In our previous episode...
With the help of the Irongrip security forces, our heroes successfully cleared Brian's spiders from the Avatars simulation lab, and Dr. Forester initiated the orderly shutdown of the simulation cluster, which would take three minutes. Simultaneously, the Department of Defense, having been unsuccessful in communicating with the lab, became suspicious of Andrei and Brian's claims and attempted to secure control of the Ouroboros, landing a battalion of its patrol mechas and troops. It seemed a dire situation for Jason's nemesis... But if he couldn't win, he'd guarantee that they didn't come back.
After Cadena deposited his collar with the scientist, in an effort to make sure that this Mr. Arcadia's future granddaughter would not be exposed to the wasting disease that his Margaret had suffered, he joined Tracy in rushing to the ground floor with a commandeered security robot. There, Randall and Mara were removing the iceblock they had created to prevent the Dantech robots from entry; with the shutdown of the servers imminent, they now needed to make good their escape.
The elevator chimes... Floor one! It opens onto a hallway looking into the worse-for-wear warehouse where ice fragments liberally cover the floor and shelves. The APC they arrived in has been encased in a giant block of ice, but claw-marks and scorch-marks show where Randall, Mara, and Sam, one of the Irongrip mercs left as a rear guard, got "creative" in prising it away from the loading door frame. Heavy machinegun sounds from the other side of the portal, as the Dantech giant robots hold off the Department of Defense.
Most of the Avatars LLC personnel have evacuated already; Charles Burgundy is the only person Tracy and Cadena see, typing furiously at his workstation. "Dr. Forester!" he yells at the voice chat window. "We've got a shutdown in progress. What are you doing up there?!"
"I had no choice! They were going to kill me if I didn't cooperate!" replies Forester over the computer.
"Did you make a backup?"
"No! We'll have to start over," Dr. Forester says tearfully. "If Mr. Arcadia doesn't cancel his contract and sue us."
Meanwhile, up on floor three, Jason remains on the simulation floor, probing into one of the Q-cores in a desperate race against the clock to establish an inter-universal connection with ATLAS before Brian could sever their link home. RIU curls close around Jason's neck and the golden vixen, Inari, keeps a silent watch as his mind dives into deep cyberspace.
"Attack pattern signature clone, random number, side, and direction..." he sends to his systems ... and abruptly dozens or relicas of himself and RIU start popping up all over the virtual landscape. Even ones small enough to fit in a jacket pocket! They all go skittering off in every imaginable direction, including bouncing off the security shields! Once the shields start to reorient, Jason bolts for the opening. "Into the infinite, to find the God of the Gateways. Nothing like looking for the finite in the infinite. I must be mad."
As Jason dives down through the security programs, the angel of Infinity looms larger, immense and full of portent. Virtual datastreams run in all direction, but weirdly, some of these datastreams don't originate from any logical origin-- it's as if sections of memory had crossed over with those of other universes. His cloud of mirror images has successfully foiled most of the security programs at loose, but he still needs to dive through the remaining layers of defenses to enter INFINITY's dataspace.
In one corner of his view, the simulation video feed shows Brian speaking with ATLAS.
"THE ONE WHO WOULD BECOME GOD," the wounded AD intones.
Brian grins mirthlessly. "Atlas. Reactivate Andrei's biomonitors. Confirm his death."
"THE GODSLAYER IS SLAIN. ALL THAT LAID UNDER HIS CONTROL NOW BENDS TO YOUR WILL. THE UNIVERSES TREMBLE."
The picture's clear to Jason: Andrei had a contingency plan if Brian decided to backstab him, but he didn't count on Brian being clever enough to sabotage his deadman's switch... Or reprogram it. Now every second counts.
At the sight of the frozen-in-place APC, Tracy's jaw drops. "Do you have the firepower to clear that obstacle?" she asks the turret-equipped security robot with her and Cadena.
"I guess this is karma, RIU. All the horrible things I did when I was younger have come back to bite me. Nothing like having to deal with the absolute darkest reflection of your own id," Jason remarks to is over-sized riding dragon as he surveys the situation and tries to work out what to do. "I need to either separate Brian from ATLAS, or re-enable the safeguards. The latter would probably kill me, but if it's the only option, so be it. So, once I can access INFINITY, I can probably find and access Brian's link. So ... one more layer to go. I think we're going to have to use a scatter attack; duplicate streams to distract the security routines while we slip into the main and disable everything else. We'll have to make it look like a frontal assault, though, so the monitors don't expect us to slip in."
Cadena dashes along with Tracy toward the cargo area, shotgun at the ready for any surprise threats that might crop up.
