CAZADO: BOOK ONE (WATTYS 2023)

Chapter 26

"Flash Cannon!" Carlos yelled.

It was phenomenal. The impact on the machine nearly blew it to pieces as an arm went one way and a leg the other. The other machines made their way over to the broken one and cleaned up the mess. Our training was over. I stood up then, wincing at the pain that shot up my leg. 4536 immediately placed something over me. A green goop that dripped from my upper thigh towards my ankle and the pain was gone instantly.

"What the heck was that?" I said to Carlos with a grin.

"That was impressive!" Shaki exclaimed.

"Mi hermano!" Maverick interjected, "I have to say that was awesome. But what is with the name thing? I hope you do not call out your techniques when fighting an enemy, amigo. That could turn badly when there needs to be an element of surprise."

"Yes. I know, but I just wanted to be a little different. I promise I will not call out attacks all the time. Or at least I will try not to. Just thought it would be interesting," Carlos replied with a shrug and a sheepish grin.

"I see you, hermano." Maverick said excitedly.

"Alright so?? How did you figure that out?" Shaki asked.

"Well, I noticed that when using the liquid metal I created, spinning the liquid at high speeds created energy within the particles of friction already in the air. I got help from Change to figure it out fully. The metal is used to gather the energy in one spot and then push the energy forward to wherever I need it to go. It can be a ball of energy like you saw just now or a stream of energy that explodes or pushes. I am still learning, but supposedly I am one of the few Tech Pariah that are able to do this," Carlos responded.

"Yes. It is because you are a more powerful form of the Tech Pariah, Carlos. I was also impressed by the amount of Ether you used to create such a powerful weapon and I am curious to see how you will use it in combat," 4536 jumped in as Carlos nodded his head in my machine's direction.

Now that training was over, we went back upstairs and sat down to lunch. We were all hungry. Hungry and hurting. On the table, there was an assortment of foods, many of them unseasoned but Maverick retrieved some seasonings and poured them generously over all the meat and unseasoned potatoes. There was fried chicken, lamb chops, pork ribs, beef ribs, and then some kind of vegetable. Normally I would not eat like this, but it was needed to keep up our ether. Another fun fact. 

The ether in our body could be replenished by two things: food and sunshine. The energy was converted into ether energy to be stored in the body for later use. It was difficult to run out of ether energy unless you used it up in one go and if that did happen, because so much of it was stored in the nervous system, people would become almost lifeless for a few days. Death by loss of Ether had not been heard of, but the loss of Ether within the nervous system could, if it occurred too many times in one individual, lead someone to Ago into a coma with brain damage that was irreversible.

We sat down and jumped in - the ribs were tantalizing, the lamb chops delectable, and the vegetables, because of the seasoning Maverick had used, tasted like heaven. When we finally finished the last of it, there were only bones and a few smears of mashed potato left on our plates. We sat there stuffed and decided to just relax.

"You know we have to go to the Dean tomorrow and explain everything that happened while we were at the facility, right?" Carlos said between breaths.

"Damn hermano! You caught the Itis," Maverick laughed.

"Think we all did," Shaki said as she placed her hand on her stomach.

"Shaki. There is something I need to tell you," I interrupted.

"A-yo...Jared is about to let out his emotions," Maverick jumped in. "Spit some poetry. Her hair is like doves, her skin like a sea canary."