SHOCKS Black Sector, Location Unknown - June 21, 2043, 4:22 PM
- - - - -
I don’t say anything. At least, not at first.
I’ve got a lot to think about—a lot to weaponize.
The bombs, for one. They’re the obvious thing. Sergeant Strauss specials, but streamlined. All the fat he was using because he wasn’t one hundred percent sure how they worked is gone. These are simple, but designed to do one job. And it’s not just breaking a merge this time, like the ones we used at SHOCKS VVI. If Doctor Twitchy is right, these are much, much more dangerous.
But I’m less concerned with the bombs than I am with the black sector’s JAMES Unit. That’s the real weapon. It has all—or at least most—of the capabilities James had before integrating fully with the Halcyon System. And if it has those capabilities, and James can’t operate here…and Sidney’s been building himself up out of parts of James…then maybe this is the place to put Sidney. An independent, accessible James that’s not tied to the System feels smart. When I can, I will. But not yet.
“I don’t have any targeting information,” I say. “James has something, but—“
“The JAMES Unit is protecting the Halcyon System, correct?” Doctor Twitchy asks.
“Yeah.”
“Then we need independent information. I need to get to Provisional Reality ARC.” Doctor Twitchy looks nervous. No, not nervous. He’s pale and sweaty. That’s not unusual. What’s unusual is how much he’s sweating.
I ignore that. He wants to go there? Let’s go.
Location Unknown, Provisional Reality ARC, Time Unknown
- - - - -
It doesn’t take much effort to sneak out of the black sector. My augs are still off. So are Doctor Twitchy’s. The rest of the team isn’t coming. So, instead of leaving, we just…Mergewalk. I keep a grip on Doctor Twitchy’s lab coat in case we need the contact. I’ve got a feeling we do. But there aren’t any issues, and we land in the scorched, melted street between two twisted and bent skyscrapers.
Doctor Twitchy flinches as his eyes open. He’s got a Personal Reality Anchor on over the labcoat, and it kicks on right away—before I can tell him to wait. Then he pulls away from me, and his pistol’s in his hand. “Okay. Right. Where are we going, Claire?”
“We’re looking for a computer.” I already regret leaving James behind—or at least miss not having him. Doctor Twitchy’s armed. I’m armed, too, but I can’t watch my back like James can. And, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear, Doctor Twitchy isn’t here because I can trust him. He’s here because he has something—the JAMES Unit—that I need.
So, no James. That means no Analysis. It also means no information network. I could fix that by turning the augs on, but if I do that, James will know exactly what’s going on.
“A computer? Alright. Let’s move quickly.” Doctor Twitchy, surprisingly, takes the lead. He’s even twitchier than normal. In fact, he’s probably the most nervous he’s ever been—at least around me. But we move through the streets and into one of the oddly proportioned skyscrapers.
This one’s nothing but melted metal. The furniture inside has been reduced to black splotches of ash on the rippled, still-sticky floor. It’s not hot; the floor’s just sticky. I shake my head after a second and keep moving.
“What happened here?” Doctor Twitchy asks.
I hesitate. Then I clear my throat. “Remember the burning man? The anomaly you weren’t going to tell me about that was attacking my middle school?”
He nods.
“A bigger one happened here. I ran away.”
“Was this after…”
I wait for him to continue. When he doesn’t, I kick the door open and step onto a different street. “After Lambda Four evacuated? Yes.”
For a second, he looks like I’ve slapped him. But he recovers fast enough. Surprisingly fast, actually. He sent the team here, and they didn’t have what they needed to survive if something went wrong. They got lucky—except for Lieutenant Rodriguez. She didn’t get lucky at all. But it was his fault. Or at least, he probably thinks it was.
I put him on ignore. He’s not saying anything, anyway, and I want to get to the top of the next skyscraper. It’s still got unmelted windows in the highest fifteen or so floors.
We check that skyscraper. Then we check the next one. And a third, before we finally find something.
