෴Raz෴

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Raz opened his eyes to a general sense of ache and malaise. “Ugh. Did anyone get the license of that truck?”

[I’m sorry, I don’t have real humor.]

I guess it’s just me here then.

Ras took a breath and his nose assaulted by his own body odor. “Wow, I stink. Why am I so sweaty?”

He got up and took a few steps on unsteady legs to the kitchen. He grabbed the first dishtowel he saw and started mopping up the sweat dripping from his face and arms.

After he filled and then drained a glass of water at the sink four times, his thirst finally felt quenched. Only after he’d sated his thirst did he notice his hunger, and another urgent need.

Damn, I gotta piss. How long was I out?

He reached the bathroom and used it.

[I was offline for most of the time, but judging by the clock on the oven, 28 minutes.]

Feels like it was much longer. Why is it so hot in here?

[One of the passive effects of Somatic Restoration is a tunable significant increase in metabolic rate and functions.]

[This rate is currently at maximum.]

Status

[Overload level 6 (energy costs increased ~60%, energy gain unavailable.)

[Energy: 15/?]

Well shit. Gotta deal with that. Turn metabolic rate back to standard, or normal, or whatever it was before. While I’m thinking about it, what is the maximum rate, as a multiple of normal?

[~2x. It appears it might be possible to go higher with further upgrades, but the notes indicate a significant increase to the risk of overheating and other complications without the proper resistances.]

Yeah. I get it. Heat vs surface area. I bet it means I can handle the cold better as long as I have enough food. Probably need a lot more water if I start sweating.

He thought about the leftover scrambled eggs he’d eaten earlier. “More food sounds good right now. But I guess energy is the priority.”

The imaginary fuel cell didn’t work any better than before, but after building a new improved procedural chain for it, he was able to let it run in the background while he stripped off his clothes and had another shower.

One he’d rinsed the last of the stinking sweat from his body, he changed into another workout outfit.

At this rate I’m going to need to get more clothes.

He glanced at the open duffle full of cash bricks in the living room. “On the upside…”

If she was serious, I guess I can afford it now.

He put clothing out of his mind and tried to focus on bringing in energy.

So I noticed you reminding me of the whole “take my warnings seriously or die” thing. What is the real risk if I push my energy storage over 100?

[Unknown. So many of the warnings and notes are written for non human users, ever since AI3 was unlocked, I’m guessing more than you’d probably like.]

Yeah, that is a bit concerning, I can't help wonder if taking no risks will hold me back in the big picture.

[I cannot argue against that, except to say there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots…]

Low blow, using dad’s favorite quotes against me. Maybe I have to become one of those old, bold, pilots.

[He also liked to remind you that when you push the envelope, you’re working in the area where postage gets cancelled.]

Yep, all true. But there’s a big world out there of people who can kill me without even trying very hard. I’ve managed to spend a shit load of catalyst and capacity and I still don’t have a single truly defensive or offensive ability. That has to change.

[No argument there.]

Raz watched his energy tick up into the 80s and activated Somatic Restoration.

[Error–Somatic Restoration requires a designated target.]

How do I target myself?

There was a short buzz followed by a pause that felt long.

[This is awkward.]

Go on. Raz tried to fill his thoughts with a sense of long-suffering patience.

[Apparently Somatic Restoration must be maxed to allow self targeting.]

That would have been a nice thing for the notes to have contained.

[True.]

[I have updated my notes about this tree.]

Not a total shocker though. I recall it went in a similar way with the HUD tree. It’s only two more catalyst units right?

[And two more capacity units.]

Raz laid down on Sia’s bed. Yeah yeah, just max rank one out.

He waited for the wave of weariness or discomfort.

“Huh. That’s nice. I actually feel good. Really good even. A little tired, kind of like finishing a big workout without overdoing it.”

[The notes implied that most upgrades in this tree are either exhausting, or exhilarating.]

[I didn’t want to overpromise.]

Can't really blame you. If you told me it was going to be all sunshine and rainbows, just go about my life while the upgrade installs, I’d be pretty pissed if you were wrong.

[Exactly, on another note, you are now below half onboard storage capacity and may wish to add to your catalyst stores at this time.]

Raz dealt with the high energy, almost euphoric feeling by doing some push ups and isometrics in the living room.

Is there a way to absorb a specific amount of that stuff without wasting any?

[No, excess is not absorbed.]

But it could still be wasted. I don’t know where I can get more right now.

His mind turned to the bag of cash. Although I suppose there is probably a way.

A while later, Bee pronounced the upgrades fully integrated.

He willed himself to be his target. A small box popped to life in his view as a mostly transparent overlay.

“Hmm, I’m listed as the ‘all’ target. Does that mean any ability I use will be defaulted to target me?”

[Provided it is not an ability that is primarily activated and aimed by a physical action, yes.]

[Exceptions apply.]

I would hope so! I don’t want to finally get Death Ray Lasers level 10 and fry myself the first time I try to use them.

[Harmful directed energy attacks are indeed an example of an exception, that would require the user override to attack self with, just as designated allies have this protection.]

Good. But let's tweak this around some. How many targets can I have?

[Your HUD Advanced Interface level allows for a very high number of active, limited mainly by your cognitive and perceptual capabilities.]

Let me guess, this is an area where HUD synergizes with Enhanced Cognition?

[Yes, but please note that almost all abilities synergize with both HUD and Enhanced Cognition.]

Almost?

