2.13

2.13

I grumbled something unintelligible about ants, then my eyes snapped open. I woke up floating in the air close to the ceiling. It startled me for a moment, but I'm used to flying enough that I regained my bearings fairly quickly. The biggest problem I had with this is I was in the air in my hotel room. Mom still had not found us a house... Well, she has, it's just not going to be ready for another day or two. Dad hired some workers to clear up the ice from our previous house so we could recover some of our things, but that house was going to need some major repairs and lots of ice melting before it's livable again. I guess I can thank Bakuda for not turning it to glass so I don't have to deal with Taylor making jokes about glass houses.

Now, back to the reason why I'm sleeping in the air wrapped in a blanket cocoon. I brought Noelle to mom yesterday. Mom, seeing as how she's been blatantly trying to get me a girlfriend for a while, decided she was -not- going to allow Noelle to sleep on the street, but she also wasn't going to rent a room for her alone. She insisted that I was a perfect gentleman. So when I got back to the hotel room I found a Noelle in my bed. Not wanting to risk feminine wrath, I was left with the option of 'sleep on the floor' or 'sleep on the ceiling'. For some reason Noelle seemed perfectly fine with the arrangement. She 'trusts' me or something... Maybe I -should- have just handed her off to the PRT. One less headache for me. Oh well, what's done is done. Besides, sleeping mid-air isn't so bad.

I had also learned a lot from Shard last night. Apparently she had spent most of the day chatting with Sophia, and much of that was a 'secret', but during that time Shard was trying to 'fix' Sophia's core. She wasn't able to do a -lot- but she was able to help apparently. As for the 'punishment' to the secondary core... apparently it didn't talk to Shard. Shard just started messing around with it and figured out there were more 'control' connections that Sophia had never tapped into.

The other thing Shard learned that she conveyed to me, was the feel of -how- Sophia's ability worked. I'm sad to say I didn't fully understand it. Much like when I was watching Amy's ability, it had aspects that I simply couldn't grasp, such as 'break physics so the body doesn't die while it floats between the dimensions'... yeah, I don't even know the first step of that. On the -bright- side, it was simple enough on the 'between dimensions' aspect that I was able to practice that last night. The best way I can explain it is that sensation I get when I see Vista screw with physics, It's like a completely new sense to see the space between the 'layers' of dimensions. I can tell I'm -barely- strong enough to pierce into that sensory range, it's like being able to see an inch while knowing the next closest stop is a mile out, so I won't be dimension hopping anytime soon. Not to mention the safety issues. Apparently physics is -not- nice between dimensions and if anything stays between for too long it'll warp and tear it apart into the energy 'between'. The only reason it takes any time at all is that the laws that bind the object have to be broken down first.

What all of that means to me is, I can infuse and temporarily shunt something into a shadowy non-dimension making it semi-astral, similar to Sophia's new ability. I can't do it to myself though, since I can't quite control the laws of nature to any degree. If I moved myself over I'd probably die within a couple of seconds. Seriously, those secondary cores are basically cheat codes. Panacea's has some crazy effect on time and she doesn't even have to consider -how- things work, and now Sophia's bends the laws of nature to keep her body from dying between dimensions. I can't complain much though. My power is pretty awesome on it's own.

I roll around in the air to unwrap the blanket from around me as I go over what I want to do today. First of all, I need to finish all the rings I have to make. So I'll get my parent's rings done this morning, then call in Taylor and Impact later today. Next, I think mom is getting antsy about training, and I want to bring the team in on an idea I have for training their cores. From what I've seen I doubt they'll be able to manage near what I can do, but they should be able to develop some astral defense and I'll bet they can manage some neat tricks of their own. I guess Noelle will have to join in on that. We'll also need a schedule to stick to. Then I need to speak with Taylor about a way to find Noelle's friends. Finally, I'm tired of having seven orbs following me when I 'gear up', I need a solution to that. And of course anything else that comes up through the day has to be dealt with.

Satisfied with my plan for the day, I go through and take care of my morning routine while Noelle is still asleep, then summon up Shard who has gone back to her normal form. She did the 'demon imp' thing just for fun. I grabbed a bowl of cereal from the mini-fridge, and quietly ate, then left. I'm a little amazed Noelle didn't wake up, but then again, this is probably her first time in a real bed in a -long- time. I'll bet even if she did wake up she just went back to sleep to savor the feeling of a bed.

