by Aer-ki Jyr
“Just don’t outrun me,” Davis said as they took off, with Paul literally jogging to make sure the Director could keep up.
They moved through trees, rocks, and some grasslands on the large park course, not seeing anything other than more turrets that were not yet active. Davis wanted to stop and claim them, but Paul said no. They needed to move with all speed towards the nexus, which was basically a version of capture the flag, except the nexus was a building with shields and a pair of turrets that had to be beaten down in order to win the game. Few ever did before the 30 minute timer was up, but apparently Paul was willing to go for it since he had Davis with him.
Because Davis could literally walk up to the nexus and beat it into submission with his fists while the stun blasts coming back did nothing to him.
They bypassed three more turrets within sight, and still no ambushes occurred. He didn’t know where the others were or what they were doing, but it seemed unlikely that they could get this far without being spotted…and about 280 meters away from the nexus a dodge ball came flying through the air and hit Davis in his helmet so hard it knocked him off his feet for a couple of strides, but he managed to keep his balance until more came and would have hit him…except Paul telekinetically stopped them Neo style, then threw them towards the distant nexus.
They didn’t get that far, for they were grabbed out of the air and traveled back towards the bushes where the enemy team had to be hiding. Without any weapons of their own, the only way for the trailblazers to kill the nexus was physically hitting it, but they’d get mowed down because its turrets had no minimum safe range. Instead they had to use objects from the park, and breaking down trees or uprooting rocks was against the rules…otherwise this would have turned into a much messier challenge.
“Keep going,” Paul said, holding a sword in each hand as he ran forward up until they got to 180 meters out, which was the nexus’s firing range. He stopped there and signaled for Davis to go ahead.
He cringed, but went ahead anyway. Tanking the shots as he got closer and closer, then Rafa came into view behind the nexus and threw a boulder-sized box towards him.
Davis dodged to the left, with it passing by somehow…except it suddenly switched directions behind him and moved to hit him in the ass, but his Pefbar saw it and he spun so fast he surprised himself, grabbing it before it hit…only to realize his mistake as it lifted him off his feet a couple meters before he let go.
He landed on his feet, then the box came down and drilled him into the ground a few inches as it slammed into him over and over again until it suddenly stopped and toppled on the grass beside him as one of the swords shot by like a missile and hit Rafa enough to make him lose his grip on the box.
Davis grabbed it and threw it back towards where Paul was waiting outside turret range, hoping he’d understand the gesture. His telepathy wouldn’t work either, and shouting out his plans would take too long, but he needn’t have worried. The master tactician understood, and as soon as he reeled in the box after a short tug of war with Rafa that Davis disrupted with some stun blasts that made the other Archon move for cover behind the nexus, Paul grabbed hold of it in his hands as Davis jumped up on top of the shielded nexus and put his body over top one of the two turret spouts, not allowing it to shoot anyone but him.
Paul then angled his box to block the shots from the other one as it ignored Davis and started to shoot him as he crossed the distance very quickly, only to have Rafa come out and try to intercept him…yet somehow Davis managed to land a shot of his own, more luck or intuition than active aiming, and he caught Rafa in the foot, numbing it enough that he fell, rolled, and then flew across the ground towards Paul like a missile only to get hit square in the face with a tier 4 Takbri stun pulse from Paul.
Rafa couldn’t dodge as much while flying as he could running, and apparently Paul hadn’t exhausted his biological stun psionic earlier like most of the others had. Rafa went down hard and rolled like a Rammus before flopping out on the ground while Paul continued to approach with his box now flying up towards the other turret to shield him better from the wash coming off it, for he was wobbling as he ran now.
He held it aloft as he punched the shield over and over again, and Davis knew he was vulnerable if another of the opposing team was nearby, but it was a chance worth taking. Davis put a few whacks into the shield top that he was laying on, but he couldn’t do much without sliding off, for it wasn’t completely flat up here and he had to keep wiggling to stay on it exactly over top of the first weapon.
It took forever for Paul to rack up enough hits, but eventually the shield went down and Davis dropped onto the gun itself, which he put a hand over the firing aperture as he stood up casually, watching Paul leap up while still magically controlling his floating box and press a hand on the single button in the center of the roof.
He had to hold it for 8 long seconds, but no opposition arrived to stop him. Davis wondered where the hell they were, then the challenge ending tone sounded and he couldn’t help but smile at their unexpected victory.
“See?” Paul said, tossing the stun-soaked box aside. “You can be useful. Good call with the box.”
“Figured you could use it. I assumed there was a range tug of war and a few more meters would help you win it.”
“You figured right.”
“Where is everyone else?”
“I don’t know, but I bet our team delayed them from getting back here long enough to get the job done. Let’s find out,” he said as drones appeared out of the sky with one of them heading to Rafa to destun him and heal any injuries he might have sustained.
Then one and two at a time the others came running out of the park towards the captured nexus, some with smiles and others with looks of disbelief as they assembled. Davis retracted his helmet, which only came apart in sections due to the fact the Petricite couldn’t be made into nanite form, or at least not yet. That was something they were still fiddling with.
