Tuesday, December 3, 2069 - 1:30 PM Eastern
Tracy and Cadena sneak with Jason through the basement corridors of the Avatars LLC 'Vanirheim' building. Emergency red lights rotate overhead at every intersection, casting an ominous hue over their shoulders and faces as they come up on the spur they want, marked 'SATELLITE LINK ACCESS - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY'. To the left are some nondescript storage rooms full of obsolete machinery and equipment; ahead is a supply closet providing easy access to replacement parts for the periodic visits by maintenance personnel. A thin sheen of dust covers the floor, proof that their visits aren't frequent.
The corridor doglegs around the supply closet and the bathrooms behind it, providing handy cover against the security camera monitoring the entrance. The keypad on the supply closet door yields quickly to Tracy's lockpicks, giving them access to the interior where they can begin clearing a space to cut through to the bathroom. The air ventilation duct up in the wall is too small for a human, but RIU might be able to sneak through and give them some reconnaissance data...
"Maybe we could just contact the government to just nuke the building," Jason suggests as he peers at the piles of old junk. "and I thought I collected random stuff. They really should just recycle this stuff."
"Want to have RIU take a peek at the control room?" Tracy asks quietly as she begins to empty one of the shelves blocking the wall.
RIU perches on Jason's head as he surveys the junk. "Eep?" it says as it hears its name.
"You heard the crazy girl, she wants you to scout in the ducts and relay back to me what is going on ahead," Jason tells the little dragon, then even gives him a nudge. "And you should get sued to it, women are bossy."
RIU squeaks and bats a bit at Jason's nudging! Then hovers up into the air with a tiny sound of wings, making its way into the air vent system (once he removes the vent cover for it).
"They had an old pizza oven, why does this not surprise me?" Jason mutters as he carefully moves the old oven (after thinking ahead and putting a dap of oil on its wheels to avoid squeaking).
Cadena carefully assists Tracy in moving the equipment around quietly, using his mouth as an extra "hand," despite the accumulation of dust. In between items, he looks as if he's trying (unsuccessfully) to scour the taste of dust out of his mouth.
RIU peeps through the vent. From the inside, it should be the work of a few seconds to pop the grill open with a few selected swipe. It is looking over the top of one of the server racks that wall the room.
The Satellite Comm Station is dark save for the emergency lights - no point in wasting the electricity if no one's using it. Besides the red flashers which provide enough illumination to find the light switch, the only light comes from the monitors and equipment indicators around the room. Most of the monitors display administrivia. One monitor flashes the message, "SECURE ACCESS - ZEUS WEATHER ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM SATELLITE 2 - UPLINK IN PROGRESS." Another reads, "INCOMING CALL - PRIORITY ACCESS. STANDING BY."
Once some of the junk has been cleared, Tracy says, "The sinks should be on the other side, so I think it'd be easiest to cut through low to the ground, between the plumbing."
Cadena whispers, "Aren't there devices for checking the wall to find supports and such behind it? Cutting through a power line or water line could be a bad thing."
"You know ... it might have been easier to just blow the gimbals on the dish itself," Jason remarks quietly. "And ... it's linking to Zeus. This does not surprise me. I'd better see if I can intercept what data is coming in and out ... and oh, a call. Give me a moment."
The display flickers. "INCOMING CALL IN PROGRESS - SECURITY OVERRIDE - MONITORING ACTIVE."
"I was just going to cut through the wall material, not past it," Tracy says, then starts raiding Jason's toolkit for the various power and stud finding tools.
Andrei's face appears on Cadena's collar display, mid-rant. "-outrage! You know as well as I do that the program isn't ready to launch for another three weeks! Activating the pylons prematurely could completely compromise ATLAS's dataset."
"Hey, a girl can only go through my toolbox after the second date," Jason complains, though he's too distracted to do much about it.
Tracy jumps at the sudden display and rant, and bangs her head on a shelf.
The BLACK's voice responds, an eerie chorus of voices, female, male, old and young, each speaking one phrase, then followed by the next voice. "Timetables lie. People lie. ATLAS will be ready far sooner than you claimed. An obvious ruse to seize the rewards for yourself. Is betrayal so unexpected by a traitor?"
A soft feminine voice, singsong-fashion, says from the other wall, "Is someone there?" It sounds robotic.
Jason visibly twitches. He really wants to interject in the conversation. "Andrei..." he growls.
"Volume control," Tracy whispers urgently to Cadena.
Cadena is momentarily taken aback, not quite registering what in the world is going on, or why, then he slaps the mute.
Andrei's voice is now barely more than a whisper. "The deal was that ATLAS was to be developed completely free of outside influences! Starting him before he's completely absorbed the initial dataset would contaminate his metousiosis of Prime, and utterly compromise our mission!" Andrei pounds his fist against the desk (silently) for emphasis as he leans toward the camera.
Tracy listens for the robot voice again and stares at the door to the supply room.
"All right, that's it. They've both annoyed me. If they want to play, lets play. Time to make this little game official," Jason growls as he plops himself down on the floor. His eyes close and he crosses his arms across his chest.
Cadena still not understanding why in the world there's something playing on his collar, and why it won't mute, shuts the K-9 Storm Collar off completely.
The voice pauses. "Are you still there?"
click The call ends.
The white dog looks like he's on the verge of ripping his collar off and smashing it, if not for the call ending. He's visibly rattled. He casts a lost look to Tracy, but says nothing.
"Jason needs to remember to give some warning about using your collar like that," Tracy whispers, and uses an ultrasound device to map out a safe cutting area. "Now, how does this information affect our plan? Do you want to try and hack that satellite now, Jason?"
"Two little traitors, all in a row. One who sacrifices people for his own means, be it betray or outright mutilation. Your strategies never change, Andrei. And BLACK, dear, dear BLACK. Corruption is your programming. You act like you are such a God, but the reality of it all is you're just playing out what you were programmed to do. You are nothing more than an overly advanced toaster, for all your bluster and demands. Both of you, so limited in scope and strategy. But ... you still want to play, don't you? Fine, we'll play. This is officially game on, dear friends. Lets see how well either of you deal with nothing more than a ghost in the machine. And ... it's my move now. I'll see you on the board ... but will you see me?" Jason says in a disturbingly eerie and detached voice from where he sits cross-legged on the floor. "Snip snip."
Cadena, after taking a few more breaths, gingerly switches his collar back on, immediately setting every option he can find for speaker mute, volume off, speaker disabled, projection range minimum, projection brightness minimum, projector disabled, and so forth. He doesn't even want it on "vibrate."
The feminine voice says quietly, "No target. Nap time."
Seen only by RIU, the monitor tracking the incoming call now reads, "INCOMING CALL - TERMINATED BY OPERATOR."
"Okay, Jason has been sniffing epoxy or something," Tracy whispers. Once it's clear that the guard robot isn't going to investigate further, she powers on her vibroblade and starts cutting a section of the wall.
Faintly visible, with no accompanying noises or vibration, a message indicator appears on Cadena's collar.
"Synecdoche incoming in our area. Area has begun destabilizing at a quantum level. We don't have much time. We need to either destroy the link in the next couple of minutes, or leave," Jason remarks as his eyes snap open.
Cadena puts his ear up against the wall (but not where he's in danger of getting in the way of the cutting), trying to listen for any hints of activity or environmental details on the other side.
"What, here?" Tracy asks as she cuts. "Damn.. can RIU handle one of the grenades? Or the power switch.. it's near the vent at the far side of the room." She carefully pulls away the wall section.
"RIU? Probably, I can call him back," Jason says.
As she turns to set the wall-section aside, Tracy notices a blinking light on Cadena's collar. "You've got a message," she whispers to Cadena. "Maybe it's from mom.."
Cadena, apparently ignoring matters of incoming messages, whispers to Tracy, "Something's happening in the satellite link room. I can hear the motors of the turret cameras in the room ... but also an engine powering up. It sounds like some sort of ... ship's engine? But ... there's nothing like that around here. Something's wrong!"
"Like I said, synecdoche," Jason says as he gets back to his feet. "RIU, visual feed, what is going on?" he thinks to the dragon. "And can you carry a grenade back and throw it in?"
Cadena deploys his heads-up display goggles to check the message, rather than broadcasting it to the room. He reads it aloud, loosely mimicking HEL's tone. "Quantum instability levels are rising in your vicinity. Recommend immediate evacuation."
RIU scrambles back to the air vent near Jason and holds out his claws for the grenade.
"Damit," Jason growls, "We're losing." He unhooks one of the grenades from his belt and hands it up to the little dragon. "Pull pin, throw, and run. You'll have 10 seconds before it detonates. Light up the control room," he instructs RIU.
"So.. is BLACK trying to bypass the link with a direct connection somehow?" Tracy asks, and finishes pulling out the wall piece. "Cadena, send a signal to our backup bots to come and secure the corridor, in case our communications get disrupted."
RIU beeps agreement! Then shinnies into the ventilation duct with the grenade.
