Shaper of Metal Post-Apoc Progression LitRPG

After his extensive R&R, Jack's first order of business was Calibration. It was only slightly different in routine thanks to the Bondmaking Imbue increase… he was aware of outside connections seemingly from out of nowhere, branching into his greater Allotment construct, rearranging and adjusting in their interlacing slightly, within the greater process of expansion improvements. Groovy.

And then it was on to training. Jack was excited to begin trying out the jacket, so he went immediately into it. Entangling with it showed immediate improved strength, like coils that got stronger the more he concentrated on tightening. Memoria was correct that he was still better with it beyond two meters. Inside the range, it functioned like memorite, working at a reduced percentage of Control, including Technique additives. It was better than before, though, which by default went down to 50% under 1.5 meters.

He went heavy on testing base manipulation inside this range, to let Mini get data on exactly what the performance upgrade was. Shifting and modifying the jacket's material, snaking it around, making plates and weapons, moving it forward and back again, etcetera.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Jack exclaimed with a grin.

He moved on to barriers. If he pulled the jacket completely off and made a shield, it was exceptionally strong. He experimented with the size and thickness, and different alloys. Memorite-only was by far the preference — any outside material whatsoever weakened it. Something feathering a bit past a total alloyed weight of five kilograms struck the balance, making his typical 'round shield' creation ideal, if with some added weight and thickness. Stretching the jacket further quickly began to weaken the material, particularly for active use with all of his power poured into it. Based on his experimentations, as his Allotment and thus his Create strength improved, he could simply 'tighten' this basic value, holding the bonds that much stronger while not adding material to the alloy.

The Jackshield, as he began to humorously think of it, was impervious to small arms fire, even AP rounds, making handguns entirely ineffective. It was the same for intermediate rifle fire, but even heavy-duty service rifle AP rounds began to punch through, and a few rapid shots burst it completely. Anything above that, such as .50 cal rounds (which couldn't be tested in Power Park) would blow right through. But Mini estimated him to be capable of stopping even this 'conventional' power before Access Level 10, and possibly even by AL 6-7.

In terms of power simulations, Force values at 4-5 were entirely arrested, which was typically possible for Access Levels of 2-4, varying widely. Blunt impacts were great at knocking the shield back, possibly right into him, depending on the trajectory. This was essentially a raw Force contest he couldn't get any further leg-up on. But if an attacker lacked raw strength or extreme AP capabilities in the form of the attack, he definitely punched way up in blocking with the highly mobile shield.

He also trained on strengthening the jacket while still on, or branching out smaller blocking disks and the like. The defense strength went way, way down, but it was a great last-ditch parry if he could direct the force. His inside melee defenses seemed much better off with it. He could even 'splorch' the whole jacket into someone's face, disorienting them, and setting them up for entanglement as he retreated. If he focused and put full effort into 'holding the jacket together,' he did have more Armor, albeit flexible, unless he made it stiff — but this was at the cost of inhibiting any other active task. A trade-off, and also not even close to as effective as the Jackshield.

One thing he had not previously noted in training that he got to see was the weakness against 'heat rays' and strong, supernatural fire-based attacks. Metal loved to absorb heat, and when it got molten, his control went to shit, other than to throw it around short distances. It was like trying to grab a bunch of slop. If he withdrew his memorite, it left the heat with the metal, at least. In the unfortunate case of the jacket, it would return to him hot and melting unless he locked it away from him. Thankfully, this was learned in Power Park instead of in the field. He only ended up feeling rather warm as he panicked and slipped the malformed, melting jacket off of him to fall to the ground.

The name came to him suddenly as he was staring at it floating in front of him. "Jackette," he declared, recalling Memoria's claim about it being 'a sister to the brotherhood.' "Do you like your name, Jackette?"

He made the article 'nod' with the top neck piece, and then thrust its 'arms' up as though cheering.

Jack smiled and nodded at it. "Well, if you approve, then that's that, eh? Consider it set in stone — or should I say metal!"

The Jackette moved its hand to its neck area and shook, as though a girl covering her mouth while laughing. Its other arm waved at him like 'Oh, stop, you charming comedian, you!'

