Chapter 45: Hammers
Jack, having learned dutifully from his shifu, ordered his food via his Mem-interface on the way to the mess, approving tracking since he didn’t know where he’d sit. He had a craving for typical comfort food so he ordered two ‘Meat Medley Machine Heart’ classic gyros and an ‘Engine Grease Hummus Plate,’ from Cyber Gyros. What exactly the correlation was between comical cyborgs and Greek-inspired cuisine, was forever a myst...
2025-05-19 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 44: Dates With Destiny
Jack pushed himself up out of the dirt with a grunt and dusted himself off. He moved his head side to side, popping his neck. He felt sore. The sort of fatigue he’d accrued would take a while to clear, though it was nothing compared to the last time he’d gone into ‘overcharge’ or whatever. One thing was clear: going that far was a bad idea if there was anything else left to do after. Cost-to-benefit ratio was way better, even shavi...
2025-05-17 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 43: Meeting The Charge
“It’s not a horde, Jack,” Lindsay’s voice chimed in his head. “Five is not even close to a horde.”
“Not now, Lindsay!” was Jack’s reply.
Jack suddenly wished he had more AoE prepared for the occasion. A cloud of dust wasn’t strong enough at range, though he could make an annoying, swirling cloud. Targeting eyes like he had once was a trick ...
2025-05-15 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 42: The Next Assessment
The next morning, Jack awoke once more to crud on his skin, though it seemed to be thinning out and had more of an oily consistency to it. He felt stronger and ready to go. Moreover, System-type messages were waiting for him.
G.P.E. has improved to 18%!
Inner Energy has improved to -0.1!
Your Level has improved to 1.3! Please enter t...
2025-05-13 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 41: Priesthood
Highfive finally dropped his energy sheath while still wearing a big grin. “Not too often I get to impress someone of adult age with that. The kiddo cadets love it.”
“I bet,” Jack replied. “Your handle certainly works perfectly for your powers, by the way.”
“I’m highly proud of it.”
Jack winced. “Let’s not go back down the road of puns so soon. We might not ever make it back.”
“Yeah, you...
2025-05-11 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 40: Playing the Game
Jack returned the big man’s handshake, and under the power of his endless, flagrant cheer, Jack couldn’t help but smile back, even as he shook his head. “Highfive, huh? Why does that seem so appropriate?”
Highfive shrugged in nonchalance. “Because it’s truly badass?”
“Something like that. Anyway. Jack. But you heard.”
“Yeeeeah, but you need a new name, my man. A Non-name, a super sapien handle. Th...
2025-05-09 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 39: How About a High Five?
“Break!” came Lindsay’s voice as Jack remained firmly ‘in the zone.’
He’d been working with steel balls by then, fusing them together, pulling them apart, smushing them into a disk. He’d ended up on a solid cube. He wanted to break it into smaller cubes, but an order was an order. He tore his eyes and the guiding help of his hands away and let the cube drop into the dirt. He’d found hand direction to very slightly...
2025-05-07 15:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 38: Law and Order
After Mini’s suggestion, Jack considered it on the way back to his apartment. Ultimately, he might as well try the Memorial Daughter route, as he’d yet to make use of one for anything. Unlike other Nons, he hadn’t grown through adolescence into teendom with such a persona on call. According to Lindsay, a Mini-Mem was like the ‘Spreadsheet’ of AI agents — the efficient, boring, adult version, while a Daughter entity was a sc...
2025-05-05 15:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 37: So Very Special
Memoria turned to look at Lindsay and her head cocked sideways as a fond smile broke out. “Oh, tsk tsk…” she murmured, then slowly strode over and touched the top of Lindsay’s head while standing next to her. “Don’t pout, hmmm? I know you can’t help but care so deeply for your students, dear. And he’s a charming boy. But you have to trust me. I won’t jeopardize his long-term health, just take advantage of rea...
2025-05-03 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 36: Razorena Tango
As soon as it appeared, the demon dog bounded forward, letting out an angry snarl as if offended at seeing a human standing around uneaten.
Jack hurled a spike directly at one of its eyes with his power’s full strength, aiming for a debilitating, possibly fatal piercing wound. The other three floating spikes shook briefly and dropped downward slightly at the momentary loss of applied focus and magnitude, but it was only for a moment. H...