It’s not a computer, though.
My first hint that something’s wrong is Doctor Twitchy.
He clears his throat. “What are we doing here?”
We’re halfway up the third skyscraper. The elevator’s one hundred percent not working, so we’ve been taking the stairs. It’s a long, painful walk for Doctor Twitchy. It’s mildly annoying for me. He could just be whining. He could be annoyed, or frustrated, or hurting from the walking—this is the third skyscraper we’ve hiked up, after all, and he’s lugging his Personal Reality Anchor. His hand on his chest looks more like he’s having a heart attack than anything else.
But I stop anyway, at the landing above him. And my Revolver goes out.
And I start paying attention. “We’re looking for a computer,” I say.
Then I start counting. It takes less than eight seconds of Doctor Twitchy moving up the stairs before I lose him again. And that settles it. “Mindbenders. Stay with me, we’re moving up.”
He goes first. As far as I can tell, he has no idea that there’s a threat. The equation’s pretty simple, though. He’s not a variable. He’s a constant. There are only two variables here: X is me, and Y is the Mindbender or Mindbenders. Nothing else is going to affect the outcome of this fight.
So I push up the stairs, shove past Doctor Twitchy, and kick the door open. The room we walk into was definitely on fire. It’s a long hallway with what probably used to be wooden doors; every single one of them leads to an office, and every single one of them is nothing but ash and melted puddles of…something. I check every single room carefully, though, answering Doctor Twitchy’s confused questions and trying to track down the Mindbenders.
I’m not here to mess around. If I see one, it’s going to die. Hopefully. I’m not sure how many I killed last time I was here.
But I’m not messing around. I refocus as my attention wavers for half a second; it’s the first time I’ve been affected. That’s an interesting variable. It means there aren’t many of them.
The Revolver’s already up when I check the fifth office, see the Mindbender, and put five shots into it. Then I follow up with Soundbreak and smash it into the wall. It tries to lock its vision onto me, but before it can disappear—before it can even start overcoming my Mental Fortitude—I’ve reloaded. I keep shooting. It takes more firepower than I expect, but it does die.
“Mindbenders,” I say.
“Mindbenders?” Doctor Twitchy asks. “What’s a…”
“It’s an anomaly. I can’t remember the danger rating, because I never paid attention when James assigned it. But it’s impossible to remember, and it gets in your head, makes you forget about it.”
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“How do I…”
“Stop it?” I ask. He nods, and I shake my head. “You don’t. There’s no way for you to build your resistance, and there’s not SHOCKS or James to help you out. You’re going to have to trust that I’ll get you through it.”
It’s funny, asking Doctor Twitchy to trust me. He’s a liar, and I know it. He knows I know it, too. But he’s trusted me this far, and now that we’re in Provisional Reality ARC, it’s not like he has a choice.
So he follows me down the hall and up another flight of stairs, losing focus periodically and regaining it as I massacre Mindbenders. It takes a solid half-hour to reach the top, and by the time we do, I’ve probably killed fifteen or twenty of the things.
[Skill Learned: Mental Fortitude 3]
[Skill Learned: Revolver Mastery 26]
When I look down at the street, it’s crawling with the monsters. There are so many—clearly, they survived the heat elemental anomaly just fine. But if they did, why didn’t they go after me before?
That’s a mystery I need to figure out.
And speaking of mysteries, I open my System as soon as we’re in a room that I’m pretty sure is safe.
