For the next couple weeks, Meditat dedicated more time in the afternoon to develop better integrations for Orial into his suit, and while he still had to rely on bringing his Connect into battle for those few weeks, he was steadily improving his own suit's capabilities in order to eventually make the Connect's presence obsolete.
It required far more complicated mechanics to be built into every suit he'd make however, as he'd need to house his own computer into his suit, and create hardware for that computer to be able to utilize.
He continuously changed between different designs of how to execute the integration, using his time in the city as ways to test the effectiveness of each design.
Of course, he could not only work on the integration of Orial, as he also needed to continue bettering his suit. He added stronger armor on places that mattered more, tried to find more efficient designs that wouldn't cause him to become too big yet would provide adequate protection.
This was still his main goal, as while it was important for Orial to be effective in aiding Meditat, it was also paramount for him to be able to be effective in combat himself, as he was still the only one physically engaging in combat.
So over the weeks, Meditat's suit goes through changes, trying to maintain some sort of sensible design while also having practical advantages.
On one of the days, Meditat was surveying the city, pulling himself towards building after building as he searched for a fight.
His legs had an arrow stripe design that ran from his waist to his black boots, with a pattern of blue and white plates. Each plate slightly overlapped the other, providing subtle protection for every layer while also providing flexibility.
His abdomen also has a striped design, composed of eight plates, with four on each side, going down to his waist area. A pattern of black and white was featured, with a row of black followed by a row of white and then repeated. The individual plating provided breathability, yet it was still linked together as they sat over a singular mesh, allowing for absorption of impact.
The chest and shoulders remained relatively simple, with a series of connected blue plating, placed together to allow for only a minimum gap. It was more heavily armored, as there were multiple meshes under the heavy plates, trying best to protect the most targeted spot.
As Meditat boosts past several stores, looking over the city ahead, Orial speaks to his ear, still speaking through his Connect: "I am connected to cameras and microphones, however, am picking up severe wind, so cannot discern other sound. But can see city, is this Versepolis?"
Meditat aims his hand at an incoming office building ahead of himself before attaching on and jerking his arm back, throwing his body forward with great speed. He then answers, "It is, Orial. This is the home we need to protect. Sorry for the audio, I forgot how loud it must be outside. I'll work on that later, what matters is that you have visuals and will be able to hear once we're on the ground."
Orial responds simply, "That should correct."
Meditat nods his head before swinging off another office building ahead, tailing the road which is full of pods driving from one stop to another.
He watches as a few pods pull into a charging station off the side of the road, which has four individual stations that allow two pods on either side.
Simply by letting the pod rest on the ground under the station's roof, they charge up, providing the driver more distance to go for the day, which was typically necessary for people as busy as those in Versepolis. Especially for those who came from other planets, which was most common for the city, having a strong supply of recharge stations was a requirement.
Most of the drivers stay inside their pods, watching the fuel gauges until it reaches its maximum, however there was also the option of resupplying other needs such as food from the convenience store right next to the stations.
The store was lower to the ground than most buildings, making it harder to use as a point to swing off of, but there were hardly any other buildings within proximity, and so Meditat would need to use it to boost himself forward to continue his search over the city.
Meditat disconnects from the building he had his left hand pulling towards, and he glides towards the charging station. He lands on the center of the roof and begins sprinting towards the far end, where he then planned to make his leap. He runs with loose arms, looking to a set of three-story buildings ahead that he could pull towards.
As he runs, he feels a sudden painful burning sensation on his feet, as though he was stepping on lava.
Meditat winces in pain, as every step he takes causes the burning once again, which makes him feel as though the bottom of his feet were being torched.
He leaps into the air prematurely, as he hadn't gotten to the end of the rooftop, but rather than continuing forward to the next set of buildings, he guides himself towards the front of the store, as he becomes curious.
He lands in front of the store, garnering the attention of the drivers charging their pods and their passengers. They all look at Meditat with wonder, as most of them had no idea who he was, since he wasn't too popular due to his fresh status and constant evolutions to his appearance.
Meditat doesn't seem to notice them anyways, as his focus was on the store rather than the charging stations. He slowly approaches the store, his blue eyes trying to peer inside as the door opens in front of him.
