When they arrived at the new campsite Gina leaped out of the carriage and twirled around and around in joy.
"Woohoo!" She yelled to the sky, which was clear blue and unblemished by clouds. Storms were bound to come now that it was November, but for today the air was moderately warm in temperature, and her outlook on the trip seemed brighter with every moment.
All around her people called to one another and shoved things in bags and set up tents. Clanking and jostling and language that was sometimes understandable and sometimes not surrounded her in a loud humdrum of activity. She could smell the forest around the area they were camped. She could sense the excitement and nervousness in the air. Her stomach had butterflies swirling around in it, bouncing around like little whirlwinds. This is where we will face the creature. The place where it all ends; one way or another.
It almost surprised her how nice the scene appeared and how pretty the day was. It seemed too pleasant a place to fight anything.
"Hey, Gina! How about some sparring?" Amryn called to her, breaking her thoughts.
"Sure," she said. "I could definitely use the exercise. I feel like my legs are wooden beams they're so stiff!"
He scrunched his mouth in distaste. "Too much coach travel has always been on my list of things 'not to do if at all possible'. I have far too much energy for sitting still that long."
He raced up next to her on his enhanced legs. "Want to try defense and offense? We haven't sparred much since the nanogene accident, but you said you mastered that, right?"
Gina nodded cautiously. She wouldn't let anything distract her. That was the key.
She gathered the nanogene power in her hands and sent it up into a shield. Vienn had trained them all different unique ways of defending themselves over their last few weeks at Woodside. She felt confident she could defeat Amryn.
What about the creature? Her mind demanded. I'm trying to focus! She told it. We've had this conversation a hundred times.
"Do you want to do offense first?" She asked Amryn. It wasn't really a question anymore. He always wanted to do offense.
"Do you even need to ask?"
Gina smiled. "Give it your best shot."
She pulled up a strong nanogene cloud bubble around her, layering it with other walls behind it. She pumped it with just enough of her own energy to jolt Amryn if he hit it on accident, but not hurt him. Then she locked her mind onto maintaining the bubble and shut out everything else.
Her eyes closed and she could see an elevated green blueprint of the bubble she had constructed. She swung her view around to the other side, examining the structure.
Hmmm, a little weak here, she thought, spinning together a new defense there. A hit to the side of the bubble caused a small indention in one of the nanogene defenses. She rejoiced them.
After another ten minutes, she was feeling very satisfied with her defense's hold up to small bursts of power.
"Alright, Amryn. Your turn for defense."
She opened her eyes, letting go of the bubble around her.
He panted. "You... really.... Improved...." he sucked in a long breath, "Boy, Gina, I couldn't even make a dent. Good work!"
She smiled briefly. She still hadn't completely forgiven him for his rant about Quill.
"Are you ready?" She asked. He nodded, getting into a running position.
She ran towards him with a shrunken nanogene shield on her arm, but he quickly sprinted to her other side. She ducked down and shot the nanogenes full of energy at him. She had discovered that it would travel short distances in compressed balls of nanoenergy.
Amryn yelped. "Ouch!"
She used the moment of confusion to her advantage, forming a nanogene sword in her right hand and running towards his hunched over figure.
As long as he doesn't run...
She pulled the energy sword to the edge of his throat, holding his arms behind his back with her other hand.
"Got you!" she cried in triumph, adrenaline pumping through her. She let the sword down.
"Ach-" Amryn said, playing, still bouncy from the exercise, "I let you win that one."
"You want to go again?" Gina asked him, smiling.
"That'll have to wait," Vienn cut in. "Ro and Quill have agreed to help you try out this new ability you seem to have; transferring nanopower through yourself and conducting it. Have you agreed to try it?"
Gina had decided sometime in the middle of the second day to give it a try. It couldn't hurt, she told herself, to be able to do a wide range of things. Besides, she was excited to see what she could do.
"I'll do it," she said, "but you have to assure me that you'll wake me if I start to do too much or if it isn't working. I don't want to repeat the same thing that happened to Cree." That was awful. I never want to hurt someone like that again. Or delve into someone's memories without their consent.
He ushered her after him. The tent that they went into was plain white on the inside and outside, with a table and three chairs set inside. It was large enough to fit five or six people comfortably, and the tent top was high for the tall Lia'unnians.
Ro and Quill sat in the two chairs on the other side of her and she chose the third after Vienn motioned for her to sit. Her hands tapped nervously on the skirts of her dress.
"Ro has agreed to let you try her first. We're going to try and recreate what happened the first time. Quill said that you took Cree's hand while he was activating his power for the first time. What I want you to do is give Ro a blast of the nanogenes while she activates her enhancement and then take her hands as fast as you can and try and transfer the ability to Quill."
Gina brought nanogenes to the tips of her fingers. "Alright, Ro. I'm done."
Ro tossed her hair over her shoulder and closed her eyes. She held her hands out. "I'm not scared. Do whatever you need to do."
"This is going to be like getting zapped by something," Gina warned, having felt it herself multiple times now.
"Just do it," Ro said, her eyes rolling beneath her eyelids.
Gina reached out and brought her hands to touch Ro's. Power flowed through her into Ro as Ro activated her fighting abilities. Ro jerked back a little as the energy zinged its way through her body, but then she settled.
