Elizabeth Holden, Director of the NSA, storms into the meeting room. Her dark hair, speckled with a gray hair or two, is held into a sensible bob. She sits down in a chair and immediately starts.

  “Everyone is here? Good. Michael, what do you have?”

  A tanned man with a thick beard swipes from his tablet towards a huge screen on one wall. On the screen is a slew of images, all of Machina. All of them from different angles and distances. A few of them are obviously stills taken from videos.

  “This is Seth Ryans, now going by the moniker of Machina. He is an Ascended, and given the reports, almost certainly the most physically capable.”

  He swipes again, and this time a short video plays. This one is from a soldier’s helmet cam during the Second Battle for New York. Machina is nothing but a blur, constantly on the move. His relentless assault on a Goliath is violence of action, lethal poetry.

  He cuts a leg free with his huge greatsword, the blade more than twice the height of the average person. He kicks off the leg, sending the severed limb into a crowd of monsters, and they go down spewing gore.

  The video continues for just another couple minutes before he ultimately slays the Goliath by literally ripping its guts out. Michael swipes again. On the screen the same Goliath is laid out in a warehouse in a secret research facility.

  “We’ve been doing tests on the corpse of the slain Goliath, and we’ve determined that while it appears to be made up of concrete and steel, it’s nearly ten times more durable.”

  He plays a short video of technicians attempting to cut a thick, rocky finger off with a circular saw. The blade explodes into shrapnel just seconds after sparking on the monster corpse. Both of the workers dive away, and Michael freezes the video.

  “We’ve had extreme difficulty in attempting to take samples from this monster, dubbed ‘Goliath’.”

  Another video of a man plays. He looks like an Olympic athlete mixed with a super model. He wields the same circular saw with a new blade. He struggles with it, but is able to slowly cut through the finger.

  “The only way we’ve had success was with Empowered using tools. The man in the video shown is a 3-Star, and using the same exact saw he was able to cut through something a Typical wasn’t.”

  “What do you mean ’Typical?” A voice from around the table asks.

  “The currently accepted term for those who do not have enough magical capabilities to be considered an Empowered. Any questions regarding what we’ve seen so far?”

  Silence around the table prompts Michael to continue.

  “Our best guess is that being Empowered somehow inherently, well, empowers tools and weapons that they use. We still don’t understand how this happens.”

  “The point, Michael?” Holden asks.

  He nods.

  “The point is that an Empowered on equal footing when it comes to Aura strength with the sharpest, toughest saw blade humanity is capable of producing struggled to cut through the Goliath. Machina’s blade wasn’t even slowed down. Whether that’s an effect of being an Ascended, or his weapon in particular, we don’t know.”

  Holden nods. “Anything else?”

  Michael nods, and he pulls up another video from a helmet cam, this one from the defense of the White House. He plays it, and the short clip shows a huge pile of massive Traffic-Mantids exploding in a blast of blue fire and lightning.

  “He’s done this once, and since then, has not used this ability again. Which, honestly, is for the best.”

  A picture of the aftermath shows a shallow crater where the blast was. Despite the blast throwing pieces of metal monster away, the crater itself is less of a blast and more of a scoop.

  “While whatever Machina did here looks to be an explosion, it was more like an erasure. After analysis, experts have confirmed that the crater formed is not one formed by a conventional explosion. Our best guess was he simply… erased it.”

  Another voice speaks up.

  “Then why did it send pieces of the Traffic-Mantid flying?”

  Michael has a grim look on his face.

  “We don’t know. Unfortunately, that’s the running theme these days.”

  “Thank you, Michael. Please continue.” Holden orders.

  He nods.

  “The last piece I have on his offensive capability is this:”

  A clip of the Senate Chamber just two days earlier pops up on the screen. In it, Machina walks through Galvan’s metal manipulation abilities, literally. The steel plates warp and twist, in a vain attempt to capture him. He doesn’t even slow down.

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  “From this, we can surmise that Machina is either not made of metal, or that he cannot be harmed by such magic. Furthermore, he is immensely physically strong. We don’t know his upper limits. We know he broke Mach 2 by jumping via a report he was kind enough to provide us.”

  Looking around the table, and seeing blank looks, he explains further.

  “Galvan is a 4-Star metal manipulator. Not only can he rip the structure of an entire skyscraper apart with a thought, but any metal under his control becomes immensely durable. As in, we have yet to see anything actually scratch something he’s put up.”

  He throws a clip of Galvan on the screen. A Goliath beats on a huge metal shield floating in the air to no avail. Not even sparks jump off. With a flick of his wrist, the shield turns into a javelin and spears the Goliath through the chest faster than they can blink. The metal flies back to him, reforming back to armor, and he leaps into the air before flying off. The Goliath falls to the ground, dead.

  “I suppose Galvan gave us a good example of Mach’s durability, and a decent place to start.”

  Over the next several minutes, Michael throws several clips on the screen one after the other. He also breezes through a few reports of Fractures Machina cleared as well.

  “The only thing that’s ever slowed him down or hurt him was a monster in a Category-3 Fracture.”

