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24 - Hero Points
🕑 Added 2025-02-13 13:58:39 +0000 UTCLexie didn't remember the notification for almost another week.
In her defense, she was pretty busy. Apart from her endless black hole exercises, her first few class tests were inching closer and closer and there was quite a bit for her to study. World history. Interplanetary relations. Math. Science and Magic. Politics. Maths.
Even though maths was the easiest out of all them, because there was less new stuff for her to memorize, it was her least favorite to study.
Not to mention she had to field questions from the musketeers every recess, when they frequently wanted to argue about who would win the next preliminary match. After correctly predicting MediKate's win (and two others) the boys seemed to think that Lexie was some kind of diviner, or was using another type of magic to see who would win. Either that, or they thought she had insider knowledge which Abernathy muttered to Chris when he thought she wasn’t listening.
Either way, they didn't bet much anymore, because they automatically sided with her and didn't want to bet against her. So most of their conversations now devolved into long discussions about who the strongest in the league was, which led to very impassioned opinions being thrown about and Boyle's socks being brought up at least once.
"Listen, it's easy," Boyle was saying gesturing with his hands. "Would you rather be punched in the face by a boulder or thrown a million feet into the air? Answer that and you'll know who's obviously the better fighter."
“That’s a terrible argument," Abernathy said.
“Nuh-uh. It's a great argument. Right, Lexie?”
“Right,” Lexie said distractedly without turning around. Trying to ignore him was pointless. He would just keep repeatedly calling her until she answered.
But she kept her focus on the pad on her desk, reading through her prior notes. While doing so, she twirled a card in her hand, performing a push-pull exercise. Trying to kill two birds with one stone. She found that her black hole exercises made it easier for her to push-pull (even without cards) and she was starting to visualize activation even without going into a deep meditative state.
She hadn't tried to fully activate a card for some time, but she was sure she'd finally broken the 30-second barrier.
The volume behind her spiked, and she resisted the urge to snap at the boys to be quiet. Sure they could be annoying, but they were nice guys generally and they considered her a friend. She didn't want to hurt their feelings.
On the bright side, Dewie seemed to be enjoying their company a lot more than she was. He'd turned around in his seat a few times, to interject about gnomes or something equally bizarre. The other guys ignored him whenever he did and Lexie sometimes felt bad when she saw the way his face fall, but she kind of understood too. Dewie was intensely weird. He stared at her for minutes sometimes, like he was trying to solve a really hard puzzle. And he often said things that were either off-topic or off-base. She didn’t know what was going on with him, but she could understand why people kept their distance from him. He was strange.
Yeah, like you're normal.
Lexie sighed. But despite her inner voice, and the prick of guilt she felt, she was determined to ignore/avoid Dewie too.
Until two older boys walked into the class, followed by a teary-eyed girl. The boys were large and looked about fifteen, even though they were probably at most thirteen. And they had furious looks on their faces and zeroed in on Dewie.
“You,” the one in the middle with a severe bowl-cut and missing tooth said. Then he turned to the girl while pointing at Dewie. “Is that him?”
She nodded and sniffled.
His face got angrier. “You and I got a problem, buddy.”
But Dewie wasn’t paying attention to him. He was instead staring at the girl, his face squeezed in distaste.
“Did you tell her that my girlfriend that she had a wart?”
Lexie raised an eyebrow. Thirteen-year-olds could have girlfriends?
“No,” Dewie said, frowning at the girl in distaste. “I told her she has warts. Plural. They’re there right now. And they’re really gross to look at.”
Throbbing silence punctuated the statement. Bowl-cut looked almost stunned by Dewie's audacity.
Lexie gaped at Dewie too, then looked back to the girl. She didn't see any warts on her face.
“You take that back,” Bowl-cut recovered in time to say. "You made her cry. Apologize or I’m going to make you sorry.”
“I’m sorry your girlfriend has warts,” Dewie said with all sincerity. “She should probably do something about them.”
“Dewie!” Lexie scolded. “That’s rude.”
“I’m the rude one?" Dewie gave her an 'are-you-crazy-look', gesturing at the girl. "She’s the one who came in here looking like that. It’s disgusting.”
The girls gasped in outrage and in a flash, Bowlcut snatched Dewie by the front of his shirt hoisting him up into the air, his chair clattering to the ground in his wake.
Lexie jumped a little at the suddenness of the move.
