Take Aim

by Charles Case

  Gert’s reply was nearly instant. “Just wander close to each mound. One will speak to you. You’ll know when you find a compatible soul.”

  Seena gave Corbin a sad smile and squeezed his hand before letting go and wandering through the various mounds of shining metal. Corbin watched her slow progress in the fading light of the day. Nhi was at the horizon, and Trac was following close behind, sending brilliant glittering light off the shiny mounds surrounding them, reminding Corbin of stars, or the glitter of laser fire on the battlefield, he couldn't quite decide which.

  After a minute, he began his search. To Corbin, there was no great mystery which one to use. As soon as they had arrived he knew he would go for the one Seena had been standing on, but in the spirit of the whole thing, he decided to wander around a little to see if anything else jumped out at him. He started after Seena, closing his eyes and really trying to feel the pull. After walking for a minute, eyes closed and with nothing but his feelings to guide him, he stopped and opened his eyes.

  Corbin barked out a laugh. Looking down, he was standing on his original choice. “Well, that seals it, I guess.”

  “You aren’t one to second-guess yourself,” Leela chuckled. “I never had to tell you about how the metals call to you because you intuitively follow your gut, anyway. This will be much harder for Seena. She comes from a world of important decisions that could spell disaster if she were to make a mistake.”

  Corbin took out a laser cutter along with a flat scraper and began cutting a sizable chunk from the mound. “Yeah, she likes to do things correctly from the start. It’s good that she’s all about the details and does good work, but it can really hinder her if she’s out of her depth. Back when she was under me in the army, I had to be careful what jobs I gave her or she would be at it late into the night and not get any sleep. She would be useless for a day after that.”

  With a practiced hand, Corbin cut a roughly spherical chunk of the soft metal out, and bounced it in his hand a few times before turning to see if Seena had found what she was looking for. The black hole and its accretion disk had set, and Trac was bisected by the horizon, creating long dark shadows across the landscape. Corbin's heart skipped a beat when he didn't immediately see Seena, and he stood to get a better view.

  He finally spotted her crouched beside a boulder, deep in the shadow cast by the fading sun. Dropping his tools and the metal ball in his pocket, he jogged the hundred or so yards to her side.

  “Find what you were looking for?” he asked, crouching beside her.

  She had her hands pressed flat to a dust-covered mound, her eyes closed and a smile on her face. “Yes. This one. It’s… singing to me.”

  Corbin's brows rose. “Singing? Well, I guess that’s a good sign. Do you want me to get you a sample, or wait a little longer?”

  She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “No, go ahead and get the sample. I’m ready.”

  Corbin patted her shoulder reassuringly and went to work cutting out a ball from the silvery mound.

  “Gert says to make it bigger. My well is developed enough to take in quite a bit of metal.”

  “I didn't realize we could take more in if we had a deeper well,” Corbin said, changing the angle of the cutter and adding about fifty percent to the whole. “Maybe I should get more for myself.”

  “As usual, you instinctively carved out the right amount. Don't worry, I’ll let you know if you ever start to do the wrong thing.”

  Corbin chuckled and cut the last section of metal, then handed it to Seena. “Ready?”

  “Should we go back to the bunker and do this? It’s going to be dark, soon.” Seena squinted at the horizon and the quickly fading light.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, standing and putting his tools away. “Best not to tempt fate too much.” He held out his arms to her. “Milady, your chariot awaits.”

  She laughed, holding the ball of metal to her chest. Then, in a rush, she took two running steps and leaped at him, making him scramble to catch her. They both laughed, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

  “Let’s go, chariot.”

  He smiled and let his power flow through him. In seconds, they were soaring through the civil twilight, both deep in thought about what their new powers would be.

  17

  Once inside the bunker, Leela sent the signal and the huge doors began to slide closed with a ponderous gait. Corbin and Seena quickly sat on the ground, preparing their minds and bodies to accept the new metals. Corbin had tried to explain what to do but Gert took up the narrative for Seena, and Corbin figured she knew what to do better than he did.

  Soon, Seena was deep in meditation, her metal ball cradled loosely in her hands. Corbin watched for a few minutes, wishing her the best of luck, before closing his eyes and starting his meditative breathing.

  Now that he had been meditating regularly, he was able to fall into a trance nearly instantly. His breathing fell into the complicated rhythm Leela had first shown him, and that had served him so well.

  The weight of metal in his hands was like an anchor to the real world while his mind expanded into the vast nothing of meditation. Once he was deep in and the rest of the waking world had faded away, he focused on the weight in his hands. He tried to feel what essence it held. There was a flavor to the metal that his mind tasted, but that was unfamiliar to him. He cocked his head as he considered that the flavor of essence was not completely unfamiliar once he sampled it more deeply. There was a familiar tang to it, but not so much that he could immediately identify it.

  He focused on that one line of familiarity in the chaos of the new power. Reasoning that it had to be something he was at least passingly aware of, he tried to remember what his other two powers felt like. The healing power was crisp and light, lending a boost of energy at the simple thought of it, but it was nothing like this essence.

  Gravity, on the other hand, had something running through its core that sparked a feeling. It was wholly different from this new essence, but at the same time there was a thread of similarity.

