The young boy nad Logan Green sat in his chair, having expectantly awaited Erin to return.
"So you’ve followed your word, good," Logan comnted.
"You said you would help if I helped you right?" Erin crossed her arms, "How about you change Layla’s watch number first."
Logan got off of his chair, and walked up to Erin, "Why should I do that? I’ve aided you a few tis already. I want to know a few things about you first before I do."
Even though Logan stated this matter-of-factually, Erin didn’t take too kindly to this.
’I want to push back against this, but Logan is a level 8. I don’t have a lot of room to argue otherwise, and he has resources I can’t get otherwise,’ Erin thought to herself.
Looking down to Logan, he held his hand out, waiting for Erin to touch it.
"Your hand?" He asked.
Erin reluctantly placed her hand on his, and imdiately, she saw a flurry of system ssages cover her screen.
[Warning]
[Ability detected]
[Alterations to the system are trying to be made]
[Alterations have been blocked]
"Hmm..." Logan promptly humd, before sitting on his chair and placing his hands on the computer.
The screen rushed through walls of text, code that Erin and Layla couldn’t hope to understand. Another screen turned on displaying a few graphs and pie charts. There were a bunch of complicated equations, as well as models of different chanical parts flashing.
"Is this how he normally acts?" Layla whispered to Erin.
"I’d sohow prefer him more talkative like how he was yesterday," Erin replied, "At least I’d know what he’s thinking."
"I can hear you two," Logan comnted, still staring at the screen.
Once he was done, he let go, and twisted his chair around towards the two girls.
"I have so theories, naly regarding the system you have in your head, about how you were able to change abilities, but I’ll need you to enter there so I can study you further," Logan said, pointing at the strange large tube, "You wouldn’t happen to know the creator of the system, would you?"
’He sohow knows about the system? How? I doubt Erin told him, but maybe he found out using his ability?’ Layla speculated.
"If I knew, I wouldn’t be here," Erin retorted, "And there’s no way I’m not going to let you dissect like a lab frog. What’s stopping you from trapping in there forever?"
"I’ll compromise. You can let your friend here stand by and keep watch," Logan gestured towards Layla, "And in return, I will do as asked and change the number of her watch. It was originally a 2, correct?"
Layla nervously gulped. Ever since she had beco a ghoul, her watch displayed the number 1 on it, no longer being a 2. It displaying 1 wasn’t a big deal as she didn’t have the sa reputation as Erin, but the fact that Logan knew what the number was previously was alarming.
"... How did you know?" Layla asked.
"Student ability registry," Logan comnted, not elaborating how he got access to such a thing.
Erin groaned, "Fine, I’ll get in your pod, but if you so much as touch Layla..."
She let the threat hang in the air, but Logan just leaned back in his chair, keeping a straight face.
Erin stepped into the tube, and the door automatically shut behind her. At first, Layla felt an overwhelming instinct to jump in and save her, but Logan raised his hand.
"In case you were wondering, no, I’m not going to dissect Erin and take her away," Logan stated as he returned to the computer, "I don’t care about her specifically, but I care about the system within Erin. To create a system that’s strong enough to bypass the limits of the human body, as well as my own technology... I need to learn from it."
"What an intelligent young boy," The system said, "If only he knew how handso the creator was."
’I get it,’ Erin muttered in her mind.
"I doubt he would be able to discern a lot from the system from the technology here. It is quite the complicated thing. Even my creator had to get so outside help."
’...Outside help?’ Erin wondered.
Right as she thought that, a bright green light began to scan her like a printer, starting from the top of her body to the bottom. It only took less than 20 seconds to do, and once it was done, Erin imdiately stepped outside.
"Are you okay?" Layla worried.
"I’m fine," Erin answered.
"I was able to discern that the attributes you accomplished in the ga are ones you can do in real life. Which ans that you were able to change your ability to those ’red lines’, correct?" Logan concluded, "I will need to do so more tests to figure out how you were able to use an unregistered ability, but in return, I’ll help you out with any further favors of yours."
Layla lifted up her wrist to Logan, "My watch number?"
He simply placed a hand on it, and the number ticked up from a 1, to a 2 instantaneously.
"Correction, those red lines are not my ability," Erin stated, then lifted a hand.
A dark purple mist rose from Erin’s feet, and Logan sat back, watching it with wide eyes.
"Again, the red lines are not my ability, that’s just sothing I can do," Erin repeated, "The shadow ability is my new one, and I got it back when I was on the red portal planet. Despite learning it, my MC count didn’t change."
That was when Logan went from intrigued, to shocked.
When he had the spider correct Erin’s watch, he had done so under the belief that Erin didn’t have an ability. So to hear that she did have one back then brought several questions to mind. Naly, how did she have two powers? Erin’s whole situation was an exciting mystery.
"Are you really an Original?!" Logan eagerly asked.
"Hmm..." Erin thought about it for a mont.
Given that she was the only known shadow user that she was aware of, it felt right to say yes, but the title of Original usually ca from families who had their abilities for a long ti, not soone who learned it from a book soone else wrote.
"... No."
"Um, not to interrupt but..." Layla said, looking at the shadows around Erin, "You said you could do a favor for us right? Erin was ntioning sothing about teaching the shadow ability, and I know Power Fighters has records of a ton of abilities. So... I was wondering if you could—"
"Record this shadow ability for you to try," Logan interrupted, then two arms ca down from behind his chair, massaging his shoulders, "I was about to ask that myself. Erin, step into the machine again so I can record everything."
Then Layla added, facing Erin, "Only if you’re okay with it."
Erin initially wanted to protest against it, especially since she didn’t like the idea of being prodded around like a lab rat, but then her eyes fell upon Layla.
’Even though she didn’t want to drink from her, she still saved , and even though I saved her life, it isn’t enough. Learning the shadow ability would protect her.’
The system decided to speak up, "I’d say, go for it. The more you practice your shadow abilities, the more skill points you can gain, and this is the perfect opportunity for it. Rember what I said about how shadow equip was close to leveling up?"
With that, Erin was convinced. She wordlessly stepped inside of the glass test tube, and it closed behind her yet again.
"Now, I’ll need you to use your ability slowly while in the tube."
Erin did as instructed, using the shadow control to start it off. Logan was off to the side, a hand against a different computer screen as numbers and graphs were sliding across the screen.
’There he is, using his ability again,’ Layla watched closely.
She thought the ability was strange, being able to communicate with technology. Most abilities were old, being passed down for generations, but technology was a more recent invention. It made her wonder how the ability ca to be.
Once the machine was done recording Erin’s ability, the door opened, and she stepped outside.
Yawning, Logan leaned back in his chair again, and glanced towards Layla, "I have only recorded one skill so far, but if you would like, you can test it out now."
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