AN:

I cleaned up some of the earlier chapters, make them work a bit better.
No real plot or content changes, so no one will miss out if they're new or old, but it's been something on the back of my mind a while now.

Chapter 6

Aldric was starting to notice a pattern, here.

So far, every time he woke up on Remnant, his life would be put in some kind of danger.

First it was nearly falling out of a tree after an airplane crash. Then it was nearly dying of his injuries from his first battle with cubone. Then it was almost dying after he got blown up, and then again after he blew himself up again. Then nearly bleeding out from everything beforehand. Even Emerald shot him in the face when he woke up the day previous! Every single time he went to bed, he woke up and nearly died, and figuring out how to suppress his aura didn't end that trend. No, it just gave them an excuse to keep it going.

Just like the time before with Emerald, when Aldric woke up this time, he packed up his tent, turned around, and saw Mercury there with a smug grin. That had been all the warning he'd gotten, and to his credit, he did realize what was about to happen, but not quick enough to stop anything. In the time it took him to blink, Mercury hopped up into the air and spin-kicked him into a tree. But that wasn't the end of it; no, that would have been too easy. When Aldric managed to pry himself out of the shattered bark, he heard a strange noise humming through the air, and just a second later one of Cinder's arrows smashed into his shoulder.

Fortunately his shields held, and with the subsequent adrenaline rush that began flooding his body, he was just able to see Emerald flying through the air, feet-first. Seeing, however, didn't equate to actually being able to do anything about it - he got as far as raising up his hands to block before Emerald slammed into him, kicked him away, and backflipped back to her feet. She didn't even look like it had taken any effort, either, that was what got Aldric more than anything. Something straight out of a superhero movie, and Emerald had likely done it because she wanted to.

When he ground to a halt, he scrambled to his feet and grabbed for the knife on his back - but Mercury appeared out of nowhere, twisted his arm, stole his knife, and then kicked him several feet forward. Again getting a facefull of dirt, Aldric knew now his only chance was the flare gun in his bag - but then he saw Cinder, twirling it around in her hands like a revolver, giving him an appraising, unimpressed look.

"I suspect you've never been in a fight before." She said, tossing the gun over her shoulder, where it landed right in his bag.

Aldric groaned, getting to his feet. "Two fights... Lost half of 'em..." He stretched his back, feeling pain throb through it and his head, though noting that beyond the pain, there weren't any injuries. "Never against freakin' superheroes, though." He groaned. "I get the feeling there's a point to this."

Cinder nodded, humming as her bow disintegrated into embers, reforming into two long blades. "It is most often through instinct that the inexperienced can gain access to their semblance."

Jaune Arc would have something to say, lady... He raised both of his hands, "hooooo boy." He sighed, cracking his neck. "So let's go."

It didn't take more than two minutes to have him pinned on the ground. While he did manage to get one good punch in on Emerald, her shields protected her from any damage beyond the pain of impact. Mercury had him in a painful arm bar before Cinder finally told them to get to their feet. After dusting himself off, they tried again, but had to stop after hardly five minutes when Mercury slammed him into a tree and they heard a bone crack.

Pain flared up his arm, but when he pressed his hand against it, he found it fading away. Cinder and Co. didn't react too much, only to ask Aldric if he would be okay, and after stretching the arm, he decided he would be, though was definitely intrigued. He had definitely felt something crack, and he had enough experience now with breaking bones that he could tell when it had happened. Despite this, however, there was nothing wrong. This was continuing on a trend of injuries he knew he had sustained but had vanished soon after, making him wonder if this wasn't a commonality between aura, or his semblance.

On a hunch, he felt at his hands and wrists, but when he couldn't feel any claws in there, he decided he wasn't turning into Wolverine. After an hour of beating on Aldric, they finally settled down to finish packing up and continued their way to the safehouse. Mercury gave Aldric some props, saying he hadn't expected the survivor's shields to last so long, so he had that at least.

The rest of the day went similarly - every hour or so they would drop what it was they were doing to beat the living hell out of Aldric. He found himself experiencing growth, as by the end of the day he was managing to spar with them for ten minutes, as opposed to the earlier two. He considered this a victory, but a minor one, considering he knew that one of them were actively trying to kill him.

At least he hoped they weren't.

With every surprise attack he tried anything he could think of to activate his semblance. He was all but certain it had something to do with the intoxicating, blood-blazing feelings he got when he felt for his aura, but trying to keep it in check and access his powers was an exercise in incredible difficulty. They didn't want him 'uncapping' his aura, they explained. He had to be able to keep it locked down and in check, as otherwise he would just let it burst out without any control, and it would lead to him wasting far more than he used. He equated it to oil wells versus oil pipelines - back before modern technology, folks would drill for oil and, when they found it, it would spray out into the air like a geyser. They would certainly get it once the pressure abated, but they wasted a lot of oil to do it. Compared to modern times, where they set up the pipes and kept everything, in a far more efficient manner.

