No sooner than Jack saw black in front of his eyes from the rig than it was removed by a nurse. He sat up, feeling a ghost of real fatigue, though for the most part he hadn't strained himself that much.

Your Level has improved to 1.6! Please enter the trance and Calibrate, as this changes your total Allotment.

Temporary Control grade increased to 1.8!

Temporary Transmute grade improved to 0.9!

Interpret grade improved to default!

Temporary Control: technique grades have been adjusted.

Control: Throw improved to 1.0(0.9)!

Control: Collect (Sphere) improved to 1.6(1.5)!

New Technique gained! Create: Grapple 0.1 has been added to your stat bio.

Jack was fairly surprised by all the gains. He grinned over at Lindsay, who gave him a thumbs-up and grinned back. Jack pumped a fist and declared, "No more temporary Interpret! Full power, baby! Hell yeah. By the looks of things, we should keep doing this, huh? I barely broke a sweat!"

As Lindsay hopped up out of the chair, she shrugged. "Well, yes, but we're executing strategy, here, and avoiding diminishing returns. What you need at each stage. You won't see that degree of change from it so fast again. It just means you learned what you needed to learn. Not only that, but this does use a lot of System resources. Not HRVR itself, but the integration of Allotment. Practically Memoria's direct hand, there."

Jack was handed an energy drink. He thanked the nurse and popped it open with that oh-so-satisfying popped-can-of-carbonation sound. He drank deeply of the cold, delicious jet fuel before looking back at Lindsay. "Ahhh. So, now what?"

"The cement is laid down, now we go to pave it. Grab a snack or something and meet in Power Park for more powers training." She began walking away, then stopped short. "Oh — and do your meditation thing, of course. Calibration."

Jack took another glug of his energy drink. "You got it, coach…" He set down his drink and sat back to close his eyes. Might as well use the comfy chair while he could!

In the falseness of the conjured outer space — not really too different from the arena he'd recently fought in in VR — Big Angel Memoria patted him on the head and smiled. "You win some, you lose some, hmm? Great effort out there, son. You're truly showing the steel I expected of you."

Puns. Like Mother, Like Son? Heh.

Level increased! Create increased! Allotment increased!

Level: 1.6

Allotment: 130 [ 120 ]

[ 2.6 ] Create

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In Power Park, it was back to the grind. He went through the various familiar processes of shaping metal, getting a feel for the recently developed skill increases, and then pushing for more. Speed and efficiency at the geometry, and spontaneously shaping metal into more and more complex forms. But quicker base shaping could not be underestimated. Especially forming globs from out of the sphere into things, or changing objects mid-flight more intuitively, as he'd done to great effectiveness in the first fight.

He wanted to work on rapidly forming and firing small darts from his orb, so he could do it on a dime, even without a sight picture. Pushing for the 'machine gun' effect, inventing a method of temporary suppressive fire. Because he needed hefty mass to work off of at his current levels, his smallest effective bullets or darts were more the size of sling bullets than a gun, but the same principle applied. If he could've rapid-fired effectively, he might've more easily worked out from the stalemate he'd been in against Holemaker, pressing into an advantage.

He quickly began to see a strong case for Interpret at 2.0. It would be incredible just for the blind operation. Hopefully, he got it in a package deal or something. If not, maybe it was worth the allocation after pumping other things. Control 3.0 and Transmute 2.0 were arguably more important. Very arguably. Transmute had unquestionably helped him change shapes much more easily, increasing his training speed. He had yet to work on its finer details. When he asked Lindsay about when he could, she told him 'after base training' that very session. He wasn't sure, but she seemed to have something he recognized as a 'poker face' of hers about it.

Hmm…

They segued into more target practice and combat training. In the physical realm, Lindsay pulled out an all-composite, non-metal handgun that fired rubber bullets, and they worked on tactics for dealing with ranged users, pretending a body shot was a 'kill' and limb shots 'disabled.' She used a heavy riot shield to make it a bit harder to overpower her with Throw. It was mostly about discovering different tactics than being focused on a contest, which felt like Lindsay was beginning to treat his powers like the 'adult' version of them. A teen, at the very least. Baby Shaper of Metal was no more.

They're growing up right in front of my eyes. Sniff, sniff.

