Outrun - Chapter 473 - No Title (Patreon)

I sat back, and toyed with a long strand of red electricity. It bounced between my fingers, playfully twirling into a dragon before being absorbed back into my body. Before it could even fully settle, it danced through the air back to my other hand, casting a soft red illumination.

It twirled into a loop, and danced to the rhythm of the lo-fi music beating at my ears. The electric dragon's iridescent scales flickered with power, and its mouth opened into a silent roar just as the base dropped.

Training with Akito went about as well as usual. Now that I was starting to get comfortable actually using my Kinetic ability, he moved onto specific use cases. Specifically, manipulating friction. In the time we had together, I barely made any progress. 

In theory, I should be capable of it… that was only in theory, though. Individually controlling the electrons to manipulate friction would require my brain to turn into a super computer just to keep track of the positional data. Quite frankly, the human body wasn’t built to observe and sift through all that data. 

Maybe with enough chrome shoved into my head, it might be possible. The observation side of things would already be taken care of by my ability once I trained enough, so I really only had to worry about the computational side. That, or I’d have to go about it a different way. I didn’t have to feel out or analyze anything when I used normal electricity, anyway. It just worked. 

According to Akito, I’d be able to also get a friction technique to just work. Kinetics were just built like that. For instance, he didn’t have to have a super computer plugged into his brain to get his wind ability to cause localized tornadoes. Getting an upgrade would just help speed things along.

I sighed softly. My fingers flicked the lightning dragon into the air. It sparked and exploded into a mini firework as I pulled out my earbuds. “Enjoying the show?”

”You’ve gotten better at that.” Nael nodded to me. He leaned against a counter while casually wiping blood off the wireframe medek tools hidden in his chrome hand. “I take it you’re okay with being exposed these days?”

”Hardly. I’m in your cameras’ blind spot.” I picked Vox off my lap, and tossed the sleeping fox onto a seat next to me. The mechanical fox blinked open its eyes as it left low power mode. Seeing a wave of my hand, she once more partially shut herself down and slumped over.

A beeping noise drew Nael’s attention, and he moved over to a knocked out merc resting on his surgical chair to mess with a console. Even still, he kept the conversation going. ”What brought you by this time, kid?” 

“I can’t just come visit my favorite medek?” I twisted innocently in my seat.

Nael rolled his eyes, and finished whatever he was doing. He once more picked up a rag to finish cleaning off his chrome. “No one ever just visits a medek. That’s like saying you just visit the morgue.”

”Don’t seek yourself short. I find you much easier to talk to than a corpse.” And definitely much easier than that damn Narrator that acted like I wasn’t talking to it back during Shoemaker’s training. 

“Small mercies.” He tossed the rag into a bin, and stuck his hand inside of a special sanitizer. UV light and chemicals sprayed over it to get it clean once more. 

 I picked up a cardboard box I brought along, and moved over to the counter next to him. After a moment’s hesitation, I popped it open and pulled out my newest model of Doctor Absolom. “What do you think?”

“I think a certain CEO has way too much free time on her hands to be making me custom made action figures.” Nael finished up what he was doing, and shuffled over to my side. “I imagine Sentinel might have some strong words to say to you.”

I studied his face as he feigned disinterest. Although it sounded like a reproach, I could read between the lines. Good ole Nael was still always looking out for me. “Sentinel should just be happy I’m feeding them my scraps instead of Raijin.”

”Quite bold of you to treat them as dogs, kid.” Nael set the figurine down, and in turn studied me. His eyes held a hint of worry he didn’t bother trying to hide. “The walls have ears.”

”Maybe.” I let out a huff of annoyance, and blew a lock of silver hair out of my eyes. “If they knew I was here, they’d come busting down your door. My phone’s been blowing like crazy with messages.”

Ever since I got back from the Aether, my phone hadn’t stopped going off. The Gravitite sample I sent them seemed to have caused quite a stir. Sean only sent me a single, professional message. The real issue was all the unknown numbers that came afterwards. It was to the point I tossed my phone into a saddlebag and told everyone I know I’d be out of touch for a bit.

