Lair

by Carl Stubblefield

  Gus had to take a break to let his stamina bar refill and get a drink. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he began again and had to get back into the groove. The short break had thrown off his form, and it took a couple minutes to reestablish muscle memory.

  In his life before the island, Gus was never what you would call a coordinated guy. He had taken a date to a dance instruction class and found out to his embarrassment that he had trouble combining the steps at the right time, in the right order. Now though, he executed the correct movements of the training tutorial much more easily. He could sense more intuitively than ever before what he should be doing. Muscle memory seemed to be established with only a handful of successful run-throughs. The thought made him long to increase agility even more. He hated being a klutz. He felt a twinge of angst at his need for improvement in so many areas. Only the thought of how far he had come in such a short time quenched his frustration. His self-evaluation had always been very unforgiving at the slightest failings.

  It’s all a part of the process. Shake it off and focus. He exhaled deeply, letting go of the emotions, and got back to work.

  Increasing his speed, he got to the point where he almost looked forward to testing the technique against another Mantid. A familiar chime let him know he had reached sufficient skill to unlock the ability.

  Through consistent, successful completion of the skill Parry, it will be upgraded to the skill Counter-attack! You are now able to activate this skill after a successful parry attempt. Use this skill to level it!

  Counter-attack (Level 1): After completion of a successful parry of an enemy attack, 5% chance of following through with an attack that deals double the damage! Success rates increase with higher levels.

  100 XP awarded

  200 FP awarded

  Gus now saw the panel slide back, and a pillowbot appeared, sheathed in the orange Mantid holographic skin. A red bar appeared with 135/135 above the Mantid. Chop Chop shouted from the sidelines, “Defend!”

  The Mantid attacked, leaving Gus no time to prepare. He reflexively parried but missed the counter-attack due to his poor footing. The jolt from the parry caused him to stumble backward. Those suckers don’t pull any punches!

  Shaking his head and getting centered, Gus turned and faced off against the pillow-Mantid. It feinted, and Gus flinched in response, but quickly reset for another attack. When the Mantid tried again, Gus swept the Mantid to the side and skewered it as it passed. He was rewarded by a ‘-40 HP’ appearing above the Mantid as his attack connected.

  The Mantid spun and relentlessly attacked again. Gus managed the parry but did not complete the counter. The intensity and pressure of attack added a new layer of difficulty and challenged his ability to focus. On the next pass, Gus was able to activate Sweep the Leg, downing the creature. The stunned state of the Mantid allowed him to score four more hits that dispatched the virtual zombie while it lay there incapacitated. The orange skin evaporated, revealing the pillowbot form underneath, lying prone.

  “Good jorb!” Gus complimented himself in his best Coach Z voice.

  After a reset period, the pillowbot stood again and was re-skinned with the Mantid form. Gus noticed that even though he had pierced it with the spear, the material he had thought was some sort of cloth was entirely intact. Before he could ruminate further, the panel slid open, and another pillow-Mantid joined the fray.

  “Dang it, Chop Chop, you’re a jerk!” Gus yelled as he saw the corners of Chop Chop’s pug-lip smirk slightly.

  Gus had to monitor his surroundings carefully because the Mantids began to circle. One tried to sneak behind Gus, and he had to spin and then get back into a stance where he could parry. One jumped, and Gus was able to execute his Counter-attack ability. He sprang away, and the other Mantid just missed attacking while he was out of Gus’ sight with the twist that Counter-attack applied. He jabbed quickly and scored a hit. A chime sounded.

  You have unlocked a bonus skill: Chained Attack (Level 1). Hit a second target when a successful Counter-attack triggers without receiving any damage by either attacker. 50% chance of activating a chained attack with direct attack if no damage is taken.

  100 XP awarded

  200 FP awarded

  500 XP awarded for discovering a skill without the aid of an instructor or utilizing a skill crystal.

  “Bazinga! Thought you had me, ugly?” Gus taunted, his voice quivery with adrenaline. The Mantids reverted to their circling pattern, and Gus was ready for the opportunistic attack from the support Mantid. He was able to score a critical hit in the head, and that Mantid was out of the fight. Fighting a single enemy was simple in comparison, and he dispatched the second Mantid after a couple attacks and Counter-attack cycles. A ding and chime simultaneously sounded.

  Quest Complete: 1000 XP

  You have leveled up the skill: Counter-attack to Level 2!

  +500 Facility Points awarded.

  +500 XP bonus for unlocking hidden skill during combat

  +300 FP bonus for unlocking hidden skill during combat

  1275 XP to level 7

  Gus still had about an hour before the deadline for the quest, but the dimming lights of the arena gave him the tacit notification that he had completed as much training as he could for the day. Gus wasn’t sure if it was an effect of the Nth or just excitement over leveling up his skills, but he always felt amped after finishing a quest. Maybe it was related to the level up euphoria, just with adrenaline or something. He was more than ready to make some manor upgrades, and was excited to see what would be available.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Back in Time

  Day 6 9:15 AM

  9:03:11 remaining

  Methiochos, yes that was it, so long ago. With the name came back some of the context of his situation. He opened his eyes to find himself in a dark cave. Shadows danced on the ridged basalt columns that lined the walls of the chamber. Stale acrid air, mixed with an unpleasant sulfurous undertone, assaulted his awakening senses. Turning, he noticed the changes his body had undergone since the transformation.

