~back to normal writing~
Ana woke up with the sun, exactly as she had wanted. She looked at the clock, finding it was still early. Well, early for jack that is.
She lay in bed, slowly becoming more and more awake, more aware, just enjoying the luxurious feelings of having the time the fully wake up before she started her day. She lounged among the sheets, eyes closed but becoming light with every breath. She breathe deeply, thinking no thoughts and focusing on nothing. The, her first thought of the day:
"This feels like it could be a form of meditating."
And with that, Ana's eyes opened and her internal radio kicked into gear. Sweet Pea rolled around in her mind and the floodgates of thoughts opened up and splashed and sloshed inside her head. This created a cacophony of noise. Ana remained lying in bed, listening to each passing thought and tidbit of data that passed through the front of her brain.
Eventually, she could stand to be immobile no longer. Groaning, she sat up and got out of her bed, stretching. When she was sure that her back would break or fracture if she kept stretching it like she was, she let it all go, the tension falling away from her and she slumped and fell into her bed again. She stood once she was no longer dizzy and made her way bare-footed through the house to take care of business, and brush her hair and teeth.
She was surprised when she opened the cabinets in the kitchen to find them fully stocked with the food she had Roger order the night before. She opened the fridge to find it the same way; fully-stocked and ready for action.
"I wonder how it got here so fast...Ana murmured to herself. There was a loudly whirring behind her and she spun. She jumped as she came nose-to-nose with a robotic bulk, but recognized it as Roger when she saw the marking on his helmet.
"Oh," she breathed heavily, clutching her chest. "Don't DO that!" The automaton didn't respond.
Ana turned and started pulling some ingredients down from the stocked shelves and cupboards. She instructed Roger to retrieve her computer as she began cooking.
~Jack~
*sniff*
Jack tossed in his bed. Warm, delicious smells assaulted his nose, going further to wake him up. His face screwed up, fighting the growing awareness. What was that smell?
'Pancakes?' Jack thought. 'Sausage? Eggs?' These were almost enough to get Jack out of bed and trekkiing up the stairs into daylight. But his limbs were tired and achy, and his head hurt and was begging him to stay put and rest. He had stayed up later than Ana, ignoring her suggestion to retire early in stead of his usual routine, which was just staying up until the wee hours of morning and sleeping 'til noon.
And then he caught something else, another scent wafting lazily past his sensitive nose. It was enough to finally wake him up and to convince him to actually get up for the day instead of lying around.
"Coffee..." Jack sighed dreamily. Jack got out of bed and found his slippers before trudging upstairs. He was motivated only by the scent of the brew to continue forward. It got stronger as he approached the kitchen.
When he got there, his eyes widened considerably at the sight he was met with. Ana, still dressed only in her shorts and long T-shirt, was dancing in the middle of the kitchen to some loud music coming from her computer. She sang along loudly, totally oblivious to Jack's presence in the room.
She be-bopped along, flitting from one counter to the next. Her body was constantly in motion; she hardly stopped for a breather, bobbing her head and singing along, flipping pancakes. The coffee pot brewed right beside her.
Another song popped up, a song Jack didn't know that repeated the phrase, "Only girl in the world". Ana wiggled and bounced. She moved in a way that had Jack staring agape and then at the floor in embarrassment. Ana was bare-footed, he noticed.
"Only girl in the world! Girl in the world!" the song eventually ended. Ana hummed and turned to her computer to check something.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Jack hanging in the doorway to the kitchen. She gave a low shriek as she jumped and spun. She pressed a hand to her heart and clung to the counter-top, breathing hard. Jack jumped a little at Ana's rapid response to his presence.
However, she visibly calmed once she saw it was only Jack.
"Oh. Hey. Morning. You gave me a start there. You want some breakfast?" Ana asked. She fingered the rim at the collar of her shirt nervously, waiting for an answer. Jack trudged into the kitchen at last and mumbled a yes as he started towards the coffee. Ana went back to the pancakes while Jack made his coffee and sipped at it.
"Ah... Nothing like a good morning cup of Joe," Jack sighed, smiling into his mug.
"Who's Joe?" Ana asked jokingly.
"Hmm. He's one of the very few people I love. He keeps me happy." Ana 'hmm'ed without looking up. He stood next to her, looking out the window as the morning light got brighter and everything started turning greener. He turned and leaned backwards against the counter and they listened to Ana's music.
