Out of the ashes

The night was cold. The alley was lit by a flickering light, almost making the shadows look like they were moving. The perfect place to do something illicit.

"Hey man, are you sure we need to come down here? It's pretty... creepy, you know?" A young man said, curly blonde hair falling into his eyes as he nervously looked around. He seemed nervous, but not afraid.

"Stop complaining buddy, I don't deal in the middle of the street. I take care of my customers, don't worry," the drug dealer said, a big smile spreading across his face. He had a large gold tooth that shone in the flickering light, and the tattoos on his cheek were hard to make out through his laugh lines.

"Right, right. Ok, lets do this quick then. I heard you were the man to talk to if I needed more than a few fixes of coke" He paused for a second, as if thinking of something. "I'm not going to deal!" he said, raising his hands up, "I just have a few friends that are afraid to get their own, and want a bulk deal," curly hair said, a little sheepish grin on his face.

"No worries, Mike will treat you right. I am the man." The dealer said. He put his arm around the younger guy's shoulders and lead him further into the alley. "You have enough cash for a quarter kilo, right? I don't want to waste my fukin time."

"Yeah man, right here," the curly haired guy said, pulling out a big wad of cash.

As if the money was a signal, the dealer nearly threw the guy against the alley wall. They were deep in at this point, definitely not visible from the street.... not that anyone was out on the street this late.

Gun against the young guy's head, Mike the dealer leaned in close and said "I don't have to kill you, but it's been a long day and I don't have time for bullshit. Give me everything you have, everything, and we both walk away."

"Yes! Anything." Without pausing for a moment, the young man passed the money over and then pulled out his wallet. "There isn't much more cash in there, but one of my credit cards isn't maxed out yet. Take it man," he said, more calmly than the dealer was expecting.

'Is he holding out on me? Why isn't he shitting his pants?' he thought.

"What else do you got!" the Dealer said with quiet menace, pushing the gun hard against his forehead.

"Do you want my watch too, here man!" he started to pull at the strap, but he sounded calmer, if anything. It was setting off the dealer's Spidey senses, when the guy looked up and past his left shoulder and his eyes widened. Instinct took over, and the dealer spun to his left, leading with the gun. He fired twice...

Into the alley wall. There was no one there. "What the fuck," he said while turning back to the young guy, realizing that he had lost control a little now, but he wasn't against the wall... or anywhere. He made a complete circle, but the alley was empty now. If he didn't have the wallet and cash in one hand, he'd think he was on a bad drug trip. 'Time to book it out of here before some weird ghost shit happens,' he thought. Despite how weird this was, he knew that now he had to get somewhere safe with his haul.

Looking toward the street exit, he saw a dark shadow, the outline of someone just standing there. The light was out, and none of his features were visible, but he knew this wasn't the guy he had just robbed.

"You picked the wrong guy to mess with man," Mike the dealer said. Without hesitation, he raised his 9mm and emptied the clip at the man, who was maybe 10 meters away.

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'Q, the fact that you're in my head is a little messed up. Are you intelligent, or just the equivalent of a voice app that is helping me use my skills,' Ethan thought towards his system.

[I'm smarter than you Ethan, and definitely not just the 'support' for your skill tree. Since you're so bad at using your skills, I've become the defacto interface for their execution.]

'So my skills are actually separate from you Q, what are you then? How do I get better so I'm not relying on you,' Ethan thought. It wasn't the first time he'd asked for more info on Q, who always dodged. Lately though, Q was displaying a lot more personality than when Ethan first woke up.

[I'm not unrelated to the Quantum System, but I am more than the system. For your skills, you're at the lowest level still because I'm executing them for you. You need to practice and feel the flow of information yourself.]

Ethan looked more than exasperated. The other patrons in the trendy café were probably wondering at the teenager sitting by himself, frequently changing his facial expressions. He wasn't talking out loud, but anyone could tell he was working through something difficult or unpleasant internally.

'Haven't I been doing that?'

[ Quantum Skills]

- Calculation level (1)

- Dilation level (1)

- Analysis level (1)

[ ]

[No, you've been executing them, but you don't understand them yet. In a way, you understand them so little that I've become your training wheels.]

'You're talking a lot, but not saying much Q.'

[If I just told you how, it might actually make it harder. You're young still, you need to earn these abilities.]

In fact, Q was right. Ever since Ethan woke up from his second death, he had been running, striving and searching every moment. Even though he was using his skills, and talking to Q, it was all in context of securing himself, making money, and looking for Miri. There were a few fights too, and he found that the system made him, basically, invincible. He was sure that he wouldn't have died last time if he had the system back then. Had he really tried to understand these skills though? Compared to before the system, it felt like he was completely normal except when his life was on the line, and then skills seemed to arise almost outside of his control.

Was that the difference, he wondered? 'Do I need to be in danger to activate these skills independent of the system, to really feel how they work?' He sipped his americano, not seeing the people as they passed by on this busy street. It was a beautiful sunny day, with attractive people wearing shorts, sundresses and smiles everywhere.

"Excuse me," a handsome young guy said, as he pulled out the other chair at Ethan's table and sat down. "I hope you don't mind, this place is pretty full!" He smiled and pushed his curly blonde hair away from his eyes.

"Uh, sure, no problem," Ethan said.

"Thanks," curly hair said, then opened up his laptop and proceeded to ignore Ethan.

The interruption threw off Ethan's line of thought, but he took another sip of his drink and settled back into his head.

