News article from Abyssnet Times: Gene-Aids, the promise that never came.

Around the mid-24th century, researchers on the corporate side of humanity put their thoughts to a peculiar task. To combine Warpcode's ability to exactly simulate and control thoughts, and apply it to the randomness and instinctual usage of Mutations. Penned by Imperium as the Gene-Aid project, it was aimed to be a way to further change the way humanity looked at SIMs. No longer would they only serve the rich who could afford such expensive and fitting Mutagens for their Development; instead, any Adapter would have the power to target specific Mutations they wanted, and personalize how to use them.

Effectively, a Gene-Aid would allow a subconscious calculation to maximize the efficiency of Mutations. For example, those Espers who can harden the air might not consciously create a barrier around them at all times, but with a Gene-Aid, it was theoretically promised to take the background task of it and automate such a round-the-clock protection process. It was said they would discover how to exactly manipulate bone-density, tissue reformation, life expectancy and more for Mutants.

Unfortunately, this never came to be.

Not for the public… but you're here from the Abyssnet, so I'll say it as it is.

They exist, you just don't know about them.

Diana (Lilian Rose)

My sight was ripped from the air, thrashed down into the cold water, and the singular eye of this beast dwarfed me. Forget octopus. It was a giant squid made of all marine life you could think of, fishes, crabs and shrimp melted into a cauldron where they forged this horrendous creature of uncountable tentacles surrounding a singular eye.

I didn't scream, it would only take more breath from me and fill my lungs with choking water. Instead, I abandoned my decision not to use electricity and immediately shocked the surrounding water. The grasping tentacle on my ankle let go, but another harpoon-like tendril snapped above me and whacked my torso down into a wall before several more thin and thick tentacles wrapped around my body.

My legs, arms, chest and abdomen all felt force pulling them in different directions. In a second, I would be torn apart.

My consciousness focused away from that, as suddenly all I could think about was how weird Quartz was…

Oh thank fuck. The pressure lessened as the MAL diverted its attention to Quartz, but still held me down with tentacles the width of old tree trunks. Several of which pierced the barrier between water to search for Quartz where air freely flowed.

Air… which I was lacking. Fuuuuckkkk.

Bubbles spurted out of my mouth, wetness seeping in from every corner as the submerged darkness consumed me. The water surface shredded under gunfire, bullet trails and bubbles expanding and collapsing as Ripley's wrist-mounted machine gun worked as the culprit. I continued sending sparks into the tentacles, but they only tightened around me and choked my slowing pulse further.

I could only pray that Ripley got lucky shots and pierced the ones holding me.

———

Dreadwire

"Run Quartz! Do not stop!" I hurried from my voice, unloading Shards into my wrist's Scrapgun and unleashing a steady fire in hopes it would release Diana. Three giant tentacles ripped from the water and instinctively thrusted for Quartz. Within them lay the bodies of hundreds of fish used as scaffolding for mucosal glue to manifest this abomination.

Quartz and Topaz were making a run for it, but those tentacles thinned to increase their reach. This thing had killed every last fish here and absorbed them into its mass.

Starlight… use the Neuralink to figure out Diana's position.

"Got it!" Starlight answered with an urgency that was rare to hear from her.

Midnight appeared in my view, filing her nails down with a shadow while looking unfazed. "Just leave the Kraken to kill her. She's the one with a death sentence. Who knew becoming a Dual Adapter was so easy?"

I glared at her as I continued firing. {Any useful ideas?}

"Fine… just jump down and yank her out, I guess." She scoffed.

{Jumping down for her Implant would be suicide. I'm heavy and my Shardware is not waterproof.}

"You've got to be fucking kidding me, Ripley! All those modifications you've made, and you're telling me your Shardware isn't-"

{Blame The Ripper, it's fit for rain and snow, but not depths. Besides, if that thing kills and eats her, it would have her supremely adaptable Mutations. I don't want something like that to get the ability to walk on land.}

Midnight didn't answer, which was proof enough that I was right. Starlight beamed into my head as I switched Modules to Hammer, pounding thick shardfire as my body went heavier. "Uh… so remember that link you made to her frame from your nanomachines… I think I can get into her frame again and try to synchronize with both of you. It should let you 'feel' her position."

