by H D Forth
System Diagnosis Rebooting.
A series of messages flashed before me too fast for me to register what they were saying, until finally a new message popped up. Then the pain stopped. One moment I was writhing and twitching as the throbbing steadily increased, the next it was like it had never been.
Slowly I focused in on the text before me, and I realized why.
Frame Compromised - Heavily damaged.
Less than 40% of frame is still fully functional.
Then came a long line of messages that told me what was missing, what was broken and what could easily be repaired. That latter was depressingly small, the former held the most disturbing though. Top among that ones list of items was my left arm. It was written simply, Left Forearm. Just like that, simple description for something that had heavy issues associated with it.
I had taken similar damage during my last fight with Leric, or Grave Pace, I guess. But back then Kani had already gotten me setup in my old frame, this time I didn't have a new frame to flee to. And surprisingly I found myself increasingly reticent about moving to a different frame.
I realized then that Kani hadn’t tied me to the table or otherwise restrained me. I was just mostly incapable of movement.
I turned my head, the movement slow, stilted, and loud, the motors clicking as my head turned, until I could look upon her. She was a vision, lovely in the afternoon light that bled through the nearby window. She looked worriedly at me so I tried to smile at her, that only seemed to make it worse. I realized that my sight had returned to normal.
I raised my hand to my face, the movement causing the motors of my arm to whir loudly. My face still wasn’t whole, so I guess she’s just replaced my eye. She winced at my movement.
“Yeah, I know, we’ll have to see about replacing most of your modules.” I shuddered at the idea, but reached for her with my arm, the sound of it working the only noise in the room as it slowly closed the distance, and she took it in one of her hands. “Galenor dropped Val and you off, after he had fought Grave Pace.”
“There is something you should know about,” She said, tentatively. She pulled up a mirror with her other hand, revealing my chest to me. It seemed surprisingly hale, there were a few burnt spots and nerves that had clearly been burned out. However on my lower right ribcage, a green piece of metal stuck out from between my ribs.
I started when I saw it, the metallic green vines reaching all the way up to my sternum and around to my back. “I’ve already tried to remove it,” Kani said, revealing a bandage on her forearm, “It lashed out at me, when it realized what I was doing.”
“I gotta get it out.” I said, worriedly though a thought immediately started questioning my decision.
Why? We are better together.
“I gotta get it out now!” Panic distorting my voice horridly. Awkwardly, first tried to reach for it with my left arm, before realizing. Then after I remembered, bent my right arm to get at it. It was tricky to get a hold, but the metal was ragged with lots of grips.
Noo!
The moment I touched the fragment, the vines ripped free of my skin and started lashing out at my hand, both trying to rip at the flesh and wrapping around fingers trying to make me let go. I heaved, the Power Core sounding off as I tore the sentient shrapnel from my ribs.
Immediately, the vines started wrapping around my fingers, and tried to push down for my hand. In moments, my entire hand was entangled in reflective green vines.
“Use the armor.” Kani yelled. I hadn’t seen her run off, but she was returning with Val’s first aid box. It was old and made of metal. She dumped out the contents on the floor as she approached. Understanding her words, I connected with one of the only module’s that was still working.
The skin on my hand went taut, as it solidified, turning white. Suddenly, the vines pinged off my skin, instead of lashing at it. Kani offered the open box to me, and we kind of scraped the piece of metal off with the box lid. Closing it the moment it was off my hand.
I looked up at Kani still lying on the table. She looked back, wide eyed, slightly out of breath and smiling from ear to ear. “Whew,” She said, “That was exciting.”
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight
“A bit too exciting for me.” I replied, smiling back at her.
She winced for a moment, before blinking and running off. “Kani?” I asked after her, “What are-”
But before I could finish, she yelled from the stairs. “Just a minute, I am going to get something.”
Sure enough a short while later, she returned with some sort of cloth in her hands. Before I could object, she dragged it down over my head, I wasn’t big enough to reach my eyes.
“A hat?” I asked, incredulously. “Why a hat?”
"I don't know if you noticed, but someone punched a dent into your face the size of a melon," Kani replied, putting her hand to the side of her mouth, and spoke in a stage whisper.
I chuckled and smiled. “Fair enough.”
The bell rang, and Kani perked up, before suddenly deflating. "She wouldn't ring the doorbell." She mumbled. It was, in fact, post-delivery, to deliver a bunch of packages to Kani.
“Who were you hoping for?” I asked, looking worriedly at Kani.
“Val.” She replied, as she started pulling the boxes apart and removing bits of technology. From what I could tell it seemed to replacement parts for me. “Galenor and her dropped you off, then took off for something else. They wouldn’t tell me anything, not even when she would be back, or where they were going.”