I knew my parents would be awake just because they always wake up pretty early. I knocked on their door and heard some shuffling around until my dad opened the door, he smiles and tilts his head into the room motioning for me to enter, "Come in kiddo, I got something for ya yesterday."

I followed him in only to get a tackle disguised as a hug from mom, "My little boy is so grown up!"... if it were -anyone- else I'd play along to mess with them, but mom would go so far as to -actually- plan the wedding and make the appropriate reservations.

I roll my eyes, "Mom, nothing happened, I slept on the ceiling."

She glares and me and releases the hug with a scoff, "I gave you the -perfect- opportunity, you saved the girl from the worst thing in her life and you didn't take advantage of her at -all-?" I shake my head and I can see my dad trying to hold back a smirk. Mom continues, "Damnit, I've got my work cut out for me. You're going to be as difficult as your father." She starts 'plotting' to herself as she walks back further into the room.

Once mom's drama was done, dad slid two briefcases from under the bed, both looked -very- sturdy. He rolled the combination and popped open one to reveal a decent sized metal plate inside. He smiles saying, "I know you wanted some stuff for your pals, and with how you explained those rings, I thought this could help. Each case has a one hundred and twenty pound plate of tungsten carbide along with a spec sheet of the composition, strength... the works." I tilt my head a bit and focus on infusing the material to find it's able to absorb about seventy or eighty percent more power than my current rings, meaning it gives more room to 'grow into'... and I may have found a good solution for my various shields, but that comes later.

I grin and use a flight spell to lift one as well as let me check its composition while I read over the spec sheet, "Dad, this is -great-, it'll be perfect for the enchantments." A bit of quick guesstimation head-math based on the material specs tells me I should be able to melt this down and reform the dust if I take my time with it, that way I don't waste any. I replace everything in the case, I'll have to bring them along when everyone meets up at the dojo later.

I cough, because that's what you do to let everyone know it's your turn to talk, "Alright, I'm ready to enchant your rings. Mom, we'll do yours first so you aren't complaining while I do dads."

Both smirk but mom says, "You know me -so- well!"

Mom sat on the bed and I just floated in the air across from her, we went through the normal procedures, though I had a -much- harder time than normal because of mom's new defense. It marked the 'link up' as an attack and tried to defend. It took a while for mom to relax that and let me through. Then we had to program the spell that reads brainwaves in relation to the flight spell and of course construct the various aspects of the flight spell itself. It took a couple of hours because I was 'disconnected' due to her defense a couple of times. Now her wedding ring started to glow her deep violet color as it charged. Once it charged we found she could hover without moving for about three and a half minutes, but once it was -entirely- out of charge, it took almost nine minutes to charge fully.

It was at that moment that I realized something that I'm amazed I hadn't noticed earlier. Apparently my parents had been -really- focusing on training their cores in their free time. They took my concerns very seriously. Mom's aura had grown out to be almost two and a half feet, and dad's was nearing two feet. That was pretty good progress for the fairly short time they'd been doing this, but I knew from personal experience that gains were harder to achieve as you grew. Still, it made it so I didn't have to worry as much.

Next I grabbed dad and went through the steps for his ring. He was much easier since he didn't have a sort of 'automated' defense, though I did ask to test his defenses. Obviously they weren't as good as mom's, but I was pretty happy that he should be able to identify and block anything that wasn't too forceful. Noelle's chaotic power would have taken several seconds to break through enough to begin cloning him. I gave him a few tips, such as holding the shield closer to himself so it was easier to defend, and it wouldn't contact other people and shatter too easily. When we built the ring up he made some requests, so we managed some varying designs on the type of projectile, blunt, pointed, 'buckshot' of the varying types, bladed - like an arrow and 'The Cannon' - a large slug that simply packs -all- the power left in the ring behind it. I also built up varying power levels, and the capability to accept up to three for divided focus, since I'm pretty sure he's barely capable of aiming his gun and creating one at once. This will let him practice with splitting his concentration enough to make multiples and aiming them.

Once I had those built I needed a break. Too much focusing, linking and fine tuning too many things. Shard was flying around with mom the whole time and mom had fallen out of the air several times because she doesn't pay attention to the charge in her ring.

