You are your father sit at the table, eating in comfortable silence. There is a part of you that just wants to keep the quiet going, to keep things as calm and quiet and peaceful as they are...
But...
Well, you need advice. You don't understand what Emma has done to you today. You don't understand how she's feeling, or why she would say the things that she said.
...
Also you should probably tell him that the camp was attacked by giant killer robots. It would be a whole lot better for him to hear that from you, then it would be for him to like, hear on the news over the next couple of days. Taking another bite, you stop, and sigh. It's probably for the best that you get this over with as quickly as possible...
"You alright honey?" Your father asks, looking up from his own plate, and you start to open your mouth, before pausing. There is a moment of silence as you mull over the words, before slightly shrugging. "Oh."
"I dunno." You start to say, running your fork through the mac and cheese. "I went to hang out with Emma after I got home, and..." You go quiet, still so unsure of how to explain what happened, if only because you yourself don't understand what happened. "She said that she doesn't want to be friends anymore." You say quietly, "That she hated how I've been acting ever since... since the accident, and that I wasn't any fun anymore, and that she was stringing me along for the last year and I just don't."
...
"I'm confused and I'm upset and I don't... get why she said those things. Why she didn't thin that she could just talk to me about this kind of stuff?" You ask, more to yourself then really to your dad. Looking to him, you can see a pensive look on his face.
"Perhaps she was just having a bad day or something?" He asks, "I can't imagine Emma saying anything like that normally, something has to have happened. Why don't you talk to her tomorrow while you are at school, and see if she's feeling better?" He suggests, "If she's still not, then I'll go and talk with Alan the next time I see him." You nod glumly, both because he is right, the girl that you grew up besides would never say those kinds of things on a regular day, and because you had kind have hoped that he would have a better solution, something that he could do or say that would help fix all of this.
Now, you just have to handle the other thing that you really should talk to him about. "Thanks Dad..." You start, and you can feel the weight of your father's gaze on you, even as you stare down at the table.
"There's something else, isn't there?" He asks, and you quietly nod.
The kitchen is quiet for a few more minutes, your father simply sitting there, quietly supporting you the way that he always has. "So... Last night, back when I was still at the camp..." You start off.
"Yes?" You dad asks, seeming to be just as glad to move off the last topic as you are.
"Something..." You pause again, slowly pushing the last of your dinner around the bowl, "You'll probably hear about it on the news in the next day or so, an- and I'm fine. Everyone ended up pretty much fine." You quickly put out there, hoping that that would help relax your father, however both parts of that sentence seem to have had the opposite effect.
"So... What happened?" He asks after you go quiet again.
"The camp is pretty much wrecked." You admit first off, unable to meet your father's gaze, both because you don't want to see his worry, and because you don't know that you would be able to keep everything back if you did. "Some crazy tinker Robots to the camp, two of them were the size of the table, and the last one towered up as tall as a tree."
The room goes silent again, the only sound the soft scrape of a chair, and the next moment you feel the wiry warmth of your father's arms come down around you, wrapping you tight in a hug. Its at this point that you realize that you are shaking, trembling like a leaf in a typhoon. God, that fight had been terrifying, the image of the warlord who was coming for you was terrifying.
Everything about this watch on your wrist is terrifying.
"I'm sorry." Your father whispers out, his grip tightening just a hair. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through something like that honey. I'm sorry that I wasn't there." You try to answer, but your voice isn't working, and there is a wet heat on your cheeks and-
You spend a time crying into the arms of your father.
You talk of the terror that you felt, avoiding mentioning the fact that it was you that fought the robots. You talked of the small injuries that the other campers sustained, and the damage to the camp. You talked of the fact that you don't know if the camp will come back the next year. You talk, and you talk, and you talk a bit more.
But crying is a tiring business, and it isn't long after that that you head up to your room, and you find yourself asleep nearly as soon as your head hits the pillow.
...It is at the same time exactly what you had expected, while being nothing like what you thought you would look like. An odd sentence to think if ever there was one.
What does stand out however, is the fact that you have the Omnitrix stuck on your back. It isn't out of reach, but it is out of sight, and there is a part of you that wonders if that might be on purpose - given that the machine itself stated that there are features that you have not been given access to. So instead, you spend the next few minutes checking over the rest of yourself to see if there is anything about this form that you have missed. In the end, there is one other thing of note about this form that you discover. Well, two, but the fact that your skin is sort of slimy doesn't really count, you are an alien frog.