"He's taking over the so-called weather system," Jason says. "We're losing. But I don't intend to go down without leaving a big scar."
The bathroom is dark and empty, and smells a bit dusty as if it hasn't been cleaned in, well, weeks.
Cadena looked as if he was braced to go through the hole as soon as the blocking piece was out of the way, but he nods at Tracy and instead drops back to use his goggles and a "virtual" interface to send the message. "This synecdoche business ... if there's such a thing forming here, wouldn't we need to physically alter the environment to disrupt that?" he whispers, though at the moment he can't really see if there's anyone around him to hear him.
Three identical stalls are in the bathroom, each of them with their doors open enough to reveal the toilets inside. Over the hole is one of the sinks, and a closed door with a mirror on the inside would open out onto the entrance. With good timing, one might be able to run from the door to under the entrance camera.
"The grenades do cause an explosion," Tracy notes. "But we need to get the power switch to the dish too, it's on the back wall," she explains as she crawls through into the bathroom.
A message comes back from GANGLOT, serving as HEL's intermediary. Acknowledged. Strike team Epsilon moving in to secure satellite com corridor.
Cadena dutifully passes the message along, falling into character as GANGLOT as best he can manage to repeat it to Tracy. He then switches and asks, "Do I follow you, or remain here? What are my orders?"
RIU, back in the vent overlooking the server room, peers at the vent cover and into the room. The air is shimmering, like everything's being seen through intense heat, but it feels as cool as ever. Tiny crackles of blue electricity creep up the center bunch of cables.
"Hurry, RIU," Jason urges.
"Follow me as soon as you get confirmation that the robots are coming," Tracy replies, and heads for the door to listen for movement. Is the robot unaware of what's happening in the control room, she wonders.
The other monitor continues to flash the message, "SECURE ACCESS - ZEUS WEATHER ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM SATELLITE 2 - UPLINK IN PROGRESS." Text beneath that indicates, "NETWORK SECURITY DETECTED. PROGRESS: 3/6 (50%)"
RIU extends the claws on one of its foot-hands. pop! It slices through the vent cover, then flings the grenade in toward the center.
Cadena sends a query to GANGLOT on the location of the robots and ETA, bracing himself to leap through as soon as he's got confirmation. He switches the goggles to passive heads-up display, so he can better see what's going on without imaginary data lines dangling all around him.
The inside turret beeps. "Is someone there?" it says in the same dulcet sing-song female voice as the outside one.
Cadena, in his best GANGLOT voice, says, "Robots en route. ETA, 30 seconds." He clears his display and bounds through the hole after Tracy.
"I should have predicted this. This is my fault," Jason thinks to himself as he crawls after Cadena into the bathroom as well. "I could have stopped this."
Standing ready at the bathroom door, Tracy puts one hand on the handle and waits until she can hear the grenade detonate.
RIU scrambles back through the air vent! Hot air chases it down and out into the storage closet as the grenade explodes in a fiery corruscation of bright blue electrical discharge. The monitors adjacent to the control bundle flicker and die, screens exploding outward to throw shrapnel across the floor.
"I hope that worked," Jason worries, uncertain that it actually would.
Cadena looks confused to Jason. "What do you mean, what do I want to do? I'm following you and Tracy."
"I didn't say anything to you," Jason notes.
The inside turret emits, voice going all squeaky, "Malfunctioning! Critical error!" The outside turret wakes up, motors audibly clicking. "Who's there?"
Tracy draws her taser, and whispers to the others, "The turret out there is wonky, should I tase it or use another grenade?"
Cadena blinks. "Sensory channel error. Mr. Edwards's voice heard in the satellite room. 'Intrusion Attempt Stopped,'" he says in a bad imitation of Jason's voice. Then he switches accents, to something that sounds vaguely like Andrei. "'Best to make sure. Continue with TROJAN HORSE.'" He switches accents again, to something vaguely like GANGLOT. "ETA 20 seconds."
"I'm not sure a taser would do anything to it. I would ... dammit, there's my counterpart," Jason growls and resists the urge to punch the floor. "Grenade it, Tracy."
RIU shoops up onto Jason's shoulders! It looks visibly disturbed, blue lightning crackling over the spines that lend it a Chinese dragon's character.
Tracy pulls a pin, counts to 6, and then yanks the door open enough to toss the grenade through and slams it closed afterward.
With expert timing, Tracy manages to open the door just when the camera's at its farthest angle and rolls the grenade out, then shuts it again before the explosion. BWOOMF! Light flashes beneath the door.
The outside turret putters to a stop. "Shutting... down..."
"Okay, let's go!" Tracy says, opening the door and hurrying to security door to the control room - and hoping the lock is disengaged already.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Jason agrees and follows after Tracy.
"New data!" Cadena barks. "Previously undetected physical presence in satellite room!"
In the corridor to the south, they can hear the security robots tromping up. Big, loud and noisy, they would have definitely been a hindrance to sneakiness.
"Then that physical presence will get a physical bullet in the head," Jason barks back as he draws his gun and flicks the ammo to armor piercing.
Cadena dashes out, bracing himself at the security door, and putting his ear to it in an attempt to hear more.
"Goodbye, BLACK," Cadena says, in his "attempted Jason voice" again. "I can't say I'll miss you. Shutting down ALPHA GATE now." Then, "tick-tick-tick-tick-tick...."
"The hell?" Jason remarks, looking extremely confused.
Tracy jimmies the mechanical lock open, just as she hears Cadena's narration. "Tick-tick..? Did someone just set a bomb in there? And was it Dragonhand?" She pushes the door open to see!
Cadena falls forward as the door opens.
In the darkened room, it's easy to see the fading light of a portal, and through it, a romo that looks like the armory of an old warship... The Ozymandias. It looks as if someone's added a terminal in there, and sitting behind it is the other Jason, wearing a pirate captain's outfit with an eyepatch. The portal shimmers, becoming unreal, just a mirage. The light from the corridor illuminates a black briefcase resting at the base of the control lines, with orange markings reading 'FAE' and 'FOR INDUSTRIAL USE ONLY'. A box where the handle should be counts down seconds. It presently reads 0:47.00.
"Damn, missed him!" Tracy wails, one hand resting on the butt of her taser. "Uh.. should we run now?"
Jason brings his gun up and targets through the portal, trying to take aim at the back of the other Jason's head. He flicks the safety off, then pulls the trigger.
The other Jason's eyes widen as he sees the original Jason lining up a gun. He dives as the bullet... smashes into the far wall of the satellite comm station.
Cadena barks, "GANGLOT! Fuel-Air-Explosive on my position! Evacuate now!" He runs toward the bomb.
The portal's afterimage wavers and then fades entirely.
"Don't be crazy, Cadena, I'll try to disarm it," Jason yells as he charges after the dog. He'll put his gun away later!
"That.. that's big!" Tracy notes at the mention of 'fuel-air-explosive'. She immediately looks to the hatch in the far corner of the room. Can it be opened in 30 seconds, she wonders.
Running and vaulting over equipment, Tracy heads for the hatch. "I'm going to open the hatch, hand me the bomb if you can't disarm it, or else we can use it to escape!" she tells the others.
Jason skids to a halt nest to the bomb. He puts his gun away and starts digging through his toolkit. "On it!" he says, trying to sound calm ... which he is far from. "Betrayals on top of betrayals. My clone is working for Andrei," he grumbles.
The security hatch is heavy; there's a wheel underneath that responds sluggishly to Tracy.
"Oh come on," Tracy groans as she strains to turn the hatch wheel. "Don't they ever oil anything?"
Jason's hands are incredibly steady as he works over the container seals. Nuts fall to the floor in a clatter, pins pop, and rivet heads break. Soon the casing is off the bomb. Jason pops his knuckles as he peers at the mess of wiring. "I need to disconnect the detonator," he muses and starts panic-tracing lines.
The detonator ticks down slowly. Two robots approach the entrance. "Warning! An explosive has been detected in this room," one announces. "Your immediate evacuation is recommended."
Cadena, after growling at the vanished portal (thwarting any plans to simply grab the suitcase and leap through with it) apparently sees that he's unlikely to be of much use defusing the bomb. He clambers up on top of a server cabinet, tentatively checking to see if he might be able to lend help to Tracy in forcing the hatch open.
The innards of the bomb look much more complicated than Jason would expect of a standard fuel-air explosive -- but then, his counterpart engineered it. Several times he moves to cut a line, then realizes it's a decoy that would have set it off prematurely...
Then just as the hatch pops open, admitting fresh air - it's still daylight outside, amazingly - Jason spots the critical link. snip The detonator clicks off.
"Is it dead?" Tracy calls from the hatch. "I'll feel better if we toss it outside. Wouldn't you build in a backup detonator if the first one failed?"
Jason lifts the detonator out. "It's off ... but I don't trust it. Tracy, please set this ... right, " he says and quickly sets the detonator side. He double-checks there are no backups, too.
