Post by Vi-Poi on Feb 6, 2015 2:38:02 GMT
(PL Training, Day 1/7:Training 2/5) + Learning Eye Lasers[N1]
Vi-Poi made good time flying to the city outskirts. Here, all of the West Capitol could be encompassed in one glance, a shimmering bubble of light intermixed with the tall shadows of skyscrapers. He could see more stars out here, beacons of light besieged by an endless ocean of empty blackness.
The area he landed in was almost wild, with verdant swelling hills giving way to climbing forests that wreathed the foothills of proud and strong mountains off in the distance. Light, from the low-hanging moon or some other settlement of magnitude on the other side of the mountains, cast the shallow spurs of the mountain passes in a pale silver glow.
Other lofty sentinels of stone branched out from the mountains to the north and south of the city, but these were more solitary rock formations, and without halos of green forest surrounding them. The rolling plains at the city perimeter had an uneven quality to them, sheered in some places by what must have been tremendous subterranean forces.
“A good place.” Vi-Poi decided, before stretching his energy systems to full power. He could feel his reactor heart grow hot as his circuits charged. A rippling glow began to surround him, and he strained further, pushing the parameters of his system.
The ground below him began to crater, and the grass flattened radially around him. Vi-Poi blasted off of the ground, rocketing towards the nearest tower of rock. “HA!” Vi-Poi yelled, delivering his strongest punch into the stone. The stony formation cracked and fissured, immense chunks of it falling away as his arm sank shoulder-deep into the rock.
He pulsed a wave of ki along that embedded arm, the small mountain of rock exploded in a light-bathed storm of shattered stone and dust. Wind shrieked in aggravated response. Vi-Poi’s released aura of ki still filled the area, causing some of the exploded rock to rise slowly in the air. The larger ones he danced back to the ground in a complex windmill of arms and legs. A particularly immense shard he shattered with a ki blast. As the last of the monolith’s remains rained down onto the ground, Vi-Poi surveyed his systems. He had improved reactor efficiency by a few points, but he would have to go much further.
This rock-tower busting he continued in a similar pattern for several hours, a constant cycle of demolishment followed by the breaking down of the smaller pieces. He focused on his martial arts files during this cycle, fine-tuning any deficiencies he found in execution, monitoring the pathways of his limbs and calculating new trajectories for more efficient vectors of force.
It wasn’t enough. He flew ahead at the distant mountains, and sped down into the trees. These trunks of timber he made a game of dodging while speeding forth as fast as he possibly could. Branches whipped by him, some clawing at him in his haste, but those heavier limbs he cracked through with his hammering energy aura. Before long he arrived at the sheer escarpment of a cliff. He gritted his teeth, deciding to dig as deep as he could. He braced for the impact.
He lanced headfirst into the rock with enough kinetic force to send ripples down his synthetic musculature. His metallic spine curled violently as his body was forced to contend with the different densities inside the bedrock. It was a strange sensation, Vi-Poi decided, nearly swimming in the earth. He found that if he spun rapidly, it produced a drill effect, allowing him to push through the hearty material more quickly, but the friction of the spin was producing a dangerous heat. Deciding he had enough, Vi-Poi exploded upward, piercing up through the ground and back out into the night air.
His suit was a bit ruffled, but otherwise intact. He let out a burst of ki from his body, allowing most of the dust and dirt to billow off in a spherical cloud before he fixed his tie and checked the hole in the ground he had burst from. It was several dozen yards from the cliff face he had entered.
“Not bad, but I could be stronger.” He murmured, floating down to land in the soft grass. He extended the range of his built-in scouter, sensing again those lifeforms of extreme power. “I could be like them.”
Vi-Poi spotted a trail in the medium woodland he found himself in, and began to follow its endless wandering through the hills. His scent detectors pointed out smoke particulates ahead. Squinting his blue eyes, Vi-Poi peered through the trees. A small flame was lit up ahead. He walked towards it.
