Raj looked down at his hand to see the rat trying to rip into his skin and the Syn Cells holding up as promised. He could not say the same for his clothes. Following the rat, its companions dog-piled Raj and tried attacking him everywhere. At this distance, he picked the rats with this hand and removed a cage from his backpack and put them in one after another. After he got about three of them, the rest started scattering around the house.
These rats were very valuable in the open market. Once they were discharged, like they were now they would be safe to carry around in cages for about 3 to 4 days. Raj was not interested in selling them all, he wanted to keep some of them around. For his needs he would need about 3 or 4 of them. From his estimates, he would get a steady charge of about 2-3% twice a week. It might not seem like a lot, but he would be able to take down anyone not immune to electricity. Especially when he considered the stunning effects of electricity on the human body.
He quickly moved into the house to get to the rats, he found them one by one while they tried to scamper away. Finally, he found the last one in the bedroom, it was in a small nest it had created using Jenna's clothes from the looks of it. He found a lot of lacy things in the pile, Raj's eye twitched looking at the sight. Probably the rats thought undergarments made for the softest material. He caught it and caged it in the special containment unit. It was noisy with 9 rats trying to claw their way out of it.
He exited the house to find Jenna blushing. It looked like she was watching the footage of him in her bedroom trying to catch the last rat that had made its nest in her undergarments.
Raj exclaimed "Jennifer Lau, it's you! Oh my god, what are you doing here? When did you come in? You look so different!"
Jenna was stunned for a moment and she started talking "Are you, Raj? The Raj Strafford? What, how are you? Wait? No. That is not possible, you cannot control electricity. How are you still alive after the shocks?"
Raj's eyes misted looking at the beautiful girl in front of him, she was the reason he wanted to do something with his life. She was his inspiration. She had left town when she was about 12 years old. It has been almost 4 years since she left. He remembered her to be a little girl who ran around him calling him Laj because she could not pronounce the 'r's yet.
"I did it, Jen, I developed the Syn cells like we wanted me to. Your designs and predictions I could use nanites to make Syn cells worked. I can't believe you are really here" replied Raj excitedly.
He went on to explain what he did with his Syn Cells. He was so excited to meet his childhood friend. She was the closest person on the planet to him. When his parents, friends, teachers and everyone gave up on her. She accepted him because she was a Tecnomancer like him, but hers was grade D unlike his grade F control. He was sure she would be around grade C now.
Like most Technomancers, she had the side effects of increased intelligence and wisdom. With only the two of them being Technomancers, it was inevitable they would end up being close friends.
After leaving the city she did not keep in touch with him and he wanted to know why. He was a bit hurt that she could move on so quickly. But he also realized she was 12 years old when she left, so he still held the hope that their friendship could continue.
"How have you been Jen? It has been so long since we met. Are you grade C now? With your capabilities, you could have exterminated these dumb rats. What happened?" Raj asked still feeling a bit excited about meeting his dear friend.
"Sorry Raj, I stopped walking the path of an adventurer after I left Glendale city. I am back here to finish my graduation in the city. I will mostly work in some company to create and maintain their AI. That is the most my powers can do anyway." Jen replied, her eyes seemed to have lost some of the glow that came with meeting her best friend.
"One of the reasons I did not reach out to you was also because I did not want to feed into your delusions. The grade we are born with is our destiny in life. Even with the advanced meditation techniques to increase my grade, when I turned grade C I realized the harsh truth to my failed project. Lets just say, for me to achieve it is almost impossible" Jen said with a hint of melancholy and longing.
"Does that mean you know how to install project Brahma? That project is the best support solution that can be built with technology. It will make the AI present in the world look like a child's toy in comparison." Raj was getting irritated at how pessimistic Jen sounded.
"Yes, Raj. I understood the final step involved in project Brahma. It needs about a million nano processors listening to a single controller while the AI is being installed. There is no AI/system currently capable of doing this. You can create nano processors, that is the easy part. Who will control them? For that you need an AI strong enough to build the AI. It is like the blind leading the blind" she replied with exasperation.
"Jen, I can be the controller. I literally have millions of Syn Cells under my control on my body. It is like having an army. If that is the only thing stopping, then you have nothing to worry about. I can take care of controlling the processors while you install the AI" Raj replied.
"You don't understand Raj, it's like trying to control a million impatient kids. You will be in a coma for a week and even that might not guarantee your success. The AI will try to fight your control at every turn. It will only listen to you once you finish the complete process." Jen said to Raj. But Raj could see there was a glimmer of hope in his friend's eyes.