[System Access: 100%]
[Recalculating Skills, Knowledges, Bonds, and Inquiries. Adjusting Stability]
[Claire Pendleton]
?Stability 8/10
?Skills - Endurance 9, Urban Combat 4, Anomalous Computing Systems 10, Physical Anomaly Resistance 18, Open Mind 1, Revolver Mastery 26, Compulsion Resistance 2, SHOCKS Database 1, Mental Fortitude 3, Reality Anchoring 4, First Aid 2, Toxin Resistance 6, Reality Skipper Shells, Bullet Time 2, Slither, Smoke Form, Analyze, Mergewalk 3, Mindscape, Soundbreak, Determination 2, Absolution 2, Truthseeker
?Truths - Anomalous Bond, West End High, SHOCKS Research Facility, JAMES, Stag Lord, Halcyon Bond, Li Mei and Infovampires, Dr. Dwyer, Provisional Reality AAA, Mergekilling, Part of the Ship, Guardian Angel, Void Bond, Reality One, Alexander the God, Giant Spiders
?Inquiries (3/5)
?Why is the thinling in SHOCKS Olympia’s administrative wing?
?How does Director Ramirez intend to weaponize the merge generator?
?How can I get Alice back in her body?
?
?
I’ve got two Inquiries to work with. The other three have to stay; it’s far too important that I know why SHOCKS Olympia has a model of the thinling, the whole story about Doctor Twitchy’s bombs, and, of course, how to get Alice reconnected with herself.
But the two open ones…they’re interesting. I don’t want to spend the slot on what the Mindbenders are doing—I’ve already got a theory, and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m almost invisible to them with my current Mental Fortitude, but Doctor Twitchy isn’t. They’re after him. I don’t tell him that, though.
Some things are better as secrets. Truths not meant to be shared.
But I do want to spend the Inquiry slots.
?Inquiries (5/5)
?Why is the thinling in SHOCKS Olympia’s administrative wing?
?How does Director Ramirez intend to weaponize the merge generator?
?How can I get Alice back in her body?
?What does Merge Prime want?
?Why can I connect to the Halcyon System without James?
Both of those questions feel important. The last one, though…I shouldn’t have been able to pull up my System status. It should have been impossible here, since I still haven’t turned James back on. As far as he should know, I’m still in SHOCKS Olympia’s black sector.
But the System knows I’m here.
And if the System knows I’m here….does James?
Once we find a computer, it’s shockingly easy to get inside.
There’s no need for a chemical formula that’s stronger than weaponized LSD. There’s no delay. Whatever SHOCKS learned from their last trip to Provisional Reality ARC, it’s clearly made this process smoother.
I don’t even need to be involved. Instead, I stand guard at the door as the Mindbenders start working their way up the stairs and down the hall toward the room we’re in. It can only be described as a server room or something—it’s armored, reinforced, and bunkered in the middle of the scorched, half-melted tower. That’s why we’ve got access.
As I empty the Revolver and cycle the cylinders, Doctor Twitchy uses the lexicon to pull information from the computer.
Then he shakes his head. “Not what we need.”
I’m not surprised. We’ve been picking random buildings and computers, with the hope that they’re interconnected—or at least that they have information about where to look—but it’s not shocking that we’d find a computer that knows nothing. “So, we keep looking.”
“Negative,” Doctor Twitchy says. “I’m concerned about spending more time in Provisional Reality ARC than we have to. The outcome for the Lambda-Four/Lambda-Five task force was disastrous. We’ll head back to Reality Zero and—“
The tower shakes as I fire a gravity shell down the hall. It’s done that a couple of times—usually when I’m firing the singularities. I ignore it at first, but it doesn’t stop.
It only gets worse.
I don’t want to leave Provisional Reality ARC yet—not until we have what we came here for. Not until we have targeting information. “Stairs.” I start moving, shoving Doctor Twitchy toward the hall. We have to get out of here.
The Mindbenders have the same thought. They’re fleeing in front of me, slowly and ponderously making their way down the stairs. It only takes half a flight for the equation’s answer to be obvious.
We’re not going to make it down.
There are too many Mindbenders to fight through. They’re moving too slowly for us to wait. And as far as I know, there’s no other stairwell—if there is, it’s clogged just like this one. The elevator shaft is an option, but only for me. And with the amount the skyscraper’s shaking, it might not even be safe for me.
I’ve only got one solution. And it’s what Doctor Twitchy wants.
I start using Mergewalk. We’re going home.
