Chapter 13 - And prepare

Leslie walks into the messy kitchen and sighs. The idea of cooking seems annoying but she doesn't like doing nothing on the ship while it's crashed here. Graham knows the mechanics of this ship more than her; after all she's just a pilot. Her ship was maintained by actual mechanics back home. A fact that annoys her now since this whole place needs someone like that. "Alright, We should have some meat ready..."

She opened the fridge to see there's plastic containers for the meat storage. It is common to use these specialized containers for storing gathered food from planets people are exploring, The label surprises her for it's the Form company. That's a pretty expensive designing company to get this type of container. "How much funds did his dad have?"

The questions about her captain's dad causes pain like something was ripped out and still hurts then it becomes a blank. She carries on preparing the food without knowing that weird pain happened. Everything seems fine- No, She feels like something was forgotten but what?

"Did I forget something?" She's unsure what was forgotten but It's probably a random thought. Her body does feel hunger, The need for food is probably there. She really has a strange body and the feelings that do or don't exist are all over the place. This stove seems cheaper than it should be after seeing those containers.

Leslie finds cooking pretty annoying, The heat is unbearable and actually preparing food is sometimes harder than it needs to be. Her crystal body feels little heat compared to a normal one or is that just the increased heat resistance with being a superhuman. "At least this is more bearable than usual."

It's a pretty uneventful process in cooking these steaks but the idea of using that cart is bothersome. How does Alloy deal with this thing? She doesn't want to use it. However, there's too much for her to reasonably carry. It hurts her pride thinking about using this piece of junk! She's throwing it away the second there's an opening. "Oh wait, Graham is probably asleep."

.....

Caelan sits in silence with their thoughts while Graham has been asleep for sometime. The door opens and Leslie walks in with one of the fold-able tables. She's using it like a tray to carry the steak but this sudden noise causes Graham to wake up. He rubs his eyes before looking towards Leslie with a plate of steak. "Huh- Wait, I was supposed to cook today."

"Graham, You messed up your hand during the fight." Leslie wasn't going to allow Graham near the kitchen with his ripped up hand. It's a bad idea to let someone hurt like that in the kitchen even if they wash their hands. "I already ate, So I'm off to help Alloy."

"Really? You made yourself food before this..." Graham seems disappointed that Leslie ate without him. He must've been asleep for awhile. Wait, Was Caelan just sitting there this whole time? They seem lost in thought even with Leslie coming in. "Hey Caelan, Are you okay?"

"Uh- Yeah, Just worried about Kolton..." Caelan has been worrying about their trainee and his condition. The trip back home base would've been too late to save him, Nothing prepared them for those monsters. "It's just..."

"Come on, You need fresh air." Leslie motions for Caelan to follow her to the door. It takes a second before they follow her to the door since clearing your head is healthy. Graham is left to enjoy his food. The day seems to have calmed down after everything that happened.

"I'll be here if you need me!" Graham sighs when those two exited the room. He's really pushing himself, His strength is slowly returning after being drained after all that chaos. He's worrying about those monsters living underneath the planets surface. "We need to get stronger..."

....

Leslie and Caelan walk outside to see Alloy standing from a decent distance from the ship. The two walk up to her and see that crack where those monsters crawled out of. She's watching for anymore of those monsters to appear which have been put into a pile.

"Hey Alloy, Do you think more will appear?" Leslie walks forward to look down into the crack. There's not that much light down there with the tree's shade and it being pretty deep. The idea of more monsters appearing is pretty worrying but She's not super worried about it.

"Unlikely, This seems like a one off tunnel..." Alloy pulls a projection of her from the opening and It flies into her android body. She used a spare projection to scout into the caves and found out some things about the tunnels. "This is only a small branching tunnel which leads to a wider tunnel system."

"I've fought primeval ant beasts and the tunnels usually lead to their queen's chamber..." Caelan knows about primeval beasts but those things look like normal animals and not metal. They even had this odd instinct about those monsters. "Honestly, I have no idea how these monster's work."

"These things are looking for the highest density of life forms... We need to be ready to fight stronger enemies." Alloy sounds more serious than usual before she turns to Leslie and sees Caelan is here. She doesn't mind them joining in. "Leslie, How much do you know about super humans?

"They have strong bodies and weird powers from abstract code?" Leslie has very little knowledge about super humans on a wide level. The most she knew was how dangerous they could be... It's eye opening about how much exists about them and what they're able to do. "I've heard of these grades when hearing about super human criminals."

"Those grades are used to measure strength with each one split into 12 tiers." Alloy walks between Caelan and Leslie with a smooth movement of her android body. There's a click as it shifts the plating of its body. The android seems to have been patch worked together, especially around the joints. "My body should be around B Grade in strength, More than enough to help train your powers."

"Alloy... I don't want to ruin that body even more." Leslie didn't expect to see how badly her android body was damaged. What's going on is android parts and armor covering the actual missing parts. She couldn't notice until the armor shifted their plating slightly.

"This body is already breaking apart even if you don't train with me, It's better to use it for something useful." Alloy has come to terms with how long this body will last, It's slowly degrading even if she's not fighting with it. One day, It won't even move anymore. "Caelan, You need this as well since you couldn't cut through the monster's skin."

"If I'm about to cut those things down then I will gladly train with you, Alloy." Caelan has no hesitation in agreeing to train. Those monsters are a huge threat that could wipe out everyone if their swords couldn't even cut them. They draw their remaining sword and readies for the training.

"I don't want too but feeling weak is awful." Leslie has more hesitation to the idea of potentially damaging Alloy's only body. She steeled her resolve and formed her Crystal gauntlets but couldn't recreate the improved one on her right arm. "The right one is back to normal..."

"You only tapped into your flow for a brief moment, It's not carved into your body yet." Alloy knows a lot about super humans but that comment of flow catches Leslie's attention, some blurry memories of someone mentioning it flows into her head. "Now... Come at me! Let's see where we are."

Leslie and Caelan dash forward at Alloy. One swings their blade and the other throws a punch with all her strength. The AI blocks the fist with her hand and instantly parries Caelan's blade using two fingers. It's not even a struggle for Alloy to stop their attacks before throwing a punch at Leslie's face.

"Leslie, You have awful flow control" Alloy sounds pretty blunt about Leslie's flow control and that parry causes a giant chip on Caelan's sword. She really has to teach two people who know this little about actual flow control? "Caelan, You probably know the basics by nature but not much."

"What's even flow control..." Leslie feels dizzy from that punch, Her balance is heavily affected. Her body starts feeling very weak soon after regaining some of her balance like energy isn't reaching her arms or legs. "Is that why I feel weak?"

"Your power flows like a fluid within the body, It's how your strong body supports itself and controlling it has many options." Alloy suddenly punches into Leslie's midsection which sends her backwards. She doesn't mind imprinting how to control flow into Leslie through this method. "It's common for new super humans to have a restricted flow."

"Huh!? What's this feeling!?" Leslie feels like her blood is rushing but that's weird from her not having a normal body. It's like her body got revived by some force going through it. This is her flow? It feels like warm blood now. "What did you do?"

"I caused your central point of flow to rush, Now remember that feeling and control it." Alloy steps backwards and adjusts her stance. She's readying for the true lessons of this training session even if they're truly ready or not. "Warm up is almost done, Get ready!"