Several sounds of surprise and laughter echoed into the classroom as Dewie wiggled in Bowl-cut's hold, grasping at his wrist.
"This is my mom's favorite shirt on me," Dewie said. "If you bend the collar, she'll never forgive me. She'll never forgive you too."
“Hey,” Lexie shot to her feet before Dewie's mouth could do further damage. “Look, he didn’t mean any harm. It’s just sometimes he sees things that no one else can see.” And for some reason, he feels the need to tell people about it.
“That’s bullcrap, Lloyd. He’s just trying to be funny,” his companion said. “Let’s unfunny him right now.”
“No, don’t unfunny him. I swear it’s true. He really does see things. Ask anyone.”
Lloyd faltered, eyeing Lexie. “So he’s crazy?”
“I’m not crazy,” Dewie protested, wiggling his feet and struggling to escape. Apart from the wriggling, he was pretty calm, as though he was used to this treatment.
“He’s not crazy, he’s just...” Lexie faltered, reaching for a fitting word. Different? Special? All of those sounded like nicer euphemisms for crazy.
“He’s Dewie,” she finished lamely and the storm in Lloyd’s expression returned full force.
“I don’t care who he is. Governor’s kid or not. I’m going to make sure he learns to be nicer to girls.”
And then he turned toward the door, still holding a dangling Dewie while his friend cheered him on and the entire class looked and whispered to themselves in excitement. About half of them probably felt bad for Dewie but the kid had said enough out-of-pocket stuff to everyone that most people probably wanted to see him get beat up.
But Lexie knew that Dewie meant no harm. And memories of her brother and Tate raced through her mind.
The chair scraped out as Lexie followed them, waiting for them to stop. But they kept going. They made it pretty far too, into the courtyard.
Lloyd was a few seconds away from reaching the bathroom doors when he tripped on air and went crashing down.
He dropped Dewie in the process, who rolled away and took off running like a rocket.
Lloyd's friends looked between Dewie and Lloyd as though wondering what just happened. How did their friend trip so badly?
But they would never know the answer. Because the hallways were pretty empty and no one had seen Lexie activate her card.
She put her hand down.
As Lloyd rolled on the grass holding his knee, guilt swam inside Lexie.
Oh God, I hope I didn’t hurt him too badly. But when his friends started laughing at him, the boy got up proving that he had just been exaggerating and was more embarrassed than hurt.
He stared after Dewie's retreating form, debating whether to go after him. Then he seemed to decide it wasn't worth it taking his girlfriend's hand instead.
Lexie hurried back into the classroom before they could see her or suspect she had anything to do with it. Her thoughts raced as she did.
Did I just do that? How?
Why?
Well, the second part was easier to answer. She'd wanted to help Dewie. Though it was kind of his fault he was in trouble, she really thought he misunderstood and maybe thought he did see warts on the girl's face. Maybe he had vision problems.
When Lloyd had grabbed Dewie, her <Getting Out of Hand> card had already been partially activated. Lexie could visualize the pathways with her eyes open now, due to her increased mana sensitivity, and she'd filled the card pathway up as she hurried after them trying to stop them from hurting him.
And then once she was done, she'd pointed at Lloyd's back.
But she hadn’t been trying to trip him that badly. What she’d hoped for was a light stumble like with the server. But he’d fallen hard as though his legs completely failed. And she felt guilty about it.
Lexie thought about going to apologize but she scrapped that thought. No need to incriminate herself. It wouldn't do anyone any good and besides he wasn't seriously hurt.
But she had to be careful with that card. It seemed she'd unintentionally pushed more mana than she wanted to and that had given the card more power.
Which interested her because it meant that there was a range of mana that the card could accommodate and until she reached the threshold where the card would deactivate, how much mana she pushed through the pathway was directly proportional to how strong the effect was.
Good to know.
Lexie was already at her desk when she opened her activation timer.
She didn't notice what it said until she sat down.
At which point she skimmed over it, and her entire body went rigid.
It....it couldn't be.
Did that actually say what she thought it said?
It blinked in the corner of her vision next to another alert that told her she'd recieved notifications. The timer read:
ACTIVATION TIME: 21 SECONDS (ELAPSED)
ACTIVE TIME: 5 SECONDS (ELAPSED)
COOL OFF TIME: 16 SECONDS (4 SECONDS LEFT)
Oh. My. God.