Of course, this didn't mean it was easy, far from it. By the time they sat down for dinner, Aldric didn't feel as if he were any closer to a breakthrough than he had been when he'd first fought Cubone. Cinder and Co. tried to convince him differently, but he wasn't buying it, and he went to bed that night wondering if there wasn't some kind of block, or perhaps just something he wasn't thinking of. The next day, Mercury declared they would be at the safehouse by nightfall, so now it was time to really put his game face on. Aldric needed to figure something out.

Try as he might, however, there was nothing. Hours and hours of getting thrown through trees, buried into the ground, and beaten senseless. He tried fighting back, and though his body was beginning to acclimate to the aura and the stresses of hand to hand combat, and his reflexes were starting to grow better, that still proved for little. Without a suite of powers, the only thing he could do in their little sparring sessions was box with them, and they were all exponentially better than he was.

As they grew closer to their destination, Aldric was walking and navigating mostly on auto-pilot, his eyes firmly locked to the ground and his mind elsewhere. What was he missing? They told him it was 'instinct', but he didn't have any basis for... Anything, really. They weren't giving him any jumping off point, all he had was that he could feel and suppress his aura. What the hell could he do with that? Sure, he may be able to pull a Solid Snake and in a box, but his stealth skills weren't nearly good enough to try anything beyond that.

He sighed, feeling inside of him for that tightly compressed ball of aura. It was more of a dull warmth than the raging blood-blazing bonfire it was when he actively reached for it. Was that a clue? Was he supposed to try and do something along with fire? But then what, get really angry? Idly, he let loose a little bit of pressure, and felt his aura flow through him like warm water. Out from his stomach, up to his chest, and then split down his arms. He could feel the flow, but aside from adjusting the intensity, he couldn't do anything.

Is this a mind over matter thing? He wondered, raising a hand and staring at it intently. Do I just have to think really... Really hard? He focused on his arm, stepping around a tree and briefly raising his gaze to make sure he was still with the group, before he turned his focus back down.

Okay... Let's try this then. I can squash this stuff down... So why don't we try to imagine this like a pressure blanket? He imagined a great weight on all parts of his body except for his arm, and slowly let out some aura from his core.

Out from his gut, up to his chest, and then -

Holy shit! Down it went, through his arm and nowhere else. Okay... Okay, calm down. He frowned. So this is mostly mental... Or... No, wait. He had to think just as much as he had to feel.

As far as his thoughts got him, it wasn't until he could get physical sensations before things became ingrained like muscle memory. Maybe this was why they weren't telling him much - it was different for everyone, so aside from help with finding his aura, there wasn't much they could do for him. Either that, or they were using the Jiraiya method: Find it out your damn self. So, it was some kind of unholy mix of mental concentration and physical sensation. The thought alone sort of reminded Aldric of pretty much any anime from back home, and considering the world he lived in, that made a lot of sense.

And then his eureka moment.

Really, it should have been obvious, the pieces had all been there. He was in an anime world, it had ki or chakra-like energies. Of course there was as much a physical element as there was a mental one. For chrissakes - the entire show was about people with superpowers punching eachother. That should have been a big hint, considering for the last two days straight he'd been trying to think his way out of everything. All of a sudden everyone's comments about 'instinct' were taking on a whole new light. They had been giving him hints, he'd just been thinking too hard to notice it.

Aldric chuckled. You think I use my head to control that arrow?

Okay, so if he was right and the real solution was to basically just improvise, then how would he go about this?

He hummed, and held up both hands, cupping them together. He let out some aura and focused it into his arms. He felt a pressure building alongside the warmth in his blood, and decided to push harder. More aura out of his gut, and though it resisted initially, he forced it to continue to fill his arms. He pushed harder, letting small increments of more and more aura out until, finally, it popped.

Metaphorically.

Suddenly the pressure vanished, but was replaced with new tactile sensations. Aldric had to stop walking altogether as these unfamiliar sensations assaulted his brain. He felt rough and coarse, like dirt, but also hard and pliable, like tree bark. He jumped with a start when he felt something brush up against him, and after he looked up, he realized that nothing had touched him - but Emerald had just put her hand up on a tree as she stepped over a fallen one.

Frowning, Aldric tilted his head. What was this supposed to mean?

He noticed that, as he focused more on the tree Emerald had braced herself against, the more he felt that tree and only that tree. Experimentally, he reached his hand out, and found that it felt as if he were touching the tree with his hand. He could feel the bark pressing against his palm, he could feel the texture of the wood and the warmth of the tree. He could even feel an ant as it crawled upwards. When he pulled his hand back, however, was when the magic happened.

With a mighty, thunderous crack, several inches of the tree were explosively torn from it and sent careening straight towards Aldric. So stunned by the result, he didn't even think to side-step it until it was feet from him. It dragged by his shirt as it flew on by, but then he heard the loud, groaning noise of wood failing to support its own weight. With a sinking feeling, Aldric turned his gaze upwards and saw the massive tree leaning towards him. As it leaned further and further, the groaning was met with loud snapping and cracking noises. With wide eyes and a light frown on his face, Aldric was soon covered by the falling tree's shadow. Now, if ever, was certainly a time to improvise.