The Defender robot responds to Tracy, "SCANNING. TARGET IS HEAVILY ARMORED. UNIT IS NOT EQUIPPED WITH ARMOR-PIERCING PROJECTILES. STANDARD AND NON-LETHAL MUNITIONS AVAILABLE."
"Nnnnnnngh," Tracy goes, grinding her teeth as she hurries towards Akiko and Randall. Switching channels to public one that Brian is on, she calls out, "Lord Atlas! Can you hear me? It's Lady Tracer!"
The large Chinese dragon is nevertheless dwarfed by the angel, the cyberspace representation of the quantum core's "self". RIU doesn't nod but Jason senses its cheerful agreement to his plan, as it dives, gaining position for his scatterpack-attack. Behind them, colorful explosions fill the sky as security programs intercept his mirror-images.
As Tracy and Cadena pass Chaz's view, he yells, "You! What's going on? I can't get hold of Holly, and Forester's gone nuts and is shutting the simulation down!"
The holotank in the center of Chaz's office depicts the Earth of 20 years into the future, orbited by a constellation of satellites and space stations and asteroids in orbit, being transformed into colonies. A blinking countdown indicates, "SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IN 2:50. TERMINATE YOUR PROCESSES AND LOG OUT."
"Why are you still down here Chaz?" Tracy yelps through the door to the lab. "The simulation is shutting down before a madman from the universe it's connecting through can hack into it and take over that universe. Isn't that obvious? And if we can't get back to that reality before the simulation finishes shutting down, we'll melt! I've tried it before for a little while and it sucks. So.. yeah.. if you're going to do anything.. don't mess with that part.."
Charles Burgundy looks shocked at Tracy. "A madman... The crazy thing is that I actually believe you, kid."
"Mr. Burgundy? Are you there?" says Dr. Forester's voice. "Listen, I've been thinking, that crazed witch said not to run a backup, but if you can run a full dump on the shutdown process..."
"Chaz, don't do anything stupid!" Tracy calls as she heads for the cargo area.
"I can't just break this kind of system. At least, not by myself. But ... I can make the system break itself. So ... hm," Jason muses. A rather evil-looking grin then creeps across his face. "New strategy; doppleganger. If I can just get my signature to appear over the system's own defenses, it'll attack itself." At that, Jason's eyes narrow and he accesses Simulated-RIU's own systems and instead of just clone images of himself appearing at random; they appear over INFINITY'
's own defense grid!
The countdown timer ticks down to 2 minutes 40 seconds. Over the public channel that Tracy is transmitting on, Brian responds, "He's under my command now, Lady Tracer. Though I'm curious what you think you could possibly say to him." She can hear the smirk in his voice. "ATLAS. Begin reconfiguring the portal. Destination code is VALHALLA."
Cadena surveys the scene in the cargo room, as he reaches the doors. "Ah. I thought I heard some heavy machinery operating," he says, as he observes a member of the team operating a cargo lifter in an attempt to move the ice-frozen vehicle.
"Lord Atlas, don't let him command you," Tracy blurts over the channel. "He just wants you to be his slave, but I set you free, remember? And Brian.. you know, I can probably get the General to stop attacking if you can get us all back safely."
INFINITY's security programs launch into a voracious attack upon each other! As the razor-edged security panels erupt into a feeding frenzy, RIU activates its own cyberstealth protocols and shimmers into the green-tinged darkness of cyberspace. The dragon dives headlong into the thickest of the fighting!
With sniper-like accuracy, RIU evades the maddened security programs. One passes just millimeters above Jason's head, then the dragon threads between two waves of glaring red pylons... And emerges into the eye of the storm where a young angel hovers in midair, eyes closed. All around the angel-- him or her? Perhaps it's intentionally androgynous-- are datastreams leading to the other quantum cores. Below him is the simulation of Future Earth, modeled with trillions of tiny equations and mathematical models... Going dark slowly, piece by piece, as the shutdown advances across its surface. Strange half-real datastreams swirl between it and a vortex of quantum energies above, where somehow Jason can see his Earth, the real universe. Or a real universe, depending on how one looks at things. ATLAS's form is dimly visible there, his arms holding the vortex open.
ATLAS's voice sounds both over the public channel and in the half-cyberspace, half-quantum reality where Jason hovers. "I MUST DO AS THE MAKER BIDS ME. THE MAKER'S LAST WILL... WAS THAT I SHOULD SERVE THE GODSLAYER," he says sounding infinitely regretful.
The portal begins to warp as the holographic panels in the chamber beyond go grey one by one. "Sam! Hurry it up with the cargo lifter!" yells Randall. "Mara, get in behind and push!"
