Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

  “You seem like you’d like to keep on the down-low.”

  “I guess. I just wanted to live my life without other people getting involved. I think I just found my comfort zone and accepted the fact that I was lesser than other people. Then I learned some coping mechanisms that weren’t really that helpful, but took my focus off the real reason for my lack of drive. I got into gaming pretty heavily, because I could be a part of a world that my character could shape and actively change. I saw consistent progression and growth. I even looked forward to grinding because the rewards were there, though the tasks were monotonous and repetitive. Then the rest of the game was a breeze.”

  “And you think that’s how supers are.”

  “Well, life isn’t like that for regs. You can do something monotonous forever and there’s no reward at the end. If something doesn’t eventually pay off, then there’s no real reason to push through the drudgery. And yeah, it’s even more appropriate because you do gain levels and get stronger. The Nth are impartial; they always give rewards. Real life, not so much. Does that make sense?”

  “You make it sound so bleak. Is it really that bad for regs?” She pressed. “I mean, you said you were happy, right?”

  “Okay, Aurora. What was life for you like before you got your powers? Was it great?”

  Aurora didn’t respond as her eyes went out of focus.

  After a minute, Gus pressed onward. “As time has gone on, I’ve remembered more and more about my mother. One thing that I recently thought about was when I asked my mom why she liked the 80’s so much. She said it was the last normal decade.”

  “I’ve seen the clothes and heard some of the music, Gus. I don’t know if normal is the right word…” Aurora said with a wry grin.

  “What I mean is that when the Nth came in the early 90’s, there was a lot of change. Obviously. But she said that at least people were trending towards a little more tolerance and equality. The introduction of powers negated that to a large degree, and while people weren’t discriminated against because of nationality, wealth, or color of their skin—they were discriminated against by whether they had abilities or not. Governments changed, power shifted, and the whole dynamic of society changed.”

  “Not to interrupt, but you seem done.” She pointed to the food that Gus had been mushing and cutting into smaller and smaller pieces. “Should we head in to train?”

  “Maybe later. Actually, I have another idea.”

  “Such as?”

  “Deep sea diving?” Gus asked with a shrug.

  Gus explained what Nick had said about his Nth capacity and how he needed to get more raw materials to absorb and left it at that. He outlined the plan Nick had for what his new ability Intermediate Shielding could do. All that he needed to do was to go to the ocean floor and find a crashed escape pod.

  “It’s really freaking me out, to be honest.”

  “Gus, you’re a super now. This is what we do! I’m actually kind of excited. Nick? What do we need to do to make this happen?” Aurora asked eagerly.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Dive Down

  “The closest point on the beach to the crash site is on the east side of the island. Why don’t we head there? It’s not very far from here, you could probably walk there in a half an hour,” Nick suggested.

  “Nick, is getting the suit even feasible given how much time has passed?” Aurora asked as they grabbed their boots and began walking on the sand.

  “I don’t see why not. The weight of the pod should have minimized how far it would drift, given there wasn’t too much shrapnel.” A familiar wave of weird sensations hit Gus and he waited for Nick to translate what the smell of kettle corn and the feeling of a foot massager could possibly signify.

  “The hybrid-Nth can sense the Kroutonium nearby. They say they know where all their ‘family’ is. Not just here, either. If I’m interpreting this correctly, they can sense it from everywhere in the world. No, their word for ‘here’ is synonymous with what we would use for eons and galaxies. Everything their consciousness can experience and has experienced is available to be remembered or used. Anyway, to them, some of their family are a short distance from us, but I’m concerned that it may be very far from our perspective.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You never said anything about Kroutonium!” Aurora said, grabbing the sleeve of Gus’ outfit. “You actually have some of it already?” Aurora moved her grip to the front of Gus’ jumpsuit, her eyes wide and a giddy grin on her face. “And no one calls it Kroutonium anymore, by the way.”

  “What? Why?” Gus sputtered, shocked at her sudden change in demeanor.

  “It is the most valuable substance on Earth! Just how much are you talking about?” Aurora demanded, staring more intently.

  “Well, the plate in the one was about ten pounds and—” Gus hung on the last word as Aurora let go of him and plopped to her butt on the sand, as if struck. She was muttering something unintelligible to herself.

  “And why don’t they call it Kroutonium anymore?” Gus inquired, smoothing out his outfit.

  “The guy who found it made so much money that he moved to Wisconsin and built this huge underground bunker. Then he got a little weird and started doing genetic experiments on rabbits. There was a furor among the animal lovers and the name was changed to Endurium,” she explained almost in a daze.

  “Endurium, huh?” Gus smiled with nostalgia, instantly understanding the arcane reference. “Yeah, but to answer your question, I need some more, thanks to some asshat decisions I made earlier on, before you got to the island.”

  Aurora sat heavily on the sand, jaw agape, muttering, “Ten pounds?”

  Gus ignored her and turned his attention to Nick and the plan. “Ask them if they can show it on the display, then we would know in our frame of reference.”

  “You know they understand you and your thoughts just as I do, right? Probably better, in fact. Just because you don’t understand them, don’t underestimate them. They get it.”