So, drawing on the experience from earlier, Aldric screamed like a small child, reached out with both hands and his aura, and fell to his backside, clenching his eyes shut.

A couple seconds passed.

He heard a pair hands clapping.

Strange, considering he was expecting to hear a lot of bones shattering and Mercury's griping about having to lift a tree off of him.

Experimentally, he cracked open his eyes, and saw, to his amazement, the tree floating in the air. As a matter of fact, he could feel the entire tree - as if his hands were wrapped around it, like grasping a pen. Despite this feeling, he could clearly see he had no physical contact with it, whatsoever, slowly leading him to his realization. He'd just stopped a tree with his mind.

"Okay..." He croaked, his chest clenched tight. "Okay... Okay..." He tried moving the tree to the side, but found it only spun around width-wise, appearing for a moment as a helicopter blade. "Ooooh, no. Okay..." He grunted, "try... This." He took in a deep breath and, as he groaned with effort, instead of moving one hand, he moved both to the side. This time, the tree obeyed, and slowly listed over sideways, until it was well clear of him, and he let out the breath he was holding. Relaxing all of his muscles and dropping his concentration did the trick, as the tree then fell to the ground with a loud, ground-shaking crash.

"Ho... Holy shit..." He breathed, his face red. "You guys -" He turned to the side just in time to see Mercury about to punt him like a football. "Whoa!" He thrust both hands forward.

Though, instead of Mercury flying back as if struck by a siege engine - it was the first thing that came to mind - both he and Mercury flew away from eachother. Mercury through the air, Aldric across the dirt and into the fallen tree.

Equal and opposite reaction... Right. He exhaled, and scrambled to his feet.

Next came Emerald, leaping over the fallen tree, both of her guns blazing. Aldric, in his best Neo impression, albeit with such a ridiculous grimace on his face that he may have been able to win prize money with it, back home, thrust his hand out forward. His own arm shook with the strain, and he slid back several inches, but the desired effect had been achieved: All of her bullets now hung in the air. On second glance, he realized she was too - he was holding Emerald in the sky!

However, he had to drop her when Cinder came in, but when he wasn't able to dodge her sword and it swung straight through him, Aldric realized it was a ruse from Emerald, an illusion to get him to drop her. Now not able to fully trust his eyes, Aldric tried calling on the increased tactile field he'd gotten earlier, and reached out in all directions with his aura, though he had to thrust both hands out to the sides to do it this time. His ploy worked, as he felt more than saw or heard something he suspected to be Emerald charging him from the front, as Emerald came in from the sides.

Knowing full and well he couldn't try and fight both of these two at the same time, Aldric instead dropped to a knee and swung both arms back around. Now with his left hand hovering in front of his right shoulder, and his right hand in front of his left shoulder, Aldric envisioned a cocoon around him, and clenched his eyes and prayed as he sensed Mercury and Emerald charge straight for him.

Mercury's foot roundhoused the cocoon, right where Aldric's head was, but it was halted and stuck in place. Emerald swung in a wide downward arc with her pistols, Aldric sensed the blades on their barrels extend, but just as with Mercury, her attack was halted in place and her weapons stuck fast.

"Ha!" Aldric coughed, "hahaha!" He groaned through a tightly clenched chest. "Ho - holy crap!" His face was turning red from the strain, but he could hardly believe what it was he was doing.

Now, he had to attack with it.

So lacking any other option, he pushed.

He sensed Mercury and Emerald fly away, moving so fast that it appeared as if they'd been shot out of cannons. He exhaled loudly, feeling the pressure abade from his head, and dropped both of his arms. His eyes opened to the look of the forest ground below him, and with a dry swallow, he shook his head and stood to his feet. There stood Cinder, an arrow knocked in her obsidian bow, and a single eyebrow arced.

Aldric frowned, his lips pursed tight and his eyes wide in a comical expression. "Well..." The question now was if he could actualy move things with his mind, and not need his hands.

So of course his first instinct wasn't to try ripping branches off of trees, but to bait Cinder into shooting him.

"Parley?"

Cinder let the arrow fly. Aldric croaked and recoiled his head, his eyes shut tight. But when nothing hit him, he cracked one open, and croaked again. It was close enough that he could feel the chill of the arrowhead, but it wasn't touching him. It simply floated there, centimeters from his head. Tentatively, Aldric reached up with his hand and grasped the arrow, before letting his hold on it with his mind drop. It quickly obeyed his body as opposed to his mind, and he pulled it out of the air.

So... Wait... Wait, wait, wait - does this make me Carrie? He lifted the arrow to inspect it. I... I am telekinetic. He nodded. They're gonna laugh at you!

He looked up, and saw, as she let her weapons vanish, Cinder shared his grin. "Not at all rare, but I've seen few take to it so quickly." She said, slowly walking towards him.

He twirled the arrow in his hand, a grin on his face and a furrow to his brow. "Telekinesis... I can work with this." Possibilities were already beginning to flood his mind.

He heard Mercury and Emerald make their ways back to him, Mercury with his hand on his back. "Man, Aldric. You hit hard!" He said, though his face wore a grin that betrayed his accusatory tone.

