The location was empty by design.
A stretch of abandoned quarryland the government had quietly written off—no civilians, no cameras, no satellites with a clean angle. I'd chosen it three days ago and only just informed the world to cooperate.
It had.
Lina stepped out of the bus first.
She'd changed outfits twice—no, three times—before settling on something simple that still took effort to look effortless. She immediately noticed I hadn't done the same.
Same jacket.
Same shoes.
Same unreadable expression.
"…So," she said, brushing dust off her boots. "Where exactly are we going?"
"Here," I replied.
She blinked. Looked around. Rock. Wind. Nothing else.
"…This is the date?"
I paused.
Date.
Ah.
I adjusted my understanding without comment. "Something like that."
Her ears turned red.
She crossed her arms. "You bring me all the way out here and now you're being mysterious? Wow. Bold."
Lina kicked a loose stone as we walked. "So," she said, glancing sideways at me, "you still haven't said why you dragged me all the way out here."
"I needed fresh air," I replied.
She snorted. "You hate fresh air."
Fair.
We reached the center of the quarry.
I stopped.
"This is far enough," I said.
She blinked. "That's it? This is the hangout?"
"For you," I said calmly, "yes."
"For me—"
I tapped the ground with my foot.
The air shifted.
Not violently. Precisely.
A thin alchemical circle bloomed beneath my shoe, lines threading outward like circuitry drawn by intent rather than chalk.
Lina froze.
"Neo…?" she said slowly. "Why does the ground look like it's thinking."
I sighed.
"Stand back."
"WHY—"
The circle activated.
⸻
[ALCHEMY DOMAIN — EXTERNAL DEPLOYMENT]
Metal unfolded from nothing.
Not summoned.
Constructed.
Layer by layer, golden-black alloy formed around me, panels locking into place with fluid, intentional motion. Not bulky. Not sleek.
Purpose-built.
The suit assembled itself from the feet upward.
Boots first—grav-lock stabilizers humming softly as they anchored to the earth.
Leg plating followed, segmented to allow unrestricted movement while reinforcing stress points.
The torso locked in with a low, resonant thrum as the core ignited.
A solar-alchemical reactor, self-sustaining, tuned specifically to my bio-mark frequency.
The helmet formed last.
The visor slid into place with a soft chime.
Lina screamed.
I winced and lifted the visor. "You're safe."
She stared at me.
At the suit.
At the faint glow of runes shifting across the plating like living equations.
"…Neo," she said slowly, "why do you look like a final boss?"
I flexed once.
The world responded.
Not explosively.
Not dramatically.
Just… correctly.
Wind adjusted.
Loose gravel settled.
The air stopped resisting my movement.
Good.
"Compatibility confirmed," I murmured. "No feedback loop."
She swallowed. "You said we were coming out."
"We are," I said. Then glanced at her. "Just not for the reason you thought."
She punched my arm.
The suit didn't budge.
"Ow—what the hell is wrong with you?"
I frowned. "That was ill-advised."
She laughed anyway, nerves bleeding off. "You could've warned me! I thought this was—" she stopped herself, cheeks warm. "Never mind."
I tilted my head. "Thought it was what?"
She turned away. "Shut up."
I smiled. Very slightly.
"So, there must be a reason you are here and showing me this Suit"
As always Lina was spot on.
"Correct. We are here to test it, and I just need you around, cause you are good at noticing things. I want to see if you can notice anything I can improve."
"Oh, so you just using me— sigh, I have to start charging for my services." She replied, little disappointed. "Let's just get this over with."
"Excellent, we are going to be running a number of tests— five to be exact."
I got ready to finally begin.
———
Test One: Lift Capacity
I stepped toward a collapsed quarry vehicle—easily fifty tons of rusted steel.
I reached out.
The suit responded instantly.
Not by amplifying my strength—but by sharing the load.
A translucent barrier formed around the machine, distributing force evenly through an alchemical field. I lifted.
The vehicle rose.
No strain. No resistance.