The fire was at the center of a clearing in the forest, and was being tended by a old man, who was at the moment Vi-Poi entered hunched over the kindling, blowing at it feebly. Large brown age spots marred his wrinkled flesh, and his pate was covered by only a wisp of white hair. It seemed to Vi-Poi that all the hair meant for the top of his head must have traveled around to the man’s chin, as he wore a beard that twisted and twined in scraggly cascades all the way down to his stomach.
Curious, Vi-Poi scanned him with his built-in scouter. A measly fighting rating of 3, Vi-Poi read with disappointment.
“I hear you there.” The old man said in between wheezy puffs at the fire. “Why don’t you come here, where a tired old man’s rheumy eyes can see.” He did not turn to Vi-Poi, but he assumed the fellow couldn’t be speaking to anyone else. Vi-Poi moved towards the fire, and sat down.
The old man shifted his red-rimmed gaze to Vi-Poi before focusing back on the fire. “Odd way to dress, out on a hike.” The old man remarked. He gave Vi-Poi a big, crinkly smile. “How rude of me to say, and without even introducing myself first. Forgive me. I am Kohi.”
“Hello. I am Vi-Poi.” Vi-Poi said, settling down by the fire at the old man’s gesture of invitation.
Kohi nodded. “It seems, if you don’t mind me saying, that you have a troubled look about you.” His rheumy eyes swiveled to Vi-Poi. They have a mirthful shine to them.
Vi-Poi shrugged. “I’m not. I just… want to be better. Stronger.”
Kohi chuckled. “Strength. It fades, boy. And even while you have it there is always someone stronger. Take it from me.” He leaned over, blowing at the fire once more, doing little more than briefly enkindle the flagging flames.
“I know nothing is permanent.” Vi-Poi said. “But I need to be stronger.”
Kohi worked at wheezing on the campfire a while longer, and after a hacking cough he sat up to give Vi-Poi a longer look than before. “Strength for strength’s sake is a purposeless life. What you need is creativity. You’ve got to try out and learn new things, if you want to grow.” He stroked his ropes of beard thoughtfully with a frail, bony hand. “Look at me.” The old man said with a rueful laugh. “Telling you this, when I’ve forgotten how to start a fire.”
Vi-Poi pursed his lips. “Creative. I’m not sure I can be that.” He said softly.
Kohi gave him a knowing smile, leaning on an elbow to try at the embers once more. “If you just try…” He said in between gasps and puffs of air. “You will be surprised by the things you accomplish.” He huffed at the fire, and though the struggling coals looked like they might finally alight, a strong gust of cold wind came from the mountains, extinguishing them all in a puff of smoke.
Kohi sighed, his face sagging in defeat.
“I see.” Vi-Poi said. He stared at those dead embers, and then a thought hit him. Be creative. If androids had a sense of intuition, it took hold of him now. He inverted the photon receptors behind his eyes. In response to his flipping of the lenses the words ‘An Error Has Occurred’ scrolled prominently into Vi-Poi’s vision, but he switched his HUD off and let a small trickle of ki flow through the receptors. Two thin beams of energy shot from his irises, sparking a healthy wash of flames on the smoky kindling.
The old man’s bushy eyebrows shot up. “You’re one of those special folks, I see.” He said.
Vi-Poi was intrigued. Usually people had shown terror or disbelief at his power, but Kohi had shown only mild surprise. “I don’t know.” He responded.
The old man chuckled. “Well, I’ve met some before, in my time. I’d say you are.” He reached over and grabbed a tin can from his travel sack. “Thank you, Vi-Poi. Now I can heat up my supper.”
Vi-Poi nodded, sensing it was time to go. “Thank you.” He told the Kohi, bowing his blue-haired head.
“I did nothing. It was in you, all along.” Kohi said with another smile.
Vi-Poi said his goodbyes and made his way back to the woods. When he was deep enough, he floated into the night sky. It would be morning soon, he reckoned. And in the night he would be meeting Mushi and her friends. What would he do until then?
