Alex took a deep breath as he neared the HEX sector. The closer he got the more the air smelled of ozone and burnt plastic. Ahead, the futuristic blast-door facade came into view, polished metal with smoky glass insets. He stepped over the yellow lines painted on the floor and stepped towards the door that hissed open after pinging his HUD for authentication. The doors ran into the walls on their tracks and released a blast of cooler air.

  Inside, the lab was a hybrid of research facility and the same creative chaos he remembered from his last visit. Transparent walls divided areas filled with advanced equipment and personal workspaces. Tables were piled with gear, dissected animals, or plants of unknown origin.

  Lab techs in gray uniforms moved between stations with tablets, their quiet discussions blending into the hum of machines in the room.

  A sign on the wall read:

  HEX – Human Enhancement eXperiments Division

  “HEXpanding Humanity’s Reach, Responsibly.”

  Alex stepped forward, coin pouch swinging in his grip and smacking against his thigh. A nearby tech looked up from a stack of dismantled gear and wires and just stared at him.

  “Um, Dr. Suresh?” he asked, and pointed questioningly down towards the range where he had been directed the first time.

  The man just nodded once and returned to whatever it was he was working on.

  Alex headed for the range.

  He didn’t have to knock. The doors slid open on approach.

  “Mr. Mercer, Hello!” Suresh’s voice boomed even before Alex had fully stepped inside. “Right, good. You’re here. Nice to see you again. How was your first week? Hah! You’ve brought ballast I see.”

  Alex’s mouth dropped open. Before he could even return the original greeting the doctor had steamrolled ahead and it took an exaggerated look from the man towards Alex’s occupied hand before he caught up again. He glanced down at the coin pouch. “Oh, yes, I just got my stipend. They, uh, give it to you all at once.”

  “Efficient and convenient for them!” Suresh said cheerfully. “Just a little hint though, they will give it to you however you want. If that block is a little heavy, simply tell them you want to pick it up twice per week. And never mind the grump that mans the window. Or womans it, as the case may be!

  Right, good. Well, you can set it over there on the table in the corner, I assure you it will be perfectly safe while we test out your new toys!”

  The man practically crackled with energy today, more salt than pepper in his bouncing step, his eyes bright behind his glasses. Around him, the range was exactly the same as Alex’s previous visit: reinforced walls, scorch marks, ballistic gel dummies positioned in neat rows, and scattered test debris that probably had a name like “data.” Actually, not exactly the same. There was a huge scorch mark across the ceiling above them that hadn’t been there before.

  He pointed up at it and asked, “Misfire, or someone with a really bad aim?”

  Suresh laughed and stared up at the mark. “Yes, well. Mr. Ruiz in Class B was lucky he hit the roof and not his own face when he accidentally discharged his new Specter Gauntlets. But, nevermind that, you’ll see them in action soon enough. I don’t spill your secrets and I won’t share his either,” he finished with a wink before moving off to a table along one of the walls.

  Alex looked up at the scorch mark and wondered what could have caused that. Brandon Ruiz was officially given the class Edge Lord, whatever that was supposed to be. All he knew so far was that it was another spellcasting class. He made a mental note to never stand in front of Brandon’s gauntlets if he could help it.

  On the central table lay a small wooden briefcase. Sleek. Hinged. Unadorned and plain, but with a lacquered finish that showed off the wood grain underneath.

  Suresh gestured like a magician about to unveil his final trick. “Your next pieces of arsenal.”

  Alex stepped forward, heart racing. He had still barely used his staff and couldn’t imagine what other amazing tools he was being given.

  Suresh unclasped the case.

  Inside, nestled in a layer of very fine wood shavings, lay two leather and metal bracers. They were sleek and looked Elvish to Alex’s D&D influenced mind, with dark steel mounted on green leather, polished to a muted sheen and embossed with curling, arcane filigree that caught the light like inlaid silver.

  They were beautiful.

  He reached for one and brushed off the wood shavings that had shifted across the top. He just wanted to stare at them. It was like doing a quest and finding a magical artifact. He knew they were magic, or tech magic anyway, and the feeling that these changed everything was palpable.

  “Excelsior,” Suresh said.

  “You can say that again.” Alex could only stare.

  The doctor laughed. “No, those wood shavings. Excelsior. Or Wood Wool. That’s what they’re called. Incredible packing material actually, and much better for the environment than those foam peanuts!”

  “Oh!”

  “Right, good,” Suresh said, pleased. “Anyway, these bracers should evoke the proper fantasy aesthetic while providing significant battle assistance under standard Earth-3 field conditions.”

  Alex wanted to ask what the standard field conditions were, but decided it was best to just find out later. Instead he lifted one of the bracers.

  It was surprisingly light, both of them together weighed a lot less than his coin bag over on the table. He rapped a finger against the center of the pattern. It rang dully. Solid and cool to the touch. The interior lining was soft, almost velvety. He slid it onto his forearm; the bracer tightened with a soft click, adjusting perfectly to size.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Neat.

  The second one followed suit.

  He thought he could feel a faint vibration run through both bracers and then his HUD flickered with a little icon. He opened it up and read a message saying that it was synced to the devices.

  “Calibration handshake complete,” Suresh said, glancing at his nearby console. “Right, good. Try flexing.”

  Alex flexed his fingers. “No blood drop this time?”

  “Not necessary. They are fastened tightly to your wrists and can communicate with the nanobots flowing through your wrist.”

  The filigree lines rippled with a brief shimmer.

  “Whoa. What was that?” Alex breathed.

