They stood out at the edges of the room, to avoid any possible interference. Malton stood alone in the center, wearing a sterilized lab coat. Kleiner was hunched over his console, watching a dozen graphs and meters, while Viper and Napowsky watched and waited.
Malton picked up the piece of parchment, took a deep breath, and lowered his eyes to the page.
For a few moments, nothing happened. Kleiner glanced over, but all they saw was Malton saying something, his eyes slowly tracing over the Scrap. The monitors showed no unusual activity, except for one. They could hear him, in the otherwise-quiet room, but the computers could not.
"There's no sound," Kleiner murmured to Viper.
"Huh?"
"Look," he added, pointing at the decibel readout. "It's increasing consistently with his breathing, nothing else. But I can hear him speaking from here. It should be registering something." He picked up the headphones and put them on. Viper pointed at his own ear, raising his eyebrows. Kleiner shook his head and set it aside. "Just white noise. Nothing."
Malton's voice cut off. The lines on the graphs turned into mountains all at once.
"Heart-rate just doubled. Shit." Kleiner was dancing across the keys. Malton had given them strict instructions not to cross the line, to get every measurement they could. Viper could reassure himself that this was normal, that everyone went through the same awakening process—but seeing his friend start to choke, watching him fall to the ground and twitch, he could barely restrain himself.
"Show up, damn you..." he murmured. Where was she?
Shit, what if she can't teleport this far? Every awakening has been in Washington state until now. She is human, ain't she?
"Brain activity is through the roof. His prefrontal cortex looks like it's on fire." Kleiner's voice had a note of panic now.
"Calm down, doc," said Viper, though he was having trouble keeping his own voice steady.
A loud beeping sound. "I lost him!" Kleiner shouted, whipping around—but he needn't have worried.
She'd appeared, as she always did. Viper let out a huge sigh of relief. He sat back against the console desk, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Grey-eyes was kneeling on the hard surface next to Malton, holding his head up off the ground while she read the rest of the Scrap to him.
"Amazing..." gasped Napowsky.
"...Who is she?" asked Kleiner.
"If you figure that out Doc, you'll be the richest man in the world," said Viper.
As Malton started to sit up, she vanished again, with only the faintest hint of a breeze. The air was so still, though, that they all felt it even across the length of the room. He rubbed at his eyes, blinking rapidly and shaking off the feeling of the void. Viper took a step forward, but Kleiner held him back by the shoulder.
"I'm still collecting data. Wait."
Malton stood back up and stretched out his limbs. He rolled his head around his neck, going through a quick muscle relaxing routine.
A ball of purest fire burst into life right in front of him.
Viper's mouth fell open. He'd been awakened for ten seconds, and he could already do that?
Tess... I hope to god you ain't right about him.
Kleiner was practically jumping up and down as Malton finally rejoined them after a grueling demonstration of magic, dancing about like an excited puppy. "All right, Napowsky, your turn. Get in there."
Napowsky finally strapped on the last couple sensors and made his way into the center, trading places with the boss. Malton had just finished going through a series of different spells, as called out by Viper from outside the ring of instruments. He had to explain a few of them in great detail before Malton could pull them off, and he didn't quite master everything on the first try, but it was still intimidating to say the least. Next, Napowsky was going to perform the same series, while Malton and Kleiner compared the data.
"See, look at this! It's amazing," Kleiner gushed, while Malton and Viper leaned over the monitor. A readout of Napowsky's brain showed parts lighting up as he cast the first spell, the same fireball that Malton had summoned—though considerably weaker and dimmer. "Precisely the same areas of the brain."
"That's not really surprising," said Viper.
"No, but look! The exact same area. And now—" he looked over to Napowsky. "Next, please!"
The man let go of the fireball and started levitating a clipboard they'd left nearby. As he did, the monitor shifted in color, and a different portion of the brain lit up.
"Again, exactly the same!"
"So?"
"So it means," said Malton, nodding along in that irritating knowing tone, "that magic is consistent between individuals. It means we can target it."
"Do what now?"
