Sasha didn't back down as Wes reached a hand forward, and set it out on her exposed shoulder. As he did so, the familiar warmth flooded through his hand and arm. If nothing else, he was getting fairly good at controlling it, having used it several times at this point. The energy flooded through him and he pulled a hand back, opening and closing his hand a few times before he glanced to her. "You feel all right?"
"I feel fine, Wes. Don't act like I'm made of fragile glass, thanks," the woman spoke, reaching up a hand and smacking his hand away as he had been reaching out again to touch her.
Wes hesitated for a moment before he nodded, keeping his hand to himself for now. Instead, he looked to Theodore. "Are we ready to see if this worked?" he asked, hoping against hope that it had. If not, they were nearly out of time- if he didn't have it then they'd just have to go and he'd have to figure out something else to do.
Theodore nodded. "Indeed. Step...onto the platform," the man spoke, and Wes exhaled slowly before stepping up onto the platform and closing his eyes. All he could do now was hope that between himself and his allies that they'd succeeded. If so... this would mean that he would be that much more effective at using his Devour Elements Skill against the Beasts, and get what he needed.
Life: 26% | Death: 29% | Time: 2% | Space: 3%
Code: 26L29D02T03S
"Hell yeah!" Jay called out, pumping his fist into the air as he saw the reading come through. "We did it," he spoke, the man giving a wide grin to the rest of them. "That took way too dang long, bro," he spoke, his tone immediately dropping the amusement to fix his brother with a look. "But are you able to do stuff now?"
Wes had been grinning at his success before the smile froze on his features. It slowly melted into a frown and he glanced down at his hands. "Hey, Ted. You don't happen to know how to get that set to read the Skills, do you?" he called over, and the man blinked, looking back at the controls.
"If anyone can do it, Teddy can! C'mon Teddy!" Evie cheered, lifting both hands over her head as she cheered on her friend. "Use that big exploding brain of yours!"
Sasha let out an annoyed sound as she shifted, moving to lean back up against the box she had been seated on. "For the last time, Evie, his brain isn't going to explode."
There was a few moments' hesitation before Theodore nodded. "I think...I figured it out. Stay...there," he spoke, before he began to press several buttons on the machine that was in front of him, causing the system to start to whir, and, much like before, began to read some of the information from within Wesley's Framework.
The group as a whole turned to look at the screen above him, curious at what the printout would say.
26L29D02T03S Activation
Void Skills: Devour Energy (Others Only), Process Energy (Self and Others), Element Emulation* (Self Only)
*Life Framework Skills Active
*Death Framework Skills Active
The sound of silence filled the room, before Wesley frowned. "What does that mean?" he asked, looking at the others, earning nothing but a round of shrugs from all of them except for Theodore, who was looking on in curiosity. "Do I just...can I use them all?"
"Well that's super unfair if that's the case," Sasha spoke, frowning as she looked at him. "I guess see if you can try to do something. I don't know what the different Life Framework Skills are, but you could try to do Jay's or mine for the Death Framework Skills."
Wesley knew that his brother had High Impact and Shatterpoint... and while he had only a small understanding of each of the two, that would be something he could try. Sasha had Venomtouch, and before, Evie'd had Weaken, but it was likely with the Death Framework Energy that he had drained away from her, she wouldn't have that anymore.
The man moved toward one of the boxes before he settled into a rather basic defensive combat stance. "Let's see if I can do Shatterpoint... assuming it does what I think it does," he added, before he thrust a hand forward toward it.
*CLANG*
"OW! SHIT!" Wes called, pulling his hand back and grasping the knuckles in his opposite hand, seeing where they'd split and blood had already began to flow. "Well that didn't work...ow. Man," he hissed under his breath. "Jay, how does your Shatterpoint work?" he asked, still nursing his bruised knuckles.
"Dude, I don't know," Jay answered honestly. "I think it just sort of happened before. That door was coming my way and all I could really think about was breaking it apart. And then I punched it and boom- it came to pieces. Hell, I don't even know if that was Shatterpoint or High Impact," he admitted, shaking his head. "It's not like I know what I'm activating."
Wes exhaled slowly, before he looked down at his hand. "Do you feel something before you attack? Or is it just always kind of 'on' or whatever?"
"Nah, I feel something. Like my hands get all heavy right before I do it," he spoke, the muscled fellow grinning. "It's like they're filling up with lead and then -boom- when I make contact. It's pretty refreshing, dude."
Sasha rolled her eyes at that, before Wes turned back to the metal box. Okay, so he hadn't felt anything like that. But he also wasn't sure if he had even done the Element Emulation right, either. He'd never used that Skill, yet. "Let's try this again," he said aloud, mostly to the others and himself as he shifted his stance, closing his eyes.
Much like Theodore had done before in pushing his Death Framework up to the surface, he started to do the same thing with his own. He focused on his current thoughts and feelings and tried, basically, just to do what Jay would think to do. And that would be not overthink it. He'd just go for it. There wasn't a point for a Death Framework to think things through- they just did things on a whim, and he'd need to be that same way too.
And then he simply snapped his hand forward. No thinking about it, no focusing on it, not bothering to even consider the fact that he might fail, as he had before. Instead he just threw everything he had into the crate as his fist snapped outward. It wasn't the most stylish punch, but it would get the job done.
*BOOM*
The change in results was incredible as his fist punched straight through, without the slightest slowdown. It was like he had punched right through a sheet of tissue paper instead. Slowly, he pulled his hand back out from the hole he'd made- but as he did so, part of the metal sliced along the outside of his arm, and he winced, the blood starting to gather along his arm, joining what had already been forming on his knuckles.
"Should I...offer assistance?" Theodore asked, but Wes merely held up his other hand, instead letting pleasant thoughts fill his mind. Things about what he could leave behind for the next generation.
As he focused on that, the wound began to stitch itself back together. It was slow, but the progress was clearly being made. "Damn..." Jay spoke as he watched his brother both emulate not only himself, but the same thing that Theodore was able to do. "That's awesome, bro!"
"Hey, hey! Can you do summons, too?" Evie asked, the girl's eyes wide with excitement as she watched him.
"Hang on..." Wes responded, letting the Restoration skill finish before he opened and closed his fingers into a fist a few times, mostly just testing to make sure it had all healed right, before he glanced toward Evie and nodded. "All right," he spoke simply, breathing deeply inward and once more focusing on those happier thoughts to the future... and on summoning something.
He closed his eyes... and as he did so, Wesley heard a few gasps from those gathered. "That's so screwed up," he heard Sasha and he opened his eyes, glancing over to the side where he saw an empty grey form of what appeared to just be himself. The main difference of course being that it was floating about a half inch off the ground. That and its skin was a deep grey, and its eyes a similar endless black.
"It...I guess I can," he responded to Evie, before he willed it to vanish and the thing just sort of faded away from sight. He looked over to the others, giving a small smirk. "Well, at least I know I won't be dead weight, now."
As he finished, a voice began to blare out over the speakers. "All teams are to report to the field. You have five minutes."