  Corbin tried to run through the gravity ability and find where that similarity came from. Every instance of him using his gravity ability began to play through his mind. Leaping through the air, blasting objects away from himself, or up into the air. He ran through every instance he could think of and nothing smacked of the same flavor.

  Then he thought back to when he had saved Ren from the super in the alley, and there it was. He realized it wasn't the gravity ability where the similarity was, but when he boosted his physical abilities before using the gravity. The feeling he had when he had boosted his strength and smashed the super’s head to the ground was exactly like what he was getting from the metal.

  Corbin smiled, settling deeper into his trance. He thought about strength and physical movement. His mind worked through how his muscles moved when he gave them some of his power, how they soaked it in and turned it into strength.

  All at once, the metal in his hands became warm, almost hot, before spreading out and becoming cool to the touch. He felt the metal sinking into him through the palms of his hands. His breath caught in his throat as his well grew in size and the power there thickened, growing viscous and pure.

  Where there had once been a light pulsing of power there was now a throb. It was as if he had two hearts, each pumping life, but of different kinds. He felt his muscles tighten as if becoming denser, and more pronounced. His tendons ached as they thickened and became like steel cords. His whole skeleton hummed with power, becoming harder and sturdier.

  The change was quick but left him vibrating with pent-up energy.

  “Well, that was much quicker than the last two times.” Leela was excited right along with him. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I could crush boulders with my bare hands,” he joked, his eyes slowly opening. He had to blink back tears at the bright light of the bunker. At first, he was confused about why the lights had been turned up, t
hen as he readjusted he realized that he was simply more sensitive to the light after the trance.

  Leela laughed. “I bet you can. That was the essence of strength you just absorbed. As a side note, I now have enough metal to make a proper suit of armor. No more explosive rounds are getting through us.”

  Corbin smiled. “Now that is some welcome news. How are Gert and Seena doing?”

  “Oh, they were finished thirty minutes ago.”

  “Thi… how long did that take me?” Corbin asked, glancing around and not seeing Seena anywhere.

  “About two hours.” Seena crouched down behind him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

  Corbin spun around as fast as he could while still sitting on the ground, but when he looked she was gone.

  “Over here.” She laughed, making Corbin spin back.

  She was standing in front of him now, hands on her hips and a smile on her face so big that she looked slightly insane.

  “What the hell?” Corbin whispered, trying to figure out how she had gotten there so fast. “Can you teleport or something?”

  She laughed with joy. “Close. Here, watch. See if you can keep up.”

  With that, she disappeared in a puff of dust from the floor. No, not disappeared, moving faster than he could track. He saw a thin rooster tail of dust as she ran across the bunker in a few seconds. He saw her tiny figure over a mile away stop and start jumping up and down, waving her hands in the air. Then she took off again, this time even faster, her body nothing but a blur.

  She slammed to a stop right in front of him. A sonic boom blew him onto his back, setting his ears ringing so bad that he had to use his healing ability to make them stop. Sitting up and shaking his head, the sight in front of him made his jaw drop, before he roared with laughter.

  Seena was crimson red with embarrassment as she tried in vain to cover her mostly-naked body. She had moved so fast that the wind resistance was far too much for the tough material of her jumpsuit, and had shredded the whole thing, except for a few bits that clung to her almost mockingly.

  “Oh, damn!” Corbin laughed. “That is some impressive speed. Might want to work on your wardrobe a little, although you could probably take anyone by surprise if you showed up in your birthday suit.”

  “Holy shit!” Seena squealed, making a run for the OVAL.

  Corbin appreciated the show as she ran, climbing to his feet when she jumped through the door. A second later she came out in a fresh suit, pulling the zipper up the last few inches.

  “I can't believe that happened!” Seena’s face was still red as a furnace, but she was smiling at the absurdity. “What am I going to do? I can't have my clothes ripping themselves off during a fight.”

  Corbin was about to make a suggestion when he saw the faraway look in Seena's eyes that meant she was listening to Gert. He waited, watching Seena's face brighten with each passing second.

  “We can do that?” Seena laughed then held her arms out to the side. “I want to try it.”

  She seemed to shiver slightly, then look down at herself with a smile that quickly turned to confusion. “What the hell?”

  “What happened?” Corbin asked, stepping closer. Then he saw that her hands were covered in light-green colored gloves.

  She reached up and unzipped the jumpsuit, revealing more of the green material. She quickly stripped out of the jumpsuit completely, and Corbin realized she was wearing armor, not unlike his own, but much thinner. It was basically a skin suit that covered her from neck to toe.

  “You can already form armor?” Corbin was shocked. His had taken quite a while to form, but here she was only an hour after getting her first power set and able to form a full bodysuit.

  “Huh.” Seena’s face was still a little confused. “Gert says she can form armor over my clothes, like you and Leela, but we don't have a lot of metal to work with so this is more efficient.” She was quiet for a few seconds longer then added, “She also says that with the armor on my skin I have a direct connection so it takes less power to maintain it.”

  “How much power is it draining from your well?” Corbin asked.