While I was mentally recovering I discussed with mom and dad about hitting the dojo this morning. Dad opted out, he wanted to go to the training range at his workplace to practice, but he'd join us later in the day. Mom was excited though, more so when I suggested that I could call in the team. And she insisted on bringing Noelle along. I considered giving Greg a call to join us - he -does- need the practice, but we already had eight people: Mom, Dad, Shard, Taylor, Impact, Sophia, Noelle and me. I didn't want to get a bigger group than that.

I sigh to myself, "Let's get this going." and I step out into the hall and call up Taylor, "Hey T, Let's get the group together and meet up at the dojo. Yeah, the place my mom's friend owns. Mom's gonna be teaching us. We'll have Noelle there too. While we're there I'm gonna get you and Impact a new toy. Alright, that's fine, I need to run something by you too. Alright, so around eleven should be okay? Alright, see you there."

After the phonecall I went back to my room to wake up Noelle and get her ready to go. She was... difficult to get out of bed. I literally just flew her out from under the covers and toward the bathroom. I was lucky that she had pajamas now that I think about it. I wouldn't put it past my mother to have -only- given her day clothes.

Once Noelle had finished up and changed she seemed bright and cheery - apparently mom had even gone to get the girl shoes. Idly I wondered if the lack of normal feet would push her normal female desire for tons of shoes even further? Not important, she's not going to be using my closet after all.

I get her attention, "Hey Noelle, the group is getting together to do some training, want to join us or head out on the town a bit?"

She shrugs, "I'll sit in and watch, maybe even join if it looks fun." That'd work.

I nod, "Alright, then let's get going" and I grab my costume and tools and head out the door to my parents room. Dad had taken off while I was pushing Noelle to wake up. Mom decided she was going to take the 'Oblivium express'. It was a bit of a strain, but I grabbed one of the plates of metal my dad got me, and I grabbed mom and Noelle in a flight spell, then headed out the window and over the town to the dojo. We would have some spare time, but I needed to set up to make some rings and I wanted to make a small blade for Sophia - just in case.

After a short flight we arrived and mom produced the key, I guess she had a copy made a while back, and unlocked the place. They had some classes starting around two but they had a back area we could make use of. I dropped mom and Noelle out of the flight spell and let them know I was doing a bit of metal work while we waited for the others. So mom took the opportunity to 'persuade' Noelle into training with her. That basically consisted of 'ready or not, here I come!' - though she was gentle... by her standards.

The first thing I wanted to make was a thin blade for Sophia, So I used a combination of Filter and making use of mana constructs and melting down dust - I found I could melt about a cubic centimeter of material in roughly a minute safely - to make a flip out blade with a lock plate to hold it out, a hollow ring for the pivot point for a better stabbing grip, and I brought the edged portion of the blade around the end and down about a half inch on the back side. The taper of the back of the blade would keep it from cutting anything while it was folded up. I sharpened the thing down as perfectly sharp as I could, even to the point of heating it to move the material around and make the perfect edge. I'd have to touch it up any time she uses it, but if she -needs- to use it, I want it to be the best.

The next project, I made seven coin-sized 'talismans' and a thin chain out of the material so I could wear it as a bracelet or necklace with the 'talismans', which I would charge with the battery portion of my normal shield enchantments rather than having orbs follow me around. I'd probably still keep one or two orbs around for show, but this way they would make great 'decoys' for anyone that knows a bit about my powers.

Once I finished those, Taylor showed up. I stepped out of the back to see an -exhausted- Noelle being prodded by mom. I left Noelle to the sadistic mercies of my mother again as I brought Taylor to the back, "Hey T, come on, gonna need you back here to get this done."

She just blinks for a moment at the scene of Noelle and mom, then waves to them and heads back. Mom gave her a wave but I think Noelle was too tired to realize a person had shown up.

As soon as I got in range of what I had left of the plate (still quite a bit), I took a subtle measurement for a toe ring since it seems to be -the- best way to make these subtle, then I started the crafting as I spoke to Taylor, "So, come up with what you want the enchant to be?"

She gives me a nod and a slight smirk, "Yeah, you know your shields and the way you Boost on others, etc. Those plates? What Sophia did last night gave me an idea. You can make a plate that 'anchors' to a point right?"

I nod as I start melting down some dust I've filtered from the material, "Yeah, and it can counter forces that try to move it. What exactly are you thinking?" Slowly the melted dust starts to fill a mana construct 'mold' as we go over what she's after. Shard takes the opportunity to hug Taylor.