  “Indeed! The inlays are metamaterial matrices keyed to your ANIP. Not magic, but the next best thing!”

  Alex lowered his arms, breath quickening. “Okay, what do they do?”

  Suresh clapped once. “Defence first! The shield. Step to the line!”

  They moved to the marked area near the firing lane. Alex lifted his left arm instinctively.

  “Think of a shield,” Suresh said. “Or say it if you prefer. Intent is usually enough.”

  Alex imagined a classic fantasy buckler. Round, curved, sturdy.

  A faint buzz filled the air.

  A spray of tiny, near-invisible microdrones burst outward from the bracer, forming a circular plane in the air, just over a foot wide. Light wavered across its surface like heat distortion. It was slightly curved and hovered about six inches from the bracer no matter how he twisted his wrist.

  Alex gawked. “Oh my god!”

  “Right, good!” Suresh said, grinning at Alex. “Now let’s see how it holds.”

  He tapped a few keys on his tablet and a soft mechanical click sounded.

  Then, without further warning, a crossbow bolt launched from an open panel on the ceiling and streaked towards him.

  Alex barely registered what was happening before the bolt hit his drone-shield at full speed.

  THHNNK!

  It bounced off to the side, clattering harmlessly onto the floor. He had hardly even felt the impact but his heart was hammering. It was his first time standing in front of a crossbow bolt.

  “Warn me next time!”

  “That was the warning!” Suresh called back happily. “See.”

  As he answered another bolt fired. Alex braced. The shield absorbed the impact with a flash of blue sparks as the drones redistributed kinetic energy.

  “Use both arms, Alex!”

  He looked down at the other bracer and imagined a second buckler. It took him a few moments, but eventually a second shield appeared hovering above his right wrist too. He couldn’t help but laugh. He knew he had a huge stupid grin on his face, but didn’t care.

  Then a third bolt streaked towards him. BLOCK

  And a fourth. BLOCK

  More bolts rained down. Alex moved back and forth. The crossbows in the ceiling apertures followed his movements and fired again and again. Each one struck the shields and fell.

  When the arrows stopped Alex slammed the bucklers together and laughed again. Finally he imagined them gone and they folded, more melted, back into the seams of his bracers.

  Alex lowered his arm, breathless. “Holy… Suresh, this is…” he looked around the room, struggling to find the right word. “...this is actually incredible.”

  Suresh preened. “Right you are, Alex my boy. Right you are!” He beckoned Alex to follow him to another station. A fresh block of ballistic gel sat ready, humanoid-shaped and color-coded for impact reading.

  “The best defence is a good offense, as they say. So, these bracers come with a Scorching Blast ‘spell’,” Suresh said proudly, using air quotes around ‘spell’. “Think of heat. A burst. You needn’t shout the spell name, but again, it may help during training. What you want is the image of Dragon’s breath. Yes, that shall do!”

  Alex took position in front of the jello mannequins.

  “Try a short burst first. We are inside, after all.”

  Alex swallowed. Focused.

  “Scorching Blast.”

  The bracelet clicked sharply.

  A cone of intense sparks erupted from his forearm, an arc of white-gold heat that sprayed four feet ahead, hitting the gel dummy with a sound like frying bacon. He could feel the heat on the back of his hand, but not intensely.

  The impact gel darkened instantly, bubbling and rippling across the impact area.

  Alex jerked his arm back and the sparks stopped instantly. “Whoa! That’s hot!” He could actually feel it on his face.

  “Yes! Precisely the idea.” Suresh leaned over the damaged gel. “Thirty percent output. Singed outer dermal analog. Right, good. Very effective. Again!”

  Alex braced and fired a second burst with the other arm. This one, he held for three seconds, sweeping slightly left to right. The first sparks hit and bounced away, but the dummy’s surface quickly bubbled, cratered, and ran with viscous melted gel.

  Alex exhaled shakily. “This is wild…”

  Suresh beamed. “It is functional, theatrical, and safe-ish. The thermal capsules are single-use but automatically refill from the cartridge internal pack. You have twenty.”

  “Twenty?”

  “Inside. You will be given refills for the field of course.”

  Alex looked down at the bracers again, turning them over to look from various angles. He couldn’t understand how there could be twenty cartridges in these things, let alone see a way to recharge them. He figured it must be like the staff — just hold it close and it would absorb into the metamaterial.

  He traced the patterns of filigree lines with one finger.

  With these on his wrists, he felt infinitely more powerful.

  More so than with the staff even. Maybe because these just felt like part of his arm when he was using them.

  Suresh placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Right, good. You adapt quickly. And if your staff is finesse,” he tapped one bracer lightly, “these are force. They’ll keep you alive while you figure the rest out.”

  Alex laughed under his breath. “Connor is going to lose his mind.”

  “Oh?” Suresh asked innocently.

  Alex just smiled.

  “Well, right. That's it for this visit, my young friend. Use your new power wisely. And remember, we recommend 20% or less power during training.”

  “Thank you Doctor,” Alex said and turned to go, then turned back. “Actually, can I take the box too?”

  “Of course, you can store your bracers in there when not in use.”

  Alex thanked him again, and, retrieving his canvas coin bag and setting it in the bracer box. He closed the lid. It just latched.

  “Or that I suppose!” Suresh said and laughed as Alex left.

  I resisted the term magitech for as long as I could. It implies synthesis where there is, in truth, translation. What we are doing with the newer cohorts is not introducing magic to technology, nor technology to magic, but building a shared interface where neither side has to pretend the other does not exist.

  Personal Lab Notes

  Dr. Aarav Suresh, Head of HEX Division

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