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NICOLE

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In a shoddy rundown apartment in Centrax, one Nicole Alset, wannabe Academic, was hard at work on her newest project. She was sure it would be the one invention that would get her admitted as an Academic, to be recognized as a rising star by Marquee\'s Board of Intellects.

"This time it\'s gonna work..."

With a flick of a switch, the young woman watched eagerly as her contraption shuddered and shook. Null Energy was a concept that had been constantly laughed at whenever she tried to prove her theories to her so-called colleagues, but she\'ll show them. She\'ll show them all!

"Work dammit!" Nicole cackled, her glasses crooked on her face as she stared wide-eyed at the stuttering device. "I won\'t be a laughing stock for long!"

[*SPARK!*]

"Oh?!" she yelped out, both in surprise and excitement. "A spark of energy?! Have I-"

[*BOOM!*]

"Fvck!-"

With a swear, Nicole barely managed to duck under her table as her device exploded, bolts and scrap metal flying out from her work table as she avoided the worst of it. The chaos that ensued was sure to make her landlord angry. Then again, it wasn\'t like she was already in the old bastard\'s good graces.

After making sure that her device had finished exploding, Nicole stood up, letting out a sigh as she stared at what remained of her contraption. The work table was scorched to pieces, pieces of what used to be her hopes scattered all throughout her small room.

"Great," she slouched. "Now I have to clean this all up..."

[*KNOCK! KNOCK!*]

"Hey, Alset! I already told you to stop with all that racket!"

Nicole rolled her eyes at the screeching coming from behind her door. She didn\'t bother opening the door before she replied, "I was doing work!"

"Work doesn\'t explode as often as yours do, Alset!" her landlord screamed. "I\'ll have you thrown out the moment your contract expires if you don\'t stop with those pointless experiments!"

The Academic hopeful narrowed her eyes at the idiot. What the hell was that fat lug thinking? They were in Marquee, a city that prided itself on its technology and science, and he was asking her to stop experimenting?!

Miffed, Nicole puffed up her chest as she shouted back, "I\'ll have you know that-"

"You\'re an Academic?! You haven\'t even passed the Board yet!" her landlord laughed. "Tell that to my face once you actually manage to earn more than what you\'re paying me for rent!"

The young woman rolled her eyes as she finally heard her landlord\'s retreating footsteps. Seriously, she was going to make sure to throw [Marcurrency] at him the first moment she got her paycheck.

"Ugh..."

Blinking, Nicole made to grab her broom, her eyes landing on the full body mirror she had in her room for some reason.

"You\'re gonna make it someday, Nicole," she encouraged herself. "You can do it."

Absently, she looked herself over, seemingly looking for any bits of her device that might\'ve managed to injure her person. Thankfully, her fair face had escaped any sort of gashes. Her hazel brown hair was still haphazardly bunned up around a spare pencil she found lying around, and her dirty white lab coat was thankfully still not shredded up by any errant metal. That wasn\'t to say that the clothes underneath the coat escaped the damage, however.

"I stink..." she lamented.

Her black shirt and pants were covered in sweat, probably from all of the cackling she did while she was experimenting. Not that she regretted her actions, of course. One quick shower was all she needed to be a person again.

"Right," she whispered to herself. "Have to go to work later too..."

Letting out a sigh, she absently looked out at the sprawling view of the city through her cracked windows. While Centrax wasn\'t her home, she\'ll make sure that she would get the recognition she deserved. Even if looking at the roads and buildings for too long made her head hurt with how... off they looked, she\'ll still survive.

With a small breath, she began to do her cleaning, her bare feet dancing to make sure she wouldn\'t step on any sharp pieces from her failed experiment. Using her broom to brush them all to the side, she began to wonder why she was even in Centrax in the first place.

Why did she leave home to even go to the Marquean capital when she could\'ve just lived on the city outskirts with her parents? Was it because of the prestige? Was it because she idolize the Intellects when she first learned of them? Or perhaps it was when an Academic managed to wander through their small village and she was dazzled by their wondrous [Manifest]?

If she was being honest, she truly couldn\'t remember why anymore. All she could remember was that she had a lot of ideas, and that the only way she could even remotely prove them true was to gain the favor of the Board of Intellects and be given the title of Academic. Only then she would gain the resources she needed to prove her theories. Even if most people laughed at her, she would still try. Even if the test to become an Academic was grueling in both mind and body, she would train. And even if she had no [Manifest] or wasn\'t even a Somatic herself...

Well, she\'ll prove that she didn\'t need mystical powers when she had science on her side.

She just had to prove herself. Surely, she\'ll be noticed by someone of note, preferably by a wandering Intellect. And if the entirety of Marquee still wanted to prove her wrong, well... Maybe she\'d just have to go rogue and find a patron that would want her services.

"Heh... Already thinking of running away, huh..." she chided herself.

Then again, who would even want someone like her? She was just someone working a dead-end job at some bookstore down the street, and she didn\'t even know how to fight...

Truly, maybe she should just give up... But then...

"Stop thinking like that, me," Nicole chided herself, slapping herself in the face with enough force to make her cheeks red. "You\'re not giving up, dammit. You\'re a fvcking genius..."

Well, according to her parents and a few friends, at least. Still, she just knew that her potential was as high as the [Stars] above, and she would rather die than languish away as a bookkeeper. No, she was destined for greater things than that.

She was to become an Academic, and barring that, she would strike out on her own. Null Energy was her one ticket out of obscurity, and she was hell-bent on proving herself correct. If the Intellects didn\'t want to listen, then so be it. She\'ll just prove herself worthy... Yes...

She could imagine it already. That smarmy Head Intellect, as smart as powerful as he might be... He\'d be begging her to come back to Centrax... There was free energy all around the world, and all she had to do was tap into their energies. She was sure of it... In the water.... In the air... Even on the very ground that she was standing on... The whole world was swimming in energy just waiting for her to discover it... Yes... Yes! Maybe that might work!

"I\'ve got it!"

Her eyes wide, Nicole dropped the broom as she went back to her drawing board. With a manic glee, she grabbed her pen from her bun and began drawing. Her hair fluttering down to her shoulders, she began to work. Her last model had produced a spark, meaning that she was on the right track. If it had a tendency of exploding, then she would just have to make it sturdier!

"Increase the tension... Add more screws..."

Eventually, the young woman was left with yet another design of her own making. It was the same as her last failed attempt, only this time, it was bigger and far heavier than her table might be able to support.

"I could scale it down, but that would also mean it wouldn\'t be able to handle the load," she muttered to herself, "No... I can\'t skimp out on the size..."

That would pose a problem in prototyping such work. She\'d need far more metal than was afforded by her meager salary, and paying for her Academic exams ate up more than half of her savings already.

"I\'d need a benefactor..."

Which would mean possibly going public... But then, she didn\'t have any proof of concept with her...

"Ughh! Why is this so difficult?! I have it already!"

Nicole wracked her brain for ideas, thinking up of ways that she could possibly get financed. Maybe she could... Yes... Passing merchants and [Rigs] sometimes ended up by the port near her old village, and they\'d usually pay top money on random Marquean technology... If she could just...

A feral smile adorned the young woman\'s face. There was no dignity left on her person. So long as she proved her genius, she was more than happy to sell random junk, even herself if she had to.

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Sticking to one chapter per day for now. At least until work eases up. I\'m not exactly earning much from writing...