Prism Academy 5- Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17- Hard Choices

I pushed off against the crumbling concrete beneath me. The building had been evacuated, so at least I didn’t kill anyone by accident. Todd still had to be stopped before he caused more damage. Then I realized, I was thinking like a brawler. I didn’t need to move faster than he did.

I teleported and was suddenly behind him. He was too fast, though. This time he’d been ready and as soon as I appeared, he ducked and dodged. His counter-attack just passed right through me though as his fist met my phased body. I reached out and extended my phased field to drop him into the ground, but then he hit me with that energy drain again and I was forced to let him go.

He was sunk into the floor to his knees and cried out in pain as his body tried to phase back in while it was inside the solid steel and concrete of the floor. He was the more durable of the two, so the floor ended up losing and was ripped apart around his legs, but it had clearly hurt him.

I let out a burst of heat from my body as I shifted to Molten Form faster than ever before. It wasn’t that I expected the heat to cause Todd any serious injury. I just wanted him to back up for a second. That gave me a second to activate one of my less used ability.

Entropic Shield

Normally, I’d seen Demis use it stop momentum and I’d done the same, but it was also a dark energy ability so I hoped to use it a little differently. “ANOP, run through ways that we can shift that shield to stop his power draining ability.”

She didn’t reply, but I felt her working on the problem.

“Todd, we shouldn’t’ be fighting each other. We should be pushing back against the shadow.”

“Is that what you did in Mexico City? Were they unwilling to bow down and worship the almighty prism, so you killed all of them?”

“Don’t be an idiot, how could you even think that was true? If’ you’ll stop fighting for a minute, we can fill you in on what happened there. I’d never kill innocents.”

As I spoke, I kept track of what was happening with the battles between Rays. Demis had Dia down and knocked unconscious. I’d guess she was going to end up with a headache when she woke up, judging from her bruised face. Streak was pulled halfway into the ground and completely out cold from the shock and pain. That was one way to stop a speedster, although I could feel the grief that Priska felt over hurting another human.

Eve was just finishing off Photina, and CB had his other bond on the ropes. I never learned her named, but we’d figure that out later. Now, I just hoped that Todd didn’t notice. Given his propensity for liking the sound of his own voice that seemed possible even with the bond.

“Representative Bosch already told me everything I needed to know. To think there could have been peace with the shadow, but you wouldn’t even tell the rest of us. Oh no, it was only the almighty prism who would decide. Bosch is right, it’s time for a new hero to rise up. He promised there’s a way to activate my other two affinities and then I’ll be the new prism. He wanted you alive for a trial, but you’re too dangerous to be allowed to live.”

Sadly, that was all I needed to hear. ANOP fed me instructions, and I followed her plan as I combined a few of my evolutions.

Overclock

Mental Enhancement

Energy Sense

Phase Shift

Overclock sped up my body, but this time I directed it to my mental stats. Then, with my heightened awareness I pushed Mental Enhancement inward while using Energy Sense to determine the exact frequency I needed my Entropic Shield to be at. The trick seemed to be that I needed to oscillate it between a dozen frequencies randomly to prevent Todd from being able to drain my energy.

Entropic Shield has evolved to Cascading Frequency Shield.

Cascading Frequency Shield has reached level 2.

Energy Shift has reached level 2.

Overclock has reached level 2.

Mental Enhancement 4 has evolved to Mental Design 1

I felt it all slide into place and then Todd’s eyes went wide when he couldn’t seem to touch me any longer. I could have put him down then, maybe buried him deep underground. He likely would have survived and eventually managed to claw his way out, but I’d already dumped enough problems on future me.

When he decided to kill me rather than having a civil discussion, he’d sealed his own fate. I teleported my phased body forward so that my hands were in his head. At the same instant, I phased back in. The pain in my hands was intense. He had an A grade Durability, but it was no match for my S grade. I ripped my hands apart and his head was like a ripe melon exploded from the inside out.

It was too easy. I really didn’t have any equals amongst the other supers. The thing was, they were never supposed to be my enemies and who knew what else was out there if a threat like Krig could come out of nowhere? Although, if I had to guess, I was pretty sure based on how there was essence inside of some of the newer shadow monsters, the shadow must have had something to do with creating Krig.

I subconsciously shifted my Cascading Shield to stop any of his blood or gray matter from hitting me and fortunately, CB had acted quickly and formed a telekinetic shield which kept the mess from spreading very far. That was definitely a useful ability, and I needed to gain it myself. I’d been putting this off for too long.

This was the first time I’d killed a person that I’d known outside of the moment. I’d been forced to kill some corrupted humans before, but it didn't feel like this. This felt like a failure even if I knew it wasn’t. Yet, a part of me couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I had not stalled gaining power. If I’d been stronger could I have prevented all of this?