”Still after you, huh?” Nael chuckled warmly, and ruffled my hair. I magnanimously allowed the action—partly ‘cause I was trying to figure out what he meant by that. “Imagine my surprise when I saw Sentinel of all corporations rolling out the Tsukuyomi Roughrider.”

”Chek, well… someone’s got to pay my R&D expenses.” I fixed my hair and turned back to lean on the counter. “There’s spools for your foundry, too.”

”I appreciate it.” Nael sealed up the box. He kept one of the figurines, and set it aside like it was a precious treasure. “You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

”Maybe a bit.” My mind was a mess these days. There was just so much to keep track of… I just needed to take things one thing at a time, though, just like I always had. That brought me to why I was here, actually. “Could I… help you? Around the clinic?”

“I don’t have a problem with that.” He replied with zero hesitation, and waved to his chrome vault in the back. “There’s a bunch of busted chrome back there I haven’t had time to fix.”

A smirk crossed my face. ”Haven’t had time, or are you starting to get too old to keep up?” 

The man shot me a glare, though it lacked any real intensity. ”You cheeky brat. Didn’t anyone teach you to respect your elders?”

“I dunno. Someone probably tried to beat it into me.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I was asking about the patients, though. Not just fixing chrome.”

He ran a hand across his buzz-cut hair. I thought he’d say no. Instead, he just eyed me weirdly. “Why?” 

“… someone really smart once said that I had a good grasp on the mechanical side of things, but needed to seriously look into the biological side.” I avoided his eyes as I outright admitted to making all the chrome I brought him to check out in the past. 

”What made you change your mind?” He asked. He looked more surprised about me dropping my stubbornness than anything. He already knew about it, ‘course, but we’d been dancing around that knowledge for a while.

“I’m just ready to learn.” I was holding myself back when it came to chrome stuff. If I was going to make better chrome for myself, I needed to have a much better grasp on the human body beyond just the chrome itself. What better way of doing that then working directly under a medek?

There was another side of things, though. Mira’s chrome was something I wanted to work on. Specifically, her Shift ExoCore. It was bulky, and an apparent weak point that I wanted to swap out for a slimmed down Gravitite version at the very least if she was willing.

Not to mention her Shift ExoCore let her temporarily go ethereal and walk through walls. If I could somehow manage to figure that out, my thieving capabilities would go through the roof. That was just a side objective, though. Her chrome was weird, so there was an exceptionally low chance I could get it to work for me.

I ducked my head, and toyed with a spark of electricity idly. “I-if you’re okay with teaching, of course. I’ve done some learning on my own, but…”

“‘Course I’ll teach you.” Nael’s voice held a touch of almost pride? “Good on you, brat. Wanting to learn is the first step of becoming wise.”

“I’m, like, super wise. Wise is basically my middle name.” Shiro Wise Tsukyomi had a nice ring to it.

“Maybe wisecracker,” Nael muttered under his breath. I tactfully chose to ignore him. 

It wasn’t like I’d be totally clueless about everything. First Aid hit 11 for a reason before stalling out. I could name every bone and vein in a body. Bone and muscle diagrams were basically just blueprints for the body which Eidetic Schematic could handle without any issue.

I shot through the levels ‘cause Tech let me understand the chrome side of things, but that could only carry me so far. I wanted to push it further, I needed to change things up. I had a feeling that applied to a lot of my Skills, actually. It felt like there was a diminishing return to doing things the same way over and over again.

As for the sudden rush for training…. I was anxious about Lathvin. Even the thought of leaving Aythryn City behind made me anxious, to be honest. I felt like a bird about to be forced out of her nest while desperately trying to learn to fly. 

Making Luna go alone wasn’t an option, and neither was running away like I so desperately wanted to. I’d kept pushing a lot of this stuff till later, and now later was biting me in the ass as I tried to get it all done on a dead line. Funny how that worked out.

Nael watched his patient peacefully sleeping on the chair for several long moments. “I was going to take an apprentice at some point. This’ll be good practice for then.”

