in more than one of the five categories. Even if you are only specialized into one affinity, often they can uncover functions and adaptations that you never knew you had. The process is grueling and many drop out rather than go through years of punishment to discover everything they can possibly do. If you are found to be an augment, or what some people call a Minmax—”

  “Not to interrupt, but before you go on, what’s a Minmax?”

  “Oh, sorry. Technically, a Minmax is just someone with exceptional development in a single aspect. Like super speed or super strength. For some, that’s all they have that makes them super, but they are good support in a team. It can be a little confusing because some supers use cybernetics to interface with their powers and they often fall into a similar category, but a lot of supers do not put this on the same level as true superpowers.” She wrinkled her nose as if she had smelled something awful. “I’ve had bad experiences with augments, so I make sure to use the term ‘augment’ when I’m referring to someone relying on something artificial to give them their powers, and Minmax for true supers.”

  “Wait, wait. How can anyone get stronger if you don’t have a display to allocate those points? You would be stuck at base levels, right?” Gus furrowed his brow trying to make sense of it all.

  “Now that you mention it, that is something.” She tapped her lip with a finger as she thought for a second. “The only thing I can think of is that the assessors must be allocating your points for you, somehow. They must be able to see your abilities too, because they usually are the ones who devise your course corrections in the curriculum.”

  “I don’t think I’d like that.”

  “It’s either that or figure it all ou
t on your own without the academy’s help. Anyway, if you turn out to be a Minmax, they push you and push you. They make speedsters travel faster and faster until they find their limits. Supers have to lift and move heavier and larger objects to find the extent of their skills. I’ll be honest—I’m a little pissed that they never mentioned level ups and stat point adjustments. A lot of things make more sense now, though. I wonder if we could have skipped a lot of pain and suffering if we could have seen and raised our stats ourselves as we grew.”

  “Probably your typical control freaks.”

  “That could very well be true. The more I think about it, assessors and trainers must have known about stats and how to increase them, because they talk about them in generalized terms and trainees are familiar with them; it’s just that I have never personally seen mine before today.”

  “What else did you see in your display? What affinity are your abilities?”

  “Energy manipulation is what I specialize in. It’s a broad category involving all forms of energy; mine probably would be sub-classified as fundamental force or very small particle manipulation. I can ionize matter and control free radicals. They can be very destructive to DNA or other biological matter. Basically, I am manipulating electrons and oxidizing tissue. I can hover by maintaining a constant spray of energy underneath me, getting a small amount of lift, but it’s not true flight. I think I’m on the threshold to upgrade the skill to a better version though.”

  “Well, maybe you’re focusing on the wrong things. Nick says it’s not a spray of particles that moves you when you fly. Isn’t that how you described it? You know about ether, so what if you tried the same process but left out the ‘spray’ aspect?”

  “I… I don’t know how I haven’t seen that, but you’re probably right. Thank you, Gus.”

  “Sure. But how do you get the control to manipulate something as small as an electron? My brain is short circuiting just thinking about it.”

  “Powers in energy manipulation take much longer to train for exactly that reason. The training involves honing the mind’s ability to access the power to interact with such small particles. I remember being trained to create a funnel of ether to direct my power to function like a shotgun or by using a more focused tube formed of ether to create basically a beam of energy. You drill those so much that the power becomes intrinsic to your nature and as much a reflex as muscle memory.”

  “Could you show me? I’m still learning about ether and how to manipulate it. I’m sure there’s things I’m overlooking.”

  “I have forgotten a lot of how they got us to visualize it. I really haven’t thought about ether for a while either, to be honest. It is kind of abandoned once you find the extent of your powers, kind of like taking off training wheels for a child.” She stopped and looked upwards. “Maybe that’s kept me from developing certain skills. You’ve been kind of innovative with how you’ve experimented with things.” Biting her lip she nodded, making some mental commitment to herself before continuing. “I’ll try to remember and share what I can.”

  “Daphne, can we share that type of information? Display to display?” Gus asked.

  “You better believe it, buster,” came the smooth reply. Gus fist pumped, settling when Aurora rolled her eyes as she waited to continue.

  “Sorry, go on.” Gus sat straighter in his chair.

  “Finally, there are supports, who help other supers with healing effects or stat boosts.”

  “How exactly does that work? I get how it works in a game, it’s just ‘magic,’ but if I was a healer, how would my Nth cause healing in another person?”

  “You know, I really haven’t thought about it. You take it for granted after a while.”

  “I can answer that one,” Daphne interjected. “First, you need to know how stats allow Nth to function. The higher a host’s stats, the better they can integrate skills encoded into the quantum server. It functions much like when you upgrade a personal computer. If you have more memory, you can run more complex operations. A better graphics card can render better images at a higher frame-rate.”

  “That still doesn’t explain how supports work though,” Aurora pointed out.