"Joe keeps me mellow most of the time," Ana commented.
"Liar." Ana looked at Jack.
"I'm serious! I'm one of those few people where coffee mellows them out! I get calm. Awake, but calm. I like it." Ana exclaimed. Jack stayed silent and dished himself some food.
"Why'd you go and cook this morning?" Jack asked. Ana shrugged.
"Sometimes I like to. Whenever I went to my dad's house, I'd always wake up before everyone. My internal clock wakes me up early. I always cooked breakfast on Saturdays for all my siblings, Dad, Gina, Grandma Ruey, and Uncle Stan." Jack didn't recognize all the names and he couldn't remember which one were her siblings.
Ana saw the question on Jack's face and answered it before he could ask. "Dad and Gina and the kids lived with Ruey and Stan. It's not really important though."
Later in the day, after Ana had gotten dressed and had Roger clean the kitchen, she decided to visit Jack in the basement. Wuya was there, drifting about the various machinery. Ana remembered that the ghost witch hadn't joined her and Jack for breakfast.
Ana brought down her laptop and her some notebooks. Jack was working on robots.
"How come you don't make different ones Jack?"
"Different what?"
"Different types of robots. You know, have a sort of variety of them and all. Try to achieve multi-levels of awesome?"
Wuya scoffed. Jack scowled in the general direction the sound came from. He answered Ana, "I'd have to draw up new plans and go through the development process again. Coming up with a new design would take months. And I don't have enough free time for that." Ana's answer was automatic.
"Well, what about me? I know some things you could do. I mean, I have ideas. I'm a think-tank all my own! I've got plenty to choose from that you could use. You just need to build them and figure out how they work."
"Okay, first: What's wrong with the robot's I have now?"
"The monks can already kick straight through them and they've hardly begun their training yet."
"O-ok," Jack faltered. "But, are you a certified genius?"
"Are you?" Ana countered.
"I could be..." Jack mumbled. "I'm a genius in my own right!"
"Or so he claims," Wuya interjected.
At this, Jack glared. At Ana, he said, "Alright, fine, bounce me some of your ideas." Ana sat at the stool across from Jack.
"Okay. One of the better ideas I had is the BAND. It stands for Brain Acceleration Neural Device. At least, that's the best I could come up with to fit the acronym. But anyway, I was thinking that what the BAND would do is download anything learnable or memorable from a computer or program and "upload" it directly to the brain of a human being, so that they learn it instantly and can utilize it physically with their body."
This certainly peaked the red-head's interest. "Really? Go on."
"Well, take learning a foreign language. It's fairly easy to download language learning programs. I don't know anything in slightest about speaking Chinese. Seeing as we live in China, I think it would be best if I could not only speak and understand it fluently, but read and write it perfectly as well. This would be the simple experiment. Learning multiple languages and understanding each fluently and distinctively would be the easy part. Keeping track of each language and keeping them separate from each other would be harder. Which is why I think the BAND should strengthen the brain too."
"That's actually pretty cool, but what else could the BAND be used for? Hypothetically, of course." Jack asked. He had leaned against the table, facing Ana, with his head tilted and arms positioned on either side of him.
"Well, if the language thing goes well, we can move onto the more physical aspects of learning. The problem with that, though, is if you're not physically ready to utilized the knowledge you've gained from a download. If you're not physically ready to be exerted that far, you can't do it without hurting yourself."
"Whaddaya mean."
"Hypothetically, you would know how much to bend, or how much force is needed, or how to move, what motions to make, and how it would all tie together. But if you didn't have the balance, the strength, or the agility needed to perform those tasks, it would be useless knowledge until your body became ready to do those things."
"Okay, so we'd just have to let ourselves grow to that level by working out and practicing and building strength and all that crap. But are those the only two things this thing would do?" Jack asked, skeptical.
"No. Say you want photographic memory. The Band would be expected to do that for you. Think of the skills you learn through the BAND as memory files. They'd be ingrained into the neural center, forming deeper cracks and ridges in our brains, creating more surface area, making us smarter and allowing us more skills. The brain is just a different type of computer after all. One we only use about 10% of anyway. So we could download blueprints, maps, equations, instructions..."
"What about overloading? What if we upload too much and our 'computers' 'crash'?"