Lina's jaw dropped.
I rotated my wrist.
The vehicle followed—smooth, controlled, precise.
"Okay," she whispered. "I take it back. This is cool."
I set it down gently.
Test successful.
⸻
Test Two: Barrier Deployment
I raised my hand.
A hexagonal barrier flared into existence—golden light woven with symbolic reinforcement. I hurled a chunk of rock at it.
The impact didn't shatter.
It diffused.
Energy bled sideways, harmlessly dissipating into the air.
Multi-layered. Adaptive.
Justice's proxies wouldn't brute-force this.
Good.
⸻
Test Three: Flight
I bent my knees.
The grav-locks disengaged.
I lifted off the ground smoothly, hovering several meters above the quarry floor. No instability. No drift.
I ascended higher.
Wind rushed past the suit, redirected cleanly along the plating.
Lina shielded her eyes, staring upward.
"You—YOU'RE FLYING."
"Yes."
"That was not in the brochure!"
I ignored her and accelerated.
The suit responded perfectly—no lag, no misalignment. Every vector aligned with my intent before I finished forming it.
I landed beside her moments later.
Dust settled.
⸻
Test Four: Energy Output
I raised my palm toward the quarry wall.
The reactor hummed.
Solar energy condensed—not raw heat, but structured output. Focused. Efficient.
I fired.
A beam of golden light struck the rock face, carving a clean line through solid stone without explosive backlash.
Precision confirmed.
⸻
Test Five: Ordnance
"Last one," I muttered.
Shoulder ports opened.
Micro-rockets deployed—not missiles, but alchemically guided impact units. I fired them into a distant cliff face.
They detonated silently.
The rock collapsed inward, compressed by directional force rather than explosion.
Minimal collateral.
Maximum control.
⸻
I exhaled.
The suit powered down, panels retracting seamlessly back into nothing as the alchemical circle faded.
Silence returned.
Lina stared at me like I'd just rewritten her understanding of reality.
"…You said you hated fighting," she said.
"I do."
"Then why build that?"
I met her eyes.
"Because sometimes," I said quietly, "not fighting isn't an option."
She swallowed.
"…Am I in danger?"
"No," I said immediately.
Then, after a pause:
"Not from me."
She nodded slowly.
——
Eli hated missions like this.
Crowded.
Unstable.
Messy.
The pressure hit before the noise.
Not weight. Direction.
Eli felt it tug at his bones—like the city itself was trying to pull away from him.
The anomaly wasn't subtle. Air rippled in jagged waves, streetlights bending at wrong angles as a humanoid mass of fractured motion thrashed at the center of the intersection.
It was displacement.
Reality slipping sideways.
Civilians were already evacuated, but panic lingered in the air, clinging to every surface.
Eli rolled his shoulders once.
Focus.
He stepped forward.
The anomaly reacted instantly—space folding, debris lifting, asphalt tearing loose as if trying to escape the ground itself.
Eli raised his hand.
Not clenched.
Open.
His ability answered.
It wasn't strength.
It was pull.
An invisible axis locked into place around him, and everything within range felt it—metal shuddered, loose rubble skidded toward him, the anomaly's distorted form warped as its own momentum bent inward.
Not crushed.
Directed.
Eli planted his foot.
The ground cracked beneath him—not because he was strong, but because everything else was being dragged closer to where he stood.
"Stop," he said.
His voice didn't boom.
It didn't need to.
The pull intensified.
The anomaly shrieked—not in pain, but resistance—as its erratic movement slowed, its spatial distortions compressing under a growing, inescapable center.
Eli gritted his teeth.
Don't overpower it.
Outlast it.
He moved.
Fast.
Not blinding speed—decisive speed. The kind that came from the world cooperating instead of resisting. Each step carried momentum far beyond muscle, his body accelerated by the same force he imposed outward.
He crossed the street in a heartbeat.
Palm out.
The anomaly surged—
—and then stalled.
Because Eli's will hardened.