Taylor smiles and 'hugs' Shard back, then continues what she's thinking for her ring. "I want to be able to anchor either where it's placed, or to the body part I create it on. So I could make it on my fist and punch, then anything I punch it would expend it's energy countering the counterforce from the punch, essentially just adding additional force to the strike without hurting my knuckles. Or I could knock someone into a wall, then slap them in the chest and drop a plate there anchored in space to hold them in place until it runs out. Just something as simple as that has -so- many uses. That's not mentioning how useful it would be with how incredible my combat awareness is through my bugs. Someone aims at me and I have a couple of bugs on the gun to line it up, I could place a shield angled to deflect the shot into a light or something to give me an even better advantage." By the time she's done explaining I'm grinning, it's just like her, take something simple and make it amazing. It won't even be that hard to do. And I already know what to do for Impact - Infused Boost, it just makes sense for him.

Once I had the ring made I helped it cool and 'etched' in a black widow just because. Though from the look on Taylor's face she was rather happy with that. Once it was safe I tossed her the ring, "You probably already know this, but the plate will only be able to be made within your aura, which right now means just over your skin. You can't take the ring off or it'll lose the enchantment, and if you take it off while it's got any charge it'll try to explode."

Taylor just nods and rolls her eyes, "Yeah yeah, let's get this going, I want to play around with it and work out bugs before we have to go help the Wards later." I raise an eyebrow at that, but it's Taylor, she'll let me know what I need to know when it's important. Not worth worrying about. We go through all the steps as normal, linking up, building the spells up, setting the brainwave construct and tuning it to what she needs to get it working, etc. After a while, Taylor has a brand new Mana Plate enchantment. We gave the plates she can make three setting for anchors: to herself, in place and no anchor.

We wait for it to charge. Then she grabs me to pull me to the ground and steps on my foot, leaving a plate in place holding me pinned to the ground. I give her a flat look, "Funny."

She smirks saying, "That's what you get for ignoring me. You've been spending too much time running around doing your own stuff, we hardly ever do anything anymore."

I just raise an eyebrow, "You have a phone, just call me up. Besides, 'getting kidnapped' wasn't exactly on my list of things to do."

She laughs, "Yeah, excuses excuses. So what's the deal with the girl in there with your mom?"

I think about it for a moment, "Have you heard anything about the 'evil clone' situation?" She nods, I assume someone leaked something to PHO or... maybe Taylor is just -that- good. "Well, that 'nightmarish abomination' I told you about, you already know her name is Noelle... She made them when this gang attacked her. After Sophia and I took care of the situation I went to help her out. I think Shard's told you about how parahumans have two cores? Well, her secondary had gone crazy, anything that touched her would get cloned into an evil warped creature. I went into her primary core, and through that into her mind, like Shard does, and I created a way to stop her secondary core from... well, for lack of a better term, from being on 'full blast' all the time. Once her primary core recovers she'll be able to reactivate her secondary and hopefully have more control of it. I had to grab Panacea to fix her legs though. The 'nightmarish' look was because the secondary core mutated her legs into that chaotic mass. Panacea fixed her up and she needed pants, so now here she is."

Taylor nods following along, "Alright, that doesn't exactly say why she's -here- though." She really takes the odd things that happen to me in stride.

I blink, "Ah, right. Part of the training we are going to do is that I'm going to teach you guys a breathing technique and I have a plan that may make it easier to train your core. She needs both if she's going to be able to control her power. The other thing is, I need you to make a plan. She has friends but none of them even know she's alive, and she wants to find them."

Taylor thinks about that for a bit then shrugs, "Alright, let me think on it. I'll talk to her and see if we can come up with something..." She already looks slightly lost in thought. She'll have a plan for me in no time.

Taylor goes out and rescues Noelle from my mother by jumping into the spar - and making -liberal- use of the new mana plates. She's surprisingly effective, but mainly because she can place them accurately. Mom still has to hold back some or she'd be moving too fast for Taylor to react, but that'll just take training. Mom mixes it up with some new 'flying martial arts'. Everything changes when you don't fall as fast as you're supposed to, or the trajectory of the attack just -shifts- suddenly. But there's also the problem of not having the ground to give you leverage, meaning holds and locks are more effective.

