Prism Academy 5- Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Chapter 32- A Flock of Angels

While Molly was recovering, the rest of us stood there till Willow asked, “You said you had some other training you wanted to do?”

I shook my head in frustration. “Yeah, but not now. I had this idea that I could create a fusion where more than one of you fused with me at the same time. I thought if we were using my body it would put less strain on whichever of you I was going tandem with.”

Eve said, “ANOP and I have analyzed the data and it definitely was less strain on her than on Jill. Some of that could be that her body is stronger now because of the Bonded Affinity, but we believe it is more likely because your body was used as the host. Jill was so weak that she could have died without an infusion from you. Molly wasn’t that bad off.”

“Yeah, but we still can’t use this to fight Krig.”

Jen said, “Stop wallowing. We’ll find another way. You basically fought him to a standstill last time. Remember?”

“Yeah, but it took all of you fighting beside me and three of you were almost killed.”

Eve said, “Our cyber-bond has made you stronger. You need to lean into that.”

Sybil added, “Exactly. There are still three more appropriations which you can use. Surely they’ll add more power to you.”

I nodded. “About that, there is still another way. It’s risky, but it has more potential upside than anything else we can do.”

Jen shook her head. “Nope.”

“What? I didn’t even say what I was thinking.”

Jen cocked her head and frowned at me. “This bond goes both ways remember? You were contemplating if forming a shadow bond with Cara was worth the risk, if it would make you strong enough.”

I shrugged. She did know me. “I’m already partially bonded with her. I have history with her, but it could never replace what I have with all of you. She would simply join the family. And I can tell she’s awake now, but she hasn’t caused any problems. In fact, she’s still sitting where we left her.”

“How do you know that?” Sybil demanded.

I rubbed the spot on my low back where Cara had attacked me and injected a portion of the shadow energy within her. Something about it was different because I hadn’t been able to purge it with Light’s Judgment. Instead, it seemed to create a limited connection between Cara and me, or at least it was now. For the past few hours, I’d been aware of her, but this was the first time I stopped long enough to think about it.

Priska said, “As much as I don’t want to admit it, we can’t rule anything out. Krig was powerful on a level we’ve never seen before.”

Jen nodded. “Now that their attempt to take over the government has been thwarted and we have weapons to defeat the shadow, it’s only a matter of time. But I have to agree, Krig was on a whole other level.”

Wanting to change the subject, I said, “Oh, that brings something to my mind. We used Bonded Affinity to empower each of you, but I would like to try to pass on the Angel of Light ability to each of you. I think with Mental Design and Bonded Affinity, I’ll be able to do it at least on a temporary basis. Having all of you equipped with that power will make for a much stronger force against the shadow.”

Petra was the first to grin. “I don’t know if you can only do it with the full bonds, but I’d love to try it. Getting to be a true Valkyrie even for a short time would be beyond awesome.”

They were all up for it. This would be another test of my new abilities, but I thought I would be able to create temporary powers in other supers. A part of me began to wonder if someday I’d be able to create supers from scratch, but that was another issue.

“So who’s first then?”

When they couldn’t agree on who was first, I got them to play rock, paper, scissors. Something about watching a group of hot women vigorously play a childish game just worked for me. Well, especially because they were my women.

In the end, Kenna won, so I decided to try it first on her and then on Petra. When some of the others complained, I explained why. “Kenna and I only have a pseudo-bond. But we’ve been learning that we can work around all kinds of things. Perhaps someday, I’ll be able to originate true bonds without relying upon the light. Of course, that would require us deciding if we even wanted to do something like that. The bond does have an element of mind control.”

We talked about that for a bit, but I made sure we didn’t go too far down the rabbit hole, so to speak. We had work to do and a battle to fight later tonight. I created telekinetic chairs for Jen, Kenna, and me. Then we sat down and held hands. That was all it took for me to reach out with my ability. I created a link between the three of us. It was simple, with the bond already in place.

Mental Design.

I reached into Jen and found the node inside her mind, perhaps in a way it was like I was looking at her soul. It was easier to find than any of the others because Angel of Light had been an enhancement I gave her. I studied, allowed my mind to go through it and ANOP to analyze it.

Together, the two of us got a clear understanding of what it was. This time, I didn’t have any latent EP to use, so I’d have to draw in progenitor energy from the world around me and augment that with my own capacity. I just knew I couldn’t let my capacity fall too far.

Oddly, as I tried to focus on regenerating my progenitor energy faster another notification popped up.

Error… unquantified ability has been identified. Seeking to examine.

Analysis pending… 3% complete.

I wasn’t sure what the two things had to do with one another. ANOP and I had already reasoned out that if we regenerated progenitor energy naturally and if I seemed to regenerate faster than those with fewer affinities that there must be some aspect which allowed me to draw in more power subconsciously. All we were really attempting to do was consciously speed up the rate of drawing in that power.

It was working too.

My capacity was now filling twice as fast as usual. With that extra power, I reached out and tried to form a node within Kenna that mirrored the one inside of Jen. I screwed up more than once even with ANOP’s help, and had to redraw elements of it. Each time I got closer, though. When I hit the 80% mark on my capacity I was about to give up, but it was almost like I finally understood it.

I created the little mental node with Kenna, and suddenly she gasped. Her eyes were wide open. I didn’t sense any pain from her, but she did change. Right there, her hair turned golden and her body sprouted white feathered wings. Her X-gen suit and nanite armor fluidly spread around the new form. She was literally glowing.

She launched herself into the air, flying around. After a minute, she came back down. I looked at her again and worried that the node wasn’t exactly right. It was like I’d given her the evolution but had missed some little details.

ANOP said, “By my assessment, the evolution will only last 18.6 hours before the node will fade. Further, during that time, she will be stuck in this form.”

I grimaced. “Uh, are you okay with that, Kenna?”

She laughed. “Of course. This is amazing.” She held up her hand and a bolt of light shot out.

Jen said, “It may drain you pretty quicker than you think, but then again all of our capacities are super-charged now.”

They discussed some tips about how to use the ability and what worked for Jen. All the others listened because they knew that if I could replicate this success, they would all need to take on this evolution at least for the battles against the shadow.

The next step was to try it with Petra. I expected it to be more difficult, and it was, but only slightly. As I formed the bond, everything fell into place and I was once again struck with the idea that I’d be able to make my pseudo-bonds into something more.

As I formed the node in Petra, it was slightly better in that it had a duration of 18.8 hours, but better than that was the notification.

Mental Design +1

That gave me hope that I’d be able to appropriate Sophia’s power without having to form any type of intimate relationship. Secretly, it also made me believe that I might be able to appropriate Tess despite the fact that I’d already appropriated CB as my blue bond. Tess definitely wanted to be a closer part of the team, and she had earned it. Another boost to my psychic power would only be good in my mind.

For the moment, I watched as Jen showed Kenna and Petra how to fly and make the best use of the form. Having three angels flying around was good for my imagination and I could think of some fun fantasies. At the same time, I focused on trying to draw more power in. The more I did it the easier it became.

I couldn’t seem to increase my regeneration rate beyond triple normal, but given how high my rate was already, that was pretty astounding. Looking back on it now, it seemed obvious. When Earthfall had happened, the entire world was covered by both ends of these energies, which we now knew were related.

It was all over the world, although only with the intense concentrations of power like with the testing stone was it possible to create new supers. This opened the door to consider possibilities, though. As soon as my power was charged up fully, I changed each of the other girls into a part of my own angelic choir. I’d look forward to making them sing later. Now, I had two more upgrades that I needed to try now.