"I know what you mean, well kinda, when I was about 11 my powers went haywire and I couldn't think of anything without me generating it. I would sit in the forest surrounded by a growing endless pile of junk. It took me a while to regain focus." He offers his best comforting smile. "Besides we are at a super school I'm sure there are plenty of people who can help you. Let me know if you need anything, man." Archie says.
Archie has always been quick on his feet and with his mind, generating whatever he needs for the situation, a steel shield for this, a backflip for this, a clone standing in the way and taking the hit. He employs a variety of firearms, bladed weapons, and anything he can think of.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What Archie describes is quite similar to what he is going through. Good for him already being able to control his powers. "Thanks, Archie. I will be fine, I guess." But it did not stop him from getting anxious and it was still too soon to really trust those working for this school.
"Ah, and by de wey, sometimes some of my illusions could leak into your room, so don't freak out."
---
After his incredible performance, Gui sits by Sam, trying to shake off the vision from this morning. He flinches a bit and massages his nose as pain courses through it. It was strange, as if he had done something bad, like peeping while she was changing clothes... he knew he could not be blamed about having a dream, but still.
"Hey. Good first class." He says to break the ice, then gives a long sigh. Only one way to get rid of the memory. To share. "Had e dream about you last night, by de way. We were deting and you called me e sweetie." He smiles at her. Just because.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Sam's swollen nose turns with a quick snap toward Aquarelle, surprise lighting her green eyes like twenty flares in an emerald mine. If her matrix had a jaw it would be on the floor right now, but still it managed to stammer out 'Say something... AnyThing... now!'
"Dreams are statistically common to be manifestations of repressed fears." Her matrix left her body to stare at her in disbelief, since her host basically said you are afraid of being stuck with someone like me.
It looked back at him, his smile, warm and... she was confused, that is all. Out of her depth. 'Find another reason for the dream' her matrix insists. "Did you eat anything could have caused gastrointestinal distress?"
Her matrix gives up
Every time Gui gets knocked down, Terrier is there to pick him up and throw him back into the fray. "You don't have a choice! You push through to your primal self! Everyone has that survival instinct, so find it!"
Statian's injury stops the lesson for a moment while the Brain is tended to. The action resumes once she's carted off the proving grounds to the nurse's station.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Elsewhere
Ms. Trask goes over the Daedalus curriculum and application closely, then turns it back over to Empyrean. "Quite a list of options," she observes, "but the option of not going at all is still available. Hypocritical as it is, you still have a standing invitation to resume classes at Halcyon Prep."
She flips through her threat analysis of the Daedalus Academy, shaking her head slowly. "I can think of a hundred reasons why you shouldn't go within ten miles of that school, but I'll ask you:
"Do you want to go?
"I..." Empyrean says, and hesitates.
"I want to go where I can do the most good. If the school will help me to do that... to learn to be around people and to help them... then yes."
Sam's eye widen just a touch, having never been smiled at by Andromeda before, her own lips curving virtually imperceptivity. She hears her matrix say something about 'manipulation' but misses it as a odd warmth starts to-
The curve of her lips becomes perceptible, but in the opposite direction. "Why are you lying?"
Andromeda's smile vanishes as she stops trying to maintain it. "Because I want you to drop it. If I get angry and put you through a wall you'll be hurt more than the wall would."
***
By the time class begins, the joy of flight is gone; Genius Class has set her boiling. Nominally there's an objective, new people to impress, skills to display, but really? She just needs something to hit.
So she doesn't hold back, even a little.
A column of force rips out of her, smashing into the bot, boring through it, near limitless energy pouring straight through it and into what lies beyond.
|
Hivering near the end of the course Indy shouts over to Andromeda, "With all the squeeling it almost sounded like you were actually having fun. Why don't you cut loose and take a load off with some flying sometimes you seem to enjoy it. I know a good spot, open fields, skies, and very few birds you should join me sometime."
Indarius watched the giant mechanical monstrosity descend from the ceiling. "Can definitely feel where the budget was going..."
"Gonna be really hard to Hammer and anvil this. But I'll do what I can."
Weaving together a very complex spell, a string of icy tendrils shoot out and weave in and out of the various armaments of the Killbot, runic patterns start sprouting from them as Indarius's chanting intensifies. They solidified and expanded into large branches of ice providing an almost literal anvil to tie up the killbot temporarily.
Splintering off some of the excess magic he empowers Chroknight causing their hands and feet to glow with arcane power so that they weren't just punching metal with their bare hands.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"So, have you two made any friends yet?" Chroknight asks Sam and Gui. "Any budding crushes? Spring romances in the air? I literally don't get much time to come and listen to the gossip so spill."