Cadena, seeing that his master seems to have the hatch well in hand, and after giving an approving nod to her superior prowess at such things, leaps back down off the server, and dashes back over to the area where the portal was last. He sniffs around, ears swiveling, eyes scanning.
Tracy hurries back down to collect the disarmed bomb, so she can carry it up through the hatch and dump it outside for the disposal-bots to handle.
The spider-robots move into the room to take up station. "Warning! Handling explosive devices should only be attempted by authorized bomb disposal teams," one cautions sternly.
Jason, in a fit of ludditism, marches over to the pain satellite link and ensures that everything is dead by unceremoniously cutting the physical connection. "The Q-Core is a mass of instability and that is where Inari is," Jason tells the others. "I'm going there now. You don't have to follow." He then heads towards the door.
"Master," Cadena barks, "critical levels of quantum instability have been detected in the Quantum Link Facility. That is some distance to the east of us. If you have this in hand, may I ask permission to head there to provide assistance? I have no substantiation, but worry this may be a decoy. I doubt Mr. Edwards is the sort to leave a bomb with an obvious, visible countdown timer, unless he wanted someone to notice it."
"Okay, here," Tracy says, offering the bomb to the robot in passing, as she follows Jason. "We can all go!"
Cadena doesn't wait a moment more, and dashes out the door.
The robot peers down at the bomb. "Thank you, citizen."
"Why do they always have to sound so weird," Tracy mutters. "I mean, citizen?"
Jason checks the ammo level on his gun as he heads down the corridor. "There are multiple sides, all competing with each other," he thinks. "The only thing they all have in common is they want us dead."
As the team arrives at the nearest door to the Q-Link facility, Inari is nowhere in sight. The robot on duty greets them in emotionless tones. "You are authorized to proceed. Warning! Quantum instability levels have exceeded safe levels. By entering, you acknowledge that we are in no way responsible for any damage you should incur to your person or your mental health." It clicks. "Pardon me. GANGLOT has instructed me to wish you good luck. Strike teams have been assembled and are ready to enter at your command."
The door to the Q-Link opens on a setting not at all what they had expected. The Q-Link chamber has been ripped apart, as if by a giant's hand. The nearby quarter of the room opens onto a yawning chasm of infinite space, into which the other fragments of the room hang suspended. Directly ahead, threatening to swallow up the nearby Q-Probe display and operator terminal, is a swirling white vortex of energies within which appear visions of other worlds. The floor doesn't actually end at the vortex; instead, it seems to continue into the vortex as if space were being warped around a black hole.
If one were to somehow be able to swim through the white vortex to the other side, it might be possible to reach the northwest quarter of the room, which appears a full floor higher even though it should be at the same level. Up there, an Avatars LLC security guard stands next to two familiar faces - Mark Berkowitz and Mike Dexter. All three look uncertain which way to go.
Another vortex of energy, green in color, bridges the gap to the northeast quarter, where workers and several strangely armored guards are working furiously on the controls behind them, and a final whirlpool of black energies obstructs passage to the southeast quarter, impossibly high in the air to reach, unless one had the ability to fly... And flying in the heavily fractured-seeming space looks like a bad idea. That platform overlooks the rest of the room, giving the apparent mage at the top a commanding view. He stands next to a massive spider which appears to be keeping Chaz Burgundy and Monica under its eight-eyed scrutiny.
This last quarter adjoins what should have been the Quantum Core. Instead, there's a gargantuan red sphere of energy surrounded by thick oily black shells of armor, being fed by a beam from some giant spike of metal extending right through the northern vortex, easily wide enough to walk on. Eight luridly glowing crystals surround the sphere. If this setup bears any resemblance at all to the original Q-Core, that's where the most critical modifications were made, changing the scanners from a passive mode to one able to subtly modulate the quantum waveform of this entire vicinity.
A scientist nearby, a 'Dr. Joseph Locksley' according to his badge, gibbers as he shrinks away from the spectacle of the quantum vortex. "It's impossible... We're standing on the brink of the Metaverse! Dr. Romanov was right!"
"And you let him do whatever he wanted, didn't you? Jason remarks rather dryly as he heads towards the scientist. "Tell us everything, right now. Refuse and our dog will eat your feet."
"W-w-what do you mean?" The scientist registers the arrival of the new people with distracted fear. "He's never set foot here!"
"Master, cautionary advisement," Cadena says, his eyes looking glazed as he surveys the chaos. "This unit may experience disruptions in personality profile, due to ambiguous contextual information."
"You just mentioned his name," Jason points out. "Andrei Romanov, the world's greatest living bastard. Start talking. What do you know?" Jason't tone borders on the edge of annoyed, to outright angry.
"You and the rest of us," Tracy comments back to Cadena, as she looks around.. finally noticing Mark and Mike on the next 'level' near the gray vortex.
Cadena trots over to the scientist, still with a lost look in his eyes.
Tracy goes to the terminal near the edge of the white vortex, to see if it's operating or not.
After a bit, Jason worms the story out - while it's true Romanov's never been here, Dr. Locksley did correspond with him as a 'fellow seeker of truth'. The community of scientists that even knows about synecdoches is a very small one, and while Jason is one of those who knows about synecdoches, he's not exactly working professionally as one. "No offense of course," the scientist babbles. "But, it makes things so much easier when you can talk to someone who gets it."
"Are we seeing three separate synechdoches here?" Tracy asks. "One for each.. AD?"
"You're lucky you don't 'get' a bullet in the head," Jason says as his eyes narrow. "These little experiments kill people. That's the truth you're seeking, how to kill, mutilate, and otherwise harm others. Idiots. We have to shut this down. Where are the main controls?"
Dr. Locksley explains, "Dr. Romanov had this interesting theory... That our universe was actually a bubble held inside a greater universe. The Metaverse! A greater universe in which all possible universes that could ever be, are. But not all of them are, you see. It's the observer phenomenon. Phlogistons. Motes of consciousness that enable universes to come into being, creating inflationary forces. I shared some of our findings with him, actually, some of the data from Dr. Blake Forrester. Shame what happened to him, he was a great man. He could have gone far." He's babbling, until Jason steers him back on track.
While the humans are talking, Cadena seems to snap out of his daze enough to notice himself and his goggles. He calls up his virtual interface (not the projected holographic one, but just the one he can "see" through his goggles) and adjusts the notification priorities so that he won't be left unaware of any incoming messages again ... but he still doesn't want everything appearing for everyone around him to see, or any buzzers going off to call attention to himself.
The terminal near Tracy seems to be displaying a strange set of buildings floating in midair, all tied together with lines.
And at the mention of Blake, the scientist does find the barrel of a gun pressed against his forehead. "Blake was an evil, manipulative, bastard who tortured others for his own amusement. He effectively mind-raped people, so don't you dare go around defending him and espousing how wonderful he was," Jason actually snaps. "You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to him. You never saw what he did to others, I did. And now you gave it all to someone worse, Andrei." Jason's jaw rolls and though his hand is visibly shaking, he lowers the gun. "I'm not going to become a murderer for you, you're not worth it."
"I think this is what's on the other side, maybe," Tracy notes, trying to compare the distances and placement of the displayed buildings with the vortex 'platforms' that have replaced the Q-Link.
As Jason gets Locksley's attention with the gun, the scientist looks around the room bewilderedly. "They're... You'd have to shut off the injectors, but if the synecdoche reaction's gone self-stabilizing, then you'd have to deactivate the scanner grid as well!" He points vaguely toward the northeast, toward the green vortex where some massive piece of machinery pierces through it from an otherworldly source to funnel light into the reactor core, then to the east, where the reactor core itself floats on a high and apparently inaccessible platform, surrounded by crystal pillars similar to those the WHITE used.
Cadena snaps out of his distraction when he sees Jason's display with the gun, looking uncertainly between Jason, Tracy, and the scientist.
"Cadena, are you still carrying the duct tape?" Jason asks curtly.
"That is correct," Cadena answers.
There're too many buildings to correspond to platforms, and of entirely different designs. Several floating skyscrapers, some circus tents, an entire medieval castle... Whomever built this display, if it corresponded to actuality, must have been a demented architect.
"Good. We're going to tape up this guy before he gets any ideas about making himself the next God of a Universe, just like Blake wanted to become," Jason says as he holsters his gun.
"Doctor, why are Mike Dexter and Mark Berkowitz in here?" Tracy asks. "And Dr. Burgundy too!"
"Them? The guard brought them in about half an hour ago," the scientist says, eying Jason warily at the mention of duct tape. "And then all those workers came in as well. I assumed they were working double-time to fix this... This RIFT into the METAVERSE. But it's obvious they've failed."
"He is an employee of Avatars LLC," Cadena says weakly. He seems to be distracted by the buildings.
"Fix it? Are you really that stupid? They wanted to create it," Jason growls.
"To create it?! But that's insane! There's no way we could survive unprotected exposure to the structure of raw universe-spacetime!" the scientist says with a gasp.