Vi-Poi made good time flying to the city outskirts. Here, all of the West Capitol could be encompassed in one glance, a shimmering bubble of light intermixed with the tall shadows of skyscrapers. He could see more stars out here, beacons of light besieged by an endless ocean of empty blackness.
The area he landed in was almost wild, with verdant swelling hills giving way to climbing forests that wreathed the foothills of proud and strong mountains off in the distance. Light, from the low-hanging moon or some other settlement of magnitude on the other side of the mountains, cast the shallow spurs of the mountain passes in a pale silver glow.
Other lofty sentinels of stone branched out from the mountains to the north and south of the city, but these were more solitary rock formations, and without halos of green forest surrounding them. The rolling plains at the city perimeter had an uneven quality to them, sheered in some places by what must have been tremendous subterranean forces.
“A good place.” Vi-Poi decided, before stretching his energy systems to full power. He could feel his reactor heart grow hot as his circuits charged. A rippling glow began to surround him, and he strained further, pushing the parameters of his system.
The ground below him began to crater, and the grass flattened radially around him. Vi-Poi blasted off of the ground, rocketing towards the nearest tower of rock. “HA!” Vi-Poi yelled, delivering his strongest punch into the stone. The stony formation cracked and fissured, immense chunks of it falling away as his arm sank shoulder-deep into the rock.
He pulsed a wave of ki along that embedded arm, the small mountain of rock exploded in a light-bathed storm of shattered stone and dust. Wind shrieked in aggravated response. Vi-Poi’s released aura of ki still filled the area, causing some of the exploded rock to rise slowly in the air. The larger ones he danced back to the ground in a complex windmill of arms and legs. A particularly immense shard he shattered with a ki blast. As the last of the monolith’s remains rained down onto the ground, Vi-Poi surveyed his systems. He had improved reactor efficiency by a few points, but he would have to go much further.
This rock-tower busting he continued in a similar pattern for several hours, a constant cycle of demolishment followed by the breaking down of the smaller pieces. He focused on his martial arts files during this cycle, fine-tuning any deficiencies he found in execution, monitoring the pathways of his limbs and calculating new trajectories for more efficient vectors of force.
It wasn’t enough. He flew ahead at the distant mountains, and sped down into the trees. These trunks of timber he made a game of dodging while speeding forth as fast as he possibly could. Branches whipped by him, some clawing at him in his haste, but those heavier limbs he cracked through with his hammering energy aura. Before long he arrived at the sheer escarpment of a cliff. He gritted his teeth, deciding to dig as deep as he could. He braced for the impact.
He lanced headfirst into the rock with enough kinetic force to send ripples down his synthetic musculature. His metallic spine curled violently as his body was forced to contend with the different densities inside the bedrock. It was a strange sensation, Vi-Poi decided, nearly swimming in the earth. He found that if he spun rapidly, it produced a drill effect, allowing him to push through the hearty material more quickly, but the friction of the spin was producing a dangerous heat. Deciding he had enough, Vi-Poi exploded upward, piercing up through the ground and back out into the night air.
His suit was a bit ruffled, but otherwise intact. He let out a burst of ki from his body, allowing most of the dust and dirt to billow off in a spherical cloud before he fixed his tie and checked the hole in the ground he had burst from. It was several dozen yards from the cliff face he had entered.
“Not bad, but I could be stronger.” He murmured, floating down to land in the soft grass. He extended the range of his built-in scouter, sensing again those lifeforms of extreme power. “I could be like them.”
Vi-Poi spotted a trail in the medium woodland he found himself in, and began to follow its endless wandering through the hills. His scent detectors pointed out smoke particulates ahead. Squinting his blue eyes, Vi-Poi peered through the trees. A small flame was lit up ahead. He walked towards it.
