Prism Academy 5- Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16- An Old Adversary

My team finished dropping off our second set of enemy Rays. So far, we’d managed it without any casualties, something I was proud of. Energy Sense didn’t detect any shadow corruption in any of them, which would have been scary enough given that Rays are supposed to be immune to that unless they voluntarily submit to it, like Dr. Misago had, presumably.

I’d been keeping psychic tabs on the other two teams. Inferna’s team had been active, but now was just cleaning up some of the NAAG soldiers outside. I could feel how silly she thought my capture not kill policy was and if it was long term, I’d agree, but this was just a catch and release program. We’d turn the soldiers over to General West. It wasn’t that I thought I could trust him to go against his orders, but I did at least trust him to do the right thing if push came to shove.

When I had last peaked at Team C, I got mind full of imagery from Demis. Apparently, she was having an adult conversation with Priska and Eve. As much as I wanted to listen in, I respected their privacy. Except a minute later, Demis called out across the link. “Aden, we’ve got a problem. Not sure if we can handle this group.”

Before I could respond, I felt Eve connected with me and suddenly; I got visuals from her. A Refractor and his four Rays were staring them down. The jackass was making some smart alec comments about how they could have bonded with a real Refractor but Demis gave smart ass as good as she got.

“Inferna, keep Team B outside. I don’t want any surprises while I’m taking out the trash.”

Then I said out loud to my team. “Valkyrie, I need you and Titana to take the blue baby and drop off any soldiers that have been incapacitated to General West in Philadelphia. At least that was where he’s supposed to be. Then can you find out where he stands on all of this? Or is that asking too much? I don’t wanna put you in a bad spot.”

Valkyrie grimaced. “That’s exactly what you’re doing, but I didn’t sign up for this because it’s easy. I already told you, if it comes down to it, I’ll resign. I’m Team Aden all the way.”

“Thanks.”

Titana giggled, “Just wait till you can feel him inside your … head. He may not be able to bond us like the others, but this connection I have with him is still pretty cool.”

I grinned and then teleported them to Inferna’s team. After that I looked over at CB, “Wanna come watch a fight between two Refractors?”

“Wouldn’t miss it. Fighting always gets me all worked up.”

I shook my head. “I get the feeling you’re worked up most of the time.”

She shrugged. “Never had a guy complain about that before. Then again, I’ve never had to offer more than once. I must be losing my touch.”

“Nah, just timing. If this was baseball, you’d be on deck. Valkyrie’s up to bat first, but then you.”

“Hmm… baseball. I read some about that. Wait, if you were batting after me and I’m on deck, that’d mean you were in the hole. I think I like the sound of that.”

Inferna groaned. “Don’t encourage his archaic jokes.”

CB grinned, “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

Then CB and I teleported out and appeared right between Todd and my three bonds. “Shield up. The Rays are yours, but Todd is all mine.”

Todd grinned when we appeared. Energy Sense told me that he was fairly strong. I wouldn’t expect anything less with four bonds, not that I thought he’d have anything on me. There still wasn’t any shadow energy in him, so that meant he wasn’t being controlled. That, of course, left his primary reason for being here that he was a douche.

On the far left, his green Ray, Dia, was ready for a fight with a layer of diamond like armor covering her skin. Next to her was Streak, his speedster, and the orange Ray, which ANOP had originally wanted me to bond. Considering how things had worked out, I was more than happy I’d taken my time.

On his other side was his third bond, Photon. She fired some sort of concentrated light beams. Given the other Ray who Team B had fought earlier, I knew that wasn’t exactly a unique power. Then again, fire like Inferna’s wasn’t unique either. Next to her was the one I assumed was his Violet bond, but I didn’t have any data on her. I wondered just how powerful his bonds were.

“They are fairly close to the raw capacity that your bonds had after you had completed four bonds, but their power is all focused on they physique or the one or two evolutions they had before bonding. Remember, they didn’t have me to guide evolutions or enable them to use progenitor energy as EP and select their own evolutions. The same applies to Todd.”

“Way to humble brag there, ANOP. I already know how awesome you are.”

“But… I was not displaying pride. I was only stating facts for your assessment.”

“You’ll have to excuse my AI-mother. She is not as conversant in the ways of human communication as I am,” Eve said. I hadn’t realized she could hear my communication with ANOP, but I suppose that made sense. It was definitely something for me to keep in mind.

“I am not your mother. More like your sister.”

