Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 66

The Wrinkle

(Ursala Jarnic AKA Ms. Clayton)

Things had gone on for too long. Worse, in all her time here she had only found two other Psychers.

One was a religious nut job who went about trying to massively exploit one of the few true weaknesses identified operatives like herself.

She had been to Pittsburgh, she had seen what happened to those that were infected, they had major issues at first, running rampant in the streets. But within seventy-two hours, they all seemed to have a hard coded reboot, where they were all able to be resistant to similar future attacks.

Fortunately, the process that Ms. Clayton used was different enough to not be affected by the blocks used by her former associate.

Now though, now she had a chance to make a true difference.

This girl, she was like putty. Maybe a late bloomer. The fact that she never was able to integrate with the true system was somehow more impressive, given all of her accomplishments.

Over eighteen million hours of flight time, for the mothership no less.

During her interview, she had hoped for a story about the great queen, something about her benevolence, her ethereal beauty. But apparently Misha never got a chance to see her. Not even on inspections, as the Grand Matriarch never ventured on the lower floors, that was always performed by the subordinates.

In a way, that all made sense, the Grand Matriarch was far too busy most of the time to deal with such formalities. Though it was odd to have never seen anyone in the maintenance section for over two millennia, especially someone who seemed like they were highly decorated and appreciated by the fleet.

There was also the fact that Misha was proficient in not just one but two different elements and able to change information faster than she herself could replace it.

No, after doing a few tests, and then meeting the maintainer in person, it was clear that Misha was by far the best chance she had at taking back this planet.

The fact that she was somehow able to access her controlled systems, many with cutting edge Psycher technology up and running, showed her brilliance.

Even while investigating the mysterious Misha, Ms. Clayton could not find any form of technology used. There were no subdermal implants, no eye implants, no chip readers of any kind. If Ms. Clayton didn’t know for certain, she would almost swear that Misha never used any form of Psycher technology at all.

Ms. Clayton herself had to at least fall back on the use of at least a physical foci of some kind, be it energy conducting crystals, wires sewn into her jacket sleeves, something.

Yet, despite everything, Misha had gone into their meeting with nothing to denote her method of operations. This either meant that she was insanely confident in herself and her ability to get to a nearby storage area, where she could access her Psycher foci materials. Or the level of technology she had was so advanced that there was no way for Ms. Clayton to find them. Or thirdly, the idea that she was somehow so gifted that she could communicate to machines directly.

Judging by her persona, and the first hand accounts of everyone Ms. Clayton spoke to about the girl, this seemed to be the case.

Even now, she had people watching and recording her livestream of her actions during this event, just to see what she would do.

This was partly why Ms. Clayton decided to change up the plan.

The plan had always been to kill these two.

It was clear that for whatever reason three of the monsters that were identified in Surreal were constantly monitored and flagged by Misha.

They were subtle hints at first, a CCTV camera somehow flagging the users as active and moving. The way store front cameras would flag these three as having entered a particular establishment. Things that Ms. Clayton herself could only dream of having the program do, it did on its own seemingly thanks to Misha.

Also, it was clear that Misha was some type of tracking genius, that her ability to remotely track people through different open world technology was exceptional. Then there was the way she was seemingly able to pretend to be doing something else while providing real time information to Ms. Clayton’s ears and eyes.

This was why throwing a slight wrinkle to the girl was so important, things didn’t always go smoothly on missions. If Ms. Clayton was to actually recruit and trust Misha, then Clayton realized that she needed to see how the girl responded under pressure.

How did the girl react under less-than-ideal circumstances. These were all things that Ms. Clayton resolved to identify here and now.

There was also the strange fact that for whatever reason the girl also pinged on her detection programs, at least she did at first. Though somehow either that proved to be a fluke, or the girl was somehow able to find what she had been targeting with her scanning apps and been able to mitigate that as well.

The more she hung around this strange anomaly, the more Ms. Clayton felt alive. This was yet another reason why she decided to act, as for the first time in so many hunting operations she felt alive. Almost as if this was her first time hunting, when she had been set loose onto an already terraformed and processed planet and was given free reign to act as she pleased.

During that mission she went on a murder spree, killing thousands of infected Bakshee resources, before she was ultimately killed and sent to respawn.

Though it had given her a lot of experience.

With this life, Ms. Clayton was in new territory.

Not only was she running a multigenerational product line that was being made into an integral backbone of the emerging Bakshee technology, but given her recent use of the Surreal app to track and eliminate high end targets, Ms. Clayton’s level was the highest she had ever gotten to on one lifetime.