A huge wave of excitement hit her out of the blue, so sudden that she almost jumped to her feet and whooped for joy. Only the faintest sense of situational awareness reminded her that she was still in the classroom.
But oh my God, she had gotten her activation time down to twenty-one freaking seconds!
Not only that, but she'd also reduced her cool-off time, which meant that she was wasting less mana!
It was working. All her training was paying off!
Giddy thoughts ran through her head. She couldn't focus. She just kept opening up her activity log to stare at that activation time again and again.
Did she really activate that in twenty-one seconds? That was almost below twenty. This was the fastest she'd ever progressed.
Guess the black hole exercises were working.
And she barely felt any mana loss during that last activation. It didn't exhaust her, barely felt like anything at all. When she checked her current capacity, it was at 360. Which meant that she'd only wasted approximately ten units of mana, rather than the standard 20 or more that the card would usually take.
Oh my gosh. Aiden is amazing. When I go home I'm going to give him a giant hug.
And then finally she got to the notification.
SYSTCALC...
+1 Charisma.
+1 Bravery.
***
“Something weird happened at school today,” Lexie said while lounging and watching the flat-screen TV. It was her first time using the clear glass television in the living room and even though the images weren't as good as on the black pads, they were still better than anything they had on Earth 2.
Aiden claimed that his wife had gotten the TV. They both liked vintage stuff and Lara said that watching things on TV reminded her of her home in District 8.
Lexie was lying upside down with her feet on the back of the couch and her head hanging off the cushions. She'd been trying a new technique of meditation that was supposed to be improved by more blood flow to the brain.
But after a few seconds of nothing but dizziness, she was starting to think it was all hogwash. She straightened.
Aiden looked over from the other couch. “Weirder than the boy whose socks smell like rotten garlic?" Lexie had finally observed the sock exchange between Abernathy and Doyle after the former backed out on a bet. It wasn't a pleasant experience. “Or weirder than the other boy who sees lizard people?”
“Yeah weirder than both of that. Although, it does have something to do with him. I got a notification today. It said something about me earning charisma and bravery points. What's that?"
“Ah. Did you save someone?”
“Not really. I just helped out a friend. Well, not a friend, more of a... seatmate? Whatever. Anyway, it’s not the first time I got it either. The other day, after I won a bet, I also earned a charisma point. What’s up with that?”
He chuckled. “It’s all normal. It’s just the system letting you in on its affixation calculations.”
“Huh?”
“It’s calculating how good you’d be at a certain affixation. Bravery points usually count towards a [Hero] role. In the same way, an intellect or ingenuity point would count towards a [Researcher] role. And charisma could advantage a countless number of roles and classes, including heroic ones.”
"I see." Lexie doubted that charisma would help in [Research] though, which meant that it was probably useless to her.
“So that means that if I get enough bravery points, I’ll become a hero?”
“Could be." He shrugged. “I don't want you to get your hopes. It’s not that straightforward. It’s just one of the factors that the system looks at before assigning a pre-affixation.”
Lexie thought about it and frowned, annoyed that she'd unknowingly fallen for the system's trap. Why did it feel like the system was trying to trick her into maintaining her [Hero] pre-affixation? How did she get a bravery point for tripping up a guy behind his back?
Wasn't that a bad thing to do? Sure she'd done it to help Dewie, but Dewie had brought the trouble upon himself by making fun of Lloyd's girlfriend. And Lexie's antics had nearly hurt Lloyd. If anything, she should have gotten a [Villain] point if there was such a thing.
And charisma for winning a bet? How did that compute?
Or was it because the boys trusted her judgment more after that? So charisma was equivalent to trust? Well, they also seemed to like her more, seeing as how much they bugged her during recess.
Was that what happened?
Either way, she didn't like it. She didn't want a damn charisma point or a bravery point. She didn't want to be a [Hero] even if the system was determined to force it down her throat.
"Don't freak out," Aiden said watching her expression. "It's not a bad thing. I would say the opposite actually. Typically it's only individuals who have a high affinity that get a peek behind the system curtains, and so you being able to see those calculations even without being fully awakened means that your affinity is through the roof.'
"But I don’t get it," she challenged Aiden. "I’ve been studying cards for weeks. I've made improvements. Managed to activate a card in 21 seconds today. Why didn’t I get any intellect points or discovery points? Or even study bonuses?”
