Chapter 105: Who Lies and Who's Sinister
The vessel deposited him roughly in the center of the whole platform and near the core concentration of the rougher, abandoned buildings. The ‘research facility’ was further away and stood out from the rest.
Stitcher waited, just then tapping out a smoke with her fi...
2025-11-20 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 104: Cementing Gains
Jack inevitably had to check up on Bo, so he popped over a mem-text. <Doing alright? Give me a link when you can.>
Quickly thereafter… “Ugggggggh,” came the zombie noise from Bo, injected into his brain.
“Hnnnngh,” Jack replied.
“...
2025-11-17 16:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 103: A New Brand of Jack
Jack tapped his pen on the clipboard with the little form detailing all the biomods Stitcher offered. He was most interested in snagging all the basics, plus three ‘20 minute’ mods, though he was having trouble with which he wanted more. The vision mod for ‘enhanced acuity, foc...
2025-11-13 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 102: Limited Time Offer, Act Now!
“Chat,” Jack declared in answer to Stitcher’s question plus tirade. “Definitely a chat.”
She’s just as weird as I would expect from someone so ancient. A whole other wavelength type of weird. But at least she’s got a soft spot for Lindsay. Let’s me ...
2025-11-10 16:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 101: Inspection
Sitting back into the couch and crossing his arms, Jack raised his eyebrows and made an insistent, expectant expression at Bo. “Okay, with that language, girly, I think you need to spill the beans, don’t you?”
Bo had a sour face. “Ira is here.”
“It’s perfectly fine....
2025-11-06 16:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 100: A Cheatin' Heart
Jack and Bo met Ira standing outside the door, greeting her and promptly entering Jack’s little abode. Jack had to do a double-take, seeing Ira wearing some subtle eyeliner and such, which she’d previously never done. Jack tried not to react too much as he glanced at Bo and understo...
2025-11-03 16:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 99: Face-to-face
Just as the crew was finishing up eating in the mess hall, Jack noticed a girl stalking up in his direction, glaring. Wait, him? He looked immediately past himself, expecting to see some other target. But there was no one, and when he turned back around, he noticed Abundance running behind h...
2025-10-30 15:00:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 98: Enjoying Victory
On the way back to their side, now opened up by a big, much-appreciated split in the great wall, Jack side-eyed Bo, amused with the satisfied glint in her eye, which he didn’t think was just from the victory. She caught him eyeing her that way and gave him a look as she exclaimed, “W...
2025-10-27 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 97: Leaf Nothing to Chance
Inkblot moved so fast for the final strike on the paralyzed healer — still blessedly from behind — that Jack was slower to perceive the results than everyone else.
“He’s down, he’s down!” Bo called through the gestalt with excitement. “Neck strike! ...
2025-10-23 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 96: Of Course, of Course
Jack moved the decoys to an enemy-side crenelation, shifted the metal with a bit of random power usage, and made them point their rifles. He had immediately begun firing in the general direction he thought the enemy would be; virtually simultaneously, he grabbed Inkblot by a temporar...
2025-10-20 15:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 95: Swords and Oysters
As everyone waited for someone else to say something, Augur bounced a bit on his toes and grinned gleefully. “You don’t want to surrender any display of nerve to the judges. Take presumably valued territory if the potential is there, regardless of its difficulties.” He s...
2025-10-16 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 94: Over the Wall
The next day, the crew met in the morning in the breakroom, as usual, with Inkblot informing them that Augur had seen some of their training already, and was set to meet up after lunch and observe live.
However, before they even got into their first training match, a notice hit them f...
2025-10-13 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 93: Something Surely Greater
As Jack cleared his throat and thought of how to reply, Ira pre-empted him. “Junior Agent Laker,” she began, her hands going behind her back, “cannot discuss classified information with you all, as yet. Perhaps some or all of it will be feasibly shared after you are full ag...
2025-10-09 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 92: Sand in the Gears
Highfive jumped to his feet and clenched both fists at the news from Bo. “Yes! Hell yes!” He suddenly made a prayer sign, closed his eyes, and turned heavenward. “Please, Mother, give her something good, please give something good, something good, something good, 2025-10-06 15:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 91: Air, Ice, and Poisonous Plants
Bo was able to recover energy one last time for the evening, and they squeezed another couple of matches in at a medium level of difficulty, but geared to offense. They won both. Unsurprisingly, the gains at the end of it all weren’t exactly staggering, lacking any improv...
