Beep. Beep. Beep. Whatever was making that noise was starting to get on my nerves. It wasn’t my alarm clock. The beeping was too short. And not as annoying. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I wasn’t at home. But where else would I be?
It wasn’t like I went anywhere else. I never even hung out at Bert’s house for more than a few hours. Oh, maybe my mother had been testing something in the kitchen. It wasn’t the first time she had done something like that.
But if that was the case, then why was there water dripping somewhere nearby? Sure, the apartment was tiny, but the bathroom was far enough away that I wouldn’t hear the water unless someone had it going full blast.
Nothing about this made sense. As I tried to open my eyes and look around, I found them glued shut. Actually, that wasn’t quite right. It was more like they were welded together, then coated in cement. No matter what I tried, they just wouldn’t move.
A bit annoyed that someone had placed something on my face to keep me from opening my eyes, I tried to lift my hand to remove whatever it was. Yeah, neither of them so much as twitched. Whatever was going on was preventing me from doing anything.
“What do you mean you don’t know what happened?” A high-pitched female voice yelled as a door slammed open somewhere nearby. “His internal mana was ravaged by your machine. Do you know what that kind of damage can do to a person? Just the pain alone can drive some people over the edge.”
“We get it.” Someone huffed. “But it is the only reliable way to figure…”
“Then I suggest you find another way because one of these days that machine is going to kill someone.”
“Those settings were set so that such an event was impossible.”
“Yet somehow those settings were changed.” Why was Bert there? And who is he yelling at?
The feminine voice of the security chief let out a growl as she asked, “Why are you looking at me like I caused this?”
“Well,” Bert started.
“No matter how many times you insist that she somehow did something,” the professor cut in. “There was no way for her to do anything. And even if she could have, she wouldn’t.”
“And how can you be so certain of that?” Bert demanded.
“Because, you fucking idiot.” The chief’s voice grew sharp enough to cut. “I am here to keep everyone safe. Not kill anyone.”
“Didn’t sound like that when you were interrogating my friend.”
“Just because I sound like something does not mean I won’t follow the law.”
“That is enough!” The first voice cut the argument off. “This is getting us nowhere. I need to know what that machine did because it is nothing like the last few times.”
“What do you mean by that, Leah?” Professor Ulrick asked.
“The machine didn’t carve out a chunk of his mana. If anything, it pushed more mana into him than his body can handle.” She sounded annoyed at the fact that she was having to explain this.
“That isn’t…”
“I don’t care if you think that is possible or not. I am telling you what your machine did to that boy.”
“Is there any hope that he will wake up?” Bert sounded like he was trying to hold his anger in. Just what had happened to push him so close to the edge? He needed to find something to destroy before he exploded.
“Eventually, maybe.” She sounded exasperated. “I don’t know. The mana that machine uses is pure.”
“Because it has to be to do its job.” Given that this person sounded like they knew the machine well, I had to assume that they were one of the other people who had been running that machine.
“As such,” she continued as though he didn’t interrupt her. “His mana is being crushed against a veritable flood of the stuff.” The silence that filled the space either meant that they understood what that meant or they were just as lost as I was.
Fortunately she continued. Though, given her tone, it was with more than a little reluctance. Like she thought that everything was obvious and that she didn’t like explaining things to those she thought were idiots. “Mana, pure mana, has no affinities. Not attributes. No personality. It just spreads out into the environment until something exerts a bit of its will on it. At that point, it takes on the properties necessary. For humans, we take the mana in from the environment and force our will upon it as soon as it enters our bodies.”
“I am missing something.” Bert sounded unsure. “Doesn’t that mean the mana inside of him is no longer pure?”
“Yes and no.” She let out a sigh. “His well of mana has been stretched so far that his mind can no longer force his will on every part of it. As such, the still pure mana is constantly trying to force its way out. Which would be great if not for the fact that the stretching has thinned the walls of his well.”
“Bottom line it for us, please.” The professor said.
“If the mana pushes through the wrong part, the whole well will find itself shredding to pieces with it.” Oh. That did not sound good.
“But you treat overcapacity issues all the time.” The technicians pointed out.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Sure, and in each of those cases, I know where I can poke a hole. Here, I have no clue what your machine did or where. Without those critical pieces of information, I would be taking a shot in the dark.”
“And we didn’t even get the information we needed.” The chief let out a harsh groan.
“The results are there.” The technician spoke. “Just classified.”
“Can you do anything about that?” The professor sounded like he was asking the chief that question.
“You know as well as I do that those classifications are there for a reason.” She sounded unhappy that he was even suggesting that she bypass that restriction. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t. Not without his permission or a court order.”
“Well,” the professor sighed. “I guess there is nothing to do but wait.”
“If you no longer need me, I am going to go back to the testing chamber and help try to figure out this failure.” It sounded like someone started to walk away as a few others walked toward where I was.
Wood scraped against tile as someone moved what sounded like a chair before sitting. “You have to get better.” Bert’s voice was little more than a murmur. Someone else wandered around the room doing something before closing the door as they took their leave.
Other than the sounds of the machine and water dripping, the room grew silent. And within five minutes into the silence, I was going crazy. My mind was going a mile a minute, yet standing still without anything to do, to look at, to talk to.
