Prism academy shadowfal.., p.1
Prism Academy- Shadowfall, page 1
Prism Academy- Shadowfall
Copyright License Notes: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Prism Academy- Shadowfall
Copyright © 2023
David Burke
Cover art copyright
David Burke
Table of Contents
Significant Terms
Cast
My Take on Stats
The Story so Far
Chapter 1 - Evaluating
Chapter 2 - Frustration
Chapter 3 - Fear
Chapter 4 - Risk
Chapter 5 - Temptation
Chapter 6 - Amazo Corps
Chapter 7 - Reboot
Chapter 8 – Who is the Enemy?
Chapter 9 - The Machine in the Man
Interlude 1 – Wanted Man
Chapter 10 - The Man in the Machine
Chapter 11 - Battlefield of the Mind
Chapter 12 - Restoration
Chapter 13 - Upgrades and Tactics
Chapter 14 - Stats 1.0
Chapter 15 - Assault on Amazo
Interlude 2 - Teams
Chapter 16 - An Old Rival
Chapter 17 - Hard Choices
Chapter 18 - New Balance of Power
Chapter 19 - A Valkyrie Ascends to Valhalla
Chapter 20 - Mental Design
Chapter 21 - Technokinesis
Chapter 22 - One More Thing
Chapter 23 - Post Bonded Exchange Stats
Chapter 24 - Not a Coup
Chapter 25 - The Heart of Government
Chapter 26 - The Shadow Revealed
Chapter 27 - Collateral Damage
Interlude 3 - Into the Light
Chapter 28 - Waking Up Crazy
Chapter 29 - Next Steps
Chapter 30 - Tandem Training
Chapter 31 - Sparring
Chapter 32 - Choir of Angels
Chapter 33 - Possibilities
Chapter 34 - Stats 2.0
Chapter 35 - One Last Visit
Chapter 36 - Contact
Chapter 37 - Shadow vs Light
Interlude 4 - Battle Joined
Chapter 38 - Touch of the Void
Chapter 39 - The Other Shoe
Chapter 40 – The Will of Man
Chapter 41 - Days of Old
Epilogue - New Beginnings and Old Problems
Stats at the End of Book 5
Author’s Note
Other Books by the Author:
Significant Terms
One of the issues which people have asked for is a reminder up front of who’s who. In the past, I have put an index at the end of the book, but in some ways, it makes more sense to put that here up front.
Board - the group which owns Prism Academy and controls it in broad terms. It is composed of representatives from the five major private shareholders, a representative for the remaining smaller private shareholders, and a government representative—usually from the military. In book 2, Aden gained a seat on the board and thus a vote in his own future.
Bonding - the process of forming a connection between a Ray and Refractor. It is lifelong and causes the two to care deeply about one another. It enhances the Ray while opening that affinity for the Refractor. A Refractor can only bond with a Ray who has one of his affinities which he hasn’t already opened.
Four-X (4x) - the name is given to those rare Refractors who open four of six progenitor affinities.
NAAG - North American Alliance Government. This is the primary government, which is over the 13 remaining cities/safe zones in North America. There are supposedly two other areas where humans remain alive, but as far as the public knows, there is limited contact with those other areas.
Prism - the superhero name of the founder of the academy, a Refractor who had all six progenitor affinities. Now, the name is given to a super with all six affinities.
Progenitor Energy - a mysterious energy which arrived on the Earth 178 years ago and created supers.
When a human becomes a super as a result of exposure to progenitor energy, they manifest one or more affinities which are categorized by colors. Rays can only have one affinity, while Refractors will have between two and six.
Red - Bright Energy
Orange - Movement
Yellow - Senses
Green - Morphic
Blue - Mind
Violet - Dark Energy
Ray - the term for a female super. They all have enhanced strength, speed, and durability, as well as access to one of the six affinities.
Refractor - the term for a male super. They share the same physical enhancements as Rays, but the greater the number of their affinities, the greater their base physical stats. They also have access to between two and six of the affinities—which they can only access by bonding with a Ray with that affinity.
Shadow - a mysterious energy/substance which appears to be the opposite of progenitor energy. It is what corrupts animals into monsters, and what possesses incompatible humans who are exposed to progenitor energy. There are hints that it may be more of a being, than an energy.
Tri-Star - the name given to Refractors with three progenitor affinities. Once the most common of Refractors, now the few who reach this level are some of the greatest supers on Earth.