Just by nearing the store, he begins to feel hot again, however now it was his whole body rather than his feet. The heavy armor wasn't helping either, as he was already relatively warm due to the insulation of his suit.
Meditat enters the store regardless, noticing a red glow, and being inside the store makes him feel even warmer. He tries to put it behind him, and searches for the source of the heat, which doesn't prove much of a challenge after hearing a shout nearly immediately after entering.
The shout was of a middle-aged man, who orders, "Dump all the credits you guys have! The longer you make me wait, the hotter this place will get. And believe me, I can take this up until your skin starts flaming."
Meditat runs towards the sound of the voice, which wasn't too far from him, and he finds the cashier, standing behind a table that has shelves of candies and other last-second purchase foods. He sees the cashier, who's whole face was sweating profusely, and was holding his hands out in front of himself as he cowers in fear.
Meditat then notices another man standing in front of the table, wearing a white tank top and long blue pants. The man, as he guessed, was in his 40s, with some white hairs on his exposed arms.
The man seems to be unaffected by the heat, as he stands healthy, looking down at the cashier.
The cashier cries, "Please stop! I can hardly even move, how am I supposed to unlock the register? Just let me be, and I'll give you anything you want!"
The man seems to get angered, and suddenly, Meditat feels far hotter, as though the heat of the room instantly intensified. The red glow becomes more intense, and the cashier screams in pain, his skin already seeming to glow.
The man threatens, "Make another demand, and your body will light up. You are in no position to ask me for anything, you pathetic waste! Now shut up and give me my credits! Now!"
Meditat interrupts, shouting "And you're in no position to push others that way!"
The man turns to face Meditat, initially unaware of his presence, and he tilts his head in confusion. He asks, "What are you supposed to be?"
Meditat answers, "My name's Meditat, now whatever this heat bubble is, take it down."
The man smirks, and he says, "I guess I'm fine with doing that."
To Meditat's surprise, the heat drastically lowers, allowing the air to become far more comfortable to be in. The red glow calms, and the burning sensation comes to an end.
Meditat sighs in relief, and he says, "Thank you, now please step away from the cashier."
The man shakes his head, and he instead says, "No, I'm only halfway there, I'm not done yet."
Meditat's eyes widen, and he begins to start feeling chills, however rather than it being of nervousness, they were literal chills. As if winter had come, Meditat feels gradually yet quickly colder, causing him to grit his teeth behind his mask.
The cashier lets out a sigh of relief after the heat initially neutralizes, however he begins to shiver only seconds later, as the cold hits him as well.
The man chuckles, and asks, "Isn't this what you wanted? As cool as you asked for?"
The melted chocolates around the store begin to harden, and the windows around the store start to freeze. A blue glow starts to come over the store, as it slowly becomes clear the man's intention wasn't neutrality.
Meditat groans, and he takes a step forward, attempting to approach the man and take him down. However, with every step he takes, the air becomes colder, and his body begins to feel slower.
The extreme cold makes movement painful and difficult, as his body instead desires to stop and ball up to warm itself, yet that wasn't something he could do in such a situation.
The man glares more intensely as Meditat attempts to resist the cold, continuing to approach him, even though it was clear it wasn't an easy task. He strengthens the field around him, causing the glow to become darker, making the air colder and colder.
Meditat feels his whole body freeze, as while he was only a couple steps from reaching the man, he couldn't step forward. His legs freeze in place, so he tries to reach out for the man, hoping to grab him since the man wasn't too far from his reach.
His arm becomes slower as his blue eyes stay on the target, putting all his effort to make one simple move.
Meditat's hand draws close to the man, however even with all of his might, his hand stops only a few inches away from the man's body and stays in place.
Meditat's eyes widen as he finds himself unable to move, as he is completely frozen in place. He feels his suit freeze up, turning into a statue and an isolating cage that traps its own creator.
No matter how hard he tried, Meditat couldn't push forward, he could only stand there, defeated.
The man smiles before pulling his arm back, and delivering a hard punch to Meditat's shoulder. The punch causes Meditat to fall backwards, and while he was unable to move, the punch caused excruciating pain, as his shoulder was already so cold and felt so weak. Meditat couldn't move to express his pain, he could only stand still and scream internally.
The man shakes his wrist, laughing while exclaiming "Wow, that is solid metal, huh? Well, it was worth the little pain to see you fall. Now, stop bothering me."