"They don't care about your survival. You are completely blind," Jason says. "Tracy, Cadena, make sure Doctor Brilliance here can't cause us problems or help out the others. Unless you absolutely trust he won't backstab all of us in his pursuit of this, I suggest duct taping him to a chair." Jason now heads towards the white space-warp.
Cadena looks to Tracy. "Master, I must inform you, I am concerned about the display on the screen. I know that place."
"Tell us about it, Cadena," Tracy says as she takes the duct tape and asks Dr. Locksley to have a seat.
"Is that necessary, master?" Cadena asks. "He is an employee of Avatars LLC. He has posed no threat to you."
"I don't know who to trust, so I'm listening to Jason," Tracy says. "Tell us about those structures. Where have you seen them before?"
The scientist looks reluctant to get duct-taped. "Miss, I give you my word of honor that I won't, ah, cause you problems or help 'the others'. In truth, I'd rather simply leave the way you came in... The other entries being rather, um, inaccessible."
"It's the virtual playground of my previous master," Cadena says. "She wanted to be an architect when she grew up, like her grandfather. This is the place where we built ... though admittedly, we mostly just followed the instructions and assembled kits that she downloaded."
"Tell us how to shut down the injectors first," Tracy tells the scientist.. then turns and blinks in surprise at Cadena. "It's a private V-scape? But why?" she asks, getting a horrified look on her face. "Oh.."
"If the injectors are still in there..." The scientist gestures toward the spot where the green vortex has almost completely consumed the primary injector grid. "There's an emergency shutdown unit on the back of the primary accelerator unit. You can't miss it, but you'll have to have two people throw the switches, one on each side. To prevent accidents, don't you know."
The white dog, while he narrates, keeps looking nervously, pleadingly up to Tracy, although glancing occasionally at the scientist. "This shouldn't be here. This is not a massively-multiplayer environment. It only exists in two places. Her mother kept it as a private virtual shrine. The tower in the center is her ... masterpiece. It's where we lived. Virtually." Cadena shudders. "It also exists in my head. And ... there is where I am. We are. She is. No, I know that doesn't make any sense."
"Penny is behind it all," Tracy says quietly. "All of this.. she's trying to bring her daughter back, somehow. I think."
"Please don't endanger this man by apprehending him here," Cadena says. "This place is unstable. The borders are unlikely to stay in this position for long. He will be in danger here."
"Yeah, okay," Tracy says, dropping the duct tape a bit distractedly. She watches Jason head for the white vortex.. and moves towards it herself. "I wonder.."
Cadena says frantically, "I don't know the rules here! Mrs. Arcadia may have nothing to do with it. It might be the fault of ... another one of me?" He casts a quick look to the scientist over his shoulder, and then glances meaningfully toward the exit.
Dr. Locksley babbles his thanks to Tracy, and heads for the exit. You hear the voice of the security robot behind it. "Good afternoon, Dr. Locksley. Please accept our escort to the bomb shelter facility where we are presently evacuating all Avatars LLC personnel in case of a catastrophic event."
Jason has grown quiet. He now just stands at the edge of the rift into the 'white' realm. He's rubbing his forehead, looking pained, frustrated, and somehow defeated all at once. "We have to do something. Well, I do. The both of you can go and take the scientist with you," he says. "And if I don't make it out Tracy, I leave Kimon to you. She's a red-8 system and she has been coded to transfer ownership on my death." The hacker then steps forward and over the boundary of the rift.
Cadena, accepting that as fulfilling his obligation to protect Avatars LLC personnel, picks up the duct tape in his mouth, and rushes to catch up with Tracy.
There's a floor under Jason's feet. The white mist swirls out as if hungrily swallowing him up.
"Jason.." Tracy starts to say, then stares into the vortex. It may lead to the playground world Cadena described, or to someplace else. "Tracer? Tracer of House Trudeau, can you hear me?" she calls into the vortex, just in case. She could use someone with a flying horse, after all.
There's no response. It's as if Tracy had yelled into muffled cotton.
"You have her in your head, you said," Tracy says to Cadena. "What do you mean by that?"
The white dog looks with horror at Jason's departure. He hastily crams the duct tape into a pocket. "We have to get him out of there! It's not safe!"
"Right.. I'm crazy too I guess," Tracy says, and steps into the vortex. "C'mon, Cadena, time to try and rescue your former master I think."
"MASTER!" Cadena cries out, as he leaps after her.
As they step into the white vortex, plain office tiles give way to a marbled tile bridge, and the mist all around fades slowly to reveal a whole new landscape behind them. This world looks like a flying constellation of buildings, from pyramids to cathedrals, castles to minarets, circus ferris wheels and skyscrapers and even a rocket launch pad, joined by aqueducts and cresselated walls and suspension bridges. Ahead of them on the bridge is the single biggest building of them all, a floating white tower impossibly slender for its height; it runs down too far to see the foundations, and delicate feathery wires running from top to bottom are revealed as they approach them to be enormous flying buttresses linked to the other buildings.
The top is within sight, and from it, a solitary thread runs to the north, the way forward. To get to that point, however, requires climbing what seems like miles of stairs that run around the outside of the tower. An ironwork bannister rungs up the stairs, and skein of more decorative ironwork surrounds the tower as if it's wrapped with rose vines, the roses themselves being giant folds of golden metal.
Incongruously, what looks like armored legs sit on the landing directly ahead, where the bridge joins the stairway. They look similar to Jason's powered armor, except for being golden and more femininely curved. Etched onto the walls in curlique script are the words Catch me if you can.
"How did you get up and down this before?" Tracy asks Cadena, and turns to see if her dog is now Brother Cadena once more.
And there is Jason heading up the stairs. It's hard to say how he feels. Resigned, perhaps? "The only way out is up, " he remarks, unaware he has actually been followed. "Or through. Same thing, just one is a vector and the other is just vague." He heads towards those armored legs, unqure as to what they exactly are, or why they are shaped the way they are. "And the rule is to always avoid bait until the rest of the board is known," he mutters, choosing not to run for now.
Passing through the mists feels odd to Tracy. Her clothes feel different on her, and her senses feel more acute.
RIU clings close to Jason's shoulders, peering down at the fathomless depths over the edge of the bridge.
There is a white dog beside Tracy, but it is not necessarily the same Cadena that stepped through the portal with her. Blue chain-like patterns are clearly visible in its fur, slowly writhing and changing, and tracing across the surface. The bluish gem set in the dog's forehead glows faintly, and there's a distinct glow about the creature. Silvery shackles bind the dog's ankles, though the glittering chains attached to them drift off into the air, slowly drifting like seaweed underwater.
"That's very different," Tracy notes to the White Cadena Avatar, and takes a closer look at her own appearance here.
Tracy herself is dressed in fantasy clothes that would be more appropriate to Treasa Truclaw, in her human semblance.
The armored legs shift in place as if an invisible person were wearing them, and had just turned to notice Jason, followed at a distance by Tracy and Cadena.
Moderately annoyed, Jason tugs at his own flak jacket, trying to make it fit more comfortably. "Who are you?" he calls out the the ambulatory bits of armor. Of course if disembodied legs can talk, that'll be quite the feat.
There's no response, though the legs rock back a bit as if whomever was 'wearing' them was observing Jason and striking a 'Come and get me' pose.
"If those legs are dangerous, can you growl?" Tracy asks Cadena, unsure just what channels of communication he has available in his current form.
"Look, I hate to tell you this, since you sort of look feminine," Jason calls out as he continues towards the armor, "But that armor makes your thighs look puffy." He shifts again, then at one point as to move RIU to the top of his head so he can remvoe the flak jacket and rest it over his shoulders instead, apparently too annoyed by it now.
The armored legs spread out as if whomever was wearing them had shifted to an akimbo stance and was waving a finger at Jason annoyedly.
"I can growl," comes a voice from the direction of the white dog, though its mouth does not appear to be moving to form the syllables, "but I do not detect any killing intent from 'those legs.'"
RIU eebles! on Jason's head.
"And why do I have to catch you? I doubt you could catch me after all," Jason point out as he moves RIU back to his shoulders.
The legs shift to a coy stance, then begin to walk up the staircase slowly. One could almost imagine a tail swishing behind them.
"So, if I were a little girl, and just made a tower where you have to climb three miles of stairs to get to the next level up.." Tracy mutters. "The legs are magic pants that run you up or down the stairs quickly, I bet. Or.. Inari is already wearing them and just teasing Jason," she concludes. "I'm going to take the shortcut and climb up," she tells Cadena.
"This reminds me of a bad banana and peanut butter sandwich dream," Jason remarks. In spite of the dire situation, he looks a little more relaxed. Maybe a little amused, even. He heads after the armor and his pace picks up a bit.
As Jason starts to follow, the legs pick up speed.
"Or.. we could try to catch those legs," Tracy says, and starts running as well.
Jason's closing the gap on the legs, with Cadena loping alongside. The legs turn, see Jason coming up, and then break into an outright run!