The pull didn't increase.
It focused.
The anomaly's form collapsed inward, not destroyed, but pinned—its chaotic movement forced into a single, shuddering point.
Containment units rushed in.
Restraints activated.
The handler stared.
"…You stabilized it," she said.
Eli exhaled, legs shaking. "Barely."
She shook her head. "No. You controlled it."
He didn't feel powerful.
He felt… aligned.
Somewhere deep inside, something old stirred—but faint. Incomplete.
Not yet, he thought.
But soon.
⸻
Back at The Quarry
The suit powered down cleanly.
No sparks.
No residue.
No lingering strain.
That alone told me more than any test data.
I retracted the final layer, plates folding back into compressed storage as the alchemical lattice disengaged. The quarry returned to silence.
Lina was still staring.
"…Okay," she said slowly. "I admit it."
"Admit what?"
"That you didn't build a murder-suit for nothing."
"It's not for murder," I replied automatically. "It's for survivability."
She gave me a look. "That's what every supervillain says first."
I ignored that.
"Structural integrity held," I said. "No cognitive feedback. No latency between intent and response. It handled my throughput without resistance."
She tilted her head. "But?"
I paused.
"…But?"
She smiled, smug. "You don't say that much unless there's something bugging you."
Annoying.
Correct.
"The suit compensates for my abilities," I said. "It doesn't anticipate them."
She blinked. "Isn't that good?"
"For a normal user, yes. For me—no."
She thought for a moment, eyes narrowing slightly.
Then: "Why don't you let it learn you instead?"
I looked at her.
She continued, warming up. "I mean—your powers aren't random. They're you. The way you think. The way you decide. Instead of hard-coding responses, why not give it a heuristic layer that adapts to your intent patterns?"
I went still.
"…Go on."
She gestured vaguely. "Like—uh—don't tell it what to do. Tell it how you decide. Let it predict how you'll act, not what you'll do."
Silence.
Then, quietly: "That would reduce friction to near zero."
She froze. "Wait, really?"
"Yes," I said. "It would also allow the suit to preconfigure before I consciously act."
Her eyes widened. "That sounds… dangerous."
"For everyone else," I said.
Then I looked at her properly.
"…I knew I was right to bring you."
She flushed instantly. "Y-you did not bring me for that."
"I did," I said honestly. "This was a test."
Her shoulders slumped just a little.
"Oh," she said. "Right. Of course it was."
I frowned. "Is that disappointing?"
She waved it off too fast. "No! I mean—why would it be? Obviously this was important. World-saving. Genius-stuff."
She smiled.
It didn't quite reach her eyes.
"…I still had fun though," she added quickly.
I studied her for a second longer than necessary.
Then nodded. "Good."
I turned back toward the quarry, already mentally rewriting the suit's architecture.
Behind me, Lina sighed softly—relieved I didn't notice.
Or maybe disappointed that I didn't say anything else.
⸻
Lina's shoulders slumped just a fraction too slow to be accidental.
I noticed.
I didn't understand it—but I noticed.
I turned back to her. "We still have time."
She blinked. "Huh?"
"Before it gets late," I added. "We should get something to eat. Then I'll take you home."
For half a second, she just stared.
Then—
Her entire face lit up.
Not subtle. Not restrained. A full, radiant smile like I'd just said something extraordinary instead of… practical.
"Oh—! Y-yeah," she said quickly. Too quickly. "That sounds good. Really good."
The shift was immediate. Her posture straightened. Her steps gained a bounce. Whatever disappointment had been there evaporated so completely it was almost suspicious.
I frowned slightly.
That was fast.
But I let it go.
I was already replaying her suggestion in my head, mentally restructuring the alchemical logic lattice of the suit. Predictive intent modeling wasn't just viable—it was elegant.
She walked beside me, humming quietly, hands clasped behind her back.
"Where do you want to eat?" she asked.
"Somewhere close," I replied. "I'll be busy later."
She smiled again. "Of course you will."
I didn't question that either.