Emerald was giving him an appraising look, "I would've pegged you as a pyro, to be honest." She said, with a sidewards nod, as Aldric reached down to grab his bag.

He definitely had some experimenting to do. "Who, me? Why whatever do you mean?" He cracked a toothy grin, following Mercury as he took the lead once again.

Cinder continued, "it is good you've discovered your abilities. Now it is merely a matter of mastering them and teaching you to fight." She explained. "First comes using your aura to enhance yourself. Then your abilities."

So first I need to fight like a saiyan, before I can shoot ki-blasts. Aldric nodded, "makes sense." He handed the arrow back to Cinder.

It fell apart like ash in her hands. "Now at least we'll know which weapons shops to visit when we make port."

Aldric blinked, as they came upon the mouth of a cave. "Make..." He looked up, and saw, leaning out from a large, forest-camouflage tarp, an airship the size of a small jet. "Port." He finished, dumbly.

Mercury clapped him on the back, "what, you think we actually lived in the middle of nowhere?" He chuckled, leading the group inside. "Hell no. Much easier to keep on the move, harder for folks to nail you down if you can pick up everything you own and move." He reached forward and grabbed at the tarp, before roughly yanking it down.

Aldric felt as if he were in a sci-fi movie. He was looking at some sort of unholy mixture of so many sci-fi warships that the only term he could use to describe it was, simply, 'a spaceship'. It had two large wings on either side, on the front and back, and its main deck was shaped like an airplane, albeit with large, angular armor plates covering large portions of it.

Aldric was dumbfounded and slack-jawed, as he stared at the beautiful marvel of engineering. It was one thing to see it from behind a computer screen and in CGI, but another entirely to have it looming over him in person.

"Please tell me it doesn't have a name." Aldric was stuck between Normandy, Forward Unto Dawn, Millennium Falcon, and Black Pearl.

"It's just an airship." Emerald said, "I think it's 'Aviator' on paper, but we don't really have a name for it."

"Oh f - uh... Screw that!" Aldric bit back a curse word, "all that majesty and on the open sea... Or... Well... Air, and you put it down on paper as 'Aviator'? And you don't even use it? Come on!" He jogged up to catch up with the group, looking back and forth as he took in as much of the ship as he could. "It's bad freakin' luck not to call a ship by her name! It's even worse to give her a bad one from the start!"

"And how would you know these things?" Cinder hummed, as the cabin doors opened up and a small stairwell extended downwards.

"You just do!" He returned to the point about his parents being sailors. Yes, since the age of sail, superstitions had mostly fallen to the wayside, but there was still something most people would just know. And he'd watched a lot of pirate films as a kid. "I mean... Aviator. Good lord." He shook his head, walking up the stairs and entering the ship as Mercury continued pulling down and folding up the tarp.

Inside it was surprisingly spacious. One long corridor from the stern to the bow, some chairs and tables spread about, he saw a few televisions, a small dining area. The port and starboard sides were all enormous windows to look outside, and dull blue lights hung from the ceiling. It made his shoulders slump. "This isn't a warship, is it?" He frowned.

Mercury heard this as he dragged the tightly bound tarp up and into the ship with him. "Of course not! You have one of those, it's a way to get on the military's watchlist. What, you telling me that ship you came in on had guns?" He asked, shouldering his way past Aldric, and tossing the tarp up against a wall.

"Well... I'll give you that." Aldric shrugged, following Mercury to the captain's cabin. "But still... I kind of hoped for something more." Considering this was a world where everything was also a gun, had his hopes really been that unreasonable?

Entering the cabin, Aldric found it was mostly isolated from the rest of the ship, and smaller than he would have thought. It had enough room for the pilot and copilot's chairs, the dashboard, and the equipment lining the walls and between the chairs. Aside from that, there was space to step inside and open the door. It seemed most of the luxury had been afforded to the rest of the ship.

Aldric leaned forward onto the copilot's chair, looking out the windshield and to the blue sky above, and the green forest beyond. "You fly this?" He asked, a wide grin on his face.

Mercury barked out another laugh, "ha! No." He emphasized, "it's mostly autopilot. The only things that are flown by people these days are the big air buses. Even most military ships can get run on autopilot." He explained, "do your people fly yours?"

Aldric nodded, "yeah they do..." He turned his gaze to Mercury, who took up a casual posture in the pilot's seat, fiddling with the holographic display and opening up a large map. "The absolute best AI we've got is weak AI... And it doesn't do its job really well."

Mercury frowned absently, as he fiddled with the map. "AI?" He mimed, "the hell's the A stand for?"

Aldric couldn't help but grow a grin, "Artificial. The 'I' for Intelligence." He leaned in close to the map, it showing the entire world of remnant before Mercury indicated a specific continent, likely the one they were on. "Your people don't have AI? Or even the concept of it? A thinking machine." Wasn't there a robot they made? Its name was Pen something, Penelope? And if he remembered correctly, one of the kingdoms had armies of robots, just not necessarily sentient ones.

