Chapter Twelve - Part One: A Storage Issue

Leta was laying in bed staring at the ceiling when she heard the door open. It was well past midnight when her teammates had returned from a night out on the town, laughing and shuffling about as only drunks and toddlers can.

Wide awake, she decided to check in and assess the damage.

Two of the men each had an arm around Pilar and were helping her through the door, though it was more of a drag as the petite woman could barely do more than wiggle her toes across the carpet.

Pilar looked up at her and smiled, eyes blissful and unfocused. "Leta, mi parcera." She slurred. The tiny Colombian tried to take a step forward but would have face planted on the rug if it hadn't been for the two keeping her upright.

Dr. Galloise was rose cheeked but at least seemed to have her wits about her and she grinned at Leta. "You're still up?"

"TV in Greece after 10 p.m. isn't as entertaining as it is in the US." Leta shrugged. "Do I need to make anyone some coffee?"

"No," Dr. Galloise shook her head. "We shouldn't be having anything with caffeine. We're all going to need to sleep this off. That one especially." She thumbed at Pilar, who was singing Grito Vagabundo as she was dragged down the hall.

Leta snorted as she crossed her arms and leaned against her door frame. "Any word from the professor?"

Dr. Galloise shook her head. "Nothing yet. It's late, so she'll probably give us a call tomorrow to discuss where we're currently on the appeal."

Leta nodded and turned to leave with a soft 'good night' when Dr. Annika spoke up, "Are you on a new diet?"

The question threw Leta off. "Pardon?"

"You just look slimmer, like you've lost some weight."

'How to respond to that?' Leta thought to herself, 'I got Botox, but instead of taking away fine lines it gave me superpowers.'

"No new diet." Leta shrugged, "Probably thanks to the food here not being pumped full of preservatives and that nice hospital stay."

Dr. Galloise smirked as she headed to her room, "The food is pretty good. Well, whatever it is, you look good."

Leta closed the door and glanced over at the cheap IKEA floor mirror in the corner.

Dr. Galloise was right.

She was by no means a supermodel - she'd been way too heavy due to her academics and her love of mac and cheese to have been skinny.

But her cheeks looked more defined, her sandy blonde hair seemed lighter, and she could just barely make out the curve of hips that had once been hidden under her slightly diminished muffin tops. She wasn't a femme fatale, but she could admit arbitrarily that she looked a bit more attractive, like the sweet, nerdy girl next door that you could have an actual, intellectual conversation with.

"Wow." Leta exhaled softly, running her hands through her tangle of blonde hair. It even had a healthy shine as if she wasn't always twisting it up into a bun to get it out of her face.

[THE HOSTS METABOLISM WAS CORRECTED DURING THE INITIAL SYSTEM DOWNLOAD PROCESS. IN ADDITION, INCREASES IN STATS WILL ALSO AFFECT THE HOST'S BODY FAT RATIO GOING FORWARD.]

'Well, that's nifty.' Leta mused as she pulled back the covers and climbed into bed.

Those unprogrammed nanites were burning a hole in her pocket and she was eager to spend them.

'What are my upgrade options?'

[UPGRADE OPTIONS AVAILABLE:

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION : Host is able to make changes to their physical appearance. This upgrade is affected by unprogrammed nanites available.

INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION: Host is able to make changes to their internal structure, including the creation of artificial enhancements and structures. This upgrade is affected by unprogrammed nanites available.

SHADOW STEP - LEVEL ONE: By creating a temporary link to the Shadow Plane, the host can teleport using shadows within the host's line of sight. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 3,258,159

STONE SKIN - LEVEL ONE: The host can calcify the cells on their forearms, back, and chest. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 3,986,741

CONVERT - LEVEL ONE: The host is able to convert programmed nanites to unprogrammed nanites at a ratio of 10,000,000 to 1,000. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 5,105,980

WILL OF THE MASON - LEVEL ONE: Solidify loose sand into sandstone. Sandstone can be commanded to move within reason. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 5,114,942

SHIELD OF THE GODS - LEVEL ONE: Compress light particles to create a barrier one meter in diameter. This barrier is impenetrable by physical force. This barrier cannot be moved once erected. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 5,230,843

POISONER'S PALETTE - LEVEL ONE: Immunity to poisons which cause physical disruption, such as muscle weakness, numbness, and sight impairment. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 5,401,952]

Leta perused the options that were available. She admitted to herself that she hadn't taken a proper look at these when she'd gotten Scan, but took her time to go through them now.