'I need to find a way to put myself into controlled danger... to learn how my skills activate better. So far I've just been waiting for danger to find me, how do I go about finding danger?'

"I'm Cyrus, by the way," the young guy at the table said.

"Ok." Ethan said, not really sure why Cyrus was talking to him.

"Sorry, its just such a nice day, I don't feel like doing homework, and you don't seem to be working on anything either. Are you taking a study break too? Are you a University jr?" Cyrus said, his head tilted a little to the side as he looked Ethan over.

At first glance Ethan looked even younger than his 16 years, but his presence was heavy. Ethan had noticed that people didn't treat him like a teenager as soon as they spoke, and he thought this was probably a good thing.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about studying actually," Ethan said. He smiled a little, because he was technically thinking about studying, just not a university subject. The guy smiled back at him, and Ethan wondered if he was giving off a guy on guy vibe. 'I love Miri,' he thought to himself, re-affirming his sexuality. He realized then that he hadn't really just chatted with anyone since re-awakening to life, and it had been a few months already. Amazing how long you can live inside your own head.

[Especially when your head talks back] Q chimed in.

"I'm studying theatre arts myself," Cyrus said, and his smile got wider. He reached his hand across the table, to shake, maybe? Unfortunately, he hit Ethan's mug in the process and it tipped over, spilling dark coffee over the edge of the table.

"Shit, sorry!" Cyrus said, jumping up. He grabbed his laptop out of the path of spilled coffee, and then grabbed Ethan's mug too. "So sorry. I'll get some napkins and a new coffee man."

Ethan had jumped up too, narrowly avoiding the coffee getting all over his clothes. His reflexes were good, but he bumped into a small guy behind him.

"Sorry man," Ethan said, grabbing the guy to keep him from falling over. The guy, maybe a kid Ethan's age actually, just looked surprised.

"Whatever," and then the kid walked off.

Cyrus was already back with a pile of napkins and a fresh coffee. "Sorry again man. Here is a fresh one. I've got to run, but thanks for sharing your space."

"Uh, sure." Ethan sat back down, a lot on his mind still. He took a sip of his new drink. 'Nice, he got me another Americano... how did he know I wasn't just drinking a coffee?'

After a few minutes of thinking about his next steps (without Q chiming in for once), he went to pull out his phone to check on some of the leads he was following to find Miri.... but his phone wasn't there. He had it when he got here. In fact, he was testing a new NFC app connected to a dark wallet funded by crypto currencies and converted to fiat untraceably here to see if it really kept him anonymous in plain sight.

'Was I just robbed?'

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[Are you ready Ethan?]

'I was reborn ready', Ethan thought, almost laughing at his own joke. He took a deep breath as he walked into the alley, centering himself, readying his mind. The light was dim and intermittent, but, to his vision, everything was overlaid with an electric blue outline. He hadn't really seen this view since he was reborn, and it made him realize his practice was working. In the back of his head, almost as a secondary, barely visible screen, he was seeing calculations and data. If he thought about it a little more, he could see the exact distance to his target and his walking speed as a vector in front of him...

"Do you want my watch too man?", Cyrus said loudly. Everything seemed to happen quickly in front of Ethan then. He saw the dealer get spooked, even as the rope was lowered by Suho into Cyrus' waiting arms.

Two gunshots were fired wildly, while Cyrus was being winched up to the roof. So fast and so smooth, the dealer must have thought he disappeared.

Ethan waited. Another deep breath, and his perception intensified. Now the calculation sub screen was fully visible, he could see the trajectory lines of the two bullets that were fired. In slow motion, the dealer faced him, maybe 2/3rd actual speed.

'Not slow enough,' Ethan thought, a little sweat on his forehead slowly, slowly dripped down. The analysis sub screen highlighted the gun, and already it was predicting firing lines based on the shooters' height and Ethan's position. 'Slower, slower, slower.'

[Deep breath Ethan.]

Ethan pulled in another breath, seeming at normal speed, but must have sounded like a bellows in normal time. 'Thanks Q.'

The dealer started speaking. 1/2 actual speed, but Ethan wasn't listening. 'Slower'. With a mental push, the electric blue around him seemed to pulse brighter, and everything seemed to become more clear. Wind currents appeared as data, the relative light levels came with cones that showed the relative visibility they provided.

".... maaaaaaaaan," The gun rose, so slowly. 1/3rd actual speed.

[Pulse]

A spray of trajectory lines spread out from the dealer's shoulder level, the gun still not there yet. 11 of them.

The gun reached his shoulder height. 1/4 actual speed.

Ethan moved, in slow motion too... though maybe faster than 1/4 speed, his adrenaline was high. He side lunged low, away from the 11 trajectory vectors of the bullets, towards the alley wall. Rose up and jumped towards the wall, kicked off in an angled dive and did a shoulder roll that put him behind the shooter.

He stood up in slow motion still, but plenty fast compared to the stunned dealer, and grabbed the gun.

[Pulse]

The electric outlines grew dimmer, and time seemed to move twice as fast as normal, but Ethan already had hold of the gun with one hand, and viciously chopped the dealer with the other. He fell down groaning and moaning.

To the dealer, it looked like he had somehow ducked below his bullets with super speed, and then did a parkour move before he could even think 'what the fuck'.

Ethan reached down, and relieved the dealer of his drugs, money and other weapons. He walked out of the alley whistling, looking forward to meeting up with his crew.

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