"This is awesome!" she yelled, eyes still closed. "It's like my normal power times twenty!"
Gina smiled, glad that it had worked. "This time I'm taking it out and transferring it," she instructed. "Get ready."
With one hand still holding Ro she gingerly picked up Quill's hand, his vibrant eyes closing on her command.
Her body spasmed and her hair stood on end. It felt like being struck by lightning without the pain. Energy and nanogene power coursed through her like a storming flurry of bright white. She felt invincible; electric. Her senses improved. She could hear the men from across the camp, smell the odors of a dozen different things. The world slowed down, giving her a battle advantage if she had needed one. Strength swarmed every muscle in her body, and flowed through her like a river of untapped power. She needed to get rid of some.
Her leg swung up in an arc so fast she could barely see it, and she jumped to her feet. She hopped from foot to foot; going higher than she had ever gone before. She had the urge to swing her arms in punches and holds, but her hands still held the hands of her friends who she noticed seemed to feel what she was feeling too, to a smaller degree.
This is incredible.
She released their hands, energy whooshing out of her and back into Ro. She dropped to her knees as the weight of her body seemed to return to normal.
My muscles feel so weak compared to Ro's superpowered ones.
Ro shrieked in amazement. "That. Was. Blazing. Epic." She did a short dance around the tent, throwing her hands in the air.
"How did we not know you could do this? No, the real question is why haven't we done this before? That was the most incredible experience I have ever had. It was like being invincible."
Quill hugged Gina in agreement with Ro, the sudden give and then jerk away of strength seemed to have worn him out more than the girls.
"Good job! That was great, G!" he told her, his green eyes giddy with excitement, releasing her from his embrace.
Vienn wrote things down on his clipboard. "Do you need a minute, or are you ready to try Quill?"
Gina reached her hands toward Quill with an eager look. She urged the nanogenes into her hands again.
There you go, little nanogenes. Just a little further and .... Got it!
"Ready," Quill told her.
She took hold of his hands, but this time she tried to prepare herself for the surge of his powers. She pumped him full of nanogenes, and then clasped Ro's hand with her free one. The energy was different this time, more mysterious and unusual. If she would describe Ro's energy as red, Quill's would be more of a deep blue.
Her head got thrown back as the 'purple' nanogenes crossed her once again and went into Ro. She could instantly see something appear over Ro and Quill and Vienn. She couldn't describe it exactly, but it was like the essence of their will. She mentally took hold of one of them and felt Ro stiffen next to her.
"You want to smooth your dress," she said in the best imitation of Quill she could do. Nothing happened.
"It didn't work?" she wondered aloud.
Quill gave several orders using the strange blobs of will, and still, nothing happened.
Gina had a thought. "Try Vienn," she told him.
"You would like to scratch your head," Quill said.
Vienn immediately started scratching his head. Her theory was correct.
"I think that since we are all connected with your power we can't influence each other to do things because it's like attempting to tell yourself to do something. Unless you want to do it, you simply won't. Unlike the other people who we can seem to directly influence."
"Makes sense," Quill told her. Ro shook a little.
"I think that the energy is a little much for my system. It feels very foreign. It's like it's trying to take over. I'm going to let go now." Gina looked closer at the mixed aura that now floated around Ro. The blue nanogenes from Quill looked like they were attacking the red, and turning them a lighter purple color.
Ro's hand dropped from hers. Immediately she felt the energy being reabsorbed. She was overwhelmed like Ro by the sheer power of it.
"I can't do this much at once! Quill, can you take it back?"
He squeezed her hand. "Yes."
She gave the purple nanogenes back to him in a bright flood of power, and watched them get reabsorbed into his purple aura. When people were pumped full of nanoenergy, Gina was startled to find that she could see their 'colors'.
Interesting.
She took her hand from Quill's.
"I'll meet you all back here tomorrow to work on it again," Vienn said. "This is too big of a deal to ignore, even on the face of the battlefield. These new abilities that Gina has discovered may just be the answer to our hopes for rebuilding the ship. If she can give one of the engineers nanogenes long enough to use his skills, or give his skills to other people also, it could be invaluable."
Gina left the tent mildly exhausted but exhilarated also. It had worked!
"That was amazing what you did in there, G. I can't wrap my mind around the scientific aspect of it, but the neatness aspect is off the charts. Your new name can be The Energizer. The Energizer and The Hypnotist."
"I like The Healer much better," she told him. "Energizer makes me sound like I'm really jumpy. Healer suits me just fine."
"She can be the Healergizer," Ro quipped.
"And you can be Stealck Girl." Gina retorted.
"Stealk?"
"It's a combination of stealthy and quick," Gina said as she grinned cheekily.
"I am not a 'stealk'!" Ro tried to glare but failed, hiding a laugh behind her hand. "I don't even know what that is!"
Quill laughed a deep belly laugh. "All right Miss Stealk, back to the tents with you. We have work to do." He laughed some more. "You too, Healergizer."
"Don't call me that!" Ro and Gina said at the same time. They looked at each other and started giggling.
They walked back to the tents, talking about Gina's newly discovered ability to conduct the nanogenes, and just other things in general theory. It was pleasant to be with friends.