Name: Ursala Jarnic (Ms. Clayton)

Class: Elite Operative; Level 417

Rank: O9

Position Title: Lead Elite Operative

Flight Hours: 1,328

Planet Assigned: Bakshee Resource Production Planet 101121

Reincarnation Status: Not At This Time

Affinities: Water

That was the other thing that got to Ms. Clayton, the fact that somehow a simple maintainer was flagged for reincarnation, while she was not. Though again that could be explained by the way the girl could apparently keep the flagship running at all times.

It didn’t take a mental genius long to realize that the Psycher Mothership, known as being unsinkable was only taken down once this Misha was forced to resurrect off the ship.

However this also brought up the fact that if Misha could appear out here, then maybe the Matriarch would be able to resurrect out here as well. This was of course just a pipedream, a dream of a child who was separated from their parent for so long that they wished to be able to see their mother one last time and be told “good job.” Such emotions were unbecoming of an operative, but were still some of the impulses that Ms. Clayton now dealt with after having been left alone for so long.

This was why she was actually happy to find Misha, to work with her. And hopefully, by taking care of these two individuals that had clearly offended Misha in some way, Ms. Clayton hoped that she could prove herself useful to them.

The targets were clearly identified as a social pair, even if the male was somewhat reluctant, it was clear that he would still give into the temptations of a female throwing themselves at him.

From her research into Misha, it was clear that Misha and the boy had supposedly been going out, at least that was what social media messages seemed to indicate. Then apparently after the Pittsburg incident, Misha came back, to find that the boy and this trashy werewolf were back together.

Seeing the pair, and getting the message that the area was mostly clear, along with no less than five exit paths available to her, this was the perfect time to strike.

As a master of the Water element, Ms. Clayton has had numerous lifetimes to perfect the art of Water.

Water is in most habitable planets used by both the Psychers and Bakshee, which meant that the number of planets the two great factions would focus on would directly impact the other species.

With Water, many things were possible for an operative. Everything from poisoning the water supplies that would be then fed to the Bakshee fleets. To finding new and unique ways of attacking mostly water based lifeforms.

That was the thing about Bakshee, their organo-tech was perfect in water. This meant that a Psycher Operative like her, one who specialized in Water Manipulation could come up with new and unique methods for taking down individual targets.

Better still, the higher her level got, the more ambient energy her body was able to absorb and repurpose for the exact process of becoming a better killing machine for the Psycher Empire.

Thus, after countless lifetimes and deaths, Ms. Clayton now had what she referred to as the perfect Anti-Bakshee design.

Primary Affinity: Water

Noted Affinity Skills: Control (MAX), Movement (MAX), Flow (MAX), Creation (MAX), and Distance (2)

At first, she wrongly went for a distance approach. This proved costly in most cases. Now she had unlocked Distance as her newest feature, but only after maxing out the other components that she learned were clearly more important.

Control was used to exert her will and intent over all forms of water. The higher one’s control, the more ability a Psycher has as manipulating water with more chemicals and contents in it. To practice, Ms. Clayton originally began by mixing sugars into water. Then gradually progressing to mixing drinks, to now where she could mix and move human blood.

Next came Movement, where not only could she Control human blood, but then she could move said blood to specific spots. This was how a cut enemy could be forced to bleed out faster, how blood wouldn’t have enough time to coagulate properly and so on.

From there came Flow, rather than forcing liquids to just move, she could now use her will to force liquids to move in directions not anticipated. With this, Ms. Clayton could force blood to pool in otherwise healthy patches of skin. She could force liquids to rise up in the air, or cause liquids to sit in a target’s throat and choke them.

From there came Creation, nothing better than creating excess liquid within a contained human body to induce death. Though such attacks do appear sloppy at least at first.

Now she was back to where she originally began, with distance being a factor.

Using her Distance skill, Ms. Clayton was able to use her different skills from a few paces away. This way, she looked like she was an innocent passerby, when all hell would break loose.

Attacking two grouped targets was tough, and from years of experience it was crucial to take down the stronger of the two first. This was why, after a quick glance, Ms. Clayton decided to start with the female.

While still weak, it was clear that the female both had leader characteristics, a feeling she got from being in the field for so long. Along with the fact that the boy seemed to kowtow to her every whim.

This was why, based on the split second of information gained, Ms. Clayton focused on target Alishia and then proceeded to use an excessively violent and dangerous attack on her.

Boils.

Being a master of Water manipulation the first thing Ms. Clayton did was quickly force normally healthy blood to pool into pockets of otherwise healthy flesh.

The process was simple, and instantly corrosive, which was what was desired.

“What are you okay?” The boy asked, fear evident in his tone, as the hand he had just been holding suddenly began to break out as if in hives.