"Oh!" Mercury nodded, "oh, oh. You mean mechs." He zoomed in further on Vale. "You had me wondering there. Why call 'em AI? They're robots."

Aldric shrugged, "I think it's to differentiate robots from thinking computers... But I don't think I could explain it well. A robot's a robot, an AI's its brain? I dunno." There was definitely a difference between a droid like C-3PO and an AI like Cortana, but aside from how he'd put it, Aldric wasn't versed enough in the subject to explain it.

Mercury nodded, "well, mechs do their own thinking, but they don't do the thinking for themselves, if that's what you mean. They've got things they have to do and objectives they have to meet. They do what they're programmed to, and go home when they're done. Atlas fields a lot of 'em, but aside from killing Grimm and pacifying people, they're hardly any threat at all against Huntsman." He selected a port on the outskirts of Vale, and the display flashed green.

The ship came to life then, thrumming with an energy as it lurched underneath them. Aldric grunted, nearly losing his footing, though Mercury wasn't even remotely stumbled, simply hauling himself out of the chair with little effort. When Aldric managed to get his 'sea legs', the ship slowly began floating forward, exiting the cave, before climbing into the air and taking off.

For the Record

So I'm Telekinetic, and now I've got - or at the very least have access to - a freakin' spaceship.

Jesus Christ.

We're on our way to Vale now, and Cinder showed me to my little room. It's quaint, and has enough storage space to drop my stuff. I'm hoping I can get to work on applying Earth tech to Remnant tech, but right now I have something more important to do: Learn how to read. I've got a couple days to do it before we get to the city of Vale, so I'm hoping I'll at least get... A little hammered in, at least.

I'm hoping that, since the structure of the spoken language is identical to English, there won't be any grammar hurdles, I just have to learn to put Remnant characters to their English counterparts, and then everything should fall into place.

But, just as important: My semblance.

I am a fucking Telekinetic.

I didn't even consider this one on my whole 'superpower lottery', and while I admit, maybe becoming Saitama would have made things easier, I still hit a jackpot at least.

Seriously. Telekinesis is defined as the ability to move objects with your mind. Objects, as any material item that can be seen or felt - matter, referring to anything that has mass and takes up space. Molecules have mass and take up space. Atoms have mass and take up space. Particles, like electrons, protons, neutrons, Photons - light particles - hell, the Higgs Boson is a particle that generates mass!

Problem is... Well, there isn't a human alive that can 'see' that small. We're not even remotely capable of differentiating different atoms from eachother.

Buuuuut, that's where things play in my favor: My powers increase the range of my tactile sensations. In other words, whenever I'm using them I can 'feel' everything around me - from the door in my room to the blankets on my bed to the hair on my head. Think of it like a radar pulse - only I can feel everything in its range. So like a bat sees things, I can feel them.

Put together, this means I should be able to basically manipulate the universe on a subatomic level.

To put it simply, I can turn water to wine.

I'm Jesus.

Okay, okay, blasphemy aside, you get my point. I can theoretically turn water to wine, air to gold, oxygen to hydrogen. I can accelerate atomic movement and create fire - I can accelerate it even further and create plasma! I can gather in a bunch of electrons and zap people, I can pull in a shitton of Higgs Bosons, use them to generate a Higgs Field, that alters my mass - and then I can just drop 'em like a bad habit and snap right back to my regular, unaltered mass.

Well... Theoretically.

I'm still a long way from there, but seeing as I can rip trees off of the ground and, in the space of a few minutes, managed to figure out my 'Radar Pulse' and even stop an arrow without moving my hands, I'm hoping that I can get somewhere close to this by the time we reach the Fall Maiden. I'm also not stupid enough to try screwing with atoms in the middle of a moving spaceship. I don't want to screw something up, incite nuclear fission, and kill us all.

And as cool as it sounds, I really don't want to go messing with the Higgs Field. Only reason I even know about that is because I did a little 'For Dummies' research on it when I watched a Red vs Blue PSA.

Note to self: If I get back home, go to college for a physics degree. Science is a lot more useful than just as a hobby, it seems.

Anyways. As cool as it may be to go hog-wild and start experimenting, I'm still well aware of the danger I'm facing with these powers. Even ignoring the more 'creative' aspects of them, I went from accidentally tearing a tree out of the ground to stopping an arrow midflight with my mind in just a few minutes. I'm starting to understand what they're saying about my 'bonfire' size aura. I'll have to stay on the small scale until we're in a safer, controlled environment, such that I can start experimenting more.

For now, I'll just stick with movie tricks, moving whole objects and not atoms.

Fortunately, the more I do it, the easier it becomes. The best way I can explain it, is by thinking of my semblance as another limb. Say I wanted to pick up my phone - I'd just visualize a hand, grab it, pick it up, and pull it towards me. Granted, I say that, and it's as much feeling it out and experimenting, as it is visualizing it - it's much easier to manipulate stuff if I use my hands than if I just think it.

Example: If I lift my hand and then visualize the whole phone thing, and then pull my hand back, the phone would come to me much easier. But if I didn't move a muscle and just thought it all, it would be much more difficult.