"Enhance it," said Kleiner, rubbing his hands together. "Next, please!" he shouted at Napowsky. The clipboard clattered to the ground, and Napowsky started pushing it across the floor. Kleiner had a document open on another monitor and was furiously typing in notes while they spoke.
"There are seven affinities, correct?" asked Malton.
"Far as I know," said Viper uneasily. "Movement, Elemental, Nature, and Creation, then there's Self, Mental, and Knowledge. Mental's useless as fuck though. That trick I just taught you is the only spell I know in that whole branch." Which, gettin' rid of a headache ain't the worst thing in the world, but it's not that impressive compared to most of this shit.
"And we've measured seven rough areas of the brain where these activities align," Malton continued. "And within them, even further specification based on what kind of spell is being used. For example, see Napowsky's data with levitating the object as opposed to pushing it. Both fall into the septant we'd label Movement, but still in different, overlapping regions."
"The seven don't cover the whole brain though," said Kleiner. "Nor are they equal. I wonder if there are other affinities yet to be discovered?"
"Fuck if I know," said Viper. "The Council seemed pretty damn certain though, and they had both the Knowledge affinity players in their pocket."
"Regardless if there are more, we have them isolated now," said Malton. "Kleiner, how are you with neuroscience?"
"I've dabbled," he said, looking up from his notes. "I wouldn't presume to call myself an expert."
"Do you think a medical treatment could potentially enhance performance in these areas?"
"Perhaps." Kleiner started pulling up information on one of the screens, though they were limited to what the local network had available. Viper wasn't about to let this place get hooked up to the wider internet. "Stimulants are an obvious first step. Mr. Gearhardt, you've said that you felt your abilities grow stronger linked to releases of adrenaline, correct?"
"Yeah," said Viper. Fuckin' saved my life once, too.
"So naturally, we can assume any similar effect to increase brain processing and cognitive function may have similar effects." Kleiner glanced over at Napowsky, still pushing the clipboard around. "Next, please!"
"Start looking into those tonight," said Malton.
"Absolutely. Nootropics could also be a good source," said Kleiner, trailing off into his own tangent. "Any over-the-counter cognitive enhancer might be too weak though..."
Viper took Malton a few steps away, while they continued to watch Napowsky work through the list of spells. He was getting concerned about his friend. Malton looked exhausted, for one, but more importantly, his eyes were lit up with an unsettling sense of glee. Viper didn't like it one bit.
"Look, we've been down here for two days now. You gotta get back up into the real world for a bit."
"We have beds and living quarters down here," said Malton dismissively. "There's so much to explore we haven't even touched on yet."
"You're dead on your feet, man." Viper pushed him gently, and he nearly toppled over.
Malton put his hand on the desk, steadying himself. "There's more to do. Think about everything we could accomplish."
"...Like what?"
"We're talking about pure energy in its raw form." Malton frowned. "If you'd managed to learn any spells manipulating electricity, this would be so much simpler. We know how to store that in a usable form. But even so—" he added quickly, as Viper opened his mouth in an angry retort, "—even so, this is all excellent. We can generate real power, and by our measurement we've exceeded one hundred percent efficiency. This is breaking the known laws of physics, Stefen."
"Fuck physics," he growled. "If you die tryin', it's not worth a damn."
Malton sighed. His eyes suddenly focused up again. It was rare Viper ever raised his voice around Malton. He saved it for the rare occasions when he knew his friend was about to do something incredibly stupid and reckless. "...You're right. Of course you're right."
"Sometimes I'm the smart one. Don't you forget it."
"How could I?" Malton said with a smile. "You saved my life."
"You saved my fuckin' life. Those snakes were goin' for me."
"Because you leapt in front of me and distracted them."
Viper shook his head. "Remember it however you want, man."
"Kleiner?" Malton called out. Kleiner looked up, glasses slightly askew. Though Viper and Napowsky had both taken a break and gone up for food more than once, the other two hadn't left the room since Sunday, when they'd first entered. "We're done for today. I'm taking you out for dinner, and then we're resuming tomorrow morning."
"But sir—"
"Was I unclear?"
Kleiner gulped. "No, sir."
Malton turned back to Viper. "Join us? I think I owe you dinner from the last mission."
"Damn right you do."