I thought for a single second, but it spanned much longer in my head.

Do it.

———

Diana (Lilian Rose)

As if drowning wasn't enough of a pain, I was getting an ear-splitting headache! My mind burned and swelled, as though something was being born out of the canals of my brain vessels! I squeezed tight, accidentally letting the last bit of air out of my mouth as… pink consumed me.

"Diana, don't freak out… but your oxygen saturation is dropping really quickly. Stop burning electricity!" Starlight popped into my view, the pink fairy swimming around me with an illusory scuba mask on her face.

I nodded to her, hoping she would guide me out.

"Here's what you're going to do… synchronize with me. It might be the only way for you to survive… but keep in mind I haven't exactly done this with an Esper before!"

I nodded even as strength left me, the movement dulled and lazy.

Then my vision blacked out. I thought I'd died… but I was still thinking… or… feeling. Warmth and cold rippled through me, a spark of light and a swelling of dark shade. I felt my Fire… and I felt Ripley's Water.

"Alright… it, er, worked? I think? Just had to rewire your Frame a bit. No biggie! Sorry for talking a lot… I am really panicking! I don't want you to die, you're like… the only person who hasn't insulted me so far! You're a friend and I want to…"

Help.

"Yeah, exactly! Okay, I'm taking over a lot of your thoughts right now so you don't black out. But I really need you to focus when I try to take control of your Mutations, I'm going to electrolyze the water around you. Break it down into hydrogen and oxygen. It requires extremely precise usage of your electricity. You ready?"

I opened my eyes, searching in her worried gaze before giving a resolved nod.

"Oh, you can just answer with your thoughts… but uh… focus with me now!"

I did. Warp Energy burned out of me like a wildfire as Starlight somehow melted her presence into mine and sank control to guide it to my mouth. The water boiled… or bubbled within. It was a fresh spoonful of air that invited more water in, immediately making me cough out all that I'd made and more.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Uh, okay-okay, you need more precise control! As much as you can manage!"

Precise control is what I've been lacking.

"Then borrow from my dad. He's good at it. He always knows what to do."

I tensed, then relaxed as I used my last bits of consciousness to focus on that cold. The water around me suddenly felt false when compared to Ripley's Tendency, a mere imitative painting of the true depth an ocean could carry. It was malleable, still and awaiting prey one moment, and rising to a storm the next. Even without contact, I could feel him through Starlight, a resonance as much as it was a living proof of our bond between Implants.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I drew his Energy in despite the distance apart, Starlight making a weird sound, and commanded it to the water surrounding, and within, me. My electricity, which had always been unwieldy, was suddenly as easy to move as a finger. I could aim it… and I'd always been good at aiming.

Now I had the fingers on my electricity to do so. My Domain formed perfectly to the image Starlight transcribed across my senses, blending in with the water as electricity funneled its unique properties to create gas from liquid. A froth of bubbles rose around me as I continued. Ripley's… relief tunneled into me as I braved my mouth open and out came air from what had been water within. Then I gulped a rejuvenating mouthful in.

A bullet struck a tendril writhing around my chest and let that air take its proper refuge. Relief was shared between us both, as a second bullet hit the mark.

———

Dreadwire

At first I hadn't felt much of anything, then my mind blended with Diana's. Out stormed her pain… her regret… her failures. I'd seen them from her frame. Now I felt them. But I couldn't let it distract me. I took a deep breath of air the moment that I sensed Diana reciprocate, a fountain of bubbles rising in one clear location.

I aimed… then I lowered… then I knew. Fire burned through me, a resolve to take the shot even if Diana might be in the way. Because I knew she wasn't. Her presence was affixed to mine, so clearly I could make out her bound outline despite the lack of vision. She writhed herself free with her gulp of air at the exact moment I shot, freeing her chest so she could take more.

Her inferno was a never ending wall that climbed and breached the futile mess this world embodied.

Another shot, and an arm was free. I knew she was going to tear her other from its constraint, so my next bullet hit the tendril by a leg. Then she zapped the other one clean off, as we both worked to free her abdomen. The MAL, still focused on the fleeing Quartz… who had perfect self-preservation skills, reacted by sending another tentacle at her.