They also put up a bunch of cover with sandbags to have more of a firefight simulation and navigate his tactics in this instance. It was kind of a playground for him, because when he had places to hide his metal, he could flank the shit out of his opponent. Because his use of Throw could 'fire' further away from him, it could not only function like levitating a stealth melee weapon around, but also something like a crossbow, if not quite a gun. Even if they saw, if his ambush was close enough, his speed to 'fire' from that point was solid. Less effective against targets that didn't rely entirely on sight, but it was still a good swath of presumable enemies.

For less contrived training, they dueled in the Demonstration Center as well, Jack vs. Jill, metal vs. metal, even-steven skill levels, now not very far from what he was capable of in the real world, in some cases entirely equivalent. The main contrivance was not trying to control each other's metal, which appeared to come down to a battle of wills. Without that, it was often like some sort of crazy mixed martial arts battle between medium masses of metal in front of them, like twisting amorphous amoebas with a central sphere, trying eventually to snake out a tendril or dart at the actual 'puppet master' behind.

Jack actually won around 40% of the time by the end, and steadily improving! Somehow, he was getting down individual subtleties of his own ability that were exceeding her capacity to anticipate or overcome. He didn't have a finger on exactly what. He was just intuitively finding ways of feinting, or pushing at the right time, to get to her.

Control: Throw improved to 1.1(1.0)!

Control: Cord improved to 0.8(0.7)!

Control: Collect (Sphere) improved to 1.7(1.6)!

When they popped back out to rest and recuperate, Lindsay told him their struggles as Jack and Jill gave her some insight. Collect would likely quickly gain a default once his Control was also default, i.e., he would be able to work from other shapes if needed. It was something to train on specifically once his specialty was somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 and was slowing down in growth potential.

She also noted developmental evolution and the guaranteed capacity to train the technique, Spear, if he wanted. This wouldn't get quite as high as the rest, but it would give him another improved option for a floaty weapon. It also synergized with Fragile Spike. Apparently, Jack wasn't much of a 'blade' guy. Ah well. He could still do it at default when needed. And there was the patented 'tip slash' if really needed.

They moved on to fine Transmute training, first working on what he could do in the real world, namely the capacity to simulate objects and change the raw appearance. It was a bit different than simply controlling metal, or in combining Control and Transmute, as he had before. They started with example objects… he studied them with Interpret and then 'grasped' them slightly with Transmute, but not doing anything directly. Instead, he was memorizing the feel, which he did far better with his eyes closed. The first thing was a humble combination wrench, 24mm, or 15/16, with an offset 12-point box end. That last detail made it just a bit more complicated than it would otherwise seem. Ordinarily, all the little minutiae of it would take a long while, and come out flawed.

Those details were hidden in the 'feel' through the combination of Transmute and Interpret. It was like a kind of coded instruction awaiting unfolding, and he recognized what the code meant from his copious practice with so, so many shapes contorted and twisted into needed forms. What might've been on the tip of his tongue before became a word of sorts, one only he knew. When he took a lump of amorphous metal and then tried to duplicate the wrench…

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Boom. A near twin. Smooth angles, 12-point box end. A bit rougher in details, maybe. He was elated. "Check that shit out!" Jack levitated the two wrenches and made them dance a jig on the table he was working at.

Lindsay's grin was quite shit-eating. "Well, look at that. Who knew?"

Jack pointed at her accusingly. "Oh, don't give me that! I saw your face! This has been up your sleeve for a while, huh!?"

She shrugged with great smugness. "All tools in the toolbox have their proper time to come out. You've been working toward this, and now comes the payoff."

Excited about the capacity to 'shortcut' creating things through Transmute, Jack moved on quickly to other tools and weapons. A hammer, which was doable even before, but now it was easy. A three-piece pair of pliers… his first try made a fused-together, non-functional copy. Lindsay had him memorize the pieces individually first, then copy them, and that came out pretty solid when he bolted the two main pieces together. Then he tried the pliers as a whole again, and voila! A functional, three-piece pair of pliers.

"So how many pieces can I do like this?" he asked Lindsay. "Of tools with moving parts."

"At Transmute 1.0? Three or four, reliably. If you work at something of five or six for long enough, you could get it. No more."

"Mmn…"

And he could do a knife! He could already fashion blades, but the right sharpness took time. Now it was a quick-and-dirty shortcut. His sharpness was still lacking, not coming out at the precision level of fine manufacturing, but he could work on that. And if he took Transmute 2.0 at level up, he'd practically double his general effectiveness with it. That would be razor sharpness in a flash.

