บท 20: Chapter 20: Pranking each Other

Kane had many questions as he looked at the hovering machine, something that looked right out of a sci-fi movie. He had no idea how the XI89 fighter jet he had flown compared to this, but something told him that this was way ahead of that machine.

"Asche said that you could now teleport us with you, so does that have something to do with the jet?" He had been imagining that his friend had a simple upgrade to his ability that now allowed him to carry people along while teleporting. A jet had not been what he was expecting.

"Something like that. I found that the GUIDE would teleport anything that I was holding onto. So, I wondered if I was holding onto my car, would it get teleported along with me? And that is how I lost my car, not that I have a need for it now.

But after playing around a little, I figured out some rules. Anything smaller than my fist will get teleported along with me, but if it's bigger, it needs to be made of a material that can survive travelling through space. And not anything can survive travelling through the space-time fabric. Which is where the jet comes in. It's a machine capable of flying through the space-time fabric. Sort of like wormholing.

But since the space-time is in turbulence now, I can't use it for that. Instead, I use it as a container. It will get teleported along with me and everything else that's inside. Living or non-living, I can transport anything as long as it's inside this jet with me. A neat use of my ability, I think."

Kane was impressed at his friends innovation. The ability to teleportation was already broken. With this additional aspect, it would come in handy in a lot of situations.

"So, the jet is practically useless to us, other than being used as a big backpack for you to carry around?" Him being impressed didn't mean that he was going to give his friend the satisfaction of showing off at him.

"You can try to play around with it, but it didn't come with a manual. So for the time being, it's just a container. Although I am sure that this thing can not only travel through space-time, but we probably try interstellar travel, visiting the moon if we could maneuver it." Zephyr replied sheepishly. He had only obtained this thing in his second world scenario challenge yesterday. So even though he felt confidant that he could figure out its control, he didn't want to accidentally end up in a space-time rift and then find the consequences later. Asche and he had been trying to make sense of its control but had given up after nothing seemed to work.

The GUIDE didn't actually help him out on it either, so it was really just a big backpack to teleport him and his friends around.

"Well, maybe I can figure out how to maneuver this jet. Let's find out."

Kane was somewhat confidant of his claim. He had future Kane's memories, and that man's knowledge was out of this world. Not only was he almost a thousand years old, an enhanced human and a researcher at one of the most established lab in his reality, he had also been actively involved in invading alternate realities.

His knowledge and experience combined were more precious than all other versions he had absorbed. Not to say that those versions of him weren't special, but they couldn't compare to future Kane.

Zephyr, on the other hand, felt skeptical. But he still agreed and waved his hand, creating an opening to enter. He beckoned at Kane to stand under the entrance.

"You're a newcomer, so I have to register you with the jet first. Registered passengers can directly enter the jet from anywhere within a radius of 10 kilometers from it. The jet will scan you, so stay calm."

Next moment, a beam of light fell upon Kane, who stood under the jet. He felt a tingling pass through him, but then it was gone in an instant. And then his surroundings changed.

Standing in a spacious cabin, surrounded by seats placed along the walls, it kinda reminded him of the quinjet from the Avengers movie. He looked forward to the cockpit, where Zephyr was already seated. His friend turned around and gestured at him to sit beside.

"So this is it. You're up if you want to play around and try to fly this thing. Just let me tell you not to mess with that section." He pointed to controls placed right in the center of the panel in front of the seats. "The GUIDE was kind enough to mention that those controls deal with travelling through the space-time fabric.

Other than that, I know the general idea of what does what, but even then we could not pilot this thing. I don't think we are doing anything wrong, but then again, we are noobs too. Give it your best try."

Kane nodded his head in understanding and sat beside Zephyr. He glanced at the panel in front of him, taking in everything.

The panel was strange. None of the controls on the panel seemed to be related to flying the jet. The throttle and the sidestick were both missing, while all the buttons seemed to deal with in-flight operations. After checking the panel, he was sure the method to make this wonder fly was not located there on the panel.

"Did you try communicating with its in-built AI? There definitely is something lacking, as if this machine itself is in a slumber." He felt that there should be a core AI built into this jet.

"The GUIDE did mention that its AI had to be removed due to reasons it can't provide. It was being cryptic, honestly. There is no audio recognition or gesture control response. Asche and I tried everything we could think of."

"Well, let's see if this works out." Kane said as he brought his palms together.

The core of his palms transformed, as a honeycomb like design appeared at the center. Zephyr did not catch the minute change, as he looked at his friend, seemingly praying with his palms held together. He thought that he had lost it, when suddenly a blue screen popped up in front of him.

Kane smiled, as his palms went back to normal and turned to Zephyr, "That wasn't too difficult. Someone indeed removed the sentient part of the AI from the jet's core, which put its control center into a slumber. I just had to pray to jump start it. Let's take this beast for a ride now."

"Here, input the coordinates for our destination. Even if we don't teleport, the ride shouldn't take much long. This should be fun," He said while keeping a poker face. He passed the blue hologram to Zephyr to fill in the coordinates while the control panel in front of them transformed. Holographic controls popped up on the panel, with extra instructions hovering beside the control.

He was trying hard to hold his laughter as he looked at the shocked expression Zephyr had. What he had done just now was to make use of a mutation that actually allowed him to communicate directly with artificial intelligence. As he had mentioned, someone had put the core of the AI into a slumber after its sentience was removed. He had thought to try this method to check for some clue, but had directly awoken the core AI that was not sentient.

This specific mutation came from a version of him that lived in a reality that had gone down the path of merging life with robots, developing ways to combine the spark of humanity with the cold rational of machines.

After the coordinates had been input, Kane controlled the jet to take off. Zephyr, on the other hand, was silent. He did not question him or even speak out as the journey began in silence. Kane just grinned and rushed the jet at its top speed, following the route that was shown on a holographic screen beside him. The velocity of their carrier continued to increase, reaching mach 10 in a few seconds. Kane was thrilled at its speed and build, as even when they were moving at such speeds, the interior of the jet did not feel uncomfortable at all.

But soon he noticed that Zephyr was still silent. He was starting to feel a little strange, but decided to let his friend take his time to ask him whatever was cooking in his brain. Amongst them, Zephyr was the most inquisitive one, who would have the most questions. So he knew that he wasn't just shocked or startled, but was instead trying to make sense out of what he had just experienced. But ten minutes passed by and he still did not say anything.

Another five minutes went by as he slowly drew closer to their destination. As he looked at where they had arrived, Kane was confused by his surroundings. They were in the middle of nowhere, a desert practically. He did not understand why his friends were gathered here. But then his confusion increased when he finally reached coordinates and there was still nothing that would indicate the presence of his friends. Only white sand stretched until the horizon.

A little freaked out, he turned to Zephyr to ask him what was the situation, when suddenly an alarm blared out. For the third time, Kane experienced a jet under his control go turbulent, as the machine started nosediving for the desert dunes. Nothing he did stopped it from accelerating. He watched as the ground neared at the speed of sound, seconds away from being blasted, when all of a sudden, the jet halted. He flew out of his seat, plastering his face on the window.

Amid the chaos, a soft laugh sounded from behind him.

"That was definitely worth it."