I didn't know what to say since I didn't have a clue either. Though it would seem that Val wasn't as much in with the hero community as she had led me to believe.
“Anyways,” Val said, smiling again. “It looks like I got most of what you’ll need to get back on your feet again. Except…” She rummaged through, “Not all the parts for your trashed leg is here, and I decided on a making your left arm myself.” She smiled up at me. “That way we get to customize it’s capabilities a lot more.”
"You seem awfully happy," I replied, noticing that she didn't seem as tense around me, but not wanting to state it outright.
“Well duh,” She gestured towards all the stuff in front of her. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
I swallowed, nervousness starting to rise up in me. "No, I mean about being around…" I trailed off, not able to finish the sentence.
“Ohh,” She said, quieting some. “That.”
She walked over to the table and sat in her chair in front of me. She took my hand and looked me in the eye. “I can’t express to you the emotions seeing Val carry you onto this table did to me.” She swallowed audibly, her eyes glistening. “I haven’t known a lot of people that I really care about, and for some reason…” she stopped and wiped at her eyes, though I hadn’t seen any tears yet. “You’re one of them.
"You've been lying on that table for the better part of three hours. The only things I could do was examine the damage, apply the annealing cream," Kani gestured at the cream she'd used when realigning my frame before, "Order the parts for your repair, and look at you, while I waited for Val to return or you to wake up.
“I care about you Vanys. I really do. I’m not ready to have a physical relationship with you like you have with Val, but I do really like you.”
I could feel my chin quivering, something I didn't think it capable of. My eyes burned whit tears I couldn't shed. "Thank you for telling me Kani," My voice was rough and hoarse. "I'm sorry for all the ways that I have hurt you, I never meant to let out my frustrations on you.
“I don’t want to excuse what I did. I know I’m not perfect. Thank you for forgiving me as much as you have already. I promise you that I will do better.” My voice caught on the last sentence, cracking slightly.
She lifted my hand to her forehead and held it close as she closed her eyes. This time I did see a tear roll down her cheek. “I’m sorry too. I will do better. I will make you a body that is stronger, faster and mo
re powerful than even your steel one.”
“No!” I cried out, panic welling up in me uncontrolled. “No more new frames!” I took a deep breath, counted to ten and all the other tricks I’d read about but never used. “No more frames, for a while at least. I think they’re making me emotionally unstable. Have you heard of the Foundation?”
She frowned but shook her head. “No, what is it?”
"In short, it was something that was taught to me at an early age to control my emotions. According to Val, it is what keeps my feelings under control while I'm using my powers… Which I always am since I hold a Connection with the Nerve Module to control the frame.
"In my experience, every time I changed frames, my Foundation withered or decayed in some way. I think it has at least to some degree been part of why I've had trouble controlling myself around you… So no more new frames, okay?" My voice was tiny at the end of the sentence.
Kani seemed to consider my words for a moment. “What about upgrades?” She said, narrowing her eyes, a little smile quirking her lips.
“Should be fine,” I assured her, smiling back at her.
"Excellent," She said, leaning over and kissed my cheek before she blushed and ran over to the table. "Let's get started on the repairs."
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine
A less noble hero than I might've been staring at Kani's chest as my old shirt was stretched by her bosom. As much as I would like to say that I am not such a man, that would be a lie. And boy, were they real lovely to look at.
I jerked my head as the magnetic lock on the door clicked, and it opened. "Keep still you moron," Kani said, slapping my head. "This is hard enough without you moving around so much. That's why I didn't change into something more appropriate to the work." She had known, of course, she had known.
"I see you're working on fixing his head." Val droned. I could hear her footsteps approach, but unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to look away. Kani's orders. "About time…"
"I would like to take offense to that at a later time," I replied, struggling with peering for her through my peripheral view or just focusing on the glory. Val let out a somehow feminine snort to my comment. I heard her kiss Kani's cheek, and her hand caressed my cheek before she stepped away.
"Anyway, I'm beat." She said. "I'm going to go take a nap."
“Yeah,” Kani replied. “We’ll talk later.”
Once Val was out of the room, Kani stepped away weird tool in hand. She looked me in the eye before they flicked towards the stairs. “Did you see how tired she looked?” She asked.
"I got glimpses," I replied. "Though I could hear it even in her voice." Kani frowned in concern but stepped back placing the tool against my head.
***
Getting my skull polished has to be one of the weirdest experiences of my life. I couldn't really feel it since there was no skin for the Nerve System hadn't been joined yet, but I could sense the motion it caused, and I could occasionally see the pad she used flash into sight.
Finally, she stopped polishing and went over to the computer. "I'm turning all systems on again." She said. "Keep a check on them to make sure they don't act out of order."
