7 Flying Over

As soon as Burns decided on his plan, he moved. First he suited up in the Onyx Flood; then gathered some extra supplies. Although the Flood offered impressive protection, flexible attacking capabilities, and unrestricted mobility, it wasn't enough on its own to satisfy Burns. If he was going to be faced with large-scale combat, he wanted more to work with. For weaponry he grabbed his Aceron Sunfire 000, a plasma rifle perfect for dealing with armored targets. He also wrapped himself in bandoliers of energy packs to charge the rifle with.

In a large backpack, Burns stuffed everything else he planned to take. Grenades, custom, high-calorie MREs for his High-Speed Regeneration mod, bottled water, toilet paper, and other supplies ended up inside the backpack. Now prepared to leave, he went to see the Donovan.

The Steam Jack surprisingly seemed mostly unaffected by the Puppet Jack's mind control. He'd cordially thanked Burns and, after the Erratic Jack had explained his understanding of the current situation, agreed to follow him to the meeting.

Although the bunker's teleportation array was fairly advanced, it had a limited range. Rather than teleport straight there, Donovan had directed Burns to his own residence. In passing, the Erratic Jack learned that the 'safe house' he'd fought at before wasn't even owned by Donovan. It'd actually been either the Puppet Jack's or the vampire's place.

Once they arrived, Burns admitted he was impressed. The Steam Jack's residence was a 'small' mansion in a gated community. While there the two picked up some extra gear before heading out to Donovan's private helipad. Waiting atop it was an intimidating Winter&Steel Roving Thunder attack helicopter.

The Roving Thunder was armed to the teeth with both ballistic and magical weaponry in the form of turrets, missiles, and a complement of drones. The entire thing was fully automated, requiring no actual operators, although to achieve the best results one would be needed. Jimmy couldn't stop "ooing" and "ahing" over it.

As Donovan inputted the meeting's coordinates and the Roving Thunder's blades began spinning, he heard Burns say "You have a past history with Hayashi. Do you think you'd be able to get in contact with him? After he left the bunker earlier I realized I didn't have a way of contacting him myself."

"I don't" Donovan replied "but you shouldn't worry about it. If Hayashi decides to do the Aceron job he'll have no issue showing up at the meeting."

As the helicopter rose into the air, the two Jacks switched to using their power armors' communication systems to converse. Burns said "I knew you were well off but I never expected you to have been this successful. How'd you even manage to get so wealthy as a Jack?"

"I'm talented, a hard-worker, and lucky. As you learned the hard way, there's no safe way to combine External and Internal Magic into a human. Anyone with both ends up a Monster or an Erratic. Combining multiple Internal Magics is possible though through the use of gene mods. Since most forms of Internal Magic are largely passive, how strong an Internal Magic user can become is largely determined by their resources and how many gene mods their body can handle.

External Magic is different. For those of us with External Magic, mastering our magic is what tends to determine our strength, since there's no known way of acquiring multiple External Magics. For the average person, using their External Magic isn't too hard. Learning how to use it as effectively as possible, that's a whole different ballgame.

I practiced and practiced. The first thing I did was to learn how to use my magic without gestures. Most people never even manage that much. If they can't wave their arms or chant meaningless lines they suddenly can't control their magic. You look at kids these days, none of them do that because they grew up with magic but for us older folks, adapting was harder. For most people, it was like growing an extra arm and suddenly having to learn how to use it.

Once I could control my magic like a body part I started working on techniques. I wasn't a Jack yet, they didn't exist yet, but I had already fought several Monsters. You have to understand, after the Shifts the cities were completely overrun with Monsters and the rural areas weren't much better. People who couldn't defend themselves were being hunted for food by all manner of creatures. This only motivated me even more to master my newfound abilities.

I gathered experience in those chaotic battles and began refining my techniques. People started talking about me, about how strong I was, and my reputation rose. By the time Jacks were a thing, I was already considered strong enough to be one of the best. Even today, with gene mods making the power difference between External and Internal Magic roughly even overall, I'm still strong. For people like me, there was never a lack of jobs, just time to do them."

Burns laughed and said "I see. The one time I saw you fighting, really fighting, I was shocked. You opened my eyes to how strong an External Magic user could be."

Donovan also laughed, saying "I'm strong but I'm hardly a peak expert either. I'll probably never be a match for someone like Plate Jack Parker or Light Jack Moon."

"Why is that" Burns asked curiously?

"It's simple. With External Magic, you're changing the world in some way. With me, I can generate and control steam. With Parker, he does the same thing with dinner plates. In terms of our magic, mine ought to be way better right? However, Parker's capable of something I'm not. He can change the properties of the plates. He can change their size, weight, material, color, and so much more. Me, I can do that if I focus on the changes. I can concentrate on making my steam hotter or give it a green shade. What I can't do is make those changes constantly mid-fight while doing all the other things I normally do. For someone like Parker or Moon, they have a level of control over their magic I simply can't emulate."

"I can see how versatile someone with that kind of capability could be. Still, surely you could improve in other aspects? I know from experience, External Magic can grow stronger from use like one's muscles. Train hard enough often enough and you could just beat someone like that in terms of raw power, couldn't you?"

Donovan shook his head as he replied "Not really. For someone at Parker or Moon's level, you need an overwhelming difference in power for that to work. As long as the gap isn't large enough, the skill difference will ensure they win. I mean, a lazy genius might be overcome that way but neither of the two I mentioned is lazy. For us External Magic users, talent is the most valuable commodity.

That said, an Erratic like you may be the exception to the rule. I've seen Erratics die from sheer exhaustion because they couldn't stop their magic but you don't have that problem. Depending on how much raw power you have by now, it's possible you could win against someone like Parker. You could also just die right away."

"I'd rather not find out the answer to that question regardless of the outcome."

"No, I suppose not" Donovan laughed.

As the Roving Thunder continued to carry them towards the meeting point, they continued talking. Burns found Donovan to be surprisingly friendly, without a trace of the fierce aura he'd had when they first met. He really was different now that he'd regained his free will. If he actually was going to try to assemble a team of Jacks, he'd want Donovan on his side. Still, that idea looked like it'd have to be shelved for now.