He then turns back to the cashier, who was completely still, his teeth gritted as he seemed to also have frozen.
The man groans, and he says, "Well, I still need you to move, dammit. Come on, let's put it back to the way I like. Nice and hot."
The air then begins to turn back once again, as the intense blue glow fades away, and the cold atmosphere neutralizes. The store returns to room temperature, and the cashier begins moving again, still shivering after the earlier cold.
However, the cashier only gets a few seconds of normalcy before the store becomes red again, and the heat starts to kick in, as the man seems to be bringing the original atmosphere back.
The cashier starts to breathe heavily and rapidly as the red glow becomes stronger, and he feels hotter. The field seems to climb even higher than before, as the store becomes hotter than it ever was, causing all the frozen foods to start melting again. The wooden shelves begin to glow as well, and burns start appearing on the cashier's body.
The man demands, "Now, give me all the credits you guys have! I'm not messing around!"
The cashier nods, and he tries to approach the register, his whole body burning in the sweltering heat. It hurt to move, even more than before, but he had no choice. He shouts, "Yes, I'm sorry!"
The man grunts, and he says, "Shut up and get my money."
The shelves around the store begin to erupt in flames as the heat continues to intensify, causing the cashier to scream in fear, but keep his focus on opening the register in hopes that it would end the violent robbery.
Meditat groans as he lays on the ground, having stuck on the ground for several moments even after his suit and body loosened. The pain of the punch still lingered, but he had to get up.
He slowly stands to his feet, resting his hand on the shoulder, panting heavily.
It felt as though he was being cooked alive, his suit burning, and his skin melting. It was extremely excruciating, but he couldn't give up, he had to do something.
He looks at the man, whose focus was on the cashier. Meditat wanted nothing more than to take him down, however he knew he couldn't, as his body pained too much to go into combat.
He then turns his attention to the burning cashier, who works as his store burns in front of his eyes. His expression was broken, as this could've well been his worst day.
With the heat continuing to rise even with the burning store, it was clear the man wasn't intending to stop, as he didn't seem to even feel the pain himself.
There was a good chance that by the end, the man intended to let the cashier die.
Meditat takes a deep breath and jumps forward, causing his boots to boost him further ahead and towards the table.
The man hears Meditat, and he quickly ducks, able to have evaded the dive. However, the goal wasn't an attack, as Meditat instead grabs the cashier, and flies to the wall behind the table.
His feet grip the wall, and Meditat immediately kicks off again, flying away from the table, and towards the exit of the store. He lands in front of the door, and with all the little strength he had left, he carries the cashier out through the exit, into the station outside.
Meditat runs far away from the convenience store and towards the charging stations in the distance. As he does, he notices large red pods approaching the charging station, with cannons of sorts sitting on their roofs.
They seem to be fire trucks, with three of them stopping near the store.
Meditat reaches one of the stations and gently lets the cashier down. He then turns to the store, which now burns from the outside as well, as it seemed the Exhuman torched the whole store. The sound of angered screaming was audible even from outside, as Meditat had taken away the one man who could give access to the register.
Meditat stands back up, and staggers towards the store, watching the dancing flames devour the building.
The fire trucks then aim their cannons at the store, and they begin firing beams of light blue energy. The energy beams strike the fires, which seems to cause the fires to shrink up and die, putting them out.
Meditat sighs in relief, and he turns back to the pods, seeing that the fire department was managing to put out the flames. He turns around, and staggers forward, but not before holding his shoulder, wincing from the immense pain all around his body.
He felt a combination of the fragility that comes from the cold and the scorching pain that comes from the heat, all with the throbbing pain on his shoulder.
Meditat aims his hand at the office he had launched off of earlier, and he pulls himself towards it, deciding to heal before thinking of searching for another fight. He flies off into the sky, and boosts away from the station, leaving the area.
The cashier watches the man leave, still panting heavily, having no clue what happened. He turns back to watch his store's fires being put out, but even then, it was clear that everything he spent years of his life building was completely gone.
He puts his hand on his charred arm, and firefighters begin surrounding him, wearing light red suits with transparent helmets. They pick him up and help him to one of the ambulance pods approaching the station, as he was in dire need of medical care.
He was lucky to even be alive.