  While his torso remained the same, his lower extremities were now a writhing mass of legs, tentacles and pseudopods. An odd assortment of tools, as each iteration had a specialized use besides mere propulsion and movement. He had, at one time, been revolted at how the changes had altered his appearance, but had long ago turned it to his advantage.

  He was also much more aware of his surroundings from the information they transmitted to him, subconsciously allowing him to sense vibrations in the ground, and detect various changes in the environment. His arms were similar but could be coalesced into the resemblance of normal arms, albeit thick and muscular. This time he stretched, allowing the tendrils of his arms to unfurl and expand, reaching farther, thinning as they were pushed to their limits. It felt good to expand in this manner after being in a compressed, dormant state for so long.

  Seeing that the light came from a golden orange flow of magma that was contained on the far side of the cavern. Methiochos extended two of his specialized tentacles toward the super-heated rock. Dipping them in, the Dark Nth there began extracting the kinetic and heat energy from the magma and transformed it into something Methiochos could use.

  There was a sharp sensation of discomfort that resolved into a relaxing and soporific sensation of comfort. With the energy flowing in, he became more… his true self, somehow.

  Methiochos closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. As he relaxed, the dream-like state returned, and he felt like he was underwater once more. In his mind’s eye, he imagined he could see the fish again, darting around the fringes of his imagination. Connected with the energy as he was, he noticed he was emitting an orange glow, that was becoming brighter and brighter.

  One of the fish approached, coming close to his face, examining this new wonder. By instinct, he reached forth his hand, which had long thin ribbons trailing from his fingertips, like a psychedelic afterimage. The fish stayed there, trusting his intent instead of
dashing away. Turning his palm upward, the ribbons rose and fluttered in the water like a small forest of seaweed. The fish swam to the ribbons and as it nestled into one of the streaming extensions, it disappeared in an orange poof.

  ###!###

  45 years ago…

  The plan would work. Methiochos was a great general and he had almost all the players in place. While the Archon was in charge of things now, Methiochos hoped that he could bring some new ideas and leadership that were sorely needed in the world. Supers could not continue as they had always been. There had to be structures in place, to direct and guide those powers. And he aimed to be that guide.

  First, manage some of the wild ones so they would not destroy the planet or each other. Second, police and punish those who did not obey the agreed upon laws. Third, form some kind of government that was not based on the ‘might makes right’ mentality, but that could utilize the best of the best that was in humankind, regs or supers.

  Archon believed that people should be honorable, and honor guided many of his leadership decisions. Methiochos felt that mindset protected weaknesses and that weakness could be exploited. It was very passive and Methiochos believed that there were many times when you had to take action as soon as possible. To whit, the preparation for the new base.

  Manticorps existed as both a business and as a collection of supers. The organization had funneled immense amounts of money into the making of a base that would have functionality for all its many supers, allowing them to grow and progress even after hitting high levels. To minimize attacks against their new headquarters, very few people were privy to the island’s exact location. Methiochos would use this to his advantage. They would be able to rival any Faction with just a decade of the manor’s advantages.

  The island was secluded enough that only a few people knew about it, and large portions of the manor were being built by androids, and even terraformed by specialized robots to minimize revealing the location and having to ‘deal’ with the witnesses. The robots would then be able to modify their function to become service and maintenance droids. It was the perfect transition, reduced costs, and avoided messy executions.

  Methiochos was the project lead and had found the perfect location. He scouted it himself, finding it to be large enough to house thousands of people, but remote enough that invaders would be easy to detect. The security firm he was dealing with had a couple prototypes that he knew could be game changers, especially if Methiochos could convince them to come onboard and design for Manticorps exclusively. He had dealt directly with the project lead, Roger, who wanted to be a super very badly.

  Methiochos used this to his advantage and confided in him how regs could become supers, in the cases where a super dies. The abilities could transfer to another human being if this transfer was done within a certain amount of time after the death of the donor; there was a good possibility that Roger could be at the front of the line, if he were a part of the team.

  Supers died all the time, but regs never knew how the supers got their powers or why powers manifested at different ages. It was a closely guarded secret. People were even showing up with isolated skills that resembled the powers a super had, but these skills were anomalies, which were not able to be upgraded, so they were just a hair above regs. No nanobots were involved with these mutants either. Definitely not in the class of supers.

  Regs also knew nothing about the nature of how supers saw the world in an augmented way, or how they had skills they could upgrade and improve. Those who even hinted at revealing this to the world suddenly developed a ‘vanishing’ skill.