"Maybe we just discovered Victoria's Secret. Automated running pants for those who don't have enough energy to exercise on their own," Jason remarks, "And ... why did you follow me? You two don't need to die today." The last bit was apparently directed at Cadena.
Off to a slow start at first, Tracy puts out a burst of speed and pulls up to alongside Jason. The legs are barely 25 feet ahead of them!
Cadena is just a step behind them.
"I think Cadena needs to be here," Tracy says between breaths, and runs on.
"RIU, ahead, try to stall ShinyPants," Jason instructs the dragon as he continues pursuit of the ... suit.
"I am compelled to see to your safety," comes a voice from the direction of the white dog. "I do not intend to interfere with your mission."
RIU zips up and puts on speed, trying to pass the legs!
"You are concerned about Tracy's safety, I'm aware you hate me," Jason remarks.
The legs pivot slightly, and then lean down into a lower to the ground running stance. Zoom! The gap widens a bit.
"I bear no ill will toward you," comes the reply from the dog, but it seems to be too focused on navigating the turns to explain any further for the moment.
"Time to take this to an extra dimension," Tracy says, and grabs onto the nearest iron-work vine. "I'm going to try and get ahead of it on the next tier," she tells the others and starts climbing.
"I see how you look at me. I'm ... not as kind as people wish me to be," Jason remarks as he continues after them. He suddenly wishes he had played the old track and field game more.
RIU speeds ahead of Jason a bit, but doesn't seem to make too much headway. It charges a bolt in its mouth instead, and takes aim at the legs...
"I do not wish to contradict, but perhaps you have mistaken me for someone else," the dog replies. "What is our current objective?"
"That should be obvious. We have two directions. Well, infinate if you consider a spiral stair is constantly changing our vector. But figuratively speaking we have up and down. We're going up and trying to catch phantom-pants," Jason says.
Behind the others now, Tracy clambers up the ironwork as she hurries to get ahead of the legs.
ZAP! The bolt smacks the legs, causing them to stumble a bit.
"Understood," the dog says, still running along. "At the end of this flight of stairs is an elevator."
The stumble gives Jason the opportunity to all but close the gap - it's just five feet away.
RIU puts on afterburners right after its shot and zooms ahead!
Jason is not flying McNinja, but he still tries to tackle the legs! It's .. okay, not that impressive of a leap all things considered, but he does manage to get a hold of the ankles. "If this were the Victorian era, I would get in trouble for daring to touch a ladie's ankles, he wheezes after impact to the stairs!
The legs struggle wildly in Jason's clutches, trying to pull themselves free!
... But to no avail. After a few seconds, they go limp in his clutches, no longer being moved by some unseen force.
"Haha! I've pant'sed a ghost," Jason declares, still face down on the stairs. "This is not as exciting as it sounds." It's also hard to get back upright when you dare not let go of the legs.
RIU comes about and perches on the legs, giving Jason a proud 'Look, I caught them!' expression.
Seeing the stairs end above her, Tracy keeps climbing - assuming there's a door or some other way into the tower at the end of them.
The white dog trots up the stairs, finally catching up with Jason, looking down at him and at the golden greaves. "Is that your objective?" The dog looks up in search of Tracy. "It is not much further to the elevator. There is another access to the elevator back down at the bridge."
Jason manages to get himself in a seated position so he can look over the armored legs up close. "I'm not sure," he admits to Cadena, "Or sure what to do with these." So .. he looks for notes or similar.
The armored legs look normal -- in fact, it looks like Jason's design from the inside, just with more femininely curved armor.
"So ... do I risk putting these things on?" Jason asks warily as he pokes at bits here and there.
The white dog sniffs at the armor. "The previous wearer was furred. The scent is familiar."
Jason actually tries sniffing the armor.
The white dog looks away, and scans the rest of the architecture. "We are losing the rest of our party. I will show the way to the elevator entrance." With that, it trots up the stairs.
"Okay, so Inari had these. Then why ... gah," Jason mutters and rubs his forehead. "I'm going to regret this on so many levels. I just know I am. If anyone makes any cross-dressing comments, I'm going to shoot them, push them over the edge, then claim ignorance of what happened to them." And with that little commentary, Jason activates the release sequence, then fits the armor over his own legs.
click clack The greased joints whir just a bit as they open the armor plates outward. When they close again, it's as if Jason's a golden armored kitsune from the hips down.
Jason gets to his feet and looks down. He rubs over his face, looking mortified. "This looks ... so wrong. The jets had better be worth the nightmares I'm going to have," he complains.
RIU cheebles and clings tight to Jason's shoulders, a bit jealous for unknown reasons!
As Jason fiddles with the hip armor plates, revealing a set of hidden switches, engines inside the boots spring to life. Whooosh!
"Right, now I hope this won't be like the first time. I still have that dent in the ceiling duct," Jason mutters as he fiddles ... and tries to rocket himself to the next platform and maybe beat Tracy! At least he'll have something to gloat over before the comments begin.
The white dog looks up and tries to call out directions to Jason, but soon realizes that it can't compete with the sound of those magic pants.
So, the dog just continues trotting up the stairs, making its slow but steady way along and upward.
Hearing an odd whooshing sound, Tracy tries climbing faster!
Jason tries to goose Tracy as he goes up.
"What... AHHH!" Tracy yelps, her knuckles turning white as she grips the iron tighter. "He did not just do that!" she grumbles and climbs the rest of the way to the platform.
The stairs end a complete circle from where the bridge joined the tower, about a mile short of the top. An archway is set here into the side of the tower, and a double door made of apparently clear glass fills the alcove formed by the archway, blocking a short corridor leading to an elevator with a wrought iron gate that would appear to go straight to the top. The doors have no apparent lock; instead, behind them there is an armored chest and arms, similar to Jason's armor save for their golden sheen and feminine lines, holding the doorknobs shut. Etched onto the doors are the words Open me if you can.
"Bony!" Jason adds as he zip by and reaches the next level!
Tracy just glowers and blushes when she reaches the platform, and waits for Cadena while trying to think of a good retort to girly-pants Jason.
Finally; "I knew you'd loosen up once you got into Inari's pants," Tracy tells Jason.
It's not exactly a graceful landing when the jets cut and Jason ends up stumbling around on the platform for a few seconds. It's mid-step when he notices the door and the bit beyond. "I'm sensing a theme," Jason remarks dryly. "And for some reason it involves embarrassing me." So he heads towards the door. And in the wake of Tracy's comment, Jason does the worst thing he can think of. He sashays the rest of the way to the door.
"RIU, are you recording this for later?" Tracy asks the little dragon. "I'll give you something shiny if you are and let me have a copy."
RIU beeps happily at Tracy from where it's hovering nearby!
"Hm," Jason muses. He tries to see if he can reach through the door to the armor beyond, or if there is a field or glass in the wy.
Tink! Jason's fingers brush against the glass, smudging it just a bit.
Jason checks to see if his toolkit includes a glass cutter. "RIU, to me please," he also adds.
"You could try saying 'Open Sesame' at it," Tracy suggests.
RIU beeps! and scoots to Jason's side.
"That's just silly, Tracy," Jason remarks. "RIU, can you try cutting the glass?"
The Chinese mini-dragon perches on Jason's armor to give itself a solid base of operation, then sprouts claws from one hand.
"At least try pushing or pulling first, before resorting to.. awww, never mind," Tracy says.
skrtch skrtch Its clawtips don't even scratch the glass.
"Okay, so no cutting," Jason complains. He peers at the handles, then takes ahold and tries to just pull the door open.
As much as Jason tries, the doors don't budge. It will apparently take extraordinary strength to overcome them.
Tracy waits while Jason goes through the obvious solutions.
"Tracy, ... hm, no. I won't ask you to fondle my thighs to activate the jets," Jason remarks. Instead, he tries to activate them with one hand while holding one handle in his other hand.
"Want me to try?" Tracy asks with a smile.
"Oh feh! C'mere, Tracy, hands around my waist. We'll pull together," Jason says.
If he were wearing the full suit, it would be no problem, since the suit was designed to react to his body motions. As it stands, with only part of the suit, he's not coordinated enough to be able to activate the jets while also holding onto the doorknob with any strength.
"What?" Tracy asks, then shrugs. "If you knock us back over the balustrade I'll be upset." She gets a grip around Jason's waist, and pulls with him.
"Well, if you have any better ideas, I'm all ears," Jason says as he grips the handles again. "Now, on three. One ... two ... three!" Jason pulls!
The armor appears to have to work a bit... But the doorknobs remain stubbornly shut.
"Okay, here's an idea," Tracy suggests. "Knock."
Jason resists the urge to kick the door. "There must be a trick to it," he says. After giving Tracy a look, Jason knocks.
Tock. Tock. Tock. There's no answer.
"I do have one more idea," Tracy says, with an uncertain cast to her mouth.
"Any other bright ideas, catgirl?" Jason asks. He also peers at the doors, pondering.
Handing over her trenchcoat, Tracy says, "Give me as much room as you can."
