Chương 138: Chapter 137 - Utility

Alexa was first to speak.

"Well, you've seen Archie. I've got a mechano-simulacra proxy class that revolves around my clockwork familiar. I build out the familiar, I can give it commands, and I get perks back while my familiar is active. But…" she ran a hand over the back of her neck.

"Elliot kind of… re-wrote my class with some Hexighast flavoring, so I'm still feeling out the changes. I couldn't make Archie humanoid, before. Or into a drone." Howie leaned forward.

"Kind of wild that he could do that. Just, change how your class worked at will."

"Maybe not," said Cole.

"Therza mentioned that she had a 'second awakening' after Hextant went online. I bet she was talking about a class change. That might have been a side effect of the hex core influence over the Lewis Field. Bricker watched my helmet cam footage, so I'll bet he picked up on that, too. What about your evolutions, Alexa?"

"Well, Archie started out not able to do much. Before my first ev he was just a turret with these stubby little crab legs. I actually had to haul it around Curahee because it was faster to strap it to my day-pack and drop it before fights. My first evolution was that four-legged mobile form. It also gave me a cyclic rate upgrade to any guns I, myself use. Second was a radio comm and imaging package that upped Archie's range and accuracy. That boosted my Acuity and lets me hear subsonic and ultrasonic frequencies."

She scrunched up her face.

"Kind of wish it hadn't. It's a pain, actually."

"I know what you mean," said Cole.

"My prime metric is Acuity, and I'm starting to be able to see near infrared and I think a little into the ultraviolet range. It's a bit like constant migraine auras."

"Wait, for real?" asked Roxy.

"I thought you were just getting better night and distance vision."

"Not that uncommon," said Howie.

"Prime enhancements tend to come with unique physiology changes. Or so I've read." He put his fingertips to his head.

"I just hope my brain doesn't get any bigger. It won't fit in my hi-cut." Cole snorted. Alexa shook her head and continued.

"My third ev upped Archie's intelligence. Let him act semi-autonomously. Probably a good thing I took that one, since that made the architecture complex enough for Elliot to ride on. That one upped my own intelligence in terms of mechanical aptitude and repair. I can understand at a glance how most mechanical devices and simple electronics function and interface—which is why I wasn't helpless with the Hexighast radio systems. The last evolution increased his mass and durability and increased my Resilience.

Nothing fancy, but more toughness is never a bad thing. Especially since I lose a lot of personal power whenever Archie gets slagged."

"That's good to know. How hard is it to make a new one when that happens?" asked Cole.

"It's not hard, but it is time consuming. It takes scrap metal and about five charges to get Archie mobile. It used to take me a couple days. From there I can keep spending more charges to make him bigger and tougher. Complex actions, like that targeting laser, also require charges that I have to transfer over to Archie."

"So if he gets fragged early in a mission, don't expect him back up soon."

"Basically. Well, I've got enough charges to get him to his turret form in one go. Anything else will take a few hours." Cole squiggled the evolution notes under her name. Then he added versatile familiars to the team strengths.

"What about you, Nona? I've never had a great handle on exactly how your abilities worked. Bricker's cleared the rest of the team to know, including Alexa. Deific energy mages are… a little hard to wrap my head around." Nona gave Alexa a side-eye, but Cole's vouch apparently carried enough weight. Her abilities wouldn't stay secret in the Department forever.

"You know Banish. It's simple. If things are in a world or plane where they shouldn't be, I appeal to the governing force of a Lewis field and send them back." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Like that Beast Cult mage in Babel," said Roxy.

"How come you didn't send them all back?" she asked.

"Banish charges take days to recover. And I have to be in physical contact." Nona looked around.

"I try to always save one charge of it in case one of you gets wounded too badly to help and needs to be sent back to Earth."

"She used it on Vael, too," said Cole.

"Sent one of Guall's demons back beyond the scar after it attacked me."