  Holden folds her hands on the table in front of her.

  “What do you have for us, Michael?”

  He throws the report up on the screen.

  “He encountered some kind of psionic shadow monster. He said it tried to prey on his fears. It caused minor hallucinations intended to draw him into danger, as well as forcing him into temporary and short-lived dream states.”

  “How short-lived?”

  “By his estimate, no more than a few seconds each.”

  “What else did he say about it?”

  “He called it, and I quote, ‘Unnerving and a little terrifying.’ He was unsure if it would have killed him, but he did say it left him with a headache.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, he mentioned the Fracture appeared to be reactive to him, pulling from insecurities and bad memories.”

  Director Holden nods and looks thoughtful for a moment.

  “Alright. It appears that his only weakness so far is psionics. I want ideas on how we would kill him.”

  Several hours later, Director Holden steps into in the Oval Office. President Drayson greets her with a smile.

  “Director! Come in, come in. Please, sit!”

  “Thank you, Mr. President.”

  Once she settles down, the President sits across from her.

  “Alright, you said you had something for me regarding Machina?”

  “Yes. While my office has come up with some ideas on how to deal with him, I would not recommend them.”

  Drayson leans back and intertwines his fingers.

  “The only method we believe has any chance of success would be psionics. It’s the only thing that’s even touched him. Unfortunately, Psions are extremely rare. There are only two in America. Both are only 2-Stars.”

  She hands him some papers from a folder.

  “Here’s what we’ve dug up on them. I highly suggest we get them on side. In terms of foreign Psions, there’s the Greek Ascended Pythia. She claims to have precognitive abilities. We’ve received reports that China has a 5-Star Psion. We have no information about them at all. Not even a name. There’s a smattering of others of note.”

  She hands him a stack of papers.

  “Here’s everyone we know of who has some kind of psionic ability. Offensive or otherwise.”

  He hums.

  “You’ve put a lot of thought into this. Are you even sure we’ll need any of this? I’m sure everyone would much rather we work with him, than against him, no?”

  Holden gives him a hard stare.

  “Mr. President, I’m Director of the National Security Agency. It’s my literal job description to be paranoid. I’d be derelict in my duties if I didn’t have a knife in the dark just for him.”

  Holden is in her office when someone knocks on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Michael Kerns, her right hand man, sits down in a chair in front of her.

  “I’ve got an update for you on recruiting the psions.”

  She leans back in her chair, fingers interlaced in her lap.

  “Both of them accepted. They’re already on their way to Site Bravo where they’ll start working on honing their abilities.”

  “What were they told?”

  “They were told they might be needed to fight indestructible monsters. Things tougher than a Goliath, for instance. They’re being well paid, which helped, and we moved their families into some better defended areas as well.”

  “Alright, good. Make sure we keep drip feeding them about Machina. If we need them, they can’t hesitate.”

  An hour later Senator Redding barges into her office.

  “I’ve heard tell that you’re working on ways to kill Machina.”

  Holden raises an eyebrow.

  “It’s good to see you too, Senator. However, I’m not at liberty to confirm nor deny such rumors. The President’s current position is to work with Machina. Not to kill him.”

  He gives her a stern glare, one that washes over her.

  “Director Holden, don’t play games with me—”

  “Senator Redding, it’s you who shouldn’t be playing games. You tried to control Machina your way. Look how it turned out. Whatever political capital you want to threaten me with is nothing more than that. A threat, and an empty one at that. You burned more bridges than you know how to count with your stunt.”

  She gives him a withering glare from her chair.

  “My job is not to kill people you don’t like, Senator. My job is to eliminate threats to the United States’ national security. If Machina decides to work with us on his own accord, all the better. Even if it’s through one-sided deals in his favor. Maybe we will have to deal with him with a heavier hand. That’s up to me, not you.”

  He fumes.

  “Look here—”

  Holden looks him dead in the eyes, and he stops, seeing something in her gaze.

  “Senator. Get the fuck out of my office. Michael, please escort him out.”

  She dismisses him, and returns her attention to her monitor. A document labeled PROJECT BRAINFREEZE is on it, with pictures of the two psions recently recruited.

  “Don’t force my hand, Machina.” She whispers to herself.

  A PATH OF METAL TO AN AMBER DAWN

  ?

  Fantasy LitRPG Adventure Time Travel Progression Crafting Sci-Fi Magitech Reincarnation Genetically Engineered Gamelit

  Where flowers wilt, grow metal. Where animals die, build life.

  Evelyn Anima has survived for years in the ruins of District Zero, a sealed-off land at the heart of a continent-sized magitek city shattered by a magical disaster that left millions dead—or twisted into monsters.

  After countless failed attempts to become a Classer and earn the right to leave the exclusion zone, time is finally running out.

  The experimental Core implanted in her as a child threatens to kill Evelyn and the last remnants of her mother's green dream with her.

  To fix this broken future and herself, the answer may lie in a distant time. When druids still walked the world, and magic wasn’t trapped in circuits and metal.

  But to know history is to live it, and Evelyn may be bringing more of the future with her than she intended.

  * A Journey of Hope & Discovery*