2025-05-01 15:00:18 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 35: First Tests
Jack’s training with rolling balls around, flinging metal pieces, and other such movements, was a practice he feathered in with the basal cloud work. He first became quite accurate at flinging objects into targets provided by Lindsay, including herself. It took him a while to get used to attacking her. Unlike most Nons, he didn’t grow up to take for granted the perfect safety of Power Park, perpetually protected by Memoria’s ‘lesse...
2025-04-29 15:00:36 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 34: Racing to Gains
“Anyway,” Jack continued, clearing his throat, “I’m here because I belong here.” He tapped his patch on the right shoulder. “I’m sure you understand what me wearing this uniform and symbol means.” When he glanced at hers, it was a simple ‘X’ symbol.
Lighthouse took another bite of her burger as she stared at his patch. “Yeah, but I’m having a tougher time believing it. I guess you were deep undercover? But...
2025-04-27 15:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 33: Delight, Now on Clearance
Jack woke up the next day feeling stronger yet. He was also coated in the nasty gunk again, needing a sprint to the shower and a change of bed sheets. Unsurprisingly, multiple sets were ready for use in the closet.
He could even see a little more change in his body shape. Fat trimmed. A shadow of definition to the muscles under the surface.
What was more, Mini had a fantastic message waiting.
2025-04-25 15:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 32: Better Than Before
Lindsay/Jill called for the end of simulation training in the Demonstration Center, and they returned to the real world for more tangible practice. It left Jack burningly eager to get to the stage where he could do the things she’d been showing him he was capable of, virtually, translated also into the real world. So they worked at getting there.
It was frustrating. He was still unable to form solid shapes with his ...
2025-04-23 15:00:41 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 31: Feel the Burn
Délight's hand was waiting. Jack blinked once before he hastily maneuvered himself and his tray so he could take the girl’s hand. The long way she’d said her name was some crossroads between ‘delight’ and ‘daylight,’ albeit in an accent she didn’t otherwise have. “Jack Laker. Indeed a pleasure.”
Délight bobbed her head as she withdrew her hand. There was an innate visual ‘warmth’ to her, a joyfulness around ...
2025-04-21 15:00:18 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 30: Masks
Back in the fire. Acceleration. Faster!
From above, the deafening sound of 30mm autocannon fire rocked Jack to the bone. The tender backdrop jingle of shells cascading down on metal framing was a relief in contrast, like a reminder of Salvational Heaven caught in the sticks of Fiery Hell. The latter stabbed his eardrums: sharp pain slowly dulling. Most of the passengers covered their ears. Jack couldn’t. Hands on the wheel, sold...
2025-04-20 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 29: Communication Gods
The rest of Jack’s night went by rather uneventfully, which was more than welcome from his perspective. Lindsay couldn’t make it for dinner, so Jack arranged as she requested, and the steak was sent to her. In return, Lindsay arranged for food to be delivered to him from six different places. Her expertise was more than a fair trade, as everything was delicious and succeeded for both the satisfaction of his endless appetite and ...
2025-04-19 15:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 28: An Expected Unlocking
Jack learned quite a bit — in a conceptual sense — working with Lindsay/Jill on his powers in her conjured mutual ‘mind space.’ He obtained numerous examples and templates of how his powers would function and operate when fully functional, essentially ‘where he’d be’ if not yet ‘where he was.’ Under The Hood Intuitions that he could bridge through as he developed; injected future Deja Vu.
They ind...
2025-04-17 15:00:18 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 27: Hopeless Plus
Jack flipped through more channels and stopped on the Drone Wars Network, where it was showing daily highlights. Almost instinctively, it made him reach for his phone to go check his personal ranking, whereupon he remembered he didn’t have his phone.
Just as he was about to ask Mini, she chimed in. “Not that you need it, but it’s being brought today. It’ll be locked to accessing anything channeled through old ac...
2025-04-16 15:00:20 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 26: Delving Into the Stats
Jack was instructed to take it easy for the next four hours or so until the run, and to ‘absolutely not’ use his powers. He was to rest, eat as much as he could stuff his face with, and finish any familiarization not finished up with on his statistical bio.
Of course, he was also supposed to pick out a minimum of two outfits. Though Lindsay wanted to know what he liked immediately, he told her he’d check ...