"Holy shit!" said Alexa. She looked at Cole.

"You knew about this? That she can send people back to their own worlds without a stable portal? That's some wild shit, no wonder Bricker kept it under wraps." Cole nodded.

"Wait til you hear the best part." Nona took a deep breath.

"My other ability is Soul Schism. My soul is split into shards across different planes and worlds. They can move with me or I can fix them in place. I can also swap their locations. Or…" she glanced at Alexa, "… switch one with the shard in my body. Most distances in a primary plane are closer together on a secondary plane. That's how I can move around so fast without being seen. But even when I'm not, my soul being split makes me harder to notice. And it's what makes me… like this, when I'm on Earth."

Alexa's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she looked between Nona and Cole.

"Holy shit. So when you vanished on Vael, you weren't just going invisible. You were going interdimensional?!" Nona nodded.

"I was using the demon realm, the plane on the other side of the Scar. But it's not perfect. Demons and other deific energy casters can see my shards and harm them."

"I've always wondered," said Howie.

"Does Earth have anything like that? Secondary planes, I mean. You know, when you're in an artificial Lewis Field?" Nona nodded.

"It's desolate. Just a cold wind and a sunless mausoleum. All the buildings are mirrored. Permanent things usually are. But nothing's in them. No doors, no furniture, no spirits or ghosts, no demons. Not even the light of any souls shimmering beyond the veil." She shivered.

"It's lonely. You can't imagine the solitude. No other plane on any other world is deserted like that."

"Hard core," said Howie. He looked up in thought for a moment.

"Bet it would make a badass metal album cover." Nona looked up at Cole.

"My first evolution spread my schism across worlds, not just planes. That's how I came here. My second let me swap more often. Each of my shards is like its own charge, and schism drains them. I can schism a few times every hour, now. But each one gets harder the more of my soul is exhausted. My third evolution let me better perceive incorporeal entities through the veil. That's how I could see Beth's soul and the djinn in Babel."

Cole took his marker and squiggled infiltration and demonic detection under their strengths, then stepped back and examined the board.

"We've got a pretty good idea where we're strong," said Cole, crossing his arms.

"We've got a good cross section of martial skills, mobility, and different ways to deal with threats. Mobility especially, between Nona and me. I think we should push that even further. We're a bit weaker against single powerful enemies, but what we seem to encounter most often is enemies in fairly large groups and we handle that effectively. I don't want to sacrifice that strength by over-specializing. But Howie, either you or I should cover that shortfall." Howie cleared his throat.

"Do any of your evolution paths this cycle help you pierce shields or ephemeral barriers?" he asked.

"My alpha path. But it's close range. Makes my Meteoric Leap shockwave directional and more effective against barriers. Bravo let's me burn half charge for a second mid-air Leap. Charlie path makes my target marking directional, untethers it from charges entirely, and increases bullet attraction while giving some charge back." Howie considered.

"Let me take my anti-barrier evolution. No sense hurling you face-first at powerful enemies when you're built like," he eyed Cole, considering his words, "like not Besson and Roxy."

"Smooth," said Besson.

"But apt," said Cole. He nodded.

"Okay. I'm leaning towards my bravo path. Any thoughts there?" Howie pursed his lips.

"I think that's your best bet. Even though it seems like it limits your charge economy, it's really just concentrating it. A half charge extra will get you more than double the distance since you'll already be moving. And you can use that kinetic energy to buff five more bullets that will have higher penetration. That's also continuing your kinetic redirection path and synergy with your bouncy bullets."

"You guys gotta come up with a better name for that," said Alexa.

"But for what it's worth, I agree with Howie. Being able to pop or pierce powerful shields from a distance is always going to be preferable to doing it in melee and your ricochet evolution could scale into a pretty legendary crowd control tool." Cole nodded.

"That's settled then." He looked at the board.

"That sands down some of our weaknesses. Now, what are we missing entirely?"