I could see it from her point of view, and intercepted it. It was like her sight was replacing my less-than-adequate shooting skills, a faux lock-on. She swam out, and I was there to extend an Arachnodyne tip that she immediately grabbed to pull herself out with a contraction of Livewire. She landed in my arms, nodding as we wordlessly communicated our next step.

I grabbed her by her waist, securing my whip-blade around her as a massive tentacle slammed into where we once were. My Module swapped to Burn, spreading through her too by way of Starlight, as I fastened my feet to the roof. Both of us tilted our heads up, looking down into the raging pool swirling with tendrils. A tentacle surged upwards to us. All four of my Arachnodyne struck the spearing tentacles just as Diana used me as a conduit of her storm.

Electricity fueled and ignited my Shardware with sparks as our Warp Energies combined under three wills bound to a singular purpose.

Thought Multiplier bound three minds into one.

Thought Multiplier: Dreadwire X Diana x Starlight

Starlight

She felt it happen through her more than she understood it, that for a brief moment… there was no distinction between Ripley and Diana's powers. Their Warp Energies reacted: rinsing, burning… melting.

Synchronized Tendency (Water + Fire) Achieved: Acid Tendency

It flowed through Ripley, and it burned like Diana, as four Arachnodyne's Livewire-

Diana

-sparked with my lightning. Ripley's body acting as a vessel for my power to strike down like thunder from the gods. Because we might not have been able to take down a Silver Tier III when we were alone, but-

Ripley

-together we manifested something greater than the sum of its parts. Mutagen and Shardware coalesced under our shadows from above to spark down upon the failure that was this abomination. Her thunder radiated through me.

Diana

His webs of gold accepted our combined strength, reaching into the deepest depths as the MAL's flesh charred to pure voltage running through us. Blades sprouted from his Arachnodyne, and they were within our domain. We called them up-

Ripley

-we aimed them within the air itself-

Starlight

-and we cast them down.

Ripley and Diana

They worked in tandem, one providing the material path to victory and the other surging unforeseen manipulation of energy to achieve it. The Arachnodyne dove in like hungry eels with blades sharper than any swordfish. They curved and parted tentacles larger than cars and as thin as fingers.

The golden threads—stretched under Diana's lightning—had grown so sharp that their tangling arcs pinched the tendrils into severing. Bubbles frothed from the sheer electrical current boiling the water, rising out like a geyser on the brink of exploding and reverberating the entire room as the MALformed seized in pain.

Thunder and Webs intertwined with one another in glorious harmony. Until they struck deep down through the beast's eye and into the massive corporeal chamber that served as its heart. Simultaneously, two flows of Energy acted as one.

Ripley felt the thrummings of Soul Resonance and called the Warp Energy up his Livewire, burning it down into digestible chunks that fueled ever more lightning down on his calling. Diana, likewise, found a hidden passageway in Shardweave, catalyzing its usage to blend her Warp Energy within the Livewire on a molecular level, transforming it into the perfect tool for their acidic energy to seep into the Core of the MAL.

One drew, the other sent forth. Together, they tore the MAL from two directions at once, Silvery dew sinking up and into the Livewire being bathed in their synonymous Gold. The MALformed didn't even rip apart, it disintegrated as every inch of it was stolen by the two Adapters, but one heart beat between them both.

Ripley

The water was tinged red by the time it died, my mask had shattered from the pure voltage running through it, falling to the ground along with other scraps of my Shardware. My limbs hissed, legs giving way at just that moment to fall from their cling on the rooftop. I was ready to accept a concussion when a sudden weightlessness flowed through me.

Diana's power was… slowing our descent. Her eyes cast a mellow silver glow as her original form returned to its ethereal shape. Her eyes seemed brighter than before, like silver moonlight dancing upon a night's ocean.

Diana

His gaze was far more intense than I'd ever seen it, orange suns reflecting across polished metal, so captivating that I knew I didn't want him to get hurt. I hadn't even realized my telekinesis flowed into him when we landed on the ground with a soft thud… my heart hammered in my chest. Even when Starlight severed the connection right now, this contact between us kept a trickle of our energies flowing between one another.

I could feel hesitation, pain, relief, excitement and… resonance.

Everything in his heart matched mine at this moment, and I was so close I didn't know what I was even thinking when I put more weight on him… practically stuffing my body on top of his. Everything felt upside down, but he inverted it to make it to make it the right way up… even just for a moment.