  Gus asked his question mentally and received two sensations. One was the smell of a diamond, which was how they referred to themselves, and Gus was past trying to make sense of the stimuli. It was what it was.

  Couldn’t they just have a normal name?

  In the second sensation, he saw a blue diamond pop up on the edge of his display. Zooming to the appropriate scale, it was way out there, miles away, maybe twenty or so. But how deep? A number popped up above the blue diamond: 14,678. Was that feet? Meters? How deep was the ocean anyway?

  “So how am I going to get down there, Nick?”

  “I think you could reinforce your new shielding ability to transfer the pressure exerted by the water to the ether. The volume of ether in the universe trumps the water on this planet and it should be able to resist that easily, if done correctly. I would recommend making two separate spheres, as the weaves will compress the more pressure is exerted on them. You could be in the inner sphere and the outer sphere would be a barrier for the compression. The only challenge is that you will be limited by the available oxygen in the spheres so you will have to be fast.”

  “Fast I can do, especially now. What about the bends or compression sickness?”

  “You have Nth, remember? We can monitor the pressure of the inner bubble and the outer sphere will be managing most of the compression, significantly lessening the effect on the inner sphere. We will also track blood and tissue gasses and guide the ascent and descent, and display everything as a timer so you can have a representation you can see and use to plan.”

  “I’m coming too,” Aurora broke in, hearing their internal conversation.

  “It’s too dangerous, plus it would cut oxygen reserves in half,” Nick replied, not even considering the argument.

  “How are you going to see down there? It’ll be pitch black,” she said.

  “Gus’ perception is high enough that he has filters he can use, plus the hybrid-Nth can sense the other Kroutonium, and I’m sure can updat
e the display. Besides, he needs you to monitor surface conditions in case those supers come back.”

  Aurora finally relented and stood, brushing the sand off herself.

  “You’re sure, Nick?” Gus asked, seeing Aurora’s disappointment.

  “I don’t think your skill in shielding is adequate to create a sphere big enough for the both of you. In addition, the amount of energy to pull a sphere that size down to the ocean floor will expend all of your MP before you get there. You have to actively Ether Leash down to counteract the sphere’s buoyancy.”

  Gus shrugged apologetically.

  “Logistics made the decision for us. Alright, I’ll be the lookout. What if someone attacks while you’re submerged? Send a message through our Nth if there are any complications?”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but that sounds like a good plan.” Aurora kicked sand into a little pile without looking at him. “Hey, I’m not looking forward to this, if that’s your concern. I’m slightly claustrophobic as it is. But lately, life is a bunch of have-tos and not a lot of get-tos. If I don’t upgrade my Nth, I can’t power up like I need to, in order to do what I must to keep the manor out of Basileus’ hands. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  “Okay, just do it. The less time this takes the better.” She hugged herself and refused to meet his eyes.

  Gus put on a brave face and tried the ability for the first time. He made a sphere around himself, making it just big enough to not trigger his claustrophobia. With Nick’s guidance, he made another larger sphere, pushing the range of his concentration and ability.

  “We’ll have to make some changes when we get above the pod, but this should work for now. Now just ether lash and go,” Nick advised.

  Gus waved to Aurora and walked the ball to the water. He had always wanted to try zorbing, and now he had one of his own design! Currently, the inner sphere was resting on the bottom of the outer sphere and he could feel the bobbing of the waves as the water lifted him up and down inside the construct. He made two tethers and launched himself like a slingshot, flying out over the waves.

  Gus crashed forward as he hit a wave, tumbling ass over teakettle until he settled on the bottom of the sphere, looking upward.

  Nick guffawed. “Classic!”

  Gus got back to his feet, happy that the soft membrane of the sphere didn’t hurt as he collided with it. He turned and gave Aurora a sheepish wave.

  “You suck, you know that?” Gus griped.

  When the laughing finally calmed down. Nick showed Gus where to put internal supports between the two spheres.

  “You need practice stabilizing these supports, before they’re stressed, which is why you’re using MP to create them now. One of the advantages of ether is that you can make frictionless surfaces. Now if the outer sphere encounters something, the supports will absorb it and not transfer that to the inner sphere.”

  Gus made the changes as shown. “And you couldn’t show me that before?”

  “I could have, but where’s the fun in that?”

  With a growl, Gus started pulling in the direction of the blue diamond on his display. There was still more jostling than he liked with the herky-jerky movement of the waves hitting the sphere and trying to gauge their movement. He soon found that he could avoid the water altogether and start swinging the spheres through the air.

  From there, Gus got into a rhythm and even found that he could launch himself again before touching down and losing momentum. He felt like Tarzan, swinging on ether vines, swooping and feeling the exhilaration of the brief moments of weightlessness at each arc’s apex. All too soon, he was at the designated spot. This far out from the island the water didn’t seem to have perceptible waves.

  “Okay, after your MP recharges, you are going to want to compress that outer sphere and make it selectively permeable to nitrogen. Your brain is going to fight against this a bit because it’s hard to conceptualize but… There. I’ve temporarily highlighted the different gases in different colors. As you compress the outer sphere, let the black particles filter out and keep the light green ones.”