“How the fuck did you pull that off?” Jason asked.
“Roger made a bad call,” Oni said. “We thought you were making a play on the tunnel, and by the time we realized our mistake we had too many of you between us and them. Plus Rafa just sucks.”
“Hey,” he complained. “It was two on one.”
“You had the nexus turrets,” Davis chimed in for the first time, drawing some laughs from the others, for he wasn’t wrong. “And you did bring the box.”
“Yeah, I did bring the box,” he admitted. “I didn’t expect you to chuck it out of my range though.”
“I had a moment of not sucking. Rare as it is.”
“Yeah, I think it’s going to get a lot less rare,” Jason added. “Eventually we’re going to have to downgrade that armor.”
“But not today,” Paul said, clapping Davis on the shoulder only to crumple to the ground unconscious as his armor’s perimeter defense stun got him on contact.
“What the…” Davis said, looking down at Paul. “I thought when I took the helmet off it auto-deactivated.”
He glanced at the others, only to see them barely holding in their laughter as one of the drones sensed Paul was unconscious and came down to revive him.
Jason walked over to his best friend and helped him up to his feet.
“Did I really just do what I think I did?”
“Yep.”
“I hate that armor.”
“Sorry, Paul,” Davis apologized. “I didn’t realize it was still on.”
“I thought it turned off when your helmet retracted.”
“So did I,” Davis agreed. “Technical glitch?”
“Or you just neglected to hit the button,” Kerrie said, still smiling. “Anyway, it was worth it to see that. Thank you,” she said, throwing a glance at Paul.
“So much for brilliant strategist,” Steve added. “Death by thornmail.”
That got a snicker out of the others, who were trying to hold it in for Davis’s sake, but failing badly.
“What would happen if I let one of you wear the armor for a game?” he asked.
They all immediately began shaking their heads, with Oni finally answering in crystal clarity.
“It would be a slaughter. No thanks. You keep it until you no longer need it.”
“I’m not catching you guys. Not mathematically possible.”
“You don’t have to catch us, just get in the ballpark. Then we can go 10 vs 11 without augmentation.”
Davis cringed, thinking about taking punches from these guys in just a T-shirt and shorts. “I think I’ll hang on to the armor, thanks.”
“Now you know how we feel going up against Kara,” Paul added, poking a finger towards Davis’s shoulder but not touching until he nodded that it was safe, then the Archon tapped it twice just to make sure before leaning on the heavy suit as if it was a light pole. “It’s all about working the angles. We learn from the positions of advantage and disadvantage. And the point is we get better as we go along. Just as you did today. I couldn’t have done that without you, and you did more than stand there and take hits.”
“Good ankle shot,” Rafa added. “That won it right there.”
“Don’t expect it again,” Davis warned. “But thanks. It feels nice not to be totally helpless.”
“You up for another one?” Jason asked.
“I’m not that weak,” he scoffed. “What else have you got?”
9
May 31, 154929
Solar System (Home One Kingdom)
Earth
Davis walked into Wilson’s lab and sat down heavily on a chair, setting his elbows on the edge of one of the holotables and cradling his head in his hands.
“You look exhausted,” the Master Trainer said, pulling over a chair and sitting down opposite him.
“You have no idea,” he admitted, still staring at the floor as he rubbed his scalp through his short brown hair. “They really aren’t holding back on me.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“Tell that to my aching body. How did we ever train such monsters?”
“How’s Kara doing?”
Davis finally looked up. “I don’t know. I rarely see her. I have to get at least 11 hours sleep or I’m worthless.”
“This is what Archon life is like. You’ve only done it part time since basic training. It’s going to take a while for you to adapt.”
“I’m starting to forget why I’m even doing this. The past is becoming a blur lost in the never-ending moment. I guess it’s supposed to be that way. I’ve just never experienced it like this.”
“That’s because when you went through basic training you already knew everything that was going happen. This is a truer test of your Archon skills.”
Davis leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling briefly. “Tell me this is paying off for you.”
“As far as data…yes. I’m getting loads of it. As for solutions…those I’m not getting. I’m finding more mysteries rather than answers.”
“Such as?”
“The trailblazers are different now, and I think it has to do with Essence. It’s almost as if it’s a cheat, and they instinctively don’t like cheating. Have you noticed they rarely use it when sparring?”
“No,” Davis said flatly. “They use it all the time on each other.”
“No they don’t. Their abilities and power reserves are far deeper than they’re employing. It’s almost as if they don’t want to fight that way unless they need to. I think it has to do with the one shot problem manifesting again.”
“So they’re holding back?”
Wilson grinned. “Even when they’re holding back they are going at it hard in selective ways. I think the emergence of Essence warfare has soured their combat profiles enough that they’re having fun just doing things the old way again…with some modification. After all, who needs a sword when you can disintegrate something in less than a second?”