Aiden grinned at her disgruntled expression. “I don’t think the system gives study bonuses. You should get intellect points but those are harder because it counts against your baseline and you already were pretty smart,” he said. “As for discovery points...that's hard also because we’re doing isn’t exactly research. I’m teaching and you’re learning. But a scholar or [Researcher] goes beyond that. That deals with experimentation and trial and error. Not that I’m encouraging that." He shot her a sharp look and a groan of regret. "I shouldn't have said that. Definitely don't do it, but I’m just trying to explain to you how it works. But don't let it bother you, Lex. Just be yourself and let the system figure it out.”
No, I won't. Because the system is deliberately sabotaging me and trying to make me something I don't want to be.
From what Aiden was saying, the system made it far more difficult for her to earn scholarly points than heroic ones, even though she was a far better scholar than a [Hero]. How did that make sense?
She glanced at Aiden wondering if she should tell him the truth. On one hand, she wanted to. He was pretty smart and he would maybe help her figure out why her system had pre-affixed her even before she’d pre-awakened. On the other hand, she was scared about the whole complete soul termination thing.
But at the same time, she needed to understand what was going on, and there was no one else to help her. So she decided to ask it in a roundabout way.
“What if…hypothetically speaking of course, what if the system pre-affixed you before you pre-awakened?”
“That doesn’t happen Lex.”
“Let’s say for argument’s sake that it does. Say I had a friend who told me that they got pre-affixed as a [Hero] even before they pre-awakened. What would that mean?”
Aiden stared at Lexie for a long time. He wasn't a stupid man. He probably knew she wouldn't just ask a question like that out of the blue so he might put two and two together and realize who the 'friend' was.
That was fine. As long she didn't technically reveal it herself, she had plausible deniability in case the soul-terminators showed up.
It's their fault for not telling me the whole story before transmigrating my soul anyway.
Aiden shifted his gaze away from her in thought for a few seconds. She tried to fix her expression into something resembling mere curiosity rather than desperate searching.
Aiden didn’t speak for what felt like minutes. And then quietly he said, “I’m not sure. I suppose it would mean that the system thought that individual would be extremely well-suited for that role and had strong reasons to believe so."
Ha.
Now she knew for sure. The system was messing with her.
The system would have to be smoking something truly lethal, as Abernathy would say, to think that Lexie would make a good [Hero]. The only time she'd ever done anything heroic in her past life was saving Tate and look how well that turned out.
“Does that mean that…the pre-affixation is fixed? It can’t be changed.”
Aiden shook his head. “No sweetheart. A pre-affixation can be changed. Heck, even an affixation can be changed in certain cases. It’s just more difficult. But if you stopped yourself from earning points in the pre-affixation you didn't want, and earned enough points in the one you did, then you could change it at the end. Although..."
"Although what..."
"Given your sit...I mean your friend's situation, it might be harder to convince the system against it."
Shit. That was what she was scared off.
"Hard," Aiden said giving her an encouraging look. "But not impossible."
Lexie released a breath of relief. Ok, hard was fine. She could do hard. She just needed to do some of her own research. Figure things out and earn ingenuity points.
Aiden pinned her with a look as though he could tell what she was thinking. "But Lexie, you shouldn't be conducting magical research on your own. You know that right?"
"Of course," she said in her most innocent tone and he only looked more worried.
"If you need something just let me know," he said. "I'll help you."
She nodded again, still smiling innocently.
Luckily, the oven dinged and he had to go check on it.
While he was gone, Lexie began flipping through the channels until she landed on the image of a familiar woman.
Stella Firebringer's name was emblazoned at the bottom of the screen, encased in flames. She was wearing a red shirt with bronze detailing and once again Lexie was struck by the resemblance to Luther.
She was Veronica’s aunt. Luther’s sister.
Somehow she didn't give off the same feeling as the other two. She felt more laidback even though she had that graceful posture that spoke of etiquette classes and good breeding.
But the laugh lines made her look more jovial.
Except she wasn't laughing or winking right now.
She wasn’t smiling either. She looked grave, listening to the interviewer talk with that intense copper-colored gaze.
"…you for being here today,” the interviewer, a stately woman in a purple suit was saying. “I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us here at Capital News. Now let’s get right to the most important question that our viewers want to know. What are your thoughts about what happened in Alpeco?"