But before I can finish, the floor collapses, and a wave of heat rolls in around me as we fall.
Concrete and half-melted steel rain down around me. A beam slams into me, then a chunk of cement the size of my whole body. I reach for Doctor Twitchy. He’s falling, too. My grasping hand misses, and he separates from me. Slither moves me through the air, but it’s so cluttered with collapsing skyscraper parts that I have to Smoke Form, too. I Smoke Form through a computer—and through Doctor Twitchy.
[Stability 6/10]
[Stability 5/10]
He keeps falling.
So do I.
My wings—the ridiculous, non-functional Voiceless Singer wings I’ve never been able to make do much—unfurl, and I stop with a jerk in mid-air. No, not quite stop. But I slow—enough to aim for a window that’s nothing but shattered, molten glass.
I Slither again, this time straight through the window. The glass splatters across my skin; it burns, but then I’m outside. Doctor Twitchy’s still in there, but…I can’t find him. Not without James. Besides, I have bigger problems. Much, much bigger ones.
The massive lava elemental—the one that I thought destroyed this reality—is back.
I take a breath of super-heated air. Then another. My lungs burn, but I need to think. Even as I fall—even as the void-colored angel wings try to catch me and keep me off the burning, melting roads and away from the wobbling, collapsing skyscrapers all around me, I try to make an assessment. To solve a problem.
The lava elemental. That’s a problem. I need to stop it from killing Doctor Twitchy. That is, assuming he’s still alive. Not because I trust him, but because he’s got a line of attack against Merge Prime, and without him, I’m not sure I do. The easiest thing to do would be resetting my augs. James could get me through this. At the very least, he’d be able to find options.
But I can’t do that, because James is the System, and Doctor Twitchy wants to attack the System, too.
So it’s all on me. That’s fine; I’m a guardian angel. I’ve already helped destroy this world once—I am become death, after all—and I can do it again if it means protecting my own reality.
It’ll be like the burning man. Only worse. A lot worse.
I buckle down and start firing the Revolver at…the street? The rising magma? The black rocks lining every building from the last time this happened? There’s no viable target, so I open up on everything.
Bullet Time. Three reality skippers, all into the hottest place I can find. Three more, then a cylinder switch—this time to gravity shells. I keep firing. The shells keep hitting. The magma elemental doesn’t care. It doesn’t care one bit.
The Revolver isn’t going to be enough. It won’t be nearly enough.
I almost hit the ground. Then I Slither as my boots start melting, gaining a few feet of precious altitude, and I holster the gun. If I’m going to solve this, I’m going to need bigger tools. Ones I’m less comfortable with.
I’m going to have to delve into my Truths, and those of the magma elemental.
SHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - June 21, 2043, 6:42 PM
- - - - -
James was bored.
He had no idea what to do, either. Right now, his processing loops were focused almost exclusively on the entrance to the black sector—and on the woman standing guard, the only view into that space he had.
The few that weren’t focused on the door were managing the other anomaly-bonded humans, watching Claire’s friends and family, or paying attention to a single room in SHOCKS Victoria and Vancouver Island.
So, when the tank holding Alice’s body registered a momentary increase in brain function, he had over three billion processing loops to bring to bear on it. Every piece of data—every morsel of information—was pulled apart, analyzed, and put back together. James hadn’t been sure that Alice’s body was even really recoverable, much less that there was a way to restore her consciousness to her body.
He watched for whole seconds—for almost a minute, an eternity in his mind. But nothing changed. Alice’s body didn’t start moving in the tank, and that one momentary blip of brain function was the only sign that anything in her situation was different. After forty-nine-point-three-four seconds, James’s best Analysis was that it was simply a blip. Not a malfunction, but the ‘body’ part of Alice’s existence checking to make sure her brain still worked.
He shifted his processing loops back to the door to the black sector. But he left an extra handful—no more than a thousand—focused on SHOCKS VVI.
Just in case he was wrong, and Alice was back.
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