Part 33

The next bit was both simple and hard. We knew what each other could do, now we needed to figure out how to make the most of those abilities. Both individually and in junction with one another.

In terms of team work there was a simplistic way our powers worked. At least in the short term. Taylor was the long ranged hurt. I was the close ranged. Magic I maybe, but squishy I was not. At least in comparison.

My main attack might be a ranged attack, but her reach eclipsed mine by magnitudes and I could melee and was supernaturally durable.

Also in terms of raw body mass I was roughly two of her. Not because she was short or anything but because she was just that skinny.

She could shrug off blows like Alexandria and there was still no way I'd be able to hide behind her effectively.

So we kind of lucked out with me being the super tough one. Even if I was very much discount superhuman in that regard.

There were other ways we could work together well. Taylor could call up a swarm thick enough to conceal people from sight, which was really handy when I started glowing.

Likewise my very flashy but not all that effective attacks made a very nice distraction to get people hunkering down and ignoring little things like spiders crawling up their pant legs.

Well in theory anyway. We hadn't put any of this into practice.

Mostly because I wasn't ready yet. And yeah that stung right in the ego as well.

So for now, we would engage in one of the most classic and iconic of all heroic activities.

The Training Montage.

Que Eye of the Tiger.

For me, it was simple. My power was complex, but I had a manual and a very simple way to expand it. Conflict, practice, and experience.

The first and last of which could be gained with the greatest of all training implements; Laser Tag.

The second just involved me cutting up hunks of steel mostly. I'd gotten my melee power operational pretty easily, and now was mostly just refining down the process of kicking it into action via repeated use like some kind of supernatural form of muscle memory.

For Taylor... Things were a bit more complicated. Her power was all there and she was pretty sure she understood it all now, so it was more about finding new ways to leverage it, and practicing at the ways she could really hit with it.

That required less repetition and a lot more dynamic thinking. But I had come up with a great plan on how to work on that.

"Videogames?"

"Real time Strategy games," I elaborated. "Somehow I don't think you're going to develop your inner tactical genius with first person shooters."

"Yeah but why?" she asked. "I mean... what's the point of playing videogames?"

"It's a good way to work on multitasking and collaborative tactics with a lot of different type of units to work with," I explained. "Like the little virtual soldiers, tanks and monsters you command, your bugs have no true sense of self preservation, will follow your every whim, but are limited by their own abilities. Managing your resources, working out what is the best unit to attack in the best way, working out how to bait your opponent, maneuver them, and hit them repeatedly from multiple angles in multiple ways. These are all common things in the pro-gamer world."

"Pro gamer... is that even seriously a thing?" she asked seeming weirded out by the concept.

You wouldn't think the unpopular glasses wearing girl who liked doing internet research and was unpopular at school would criticise that sort of thing, but then again she lived in a City with Uber and Leet.

Also stereotypes are bad. Only a fool believed that a tendency, real or imagined defaulted to law.

"It's a thing," I stated. "The game I want to start you on is Big in Aleph Korea at the moment in the pro-circuit actually."

"Okay, but...why?" she asked still not apparently understanding.

"Why do people watch football? Or chess matches?" I asked in reply. "It's a comparative bout of skill. People find that stuff interesting."

She followed that logic easily enough.

"Okay, but you realise that a real fight's going to be tons different then any sort of game right?" she asked pointedly, reminding me subtly which one of us actually had any sort of combat experience.

"Yeah that's true. But it's still a good way to get in the habit of making the most of your parallel processing ability," I defended.

"You've got a whole lot of different bugs. What do you think is going to be a bigger problem for the bad guys to deal with? You hitting them with a single swarm or attacking them in fifteen different ways from just as many angles at once?" I asked her.

"I don't need videgoames to practice that," she grumbled.

"Yeah but this way you can spar against actualpeople," I reminded her. "Without risking getting shot. We just hit up a net café with booths, rent a lot of rooms at once, lay down some special trained bugs, and you can sign in as four different players in the same match. Where are you going to get the chance to practice against enemies who actively co-operate and can intelligently adjust their tactics to match you?"

"On the streets?" she guessed.

I looked at her flatly, "Haha."

Then I frowned, "Are you really that eager to dive into the action? I mean... the armor's going a lot faster then I thought it would-"

"-No it's fine!" she cut me off at once.

"Sorry just... I guess I'm a little anxious," she admitted. "I mean... there is a whole aspect to my power I never really considered until now."

"You're welcome," I smirked.

A bug flew into my eye.

"GAH~!" I called out hand snapping up to brush it off. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," she replied fast, looking a bit shocked, and genuinely guilty.

Shit had I sounded that angry?

"It's fine," I winked my eye a couple times checking. Other then some disturbed eyelashes no actual damage, "No harm no foul... but can't you just have a fly bite me or something?" I winced. "Eyes kind of have that primal reflex you know?"

"No really, I'm sorry," she continued ignoring my assurance.

"It's fine," I rolled my eyes. "If you want to make it up to me, try out the gaming idea."

She grimaced, "Why are you so dead set on this?"

I considered things. "If you get good at it, think about what you could do in the next Endbringer fight."

That brought her up short, "What?"

"Nothing," I shook my head. Now wasn't the time. "Just thoughts on the future."