Cast
Aden’s Nanite Optimization Program (ANOP — aka ANOP) - a nanite based AI system placed into Aden as a child by his mother and other unknown parties.
Aden Samuels (aka Sol) - the first new prism in a hundred years, he is a super with all six affinities. As of the end of book four, he has activated all six affinities for bright energy, movement, sensory, morph, mind and dark energy by bonding with not six, but seven matching Rays. He had also bonded with a psychic Ray, Queenie, in book two, but she was killed by the shadow, leaving that affinity opened but bondless.
Aqueous (aka Molly) - a Ray with a morph affinity that allows her to take various fluid or gaseous forms and, after bonding with Aden, a battle form. She is unreserved in her support of Aden and more than a little handsy. Her world view is pretty simple: whatever is good for her and her team is good—and anything else is bad.
Bravo - a powerful super and chief instructor for the new supers. His affinities are morph and movement. He is bonded with Switch and Flurry.
Catherine - a super with a psychic affinity. She is the right hand of the regent and a prominent scientist within Prism Academy. She has an unknown history with Aden’s parents. Evidence has been mounting to indicate that she is behind a number of bad things, including human experiments and potential deals made with the Shadow. She betrayed mankind and briefly worked directly with and for the Shadow before being killed by Krig.
Demis (aka Jill Perkins) - a Ray with a dark energy affinity. She came from a troubled background of abuse and neglect, but instead of allowing it to make her a victim, she has sought, imperfectly, to live life in her own way. She was highly protective of Aden even before bonding with him at the end of book two. It stands to reason she will be even more so now.
Feinston - the regent of Prism Academy, he is responsible for overall recruitment of new supers, and is head of the Chicago branch. His affinities are psychic and movement.
Flurry - one of Bravo’s bonded Rays. She has a movement affinity.
Inertia - a Ray and former teammate with Precision and Aqueous. They had all agreed never to bond unless they all bonded the same Refractor. She has a dark energy affinity. She attacked Aden in book one, attempting to force a bond with him, and then has joined forced with poachers and worse in book two.
Inferna (aka Jen, or Jennifer Soros) - heir to the Soros Clan and a Ray with a bright energy affinity. She is Aden’s first bond and the one he goes to for advice in dealing with political machinations. Upon the murder of her father in book four, she leads the Clan, though she leaves its day-to-day operations to her aunt.
LM (aka Lean Man, or Daniel Brown) - a super who acts as Aden’s Mentor. His two affinities are morphic and sensory.
Precision (aka Willow Thompson) - a Ray with a sensory affinity. She is Aden’s yellow bond and the tactical leader of their team. Aden had the tech team work on developing drones and some high-tech armor to enable her to see the entire battlefield and better direct their team. She came from a well-to-do family, but nothing like the Soros Clan. Her commitment to Aden is unwavering, but she worries about being able to protect him.
Queenie - a renegade super who Aden bonded in book two. The bond drove her to sacrifice herself in an attempt to protect Aden, because she was unwilling to lose the love she felt through the bond—something which she had never truly experienced before in her life.
Supreme - one of the three strongest supers in the world—until Aden appears. He has affinities for movement, positive energy, and sensory. He sponsors Aden to take the test to determine if he can become a super.
Switch - one of Bravo’s bonded Rays. She has a morphic affinity.
Sybilla (aka Sybil Mizr
Titana - a green or morphic affinity Ray on Aden’s security team. While she can’t bond with Aden after Aqueous opens his morphic affinity, she believes in his mission and is attracted to him. In book four, using the appropriation power Aden retained after bonding and then losing Queenie, he works with Sybil and Molly to create a pseudo-bond with Gabi. He is able to upgrade her while copying her mass changing super ability. Though not a bond, Aden commits to make her part of his growing harem and she becomes the first of his committed.
Twinkle (aka Kenna Malone) - a Ray who works for the Soros Clan. She has a movement affinity with the ability to teleport. She has a bit of a chip on her shoulder, growing up in a poor family which is barely part of the clan. She and Aden connect over their common experiences of growing up without much. In book four, she and Priska—who uses her wraith-like ability to phase into Kenna during the bonding process—coordinate to forge a twin bond, opening Aden’s final (movement) affinity.
Valkyrie (aka Petra Mitchell) - a military pilot and movement affinity Ray with the ability to duplicate various aspects of vehicles. She is the military’s top pick for his orange bond and connects with Aden over their mutual interest in working with their hands to repair things. Although not picked to be one of his bonded, Aden promises to appropriate her power and keep her with the team as one of his committed.
