Chapter 27: Hopeless Plus

  Jack flipped through more channels and stopped on the Drone Wars Network, where it was showing daily highlights. Almost instinctively, it made him reach for his phone to go check his personal ranking, whereupon he remembered he didn’t have his phone.

  Just as he was about to ask Mini, she chimed in. “Not that you need it, but it’s being brought today. It’ll be locked to accessing anything channeled through old accounts and IDs to avoid personal leaks. You are not to interface with the outside world as the old Jack Laker, and it’s easy to rationalize exceptions when the separation is so raw. All such exceptions are mistakes. That being said, I can give you read access to view your Drone Wars account for curiosity.”

  “So, what, my ranking is just going to decline forever now?” That was saddening. He’d played the military-sponsored, official simulation his whole life, even into the top 10k briefly. 9,631 to be exact. That was a nice chunk of Lux, too, and well-earned for the insanity of the push. He’d taken leave during flight school just to do it, and it had financed a much better leave the following year. Never mind that he winced when he thought about how much he’d squandered his ranking riches now, no longer finding even 50k rank weekly rewards worth the time devotion.

  “Should Jack Laker be climbing ranks if he no longer exists?” Though there was a pause for him to answer, he had none to give. “Look, I’ll create a virtual agent to rise up over a few days and get where you can fight back up to your current if you absolutely must. A classified shadow account. Once it gets above your old ID, it’ll take over rewards.”

  “A shadow account.” That was tempting. They peppered the leaderboards, obvious aliases for Memorial agents with disguised voices and no way to verify identity. Not normally allowed for official government-sponsored sims. A lot of people hated that they were there at all, or called them cheaters. Jack sighed. “No. I’ll just let it go. Probably won’t have time. Forget it. Leave the ranks for others to fight over.”

  “As you wish. You will remain entirely anonymous without tracking measures until I’m instructed otherwise, to forge an alias. All necessary accounts will be temporary agents unless secured and classified as intranet systems.”

  Not like I need the rewards anymore. I was always asking myself whether it was worth it beyond minimums as opposed to just taking more clients. Work won out over 50k rewards, that’s for sure.

  ‘Minimum’ was just logged playtime, satisfactory drill performance, and keeping up with super easy skill passes, which avoided the necessity of occasional military duty. ‘Brush up’ time. If you were on the books as a citizen drone pilot and put your practice in, you were not required to go anywhere physically. Mainly because in most ‘Suddenly, WAR!’ scenarios, a drone pilot wouldn’t either.

  There were supposedly 2.3 million drone pilots in total, most in citizen reserve for national defense. Preferably never needed, but always ready, young and old. His grandfather kept up until the day he died, despite being past retirement. He’d always claimed ‘Lux is Lux’ to not make a big deal out of it.

  Jack continued killing time and eating. He paused at four pizzas consumed, feeling if not full at least tired of eating. Deliveries started coming. His mostly useless phone and his rushed outfit dropped at his door. Then a delivery guy piloting multiple levitation platforms containing many boxes Jack’s things and some furniture arrived. He moved it all in at Jack’s direction and was soon headed out with empty levi-plats and thanking Jack for a generous tip.

  After sticking the pizza leftovers in the fridge, Jack busied himself through an uptick of energy by stowing away some of his things. Sifting through a box, he uncovered his medal, sitting in a heavy glass case. It was a square designed to display on a shelf, the medal hanging on a hook inside. Jack set it down on the top of a drawer in his bedroom and stared at it for a few moments. It was a golden star with a circle in the center, where three swords, one larger and central, were imprinted. This was inset into the ‘wings of Babylon’ in silver, very similar to the winged sun symbol, but not quite it.

  I don’t deserve this just for getting lucky. Why do I have to wear it? For others, huh? A sacrifice. But I can’t shake it. How much it fills me with dread to look at it, much less to put it on. So many dead. And to think, they cleaned it all up in a matter of weeks. It feels like paving over a grave, and they call it pride. Defiance. Did the wounds heal, though? Change to mere scars? Or are they bleeding endlessly?

  A chime in his head announced a 15-minute warning for his meet-up with Lindsay. Jack turned away from the medal and slapped his hands together. “Alright! Enough maudlin shit,” he told himself emphatically. “I’ll wear my eyes out staring at this thing day after day — until I’m used to it — but for now, it’s time to run.”

  ?? ?? ?? ?? ??

  Rosenblum Park was a sprawling zone of athletic fields, gardens, wilderness, and heavily-constructed trails. It even had a small lake. What was more, it had a false virtual sky enveloping the massive chamber it was encased within, making it seem even bigger. The sun rose high above, which was an alien vision to Jack for the most part. The place was far too big for the meager population utilizing it, so it almost felt abandoned compared to the Padded Room.