  These odd prodigies did seem to take to the transformation much more predictably than a normal reg. In truth, Methiochos had little power to keep these promises, but he needed root access and administrative privileges on the island control center to make his plans work. Once Methiochos was out there and could set things up, it wouldn’t matter what Archon wanted, or what Roger was expecting; both would be powerless to stop him.

  From there, Methiochos could build up his power base. Form the type of government that the world needed for supers. He knew three main Factions were coalescing and trying to assert their views, but they all were diametrically opposed to each other, and there was little hope that they would be able to work out some lasting form of cooperation. There would be only competition and constant power grabs. Especially with all the egos involved, and Methiochos had a limited amount of patience for fools.

  He had big ideas and was frustrated at how he kept getting shut down. Archon wanted to wait and see how things evolved. Methiochos wanted to guide that evolution! You could design something much more powerful than waiting for things to fall into place. What if waiting didn’t work? We would have wasted the time, seeing how fate would design the future. Forget that.

  It was treason and betrayal, no doubt about that. But sacrifices had to be made. He just had to be smart about it, and cut his own ego off at the knees. Put on a smiling face when the future plans were discussed. He could see that reasoning with Archon was no use.

  He was stubborn too, and the debates he had attempted to change his world view had only left them more distant and on edge. If Methiochos was to put his new plans into place, he needed to kowtow and walk the line. Be the good soldier he was meant to be in Archon’s eyes. If all went to plan, there would be no time to stop Methiochos before the island was protected.

  Methiochos had brought Dara, a truth-seeker, to Manticorps. She was loyal to him and now they could vet anyone, find any spies, or those with subversive motives. Since she was of like mind with Methiochos, they could easily trick Archon into believing his total loyalty.

  Methiochos would orchestrate that those loyal to him would be the first crew to make it to the island. The complement would include security, scientists, and support staff, so they could hit the ground running once arriving at the manor. Thus he would only allow them to select from the best of the best for this first crew. Once he activated the bio-stasis field, not only would they be protected from anyone trying to land on the island, they would be effectively cloaked as well.

  The final part of the plan was scrubbing information from the few areas that had the exact location of the island. Only Archon and the other eight generals had access, and most of them were on assignment. Having seniority, he had no doubt he could obtain their copies under some pretense of updating the information or some other nonsense. They were loyal to a fault, and if they thought it was the Archon’s will, they complied without question.

  The time to enact his plan would soon be here, and everything had been prepared. Anticipation and confidence that big changes were coming helped him maintain his mask of loyalty, allowing him to tolerate the sycophants all around him, enamored of Archon’s every thought. Only three days to launch, then it would all change.

  ###!###

  Methiochos withdrew the two tentacles out of the magma and the memory winked out. He was reaching a saturation level of both absorbed energy and recalled memories. He would process this, grow stronger, continue to remember all that he had forgotten, and make his future plans. No one could stop him now. Unlike Archon, he didn’t let things like honor and loyalty keep him from his goals.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jump

  Day 6 10:14 AM

  9:02:22 remaining

  Before cleaning up, Gus ran outside and grabbed an armful of fruit to take up to the suite. Gus shuddered a tiny bit at the thought of choking down another protein bar.

  He took a quick shower and dressed. His closets were now full of the same jumpsuits he had found in the armory, with accompanying boots underneath. At least he didn’t need to worry about what he’d have to wear! Gus took a long look at himself in the mirror. He needed to shave; his patchy mess of facial hair would never be a respectable fully-fledged beard. It was in the itchy phase and it kind of made him look more haggard.

  He took time to appreciate the effects the Nth had had on his physique though. He was ne
ver chubby, but he was definitely in the ‘soft’ category before the island. Now he looked great! He wasn’t exploding with muscles, but he had abs, and his lats became visible, forming a nice V to his torso. He hadn’t really felt like a super, deep down, but here he was, the change staring him in the face. He loved the thrill of leveling, but wished he would have time to pursue it at his leisure, and not have the threat of everything forcing him to survive. Still, he couldn’t complain about the results. Maybe it was the kick in the pants he needed.

  After ogling himself, he set to shaving, until he looked much more like himself. Next job, unlock some facilities.

  He was hoping that, by activating the Foundry, he could have access to additional armor crafting abilities. He especially wanted something to protect his arms. If the Mantid had been just a little off to one side, he could have been severely gouged and game over. Looking at his interface, he currently had 3300 FP. More than enough for unlocking both the Foundry and the extras he would need. He felt he should head there right away, but it was hard to focus. He needed to burn off some energy, and the thought of sitting in the control room looking at menus drove him to distraction.

  “Nick, I feel weird. Like I have ADD or something, or like I’ve had five energy drinks. It’s making me feel squirrely; I don’t feel like myself.”

  “You are still becoming accustomed to the effects of the Nth on your system. You will most likely experience multiple episodes of too much energy, as well as malaise and fatigue, as your body is stimulated to grow.”