Mind you, the fact that you have a very long, and remarkably strong and prehensile tongue is much the same kind of thing in the being a frog category, but it is very interesting all the same. So, as you hear the watch on your back begin to give off it's warning that the timer is running out, you take a charging leap from the table, transforming back into yourself as you land.
You nearly stumble as you land, a little off balance as the world around you suddenly shifts in size, but none the less you manage to keep your feet under you. You stand tall, up onto the tips of your toes with your arms raised high, giving a deep breath, and rolling your shoulders as draw back down. You may not ache or hurt, but you worked hard while transformed into the shape of that little guy, and it makes you feel a little bit better, even if only in your mind.
Heading up the stairs into the kitchen, you grab a bottle of water out of the fridge, and head the rest of the way up to your bedroom. Dropping into bed, you let loose a sigh of contentment. You have worked hard this morning, even if it wasn't exactly for the longest of times, but that means that you have plenty of time to experiment with the rest of the watch's features while waiting for it to recharge.
Taking a long drink, you stare down at the watch, before slowly reaching up and turning the face plate a quarter turn as you have multiple times before. The results are much the same as they always are. It twists to the new position, it clicks, and then it pops back as nothing happens.
You really wish that this thing came with some kind of manual or something to expla-
You.
You feel like the biggest idiot.
"Omnitrix." You say out loud, "Activate Voice Command, Code Zero-One-Zero."
"
OMNIMATRIX VOICE COMMAND SYSTEM ONLINE," The synthesized voice states, "
AWAITING YOUR COMMANDS TAYLOR."
"The faceplate of the dial twists a quarter turn to the 3 o'clock position, but it doesn't appear to do anything. What is this?" You ask the watch, turning the face plate as you explain.
"
TURNING THE INNER RING OF THE FACE PLATE A QUARTER TURN ACTIVATES THE MANUAL QUICK CHANGE SYSTEM. THIS SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY REVERTS YOU FROM WHICHEVER GENETIC PROFILE YOU HAVE TRANSFORMED INTO BACK TO YOUR NATIVE HUMAN FORM. THIS IS A SECONDARY BACKUP SYSTEM. THE PRIMARY QUICK CHANGE SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE - THE SYSTEM IS STILL CALIBRATING TO YOUR UNIQUE GENETIC CODE. DO YOU HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS?" That is not only potentially really useful, but also really interesting, even if the latter half there is a little bit worrying.
"What do you mean by still calibrating?" You ask next.
"
THE OMNIMATRIX HAS NOT COMPLETED THE CALIBRATIONS OF THE QUICK CHANGE SYSTEM. FURTHER TRANSFORMATIONS INTO GENETIC PROFILES ARE REQUIRED TO LOG THE EXACT EFFECTS OF TRANSFORMATION ON YOUR GENETIC CODE." What?
"What?" You say, "What effects are you talking about?"
"
THE ACT OF TRANSFORMING BETWEEN MULTIPLE DIFFERENT GENETIC PROFILES QUICKLY WITHIN A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE GENETIC DAMAGE. THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF THE RECHARGE MODE, BOTH TO ENACT ANY REQUIRED GENETIC DAMAGE AS WELL AS SPACE OUT TRANSFORMATIONS TO PREVENT DAMAGE FROM ACCRUING IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE QUICK CHANGE SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO ENACT DAMAGES TO THE USERS GENETIC CODE FASTER THAN REPAIRS CAN BE PREFORMED, THUS THE SYSTEM IS LOCKED UNTIL THE USER HAS GONE THROUGH ENOUGH TRANSFORMATIONS THAT THE OMNIMATRIX IS ABLE TO RECOGNIZE AND CATALOG ALL POTENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARE LIABLE TO OCCUR, SO THAT A QUICK FIX SYSTEM CAN BE DEVELOPED TO REPAIR DAMAGE AS IT OCCURS."
...
You... don't know what to think about what you just heard. It sounds like just using the Omnitrix might be dangerous for you, but at the same time it was stated that the Omnitrix can fix the damages caused, but also that you don't even have access to the system until it's sure that it's safe for you. Taking a breath, you slowly steel yourself. "What... what is the chances of the genetic damage that you are talking about?"
"
PERCENTAGE CHANCE OF GENETIC DAMAGE IS MINUSCULE. DUE TO TIME LIMITATIONS PLACED ON TRANSFORMATIONS BY CREATOR USER ZERO ZERO ZERO, THE PERCENT CHANCE OF GENETIC DAMAGE FROM A SINGLE TRANSFORMATION IS ZERO POINT ZERO ZERO FIVE EIGHT SIX TWO REPEATING." At the very least that sounds a whole lot better than you had originally worried...