  It’s no Hanging Gardens, but it’s very nice. The great park of New Babylon was modeled off of the possibly mythical Wonder of the Ancient World, and its tiered gardens were an unmatched beauty. I hope I can show it off to Neex one day. I bet she’d love it.

  Jack met up with Lindsay at the ‘Major Oak,’ an enormous oak tree with some plaque by it, likely a rescue or a recreation, though he was unfamiliar with it.

  Lindsay spotted him, waved, and ran up before he made it under the branches, her ponytail bouncing around. She was dressed in something similar to his outfit, predominantly black, but of course, the outlines and stripes were hot pink instead of blue. A sleeveless athletic halter top, fairly short shorts, and sneakers. Overall, it showed off a toned and flawless physique, not that he expected anything less.

  She beamed as she looked him over and gestured with her hands. “We match! Other than the colors. Classic Boy and Girl definitive combo! But, yeah, it looks great! You like it?”

  “Sure,” Jack replied, far less enthusiastic.

  “Did you puss out and only get one outfit? Please tell me you got a few. What else, what else?!”

  “Calm down, Lindsay. You’ll see when the time comes. Yes, I got some other outfits.”

  Lindsay made an approving thumbs up. “That’s my guy! Where from?”

  “Hell if I remember. There was some flash sale. Forty percent off.”

  Lindsay crossed her arms as she squinted at him judiciously. A slow, wicked grin grew on her face.

  “What the hell is that look, Lindsay?”

  “Oh, it's nothing. Just… you’re mine now. I got you.”

  “You could maybe elaborate?”

  “You’re a bargain hunter. I have a friend just like you. I will exploit this weakness until your closets are overflowing.”

  “Please don’t.”

  Lindsay just laughed softly in her throat. Maniacally.

  Jack sighed and gestured at the forested area. “So, are we running now?”

  “Not so fast, Jack! We've got that unfinished business, remember? So let’s go hold hands under the tree.” She smirked, turned on her heels, and headed off for her stated target.

  Jack blinked after her. She knows what she’s doing. Man, is this girl a handful. He hurried to catch up and commented, “Such a scandalous suggestion, Lindsay. You should be ashamed! I’m blushing.”

  Lindsay slowed so they were walking side-by-side and glanced his way. “Hmm. You are, aren’t you?”

  “What? No way. It’s this weird sun. It’s beating down. I might even get a burn from it.”

  Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Pray you don’t faint in these deadly rays, oh fair prince. Shall I fetch the royal parasol?”

  “No need,” Jack said as he glanced up at the now sun-obscuring branches over their heads. “Not with the saving grace of our friend, the Great Oak, savior of the pale!”

  Lindsay snickered and shook her head. “Dork. And it’s the Major Oak, actually. A recreation of a lost, living artifact of the famous Sherwood Forest.”

  “And you’re calling me the dork, nerd who knows this?”

  “Shut up! It’s on the plaque!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Lindsay sat cross-legged down in the grass and held her hands out, wriggling her fingers expectantly as she looked up at Jack. He obliged and sat down cross-legged facing her to take her hands, closing his eyes and getting immediately into that ‘receptive’ state she’d demanded before.

  “Ah, my diligent student,” Lindsay murmured favorably. “I didn’t even have to ask.”

  “Yeah, you don’t like waiting, after all.”

  “Jack, you’re now officially Hopeless Plus grade.”

  “I’m so honored. Now zip it and let me get my receptive on.”

  “Zipping it!”

  Shortly, he felt the sudden pressure and flash behind his eyes, the same as before. Heat came again, only this time it flared red-hot and beyond, enveloping and drowning him.

  He was suddenly somewhere else. Everything was brushed somehow, hazy and blurred in a way that made it look like the environment should mix and dissolve into itself at any moment. But he could make out enough to determine he was in the center of a stereotypical Roman colosseum, a circle of dirt surrounded by high walls. The stands all around were empty, however. Darkness, like a void, was above, the visibility of the place courtesy of an ambient glow. It was ghostly and spooky in the extreme — a waking dream.

  Out of thin air, a figure took shape, rapidly taking on more definition until they were photorealistic. It was… someone that could’ve been his sister. An obvious, uncanny resemblance, like his twin — him as a girl, in a form-fitting military uniform.

  This girl suddenly did a double fist-pump up in the air. “Yes! It worked!” It was both an unfamiliar voice and Lindsay’s voice spliced together, one on top of the other.