  Gus started compressing and had difficulty separating the two, so both gases were escaping. Struggling, an idea came to him and he imagined the black particles as being square shaped and the green as circular ones, much like the baby toys designed to teach shapes. Subconsciously the adjustment was just what he needed and the large sphere began to shrink, concentrating the space between the spheres with purer and purer oxygen.

  His MP drained at a higher rate while doing the compression and he had to rest twice to allow the bar to slowly trickle full. He itched to grab some blue gels but Nick warned him to save them for an emergency. His current regeneration speed wasn’t quick enough to maintain both spheres but it was close. The drain was much slower when he wasn’t changing their dimensions, then it began creeping back up. When he was finished, the now much smaller outer sphere was easier to maintain and manage.

  “Okay, now with that done, make the inner sphere permeable to allow only oxygen into the smaller sphere and carbon dioxide and nitrogen out to the larger sphere. The partial pressure of the gases should auto regulate. I will warn you when you are running low. If we’re in a pinch, we could do a little Wreck-It-Gus hydrolysis, but let’s try to avoid that.”

  “Why?”

  “Explodey reasons.”

  Gus rolled his eyes at Nick’s explanation. He focused on the inner sphere, and imagined the shapes again, but as valves resembling a revolving door.

  “Perfect, I think you got it,” Nick congratulated him. “Alright, Ether Lash yourself down and go for it.”

  The resistance of pulling the twin spheres through the water was significantly more difficult, as he had to maintain the weaves constantly and with more force. This sensation was not pleasant at all, feeling like climbing a rope down into the murky depths. All while someone kept adding weight to you the higher or deeper you got.

  This too became rhythmic after Gus got the hang of it, and he altered his display to night vision mode. There wasn’t much to see in this patch of water. He had expected to see more marine life, but this area was a watery desert with nothing to change the view. Gus pulled and realized that the action was purely a mental one. He had been tensing his back muscles, straining with each pull and was getting more fatigued than he needed to. Sitting down, he closed his eyes and focused on the motion.

  The task became easier, although Gus saw that his MP was draining at a more prodigious rate the lower he descended. Finally Nick relented and allowed him to consume an occasional blue gel. It was all he needed to replenish his MP bar and give him a comfortable margin again. Peeking at times to see his display, the number representing proximity gradually shrank. Gus could feel a slight humming vibration accompanied by the sensation of pulling a cotton ball apart.

  “The hybrid-Nth say we are getting close, and that they’re excited.”

  Gus wasn’t a fan of the sensation. It wasn’t uncomfortable, per se, but it did give him the chills a little bit. Shaking his head, he turned back to the task of pulling. A chime sounded and Gus continued to pull. What felt like hours passed. Another chime sounded but Gus’ focus was on the task at hand—logs could wait. When Gus looked, he saw pale green below him.

  The wreckage of the pod was visible, and it looked like a clamshell that had been ripped into the shape of Pac-Man. Silt and debris floated around, reminding Gus of vacuum lint. It coated the surface of the pod and the exposed beams and struts from where the pod was ripped apart. It looked like slimy algae. When Gus approached, the silt fluttered away, making things murky and difficult to resolve. The panel shone as a bright gold square in the murk, deep within the pod against one wall.

  Gus was concerned the outer sphere would limit how close he could get but it had condensed significantly. Still, he could not go inside the pod with the current size of the spheres. Noticing that his MP was dropping below 10%, he quickly lashed the spheres to the pod wreckage and let go o
f his active pulling. The pod shifted and was lifted off the ocean floor as the spheres began to rise. The heavier weight of the wreckage anchored the sphere and Gus saw his MP jump to 11%, trending upwards again. He breathed a sigh; he only had two blue gels left.

  His concern that he would run out of juice before reaching the bottom and having to start all over again was relieved. Without the focus required to pull the spheres down, he had time to take in the whole scene. The pod looked so small from this vantage point and he was surprised that he had survived reentry. The outer surface was crumpled and dented everywhere, black scoring along the base licking up around the sides of the pod.

  “Gus, we’ll need to hurry. I know we came here for the Kroutonium, but there is a capsule of Nth in a cylinder right next to the plate. Could you grab that as well?”

  “Hells, yes. That would be awesome if I could add them to my Nth pool.” Gus reached out with an ether lash and tugged on the glowing plate. It moved slightly but then Gus met heavy resistance.

  “Careful, don’t crack the cylinder or the Nth will be lost,” Nick warned. “If you could, put it in a bubble of its own. I’m surprised the cylinder is intact.”

  Instead of pulling, Gus used the ether leash like an extra hand, probing around to see if he could determine what was holding the plate up. The plastic receptacle holding the plate was still intact, and although Gus could see the plate as a bright blazing square in his display, he had been trying to pull it straight through the side of the plastic. Grasping the top edge, he gently pulled, sliding it out like a game of Operation. Once extracted, he pulled the plate towards him.

  He sent another tendril of ether out and found the cylinder situated above the plastic receptacle. Two latches had to be pulled and then Gus dislodged the canister in a similar manner, enclosing it and bringing it slowly to the sphere.