Owen smiled again. "Yup. Pretty damned good if I say so myself. So, whatcha all here for?"
"Nothing specific, really," Tess said. "Well, one thing, but mostly to catch up on everything that's happening. Our friend here needs so help. Do you recognize him?"
Owen squinted at Ed who was slumped sideways in his chair. "I think so. That the fella that helped us with that crazy preacher?"
"Yep, and he's been through a lot since then. We all have." Tess related their story, then took the liberty of filling Owen in on Ed's, since he was currently dead to the world. When the stories were wrapped up Owen stood up and disappeared into the house, coming back with a platter of ats, cheeses, and bread. It barely made it to the table before all sets of hands were reaching for it.
"So good!" Luna said around a mouth full of food.
"Ayup. Been making so ats, cheeses, and breads too. It passes the ti."
"You don't help them with all of this?" Tess waved to indicate the grounds around them.
"Nah, they got it good and handled. Let's devote my ti to more important endeavors." He filled his plate with a healthy pile of the food.
"You better wake him up before he misses it all," Cass pointed to Ed.
Tess elbowed Ed, earning a rough grumble in return. She poked him, earning a bigger grumble. She lifted her glass and upended it over his head, Ed coming awake with a spluttering jump.
"Make yourself sober, Ed. We need to talk."
He glared at her with bleary eyes, then a look of concentration passed through them. He was sober a mont later, pulling the wet clothes away from his skin. "Did you have to do that? Now I'm all sticky!"
"Heh," Owen chuckled. "Why am I so sticky? Always a good card."
Everyone ignored the non-sequitur.
"I told Owen about what you've been through and where you're at with your skills."
"Tess, I don't know that you should have done that."
"It's fine," she waved his objection away. "If anyone can help you, they can."
"Ayup," Owen said, then pulled a small drone out of his shirt pocket. He whispered into it and it buzzed away in a flash toward the Goat Shed. Not long after they saw Chloe erge, brushing her hands on her apron. She stopped at an outdoor shower and pulled a hanging cord, water flowing over her and disappearing into a basin at her feet. Ed watched with envy as her clothing dried within a few steps of her leaving the shower. She greeted them with a friendly smile before retrieving a glass and pouring herself so of the dark beer.
"Should you be getting drunk right away?" Tess asked.
"I'll be fine. Poisons don't work on the sa as everyone else. I can regulate it. I like the buzz."
"Listen to this, Chloe," Owen waved at Ed.
Ed related parts of the story, leaving out most of his experience in Mason's compound. He explained his new power set and the limitations he was having. Chloe listened in patient silence, sipping her beer. Once Ed had finished they sat there in silence for minutes before Chloe responded.
"I believe I can help you. It'll be a multi-step process, but as I see it you have a few core issues that you need to address. One, you need to be able to heal quickly and often without detrintal side effects. That's no problem - I've been working on advanced healing pills that have a much greater effect without, the negatives that ca from my phase one injections. I don't know what your health pool is at, but I'm fairly confident that one or two pills should be able to restore anyone under level 20 to full health imdiately without the rebound effect we saw from the injections."
"Two, you actually need to boost your health in battle so that you're not constantly having to pop pills. I've created versions of the pills that are slow-release, supplying a constant stream of concentrated healing energy. The benefit of this is that you don't have to keep taking healing pills. The downside is that you can't take other healing pills while it's in your system. It will replenish 100 health points over the course of an hour. In that ti you'll be constantly topped-off, but if you take a substantial injury it won't release any faster - and you can't take any additional pills to supplent it. If you don't need the health it provides the healing energy enters your system, but doesn't do anything. It can build up to toxic levels if you don't take injuries, since our healing pools aren't ant to be stressed. I do have a theory that constantly stressing your healing pool will expand it, like stretching out a balloon. Over ti it will grow due to the forced pressure caused by the excess energy. Unfortunately, it won't heal you if you're dead, but if you're down to a single point you'll still recover 1.6 points of healing every minute. If you die while it is in your system the energy dissipates."
"The third part may be the most beneficial to you imdiately. I have created tonics that can permanently increase soone's attributes. It's limited right now, and The System has hard limits that are directly proportional to your body's ability to absorb the energy, but it offers sothing."
"What?" Tess's shock made her exclamation loud. "Why not just take a bunch of them and massively increase your attributes?"
Chloe shook her head. "Unfortunately the body can't handle that. Rember that I said healing basically resets the body to a preset, known condition? These tonics do sothing similar, but instead of looking backwards they look forward. When you drink it, The System basically looks at how much additional growth potential you have at your current level and fills the gap. It's basically a free level-up, since it offers three points in that attribute, but the body can't handle any more. Taking two while at the sa level causes attribute sickness and the results backfire, reducing your attribute by three points." She shuddered when she said that and Tess realized she must have experinted on herself.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Still, that's pretty powerful. Can you take one for each attribute?"
Another shake of her head. "I don't know if it's bodily stress or just a System-imposed limit, but you get one per level, and only one per attribute at all. Taking a second tonic for the sa attribute on a later level doesn't do anything. I'm working on so improved versions that I hope will break through that, but right now it's the best I can do."
"Still, though, that is amazing. I can't believe sothing like that is even possible."
Owen reached out and took Chloe's hand. "It is for her."