  “What the hell?!” Jack exclaimed in alarm, looking down at himself and seeing his body as blurry, rough outlines. His voice sounded similar, a murky warble that echoed. “What- what…” He trailed off, at a loss for words.

  His ‘twin’ beamed at him with her hands on her hips. “This is my Secondary Mutation Demonstration Center. It allows me to showcase my findings to you virtually, with live input. Remember when you toasted to experimentation? This is where your feet meet the pavement on that claim!”

  “Lindsay. You’re Lind- But why are you-...” Jack gestured at her emphatically.

  “Hmm? Oh — why do I look like you?”

  “Yes, damn it!”

  “I’m here to emulate you, after all.” She held out a hand, and liquid metal formed a big sphere over her palm. It was an exceptionally odd sensation, as if it was drawn from him, from his own brain. “I am your mimic, but I am also me. I figured this was the best compromise for your mind. I think I’ll call her Jacqueline!”

  “No!” Jack replied in annoyance. “That’s way too weird. This is way too weird.”

  His twin crossed her arms, looking pouty. “Fine. Jill, then.”

  Jack sighed. “That’s beside the point. Where even are we?!” Jack gestured at the hazy environment.

  “A kind of hallucinatory synthesis between us, something like a lucid dream, I guess. Here, I can tap into various aspects of your psyche, tugging where you’ve allowed me. What I do is not random.” She gestured, and the metal sphere took on the form of a bird and flew up through the air. “It draws on your potentiality, but through my skills.” The bird exploded into a mass of glittering gnats, which flew in all directions. Like magnets, they zoomed toward metal structures and melted into them. In short order, a great mass of metal in the form of liquid strands converged back toward Jill. “On the other hand, the scale can be adjusted because you could do this in the future, with a high probability.”

  Jack grew quieter as he observed the flow of the metal. The sense of the control necessary was a bit beyond him. Their combined ‘emulated’ focus was like hundreds, if not thousands, of hair-thin wires working in concert. Jack nonetheless grunted and fixed a glare on Jill. “You’re still avoiding a certain subject. I want to know why you fist-pumped. You acted like this could’ve failed.”

  His twin shrugged. “Yes, and then we wouldn’t be here, and I would be sad. But we’d get here eventually, inevitably. It just so happens our accrued rapport and compatibility were enough in our short time together to pull this off. That’s why I was celebrating.”

  “I guess you’re just that charming, huh?”

  “Yup!”

  “Pfft. Fine, whatever. Could’ve warned me, though.”

  “If I did, you’d feel trepidation and spoil the act, rather than being calm, comfy, and receptive. But now that I established this already, it will be easier to punch through in ensuing emulations, if you’re still nervous.”

  “I’m not nervous. I wouldn’t be.”

  “Um, y-... Okay. I’m sorry I ambushed you, Jack. I apologize.”

  “Thanks.” He cleared his throat and looked up at the metal, formed into a huge floating matrix above them. “I know you intend to help. I’m still getting used to… weird things. Honestly, this isn’t even the weirdest thing in the last day or so.”

  “Heh. Right? So. Shall we continue?” After Jack’s nod, the metal made a big solid disk. From the center, it started to change color, growing red. Jack sensed a greater vibration. A concentration. The center grew white and bright, then dripped down liquidly into the dirt. It smoked where it hit.

  Jack met Jill’s eyes curiously, but she was waiting. Jack asked, “That was molten, wasn’t it? I can do that?”

  “Maybe. It isn’t by default, though.”

  “Okay. So, that’s probably potential through Transmute, right?”

  Jill nodded. “Bingo. It’s fairly natural, as heating something is just another angle of generic control. Movement, in a way. And to normally mold metal plastically without our super-technology, one would need to heat it. I don’t know how far along this is in development. It could be soon, could be later. Anyway, moving on.” The sheet broke apart and gradually formed many shapes floating in the air. Shards, geometric constructs, lines, disks. A cable slithered through the air to hover in front of Jack. “You condense into fine structures excellently. Free-floating structure control and speed is average.”

  The disparate material floated upward and formed a thick disk, then spooled out half-a-dozen hanging tendrils snaking down. “You are better with branches and cords for acute manipulations, your performance superior with such structures. It makes more sense to you.” One of the tendrils formed a shining spear point that suddenly coiled and fired down into the dirt to bury itself at Jack’s feet. “It doesn’t preclude deadly tactics.”

  Like a scorpion stinger…

  The metal all returned to the central disk. Jill squinted up at it as if contemplating. A blob of the liquid metal memorite came free, and some of the metal dropped out of the air as it was suddenly unpossessed. The blob floated close to Jill and formed a disk at her feet, becoming solid. She stepped onto it, and it rose into the air, lifting her.

