“Do you remember when I discouraged you from running for some class election of some sort?”
“Yeah, I was super pissed,” Gus said, feeling the heat rise in his face at the memory.
“You may not have known it, but my heart was in my throat when you announced that, because if you focused your attention strongly enough, you could have swept the election, getting every vote. Your luck stat is that high. It can affect and bend reality in ways that your grandfather and I are unsure of what limits it has.
“I think that is how the Oracle is able to do what she does, seeing and picking what needs to be done to funnel reality down a certain path. It’s probably why she took special notice of you. But pay attention to me right now.” Tempest turned and looked Gus straight in the eye. “You must be very careful about what you set your mind to do going forward. For better or worse, you are going to have a big role in the future of mankind, and I’m not exaggerating.”
“No pressure, right?” Gus joked, trying to disperse some of the tension.
“Exactly, no pressure,” Tempest said, laughing. “I just wanted you to know because it’s going to be a heavy burden.”
“There is always responsibility, regardless of whether there is great power or not.” Gus murmured, remembering his grandpa’s advice.
Tempest nodded in agreement and they sat there in silence for a while, Tempest not wanting to interrupt his thoughts as he processed all that had been said.
“What are you thinking right now, Gus?”
“Tell me about the watch.” Gus held up his arm. “There’s a lot of weird stuff going on and—”
Tempest held up his arms. “Right, right. How could I forget? Dr. Weft gave that to us as a way to ease you into your stats as you level. It controls the unfolding until you can manage the increases to your stats, he told us usually around benchmark levels.” Tempest coughed and cleared his throat. “Your mother gave it to you right before she had to leave.”
“Why did she leave at all?”
“That was Dr. Weft’s deal. Until you recovered, she would have to work for him, no questions asked.” Gus’s eyes widened in horror as his father continued, as if in a trance. “There was nothing I could do. She was determined that she would pay any price to get you better, and she implored me to stay strong. It never occurred to me that with her gone, where would we get the legacy Nth to give to you?”
“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. I would probably have missed that too.”
“Dr. Weft went through the conditions of his ‘treatment’ for you. Your mother left with him when you had stabilized, but before you awoke. I was so much less without her there. I was angry at the situation, and felt trapped by the circumstances and the only release was to bury myself in work. You remind me so much of her, Gus, whether you know it or not. I thought this was going to be resolved by now, but we only had the barest sliver of hope. So that’s the broad strokes.” His father exhaled deeply. “It feels good to finally tell you after so long.” His face relaxed as he sagged back in his chair, but his expression remained grim.
“I think it’s time to go get Mom,” Gus declared and looked at Tempest.
“Are you still sure you don’t mind me tagging along? I know I’ve been trying to put myself back in your life and you may not be ready. I get why you would be angry at me. If you need time—”
“No, I’d like that, Dad,” Gus interrupted. “What do we have to do next?”
“Hinansho.” Tempest sighed dejectedly, his shoulders slumping.
“What’s that?”
“You know what an augment is, right?”
“You mean like a Minmax?”
“No, I mean like a reg that has altered themselves to give them abilities or appearances that are beyond normal humans; they can be cybernetic or genetic.”
“Alright, I’ve heard of them, but never really seen one.”
“That’s because they aren’t allowed in Faction-controlled territories. Which is a lot of the civilized world. Anyway, because of this, they created their own city: Shibogu no Hinansho. Supers are obviously not welcome there, so we’ll have to figure out a way to get in.” He massaged his temples as he thought.
“I know of a slicer that could get us the access codes, but we’d need another ship. No way they’d allow this type of transport there, it’s almost exclusive to Faction use and would never make it past the screens.”
“What about the Manticorps ship?” Gus suggested and a bit of hope sparked in Tempest’s eyes.
“Okay, okay, that should work. Now we just need to get those codes.”
“Maybe I’m missing something, but she was super vague about what we should look for when we get there. Unless you have some ideas?”
“No, that’s how she works. I think it limits the possibilities if she gives too much precise information. We just have to go there and see how things develop and follow our gut. If we do what we intuitively would do otherwise, we have the greatest chance of things working out. I know it’s not very reassuring, but she does have a perfect track record as far as I know.”
“You would know better than me, I suppose,” Gus said.
“Okay, I’ll tell Erika what the plan is. We need to rest up and get that ship, we may need to make some modifica—”
Red lights flashed and an alarm sounded, obnoxiously loud.
“What now?” Tempest asked through gritted teeth.
That was the last thing Gus saw before he heard a loud metallic shriek like nails on a chalkboard, so deafening that he covered his ears and closed his eyes. There was a blast of air and sudden decompression and Gus was falling again. When he opened his eyes, he saw the other half of
