Back on the colony ship outside of Eden Dream. In a section missing from any maps of the ship.
A room with earthlike decor.
A big table in the middle of the room. Three people were sitting clad in relaxed clothing. The clothing looked out of place to the ship's other inhabitants.
The woman who had spoken to Fi and made the patch announcement strode in.
"Why did you call a gathering with all of us at a time like this. I really need to be monitoring the new patch." A man in an oversized t-shirt spoke.
Three cups of coffee sat on the table. The other two surrounding the table showed their dissatisfaction with being called.
"The others aren't here it seems." The woman said holding a tablet in her hand.
"Luckily, everyone that I need is here so I can begin." She fiddled with the tablet in her hand and eyes everyone with an expectant gaze.
"Spit it out, Pruet. No need to be so dramatic." A heavyset woman said and scratched her own neck.
Pruet smiled at this and demonstratively stretched the silence a bit longer.
"I stumbled upon a prime candidate for Silver Exhaust," Pruet said sliding her tablet towards the others. The three others grabbed at the tablet with haste. Excitement written on their faces.
The heavyset woman soon had a puzzled look on her face and started asking.
"What is so special about…" Her voice trailed out as she saw the statistics on the next page. She swore in excitement and rushed with an uncanny speed towards her station.
* * *
Fi was getting herself ready to sleep. It would be a rough couple of weeks, as she would be trained by Blue.
Blue had sent a few documents about simple gun use and survival techniques for her to prep with before heading to bed.
Fi thought she wouldn't be able to sleep at all and would be reading the manuals for most of the night. The exhaustion from the day caught up. She got through a few pages before falling into a deep sleep.
The UI:s wake up function pulled Fi awake all too early. Realising she didn't get anything read last night, she attacked the manuals with a gusto. She had set the alarm to read before the boot camp started.
Too little time was left and she didn't have time to finish it all. Fi hoped it was enough to start the day with. She stepped out of her white scout model quickshelter, stretching her body in the morning sun.
Blue was heating up porridge while the two men were reading a manual. The pictures on it seemed to align with what she knew of beacons.
Robin and Blue greeted her, while Sawyer nodded towards her general direction without looking up from the manual. Blue set in a few fruits she had gathered during the morning and served the porridge to everyone.
Robin finished his food first. He sat his tableware down and spoke up.
"We need to take the k20 opener now," Robin said fishing out four vials with a light pink color. The rest perked up at his suggestion and nodded. Fi was nodding harder than the rest. She knew what the k20 opener was. A small medicinal vial which would open their bodies to the k20 energy making the use of magic possible.
"I guess we will get this into our real bodies too, this time," Sawyer spoke up for the first time. He rose up and grabbed one of the vials from Robin. Fi and Blue did too.
They all popped the corks of the vials and toasted, downing all the fluid in one go.
It tasted like clouds and disappeared down Fi's throat. She felt a wonderful tingling feeling surging with lightning through her whole body. Fi felt like the world had more tangible elements than before. She could feel something just out of reach. Something her body was aching to have.
Fi frowned as she didn't get any powers immediately. Blue just shrugged. Sawyer had an unreadable expression.
All turned towards Robin as he grunted. They felt as part of the k20 energy around them was sucked into Robin. Making him moan in pain. His features became more angular. His skin porous and gained a grey hue over it.
No more energy was sucked into Robin. His visage was closer to a rockman than a human.
Robin screamed in a primal fashion as he jumped five meters from the camp, smashing the ground with his rocklike fist.
The ground caved in under his powerful assault. A half meter deep crevice formed following the earth-shaking sound.
Fi couldn't but yelp in surprise. This was the first time she had seen anyone use magic. Robin had gained a magical body augmentation. Fi couldn't wait any longer for her magic powers to emerge. Her fingers were twitching wanting to touch Robin's rocklike skin.
Robin calmed down, looking at his hand with a satisfied expression. He turned towards the group. Noticing Fi biting her lip he laughed.
"Just wait a few days friend." Robin squeezed between the small bursts of laughter. "Five at the most. You will get the powers too."
Fi shook her head. Robin stopped laughing and raised his eyebrows.
"It's not that," Fi spoke with her fingers twitching even harder.
"Can I touch you?"
Robin couldn't help but blush. Painting his rocklike cheeks in a pink tone.