2025-10-02 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 90: Betting with Your Blood
Highfive’s wild swings continued to fail him, and another strike took him in the back with a flash of energy. This time, his bucking craziness gave him better warning, and the strike punched through into the back of a shoulder blade. Furthermore, when Highfive immediately swatte...
2025-09-29 15:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 89: Tales Get Tall in the Tower
After another sip of tea, Inkblot set it down and regarded Jack over a steepled together fist. Like most genuine expressions from the man when he wasn’t elegantly sipping tea, it looked sinister, as if they were discussing a hit job. “I’m not likely to get anoth...
2025-09-25 15:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 88: War Games * (asterisk means a current bio at the end)
As the new trio of Jack, Bo, and Highfive had finally wound down and were done with training — likely for the day when it came to team exercises — Mini finally saw fit to report gains.
Your Level has improved to 3.4! ...
2025-09-22 15:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 87: It's All About That Hue
Once everyone was refreshed and recuperated, the next simulation was booted up and physically configured in the chamber, as set up by Bo this time around. She didn’t want a super complex scenario, but she wanted them on offense against equal numbers, and specifically powers-capa...
2025-09-18 15:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 86: The Limits of Efficiency
At the two charging him, Jack pulled a length of rolled cord from his belt and tossed it, collapsing memorite into it mid-flight and unfurling it into an irregular mass. Both dupes tried to keep their forward momentum and avoid the cord by ducking and rolling under it, in a fluid...
2025-09-15 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 85: Endless Mode, with Your Good Friend...
As Highfive was itching to ‘move on from the intro match,’ Bo began walking off, calling, “I’m not starting without a new rifle. That was a real cut.” She held up her two halves of a rifle and shook her head.
As Highfive ‘tsked’ and protested, Ja...
2025-09-14 23:16:23 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 84: Division
After loading up, the trio headed out of the gear room, Jack toting along a big sphere of metal floating behind him. It was, in actuality, divided into three segments that he could easily split into large ‘blast shields,’ all connected to an inner sphere with thin, spooling tethers. This was...
2025-09-11 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 83: Dream Teaming
Jack’s evening and night were filled with a familiar recipe: training. This included ongoing technique development. He focused on Collect because he wanted to get the default to a cool, whole value. It was also a quite powerful technique for dealing with elusive foes, as he...
2025-09-08 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 82: A Pharaoh or Not?
Highfive laughed and clapped from the sidelines. “Nice try, Jack! She’s fraggin’ quick, huh?!”
Jack frowned thoughtfully and studied Bo, who rested her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him challengingly. Finally, he said, “It’s less that she's quick, more t...
2025-09-04 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 81: Teammate Demonstrations
Jack, Highfive, and Bo did some basic power demonstrations in the glow of an energetic blue containment field. Part of that was being on the receiving end of powers with the protection of the field allowing for such ‘education.’ Quickly, Jack saw the difference in levels and r...
2025-09-01 15:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post**** Bonus Chapter! ****
Chapter 80: Spirit of Iron
After keeping Bo from stabbing Highfive with a pen, righting the tent, enduring more congratulations, and finally putting on the new t-shirt for Team High Life, the three teammates took a seat together. Homage had to run, so they gave...
2025-08-30 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 79: Sign Off, Yea or Nay?
Jack managed to slap the band around the briefly stationary neck of Homage from behind, catching him unaware as it rapidly, fully connected from back to front, locking in and damning him. Even as Homage was throwing a hand up to grab it, admittedly with a lightning-fast reaction tim...
2025-08-28 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 78: Hype
Highfive’s expression was so satisfying to see, Jack couldn’t help but grin, despite his attempts to appear completely sober. As expected, this caused a flash of contrary suspicion to creep into that stunned countenance.
“Bro,” Highfive said in warning, pointing a finger, “you ...
2025-08-25 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 77: Showing Off, Showing Up
Jack’s first order of business, once at his typical training spot in Power Park, was stress-testing his huge power spike, which meant pushing Create and its associated derived stats. This would be lifting heavy stuff, morphing large amounts of materials, and hitting thi...
2025-08-21 15:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 76: Social Navigations
Ira had a piece of casserole paused at her lips when Augur dropped the accusation. She raised an eyebrow at him cooly and took the bite silently, staring back unblinkingly as she chewed. Augur just maintained a shit-eating grin, quite pleased with himself.
“I believe he is ...
2025-08-18 15:00:33 +0000 UTC View Post