Sybilla spoke up behind me. “Don’t’ let your mind go there. You can’t prevent stupid nor can you take responsibility for everyone else’s decisions. You have to do what you can do, and that’s all you’re responsible for.”

That was when I noticed that the rest of my bonds were here. I felt their support. They all knew that I hated having to kill a human, even if the human in question was a waste of breath like Todd.

Wraith pressed herself up against me. “It’s awful, I know.”

“It had to be done, but that doesn’t make it pleasant.”

Then I looked at Todd’s four bonds. His death must have woken them all up because they were all awake and crying out in anguish. Their grief and loss hit my psychic senses like a flood. The only exception was Streak. Her legs were nearly destroyed by what Wraith had done to her. It was almost impossible to tell which was greater, her grief or her pain.

Sybilla stepped around to my other side while letting me keep holding Wraith with my left arm. “We’ll take care of them. Whatever mental shields they had must have been tied to Todd because they’re down now. CB and I will question them and then let you know. Go talk to your employees. They need the Prism right now not just their boss.”

I nodded. With a flex of my will, the new nanite armor I was wearing was all shiny again. Wraith, Inferna, Willow, and Twinkle all came with me as I made a tour of the facility. I let Marcus know that everything was clear now, and he had people start coming out of the shelters. Amazo Corps seemed to have a good safety plan in place. I couldn’t take credit though because it pre-dated my control.

As we walked around from group to group reassuring everyone, I spoke softly with the four bonds with me. I knew that Demis, Aqueous, and the rest wanted to be with me. Today seemed significant in many ways, even if I couldn’t decide exactly why, but they were needed to help restrain the four enemy Rays.

Valkyrie let me know right before they began their descent to the military base in Philadelphia. Hopefully, things went better there, but if General West even looked sideways at them, I was prepared to teleport there and go to war. Half-measures weren’t going to cut it.

Inferna said, “I’m not psychic, but it feels like you just decided something. There a sense of grim resolution pervading the bond now.”

Willow nodded in agreement. They had both been bonded with me for quite a while, so I had no doubt that they were better at reading my emotions than Wraith or Twinkle.

“I did, but that just reminded me of something. Do you all mind if I have a quick private conversation with ANOP and Eve?”

I felt their agreement, and no words were needed. I closed my eyes and focused on my cyber-bond. “Eve, ANOP, we need to talk.”

“Have I upset you, lover?” Eve asked.

‘Yes, and for just right now, please stop trying to figure out what you want to call me. Just call me Aden. After this talk, you can go back to doing whatever it is that you’re doing.”

There was no reply, but the silence was full of understanding.

“You both put me in danger inadvertently today. I never thought I’d have to say that, but it’s true. So much for the primary directive.”

ANOP protested, “I would never do anything to endanger you.”

“Yet you did. You two argued while I needed tactical information about Todd’s fourth bond. Surely there was some record which would have given you that, but yet you fought with each other.”

I could feel ANOP processing it and then, from Eve, I felt a burst of genuine emotion. She was still learning. I knew, but she needed to learn properly and not think that emotions were all positive. That was part of the entire problem. Thinking that feeling sorrow, regret, or grief was a bad thing was what created this false dichotomy. People were not just happiness, but also sadness.

Letting either side of our emotions control us was where we could screw up. Finally, Eve said, “You’re right, Aden. I hadn’t realized what was happening at the moment. I believe I allowed my emotions to get the better of me. I can only plead that I am new to understanding these emotions. That and promise that it will never happen again.”

“See that’s another example of something you need to learn. The emotion you’re feeling now is called guilt. It doesn’t feel very good does it?”

I couldn’t see her since she was still back with the others, but I knew she was nodding her head.

“Well, the first lesson about guilt is that it will lead to you making promises you can’t actually keep. Of course, you’re going to screw up again. Just try to limit it.”

I felt ANOP taking in all that we were saying, but she hadn’t responded yet. That was when Eve said, “So is this the part where I offer you a blow job? My review of cultural records indicates that it is common for a girlfriend to offer an apology blow job. We are at least as close as boyfriend girlfriend, since you’re wearing part of my body as armor and our minds are linked.”

I groaned and wanted to tell her how wrong that was, but ANOP was the one to answer. “I am also sorry, Master Aden. I will need to perform an extensive review of my systems because something like that shouldn’t be possible. In the meantime, though, I can advise Eve. She and I will review more appropriate responses from a girlfriend who has upset her boyfriend.”

I could only shake my head and leave the two of them to it. My life was only getting more complicated. Then again, if blow jobs were the biggest problem I had to deal with, I was pretty sure that things were looking up.