Shadow Step sounded cool and was probably one of the skills from the Assassin class that the Chosen had mentioned. The idea of a Shadow Plane was a little freaky though. While the skill was basically short teleportation, the idea of going through another plane of existence wasn't very appetizing. Would she go through some shadow beast and out the other end?

Stone Skin would have come in handy when she was fighting the Loupgaru, but wasn't a full time protection. Even if she'd had the skill when she'd first come across the monster, it had jumped her so fast she wouldn't have had time to activate the skill.

Will Of The Mason and Poisoner's Palette were interesting, but not exactly useful right now.

Shield Of The Gods sounded very interesting, but in normal combat it would only be useful for one time. It looked more like an investment skill - something that she could buy now and upgrade later to be useful - which was not exactly what she was looking for right now.

Convert was of no use to her right now if the skills that were coming available to her would need just about every drop of unprogrammed nanites to acquire.

What she needed was to raise her current storage cap.

'What are my options for increasing my storage capacity?'

[THE HOST CAN UTILIZE INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION TO EITHER CREATE ADDITIONAL STORAGE RECEPTORS, OR REPLACE CURRENT BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES WITH ATLANITE - A MINERAL COMPOSITE CREATED FROM NANITES. ATANITE STRUCTURES CAN BE CREATED TO HAVE STORAGE RECEPTORS IN THEM.]

'What are the pros and cons for each of these options?'

[CREATING ADDITIONAL STORAGE RECEPTORS WILL LEAVE THE HOSTS BODY NEARLY COMPLETELY ORGANIC AND IS NOT PERMANENT. STORAGE RECEPTORS CAN BE DECONSTRUCTED FOR LATER USE WITHOUT ILL TO THE HOST'S BODY. THIS METHOD WOULD MEAN THAT RECEPTORS WOULD COEXIST WITHIN THE HOSTS BODY BUT SEPARATE FROM OTHER ORGANS. LARGE RECEPTORS MAY BE DETECTED DURING MEDICAL EXAMS, SUCH AS X-RAYS.

REPLACING BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES WOULD MEAN THAT THE NEW ATLANITE STRUCTURES WOULD BE 15X STRONGER THAN THE STRONGEST METAL CURRENTLY KNOWN TO THE HUMAN RACE, YET STILL FLEXIBLE AND LIGHT ENOUGH THAT IT WOULD NOT HINDER THE HOSTS MOVEMENTS. ATLANITE STRUCTURES CANNOT BE DETECTED DURING MEDICAL EXAMS, AND CAN BE UPGRADED FURTHER ONCE ACCLIMATED. HOWEVER, REPLACING BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES WITH ATLANITE IS PERMANENT AND CANNOT BE REVERSED ONCE COMPLETED.]

Leta pondered the good and the bad for each option. The permanence factor was certainly a drawback on option two, but option one sounded like she'd have some bulging mass poking out of her skin.

The mental image alone made her almost want to gag.

'What are the recommended places for the additional receptors and the Atlanite structures?'

[BASED ON THE EXPERIENCE WITH THE LOUPGARU EARLIER, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE HOST REPLACE THEIR ULMA AND RADIUS BONES IN BOTH FOREARMS, CREATING AN INTERNAL SHIELD WHICH CAN BE USED DURING A CONFRONTATION. THIS OPTION WOULD COST THE HOST 5,500,000 NANITES. BASED ON A RATIO OF 3,000 UNPROGRAMMED NANITES SPENT TO CREATE STORAGE FOR 1,000 NANITES, THE HOST'S CAPACITY WOULD INCREASE TO 7,338,763.]

Leta breathed a sigh of relief that the additional structures weren't going to look like she had some awful growth sticking out of her.