The Jackette did have various core limitations, as he began to discover. It mostly sucked for Throw despite improved speed, as he'd destabilize the structure with each projectile made. Any material separated would slowly disintegrate and return to the core structure. The core structure maintained itself if it was at least one kilogram of material. If the most massive piece was ever less than this, it all began to disintegrate and reform around him in a minutes-long process.

He also couldn't form a Fragile Spike with it. It simply wouldn't become fragile in that way. It was the opposite whenever he was utilizing it actively, and amorphous otherwise.

If he 'locked' it, the entire structure, whether together or apart, became frozen and rigid where it was, equivalent to levitated steel. If he had it on, he was trapped in it. On the other hand, he could 'catch' himself in the air that way. Turning it on and off rapidly, he could fall slowly. If he formed it into a disk, he could stand on it in the air. He could lift himself, too, albeit while actively using his power to do so. But with the power to lock 'for free' with the Jackette when he needed to do something else, he did have some 'flight' options. By no means was it yet preferable for combat due to frequently stranding him in place to utilize his full power, but it was great for utility!

Being hoisted by just the arms wasn't great, necessitating a weird adjustment where the lower flaps grew out cords ending in sandal-like structures to wrap around his boots. With another wrapped around the waist, the weight distribution wasn't too bad. He'd trained some with levitational harnesses in the service, which was vaguely similar — they were essentially just exoskeletons. While he was thinking of it, he ordered one through Mini and Lifeguard to copy the form for use with Transmute. Memoria's sleek and sexy version didn't actually have many moving parts. Overall, it would give him significantly more maneuverability and comfort when he needed to levitate himself for extended periods.

After his extensive and variegated training acts, Mini gave him the hard code of his current statistical benefit with the Jackette.

Lifeguard was suddenly there, patting his shoulder. "Sweet pick up, bro! Hey, I'm here to, like, totes recommend more training to 1.0 in the near future! That's the first major dropoff of diminishing returns, which you asked me to point out! Radical! Jackettery has a high training value, nonetheless. If you train other techniques at the same time through Jackette use, they'll improve, but much more slowly. Estimating that to be, uh, about twenty-five percent, my dude." She leaned forward, one hand on his shoulder, as she gave a thumbs-up and winked. "How's that for benevolent advice, eh?"

Jack gave her a flat look and delivered a deadpan, "Tubular."

"Haha, now that's what I like to hear!"

Jack followed her advice, pumping more training in and experimentation, soon bumping it to 0.8 and then getting a bit stuck. He finally hit Serious for Fatigue and took a break to rest and eat, do some physical training, then rest and eat some more. Overall, he found himself eating smaller portions than once upon a time. His 'snack meals' were actually the size of a normal person's meals. He still ate way more often and had big meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Before he jumped back into training, he was blessed with a pretty rare midday gain.

Jack spliced in normal training with Jackettery. In particular, he did combat sims to get used to it by instinct, in the flow of an altercation. The introduction of it in combat while enemies were closing in went just as expected, adding a new layer to his defenses and counterattacks, bringing him from the brink of defeat to sudden victory, often with the Jackette turned into a nasty, powerful coil around a body or neck. If he simulated ignorance of the tool, which seemed likely in many scenarios, the surprise factor of sudden hyper-speed operation from close range was wonderfully jarring to a foe. Effective, for sure. Even inside his guard, the sheer speed and the reduced distance made it no easy task to avoid, and if he created distance, it got deadly very quickly from all of his stacking bonuses.

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Maybe my handle should be Steel Snake? Mmph. Nah.

For non-jacket training, he focused on grappling techniques, melee defense, and a bit of Spear use mixed in, figuring they'd all be getting close.

One thing most Jackette use constantly trained was default Collect, so he targeted that a little more on top of the dual training. The 'branch center' he used to multitask out of was usually a shield or a spear.

By the evening, he finally got Jackettery to the target of the day, and raised a smattering of the other things.

He finally crashed out in what powers type training he could squeeze from the day and had to throw in the towel. Back to R&R, running, and physical training.