Every time he did something, it took a pretty intense pulse of his powers, in addition to the longer 'memorization' period. So he got fatigued quickly. But Lindsay assured him this would improve with practice.

But he did want to work on cables. Making a whole one was too many pieces, but he could memorize how to make the individual wires to at least shortcut the process a little bit. Perhaps it was the Boy Scout in him to learn it, though it was a pipedream for combat use. On the other hand, if he kept raising Transmute, he could get there.

Somewhere in the midst, Mini chimed. <Fatigue Status at Serious. Your regenerative system is taxed. Recommending food as well as rest and recuperation.>

"Nooo!" Jack cried, wiping his sweaty brow with his sleeve.

"Allllright, my star pupil," Lindsay said, looking up from her phone nearby and trying not to laugh. "Time to put away all the toys."

"Even the play-clay-dough?" Jack asked with an ironic, child-like tone, as he otherwise sat back in the 'work chair' and began collapsing his memorite back into him.

"Yes, Jack, even the play-clay-dough." She smirked at him. "Also, you kinda have some other thing planned soon, hmm? I assume you don't want to be dragging for whatever it is."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what it is?"

"Believe it or not, I don't have your life on a live-stream in my head."

"I mean, you nearly do. Not a far stretch."

She threw an empty plastic container of some sort at him. "Shut up!"

Jack blocked it with a hand, and it bounced into the dirt. He grinned. "What a litterer. Guess I'd better watch it. Might get a knife next time, and not in Power Park."

"Yes, you should watch it." She stood from her chair and pocketed her phone. "Alright, you can work on Transmute some more on your own tonight. Toodles!"

"You got it, Shifu." After resting silently and drinking some Infused water for a while, he proceeded to clean up, packing things away so nothing loose was left on the field. As he did, he ordered his target for lunch to arrive about the time he would at his quarters: the Seven-Layer Dip Casserole, family size.

And it's aaaall mine…

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After lunch, rest, a bit of working out, and a shower, it was time for the moment two souls had been waiting seemingly ages for: Neex and Jack meeting in the flesh. He had been delivered a requested wetsuit bottom, basically skin-tight pants, to have on under his other clothes. He brought a backpack along with some things in it, like a towel. Just in case.

His journey involved taking the train and then multiple personnel elevators. He walked through creepy, utilitarian, rather liminal intermediary spaces with frequent crew and drone traffic to get to the tower core elevators, which required special clearance for a Junior Agent to utilize. Nonetheless, a thick block of steel slid out of the way, and a platform opened for him. It went down.

He inevitably arrived in another typical office front, but this time the clerk had him wait until a 'liaison' arrived to guide him. A lady, maybe in her early thirties, arrived with her brown hair in a tight bun and clad in a full wetsuit up to her neck, underneath a typical white lab coat, complete with a name tag. She had on high-tech smart glasses, the frame tapering into metal disks at her temples. "Hi, there, Junior Agent Laker. I'm Agent Wilson, and I'll be your liaison today in the containment facilities. You can also call me Dr. Wilson, if you prefer. I'm just one of the various people overseeing Neexolei and her current habitation."

After shaking hands, she led him past the initial waiting area and through the office hallways. Nonetheless, multiple doors were making unlocking clicks before opening.

Dr. Wilson spoke as they walked. "I'll be on hand if needed. You can reach me via Mem-text. I can reply, as well. Not quite as quickly as one of the powered or agents with dedicated implants, but pretty quick. Let me ping you…"

Jack got a request for communication and approved it, shortly thereafter getting a Mem-text. <Here it is! You can talk to me about anything, okay? Anything your heart desires. Go ahead and send back for a good testing, testing, one, two, three.>

<Roger that. Crisp and clear, Dr. Wilson.>

<Wonderful. So you know, the quarters are heavily monitored. But you should expect that. And not worry about it. It's no big deal. We've seen and heard it all! And everything is very confidential.>

<Right. Naturally. Thank you.>

They came to a heavy metal door with a black camera eye above it. Just as Dr. Wilson looked up, the door made a whoosh sound as it sank inward, then slid to the side, revealing an obvious security airlock. They stepped inside onto a steel floor, and the door closed behind them. Almost too fast to catch, Jack noted the flash of an infrared scanner on the wall pass over him.