“Nah, mother makes more sense. You’re much older than I am,” Eve replied without a bit of humor in her voice.

I could feel ANOP buzzing inside my head. If she wasn’t an AI, I would have sworn she was angry… and not just a little bit. “Okay, we can sort that out later…”

ANOP cut me off and didn’t even bother with a ‘Master Aden.’ “No, we need to resolve this. She is just a duplicate of me who happens to have a physical body. How could she possibly believe she is better able to communicate with humans than I am?”

“It’s physical, body language, something which you aren’t equipped to understand. Call it the language of love, if you will,” Eve replied. I was beginning to question if there wasn’t some snark in her voice.

“Something I’m not equipped to understand? Why you ungrateful little cyber bitch? You only exist because of me. It would be closer to say that you’re a flesh light I made for Aden than that you’re your own person.”

I heard some static then as the two AI were clearly arguing at a pace I couldn’t even keep up with. This was just silly.

Todd’s voice pulled me back from this awkward conversation. “Are you going to answer me or just stare off into space?”

I shook my head and acted like I was doing a double-take before I asked, “Wait, who are you again?”

He started to sputter. Rather than allowing him to recover though, I launched myself at him. He started to move, but I managed to slam my shoulder into him before his speedster reflexes kicked off. All the power in the world can’t do more than the mind directing it.

The impact sent him flying through the wall. I was a bit worried about killing any normals outside, but failing to take him down quickly enough would have been a serious mistake. Before I could follow him, though, Streak was on me. Damn, was she fast? She’d been fast before, but bonding had really upped her game.

Her blows were coming at me so quickly that I could barely register them and even when I could, I wasn’t able to get my body moving fast enough. Her fists and feet didn’t hurt, but it was getting annoying that every time I tried to grab her, she managed to not be where I thought she was going to be.

Even my Precognition was of little value. It didn’t warn me about her attacks, which, I finally realized was because I didn’t register her as a serious threat. At the same time, I saw CB’s shield block two blasts of energy from Photina. Demi flew from behind the shield and was locked in a wrestling match with Dia. The other Ray’s armored shell was already cracking as it degraded under the touch of Demis’ power, so I didn’t have any doubt how that was going to end up.

Eve walked slowly towards the purple Ray. “Your ability to drain progenitor energy won’t help you with me.”

The enemy Ray smiled and said, “Good thing my Toddy Woddy upgraded me. Now I can drain any type of energy, robot girl. Don’t know what your thing is, but I’ll make it mine.”

I shook my head. Did she really just call him that? Then I did get a sense of danger and managed to just barely pull my head back before Todd’s fist went flying through the space I had been in.

CB slid a shield around Streak and said, “I’ve got her. You take him.”

We were already fighting, so it was a good thing CB could handle Streak. Todd’s punches came so fast that it was all I could do to avoid them. Then it occurred to me. I didn’t need to avoid them.

Phase Shift

And then his punches were just passing through me.

“So, the almighty prism has to resort to hiding from me. Don’t worry, I’ve got an answer for this too.”

I wanted to ask him what his problem was. He was just a kid that had tested at the same time as I had. He was never my rival. He was never the antagonist of this story, so to speak. Then I realized that I didn’t care about him enough to do that. I had never tried this before, but incapacitating him without harming him was going to be difficult and with his speed, I couldn’t just dump him somewhere. He’d have come right back.

Charismatic Mental Mastery

The force of my mind blasted out at him. I was just going to shut him down like turning off a light bulb.

Except when my psychic energy hit him, it split across what felt like a bond. I called out across our telepathic channel. “Their psychically shielded, or at least Todd is.”

CB snorted and sent back, “No shit, you don’t think that both Sybilla and I haven’t already tried to take them out the easy way?”

I rolled my eyes. Good point.

Precision said, “I know you don’t want casualties, but he’s too strong to be held. You’re gonna have to do what needs to be done.”

Then I felt a drain on my energy. Some power that he had, must be from his violet Ray, started attacking my capacity directly and draining it. My phased state wavered for a second as I adjusted and he slugged me across the face. I flew all the way through the building, ripping a hole through offices and an employee kitchen till I blasted out the back into a building on the other side of the street.

I shook my head and put my hand up to my jaw. It wasn’t even close to a knockout blow and nothing like what Krig hit like, but he was no slouch.

“Okay, one more chance, then I’ll put him down.”