With a concealed flush to her cheeks (concealed due to the swollen nose) and a weirdly muddled mind, Sam turns to their newly arrived teammate. Her mouth opens "Aqu-" DON'T TELL HER WHAT HE SAID!!!! the matrix stops giving up and screams with all its mental nudging.
"My roommate controls arachnids and wants to be friends." Sam would normally be reporting on numbers and figures, but the muddling muddled "And my nose is broken."
---
Andromeda's smile vanishes as she stops trying to maintain it. "Because I want you to drop it. If I get angry and put you through a wall you'll be hurt more than the wall would."
Something dim pops in Sam's chest and then without considering the consequences replies "And if I was angered and lost control, I'd release a nano autonomous trigger (NAT) into your breathing space or food that would replicate in your organs to achieve optimal mass before-" Sam raises her hand, forms a first then opens it in a "PoP"
Sam realizes that dim pop inside her was irritation. Her dampeners need serious recalibration.
Stopping recounting one of the four hundred and three What If plans she has made in case she need to incapacity(or worse) her teammate, she takes in a tiny breath. She has no idea how to get through to her that she would like to help, 97% because it is a HARD problem to solve, and 3% because she... cares (which is a lot to someone like Sam).
But she doesn't say that and lets the matter drop, if the other woman desires it... for now.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Oh, dat is very true." Gui agrees with Sam, even if the 'statistics' part was a stretch. He had researched quite a bit about dreams and a common thread was that it was still mostly unknown territory. He then smiles wickedly. "But it is also equally common for dem to represent repressed desires and wishes." He should feel guilty about poking her like that.
"I had spicy food last night. Indian." He adds, stretching a bit, uncomfortable with his nose still. "I am looking forward to de next time dey serve it. Perhaps I will have anoder dream. I will let you know if I do."
Then Chroknight arrives. He lets Sam answer first. "Met e couple dudes from de dorms. Noting big."
Digits isn't a stranger to roughing it up. Since childhood they've passed through their share of 'retched hives of scum and villainy', and the crew of the Madcap drills together some as well...
...but Digits quickly learns that Terrier runs a tighter and tougher drill than anything Cap'n Tayo put the Madcap's crew through.
At the beginning, Digits manages to dodge and weave, and uses their portal gun to create mayhem: aiming to cause charging robots to suddenly bash into each other or the walls, and to redirect projectiles toward ones that stand still.
After a while though, their muscles are starting to ache. A robot strobes them with a dazzlingly bright light, disorienting Digits for a few crucial seconds. They drop and roll instinctively into a portal...but pop up too close to another robot, that manages to slam Digits in the gut, winding them.
When they walk out of class, sore and tired, they turn to Archie and Indy and say, "Oooof! That was a workout, eh? I'm starving!"
They aim to keep up a brave face...but they truth of it is that the onslaught (and the shear length of fighting for so long, when they're used to cutting and running) leaves them feeling insecure.
Hard Knocks
At first it looks like it's going well. Chroknight takes the lead, suggesting a strategy as they leap onto the fake rooftops to draw the murderbot's attention. Turrets whir on the dangerous contraption, tracking the nimble Janus and spitting out blasts of plasma that they deftly avoid.
Indarius takes advantage by conjuring mystical ice to give Chroknight a pathway to reach the murderbot and a nice funnel for Andromeda to do her thing.
The blunt-force telekinetic decides this is a perfect opportunity to cut loose. Coating herself in a force cocoon, Andromeda launches herself at the murderbot and slams into it even as the death machine trains its array of weapons at her! Homing missiles and concussive blasts carom off Andromeda's force field before she makes contact in a massive crash that sends a shockwave through the entire Rumpus Room!
Carlos and Ne'veah and smashed backwards into the far wall, Scythe brings up her metal wings to shield herself, and Terrier dives for cover before the blast. Johnny and Chitin brace themselves but still stagger back a few feet.
Indy and Chroknight see one of the weapons nodes of the murderbot break off, spiraling downward and spraying death in all directions! The faux rooftops of the battlefield are shredded with shrapnel!
The damaged murderbot responds by escalating the situation dangerously, disgorging a napalm-like flaming substance that coats Andromeda and splashes across the rooftops! Though her sheath is keeping the inferno from skin contact, she's still feeling the intense heat!
The murderbot announces, IMPLEMENTING DEFENSIVE MEASURES as a shimmering repulsor barrier appears around it as the machine starts repairing itself! In the meanwhile, the detached weapons nodes continues to fire wildly!
What do you do?
Standard non-oxygenated composition scrolls across Andromeda's field of view, a small respite from the otherwise amber haze.
She clenches a fist, knuckles cracking as her sheath expands the burning fuel away from her, then with a second clench she seals it away in a new field. A single pulse forces the oxygen out of the second field and she leaves the fire to starve.