“You? An apprentice?” For some reason, that took me off guard. Absolom Clinic… I couldn’t envision it without Nael.

”This old man’s going senile, afterall.” He tapped his finger against the counter slowly. “I won’t be around forever.”

”You kidding? You’ll outlive me at this rate.” I… I meant to say that as a joke, but it rang truer than I would’ve liked. My lifestyle wasn’t a safe one. I had no illusions about that.

”You sure change your tune quick.” Nael sighed, and looked down at his hands. “It’s a terrible thing for a doctor to outlive his patients.”

”I…” For a moment, he looked like he’d aged by decades. A heavy weight pressed down on my shoulders just from the sheer exhaustion that leaked off of him. “You’ll have to put up with me for at least another few decades.”

“I sure hope so.” He patted my shoulder, and pushed off the counter. The heavy feeling he emitted faded rapidly. “I’ll pass on what I can, Shiro. You better actually listen to what I say this time.”

“Thank you.” I looked up at him. Nael… a bolt of guilt panged in my chest. I really should do more for him. He was just as stubborn as I was, though. If it weren’t for the sake of his patients, he probably would’ve even said no to my chrome foundry back then.

“Don’t mention it.” He checked the time on his radio. “How long are you going to be here for?”

“I’ve got a meeting with Mira and Luna in a couple hours.” We were going clothes shopping. Mira was excited about the girls getting together, and I needed some new clothes.

After the Sentinel-Tsukuyomi Roughrider party—no, actually, it was the Shoemaker training that made me actually start to appreciate clothing a bit more. Everything had just been classy, and made me all the more aware of my usual way of doing things.

My wardrobe was… hopeless? Everything I wore was Crusade stuff, a poncho over it, and jeans. I wanted to diversify my style a bit more. Clothes made people, as I was starting to feel more and more. I needed new clothes for Lathvin, anyway.

“How are they? And…” He glanced away as if digging through his memories. He had countless patients, so forgetting the name of one was no big deal—“Iris?”

”Fine enough. Iris… she hasn’t woken up, yet.” I was really hoping she’d wake up before we went to Lathvin. Even with Medtech’s long-term care, she was slowly atrophying away. It was hard for me to watch, so I couldn’t even imagine how Luna must feel. “I’ll come by every day I can till we leave for Lathvin.”

He nodded his head. “Probably won’t learn much in that time. Most of my clients are open and shut cases. Faulty chrome, new chrome, and that kind of thing.”

“Every bit helps.” I watched his current patient and crossed my arms over my chest. A full spinal replacement didn’t sound so open and shut to me.

It wasn’t like I was clueless when it came to medical treatments and all of that either, so I wouldn’t hold him back too much. I got enough down to make basic chrome. It was the complicated, military grade stuff that I was wary of. Not to mention highly experimental chrome on top of that.

What I couldn’t learn from Nael, I could learn from Owl. It was an issue of not knowing what I needed to learn in the first place. If I went to Owl’s library for just biology in general, I’d probably melt out my brain cramming in everything. 

”Let’s start with him.” Nael nodded to his client. “He got his spine ripped out by a glitching borg the other night. Miracle he’s still alive, really. I’ve already given him a replacement, but go see what you can figure out from the monitors about his condition.”

“I don’t need the monitors to know he’ll be traumatized for life.”A shiver went down my spine. I had my own run-ins with Borgs, and each one left me more uneasy than the last. “Full spine replacement… that’s some heavy stuff.”

Even for someone fully prepared, that was enough for some people to glitch the hell out. I felt dysphoric with even small chrome changes. I couldn’t even imagine what it’d feel like to have my spine one day, and have chrome the next. Granted, if my spine got ripped out, it’d heal back with a bit of sleep.

”Yes, it is.” Nael pushed me toward him lightly. “So we need to do everything we can for him while he’s here.”

”Chek.” I rolled up my sleeves and stretched out. Looked like our first patient wouldn’t be open and shut afterall.