  “What you term support powers as a class would better be described as ‘conversion.’ The manipulation of one type of matter into another and the conversion of energy into matter are parallel abilities. When things get very small, it is much easier to convert back and forth from energy to matter. Support classes specialize in performing these effects remotely, on others. For healing, an Nth can generate a remote field where, by expending energy, damaged tissues can be reformed into healthy tissues and infused with energy to boost performance. Stat boosts are similar, they can cause a temporary increase in a person’s stats, allowing their Nth to function at a higher level. Occasionally this translates to increased processing power due to a larger network of connected Nth, other times because of reaching a critical increase, an Nth is able to function more effectively.”

  “What about Intelligence? How does that increase MP and Psi-abilities?”

  “The Intelligence stat increases allow the host to use some of the Nth’s processing power in proportion to the amount the stat increases. Compared to the human brain, computers designed by humans are very slow, by many orders of magnitude. Nth operate at speeds ahead of the human brain by a similar factor. Utilizing some of their capacity allows supers to function and react at super speeds or, in Aurora’s case, process the data needed to affect millions of electrons to generate electricity, then direct that flow in a manner she designs. The higher the Intelligence stat, the more Nth can be recruited to assist in these tasks and this translates to a higher MP or ability to accomplish more tasks until they can recharge their capacitors and fire the ability again.”

  “What about my Leech ability? I’m not sure where that one would fall,” Gus asked.

  “That one is unique. Apparently, you can either copy or cut and paste data related to the ability and transfer it to your own Nth. Even to us, the first development of specific powers for an individual is not clear and defined. We can help develop and evolve powers that manifest, but why that varies for different people is uncertain.”

  “Do you know why it takes more to copy an ability rather than just steal it?”

  “Due to the differences from person to person, I imagine there is a conversion process that must be created if you wish to copy an ability. The ability has to be reformatted and each parameter altered to fit the new host, while maintaining the previous ability intact. If the ability is taken, these can all be reset en masse, and the process proceeds much more quickly. As far as affinities go, Leech seems to be a combination of a remote conversion ability with mental manipulation, but directed at Nth instead of at the super’s own mind. It is quite unique,” Daphne finished.

  “My powers are a little weird in general, but I’m used to being an oddball.” Gus stretched and stood up. As interesting as all this was, he felt restless and needed to do something. “It’s probably something weird with my genetics. My father and brother’s powers center around control over the weather and I have no idea about my mother’s abilities. I should remember her more, but my memory really got wrecked when I got sick.”

  “Oh, she was dual-class, support and mental. She could offer all kinds of stat boosts and hyper-charge them by changing one’s self-perception,” Aurora said offhandedly.

  Gus spun and grabbed Aurora by the arms. “Wait, how do you know my mom?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  We Are Family

  “Gus, did you forget she was Purple Faction?”

  “Yeah, I kind of did, I guess,” he said, letting go of her, flushing a bit at his aggressive reaction.

  “Why don’t we head to this training area you mentioned earlier? You look restless.”

  Gus stopped pacing, trying to process it all.

  “I’ll tell you what I know about her on the way,” Aurora added.

  Gus led the way to the e
levators, trying not to fidget. Finally, he would get some answers. Keep calm, dude, why are you freaking out? He took some deep breaths to calm himself.

  Aurora waited for the elevator doors to close before she began. “She was like a stand-in mother for me when I first got to the academy. So kind. I was all alone and one of the few females in my class. I always felt that I was special, and that she looked out for me. I’m not sure if it was part of her power or just how she was, but she had this way of making you feel important. The way she would ask how I was doing and remembered things I had said, so I knew it wasn’t just for show. It was so unlike the other women in my life. You were lucky to have her as your mother.”

  “I wish I could remember her. It’s weird because I remember everything about my brother and Tempest, but there’s a strange void where she used to be. Like it was carved out. Was she one of your teachers then?”

  “Yes. Our class was atypical with there being so many males. Plus most of them were either legacies or from wealthy families. I didn’t fit in and had to fight for my standing. There was a lot of sabotage and competition, and in Purple, you just have to learn how to deal with it. Survival of the fittest, you know. I had a couple teachers who looked out for me; Rory, and your mom. Sometimes it sucked, but it made me stronger.”

  “Being the odd man out is the worst.” Gus nodded, staring at his feet.

  “Since I didn’t really have anywhere to go during the holidays, an instructor named Rory recruited me to help him in the transport department. He was the one who first invited me to the academy.” She smiled at the memory. “He taught me so much about how to fix things and kept me busy enough that I didn’t think about what I was missing or have time to feel jealous of the other students.”

  Breaking her reverie, Gus asked urgently, “What else? Can you tell me more about her? I feel like I hardly know her, and I should. I was seven or eight years old when I got sick, so there should be something there, but there just isn’t. They told me that my high fevers must have affected those memories, but I could tell they were keeping something from me.” Gus felt it was rude to press her, but he had to know. The emptiness demanded to be filled.