A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

"Okay riding a bike is all about balance and, remembering a few simple things, like the clutch, the gear, the throttle, if you …."

As Ryan gave the two downtrodden elves a crash course on how to ride a bike, a group of three comprising of Nigella, Angela and Ilorva were making their way towards their destination, and the fact that Ilorva had won the chance to participate in the mission had made them incredibly sad as they missed their chance to ride a motorcycle, as such under the urgings of the Michalina Ryan had begun teaching them how to ride a motorcycle by using a broken motorcycle that they have gathered the junkyard.

Meanwhile, the trio using the only two that Ryan had created, managed to reach as much near to the enemy base as possible, Ilorva had taken to be a pillion rider sitting behind Nigella, whereas Angela had the radio equipment necessary to maintain contact with the base behind her.

"Ilorva if you have any problem with your combat suit please do not hesitate to tell us.", a soft crackle of radio brought Nigella's voice to her ears.

"Well I have never worn such things as such it would take a moment for me to get used to otherwise it is fine."

Upon hearing her reply Ilorva could not help but join their conversation, "I understand you all are not accustomed to wearing armour as such it might be difficult."

Ilorva shook her head as she replied, "No you misunderstand the clothes we are of slightly different types than you not to mention the armour I have worn till date are of different design so I need some time to adjust, and as for wearing armour, when our powers we were reduced suddenly we lost the ability to put on our armour, they have certain requirements which need to fulfilled in order to wear them and as such we were forced to discard them."

Nigella nodded as she spoke, "Well nothing can be done, for now, we will get your armour later on.", she then looked up trying to see the canopy, as she continued to speak, "Find the tallest tree please."

Ilorva looked around before she pointed towards a tree I think that tree would be better, the trio pushed their two-wheelers near the tree as Angela handed them three grappling guns.

Then they helped Ilorva to attach the gun with her belt as Nigella spoke to her, "Well you have seen how we fire our guns.", Ilorva nodded as Nigella continued to speak, "Well it is similar just aim it towards the canopy and then push this lever and it would do the rest here let me show you."

She aimed her grappling gun and then fired towards the canopy where the hook caught the branches a good few tug later she was sure that the hook firmly attached and as she pulled up fast with a flick of the lever.

"So did you observe carefully how she did it.", Ilorva nodded at Angela's question and she soon found herself rocket towards the canopy, she would have shouted out in glee but the last thing they would want is her shouts of joy drawing unwanted attention.

As the other two joined beside Nigella they found her staring through a binocular which she promptly handed to Ilorva who took it with an eager look behind her mask as she looked through it she let out a small whistle of appreciation, "This contraption is amazing, you people might not have been blessed by magic before but your brilliance shows no bound, the more I see the more I am amazed."

Nigella simply nodded as Angela spoke while leaning against the tree trunk, "'Necessity is the mother of invention' since we never had any magical solution to our problems well we had to find simple ones at that, Nigella you have brought the pencil and paper right?"

Nigella nodded at that as she took out the pencil and paper as she spoke, "Will you do the honours, Ilorva."

Ilorva lowered the binoculars as she let out an eager nod as she spoke, "I would love to."

"So we would start from this side of the fort and then we would circle around it, is it acceptable.", Ilorva spoke as she sketched the side of the wall with the various strategic position that she saw.

As she was busy sketching Angela had taken up the binocular as she looked over the walls if the fort before she spoke with a frown, "The walls and everything has been created with wood, well it is a given as they might not be blessed by someone of Ryuu's calibre but why do they have so many shades, is it not a bit excessive, they should try to burrow themselves underground then."

Ilorva looked up from her parchment with a frown as she spoke, "Did Delimira not mention to you about the most dangerous creature in these parts?"

Both shook their heads as Ilorva bit back a swear as she spoke with a sigh, "I will never understand how that scatterbrain is my superior, there is a creature that roams this part, it is a Roc, big enough to carry an adult male easily, you have to be careful as to not let it catch you off guard."

"Thank you for your advice.", Ilorva simply nodded as she went back on creating their map.

Meanwhile back with Ryan and his group, Ryan had managed to create an oval-shaped building that held the trailer within its bowels, the two-storey building had camouflage pattern covering it hiding it from plain sights especially the forested area proved to be a boon to it.

The building had very little windows though it had a balcony running around the second floor, even though the opening was narrow at the balcony, it had enough points to deploy manned turrets at a moment notice that can be used to kill any unwanted beings that made the mistake of encroaching their temporary base and to make it further intruder proof he had placed various surveillance devices around the base that would alert them for the possible arrival of any creatures.