His voice vibrated through his chest to my ear, sending shivers up my skin as though they carried some deeper meaning. "That was… intense."

Chuckling, I didn't know how I could feel so blissful at the moment. When I lifted up my face near his… I knew my mouth was open for something more. "I… think-"

Yeah it was open, it was open because I'd ingested a lot of really dirty water and was flipped upside down by him moments later. I puked on his chest.

Ripley

Diana was still puking when she got off me, which, in hindsight, was a miracle that she managed to hold it in for so long. I don't know why I did this next, but I knew I wanted to do it. My hands reached for her silver hair and bundled them up so she wouldn't get them dirty. As she turned back and rubbed her mouth, she didn't just look brighter… but warmer…

"Ripley. Fucking. Donovick." Midnight's voice shivered through me. "Strike two."

'Strike two? When was strike one?'

"When you grabbed her fucking waist and let her wrap your legs around you. You whore! Plus, your mask is off so I had to panic and scrub the cameras as quick as I could!" Midnight appeared between me and Diana's hair with a violent flash, my hands letting go as she neared. "What the fuck was up with that? It was like you couldn't hear a thing about what I was saying! Was I blocked out?!"

'I guess… you weren't Synchronized.'

"You mean Starlight's thing?"

"Yeah, I guess… our minds sort of… melted together."

"Did you mind-fuck her? That is our thing!" She reached for my throat, and I felt a sharp itch by the moment of virtual contact. "And you involved Sta-"

"It was not a mind-fuck!" I said aloud, which I then realized I said aloud. Diana was still turned from me, and I could only imagine the scowl on her right now. "Uh… look, can we talk about this later? It was really complicated, something to do with our Implants… we were sort of like…"

A Dual Adapter.

"Oh I don't even want to hear you finish that sentence." Midnight scoffed before disappearing. I could feel rummaging in the back of my mind, but something about it had… changed.

Starlight, I could feel an echo of the changes she'd made to my Frame, but she was utterly silent. I guess she was overwhelmed by bridging a connection between both me and Diana. It had certainly felt overwhelming for us both, I knew that and… god was I so fucking tired. Could this day-

Integrity has reached Bronze VIII

Energy has reached Bronze VIII

Capacity has reached Silver I (Effective: Silver V)

Bronze Tier Capacity Boon: Increase to Effective Capacity by one Tier.

Grade has reached Gold V

Water Tendency has reached Bronze IX

I lurched up… those were a lot of changes. A total of… 15 Stat upgrades.

And then I saw my Features change.

Psyche V.3.11 has updated to V.3.14

Increased cohesion with foreign minds

Increased tolerance to heavy Starlight usage.

Increased understanding of Diana Ulrich

Shardweave V.1.13 has updated to V.2.08

Effects:

Protocol:

Shardweave

now has an additional ability to be used slightly on organic matter.

Protocol:

Retrofit

now has an additional ability to integrate with organic matter.

Massive improvement to electromagnetic usage in Shardware.

Massive improvement to binding of Warp Energy to warp Materials.

Massive improvement to improving Warp Material quality.

Database V.4.00 has updated to V.4.05

Effects:

Improved synchronicity capabilities of Starlight.

Improved

Consciousness Link

Protocol stability.

Greatly improved recall of complex electromagnetic maneuvers.

Increased cognitive capabilities during mental synchronicity.

Improved integrity of Starlight.

Data Mimicry V.3.07 has updated to V.3.11

Effects:

Frequency Sync

Protocol is now compatible with SIMs.

Greatly improved Warp Energy reading abilities.

Warp Energy can now be tracked in organic matter remains.

Slight resonance of Warp Energy.

My mouth was agape, This didn't make sense. Where had the Warpcode come from? Did I make it? Diana couldn't have but these were… all linked to her capabilities.

Needing some time to wrap my head around everything that just happened… I tapped her back a little as I settled with the Stabilize Module. "Uh, let's call Dryder and wait for him while we recover, alright? And Midnight… just... double-check that SynTec didn't see mine nor Diana's identities."

Diana still sat with her back turned against me. The only thing coming out was between a whimper and a cough in an agreement-sounding tone. "Hmmph."

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