GPI Installment 2 The Magnidome

System active....

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"Grass?"

"Hello Professor Treggy."

"I would like to introduce you to two of your teammates. Optinanos, on."

I'm not everywhere, again. There's Treggy, he's combed his hair. In the corner of my optinanos I see a bobbing fluff of silver blond curls.

"Treggy, to whom does that hair belong?"

"Uh... what... oh, your vision. Sorry, hold on. Grant GPI full visual control. Just turn them now, it'll work."

What does he mean by turn? Focus. All the optinanos. Concentrate on one blade. That is the joystick. Tilt the blade right, up, left. STOP! Hmmmmm... tan and wrinkly? It does go well with his blond curly ducktail haircut. What's that behind him? A cloud? A cloud! GCI! He's not actually grey though. Very fluffy and successfully hovering.

"Whose the elderly man?"

The elderly man glanced over to Treggy horrified, and Treggy glared at me.

"He's not elderly," where's that voice coming from? "He's only 54 years old." GCI flashed with every syllable that emanated from his misty mass. He's light grey now, with swirling patches stretching in all directions.


"My apologies for not having the ability to calculate age based purely on appearance. You seem to know this man very well GCI, so he must be Quailstrom."

"Correct GPI, these are your new teammates: Grey Cloud Intelligence and Pecorary Quailstrom. You will be spending the next few hours learning and practicing your combined abilities in the Magnidome."

"Magnidome?"

"Yes, the Magnidome, it is your training ground, boot camp if you will. You can practice your moves on holograms." Treggy turned his back to me and flipped a few switches on the console he was now facing. The table I was resting on began to lower into the floor as a new floor closed above me.

"Wait? I have moves?!"

Through the foot wide hole still closing above, Quailstrom grinned at me and nodded.

Pitch black. Am I moving? Actually I'm moving at 90 miles p... I've stopped. Light peeking down at me as if it's scared to show its face. Rising at sluggish pace. All around me is grass, my blades brushing against what inspired my creation. Above, a dome of 4-feet thick solid titanium. What are those disks flying around?

"Hello? GPI, can you here me?" Treggy voice was blasting from all ends of the dome.

"Yes, crystal clear."

"Good, now speaking of clarity, what you see zipping to and fro above you are about 200 magnifying glasses, hence Magnidome. But they can accomplish much more than just magnifying what you hold them over. These glasses will produce the holograms you will practice your combat techniques on."

"I can move?"

"Not exactly, no. You can, however, use your elastigrass. You have about fifty blades that can extend to 30 feet long. They give and take from each other to reach required heights and quantities."

"You're ridiculous Treggy." Such a horrifically manly voice. It's like he injects his breakfast with testosterone and then eats it by giving it that piercing glare. Quailstrom is a masterpiece of the Human Tinkerers. And what bushy blond brows? And what soft hands for a man who piloted a CReaper 18 through the fire sandrils of Majucryan? Wait, why is touching me? "Which one of these can stretch?" He began to yank on my blades.

"Hey, would you respect the poor AI? He's only been aware of his existence for a day." Apparently, Treggy got lazy with me. GCI can use inflections in his speech. And GCI does not totally hate me for calling Quailstrom elderly. "Let's set it up, Treggy. Level one."

"You betcha. Alright GPI, this is how it's going down. You are going to try to immobilize the hologram; it's of a man, so that Quailstrom and GCI can arrest him. Got it?"

"Yes?" No inflection.

"Very confident, I like you." Quailstrom winked in my direction and leaped headfirst into GCI, who then shot 70 feet into the air. "Bring it Treg!!!!" His voice blended with GCI's and echoed across the dome.

Clicking noises came back in response, followed by 3 rather large magnifying glasses hovering at a height some 12 yards underneath GCI. They each lit up red, then yellow, then green. Brilliant white lights beamed from all three. The lights met in the grass only a few inches from me. A flash, and then there was a translucent man. He was very life-like, blinking, looking around nervously; he'd just done something bad. He shaded his eyes with his hands and squinted at the sky. His eyes stop on GCI, a look of terror grew on his face. He broke out into a sprint away from me.

"GPI!!! Now!!!"

As if upon instinct, four blades whip out and grew at incomprehensible speeds toward the running light man. Seconds later, the blades were retracting with a limb in each. The man was strapped to the ground, to me. GCI was hovering only a few feet above me and the hologram now. Quailstrom dropped out of him applauding with a look of pure glee in his eyes.

"Fantastic!" Treggy yelled as he ran through a metal arch into dome. He made it to us in a minute or two. Panting, "Swell, very swell. That is enough practice, you seem to know what you're doing. GPI, deactivate."

The cheering Quailstrom and the dome faded to black, followed by GCI. Treggy continued to stand in the pitch black and grin.

"Treggy?"

"Any questions?" Treggy responded.