In the middle of a 'recuperation meal,' he checked in on Lindsay, soon connecting via Memlink. He said, "Hey, you should check out my new threads sometime. I call it the Jackette."

"How creative," she replied in thick sarcasm. "I heard Mother was working on something for you. All that and a bag of chips, then?"

"Plus an ice cream sandwich."

"High praise indeed."

"I'm surprised you didn't spy on me and see."

"I do have other things to do, you know. It started to pile on after detaching from your babysitting day-to-day. The cats are catching wind that the mouse is back running her maze."

"Well, speaking of, I think it's time for you to lose a race to me."

"Mmmmm, I'm kinda busy…"

"Kinda? That sounds like you have time to eat my dust real quick."

"That'll never happen."

"Oh yeah? Put your money where your mouth is, then. Loser buys dessert. I'm thinking cake. Celebration style."

"You know what? Fine. I could go for some free cake with my name on it, praising my victory and beauty."

"Keep on dreamin'! I think it'll say, 'Congratulations, Jack, The Unstoppable Stallion of Eden!' Oh yeah."

Lindsay groaned, and he could feel her eyes rolling. "More like the Unstoppable Turd Burglar."

"Hey, if you win, you can put what you want."

"Hmm. Yeah, maybe 'Congratulations, Lindsay, Perfect Princess and Slayer of Turd Burglars!' That would work."

"It would if you had a chance at winning, which you do not."

"We meet in one hour, Junior Agent! Bring your humility, 'cause you're gonna need it!"

🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕

As so many times before, they met at the appointed spot: the enormous Major Oak, whose bark was the starting point. When he finally saw Lindsay, wearing her minimalist garb as the last time they'd raced, Jack couldn't help but smile despite all their banter.

Her features were set far differently in their intensity initially, so when she saw his face, she gave him a look and squinted her eyes, hands going to her hips, with her expression something that couldn't decide whether it was a frown or a smile. "Whaaaat?!" she asked demandingly.

Jack just shook his head as he began his final stretching routine, breaking eye contact, though he couldn't wipe his grin. Something about his mood; something about hope and friendships. "Nothing. Just good to see you."

He felt her glaring smolderingly, as if to pry info out of him that way. But she said, "Mmn. Alright. Same. Just don't go falling in love. I know this body takes the breath aw-"

"Can it, Lindsay!" Jack said, while laughing in exasperation. He shook his head at her again as he did some body twists. "It's not like that, I promise. Just take the words at face value, Princess."

She still peered at him, but nodded slowly. Finally, she adjusted her stance and scoffed. "You're just trying to throw me off my game. Well, it isn't going to work!" She began hopping and getting loose, throwing glances of renewed animosity his way. "You can smile right at my ass for all I care, I'm going to leave you weeping in the dirt!"

"Eh, I did enough conciliatory staring of that nature already." Not particularly true considering his burning desire to beat her for the races, but she was asking for such teasing at that point.

"Wha-?! Pfft. Perv." The weakest of accusations.

He smiled sweetly. "Takes one to know one!"

Glaring at him, she slowly backed up to the tree trunk and put her hand on it. "Your angel points took a serious hit today."

Jack strolled over to place his hand on the trunk right next to her. Face to face, he said, "They'll take an even bigger one with how ungraciously I'm going to gloat over this resounding victory."

She glowered. He glowered back. They both sent the consent for Mini to do the countdown.

3… 2… 1… chime!

They broke loose like mutual bats out of hell. Jack took an immediate, if mild, lead with a smooth start and the superiority of his power and long strides. Lindsay kept up with what he had to admit was probably a bit more zeal and fierce quasi-hatred of her opponent.

She kept up through the first leg, signalling quickly to Jack that he had to put his all into it. He went into overdrive, pushing his body, pushing his interface, like carving the space ahead for his body to fit into. He flowed into it, a balance caught between the raw force of straining muscles and the intangible grace of will made into fluid agility.

I. Am. Speed!

Steadily, he pulled ahead.

Lindsay gave one of her warcries, straining with all she had to catch up, and stalled his advancement by a body length. She was hanging tough despite the new gap between capabilities!