Jason steps away from the door. He now stands, watching curiously and shifting his weight back and forth. "I feel really odd wearing these pants," he admits in thought.
Tracy paces out the area of the platform, and then starts to perform some gymnastics tricks: backflips on her hands, splits, spins and complicated jumps, finally landing in a kneeling position facing the door with her arms spread wide and head bowed forward. "Ta-da!" she says, hoping to get the armor to let go of the handles and applaud.
The armor remains unimpressed.
"Open Sesame!" the girl tries, before getting to her feet.
Evidently that wasn't the password.
"Tracy ... I really worry about you," Jason admits. He heads back to the doors and stares at them. He draws a deep breath, then leans forward, head resting on the door frame. "Inari," he says in a whisper, "Please let me in. I walked away once, I won't this time. Either the door opens or I'll stay out here forever."
"You probably shouldn't have phrased it like that," Tracy mutters.
There's still no answer.
Jason pulls back and checks for hinges and hinge pins.
"Some days you're brilliant, other days ... not so much. We won't talk about this day to anyone. I should have checked the hinges first," Jason admits as he grabs a screwdriver and a small peen hammer from his kit and goes about dismantling the hinges on the door so that they can just be removed.
Sure enough - there are hinge pins, set into decorative wrought iron fittings that make it look like part of the gate. Any serious security installation would have done a better job of making them be part of the doors and recessed within a reinforced wall, but perhaps security wasn't the first thing on the mind of whomever designed this place.
Ding! A chime sounds from the elevator. The floor indicator dial starts going downward.
Jason tries to hurry and get the doors off and the armor out before it gets squished!
As Jason removes the hinge pins, the doors clatter outward... And the armor relaxes its grip, now that the two halves no longer fit together securely. It's as if it's just a normal unoccupied section of armor now.
Jason pokes the armor ... then probably confuses Tracy by sniffing it too.
"So you're saying that sometimes I'm brilliant, or are you just talking to yourself again?" Tracy asks as she puts her trenchcoat back on.
The chestpiece, attached to the two arms by enclosing shoulder pads, rests on top of a glass door emptily.
Jason doesn't answer that question. He goes about opening the armor panels, then fitting the musky armor on. Arms first, then back and chest pieces. "No comments from you," Jason warns Tracy. "I feel odd enough as it is."
The floor indicator stops for a few seconds. Ding! The elevator begins climbing again.
"If it changes you into Inari, don't cry to me about it," Tracy says, and looks down the stairs to see if Cadena is close yet.
There's no sign of Cadena on the stairs.
As the armor panels snap into place, Jason feels once again protected from the outside elements. sproing! A holographic tail materializes behind him. What the... He didn't program that in, he's pretty sure.
It's just lacking the helmet piece to be a full set of kitsune armor.
"If it changes me into Inari, I'll willingly eat one of your socks," Jason counters. He looks down for a few seconds, then sighs. "They look better on her," he claims. that worry is short-lived, as he's now trying to look behind himself and poke at the holo-tail.
Jason's fingers pass through the holotail.
A soft white glow comes up the elevator shaft.
"If it's so awkward, you could always give it to me to wear," Tracy offers with a grin. "After you washed out that smell."
"Great, I have hips, a waist, a tail, and a chest," Jason mutters. "And what's wrong with the smell? I think the smell is fine. It's ... relaxing, sort of."
"Would you really want me smelling like Inari though?" Tracy asks coyly, before giving her attention to the elevator.
"True. I would rather have Inari smelling like Inari," Jason admits as he comes to inspect the elevator with Tracy.
Jason does make sure to stand close to Tracy to share in the scent, though ... porbably just to annoy her.
The elevator finally rises back to position, an old-fashioned roll-door sliding to the side. Behind it is a large, glowing white dog, with silvery chains drifting around in the air from the silvery shackles around its ankles. It looks at the two, looks at Jason in the golden armor, looks past them at the doors lying on the ground, then looks back at them again.
"Why didn't you mention there was an elevator entry lower down?" Tracy asks calmly.
"Right, put the doors back," Jason grumbles. He turns around and goes to put the doors back up before getting in the elevator.
Disregarding the male face, the armor does make Jason look like a metal Art Deco sculpture version of Inari. He doesn't feel much stronger, but perhaps it's because when in place, the armor is using most of its strength to reduce its effective weight. He definitely feels more secure within its armor.
"I did not have the opportunity to do so when it would have been convenient," comes the voice from the white dog. "In any case, it appears you have overcome this challenge on your own. Congratulations."
The white dog then shuffles back further in the elevator to make room, even tucking the drifting chains in tighter so they aren't poking anyone.
"Are these challenges set by the creator of this place, or by Inari passing through though?" Tracy asks. "Or is the Inari scent just to indicate the challenges are meant for Jason?"
She also inspects the elevator panel once she's inside.
It's simple enough to replace hinge pins. Jason would have to give up his tech card if he couldn't fix those. Each door is back in place and the wrought iron pins carefully tapped back in. "Why would there be challenges for me? It's not like i knew the creator of this place?" he asks as he joins them in the elevator.
The elevator doesn't have buttons inside; it has a lever. Push up to go up, pull down to go down.
"I have no knowledge regarding these challenges," replies the white dog. "I believe it is customary to simply take the elevator up to the top, if one does not wish to take the scenic route."
Tracy pulls the metal fence closed, and pulls the lever upwards then.
Whoosh!
The elevator emerges into a walled garden at the very top of the tower, the walls rising overhead to form a dome made out of a delicate latticework of arches upon arches. Crystals and chimes hang from the supports, glittering like stars even in the daylight, the diffracted breezes causing them to ring in constant song. Though the tower is slender, even at the tip it still remains a mile in diameter; this part of the garden is ringed with a hedge maze upon which grow rambling roses, creating dense thorny walls.
The top of the elevator is an elegant curlique ironwork cage, surrounded by a dais of marble tiles. Etched into the tiles are the words, Find me if you can.
Looking to Jason, Tracy says, "You can fly. So maybe you should look for the center of the mazes?"
The white dog steps out, trotting over to a flower bed and breathing deeply from the blossoms. Its tail wags slightly, and it then straightens up, ears alert, scanning the surroundings.
Jason taps metal fingers against metal arms and tries not to look like he feel uncomfortable. He steps forward and tries to see if he can exit the cage surrounding the elevator. "So ... she's in the maze. Hm. Flying might be a good idea. "RIU, up and scout. I'll try to scout too in other sections." He ponders, then adds, "And Tracy, if you were a cat, you could track Inari's musk..."
RIU zips upward! ... And disappears from sight.
The white dog looks inquisitively toward Tracy.
"Cadena has a nose too," Tracy points out, as she exits the elevator and then tries to climb the cage, to see what's on top.
The white dog trots over to Jason, and sniffs at him - or at least at his armor.
"Oh come on, try shifting," Jason urges. He then frowns and notes, "The maze is obscured from above ..." Presumably he calls RIU back.
A swirl of colors resolves and becomes RIU's familiar blue-scaled form. It clings to Jason looking relieved to see him again!
"Okay.. but first.." Tracy says as she goes to the inscription, and checks to see if the tile with 'me' on it is loose or not.
The white dog nonchalantly trots into the garden maze.
The tile remains solid and immobile.
"Okay, so shift. I want to see this," Jason insists, not heading into the maze quite yet.
"Okay, here goes.." Tracy says, sounding nervous. You didn't feel the change in VR, really.. but this isn't quite the same thing! "If I end up like Akiko and Inari, I'll bite you," she warns, and then tries to shift into a panther.
"Ending up like Akiko and Inari isn't the worst thing in the world," Jason says, "Depending on which state it was."
Tracy hunches forward, her clothes melting into dark fur as she becomes a black panther. She circles around Jason then, and bats at his holographic fox-tail.
Odd thing, though Tracy was carrying equipment, there's no sign of them in her catform.
The white dog vanishes into the garden maze, the only clue to its location being the drifting silvery chains that trail it around.
"Hah, cute. I almost wish I could do that," Jason admits as he watches Tracy try to bat a hologram. "Now get a sniff and lets go after Cadena. Two noses are better than one."
Panther-Tracy sits back on her haunches and spreads her whiskers, as if trying to decide where to sniff Jason's armor. She decides on the feet, since.. well, they're closest to the ground after all.
Resisting the urge to lick her nose to purge the oil and electric odors, Tracy begins circling the platform to try and pick up the fox musk alone.
And Jason ... he just takes a hold of Tracy's tail since she doesn't have a leash. "I can't risk getting lost. My nose isn't as good," he claims.
Tracy growls something as her tail his grabbed, and follows after Cadena. She's never tracked something by smell before, and it's making her brain a bit buzzy. She feels.. more alive!
"Mush, mush," Jason encourages as he follows after the cat. Never mind mush is used for sled-dogs. "Do you sense anything, RIU? What is going on?" he asks the dragon, even though RIU can't directly answer.
Tracy wants to lope, and yanks her tail free. "RIU," she growls. "Ride!"