  Jack grinned as he watched her rise. “I can fly.”

  “I prefer the term levitate for this,” Jill replied as she looked down at him. “And this is exceptionally costly, especially at earlier levels when lifting your own weight at relevant speed is a significant allocation of your total Magnitude. Sadly, you can’t utilize environmental metal this way because it is too close at touching and memorite Magnitude is at half efficiency so close. All these aspects combined relegate this little sacrifice to only be feasible for combat maneuverability at veteran levels or with Secondary Mutations that assist.”

  Jack nodded slowly to this. “Maybe through Augment?”

  Jill shrugged. “Or base functions. Augment might assist lifting totals — it’s hard to say. It has to do with structures for you, primarily. Material strength, fortification.” Jill slowly lowered back to the ground, and the greater disk above spilled a large portion of itself downward, immediately like a blob but quickly forming into a hard, smooth structure directly between them. It was a curving steel wall that obscured her from him. “Well?” called the voice on the other side, vibration through the wall. “Come around, Jack.”

  Jack took a path around the wall… and around… and around. He frowned. “You wrapped it all the way around you? I didn’t even see.”

  “No, I did not,” Jill replied. “If you pay close attention, you’ll know what I did.”

  Jack sped up to a jog as he went around again. His eyes didn’t see anything special, just an endless wall, which made him wonder if she was just messing with him.

  Then he realized he wasn’t paying attention to the right thing. It’s me. My mind, my power, even if she is interacting with it.

  When he cast his attention inward, which was not natural as it felt more like ‘outward’ and external… he quickly figured out what she was doing and he stopped. “You’re rotating it as I move! But I can’t tell visually.”

  “Indeed you can’t!” Jill called, still unseen. “Just a little perspective trick: the ends curve out of sight and the material is all homogenous, so you don’t notice the shift.”

  “Which could save material, and thus Magnitude, if one-on-one and convincing an opponent there is no flank.”

  “Mm-hmm!” The wall suddenly formed a widening circular hole, and Jill stepped through to grin at him. “Always remember that as a material Controller, you can block line-of-sight, which can make a big difference for you and your teammates. Trickery, in general, is indispensable.”

  Jack nodded in understanding. “Teammates. I wonder what they’ll be like.”

  “A tanky type and a damage dealer, most likely. Team size varies by mission, but the classic baseline is a five squad. The other members are flex spots that can shift with the particular powersets of the others. You might have a protective support, another attacker, a survivable scrapper, an amplifier, and so on — the list is long. But yeah, I think you’ll be on a classic squad. That is, assuming you rise from Hopeless Plus to an acceptable grade.”

  Jack smirked. “It’s a given, oh, strange and uncanny twin of mine.”

  “It’s the attitude we love to hear!”

  “Anyway, I didn’t just mean their powersets. Their personality, who they are, yada yada.”

  “Personality?” Jill’s eyes grew a devilish gleam. “Well, like with the other stuff, I’m sure they’ll fill in your lack.”

  “Ouch.”

  “I’m kiddiiiiing! Heck, you’re almost as charming as I am, Jack.”

  “From insult to flattery, this is my lot on the Lindsay Rollercoaster.”

  Her hands went to her hips as she tried an admonishing look. “It’s Jill! Get it right, bucko. Ooh! Rollercoaster! I wonder if we can do that…” On a dime, steel platforms began to form from the disk down to the dirt, all in a structure of beams similar to the underworks of a rollercoaster. Lindsay glanced at him. “Alright, Jack. Here’s where you familiarize yourself with success. Do you feel how it extends through you? Help me build it. Replicate me. Bit by bit, brother.”

  Jack found it surprisingly natural when he tried. As he reached, he felt something like her ‘psychic hands’ taking his and leading them. Supporting and buttressing. A pillar formed out of the metallic mass, anchoring into the ground and solidifying. It was like a part of him, a limb his nerves were branched within.

  I made a pillar. In my mind. A simple thing, and something he was still far from in the real world. Nonetheless, he looked at ‘Jill’ and smiled in satisfaction.

  She did too.

  Next chapter is when the Neex block lifts!

  Rosenblum Park is named in homage to the late science fiction and mystery writer Mary Rosenblum, my creative writing tutor many moons ago. She was also quite a gardener. I didn't know she died until I thought to try and reconnect somehow just in recent years and say something like, 'Hey, I did get published, after all. Indie, but it damn sure wasn't vanity.' I'm sure she would've been happy to hear it.