Wraith (aka Priska Madur) - one of the newly created supers. She has a movement affinity which included the ability to phase through objects and, as she discovered in book two, between dimensions. In book three, Aden rescues her from where she was stuck between dimensions in a place or horrors. She and Aden had started to form a friendship in book one, and she joins the team after that. In book four, she uses her wraith-like ability to phase into Kenna during the bonding process and coordinates with her to forge a twin bond, opening Aden’s final (movement) affinity.
My Take on Stats
The next issue before a brief recap is the set-up of this book. This is LitRPG. To me that means it has stats in it and that those stats are expressly stated.
During regular chapters, I will discuss the upgrades they get, including gear and the above-mentioned aspects. I will talk about when they have a choice between skills. I may occasionally provide a reminder about what a skill or power does, although I try to avoid too much of that. It can be a difficult balance to strike between how much of a reminder the reader/listener needs and what is just going to be annoying. If you are like me, you have many series that you are reading, and sometimes little reminders help.
As for full stat sheets, those will occur in their own chapters and generally only as often as there have been significant changes. That means it could be one to three times per book. I love LitRPG and I love stats, but I know that everyone has different levels of preference. By making them their own chapters, I am attempting to meet everyone’s needs.
If you like stats like me, then you can read or listen to them. If you don’t like them, then you can skip those chapters. That will make it easier for you. Despite the occasional review which suggests this, there is no attempt to pad the word count of a story by doing this. If all LitRPG was written solely for me, there would be more stats, not less, but I am doing it this way to try to meet everyone’s needs. There will also be a summary at the end after the index. You don’t have to refer to that or you can cheat and look forward to see the progress that has been made in this book.
Okay, with that business out of the way, I’m going to recap the story up to this point and then let you dive right in.
The Story so Far
Book 1 – INFERNA
We met Aden in the slums. After being saved by Supreme, who he impressed by standing up to a gang, he gains the opportunity to attend the next test for supers and the testing fee is waived for him. Once he is exposed to progenitor energy, and ANOP becomes active, he learns that his mother injected a nanite based AI into him as a child.
This leads to a number of problems, including the realization that many of his memories have been altered or suppressed, such as how he feels about negative things has been affected. During the testing, he learns that he is the first Prism in more than one hundred years, although exactly what role his mother’s actions played in that is still being revealed.
His primary struggle is to assert control of his own destiny, while wading through the political mire at the academy even as he seeks to learn to control his abilities, form a team, and have his first confrontations with the shadow.
Book 2 – DEMIS
The stakes are upped when he calls the board out and gains a measure of independence by voiding the contract he had signed before taking the exam. He also finds himself forced to bond with a renegade Ray who is guilty of numerous crimes. Aden’s struggles in this book have some of the same elements, but he starts going on more missions outside of the academy—including trying to rescue his ex-gf, who was abducted from the apartment he had shared with her in the slums.
His relationships with his bonds grow stronger, but he is also being pushed to form bonds for his remaining three affinities. New Rays step up, gaining his interest, including Tess, a scientist, Valkyrie, a military officer, and Twinkle, their teleporter. In the end, he bonds Demis as his dark energy bond and reaches a deal with the military and Soros Clan, which effectively holds the rest of the board at bay.
He is rocked by the death of his new psychic bond. She may have been an evil person, but the bond still created an incredibly strong emotional connection between them, and he was nearly crippled by that loss.
Now, Aden resolves to move forward—determining who can be trusted and who is using him—as more secrets are revealed.
Book 3: SYBILLA
This time around, there were a few issues that Aden had to work through involving trust. He and Sybilla had a connection back from the very first book, but the way that she was willing to remove herself as a possible bond felt like he was pushed into a corner. It almost felt like she was not giving him any choice but to bond with Queenie in book 2. It’s understandable that her powers were impressive and add a lot of options for Aden, but she was also a sociopath.
The theme became people (or AIs) doing things for or to Aden with the belief that they were working for Aden’s best interests. This caused Aden to question if he could trust Sybilla, ANOP, and his parents for the actions they took in the past. It was awkward at times but Aden worked through those issues with Sybilla well enough that he felt he could bond her.
Her addition to Team Aden was a big boost in power for all of the girls and Aden, giving him a greater ability to help his bonds shape how their powers developed. One of his new powers allows him to push his bonds and perhaps other Rays to new levels of power. This will be necessary as otherwise his team was going to fall too far behind him.