In a bid to do something, to think about, I tried to come up with modifications and fixes for my drone. So many ideas for weapons upgrades, yet none of them were all that practical. To do much damage, I had to either increase the power or increase the mass of each shot. Both options would reduce the number of shots I could take before I either needed to recharge or reload.
And that was assuming that I stayed with the current weapon type. The options got really hungry the further I got from physical projectiles. Honestly, the best option was an odd mix. Of course, the only problem with such an idea was that I had no clue how to even design, let alone implement, any of the ideas that popped into my head.
At least when I turned my attention to the control system, I had a viable alternative. The watch might, and I emphasize the word might, work as a control point for the drone. I would never be able to take manual control of the drone with it, but I use it to give the drone instructions or to see what it sees. I could even use it to designate a target.
Too bad I had no way to test any of these ideas. I was stuck here. And the worst part was that I was starting to feel a bit hungry.
My mind continued to run through the programming and alterations I would have to do to the drone, the device attached to my pad, and even my pad, before I got to work on the watch. But even with my mind and with nothing else to do, there came a point at which I had to do something else. Anything else.
With a grunt, I tried to move my body only to find that it was still just as stuck as before. Why? I had no idea. It wasn’t like the machine had damaged my body. At least, none of them had mentioned any such damage. They only mentioned the issue with my mana.
Irked, I tried to channel the mana, but even that didn’t work. Well, it did work, but only for a moment. As soon as I started to move the chunk of mana toward the edge, my control slipped, and the mana sifted away like dust on the wind.
My mind pushed and pulled at the mana in an attempt to get some of it, any of it, to the edge. To force the mana out so that I could wake up and get some damned food. But nothing worked.
With an internal scream, I grabbed a chunk of mana and started to ball it up. To press and form it as one would when trying to make a snowball. Then, with the building rage, I chucked that sucker at the wall. It flew fast and true.
And when it reached the wall, it splattered across the thing. Slowly, the motes of mana peeled themselves off the wall and fell back toward the center. Joining the currents of mana as the multitudes swirled and danced around me.
Irked beyond all belief, I grabbed chunks of the mana around me. Using each chunk to form various shapes and then tossing them as hard as I could at the wall. Balls, spears, swords, arrows, and even a few darts. Nothing worked. Not that I expected them to. The only thing I knew how to throw was those in the shape of a sphere. And those were not known for their piercing power.
A voice pulled me from my internal space. “How is he doing?” It sounded like the healer, but who was she asking? Surely Bert went to find food or even find someplace to bed down for the night.
“I don’t know.” So color me surprised when Bert answered her.
“I know you want to be here for your friend, but you should take some time to go get some food. He isn't going anywhere.”
“No.” Bert. Refusing food. The end of the world was nigh. “I want to be the first one to know that he is awake. The first person that he sees. After all, who else would keep him from doing something stupid with any of the devices in here?”
That was only one time. And I hadn’t even gotten to the damned machine. “Then I will leave you be. If anything happens, feel free to get me. I am just down the hall.” With that, she left the room.
“Come back to me.” Bert sounded broken. He almost sounded like he was missing a lover or something. Hell, he was acting like it. I really needed to find him a girlfriend or something. At least then he wouldn’t be around to fuck anything up for me. Maybe then I could even take a few things apart without him telling me no.
Time continued to slog by. I had long since given up on trying to drain the excess mana. There was no hope. To do it myself would require too much control or for me to be able to reach beyond these damned walls. While they were thin enough to be nearly transparent, neither option was within my current realm of capabilities.
So I played with it. Used it to form shapes and objects. Small things. Little more than trinkets, but each trinket did exactly what I needed it to. After all, with them, I managed to distract myself as I waited for someone, anyone, to come back with a way to help me.
And of course, the more I worked with the stuff, the better I got at holding it in set shapes. Well, mostly. If I looked away for too long, the mana had a tendency to turn back into a mist.
Which is how I got stuck playing chess against myself. At first, I sucked at it. Not only was I bad at playing, but I had issues with the whole concept of playing two people. Slowly, as the hours passed, I improved. I would never be able to take on someone like my mother, but she was a monster. But at least now I considered my capability to be equal to meh rather than nonexistent.
Once again bored with what I was doing, I debated what to try next. With enough effort, I could probably make something a bit larger and more complex, but what? Should I try to create another person? Actually, let's not and say we didn’t.
Just imagining myself controlling two separate bodies was giving me a headache. So, what about something a bit more mechanical? A tool design or even a weapon design.
The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to work out the changes to the drone’s weapons systems now while I had the opportunity. No distractions. No need to be anywhere. Nothing by my own thoughts and the growl of my stomach to distract me from my work.
First, let's get the old design up. Ah, don’t forget about the various projectiles and the firing mechanism. Hmm, but how to test fire it? Eh, a button should do. It wasn’t like this could really do any damage. Right?
Wait. Could I use something made of mana to shoot other objects made of mana at the wall and have a hope of getting through? If that was the case, then I was either a complete idiot or an absolute genius.
Thank god the drone’s weapon design is the simplest I could make it. Mana rushed around me in streams as I forced the bits under my control into a semisolid form. Then, in a rush to see what would happen, I pressed the button and watched the world around me boil and burn.