"Well okay, then," Tess said. "I think we're going to need all of that."
Owen leaned forward, a wolfish grin on his face. "Was figurin' you'd say that. Let's deal."
Many hours and many beers later, Tess and Ed reached across the table to shake hands with Owen and Chloe. The children had long since drifted away to talk with the other kids. Tess handed over one of the Arc-Talon guns in return for a percentage of Jason's future outputs, its matter deconstruction abilities bearing the majority of their negotiations. She promised to hand over much of the loot they'd gathered and were no longer able to use, since the items still held value for Madison as the girl hadn't seen them before. They'd agreed that the Bouchards could study - not keep - the vehicles they'd gotten from the power plant when the family wasn't using them. And, finally, Ed agreed to work with Chloe and Madison, teaching them everything he knew about System manipulation. The Bouchards were geniuses but had only advanced tech that they had been previously exposed to. The prospect of learning how to manipulate reality was almost as much a selling point as the gun had been.
Luna and Madison
Luna and Madison sat in her lab in deck chairs, their legs draped over each other and their fingers entwined.
"Your story is just so… phenonal!"
Luna's smile was proud and full of excitent. They'd agreed to keep Fara - the parasite version, not the simulacrum version - a secret, but everything else was okay to talk about. Madison had listened to Luna's relating of the story with the sa silent intensity that she observed everything, only interrupting to ask questions or get clarification. When Luna had breathlessly related their narrow escape in the vehicles the only reaction from Madison had been a tightening of her grip on Luna's hands and a clenching of her jaw.
"I have to be honest, Luna, I'm having seriously mixed emotions here. On the one hand, you're here and you're safe, so all's well that ends well. But on the other hand - that was just so much. Possibly too much. I counted at least 7 tis where you almost died, and a few more that really leaned that direction. I honestly don't know how you do it."
Luna smiled wide, tilting her eyes upwards and batting her eyelashes dramatically. She waved one hand in a dramatic 'oh pshaw' motion. "Well I don't know if you know this, but your girlfriend is kinda a bad ass."
"Girlfriend?"
Luna froze, her mind going blank and her mouth forming a silent 'O.' "Well, I an. I didn't an for it to co out like that. I think I'm presuming. What even does all that an? That's a silly word to use in the apocalypse. It's a silly word to use any ti! That's not a word I've ever used before. Why did I even say it? I don't know why I said it! Why WOULD I say sothing like that? That seems like a really dumb thing to just say out of nowhere."
The words tumbled out of her in a rush, occurring to her in that mont that she'd said all of them out loud. She pulled her legs onto her seat and buried her face in her knees, covering her head with her hands. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stu-"
A hand rested on her head before moving to pull her face up. Madison was smiling at her, calm amusent in her eyes.
"I like the word. I think it's a great word and perfectly apropos."
"It's not too much? Too fast?"
Madison leaned back and shrugged lightly. "I can't say I ever really considered a relationship before this. I an, I always assud I'd end up with soone - probably so engineer and most likely a man, but it was more of a concept than anything else."
"A man?"
Madison waved the question away dismissively. "Man, woman - with the exception of a little anatomy, it's all really the sa. I'm more interested in the contents than the package."
"But do you like my package?" Luna 'eeped' when she realized what she'd said, burying her face again.
Madison laughed. "I like your package just fine, and the contents are even better. You are my bad-ass warrior, out there slaying monsters and conquering rogue power plants." She leaned forward, kissing Luna lightly. "But most importantly, you're intelligent, kind, and empathetic. Those are traits I value far more than any 'package.'"
Luna's laugh was equally relieved and nervous as she leaned forward for another kiss.
The two cherished the tender mont before pulling back.
"At any rate, there are so definite weaknesses to your build that we need to shore up. Go over your skillset again, and give all the details you can about your Luck-based skills. I have so ideas, but I want to make sure I'm going in the right direction first."
Luna walked Madison through them in great detail, sharing her screens each ti. Madison asked her to recount her experience with the Gorilla Guard again and the conversation they'd had about how luck and probabilities were related. When they'd gone through it all thoroughly Madison nodded, silent in thought. Luna waited for her to finish processing everything.
"Okay, as I see it, your brother is correct with his assessnt of how your skills work. The multiverse theory is actually pretty well-known and, although never proven, provides a pretty solid frawork for what your initial thoughts were. Although there's always the possibility that you hop between realities, I really don't think we should approach it from that angle since there's really nothing we could do about that. Instead, I think The System has provided a way for you to analyze potential realities and pull them into your current one. In short, you have your pick between them and you can manifest the ones that you choose."
"That's how it feels to ," Luna replied. "I don't feel like I'm leaving 'here' and going 'there', I feel like I'm pulling 'there' to 'here.'"
"Okay then!" Madison hopped up from her chair, her excitent wiping away the calm, placid deanor and replacing it with the energy of a new project. "I have so ideas of what I can do to help, but it's going to take so ti. Can you co back in… two days? I think I can get it all done by then, with Jason's help."
Luna groaned. "Two days away from you? Can I just hang out and help? Or not help! I'll just support you from over here."
"No," Madison laughed. "I need to concentrate and I'm definitely not going to be able to do that with you looking all cute and girly over there."
Luna's olive skin turned a dusky red when she blushed.
Reviews
All reviews (0)