Yeah, I have no clue what I'm saying either. Point is: I either do it the movie way, thrusting and throwing my hands every which way, which is easier, or I do it the practical way, and just think it, which is harder.

Anyways, to start, I'll just try to lift small things and juggle them around. Once that gets instinctual, then we'll be getting somewhere.

Moving on, right now pretty much my whole goal in life is to learn to read, get a handle on my semblance, and learn to fight.

And wouldn't you know it, they put the assassin's son on my combat training.

I mean, it makes sense, but I also get the feeling he enjoys beating the tar out of me too much.

Once we make port in the vale, I'm going to get my hands on Remnant clothes, and then we're going weapons shopping.

Maybe I'll go full Yondu and hit people with a magic arrow.

I maaaaaay be a little too excited about going out to find killing tools.

The days spent flying over the continent bled together. He woke up, tried to hammer Remnant English into his head, tried exercising his semblance, ate breakfast, got the tar beaten out of him by Mercury, and repeated without change until it was time to sleep, after which he started the day over again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Despite getting the hell beaten out of him so often, it actually felt good as exercise, and it was working. He wasn't anywhere near winning any of their little sparring sessions, but as time continued on he was beginning to feel a bit more confident. His reflexes were getting faster, his strength was going up, it was working. His body was beginning to acclimate to the physical side of his newfound role, and this was speeding up the rate of adaption to his aura. Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't try using said aura to assist him in these sparring matches. Not only would such a thing instantly invite Mercury to do the same, but his control wasn't good enough to sneak that by him. Then there was also the fact that he was savvy enough to know that running the risk of potentially blowing this airship probably wasn't a smart idea.

The biggest problem he'd found, however, was that he wasn't Neo. He wasn't Ip Man, he wasn't Batman, and he certainly wasn't Goku. Every time he tried replicating Mercury's stances, or tried to heed Cinder and Emerald's advice, he found his ass getting kicked all the faster. But when he instead dropped it all and just tried brawling, then he found things working a bit more in his favor. He took more hits, yes, but he also scored more. He had hits blocked, but he found himself able to block some as well. He missed shots, but he hit others all the same. He mixed small elements of what they were teaching them into a brawling overtone; it reminded him of Mixed Martial Arts, which basically did the same thing, in that it took elements from all martial arts disciplines and worked them to the fighter's personal style.

He wouldn't dare say he could take on an MMA fighter, but he took some confidence in that he was taking from their theories. That had to mean he was on the right path, right?

Regardless, he found himself now in the first hot shower he'd had since the plane crash, and enjoying every moment of it as it loosened up his aching muscles. Cinder had noticed the past few days how his shields had never broken, and she expressed interest in finding an isolated area after they landed, to stress-test them. Aldric knew that this meant a fight that wouldn't end when he was on the ground, and he wasn't necessarily looking forward to it.

Fortunately, he knew he had some time at least. Once he got out of the shower, dried himself off, and dressed himself, he saw other airships outside the windows. He walked towards the starboard side and saw a large city sprawled out far below the ship. It looked magnificent, a perfect mixture of contemporary, New York-style skyscrapers, and smaller brick-and-mortar buildings. The city of Vale was massive, spreading out even over the horizon.

Emerald slid up to his side. "Everyone has the same reaction when they see it the first time. I know I did." She nodded.

Aldric turned a curious glance over her way, "what, you're saying you weren't born here? I thought the only settlements were the major cities."

Emerald shook her head, "those are just the most protected ones." She said, "there are others, but they don't have nearly as much security as the kingdom cities." She explained, idly tapping her fingers on the railing.

Aldric nodded, conceding that point. Of course people wouldn't stay put in one spot - they were people. Humans were pioneers at heart, they couldn't stand to just stay rooted in one place forever. Some could, but on the whole? If one was given a chance to explore the unknown, they'd take that chance. Just look at him!

"So this is what we're fighting against?" Aldric asked, raising his gaze and seeing a military ship guiding the Aviator down to the public ports. He saw some mech guards and some human ones patrolling the decks, and a few cannons mounted all across the ship.

Emerald waved her hand in a 'so-so' fashion. "Kind of. We're not fighting against it so much as we are just trying to get everyone on the same side."

He hummed in response, nodding his head.

Fifteen minutes later, they were landed and had their paperwork sorted out. Cinder gathered everyone and guided them down through the city, where they walked for a half hour before they finally were able to escape most of the crowds. They then began their hunt for a weapons shop, which brought them to the close of the hour. It was a small, bookshop-sized building, with the walls lined with weapons of all kinds. Aldric couldn't help but adopt an impressed expression, nodding as he looked around. There were swords, shields, guns of all shapes, sizes, makes, and models, he saw bullets, large Dust dispensaries, it looked like the place had everything.

Naturally, the Doom player in him gravitated towards the shotguns. One seemed to have a dozen fire selectors, and a switch that turned it into a large katana, but after a few swings, Aldric switched it back and put it back on the shelf. He probably wouldn't be a sword guy, or at least not one that needed both hands. For much the same reason he skipped the assault rifles, most of which just extended bayonets, and instead found himself digging through submachine guns.