  She considered it for a second. “I can hardly feel the draw. Just a little more than when I was boosting my physical attributes during fight training.”

  “Leela, why don't we do that?” Corbin asked, trying to see the disadvantage, and not coming up with anything.

  “Uh…” Leela sounded more than a little chagrined. “We can. I didn't think of it at the time. My memories are really just now coming back to me. When I first formed into armor I was only thinking about protecting us, not about the most efficient way of doing so. Sorry. You want to give it a try?” she added, hopefully.

  Corbin chuckled. “Yeah, let’s give it a try.”

  The process of forming the armor had become second nature to him, but he forgot that it was Leela that actually did the forming, so when he sent some power her way the process felt the same as always. However, once the armor formed his jumpsuit bulged out and strained at the seams. He also felt the draw from his well drop to just a trickle he hardly even noticed.

  Unzipping his jumpsuit, Corbin smiled. “Damn, Gert. You were right. I can hardly feel the draw at all. I’m pretty sure I could keep this on all the time and my well will fill faster than it takes to maintain.” He stripped out of his clothing completely and moved around, trying to get a good look at everything.

  The armor was the same as always, except slightly less bulky, and he felt the breeze on his skin. It was like the difference between wearing thick winter gloves versus latex gloves.

  “This is amazing.” He was giddy with excitement. It was like having a whole new suit. “Wait, I thought you said with the additional metal we could make thicker armor.”

  “Oh, we can, but I figured that would be something we would save till we were in battle. No need to draw more power than necessary.”

  Another boom of sound echoed through the huge bunker as Seena took off at full speed, trying out the new suit. She returned quickly, her face split in a huge grin.

  “This is amazing. It’s like a second skin, but as if it’s made of steel. I felt like I was sliding through the air. It was amazing.” She held up an arm and rubbed it with her other hand, feeling the smooth texture under her fingertips.

  “What does the tattoo look like?” Corbin asked, willing Leela to split and uncover his chest. He walked to the OVAL and found a reflective surface. Leaning in, he saw that there was a new symbol at the eleven o’clock position in the circle. It was of a human figure lifting a boulder larger than itself above its head.

  He touched the new black mark, and saw that the small stylized fox now had three tails.

  “Oh, man. This is amazing.” Seena was standing a little further down, her chest exposed as she stared into another reflective surface. She turned to Corbin. “Check it out.”

  At the top of her circle tattoo was a small figure in a running position with lines jutting out behind it, as if it were moving very fast.

  “You’re right.” Corbin nodded, a very serious look on his face.

  Seena furrowed her brow. “About what?”

  “You do look badass with a tattoo.” He smiled, then laughed when a grin of pleasure split her face.

  Corbin flexed and moved his arms in a circle, marveling at the way the armor felt now that he had nothing under it.

  “I have to say, it’s a lot easier to move without the jumpsuit underneath.” Looking around, Corbin spotted a few large rocks that had fallen inside while Glen was clearing the doorway. “I want to give my new powers a try.”

  He held out a hand and sent a shot of power to his body. He grew lighter, which didn't make any sense at first until he realized that his legs were stronger and it was easier to hold his weight.

  A smile spread across his face and he winked at Seena before selecting a rock and, using his gravity power, pulled it toward him. The watermelon-sized chunk of rock rocketed into his outstretched hands. He marveled a
t how he barely felt the impact, his arms absorbing the force with ease.

  He held the rock between his hands and pressed them together. The rock resisted, and he dumped more power into his strength ability. The muscles on his neck and back stood out, even through the armor, as he strained with the stone. Just when he was about to up the power again there was a loud cracking sound, followed by his hands slamming together, as the rock turned to flying shrapnel and dust.

  “Whoa! That was crazy.” Seena’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. “I can't believe this. It’s like a dream come true.”

  Corbin cocked his head. “Do you hear that?”

  They both quieted and listened. A ringing tone came from his discarded clothes. Corbin quickly dug out his arm tablet and saw that Ren was calling. He also noted there were several missed calls from her and Lawrence during the time he and Seena were in their trances.

  Corbin pressed the answer button. “Ren, what’s going on?”

  Ren’s holo appeared, showing her sitting at a console. “Corbin, It’s about bloody time. Where have you two been? Wait, you know what, I don't care. We need your help. The dropship and Glen’s fighter are under attack.”

  “Who’s attacking? Lieu Corp?” Seena asked, digging her tablet from the scraps of her old jumpsuit and joining the call.

  “No, it’s not the Corp. We don't know who it is, but the ship design is the same as some of our people have observed over Rush. We think it has to do with some of the weird shit that’s happening there.” Ren was typing while she talked. Her holo was replaced with a slightly blurry image of a ship. “Glen sent us this a while ago when they first spotted the craft. He decided to lead the ship away from the bunker in case it was after them, and sure as shit, it followed. At first, they simply led it on a wild goose chase across the wilds, but about twenty minutes ago it moved in and attacked. Glen can't get through the thing’s shields with his lasers, and he doesn't have anything bigger on the fighter right now. He’s trying his best to keep our dropship safe but it doesn't look good. I had him start leading the attackers closer to the bunker in the hopes that you can get there in time.”