As the fountain came in sight, Jack honed in with all the depth of his focus. He didn't cry out, didn't rage at all. He stared at his goal with ice flowing in his veins, like a killer going for the throat. That's what he was; that's what he did time and again. This was just another execution.

He pulled away again, moving as fast as he ever had. Lindsay let out another sound of rage to drive herself forward and did the same, surely breaking any sprinting record she'd ever managed.

All the way down the stretch, they achieved their best…

Jack slapped his hand on the fountain and did a roll over the top, somehow managing to angle his trajectory sideways and narrowly avoid falling in the water, coming up sitting and grabbing the lip to avoid falling back.

The winner was not in question this time: Jack did all this just as Lindsay was doing a controlled slide to touch the fountain, now in futility but for the pride of personal time. She flopped down on the ground on her back and raised her hands to the sky. "Noooooo! Whyyyyy!"

Laughing, Jack hopped off the fountain and stood over her, fists on his hips. He gloated. "Looks like the star pupil finally exceeded the shifu, Shifu! How sweet it is!"

Lindsay dropped her hands and somehow flopped even more as she glared at him, still panting. "Nooo-oh-ohhh! My life is... over! Someone... put me out of my... misery!"

Jack grinned and shook his head. "Don't be such a baby! You can drown your sorrows in the cake you're about to buy me."

"Mmmph." She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, pouting in between heavy breaths. "I don't want any." Deliberate childishness.

"Suuure you don't." Jack sat down next to her and let her remain flopped and pouty for a while. At least a quarter of it — at least — was play-acting. Being dramatic to be dramatic, as only a spoiled brat could.

Lindsay finally sat up, putting her back to the fountain lip and facing him with her forearms resting on her knees, a sheen of sweat showing the depths of her efforts. Play-acting appeared to be dropped. She sighed and shrugged. "Welp, Jack. Here we are. Exactly what I said would inevitably happen. And you're not even close to being at your fastest."

Jack nodded. "Now I gotta beat Highfive."

"Yeesh! Set your sights on the moon while you're at it. I'd suggest finding an intermediary target first."

"Eh, I'm a multitasker." Jack mimed his hand as a gun, picking off multiple imaginary foes one by one. "I can have many targets!"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. Well, take me off the list. I definitely just set a record, and I don't foresee myself getting much better."

"Nah, I gotta beat you a dozen more times as payback."

"Pfft, dream on! You're lucky I gave you this one."

It was Jack's turn to scoff. "Gave? I took this victory like candy from a baby. And with how you cry, that's pretty accurate."

"Like you were any different?!" She made a very mocking face and deepened her voice comically. "Mnnueugh, I'm Crybaby Jack, I lost and I don't like paying for crabs, they're smelly, mnneeeugh…"

Jack glared briefly, then couldn't hold in a snicker. He shrugged. "We're both sore losers, huh? Fair enough." After a pause with Lindsay giving him a rather comical frown, Jack added, "But only because you're an insufferable brat."

Lindsay leaned forward to slug him in the shoulder. "Takes one to know one, doesn't it?"

He grinned and nodded. They both looked away as a silence persisted. His mind wandered to other things. Jack did a 'knock-knock' as a Mem-link ping, which Lindsay quickly approved. He said, "Considering you're supposed to know about crap related to Q-Loth, do you know about recent goings-ons?"

Lindsay smiled at him and nodded. "Screamer? Yeah, I think I'm counted as one of your handlers. I get pertinent things, especially anything psychological. I'm just backing off a bit. But I'm available when you want to discuss anything."

"Right… I was thinking, I'm kinda grateful in hindsight, not to know about her… predicament until something could be done about it. Seeing it from the perspective of Memoria, and you Central types, I understand. Sometimes, controlling information is for the best, right? As difficult as that is to believe or parse. And I think abuse is way too easy, still. But yeah. It would've killed me to know that and to be powerless."

"I'm glad you see that, Jack. Say, do you wanna have the cake in a proper meeting room as we talk? So you can verbalize. And so we can have cake. Yes, I changed my mind about eating cake. Sue me."

Jack chuckled and nodded. "I'd like that, yeah. I will not be suing."