John ignored the cute sleeping babies being cradled by the mountain sized man as he felt the movement of the air itself a bit too much. "Yeah, just a little longer I think."
Bamm-Bamm sighed, as he moved to one of the larger thrones/chairs to rest in nearby. "Well, as long as you think you'll be alright then. You stopped shifting shapes and colors though, at least! That's good, yes?"
Hopefully. "Yep! So… Going to focus now, if I zone out that will be fine."
Do it.
[[Cutting the majority of simulation processes, reducing HOST Body to near-standby state, enabling advanced analyzation tools suite, initiating scans.]]
Right, what was the best way to handle all this then?
Injecting this raw energy into ANY of his resources was unwise. It would alter the balances in unexpected ways, cause issues when traveling, so on and so forth. Similar issue with imbuing it directly into the cells or Body itself.
So, basic storage?
John focused as the power that he was slowly directing began to focus into one spot…
His Pocket.
The power wriggled and argued and tried to twist and bind and collapse, but eventually…
[[Redirection routine established, assigning oversight task to unit 803253827321.]]
There we go! Fully automated power diversion!
Didn't quite feel like a Concept or Magic either, this was more thin and light then those two… For now, John was just going to label that growing solidified chunk of power as 'Primordial Aura' until some better name came along.
It permeated everywhere here… With the density of empowerment varying with the material it interacted with. Thin in the air, thick in the ground, it interacted with ALL this stuff in odd ways according to some unseen, unknown rule set.
John examined the new glowing and growing rock with caution… That should be large enough for stable partitioning.
Begin the safety testing routines.
[[Confirmed. Analyzing sample portion PA.0001, routine list commencing.]]
There, that should do it. By the end of all those tests, many portions of this material would be destructively analyzed… But based on the rate at which the initial sample was still GROWING that wouldn't be an issue.
After some basic experimentation and safety confirmations, THEN they could test how stable this stuff was after it built up into more considerable amounts. Some stuff looked fine and normal, but build up enough to be a bowling ball and BAM: Reality fractures.
Best to check that sort of stuff early and prevent issues.
"And now you've gone gray."
What? "I'm sorry?"
Bamm-Bamm pointed at John's chest. "You went from blinking bright lights to basically black and white and grayscale. If you were aiming for 'normal', you missed it."
Huh!? "Oh for, you mean I REQUIRE some of this stupid raw power just to LOOK normal!? That's just unfair!"
The bigger man shrugged at John's annoyance. "I mean, it's not a bad look if you want to stick with it… But uh, my wife WILL notice when the 'sick boy' she's trying to help turns into a cave drawing."
John waved that off. "It's fine, I can fix it… I just need to alter the protocols from 'Shift ALL the power' towards more of a flow rate control style mechanism…"
Enough power to make his body and outfit still have color, NOT enough energy to exponentially enhance his very core into something beyond the Realm itself, a bit more to ensure he didn't lose grip on local forces like static resistance and gravity and stuff… "Did that do it?"
Bamm-Bamm hummed. "Hair's still off, but your skin looks fine now. Maybe a bit pale."
That's because John didn't spend all day working in a world with a Primordial empowered Sun, giving god-like bronze tans to all the peoples. Mostly.
The hair issue was more complicated, because dead material like hair needed a different energy redirection rate than the REST of his Body.
He paused, reviewing the data more closely… And wanted to curse. "This might take longer than I expected."
Every individual cell needed INDIVIDUAL energy redirection settings, based on material density and distance to the surface of the Body and interaction degrees with local materials and…
This was going to be frustrating. Heck, it already WAS frustrating!
So much for the easy way of 'Shove all power and energy absorbed into my Pocket'... NOW he had to custom design a module to monitor and redirect excess Resources provided to individual microns or Soul whisps based on some rolling baseline to closely match the locals!
That was ANNOYING!
Whatever, just get it done. Grace could adjust the module after some prototype was established for her to work with, Temptation could scan how locals handled the mess and make sure he was able to fake the final results without accidently cultivating himself beyond godhood due to spending too much time in the bath…
…Crud, John was going to have to study how locals wasted all this incredible potential and raw power, wasn't he?
This… This was going to be an ongoing issue, wasn't it?
Fine.
Might as well make ANOTHER set of modules, just to study how locals 'correctly' 'waste' power too, if for no other reason than to better let the girls emulate the effects of that mess.
Not that John was willing to just LET raw power like this go, even if he wasn't going to use it.
After all, that's what excess junk was for: Putting it in your Pocket!
Happily humming, John got to work adjusting things that didn't exist here to handle materials and energies that were ignored by everyone who was locally submerged in this mess.
So he had to establish a few extra modules… It shouldn't be that hard!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Bamm-Bamm rocked his babies as he watched the strange man flicker and flare, colors shifting and fading and blooming like some sort of art exhibit.
It was strangely soothing to watch, even if it was clear his frustration at the entire exercise wasn't small.
The boy perked up! "FIXED IT!"
Then his hair poofed up to a massive size, began to sparkle, and something unseen started to whistle.
Um. "Are you sure that…?"
John grinned as he stood up from the couch, missing how parts of the thing were now melted and bent in impossible ways. "Yep! 100% fixed, job done, yes!"
The whistling got slightly louder as the hairdo began shifting colors, albeit at a much slower pace.
Bamm-Bamm watched as John began to wilt. "Alright, uh… Maybe not COMPLETELY done. One second."
