Jay grinned and said, “I think I’ve got the system figured out pretty well. Here goes.”
A month passed, and Jay spent hours every day working on refining her, but equally they spent time in other ways and not all of it horizontal. They slept. She needed more sleep than he did although the more he refined her the less she needed. The refinement pushed her up past the fifth threshold which was important because she became a catalyst now for his PSI energy.
Experimentation demonstrated that change made it even easier to refine her. Beyond all of that though, they talked, for long hours. Cecelia had been a political science major who was about to graduate. She had already secured a prestigious internship in the office of a US Senator. She hated horror flicks but liked suspense-filled movies and enjoyed a good rom-com but also like several anime that he had enjoyed.
Her tastes in many things were eclectic and Jay got to see her be both the bubbly persona that she put out as well as the girl unafraid of making hard decisions. They shared what their dreams had been, and he talked about Earth history as much as she talked about Earth politics. They commiserated over the fact that their areas of study were uniquely dead knowledge now. Although Jay did try to encourage her that knowledge about previous failures could help them with setting up their society once things stabilized.
When she did sleep Jay used the time to practice various skills, but he actually much preferred the time she was awake. He didn’t know if he would say he was falling in love with her because this was a unique situation, but he definitely had come to realize that he liked Cecelia and they could be friends. Or as he now called her CeeCee.
Forging a permanent bond with her only helped to improve this, but after a month she started to grow impatient for him to fuse with her. In total she had gained levels from seventy-two to eighty-eight and had gained one hundred and forty-six stat points, mostly in her physical stats. He kept putting it off because he thought that the more fully, he had refined her body the more they would both benefit from the fusion. Of course, that was only a theory.
It was ironic that in a month they had talked about their lives on Earth, their old dreams, their new hopes and even the struggles that both of them had had in their clusters here. What they hadn’t spoken about was the powers that each of them possessed. CeeCee had early on said that while they could talk about them later, she wanted him to know she valued him for who he was not for what he could do.
Finally on the thirty-fourth day he agreed to fuse with her. Jay was confident that it would be perfectly safe now. He just needed to have one more conversation with her. After telling her that he was ready to fuse he said, “We do however need to talk about our abilities finally.”
“Why? Won’t you know everything about me after the fusion?” CeeCee asked.
“Everything is a stretch; the fusion is incomplete. And the one time that I did a full fusion with two people it was, odd and temporary,” Jay replied.
“Odd?” she asked.
“Just leave it at that for now. I’m not asking to pry or anything. I am asking because of that conversation that we had about how me and some of my wives have come to believe that intention governs much of how we change and the abilities that we have. It also controls what abilities we pass on to each other during the fusion. So, a little knowledge might help me know what to pass on to you. Traditionally, I have passed on physical durability and strength because I want to know that you can survive an attack. The most impressive powers in the world do you no good if a simple knock to the back of your head can take you out,” Jay answered.
“I get it. That makes sense. Well, you show me yours first,” CeeCee said.
Jay laughed. Her sense of humor was almost as naughty as Huong’s. Almost, since no one could quite keep up with the petite Vietnamese girl in that regard. “Pardon me, but I think I’ve already shown you mine on a number of occasions,” he replied, going with the innuendo.
“Yes, and hidden it then showed it, then hidden it again, repeatedly. Which I quite enjoy I might add, but you know what I’m talking about.”
Jay then went on to list his powers and give her a short summary of them. He was so at ease with her that he didn’t feel any need to hurry things along. They spoke almost exclusively via telepathy, not because he didn’t like to hear her voice but so that they could improve the skill. That combined with their bond and the time spent together made him feel relaxed with her. It was a nice feeling.
Once he finished, she explained what her primary powers were. She had a couple of minor ones but the ones she focused on were Assimilate and Chameleon. Chameleon allowed her to not only hide by blending into her background but also to take on the appearance of another person as long as she knew them well.
CeeCee demonstrated by first taking on the image of one of her cluster members and then transitioning to Jay. Each change took about a minute, but she said that she was able to hold the change for as long as she needed to so long as she didn’t expend too much Stamina on other activities