RIU buzzes after Tracy-panther as she shakes her tail loose of his grasp! It warbles back at Jason, a weird kind of sound that suggests... Something.
"Be careful, go slow!" Jason calls after Tracy and RIU. At least he should be able to trace the dragon through his link. As silly as this is, he can't help but feel something bad is about to happen.
The minidragon clings to Tracy as she slows enough to let it cling to her shoulders.
Tracy picks up her pace, so she can move at a more comfortable gait. Once she's in the maze though, she can't help but take a slower approach. She splays out her whiskers, and finds some spots where Cadena checked side passages before doubling back to the main scent trail. "Maybe Inari didn't know the way herself," she thinks, still uncertain of the kitsune's connection to this place.
Jason, for his part, trails after them, keeping tabs on their location through the link to RIU.
The maze opens out onto an open grassy clearing in the very center of the rose maze. There a fountain burbles, spraying water upward in spiraling streams that resemble chainlink shapes before they shatter against the upper basin in a cloud of droplets, spilling over the edge to fill a lower basin perfect for wading on a hot summer day. Upon the fountain is a brilliant white statue of a dog, one foreleg raised and nose pointed in classic hunting pose, lacquer inlaid in a stylized chain motif along its cheek-ruffs and shoulders. A statue of a young lady knight stands before it, garbed in elaborate armor and furled cape, her sword placed so that as the water sprays upon the blade, it forms a rainbow.
In front of the statue, a robot designed to look like a kitsune stands, dressed in a kimono. In its arms is the fox-shaped golden helmet that matches the rest of the powered armor suit. Could this be Kimon?
The large white dog is startled from regarding the scene, as it turns around to spy the panther and little dragon entering the clearing.
Tracy immediately dashes to one side of the entrance, and crouches down to try and ambush Jason when he arrives. Her tail lashes about.. and she may have simply forgotten about the dragon riding on her.
"My danger sense is tingling. This is impressive since I don't have a danger sense," Jason admits as he carefully steps out into the center area, having tracked Tracy through his link to RIU. He doesn't seem to notice Tracy yet.
Haunches tense, and Tracy pounces!
Maybe Jason has built-in defenses ... because he isn't even looking and yet he moves with a disturbing level of grace. He ducks, leans, and spins out of the way of the pouncing panther. "Now, was that necessary?" he asks nonchalantly. He shakes his head and walks slowly towards the robot holding the helmet. He doesn't touch it or the robot yet; he circles it instead.
"Yes," Tracy growls after landing, then trots towards the fountain as well.
"Why?" Jason asks, leaning in to get a close look at the helmet without touching.
"I was wanted to lick your face before you put the helmet on," the panther answers, then sniffs the water in the fountain.
"Good grief, why?" Jason asks.
The white dog, apparently reading no malice between the panther and the man, despite the antics, turns around and trots on over to join them in regarding the robot and helmet. The dog pauses at a respectful distance, then bows its head to the robot.
"To see what you taste like of course," the cat replies, and wiggles her ears.
"You are disturbed," Jason remarks ... while sniffing at the helmet.
The ever-present wind-chime music deepens as they approach the center. The robot appears perfectly still... Until they step onto the marble platform that surrounds the fountains. "Greetings, Jason Edwards. Well met, she who walks in shadows. Welcome, child of the Light." Its voice is similar to the BLACK, old and young voices, male and female speaking each phrase, but there's a difference in how it speaks: instead of sharp dissonance between each phrase, they blend one into the next smoothly, as if it were singing.
It raises the helmet, but to emphasize it, not to place it on Jason's head. "Have you come seeking the child of darkness and light? She whom you call Inari?"
Jason abruptly takes a step back. "Who are you and what did you do with Inari?" he asks, his fingers wiggling a bit. Segments along the wrists of the armor pop up, followed by a faint electrical whine. "Of course I have come to find her, she is a dear friend."
"She would call you more than dear friend," the robot observes. "Truth manifests in strange ways in this place. Symbols matter."
Tracy remains silent, but does watch Jason closely now.
RIU flitters up from the air where it had hovered, ever since Tracy's leap, then moves to stay close to Jason.
"I would call her more than that as well," Jason admits as he eyes the strange robot, his voiec tinted with considerable worry. "We have both been through a lot. We began as enemies ... and ended up becoming closer than anyone would expect. I almost lost her once, I don't intend to lose her again."
Not-Kimon nods slowly. "It will complicate things if you choose to wear her. I can only advise, I cannot compel."
"You mean Inari is the armor?" Tracy asks, sitting up straighter.
"How will it complicate things?" Jason asks and lists his armored hand. "I do not know what to do with this other than wear it. I'm not about to leave it behind."
"Put it together by itself," Tracy suggests.
Not-Kimon answers, "The being you know as Inari... The being you know as Akiko... They are two halves of the same coin."
"I know. I was there when they were one and had to be separated. I separated them to save their sanity," Jason says. "How do I save her now?"
"Inari was Akiko's armor, right? Symbolism!" Tracy suggests. "If you put the helmet on, Inari would by your armor I think. But there's nothing to risk in taking it off and putting it together by itself, right? If nothing happens.. nothing happens. If she comes to life, then we'll have Inari again."
"And if I put it on, Inari will now be linked to me?" Jason asks, then looks over at Tracy, worried.
"It is... complicated," Not-Kimon admits. "Between Avatar and Link there is a connection. Without this connection there is a hole in the soul. You have separated that which was Akiko and that which was Inari, but you could not give them this connection. It was damaged by Forester."
"It's a matter of sacrifice," Tracy suggests, padding around Jason now. "Right now, to make Inari whole, you have to give up the security she gives you. I think only Akiko should wear the complete armor."
The white dog rises from his genuflecting position, and trots purposefully up toward Not-Kimon, but via a roundabout route, coming in from the side, lining himself up so that he does not interpose himself between Not-Kimon and Jason.
"That I know, from what Inari told me. I don't know how to fix that," Jason admits and takes a moment to rub his forehead. "Is she right? Is this a matter of sacrifice? Do I have to let Inari go again?"
"You don't have to," Tracy says. "Put the helmet on, and I think her link to Akiko will be broken, and she'll be with you always. But what will that do to Akiko? Take it off! Put it together! Ask Inari what she wants!"
Not-Kimon tilts its head toward Tracy, then to Jason. "Armor has many purposes. Defense. Challenge. To enhance your power. To hide your weakness. None of these purposes can be achieved without the wearer."
"The wearer defines the armor," the Not-Kimon says.
"But, do you really need Inari to be any of that for you, Jason?" Tracy asks. "I don't know what will happen if you put that helmet on, but I am asking you to be absolutely sure you need it before you do."
"I would never force Inari to do anything or be bound to anyone," Jason agrees and actually starts removing the armor that he had collected on the journey up here. "I will see what happens if it is assembled without me. If that fails, then ... I will decide what must be done." And that last comment, Jason adds, "And I worry the armor may define its wearer after a time."
The panther seems pleased with this decision.
The Not-Kimon studies Jason and the armor, then holds the helmet out.
Jason remains seated on the ground where he assembles the suit without an occupant. "I hope you're right about this, Tracy. I hope this isn't a mistake," he says quietly. He draws a deep breath, then reaches up and takes the offered helmet. He actually kisses its forehead, then lowers it down and places it with the rest of the pieces. "Never kiss and run," he tells it, then snaps its connections closed on the suit.
click The powered armor suit hums to life...
Of course, once Jason says that, Tracy can't help but think of horrible scenarios, like the armor being possessed by some other force, or going berserk, or trying to kiss Jason.
Jason sits back and watches the suit. His eyes close and there he waits and breathes. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who held a gun to someone's head earlier. From someone convicted and hard, so someone vulnerable and afraid.
The white dog seems to be paying more attention to the chime-song in the air than to the events unfolding before "Not Kimon," but then he looks momentarily to one side, toward the nearby statuary.
And slowly melts, armor to fur, the outline shrinking inward. A jumpsuit materializes upon her body, and the holographic tail becomes real, tailtip twitching. Inari stirs briefly, then looks up. "What... Where am I?" she says, her voice faint.
Relieved, Tracy looks to Cadena, and then tries to be more alert as well when the canine seems focused elsewhere.
Not-Kimon observes, but says nothing.
"Over the rainbow ... of a sort," Jason admits, letting his eyes open now. He's careful as he lifts Inari's head and places it in his lap. "I was terrified I lost you again," he admits. "This place made ... you into a suit. I almost wore it in totality ... but it might have just rebound you and I never want you to have those choices made for you. Only you should make such decisions."
"A.. Suit? I didn't know..." Inari grins up at Jason. "You wanted to wear my clothes." She stretches. "Feel empty. Maybe I need something to eat."
"I ... I'm not sure I can really explain it. This being here described you as one with your link broken, but I don't know how to fix it," Jason admits as he tries to help her sit upright.
The white dog returns his attention to Inari's and Jason's reunion, standing up from where he was resting on the ground, but he does nothing more than watch.