"I doubt that will happen, but I thought of it." Ana said matter-of-factly. She pulled out a piece of paper and sketched a mannequin head, and then what would be the BAND around it.
"See, I was thinking about how it would work. The BAND would generate Electromagnetic wave pulses on contact with the skin. It sends signals to this little chip transmitter that sticks to the back of the neck, like this." Ana sketched a little side-view of the head and added a tiny chip to the back of the neck. "It'll lay close to the spinal cord, at the cerebral cortex. The BAND transmits its information to the brain through the chip, which relays it directly..."
"Yeah?"
"Well, that chip would act like a flashdrive," Ana got a blank look from Jack. "Um, memory-stick?" A look of recognition. "Ok, so the chip acts like a... memory-stick."(1) Interchangeable chips could each hold different types of information, grouped however they need to be, and when attached, the brain is able to 'borrow' the information specific to that chip temporarily."
Jack admired the plans and thought silently. After a few moments, he said, "I think it's a pretty good idea, except for the chips."
"What do you mean?" Ana asked. Jack pointed at the paper and took the pencil. As he sketched, he spoke.
"It would be too time consuming and too difficult to make multiple chips with different functions."
"So what do you propose we do then?" Ana asked. Jack stepped back a step and stretched, his back popping twice. He yawned.
"Instead of multi-purpose chips, I just need to make one for each of us, like this. It's only purpose would be to relay the information given to it, which is fairly easy. The information would come from an outside source but still be directed into the brain."
"What's the outside source?"
"Wrist BANDs. Memor-sticks hold information that's downloaded into them. The information can be utilized when it's tapped into. So while the BAND can 'install' permanent information, given it's used, the wrist BANDs can transfit information through the chip. Once the chip or wrist BAND is removed, no information is being transmitted and the information can no longer be used."
"OH! Okay, I get it exclaimed. So if I wanna download something that I'd use a lot, like a language, or fighting moves, or dance steps, I can use the BAND and be able to keep the knowledge. And as long as I use what I download, then the nerve endings and synapses and all that junk won't disappear after a while.
"And if I wanted to download street maps and geography, or anything like that, then I'd would just wear a wrist BAND with the information I need and use it immediately. It would be subliminally telling me exactly what to do."
"Exactly! It's agreed." Ana got excited.
"So do you think you can do it?"
"Hell yeah! Now that the idea is made and I have a good idea of what I'll need to do with it, it'll be a piece of cake!"
"Do you want my help or anything?" Ana offered hopefully. Jack waved her off, already rushing around the lab for materials.
"No, you'll get in my way. No offense, but I work better alone on these things." Ana only shrugged.
"I'll be exploring then. Call me if you need me!"
"Don't go too far!" Jack called loudly. "If a Wu shows up, I'm taking you with me!"
"Relax!" Ana shouted, half-way up the stairs. "We got a few days yet 'til we're in Paris!" This jolted Jack and Wuya both, and they turned to question Ana. But she was already gone.
"Think she might know where the Wu is, Wuya?" Wuya shook her head.
"I think she knows which one it will be, and the general location of it, but not exactly..." Jack shrugged and turned back to his new project.
"Well, she's technically from the future. Her world is more advanced in time than ours, and they have some sort of omniscient thing going on there regarding us. So she would know certain things. But like she said, it's not like she can actually impart a lot of this knowledge to us directly. We just have to trust her. She's still useful, no matter what."
GUYS IT'S BEEN 5EVAR. I am officially OFF hiatus, not that I told you all I was even ON one...
but yeah. I kept getting reviews and favs and bookmarks, so I felt a little guilty
If you wanna know the truth, I got into HOMESTUCK, and that's the reason why it took so long. I can't really focus so much on Xiaolin Showdown when my brain is on the Trolls and the Kids and my OTP. I follow about 70 people on tumblr too, so that kinda keeps me...
I know, no excuse, but you should try it! Try juggling aaaaaaaall of that, and school, and taking care of yourself BY YOURSELF, and thinking about college and making plans and trying to do about a thousand things at once and also you happen to be on meds for psychiatric purposes...
yeah, lots of stuff going on, on top of my typical procrastination.
Anyway, more chapters should be coming up. This story will be continued in more stories, so don't worry when it ends after Ana's first showdown.
Because there will be PLENTY MORE. :)