Emerald was the greatest help here, able to tell him firing rates and ammunition efficiency. She helped him find the features and discern their melee implements, and while one pair that turned into a pair of bladed knuckles seemed appealing, Aldric decided to shelve them as well. If he couldn't find anything else, he'd come back to them, but considering his powers were telekinesis, he wasn't too sure a quantity over quality build was something to go for.

By chance, he found himself near a back corner of the store, just across from the register, and looking into a small bin filled with a grayish, viscuous substance. Intrigued, Aldric leaned forward and examined it. He reached inside but found it wasn't like some kind of packing foam, but actually full of a gray goop with the texture and consistency of sand, and the feel of silt.

Cinder saw him frowning at it as he rubbed the gray silt out of his fingers. She shook her head, "I doubt you would be interested in that." She said.

He arced his eyebrow, "why's that?" He asked, clapping his hands free of the rest of the sandy substance.

"They're just nanites." Cinder looked at the sign above the bin, unaware of the shocked expression that painted itself across Aldric's face. "It looks like they only project hardlight."

"Wait, back the hell up -" Aldric held up his hands, and then pointed to Cinder. "You're telling me that you people have nanomachines?" Considering they also had airships, sentient AI, robots, mechs, and incredibly advanced weapons technology, the concept wasn't too far-fetched, but it still caught him off guard.

Cinder shrugged, "yes, but as I said, they seem only to have one function. They don't even seem to be ballistic."

The sci-fi fan in him was aghast. The Metal Gear Solid fan in him was appalled. "And you say that as if hardlight isn't impressive."

"What could you do with it?" She asked, resting a hand on her hip and giving Aldric one of her characteristic appraising looks.

Aldric shook his head and looked back into the bin; considering that it was at the back of the shop and really did seem to be just shoved in the back where the store owner would forget about them, he assumed everyone must have the same thoughts regarding these things. If they didn't fire copious amounts of explosive ammunition, people didn't have any respect for it.

But when Aldric saw this, he saw dollar signs and potentially endless possibilities.

He just had to get some questions answered, "okay, let's pretend I can't read." He pointed to the sign, "what can they do, first of all? Are they pre-programmed constructs, or can you make your own?" He asked.

"It says that with physical contact, they sync with your cerebral cortex." If Aldric had been drinking he likely would have spit it out by now. "They'll make any construct you desire, but if you lose contact with it they'll stay in that form until you retrieve it."

Jesus Christ these are Green Lantern rings without the rings! He laughed despite himself. So if I made a knife and threw it, it'd stay knife until I picked it back up again. Hell, he probably wouldn't have to make a knife with these things. Depending on the size of the nanites versus the size of the constructs they could make, he could potentially just have a small population, a thousand bots, and make a thousand hardlight slugs and blast the hell out of people with them.

But perhaps the most important question of all, the make-or-break, "do they self replicate?" He asked, turning to Cinder.

Cinder turned back to the sign, as Mercury and Emerald made their way over to the two, the former loaded down with some parts for his legs. "It will cost more to activate that part of their programming, but they would." She nodded to the sign, "it warns you not to make replicant commands lightly, however. If it isn't drawing from an outside source it will draw from you for the mass it would need." She turned to face Aldric fully, "what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking... Well, actually, first off -" He affixed her a serious look, "I need to know, what's with the bad look? Do they... What, have bad batteries? Hardlight can't stay up more than a few seconds? Why's it got its reputation?" He asked.

Cinder shook her head, "Aldric, your world seems to focus on weapons with only one function. They can only ever effectively be used in one way."

He nodded, "yeah." A gun was better as a ranged weapon than a club.

"These machines are the same. They can only create hardlight." She looked over her shoulder, "if you're dead set on something the like, I'm certain I saw a weapon that could fire hardlight slugs."

But he shook his head, "so aside from the fact that they only have one useful function in combat, they're fine?" And he would argue 'one useful function'. If these self replicated, he could totally turn it into a Gaara-style implement, use his enemies as the mass to make more nanites.

Cinder gave him an exasperated look, "sure, Aldric." She said, shaking her head. "Aside from their lack of utility, they are fine. Only limited by their function."

Aldric would beg to differ, because if he could do with them what he thought he could, this may be the best weapon for him and his burgeoning skillset. "Does this place have a firing range?" And how would he even use these in the first place? Did they sell by the pound, or did he just shove his hand in, cover it, and buy that?

Emerald nodded, "it's in the back." She looked to the bin of nanites, "you're thinking about those?" She looked up to Aldric, her green eyes shone with confusion. "You're serious?" She deadpanned.

Aldric nodded, "oh I hope they work like I hope they do. How do we buy them?" He inspected the bin and found a cup - a literal cup - to scoop out the nanites.

"They charge by the pound." Cinder said.

Aldric immediately grabbed a small bag and shoveled a few cupfuls in, before weighing it and nodding, a wide grin on his face as his mind swam with ideas.

"Follow me." Emerald said, "I saw it earlier."

"I'll catch up once I buy these." Said Mercury.