2025-04-15 15:00:38 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 25: Archon Metaphysics for Dummies
When Jack checked his output level, it was 27%. He bridged more through himself, affecting a slightly more facilitating resonance. The cloud became strewn with patterns of gossamer as it thickened. It warbled as he worked, forcing him to go through the motions slowly so as not to lose it. When he reached 40%, the strain was discernible but slight simply to maintain it. Louder, and requiring physicality from him, somethin...
2025-04-13 23:00:37 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 24: Working With One's Lot
Jack exhausted himself pushing, pulling, and finally, oh-so-subtly rolling metal balls around, which could be done in a surprisingly number of ways with his power. There was a brush across the top, there was twisting and turning it directly, or simply thwacking it directly to roll on its own a short distance. Lindsay threw down a few more of various sizes to vary things up, making him adjust his ‘output.’
Less...
2025-04-12 21:03:49 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 23: The Metal Must Flow
The official name of the place Lindsay took him was the ‘Power Park,’ but the more derogatory term, according to her, was the ‘Padded Room.’ Questions were countered with ‘You’ll see.’ Jack wasn’t at all sure what to expect at that point, but, as it turned out, the look of it was fortunately more on the side of the official designation.
It was something like a park crammed behind four walls, if exceptionally w...
2025-04-11 15:00:26 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 22: Yes, Me — Er... Allegedly
As the ice lady’s friends turned their heads away and giggled, her own expression was one of apologetically controlling her humor. “Yes, sir, you are. Red-handed. But that’s alright! You aren’t the first newbie caught in the headlights here.”
“Gotta be the oldest, though,” one of her friends blurted. The other gasped shyly at her audacity, while the ice lady gave her a ‘look’ with her brows raised an...
2025-04-09 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 21: Wear It With Pride, Soldier
Jack woke with a start, gasping, sweating, shooting up onto a bed tossed entirely into chaos. Light was filtering from transparent windows, declaring the chunk of daytime he’d slept through. The vivid dream — the nightmare — the horrifying memory — flared in his head, bygone reflections of a prior him made into hot brain knives. Too real, too specific, too accurate… too common. The smells were still in his nostrils. His ...
2025-04-07 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 20: Yet the Old Haunts Rise
As Jack sat, Augur hopped up cross-legged on the couch angled to face toward him. Hands folding into his lap, the little imp seemed to take his measure before speaking. “I know the oddity of your advanced age and the reasons can’t be shared, but it will still make waves simply in speculation. You might find yourself popular. Parties might think that by befriending you, they’ll be privy to secrets later on. Since compatibility an...
2025-04-07 03:22:57 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 19: A Brand New Order
After they got moving again, Jack asked, “Is she still alive? Whirler. Whoever she was in real life.”
“Yep! Just super old. Totally retired. I think she’s a big gardener. Doesn’t involve herself anymore.”
“I like that some do that. I hope she’s happier now. Chromey seemed to get more somber later on, too. Like his real face left the joy with the mask. Same face, but… not.”
“I guess that’s what polit...
2025-04-05 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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In addition to mention on Royal Road, this will be here on Patreon to enshrine for posterity.
Special thanks to the following Agentus super backer for their leadership and exemplary vanguard service to humanity!
— Agent Paramount Morgan, the Sentinel of the Northern Seas, for leadership and great heroism in the field. You know, you always claimed the leviathan squids lef...
2025-04-03 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 18: Train to the Station
Jack sighed. “How slow exactly do we age?”
Lindsay shrugged with one hand. “It’s mild at first and gradually tightens up. By age sixteen and seventeen, it's a year behind and three years at twenty-one. From there, it’s something between thirty and forty percent of what it otherwise would be. So I added seven years, but look like I added only something over two. Arguably. Our life expectancy varies depending on our role, b...
2025-04-03 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 17: [Attribute Allocation Available!]
As Lindsay did something or other on her tablet, Jack took a little mental retreat inward to check out his class and any pertinent information. The first thing he saw was a kind of ‘stat line.’
Shaper of Metal
Material Controller (Metal)
Primary Mutation: Channel Memorite
Governing Attribute: Create
Magnitude (Pre...
2025-03-31 02:08:07 +0000 UTC
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