Though hives were the last thing that these were.

Burst.

A packet of warm blood burst from the sore that had randomly appeared and sprayed the boy.

Instantly, the boy shrunk back, looking at the blood on his hand. Which was good, as the female distracted by the sudden disgust on the boy’s face paused in panic.

This gave Ms. Clayton the time she needed to continue her relentless assault.

Had the girl run away, or shifted into her war form, this could have gone differently. Not bad differently, but just different.

This was good as it gave Clayton the time she needed to move about and gain more control over more and more pockets of flowing blood in the monster’s system.

Such practices were both time consuming and mentally taxing for Ms. Clayton. Still she pushed through, trying out this new technique from a distance that normally required her to be touching an otherwise bound subject.

With this method, she was able to create signs that the girl was infected with a fast acting form of the plague.

Boils burned and corroded their way up through the body. Blood poured out from the eyes and ears of the victim.

This wasn’t enough to kill a warrior, but it would make it harder for the subject to move.

Using the moment Ms. Clayton used Creation energy twice, once on the female and a second targeting on the male. Not much, just a creation of unique liquid within the target that was clearly under her control. Liquid that Ms. Clayton could call upon at any time in the future, should she get within range of the victim.

“What is happening?”

“I don’t know?” The female cried out bloody tears, before getting up and changing into a bleeding werewolf right there for all to see.

The boy looking surprised, looked around and then saw Ms. Clayton who was in heavy disguise with sunglasses and a hat. Had the boy had more time to question why someone would be wearing sunglasses at night, he might have thought something was up, that this had been a set up of some kind. Yet, the boy was too new to the life, and caught in that fight or flight mode that so many of their kind result to.

For a moment Ms. Clayton prepared herself to have to face a warrior head on in battle. While she had no doubt she would win such an encounter, it would still be hard to hide her true identity. Especially if the police were involved, which was part of why she wanted Misha on overwatch.

Yet, the boy took one look at the woman, then down to his puss and blood covered hand to see that he too was now producing his own boils. That’s the point where he decided to break off and run away as well.

Seeing the event, Ms. Clayton felt the need to chase them down. In the past that is exactly what she would need to do, but this time things were different. She had already made the first infection. From here, the next steps should be easier.

“Track them, and get me an escape route.” Ms. Clayton said.

Then in the corner of her glasses, she saw a highlighted route appear that overlay an aerial view of the park, and highlighted a path to take through the very same park. On the same map two different colored dots also appeared to be heading off in different directions.

Seeing the level of information being given to her, Ms. Clayton could only smile to herself as she made her way along the highlighted route.

While the two subjects had gotten away, this was never meant to be more than an introduction to the life, and to see if Misha had what it took to assist when the mission went sideways.

This might actually work out, Ms. Clayton thought to herself as she clearly found her way to the escape route, where she found one of her escape vehicles conveniently located. The engine was already warm and waiting for her.

Seeing the fact that the machine seemed to be able to move on its own and was in the exact position that she was told to leave from was a bit curious.

Again, this mechanic had more power than anyone had a right to. When she got out, she intended to have the vehicle searched for controlling modules, or energy fluctuations of any kind.

But for now, the girl had passed.

As soon as she was seated behind the driver’s seat the car began to move on its own.

“This is rather convenient.” Ms. Clayton said, her instincts telling her to be weary.

Yet, the car drove smoothly through the streets, hitting every green light, enroute to the predetermined safehouse.

Once there, Ms. Clayton stripped out of her clothes, destroyed her wig, sunglasses, and hat that were put a preestablished incineration pit.

Then pausing to herself, she paused as she saw the girl still working on modifying a car.

Realizing that they were both viewing each other in real time, Ms. Clayton saw the girl working stoically the entire time.

“I think this will work out splendidly.” Ms. Clayton said, looking around and trying to see where any hidden cameras might be to spy on her, but she saw nothing. Instead, all she saw was the faintest head nod given by the girl, who then made a few last-minute attachments to the engine.

“And that is how you fix corroded wires to improve your performance. I’ll try this again, when I have another project to work on. Until then, this is goodnight.” Misha said to her live streaming channel. Then moving her finger behind the mounted camera, she moved and the live feed cut out, leaving the channel showing a blank screen.

Seeing the broadcast, Ms. Clayton could only nod, as she found herself talking out loud.

“I will be anxiously awaiting our next project, together.”

Flicker.

A light source flickered in the room, whether that was just a surge, or something else was impossible for Ms. Clayton to tell. Though Ms. Clayton decided to take it as an acknowledgement from her newest apprentice, one who scared even her with her raw power and abilities, if she was being completely honest with herself.