"What do you suppose that I think, Carol?" Stella said with a wry smile. “It was a terribly-executed mission on all levels. Just a whole mess. Communication was poor, the wrong people got sent in, internal politics happened, and people’s egos got in the way. The rescue team decided they'd rather chase down the bad guys than play their role, and command collapsed. It was a complete shit show. We could have done just about everything better. " She exhaled, her smile gone completely. "But we didn't and people got hurt. And that’s on us. Forever.”
The interviewer looked taken aback by that. She glanced toward the cameraman in confusion. It was clear that the [Hero] had gone off script.
"Um..." Carol said, recovering. "Yes, but I'm sure the [Heroes] were trying their best to deal with an impromptu terrorist situation with little warning and a lot of hostages–"
"If that was our best then they need to disband all [Hero] training programs entirely, district-wide. Because what I saw was complete and utter garbage."
Once again, the interviewer made a choked sound and glanced at the camera. Lexie wondered if she was trying to remind Stella that it was still there and that the interview was live. But Stella didn't look like she gave a damn.
"Everyone likes to think that, as [Heroes], we're infallible,” she continued as the interviewer stared at her stunned. “And that if any mistake happens, it happens despite our best efforts, not because we made mistakes. And most of the time we do try to be perfect. It’s what we’re trained for, right? It’s why they pay us the big bucks. But we're also human, and greed and pride and other fun emotions get in the way and then when we fuck up…oh shit, this is a family-friendly channel, isn't it?"
“Uh…yeah..”
“Damn it. I meant to say we screw up,” she concluded. “Is that fine? Screw’s a family-friendly word, right?"
“I think so," the interviewer choked out.
“Yeah. So in conclusion, Alpeco? We screwed up. Big time.”
After Stella finished, she laced her hands together waiting for the next question. The interviewer didn't seem to know what to say next, riffling through her note cards and coughing to cover up awkward silence.
“Um...so you say that, Stella, even though you know your son was part of the [Heroes] assigned to the mission?"
“Sure. My son is a certified [Hero] now and he must be held accountable as all the other [Heroes] must, for the failure that happened in Alpeco. I was there too, albeit late, and someone needs to hold me accountable as well. I think the public should continue to demand answers from the hero association." Her eyes glinted with menace. "I suggest the situation gets audited by mundane law enforcement and the King’s Knights too. Make the investigation as big as you want it to be. People need answers when it comes to catastrophic fuck- I mean screw-ups like that.”
She has a point. Lexie increased the volume, finding her respect for the woman grew with every word. Stella Firebringer wasn't really that eloquent and she didn't sound like she was good at public speaking. But she sounded honest. Trustworthy.
Lexie had a vague thought that this was probably high charisma at work.
On the other hand, the interviewer kept shooting concerned looks to someone behind the camera. Lexie figured at least one PR person was having an apoplectic fit back there.
The interviewer decided to forge on anyway.
“Second question. There’s been a public outcry to the [Hero] association for some days now but the association was clear that they would not be giving any further interviews regarding the incident. And you rarely give interviews yourself. So why exactly are you giving me this one?”
Stella smiled wryly. "Because the public deserves to know the truth, but any other [Hero] who spoke up would be in trouble. Anyone who told the truth would get in trouble with the association, and anyone who lied would get hate from the public. It’s a lose-lose situation for them, you see.”
“But not for you?”
"Well, I'm a high-ranking [Hero] at the association. They can’t afford to get rid of me. Also, my son tells me I have something called an...online clout? It’s supposed to mean I can get away with stuff like screwing around and botching interviews." She smiled a little at the interviewer's chuckle and then sighed again. "To be completely honest with you, Carol, I don't just dislike interviews. I hate them. I have anxiety every time I have to speak to a camera and have my words immortalized by the NET and viewed by millions of people. I hate letting strangers have a say in my life. I hate wearing stuffy suits sitting in freezing rooms, and being annoyed by questions from stylish reporters. No offense.”
“None taken.” The interviewer seemed more pleased at being called stylish than offended at being called annoying.
“But that’s a selfish view. When you’re in the position I’m in, privacy is a luxury. With the kind of power and influence I have, people deserve to know who I am. Because at one point or another, they might have to trust me with their lives, and it’s easier to do that when I’m Stella who can admit she screwed up, rather than the Lady of Dragons who breathes fire.”
The channel suddenly went black and Lexie's head swung over to see her dad standing beside her.
“I was watching that,” she protested.
“Let’s watch something else,” he said, switching to a blonde singer belting out a ballad.
