A Private Chat...

"Hey Rene, can you set us up with a private party? I mean something just for the three of us?" Pierre asked as we walked through the snow. It was coming down hard. This snowstorm had hit the eastern seaboard last night. It shut down most flights and airports as well as major highways and train lines.

"Yeah sure. I think I can do something like that. Hold on a sec." Rene mentally switched gears and asked his avatar to set up something like an adventuring party.

[[You want something really private. You can share everything in this mode so if you don't want them to know about us don't bring us up. I think it would be easier if stick with the dumb system.]]

'Fine. Set it up in a sec. But drop the party mode when I give you a mental signal.'

AI Rene agreed. He created the party mode and dropped it a level to the original Xerys System.

{Creating Party...

...Party Created...

...Adding Party Members...

...Welcome, Jean-Paul Wilder...

.... Welcome, Pierre Wilder...

...Wilder Party Created...}

"That is so cool Dad. I can see your information and everything. Hey, how come your stats are so much higher?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, Rene. How come?" Pierre raised his eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. "That's a huge difference."

"I'll tell you about that later..." Paul pointed at a red alert flashing in the top left corner. "What's that?"

Rene wasn't sure. It wasn't there a moment ago when he was talking with his avatar. "I don't know."

"Tap it. Better to find out now while we're out here." Pierre told his brother.

Rene shrugged and tapped.

{Congratulations Wilder Party. You are the first to discover information transfer between Earth and Galactic technology. For scanning information from your portable smartphone to your Xerys System contact list and for sharing the information with others of your species your party may each raise one stat to a non-augmented human maximum of 50. Each party member may also choose one level 3 ability.}

The Xerys System then displayed a list of approved level 3 abilities.

Rene quickly selected Telekinesis.

Paul selected Electrokinesis. He also raised his strength to 50.

Pierre selected Basic Flight and he too raised his strength to 50.

"Whoa. This thing is for real" Pierre slowly rose from the ground by a couple of meters. He moved around hesitantly at first but as he gained confidence his short flight smoothed out quickly. "Fantastic!" He landed beside Rene with a huge smile on his face. "Why Telekinesis?"

Rene looked at his brother and smirked. "Level one Telekinesis can be picked up in place of a skill spot by anyone on the planet. You can manipulate up to 1 kg. Level 2 the weight goes up to 10 kg. Level 3 is another order of magnitude and you guessed it 1000 kg. And so on. Plus it's scalable." Rene weighed 80 kg and he too rose a few meters into the air. Unlike Pierre his flight was wobbly. "I guess I need more practice." The brothers laughed.

"J.P. why Electrokinesis?" Pierre asked his nephew.

"Probably so he could charge his phone. He's on it so much it's always out of battery." Rene dodged a slap from his son. He saw that both Pierre and Paul had raised their strength to 50. He didn't think that they knew just how much of a difference that was.

"Careful son you don't know your own strength yet. Don't hit anything. You too Pierre."

"Ha. Ha. Dad. You think you know everything?"

Rene nodded that yes as far as his son was concerned he did.

Pierre laughed at his brother's and nephew's antics.

Paul explained his pick. "You can do a lot more with Electrokinesis than charging your electronics. I can create an electric bolt." Paul did just that. A small ball of electric energy formed in his right hand. And he shot it like a lightning bolt at a parking sign. There was a large zap sound as the bolt hit and the three could see small electric arcs dance all over the top of the sign before the energy grounded itself down the metal pole.

"Impressive. Don't do that unless I tell you to." Pierre explained that that was the equivalent of firing a weapon in public. Paul agreed and with that, the Wilder Party walked to the cafeteria building.

"There's more of those red flashing alerts dad." Paul pointed out.

"Leave them be for now Rene. I think I know what comes next and hold off on tapping them just yet." Pierre scanned at the front door and led the way into the crowded cafeteria.