A Nice Ride

(Spencer's POV)

The next two days Joel kept coming to the training from hell.

He did worse than the first one due to the muscle cramps, but with some quick heals here and there, I kept him away from the point of hurting himself. I will wait for him to get used to this training before increasing it again… also if I do it now, I think Hope might try to kill me.

The day after the first training, she came to talk to me and made me promise her that I wouldn't do anything that would hurt him.

To be honest, I didn't want to comply but…

F**ing puppy eyes…

Since that day I have to control myself a little during the sparring part of the training, not that I did something bad before but this time I think he learned something besides respect.

Despite all this, I don't feel like he has made any progress when I use my fear inducement, but he has time to improve.

Right now, I was at G's workshop.

In the morning he asked me to come, the vehicle was ready. In the last few days, he finished the remaining tests without Joel's help, who was fully dedicated to the Chaos Stones project.

I had inspected the car and now was seeing some of the added functions.

"I can't believe I didn't think of it before. How else would a normal person come up with this?"

G was on the driver's seat and pulled one of the levers as he showed me our ride for the trip. He was still surprised that Joel was an Esper.

The lower part of the Humvee started a chain reaction, the mechanical sounds were followed by the weird sight of the middle tire moving away from the Humvee.

The pieces of metal continued to move in a complex pattern, and an independent humming sound came from the wheel, inviting me to try it out.

Without the third wheel, the vehicle looked like a normal dark green Humvee with soft angles.

I have to recognize the design was clever and a nice addition to the vehicle. Even with visualization, I'm sure that I have yet to uncover some tricks that they kept hidden to surprise me later.

"Probably being surrounded by you geniuses affected me, but it makes so much sense that he has a mental ability."

"A normal person might be able to come with this too."

To be honest, I don't think it's that difficult, but G was acting as if it was obvious.

"See? Genius thinking. You probably have no idea how complex is to understand the limits of the new materials we have to use in the Humvee… no normal person would be able to do that in the time we did. The enhanced vehicles are still in the prototype phase and are not as complex as this one, and the only reason there are prototypes is Joel's findings and designs. You need to level up your engineer or mechanical skill to understand it."

That might be true.

Time wasn't the only reason I delegated this task to him and Hayley's dad, the main reason is that I lack some of the skills to make something like this work. The only thing I could do was get the blueprint, but nothing beyond that. Without the skill was difficult to understand the full extent of Joel's design.

I wanted to just drop the topic, but G started to explain and show the improvements and the difficulties that came from the modifications of the original blueprint, and after that, I had to recognize Joel's ability.

Due to the lack of intensity of the aura was difficult to know his power, but from what we have seen, it was probably an intelligence, creativity, analysis or calculation one. Unless he has a way to suppress or hide his aura, I doubt he is higher than F-Rank, and this was my reason to think lightly of his work but even the lowest abilities can make a huge difference.

The last two days I have seen him working hard and getting back on his feet after I beat him, I have yet to see what Hope and G see in the guy, but I have to recognize that he would be a nice addition to the team.

I thought of the tests and I hope he can make it, but the Chaos Stones are complex to understand even for me.

Obviously, Joel wasn't the only one that needed to understand the way my Chaos Stones worked. I have been working on this side project too.

I have found that the best way to either destroy the or null the vortex was through the use of what can only be described as a sealing formation, or magic circle. And the most effective way to do it was by empowering it with the Chaos Stones.

With my improved abilities and the advance I've made, I have a good idea of how to finish the remaining mission. But for it to fully work I had to gain more understanding of the Chaos Stones.

I created a few more Stone to both play with them and send more to Joel.

While creating them, I noticed that depending on what's on my mind at the time they had some pattern and the way they interact with their surroundings change slightly because of this.

The effects are mainly Space-Time based because of my powers, but I wouldn't discard the possibility of other effects appearing. Of course, I sent this information to Joel, he seemed to have found some of the effects of the stones but all of them seemed too weak.

"So… are you going to try this baby?"

I got on the magnetic-bike and looked at the panel.

It was a simplified version of the one I had before.

"Have you tried it outside the roads?"

"Yes, there is a slight difference in the hover distance and mobility depending on the surface. Between normal roads and rock, it's pretty much the same, but it gets worse from there. Unless is completely necessary I wouldn't use it in the water at all."

I nodded my head, that was a huge leap for the previous magnetic vehicles, and I was trying to resist the urge of asking how they managed to do it.

"Let's try them."

The urge I couldn't let go was riding it after all this time.

__________________

As G said the mobility changed depending on the surface.

Right now we were riding them in a little prairie between Green Shelter and the forest. There were some snow patches scattered around.

I noticed the change he described as soon as we left the city.

The floor feels closer and I couldn't turn as easy as before, but the cold wind in my face is just as I remember. Probably was way colder now, but with my resistances, it felt like a summer breeze.

I don't care that the bike moves slower than me, the feeling of riding a magnetic bike again made me recall the old times when everything was easier, and I didn't have to worry about anything but pass my classes.

But that feeling didn't last long enough…

I turned around to see the city that once was my home in shambles.

A huge twister in the east as a constant menace.

The only area where people could live surrounded by a wall.

The constant fear of a beast invasion or even get attacked by other humans, something I never thought that I would see in my life.

I wondered how my mother was doing… thanks to the system I know that she is alive, but thinking that there are people like Jamie, and the Hamiltons out there. I could help but worry about her…

Is she in a community like Green Shelter? I could only hope so…

Is she with G's parents to support her? Is she having a bad time because of dad? And what happened to him? Did he really die?

Maybe thinking of the old times wasn't a good idea after all…

'System? Do you think they are okay?'

[All that can be said is in the mission log]

… As useless as always… I remember why I don't talk to it as much as I use to. Discussing things with Dante and Rose is way better.

"SPENCE!"

G came with the bike and stopped by my side. He looked back at the city with a sad smile and shook his head.

The sky was overcast which made it look even more depressing.

"We should go back. It's getting late."

I wanted to keep riding, but he was right. I nodded while looking up.

"Ok! The last to arrive has to do the laundry for the remaining time."

Without waiting for his answer, I speed up left him behind…