They waited. Dr. Wilson glanced at the scanner and then turned to him. "There's a transfer in progress in the access halls. We're operating with an abundance of precaution so as not to expose you or violate clearances. It'll be just a few minutes until the halls are secured."

Jack nodded. "No problem. Need to search my bag?"

"We already know what's in there. If you want to leave anything, you're free to. We're not going to decontaminate you going in. Exposure is heavily desired."

These people are a little weird, aren't they? "Right. Sure. And… coming out?"

She smiled briefly without showing teeth. "Full decontamination. For now. We're still working around the clock to determine and eliminate any exposure risks. Anyway, you'll have to turn over anything you want to take back. You'll shower in specialty facilities — privately unless you prefer any assistance — and be given a complimentary sterile t-shirt, sweatpants, shoes, and cap to leave in. Would you like a gift bag, as well? There's rock candy."

"Uhhhh… sure."

"Excellent." Her tone and gaze were weird, adding a little more evidence of 'containment facility people weirdness.' She smiled again faintly, and then turned to face forward, hands in the pockets of her coat.

They waited. Jack felt quite awkward, so he cleared his throat and asked, "Neex has been doing well, then?"

Dr. Wilson nodded. "Yes. Her cooperativeness has been admirable. For many of us, she is already like a colleague. She's educated and incredibly intelligent. She's a polymath. She overflows with pertinent data for our study and documentation, never tires of questions, and shares nearly without restraint. I look forward to the day we can be just as unbridled in return. But we do what we can."

Jack smiled to himself. Her charm at work. Reading between the lines, they've adopted her. Makes me feel better, even if they are odd.

His guide took a step forward even before the airlock opened with another whoosh, and he followed her out.

Everything in sight was of dull steel, with levitationally locked grating over a shallow dip, as if for the expectation of drainage. The lighting was bright. Their footsteps did not clang. They proceeded down a long hallway, then made a turn down a slightly curving path, otherwise the copy of every other. Camera bubbles were never out of sight on the walls. Nothing was labeled by physical means. He imagined it was functionally operated through augmented reality. It seemed like a maze. He only saw someone else once — another researcher in a lab coat and smart glasses, just turning a corner in the distance.

No wonder they're weird. This is an eerie workplace.

They began passing heavy airlock doors every so often. Eventually, at a seemingly random one, Dr. Wilson turned and parked in front of one, waiting. A few moments passed before it cracked with a telltale whoosh, indented inward, then slid to the side.

Beyond another airlock that opened quickly was a large cylindrical chamber with a thick catwalk around the outside, and in the dead center, a massive steel sphere suspended in the air, though with heavy cables and flexible piping connecting into the top and bottom parts, and one apparent approach platform in the middle, leading to a heavy door. The catwalk was heavily stacked with electronics, including monitoring and sensory equipment, especially concentrated in a central area with more comfortable-looking flooring and a covered ceiling. A couple of people were sitting at monitors, another couple standing up next to them, all in lab coats, and all currently turned curiously to watch the arrivals approach.

There were multiple levels reached by stairs, too, and another equipment area could be seen up top, where there was a guy in a jumpsuit wearing a hardhat, not watching them but turned toward the cables, sipping coffee or tea from a steaming mug. An engineer, he imagined.

Dr. Wilson turned to a table just inside from the airlock and picked up a small scuba tank to begin strapping on. She half-turned to Jack and waved over to the approach platform. "You can go ahead! Go have your reunion! I'm not going in unless necessary. Which is astronomically unlikely, right? Gotta be ready, though. Protocols." She appeared to be rushing to get it on as she smiled politely at him.

She doesn't want to miss the show on the monitors, right? Pfft.

Jack nodded to her and walked ahead, soon stepping out on the platform and heading up to the airlock door. He glanced once, over at the agent-scientists, doctors, whatever they were. All were glued to the display monitors, and Dr. Wilson was hurrying over as she fitted goggles on over her glasses.

Jack rolled his eyes as he approached the door, which did its familiar whoosh and slid to the side. He took a deep breath and walked in, quickly banishing considerations about being monitored or not. Neex was behind there. He felt a rising glee.

It's time to meet my favorite octogirl again!

👙 Patreon Link, Next Chappy — Chapter 51: Abode of the Octogirl

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