Chapter 114: Splitting the World Across My Vision via the Synaptic Hive

Chapter 114: Chapter 114: Splitting the World Across My Vision via the Synaptic Hive

On the other side of the mat, Rei made a low amused sound and pulled her ponytail tight, fingers working the tie until the line of her hair sat severe and clean again.

The loosened strands from our earlier exchange disappeared.

What remained was the version of her that treated blood as budget and proximity as a tool.

"Primary protocols first, then," Rei said, not quite a mockery.

"I’ll stretch until your baseline is done. Try not to make the work so loud I can taste it from the wall."

Gianna’s eyes flicked toward her once, acknowledgment without greeting, and then returned to me.

"Anchor distance management," she said, as if reading Jenna’s schematic from memory.

"You hold the channel without leaning on it. I apply pressure. You distribute without grabbing. If your class reaches, you name it out loud before it moves."

"Agreed."

[Joint evaluation block: initiated]

[Participants: Gianna Everheart — Primary Anchor]

[Rei Lawless — Secondary Candidate | standby]

[Host regulation load: Nominal]

[Directive: Efficiency over dominance]

I formed a single chain and let it hang loose at my side, not as a threat toward either of them, but as a calibration weight.

The scratches Rei had left on my arm and neck still stung under the open air of the tank.

Gianna noticed them; her gaze snagged for half a second on the red lines and then moved on, filed under evidence she already possessed.

"Clock starts on your mark," I said.

Gianna stepped into the ring proper, bare feet quiet on the treated mat, and set her stance without flourish.

"Mark."

The first exchange was not a spar in the way Rei preferred.

Gianna came in with controlled telekinetic taps, pressure at the ankle, a shove at the hip, a sudden weight on the chain-hand that forced me to dismiss and reform rather than muscle through.

I kept Fracture Step in reserve. I kept the anchor channel open enough to feel her presence and closed enough not to drink.

When the class stirred- curiosity, hunger, the old reflex to close distance and turn contact into claim- I said it.

"Reach."

"Throttle," Gianna answered, and the next pressure came harder, testing whether the word had been honesty or performance.

From the wall, Rei watched with her arms folded, ponytail neat, eyes bright with the patience of someone willing to wait for the afternoon block and the version of me that had to hold two rhythms at once.

"Don’t go gentle because she’s quieter than I am," Rei called once.

"Jenna’s scoring efficiency, not manners."

Gianna didn’t turn.

"Stay on your timer, Lawless."

"Gladly."

I bound a low sweep of kinetic force with a chain net, stepped through the collapse of it, and put myself at Gianna’s flank without touching her more than the drill required.

The anchor hummed. Her breathing stayed even. For a moment the hall was only footwork, named reaches, and the clean strain of trying to be precise in front of an audience that included the person who had sent a video and the person who had restored a channel without promising forgiveness.

"Again," Gianna said.

"Again," I agreed.

Behind her, Rei’s smile was thin and interested.

I stepped back and looked at Gianna.

The first block had been distance and throttle, useful, incomplete.

Both of us had kissed, sparred around each other, carried an anchor between us.

But we had seldom moved as a pair.

"You never fought alongside me," I said, and formed a second chain, letting the end hang open toward her hand.

"Not really. Let’s train our movements."

Gianna’s eyes went to the link, then to my face.

A short hesitation. Practical, not dramatic.

She closed her fingers around the ethereal line, and the connection settled with a pull behind my sternum.

"If you yank me off-balance on purpose," she said, "I’m ending the block."

"Fair."

[Pair link established: Gianna Everheart]

[Target Bound. Select Chain Property:

>Forced Submission

>Appraisal

>Combat Weapon]

I selected Appraisal.

[Tactical Operator Options Unlocked]

[Shared Vision & Target Locking: The host can now perceive the battlefield directly through the bound target’s viewpoint, allowing for seamless blind-spot coverage and synchronized targeting.]

[Activating Appraisal Sub-Routine: Synaptic Hive (Rank: Support)]

We started simple.

I stepped left.

The chain carried intention before the full motion finished.

She matched, not mirroring like a dance partner, correcting like a Vanguard who refused to be dragged.

I cut right and short.

She shaved the angle and kept her center.

When I sent a pulse of forward-cover, she moved on the outside line and left my blind side clean without being told twice.

"Again," she said.

"Faster."

We ran it faster.

Fracture Step stayed mostly off. This was about the link, not escape.

Once she sent pressure back up the chain, a telekinetic nudge timed to my footfall, and I had to dismiss and reform mid-stride or trip myself.

"You’re feeding noise into it," I said.

"You’re leaving the channel soft. Tighten or I will."

I tightened.

The next sequence landed cleaner.

For a stretch of minutes the hall shrank to footwork, breath, and the low hum of a primary pair learning each other’s timing in public.

From the wall, Rei stopped stretching.

I felt the weight of her attention and didn’t look over until the current run ended.

"Second link," I said.

Rei’s brows lifted.

"Already?"

"Jenna wants dual data. We don’t get it by keeping you decorative."

I formed another chain and extended it.

"Same rules. You don’t bleed for a rhythm problem. You move."

Rei took it without ceremony.

The second connection hit harder than the first, different signature, hungrier residual, blood-core static riding the line like heat.

[Secondary link established: Rei Lawless]

[Dual feed: Active]

[Warning: Signal Interference risk elevated]

[Host cognitive load: Rising]

The world split.

Not fully.

Enough.

Gianna’s field of view layered at the edge of mine: mat lines, my shoulder, Rei’s position as a threat-shape in her peripheral.

Rei’s feed came in sharper, lower, aimed at joints and exposed skin, the scratches on my arm still tagged as useful.

I tried to step them through a basic three-point cover: me center, Gianna left-forward, Rei right-rear.

"On my mark," I said.

"Move."

They moved fast.