“My head hurts. Thinking is only going to make it worse,” Davis said, half serious. “Just lay out what you’ve found and include all the shortcuts. Please don’t make me guess. I’m half asleep already.”
Wilson leaned back and crossed his arms over his ample chest. “I think they’re chewing on problems collectively that were stumping them individually. I’ve seen them do this before, and I’m not even sure if they realize they’re doing it. When there is a challenge they can’t beat, they hit it over and over again from different angles until they find a crack. I think that’s what they’re doing now, searching for a way to get back to the standard Archon mojo that Essence abilities have wrecked.”
“Define ‘wrecked.’”
“Body strength, speed, agility, reflexes…all of these had to be earned, honed, and developed over years. Essence? Half the equation is how much your body can handle, the other half is how much is available. Magicite rings have cheated the second half of that equation, and with that cheating has allowed them to greatly increase the rate of training that using their own Essence alone would allow. The Uriti Essence is advancing them artificially fast…which is good for us…but what if someone else does the same? And if they’ve had a million years of it? Those scenarios get scary for even me to imagine. I think the trailblazers are subconsciously looking for an equalizer, or some way to return things to physical combat. And the kill Morgan made on the Nu’avi without using any Essence-only attack was the first inkling of this. But they haven’t figured it out yet. That’s clear.”
Davis sighed. “We finally get Essence figured out and now they’re trying to lose it?”
“The tissue density issue has also been grinding on them. Their existence was based on improving their skills, then when they started to hit development limits what were they supposed to do? Saiyan upgrades offered another path, as did Essence, but the basic weapon of an Archon is your body…and they can’t adapt like they used to. It’s like the game they’ve been playing nearly all their lives has been completed and they have nothing else to do now.”
“I’m so far from that it feels like that would be the promised land. You’re telling me they’re bored with it?”
“They don’t want a vacation, to sit back and relax and look back on past battles. They want to fight new ones. They have to always be on the move to feel normal, as you’re starting to understand the hard way, and frankly we don’t have much left to offer them. But like they always do, they’re tackling that problem as a challenge in and of itself and they’re chipping away at it. They might find something before I do, and their way of going about it is giving me some new ideas as well. The monsters we trained are quite good. Better than me in some respects. Hopefully together we can solve this.”
“And if we can’t?”
“What happens if you make a Saiyan stand still indefinitely?”
Davis grimaced. “Their bodies tear themselves apart, I’m told.”
“Not quite that dramatic, but they take damage. They’ve been retooled so movement is the natural state rather than resting. Now standing still can be as damaging as a hard workout for a normal person. But it’s not just physical with them. The Saiyan upgrades came out of their own natural adaptations. The medtechs learned from what their bodies had already done and expanded on it. That’s why you and I cannot take the upgrades. Our bodies couldn’t handle it…yet. The possibility is always there, but your duties as Director and mine as a trainer keep our hours of training too low to even approach the physicality needed.”
“My aching muscles agree with you. Do you have any inklings of progress, or can I go take a nap now?”
“I have a feeling…that’s all.”
“Go ahead.”
“I don’t think the trailblazers’ path forward lies in combat against the Hadarak. They’ve gotten us to the point where we can deal with it on our own. I think they have to go elsewhere to find bigger challenges beyond killing minions and Lurkers, though Paul, Roger, and Liam may still be needed for the latter if and when they come back.”
&nbs
p; “Elsewhere?”
“I don’t have any ideas. But they need new challenges. Paul’s reaction to the maze was clear enough. Newness is what they’re lacking. What they crave. They know how to get benefit out of doing the same thing over and over again. That’s training in a nutshell. But the training is always based off of adapting to something new, and we’re in short supply of new other than standing and casting Essence abilities like some old school wizard who doesn’t need to be in shape at all, just carry a staff and have magic ability.”
“Ah. They don’t like the idea of some fat guy being able to best them using nothing but Essence abilities.”
“And being physically fit isn’t required for it, is it?”
“That makes sense. So they want another aspect of combat that can complement or supersede simple Essence use. Otherwise all the strength and speed they’ve built up will basically be wasted?”
“They haven’t said that to me, exactly, but I think it’s bothering them on some level. But they’re so geared into working the problems I don’t think they often take a step back to look at the situation and just think. They don’t see what they’ve become. They just see the next challenge. Did you know they rarely mingle with civilians?”
“I never thought to ask.”
“I did. They have trouble doing so. Some have even claimed to not be able to read them properly. That stupidity is one tactic an enemy can use against them because it’s unpredictable…but not to me. I’ve so used to dealing with people on all levels that I can predict the stupid, but I think the trailblazers are becoming so advanced they forget the way things used to be, and the way other people think. Even if they’re telepathically scanning their brains, they’ve lost the ability to be stupid. Everything has to be logical. And it creates a rift between them and everyone else. Because, face it, most of the population still thinks being stupid is how you spend time with friends.”
“Do they? Perhaps I’ve been so busy worrying about moons colliding with each other that I haven’t been mingling either.”
