Chapter 249: Integration

I was back in the cavern now, and Dave was gone. Whatever had just happened there had occurred in a single moment.

'What are you talking about?' -Eva.

"The TTC thing! I just talked to Dave about this! come on now, don't you know what I am talking about?" I asked in confusion.

"No, you touched the cube, and now you are spouting all this random stuff. What just happened to you?" Eva Asked over the intercom.

What was going on? I was just there talking to Dave, so he should have been real. I mean, I guess it could have been my mind, but that all seemed real just to be a trick of the mind.

Suddenly, the cube stopped moving, and then it started to get smaller. I slowly pulled in on itself until the code could fit in my massive hand.

it kept getting smaller until the point that it disappeared in my hand. Now I was overly confused and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"I can now pick up the new... thing, what is this? It has so many different features and I don't even know where to start with all the different functions that it has. Hyde this thing will let you change your body at will and morph into different things!" Eva exclaimed excitedly.

"That sounds a lot better, wow you really had me worried there for a bit. So, how does it work? Do I just think and it does? Do I get to figure out a cool catchphrase or a hand signal to activate it?" I asked excitedly.

"Tomorrow, maybe, if you are lucky it will be ready to use. This is not a plug and play type of system, so it is going to take a good amount of time to get this to work with the rest of the stuff," Eva explained.

"Hey! What just a minute! Didn't you already absorb it? What more do you need to do? Don't you just take it all in and boom! We're a transformer?! You're the speed queen!" I exclaimed.

"This isn't changing a set of batteries, Hyde! Nor is this a movie! It will take some time to get everything working in the proper order. This thing is changing everything about us, and it will affect you more than just as the Dragon Armor," Eva explained to me. 

"I just assumed it was going to be like installing a new program. The cube sucked into me so easily that I thought that I would have been able to start shorting right away," I said, putting a metal hand to my chin.

"No, this thing is different. Whatever you got from... you said you see Dave? So he left this for you? Whatever this power is, it's changing you down to the chemical level," Eva told me.

I tried to move, but my actions were sluggish, so I decided to sit down. The crystals in the room had gone noticeably dimmer since I absorbed the TTC, but there was something going on inside of me.

As Eva had just said, there was some kind of change happening inside of me. It wasn't something that I could put into words, but there was also something else changing.

"Are you fleeing the Gate Eva? What is happening to it?" I asked, feeling a bit concerned.

I swear to god if Dave just took away my Gates to make me a transformer I will try my damndest to look mad! Hard to get mad about something like that, it was like getting mad about someone taking your toy away and giving you a newer model.

Yeah I really liked that too, but I could get used to this kind of thing. I didn't know if I was losing the Gates or what was happening, and Eva was being silent.

"Sorry, I have been trying to pull up information about this from the Memory Download, but there is nothing. As for you Gates, I don't know what the power is doing to them, but from what I can see, it is fusing with you, the Gate, the dragon, the Dragon Armor, and your magic. All we can do is wait; whatever this thing is, there is no info at all about it, not even a reference," Eva explained.

Now this was exciting! As long as Dave made me stronger and able to play the game better, I was all game for it.

"You said that I was changing, but what does that mean?" I asked, feeling a bit thick for asking like that, but the terms were pretty loose the way she had phrased it.

"Whatever this thing is that you gave you, it is changing how your bodies work. Not just this for, but your human, and dragon forms. when this is down, you should be able to transform back into yourself at a normal size," Eva explained.

"So, is there any point in me waiting around? or should I just go and see what the wolf girl is doing?" I asked.

"You should be able to move now, I suggest that we keep going. I will continue to integrate the systems as we go. I will not be able to explain everything right away, but I will explain them as I understand what they mean," Eva told me.

"Thank you. Don't worry, I get it. Dave liked to do things like this, and if he left it here without any information, that just means that it is that good. Well, if we can get movinging then you are right and we should start making our way out of here. doing you have a route for when we get back to the main cave?" I asked.

"Just head back out the way we came in. You will start to notice a few changes by the time we get back outside," Eva told me, but she seemed distracted.

I stood back up and looked around. The place looked hollow and empty now without the massive cube to fill up the space.

I turned and headed back out the tunnel and into the main cave area. The Mario Brother turtle bud was still a broken and squashed mess in the middle of the cavern, but it was easy to walk around it.

Soon, I was back outside once again in the giant canyon I had dug earlier. I looked around and there was more snow on the ground, and I could see the storm trying to blow in again.

Something was going on with my vision, and I had to blink my eyes a couple of times. Eva had made some screen for me to use as an HUD, but I could only look at them, not interact with them because they weren't actually there.

"The Cube is upgrading our system far past it was before. The overly that I had made for you before is now being replaced with a fully functional HUD, and many new features like this one," Eva said as little parts of my massive metal body started to fly off me like little bugs.

Suddenly my minimap started to become more clean, and I had a full picture of the canyon in a three-dimensional map. I could interact with it using my mind, or even casually using my finger held at any position to turn it.

"That is only the beginning of the changes. The Cube is organizing your Gates powers for you. This system is putting them to work automatically, and will respond to your thoughts and intent. Now you will just have to do what you want to do and it will happen, to a degree. Just like anything, the system will have limits, we just don't know what they are yet," Eva explained.

"There are a lot of things we don't know... you know, Eva? I think that going to be the next tattoo I'm going to get. Gonna put it right on my forehead! Fucking Dave!" I complained.

"In his defense, this is a game, and it wasn't meant to be easy. This is supposed to be challenging or you would get bored too easily," Eva explained, but I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Well, I can't argue with you about that, still..." I was about to start my old tirade game.

"...if this didn't happen, and that didn't happen. Spilt milk, your words," Eva said to cut me off.

"Uck! Just let me whine and complain about it. It is the only thing that I can do that I have control over!" I complained with a smile.

"The systems are ready for you to try the first switch. The system can transform you Into anything, but I don't really understand how it works yet. I suggest that you start with something that you know well. That way there is less chance of a complication happening," Eva explained.

That was solid advice, and I decided to be vanilla and listen to Eva, focusing on my human form. I really had no idea what was going to happen, but then the parts and plates of my body started to move.