The boy bit his own thumb, his hair deflated, the whistling stopped, and now he was gray again.
With a sigh, he slumped back down into the mostly destroyed couch. "This uh… This might take a few tries actually. How uh… How long until Pebbles get's back?"
Hmm. Glancing at the nearest sundial, Bamm-Bamm thought a bit… "If things go poorly, a couple of hours or so. If they go WELL, she may end up doing a few unscheduled meetups and all that mess."
Even in the worst case scenario his wife had a tendency to get partial deals and networking done, which was part of why she had been so wildly successful on the advertising scene despite being so new at it. "This is mainly why me and the little ones meet up here in her office in the mornings, before I wander back over to my shop to repair stuff. Chip likes to nap in the back and my little helper Roxy here loves to play with the spare rock Wheels and stuff when I'm fixing up the cars."
John blinked as his clothing slowly started to shift colors. "Oh? She's that busy?"
He shrugged. "Advertising is her passion, and we support it. Besides, she always makes time for me and the kids at home… If we have to meet up at odd hours to help her stay on schedule it's a small enough ask. You should have a good part of the afternoon to try and get all of uh… THAT, under control."
John grinned! "That's PLENTY of time!"
His nose turned purple.
His grin winced. "That's probably plenty of time…"
Well, good luck then. "While you are learning to get all that under control, is the damage going to get much worse? The couch isn't much of an issue, me and my little girl accidentally break furniture every other day anyway, but if you start melting the floor or something that will be a hassle to fix."
John froze, glancing at the destroyed couch he was half melted through, and then sighed. "I can replace that… And uh, hopefully not? I'm like, 80% sure I've got this in the bag already!"
Bamm-Bamm gave him a look, and he winced. "50% sure… Maybe 30%."
Yeah, that seemed about right. "Let's head off to my garage then, I've got spare parts you can sit on without destroying anything important and Pebbles can stop by later if I chisel a note."
The boy nodded and attempted to stand… And couldn't.
Sigh. "You stuck?"
John coughed. "Maybe."
Hmm. "If I pull you out of that, will it burn my hand?"
The kid looked DISTURBINGLY unsure. "...No?"
Yeah, very convincing. "Just stay still, I'll get you out."
It would be easy enough to just lift the couch fragments directly and shatter them to free the boy instead of risking his arm melting or something equally as horrific. Not like he hadn't busted up a few dozen couches this month anyway, they had a budget for this.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Grace hummed. "Save that setting, it will make my color match perfectly!"
[[Confirmed.]]
Her sister huffed through the Pocket connection. [["It's unfair that you get to be pure white just by storing away all the ambient energy! It's not like Master turns solid black if he absorbs it all!"]]
She continued modifying the protocols that John was designing on the fly. "Well, maybe he does, but we can't risk it. Our new forms will be strong enough as it is without directly enhancing it with Primordial Aura… Just use the standard customization so your skin pigments match your design."
Temptation huffed! [["But YOU just have to switch a safety setting and your whole WARDROBE goes white! That is so unfair!"]]
Heh. No, avoid pride! Calm: Be calm. "Sometimes we get lucky… Our Lord works in mysterious ways."
Jessica snorted. [["I guarantee you that NONE of this was planned by my brother. Though I'm a little confused about why the effects are so drastic in this place…"]]
Grace pulled up the data. "Half due to the very optimized and enhanced Body, some due to our Pocket Security Protocol enhancements, the rest caused by the ambient energy of this Realm. Primordial Aura is almost a field of inert energy, one that grows in power the less it does… Effectively it makes anything that has age or History connected to it more sturdy in a Conceptual sense."
Inertia was the key point here… The whole, 'An object at rest stays at rest' but exemplified to ridiculous levels.
If something is closer to its Primordial Roots, here in this place? Then it is, by default, MORE.
More durable, more powerful, more effective…
Just more in general.
It interacted oddly with some of the subtle energies that John used unconsciously, because on a fundamental level a good portion of John was timeless…
And an Entity that has existed nowhere for uncountable time frames synchronized FAR TOO WELL with this Primordial enhancement effect.
Even the detriments of having a brand new Body were not enough to offset how compatible John was to this Inertia related energy aura, as seen with his very foundation nearly exploding in color and power and potential with every breath of air and sip of water.
She continued to monitor John's attempts to handle this entire mess, even as she made minor modifications and adjustments to help him along the way… Because this was interesting stuff right here.
Even if it all wasn't really needed for anyone but her Lord in the end.
From what she could tell? Her sister and Jessica should not have the same issues, if any, that John was undergoing right now due to differing circumstances.
After all: Jessica hadn't even been alive for a thousand years yet! And both Temptation and herself were biologically newly designed on a Mind, Body, and Soul level… Especially now that they were no longer directly tied to the Legends that helped give them form.
So THEY wouldn't have this odd resonance with ambient energies or the issues related to it… Not here.
But it was best to help her Lord handle the entire mess NOW, while this was still the case.
After all, LATER adventures might visit a Realm where Angels or Demons had specific enhancements or curses or ambient effects caused by the environment… So a little extra work now could save a LOT of headaches later in life.
…The Fact that it let her spend more time working alongside her Lord himself while he struggled to fix it all was just a lucky side note really. A minor perk honestly.
[["...Are you ogling his units again, sis?"]]
EEP! "I'M NOT DROOLING!" Wipe any visual logs of unit Grace over the last hour! NOW!
[[Confirmed.]]
No one saw ANYTHING!