You do have a final question about this however, "How big of a potential issue is this really, given that there are only ten aliens on the watch?"
"
INCORRECT." The watch immediately responds. "
THE OMNIMATRIX CONTAINS ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED AND FOUR GENETIC PROFILES. CREATOR USER ZERO ZERO ZERO THUS IMPLEMENTED THE PLAYLIST SYSTEM WHICH STORES AND SORTS THE GENETIC PROFILES IN SETS OF TEN. UPON FIRST ACTIVATING THE OMNIMATRIX TEN GENETIC PROFILES WERE RANDOMLY SELECTED TO BECOME PLAYLIST ONE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO UNLOCK FURTHER GENETIC PROFILES, HOWEVER ACCESS TO THE MEANS TO DO SUCH HAVE BEEN LOCKED BY CREATOR USER ZERO ZERO ZERO."
That... that was a mind blowing number. The playlist that you have, that's just... It takes you a second to do the math in your head...
Yeah. This playlist you have is ten percent of one percent of one percent of the aliens that this thing stores. You know, plus change. "I... wow." You whisper out. "That... Wait... if you have information about the sheer number of alien forms, do you have information about the aliens themselves?" You ask, trying not to get your hopes up too far, it seems like the exact kind of thing that 000 would have also locked up.
"
AFFIRMATIVE. DATA FILES ON... NINE OF TEN... GENETIC PROFILES ARE AVAILABLE HOWEVER DATA FILES ON LOCKED GENETIC PROFILES ARE UNAVAILABLE." Well, on the one hand you shouldn't have expected anything else. On the other that means that you aren't going to have to dig through a million different files to find the ten that you are looking for. More interestingly,
"Only nine?" You ask.
"
APOLOGIES. THE LAST GENETIC PROFILE STORED IN PLAYLIST ONE HAS NO FURTHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE. CAUSE IS UNKNOWN. FILES MAY HAVE BEEN LOCKED BY CREATOR USER ZERO ZERO ZERO, OR IT MAY SIMPLY BE THAT THERE IS NO FURTHER INFORMATION, REASONS WHY THAT WOULD BE THE CASE IS UNKNOWN." That is more than a little odd, but there really isn't anything that you can do about it, so it's probably not worth thinking about at the moment.
"Is it possible for me to read over these files?" You ask.
"
INDEED. HOWEVER DUE TO SCREEN SIZE LIMITATIONS, IT WOULD BE FAR MORE EFFICIENT FOR DATA TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A NATIVE SYSTEM. ACCEPTABLE DATA STORAGE DEVICE DETECTED ON THE PREMISE. LOCATION: ONE FLOOR UP IN THE DOMICILE REGISTERED AS 'YOUR BEDROOM' WOULD YOU LIKE TO INITIATE DOWNLOAD?"
[ ][Download] Yes
[ ][Download] No
Note that the downloaded profiles will be in English.
...So you had plans for the day, and... well, thanks to the Voice Command System you've already finished up the stuff you were mainly planning for the day, and it's barely 10 am. And of course, naturally, the moment that you decide that, the watch bleeps back to green. Ready to be used.
[ ][Voice] Turn off the Voice Command System
[ ][Voice] Leave the System on
Choose 3 (The first three may only be chosen once, the others can be chosen as many times as desired)
[ ] Go to the Lord's Market
[ ] Go to the Boardwalk
[ ] Go Heroing
- [ ] At the Boat Graveyard/Docks/Trainyards/East Docks/Boardwalk/Downtown/Coastal District/Commercial District
-- [ ] Which Alien do you use?
[ ] Go to the Library to search something up
- [ ] Omnitrix
- [ ] Omnimatrix
- [ ] Vilgax
- [ ] Galvanic Mechamorph
- [ ] Look up Local Heroes
- [ ] Look up Local Villains
- [ ] Look up Territory and like, cape politics and stuff?
- [ ] Check PHO
[ ] Test out an alien form in the basement
- [ ] Choose a number (2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10)
[ ] Test out an alien somewhere else
- [ ] Where? (Boat Graveyard/Docks/Trainyards/East Docks/Boardwalk/Downtown/Coastal District/Commercial District)
-- [ ] Choose a number (2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10)
[ ] Experiment with an already tested form
- [ ] Which one
[ ] Experiment to see if you can figure anything out about the Omnitrix
- [ ] Try to find something specific
[ ] Check out the Alien Profiles (Only choose if you download the Profiles onto your computer)
[ ] Check out a Alien Profile (Only do if you do not download the profiles onto your computer)