The fire was at the center of a clearing in the forest, and was being tended by a old man, who was at the moment Vi-Poi entered hunched over the kindling, blowing at it feebly. Large brown age spots marred his wrinkled flesh, and his pate was covered by only a wisp of white hair. It seemed to Vi-Poi that all the hair meant for the top of his head must have traveled around to the man’s chin, as he wore a beard that twisted and twined in scraggly cascades all the way down to his stomach.
Curious, Vi-Poi scanned him with his built-in scouter. A measly fighting rating of 3, Vi-Poi read with disappointment.
“I hear you there.” The old man said in between wheezy puffs at the fire. “Why don’t you come here, where a tired old man’s rheumy eyes can see.” He did not turn to Vi-Poi, but he assumed the fellow couldn’t be speaking to anyone else. Vi-Poi moved towards the fire, and sat down.
The old man shifted his red-rimmed gaze to Vi-Poi before focusing back on the fire. “Odd way to dress, out on a hike.” The old man remarked. He gave Vi-Poi a big, crinkly smile. “How rude of me to say, and without even introducing myself first. Forgive me. I am Kohi.”
“Hello. I am Vi-Poi.” Vi-Poi said, settling down by the fire at the old man’s gesture of invitation.
Kohi nodded. “It seems, if you don’t mind me saying, that you have a troubled look about you.” His rheumy eyes swiveled to Vi-Poi. They have a mirthful shine to them.
Vi-Poi shrugged. “I’m not. I just… want to be better. Stronger.”
Kohi chuckled. “Strength. It fades, boy. And even while you have it there is always someone stronger. Take it from me.” He leaned over, blowing at the fire once more, doing little more than briefly enkindle the flagging flames.
“I know nothing is permanent.” Vi-Poi said. “But I need to be stronger.”
Kohi worked at wheezing on the campfire a while longer, and after a hacking cough he sat up to give Vi-Poi a longer look than before. “Strength for strength’s sake is a purposeless life. What you need is creativity. You’ve got to try out and learn new things, if you want to grow.” He stroked his ropes of beard thoughtfully with a frail, bony hand. “Look at me.” The old man said with a rueful laugh. “Telling you this, when I’ve forgotten how to start a fire.”
Vi-Poi pursed his lips. “Creative. I’m not sure I can be that.” He said softly.
Kohi gave him a knowing smile, leaning on an elbow to try at the embers once more. “If you just try…” He said in between gasps and puffs of air. “You will be surprised by the things you accomplish.” He huffed at the fire, and though the struggling coals looked like they might finally alight, a strong gust of cold wind came from the mountains, extinguishing them all in a puff of smoke.
Kohi sighed, his face sagging in defeat.
“I see.” Vi-Poi said. He stared at those dead embers, and then a thought hit him. Be creative. If androids had a sense of intuition, it took hold of him now. He inverted the photon receptors behind his eyes. In response to his flipping of the lenses the words ‘An Error Has Occurred’ scrolled prominently into Vi-Poi’s vision, but he switched his HUD off and let a small trickle of ki flow through the receptors. Two thin beams of energy shot from his irises, sparking a healthy wash of flames on the smoky kindling.
The old man’s bushy eyebrows shot up. “You’re one of those special folks, I see.” He said.
Vi-Poi was intrigued. Usually people had shown terror or disbelief at his power, but Kohi had shown only mild surprise. “I don’t know.” He responded.
The old man chuckled. “Well, I’ve met some before, in my time. I’d say you are.” He reached over and grabbed a tin can from his travel sack. “Thank you, Vi-Poi. Now I can heat up my supper.”
Vi-Poi nodded, sensing it was time to go. “Thank you.” He told the Kohi, bowing his blue-haired head.
“I did nothing. It was in you, all along.” Kohi said with another smile.
Vi-Poi said his goodbyes and made his way back to the woods. When he was deep enough, he floated into the night sky. It would be morning soon, he reckoned. And in the night he would be meeting Mushi and her friends. What would he do until then?