[True passive abilities are sometimes the exception, based on what I’ve seen of the HUD tree.]

Makes a certain kind of sense. So how does Enhanced Cognition help things?

[Have you seen creative uses Doktor Midnight puts his control of metals to?]

A few times. Mostly on TV.

[Based on my notes for those trees, that level of control of such an ability would require a high level of Enhanced Cognition simply to provide such fine grained control while he devotes his primary consciousness to other tasks.]

Is that the main purpose of the Enhanced Cognition tree?

[True purpose is unknown, but it appears to be a strong side benefit for any ability that requires fine control to use effectively.]

I gotta start looking at people’s trees and figure out how they work.

[From a personal capacity gain standpoint, that is an excellent idea.]

Raz got back to tweaking his HUD interface. When he finished, he’d created several categories of targets, from friendlies to hostiles, bystanders, support and aid targets.

Ok, I need to test those when I get a chance, but can you confirm that I’ll be able to drop targets into those categories?

[Yes, and designated hostiles and allies can, within range and your perceptual/cognitive limits be auto populated into the correct lists.]

Damn, that's pretty cool. If I could actually do something with those targets, it might be downright awesome.

He targeted himself for aid functions with a thought, braced himself for the pain and activated Somatic Restoration.

There was no pulse of pain, rather a soothing warmth flowed through him. It was just distracting enough that for a moment he didn’t notice his energy plummeting until his entire HUD began to flash red..

[Energy 20/?]

[Energy 10/?]

Whoa there!

He shut it off as quickly as possible.

Ok, that’s a huge energy suck. I can't even tell if it did anything. Status.

[Overload level 5 (energy costs increased ~50%, energy gain unavailable.)

[Energy: 5/?]

Raz rushed to enable the fuel cell procedural chain.

“Well, now we can sit around and wait some more.”

[You are falling back into the bad habit of talking to me verbally.]

“Oh y—”

Oh yeah. I gotta watch that.

I’m curious. Do you know any reason why this extra slow energy regen procedure works, but the faster method I learned before just hurt me and took some more energy away?

[Nothing that would constitute more than a bad guess.]

I have a guess of my own. I’m thinking that because I naturally grab at things, I was used to pulling energy through my hands.

[That does match your original procedural chain.]

Yeah. I know. Can I finish?

Bee didn’t reply.

So I think that turned my hands into like, my main channels. Especially channels going inward. Then, I did something stupid, and tried to push a lot of juice out, through an in, gate. Does that track?

[Yes, that matches available data.]

So I got those channels all fucked up, but in reality I’m not just my hands, I just need another method to bring energy in that doesn't involve those channels.

[That–does match up with some of the meta errors encountered during that event and shortly thereafter.]

So with some of my, I don't know, pathways, channels, whatever, all messed up, any energy that hits them hurts like hell and gets lost. If I’m right about how this works.

[In truth I am nearly certain it is more complicated than that, but functionally, that appears sound.]

I’ll go with it.

Raz watched his energy tick over 30 and let the fuel cell dissipate.

That model might be useful if I ever needed to filter energy somehow, but it’s really slow.

He took the series of mental and physical steps for drawing in that energy from the air around him through his hands and arms, and modified it until it would fit his legs and feet.

Ok, let's give it a try.

He unconsciously assumed a fighting stance, and cautiously began drawing in energy through his feet. He tried to limit it, but failed as energy flowed in fast enough to suffuse his body.

A red hot shock of pain struck him when the inflow of energy found and began to travel into his overloaded arm paths.

Raz let it go and staggered, but kept his feet. He drew in several shaky breaths while he recovered from the sudden shock of pain.

Ok, that sucked. I need to figure out how to slow it down. It was so much faster than through my arms!

[Your legs are considerably more of your body’s mass and surface area than your arms.]

Do you really think that matters?

[How could it not?]

[Isn’t increased surface area a strong factor in many biological,chemical, and electrical reactions?]

Shit. You’re right. That also means if I ever try to use my whole body, I better have somewhere major to put it all. I guess I still find myself thinking of it like it’s just magic or something.

[In your defense, some of the notes in the trees and abilities I have read, seem to defy our understanding of physics entirely.]

I can’t decide if that’s awesome or terrifying.

Raz decided to try again, hoping to balance the healing with harvesting energy through his legs.

Ok, lets try this again. Somatic Restoration.

As soon as the ability engaged, he began drawing energy through his legs. For a few seconds, the ability’s high energy consumption managed to keep up with the rapid influx of energy. A few seconds after that, the energy hit his arms and he nearly fell down, just barely remembering to shut the ability off before running out of power.

I hope this is actually accomplishing something. Status.

[Fatigued level 80 -40 stamina regen]

[Overload level 3 (energy costs increased ~30%, energy gain unavailable.)]

[Energy: 20/?]

Oh right, I guess having all my energy costs jacked up wasn’t helping much either. Looks like progress. It is surprisingly tiring to blow through my whole energy pool and then refill it.

Raz carefully filled himself up until he felt as though the energy was going to spill into his arms. Once he stopped bringing it in, he felt it suffuse through him. When it reached his arms, he readied himself for a shock of pain that didn’t really come. A dull ache, like very sore muscles, but deep in his bones, was all that happened.

He did one more run of Somatic Restoration and energy refill. When the energy came in under what he imagined to be high pressure, it was just as painful a shock on his arms.

Whoa. I’m beat.

Raz slumped into the loveseat and soon dozed off.