Ryan was lunging on a chair as he stared into the sky through the narrow slit of the balcony, his eyes twitched as he saw Anne the daughter of the doctor couple look at him from a distance with uncertainty in her eyes, by her side the two doctors had occupied the chairs, which was manufactured by what Jessica had dubbed as 'Ryan Inc.'.

"Hey, Ryan there is something that I wish to ask you.", as Jessica's voice came to his ears he spoke with a lazy look on his face, "What is it Jessica?"

"Well, Ryan you never explained to me how you managed to make the trailer stop."

Ryan sighed at that, 'And there goes my most important secret.', "Well the thing is pretty simple, anything that I make will only work if I allow it, in other words, if I order the trailer not to move it will not, no matter how much you try to."

Michalina frowned as she spoke, "Why did you not tell us about such a nifty skill of yours?"

Ryan shrugged as he spoke, "I never found any reason to inform you."

"Is there any range for your abilities?"

Ryan looked at Florence inwardly growling at her, he knew that at the end of the day she and her daughter were a liability who would turn traitors as soon as the so-called 'King' was nearby he watched as Michalina was about to stop him from speaking but he would not let her as such he spoke with a smile, "It does not matter where you are in this world, I can not only detect your direction accurately, but I can control any machinery created by me."

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes, while he snickered inwardly, 'I can only control any creation of mine within a few dozen meters but that was it and as for direction nope I have no clue, but let them be shocked after hearing my about over-inflated abilities.'

Michalina looked at him with wide eyes as Nikita spoke with awe, "So that means you can turn off and turn on anything from inside our new home while we are hundreds of miles away from it."

Ryan nodded at that as he spoke with a smug look on his voice, "Of course I can", he knew that he could as long as he stood inside 'Fort Genesis', he can control anything and everything made by him within the confines of its walls as such it was party correct.

Dasyra spoke with a look of respect in her eyes, "Impressive that means your enemies cannot use what you make against you."

Ryan nodded only to wince at the narrowed look that he received from Michalina, 'Yup she caught on to the lies I just spoke and I hope she does not blurt it out in front of others that I just lied about it.'

He sat on his chair and soon he found his himself unable to keep his eyes open any longer, the chirping of insects and birds in the lazy afternoon made it difficult to keep him awake as he soon succumbed to sleep.

He did not know what time it was when all of a sudden he jolted awake, as he opened his eyes he was greeted by a snickering Nikita and Dasyra as he could not help but ask out, "What?"

"You are drooling all over your cheek.", Dasyra's answer made Ryan blush with embarrassment when he suddenly stood up in alarm, the reason his nap was disturbed was that he detects multiple signatures near their base.

He quickly looked out of the balcony in hurry only for his brow to twitch, a small flock of birds had intruded into their territory and as a result, they had managed to trigger the alarm.

"Huh, just birds, big birds that had triggered the alarm nothing more."

As he spoke Michalina dashed towards the balcony as she spoke urgently, "The intruder alarm just went off, did something appears near the vicinity?"

Ryan shook his head as he spoke with a sigh, "Nothing spectacular just some big birds."

Dasyra spoke as she almost drooled at the sight as she spoke, "They are not mere birds, get everyone here who can kill from the distance and do so quietly, today I will treat you to something incredibly delicious."

Michalina looked at her with curiosity as she soon gathered others and as they gathered at the balcony Dasyra looked towards Delimira as she spoke with a smirk, "Look over there."

Delimira's eyes widen before she with a hungry look on her face, "Sister there are seven of them, between us six we can easily take them, just pick which you want to kill and then start firing, they are fast as well as cowards of the highest degree and with the death of one of them the rest will turn tail and run."

Ryan looked at the birds that looked like a big dove and yet its feathers were extremely long, long enough to long like they had long tails, not to mention it was red.

They each aimed as Dasyra spoke, "On the count of three…two…one".

It was already near night when Angela and others had returned to the base, they stood back as the entrance slowly swung open, as the stepped inside they were greeted by what seemed to be a festival of some sorts.

"What took you so long? Quickly change into your normal clothes we are starving.", that was what greeted them when they came face to face with others.

Both Angela and Nigella gawked at Nikita from behind their mask, they could have understood and accepted it as some weird quirk of Ryan but they were not mentally prepared for Nikita to act as such.

Ilorva removed her mask as her mouth water as she spoke with excitement in her voice, "Is that Qhien bird that I am smelling?"

As Nikita nodded Ilorva literally vanished from their sight as she dashed towards the changing room to quickly get out of her armour, the report could wait as they have a Qhien bird to feat on.