The next one to show up was Sophia - it was still earlier than the actual meet up time. I wasn't going to bother with re-making her ring until I grew strong enough it was worth changing over. Instead I tossed her the thin knife which was locked closed. The girl caught it and looked it over, then twirled the closed blade on her finger through the pivot hole before flicking the blade out. -That- made her eyes grow large. She stared at the blade for a few moments then raised an eyebrow in question.

I nod, "Yep, mono-molecular edge - though if you use it I'll have to sharpen it again. It's for emergencies."

That made her break out in a grin, then Shard dove in and hugged her. Sophia tilted her head into it again. Seeing Sophia showing affection at all is still a little scary... She put away the knife and gave a nod to Noelle. I assume she already put together the situation in regards to the girl... or just doesn't care enough to ask. Instead she's -much- more interested in the sparring match between Taylor and mom, though it's pretty obvious mom is still toying with her. Taylor is pretty stubborn though, smart too. She's already figured some ways to counter a little of what mom is doing. The problem there is my mom is smart too - so she's figuring counters to the counters. It's incredibly impressive to watch. I'll end up having to give it a go, probably without powers, but I'm hanging back until I get Impact's ring made.

Speaking of Impact. He just walked in the front door. Different biker outfit than normal and a different helmet. Seriously, we're all meeting up in civilian identities and even with the different helmet you can obviously pick him out as 'Impact'. Eh, oh well. I wave him over to bring him into the back.

I start the process of making a ring again, "Hey man, making you an enchantment ring. It'll glow, the girls wanted toe rings so they could hide them since you can't take it off without destroying the enchantment. Do you want a toe ring or finger ring?"

He says something muffled but holds up his index finger. Index finger it is. I guess he doesn't care about being linked easily to his civilian identity. Odd guy. Secretive, but also not. Once I have the ring made and cooled I toss it over to him, "Put it on, then let me link up with you and we'll get you an enchanted ability."

He pulls his glove off and slides the ring on, then puts the glove back on over it. I explain how the link works and we go through the whole process. I enchant his ring with an infused Boost spell so he can use it on himself in any direction, and after a long explanation and some testing he's good to go. Since I already had him, I linked up with him again and instructed and guided him through how to use the breathing technique. He didn't have it -quite- right, but good enough for now. We'll go over it again the next time.

I sent him back into the main dojo to train with the others and I started bringing them back one at a time to teach the breathing technique. Noelle was the most excited to learn it when I explained what it was for, and it was -incredibly- easy to link up with her for some reason.

Once that was done, I joined in the training with everyone and got my ass nicely handed to me by -everyone-. My mom held back so she wouldn't just -destroy- me, Impact was more of a brawler, but he was a lot stronger than I was, Noelle didn't spar with me, Taylor I think cheated through using her bugs - then again I don't think she can turn that off. Sophia decided I made the -best- kind of punching bag. Eventually I just started running away from her - but that just made her start throwing low charged Foxfire orbs at me. Mom ended up taking over my training and trading out with Impact since Taylor and Sophia matched up pretty well.

Once dad arrived I decided I needed to try my plan. "Alright guys, they have classes starting soon. They last from two to six. Taylor, when are we meeting up to help the Wards?"

Taylor didn't even have to think about it, "Eight, so we have some time."

I nod, "Alright, I'm going to try something, and... well, if it works you'll understand. If it doesn't then no need to worry about it." Everyone looks a little confused but eh.

I bring everyone to the back and have them all sit down in a circle around me and I bring Shard into my mind to share the idea - which she rather enjoys. "Alright guys, all of you let me link up." And I close my own eyes and focus on building up a link to each of them, creating a network. Once I have them all linked up and I can feel that Shard can easily travel through -all- of the auras linked up, I push [calm] and [sleep] through everyone as hard as I can, and I hold it. Mom's defenses interfere for her, and dad tries to block it by reflex, but the others end up going under after a fairly short time. Mom wrestles her defenses down and dad stops blocking it long enough to slip into sleep, then I induce the same effect into myself when I get confirmation from Shard.

I open my eyes to Shard's dreamscape of Brockton Bay, my team, parents and Noelle are all here in the safe zone. And ant men are -everywhere-. Taylor's master power is trying to fight with the other queens in the area, but -everyone- is wide eyed and looking around.

I smile, "Welcome to Shard's 'training room'."

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AN: Sorry, not much movement in the story this time, but Will needed to get the whole group rings and start scheduling some -real- training. Don't worry, The dreamscape will just be a summary in the next chapter so we'll get some real plot movement.