"Finally," I said, relief clear in my voice. It had been a couple hours since Kani had started taking her measurements, it had been like sitting at the barber's chair for near upon 3 hours, except this was just a stool.
If not for the view it would have been horrible. "Thanks," I said, opening my arm for a hug, though I was careful to also gesture it like asking for a hand up since I didn't want to push Kani.
I saw Kani, maybe not steel herself, but looked at empty left arm and my still mostly crippled leg. Then she stepped forwards into the hug. She was tense for a moment as I wrapped my arm around her, but after a second or two she visibly relaxed into it, and let out a sigh.
“Oh!” Val exclaimed, “Are we hugging.” I looked up to see her come bouncing across the floor and into the hug, enveloping Kani from the other side, squeezing her between us.
At first, she let out an ‘oof’ of released air, but she kept smiling. We stood like that for a few minutes, before we finally started disentangling form each other.
"There is something I need to tell you," Val said, gesturing at the dinner table. As Kani helped me over to the table, Val went and got some water for herself and Kani. "So, a few things have happened. I'm thinking I start with why Galenor took me away instead of leaving me to help take care of you.
“So I haven’t been exactly clear with you…” Val said slowly, some nervousness seeping into her voice. “I wasn’t exactly known for being a hero…”
"Wait?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair. "You used to be a villain?"
“Velenthrix if I don’t miss my guess,” Kani said, leaning back in her chair with a smug smile.
"Ding, ding, ding," Val said, looking somewhere between cautious and relieved. "I used to be Velenthrix."
"W-what?" I asked this time the word came slowly and hesitantly to my lips. "But she was, you were, one of the, umm, big ones. The really bad ones. The uhh…" I continued stumbling over my words for another few moments.
"Yes, I was," Val said, cutting me off. "It's due to my powers," She turned to Kani. "Have you heard of a technique called the Foundation?" She asked, clearly expecting a no.
“Yeah, Vanys explained it to me.”
Val blinked. "Okay, makes this easy then. I'm too strong for me to control the power and emotions with the use of the Foundation. I can contain the power, and use only tidbits in small doses. I could, in theory, manage the amount I use very carefully, thereby allowing me control, but it's dangerous and has never ended well.
“My past means some heroes know me by sight, even out of costume. As Galenor fought me, Visor, one of the other heroes, spotted me and basically took me in.” As she finished, she sipped her water, examining us over the rim of the glass.
“They took me to one of the hideouts, brought in a bunch of old heroes that have mostly retired. Then they sealed and bound me. They were unable to arrest me, since they have no actual proof of me, as Valeria doing anything illegal, but I can’t prove that they did this either.” She gestured towards her throat. A collar I had thought part of today’s outfit, started glowing on her neck.
As I examined it closer, I noticed that it wasn’t made of cloth, but just sat on her throat like a tattoo that could glow. The collar consisted of intricate patterns sitting closer together than I thought possible, without blurring the lines.
The light of the collar never intensified, yet slowly curls of smoke rose from its edges, causing Val to wince and let her magic drop. “I am no longer able to perform greater feats of magic, without the collar seriously hurting me.”
"I'm so sorry," I said, leaning over reaching for her free hand. "This is my fault. If I hadn't gone out to fight Leric again, then you wouldn't have put yourself out there, and you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
Val squeezed my hand back. “This isn’t your fault,” she said. “It was bound to happen eventually, it was more a question of how much Velenthrix would return before it did.
"There is something else, however," She said, some enthusiasm returning to her posture. "We have been officially recognized as a hero team, by the Hero Guild."
My eyes widened, and my mouth dropped open a little. “Really!” I exclaimed, leaping a little out my chair. “We’re a hero team? Officially a hero team?”
Val nodded, I looked from her to Kani and back to her again. This was crazy good news. Most heroes had to work consistently for months before this would happen.
I was a hero. A real official hero. A real officially recognized hero.
"Now, there are some caveats," Val said. "Mainly that normally a young inexperienced team gets a mentor, someone from another team or a solo worker like Galenor or Visor. These are meant to help out in serious situations and occasionally takes them on trips out of their original zone, to teach them how to handle different situations."
&nb
sp; I nodded, trying to contain my eagerness. I could figure out that we probably wouldn't have one, or it would be an asshole, like one of the ones sitting around in the Center Tower.
"Right now though, there's a real shortage of heroes still in active duty. There are only three of them working in our city, and another five working between in the two nearest cities. That's an insane amount of ground to cover, without keeping up with a newbie."
I swallowed, was she going to say that we just weren't going to get a hero.
"Luckily," She continued. "I managed to swing a sort of agreement for you. Under probation, I get to remain with you guys, where they can keep an eye on me and make sure that I don't go crazy, while also making tapping into the well of knowledge that is my glorious brain."