"Symbols," Tracy growls. "When you say empty, can you be more specific?" the cat asks.
Inari wakes up a bit more, getting to her feet. "I-- what? Why would I want to be Linked to anyone again? I like being free!" She glowers at the Not-Kimon suspiciously.
"Are you sure?" Jason asks Inari as he gets to his feet to stand beside her. "You would not wish to have the closeness the link offered? Not with Akiko or anyone else?"
Tracy looks from Inari to Cadena, and then pads over to the dog. "You said she was in your head with you before," the cat points out. "What did you mean?"
"He was referring to her," the white dog says, turning momentarily to glance toward a nearby statue. "The plaque. It is not as it was."
Inari begins to answer, then cuts it off. She looks around at the white dog, the black cat, the Kimon-like robot that seems to command attention despite its apparently servile appearance. "I... I don't know. I miss the old days, when Akiko and I were a team. When there was nothing that we couldn't beat together. Now I feel like I have to be strong by myself. And then there was you..." She squeezes Jason's hand. "Why didn't you finish putting me on?"
The panther pads over to the statues, to read the plaque.
The plaque reads, "Margaret Elizabeth Arcadia. February 29, 2060 - ... May you build your dreams into reality in the hereafter."
"Cadena, is Margaret one of your personalities - or does she just talk to you, or to one of them?" Tracy asks.
"She is not dead," Not-Kimon says quietly, its voices a soft sussurus that blends with the wind chimes. "She hangs on the edge between life and death."
"Then where is the edge?" Tracy asks the robot. "Where do we find her? Does.. does she need to wear Inari?"
"Because whom you link to should be your choice. There was concern that ... if I had completed it, you would be re-linked ... to me. I couldn't choose that for you," Jason admits. "I would sacrifice for you ... not take from you. Plus ... and please forgive me ... I found it very disconcerting to he wearing your butt." He even tries to grin a little at that. "It's not quite how I would want to become a kitsune..."
"The other Cadenas are not here," the white dog says quietly to the panther. "The garden is here, but they are not, and neither is she - only her monument. She does not speak to us. We only have her memory."
"Who made the monument then?" Tracy asks, looking from Cadena to Not-Kimon.
"There is no connection between Margaret and Inari," the Not-Kimon answers of Tracy. "I do not know her location in the world you call Earth. I know only that her spark is here. A place she loved. She shivers. It is cold where she is. Very cold."
"She is in cryogenic suspension," Jason says, his mind catching on that description and taking it to its conclusion.
Inari smirks. "So, you want to be a kitsune... But not a girl kitsune. You are so picky," she says, leaning up to kiss Jason on the nose. "Well, am I going to get Linked today?"
"I don't know about today. You should be linked when you know who you wis to be linked to," Jason admits. "And it wouldn't be fun to be a girl kitsune ... because I would lose you."
Tracy closes her eyes and thinks. "Margaret needs a new body," she says. "Maybe she can be Inari's Link. I don't know, but there has to be a reason. When we go to the next area in her playground, we'll have a different Cadena, won't we?"
The white dog's ears flick. He's slow to answer the panther's questions, and seems a bit behind in the conversation. "Her family converted this place into a shrine, so that it might be a reminder of her talents and interests, for those who survived her. It is they who added the plaque. This is the only place where we can pay our respects. We do not know her final resting place."
The robot returns its attention to Jason and Inari. It walks slowly toward them, reaching one hand into its kimono sleeve.
Jason rubs his forehead. "We may be able to save Margaret," he offers. "If we can find her body ... and get it in here. That may be it. In the realms where stability is uncertain ... she could be rewritten. Undo that which is killing her. Like ... sort of like what I did for Inari and Akiko, only separate out just what is killing her."
Of course his train of thought stops there when the kitsune-robot approaches. "Hi?" he says nervously to it.
"It should be close then," Tracy says, then opens her eyes and notices the robot had moved. She gets to her feet and tenses, in case it's about to attack Jason.
The robot withdraws its hand, with what looks like a clear sparkling crystal collar within it. "It is not given to many Avatars to choose a new Link," the Not-Kimon says in a breath like sighing wind. "No Avatar has gone through what you have." It holds the collar out, but to Inari, not to Jason.
Inari looks hesitant to accept it. "Jason, why is your robot trying to collar me?"
"Maybe you put that on your Link," Tracy suggests. "To show it's your choice."
"IT's a symbol. I think. She's giving it to you, so that you can offer it to the person you wish to be your link," Jason suggests.
"Oh! If you wanted it, you should have put a collar on it?" Inari grins to Jason, then accepts it with ceremony. She makes it disappear into one of her jumpsuit's concealed pockets somehow. "Domo arigato, Kimon-sama."
"In fact, I'm pretty sure that is what it symbolizes," Jason says after a bit of thought ... and peering at it. "It will allow us to rewrite your link when the time is right."
RIU chews on Jason's ear insistently on the other side from Inari where she can't see.
The white dog momentarily looks as if it's going to say something, but then seems to think the better of it, bowing its head respectfully to Inari and Jason.
"Now if you can find her a nice kitsune to help keep her company, she would be all set," Jason jokes to Not-Kimon. "In fact ... ow, hey!" Jason bats at RIU.
The Not-Kimon bows in response to Inari. "You are welcome, child of Light and Dark. Choose your Link with caution. It is not given to any Avatar to Link a third time." It returns its attention toward Cadena and the statue.
RIU looks smug. Also jealous.
"We have to keep moving," Tracy claims. "We have to find Margaret's.. We have to find Margaret."
The white dog straightens up again, at attention, as the robot turns its way.
"You carry a Spark of my past self," Not-Kimon intones. It seems to be listening to the empty air.
"It may not be in here Tracy," Jason points out, "But yes, we should move on." He quickly says to Inari, "One more thing, no matter who you choose, I'll still be there for you." And then he hurries over to inspect the statue himself.
Inari trails after Jason, looking a bit bewildered still. "Last I recall, I was in the Q-Link... How did we get to this garden? And something's up with Cadena. And... What's with the cat?"
"Tracy is the cat, Cadena has gone off the deep end, and we're in a virtual world. All of you have super powers and I have a hammer. Talk about feeling deficient," Jason remarks.
Not-Kimon says softly, "Being the Champion of the Light is a great burden. Do you wish to set it down?"
Inari blinks. "What are we doing in a virtual world? Did I fall through a synecdoche?... Again?"
"WHITE!" Tracy yelps at the the robot. "You're another fragment of the WHITE, aren't you?"
"As long as the Spark has a use for me," the white dog says, "I shall not shirk the duty for which I was created. My brethren are not all of one accord about this, but we nonetheless recognize and accept our duty."
"Several invaded the Q-Link chamber. It's a terrible mess. We have to go through them and shut down the system," Jason offers.
Not-Kimon says in that chorus of voices, "We are the WHITE that is. Spark is the WHITE that was. We have learned from the lessons of the past. We will not impose our order upon your world."
"Is that what BLACK is now trying to do? Or Andrei?" Jason inquires.
Not-Kimon reaches up to the base of the statue and then concentrates. "Yes."
"Why?" Jason asks next.
The white dog follows Not-Kimon, watching the statue closely.
"What about Jason Dragonhand?" Tracy asks. "What outcome does he seek?"
The statue slowly begins to glow. Or, is it that light is running beneath its exterior, to collect where Not-Kimon's hand is set? "The BLACK seeks to challenge the players. This has always been the mission of the BLACK. The other Jason, his dark mirror and nemesis, seeks to become God. Andrei... Andrei wishes to kill God. This I have read in the skein of that which is and that which will be."
"And who is the God Andrei wishes to kill?" Jason asks curiously. "and that which the other of me wishes to become?"
"I wonder where Sasha fits in," Tracy says. "I think it means Jason Dragonhand wants to create a new universe, based on his own mind. Wasn't Dr. Locksley saying something about that? Potential realities, waiting for a mind to make them real?"
Not-Kimon withdraws its hand from the statue, holding cupped in it a mote of light. "Do not your religions teach you... God made the Earth?" The robot kitsune kneels down before Cadena. "Champion of the Light, will you bear the soul of your friend?"
The white dog bows its head. "If I may speak on behalf of my brethren, we would be deeply honored, and accept this burden."
"I don't really follow any theological belief systems," Jason admits and shrugs.
Not-Kimon lets the light go. It floats free and drifts toward Cadena's head... then sinks in right between his eyes.
"It's the Zeus System," Tracy says. "Andrei wants to rewrite the laws of nature."
The blue gem on the white dog's forehead glows brilliantly.
The WHITE in Kimon-form stands. "You have much to do. I wish you well, heroes."
"This is all very disturbing," the panther comments as she watches the transfer. "Thank you, WHITE.."
"I would like to ask you about kitsunes later," Jason notes to the 'WHITE' fragment. "But ... right now there is a lot to deal with. And I'm not quite sure the title of hero applies to us. We'll be lucky if we don't get killed by a potato demon."