Aldric already had his hand halfway in the bag by the time they'd taken two steps. When they maneuvered their way through the store, greeted the cashier, who quickly began to deal with Mercury. The three of them made their way into the wide, warehouse-like firing range, and Aldric removed his hand. It was now covered in a layer of the gray silt, he felt as if it were covered in cold, wet, sand.

When they found their own range, Cinder turned to Aldric. "So?"

Well... They're supposed to react to thought - and how many mind-blowingly terrifyingly advanced inventions are people going to gloss over for cooler guns? Brain syncing crap... And they don't have brain implants yet? Actually, wait - that's not too surprising, considering folks are walking around with robot limbs. So I'll take that one back. Aldric examined his gray hand for a few seconds more, the nanites reaching up to his wrist. So... Let's think.

Aldric shut his eyes and concentrated a moment, envisioning what it was he wanted the nanites to project. With an image firmly in mind, Aldric heard the sound of ringing glass and a minor weight drag at his arms. He opened his eyes, and found, hovering just above his arm, a large, circular shield made of a dully glowing blue light. Hardlight was by and large considered indestructible, especially in sci-fi. Whether or not it was really didn't matter, because he was in a sci-fi anime. So when faced with an indestructible material that could create functionally any object he could think of, really, there was the only sensible option.

And wrapped around his arm hovered a near-perfect facsimile of Captain America's shield.

"Oh..." He chuckled, a wide, nearly feral grin stretching across his face. "Yeah." He grabbed at the edge of the shield. It was cold to the touch, like metal, but was completely firm and solid, and when he lifted it, it came off of his arm.

Now holding it by its edge, he inspected it, marveling at how light it was. It couldn't have been heavier than a small laptop, and on closer inspection, he found, suspended in the center of the shield, a cluster of nanites, and he audibly laughed at the number, or lack thereof, that it took to make the shield. Just a dime's worth - the same shape and size of a dime, made this marvelous shield, and though he couldn't tell, given that his arm wasn't bare, he was pretty certain the cluster had been no thicker than a hair, or a wire.

Sufficiently freakin' advanced. He chuckled. "Okay." He reared his arm.

Cinder recognized his stance, "wait, are you going to throw it?"

"Uh..." Aldric threw it. "Yeah." But when he turned to watch it fly, he saw that it listed severely to the right, passing through several ranges before clattering to the ground with a loud glass-like twang, some thirty feet away. Aldric cleared his throat, "uh..." He reached out with his semblance and, after he felt the cold metal feeling of the light, pulled the shield back. "You didn't see that."

"I took pictures. I'll show them to Mercury." Emerald responded.

The shield flew back to Aldric's hand and he whirled around, "you will do no such thing!" But she was already snapping her phone shut, and a few seconds later, Aldric heard Mercury's laughter from the other side of the wall. He slumped forward, "you hate me." He groaned, turning back to his range.

"You make it too easy." Emerald responded. "So what's the point, here? A shield's well and good, but I fail to see why you'd do this instead of just buying a shield."

"It's less the utility than it is the versatility." Aldric murmured, before he wound back and threw the shield again. This time with a brief little nudge from his semblance, it flew true, though faster than he'd intended. It smacked into the concrete block at the end of the range and dug into it.

"I don't follow." Emerald responded, exchanging looks with Cinder, who simply shrugged and waited Aldric's response.

"Well..." He pulled the shield back, and then affixed it to his arm again. The shield then vanished. "It can be a shield... Or it can be something a bit more lethal." Three claws suddenly popped out from in between his knuckles, and he saw realization slowly begin to dawn in the women's eyes. "It can be melee, or..." The claws faded away, and were replaced by dozens of bullet-shaped constructs. "It can be ranged." He pointed his hand downrange, braced his left arm with his right, and used his semblance, firing the hardlight slugs as fast as he could, at the highest velocities he could.

"And then consider something else really freaky. Light comes from photons - light particles. Photons are subatomic particles... They're smaller than atoms... So we program this thing to be able to make subatomic cutting edges... And there won't be anything it can't cut through. Airship armor, rocks, other guns... Other atoms, if it wanted... A literal lightsaber" He grinned, looking back down the range.

The concrete slab was torn apart, as if subjected to machine gun fire. As the firing range's computers registered this damage, it was automatically drawn back and replaced with a new one. A quick glance over his shoulder, Emerald was aghast, and Cinder was nodding, a thin smile stretching her lips. Aldric dragged back as many of the slugs as he could, and affixed them back to his arm. When the softly glowing blue light faded away and left him with his gunmetal gray forearm, he nodded.

"If there's anything that'll work... Well, though I'd hesitate to use the term, perfectly, with my semblance... I'd say this is it. And! Your reactions were pretty much perfect. Most folks will see me walking around with this and will think... 'What an idiot!', but then I pull out my little funbag of tricks and kick their asses." He nodded, "I'll buy a pistol for redundancy's sake, but if my initial impressions here are any indication... Yeah, I'm going to be swearing by these little machines." He turned back to his group.

"I'm gonna call it the power glove." He said, with a wide smile. "Any questions?"