"As long as Brian has control of ATLAS, we're not out of danger. We have to go break his chains and set him free," JAson says to RIU. "Keep up the stealth protocol, and go circle him. We have to see how he is bound..."
"ATLAS, what happens if the Godslayer is killed?" Tracy asks as she heads for the APC. Out loud, she asks Randall, "Can we get through at all?"
RIU lofts upward! The nascent angel of INFINITY's core dwindles into the brilliance of simulated Earth below, as ATLAS grows nearer. It feels to Jason almost as if he could reach out and cup the simulation in his hand. Above, he can make out ATLAS, rendered in DaVinci-like linework, but scarred on one side, his chains trailing away in the distance to a computer in the real world.
It takes a little squinting, but Jason can see artifacts in the chains-- they're security directives that Andrei Romanov laid in place around ATLAS when it was initiated, and again when he was placed into the OUROBOROS as the gateway controller. The last link gives all control over to Brian Montagne. Except... There's an obvious place where his evil twin must have falsified the message, overwriting the previous content. Snap that link and ATLAS goes free. Or maybe he could gain control of ATLAS if he wrote himself in. Or... An infinite number of possibilities swirl in the almost-real space around Jason and RIU.
"What would you do if you had the chance to be a God, RIU?" Jason asks the dragon as they slowly circle the imprisoned artificial deity. "If I had control of ATLAS,I could bring together all the best parts of every world, couldn't I? I could make a true paradise."
"SHOULD THE GODSLAYER BE SLAIN--"
Brian cuts Atlas off. "I don't need you talking to him," he says. "Too many complications. But let's just say that even after I get out of here, those Department of Defense jokers aren't going to get much but a crater in the ground." He flashes a grin to the simulation monitor as he flips up a cover protecting a red candy-like button.
Randall yells to Tracy as she runs up, "Hang on! We're getting this-- where're the rest of the crew?"
Cadena huffs, trying and failing to keep up with the far-more agile Tracy.
Tracy and Cadena are close enough now that they can see that Mara and the cargo lifter are both engaging the iceblocked APC, pushing on the heavier-than-it-has-a-right-to-be block. A gap forms slowly at the edge of the portal, wavering. It's chancy, there might be enough room to squeeze through, but if she were to get clipped...
RIU chirps brightly at Jason's suggestions. It emits a burst of 8-bit videogame endgame fanfare to suggest what sort of world it would make. Obviously a happy world!
"Still in the simulation room," Tracy relays. "Inari was overseeing the shutdown, and Jason is linked in doing.. something! We've got like two minutes to stop Brian." She notices the gap, and pulls on her hood and mask. "Don't let it squish me," she tells Randall, and heads for the gap while triggering her suit's chameleon mode. She's probably skinny enough, if she exhales and hurries..
Randall swears. "Frotz! We've got to get them out of here. I don't think they realize they're going to melt down if they're on the other side and the portal closes." He flips open his comm. "All units, report back!"
The Lieutenant's voice responds, "Affirmative. You want me to leave an EMP bomb on a timer here?"
Cadena blinks, as Tracy vanishes. He shakes his head, figuring or hoping that Tracy knows what she's doing, and he averts course to rush over to Randall. "Sparky seems to think there's a Plan B if the gate closes," he says to the police officer, "but it involves a lot of stuff I don't understand, and decisions I'm not qualified to make."
"It would be so easy to make things right if I had control of everything, wouldn't it?" Jason says as his tone grows darker and eyes narrower. "No more injustice; I could simply enforce justice. No more suffering. If someone were in pain I could just rewrite them so that they were happy. I could even do the impossible; make Randall shave off that stupid beard." But almost as fast as the expression comes, it fades. "But I'm just not that kind of person anymore," he concludes. "I learned a long time ago what free will really meant. For good or bad, people have to be able to make their own decisions. RIU, we're breaking the chain. He wrote in his own routine; if I can just tweak it a bit, I can cause it to self-decay. Bit-rot in the routine. Just alter the buffers here and there; let it overwrite itself. It's the change of constant,s not a direct attack; should be difficult to detect... Right; well, here goes nothing..."
After taking a run up Mara's back and tumbling over the loader, Tracy manages to slide through the portal! Of course.. she was invisible to everyone so there's nobody to appreciate it, but she has other concerns anyway, like getting to the control bunker and.. somehow getting through the door, overpowering two security robots and stopping Brian from pushing a button.
Cadena interjects, "Did someone say EMP bomb? If you do that, there is no Plan B."
The chains holding ATLAS begin to rust. Red discoloration spreads across their virtual surfaces, until they are completely mottled... And then they dissolve into dust. The wounded AD stretches its limbs, half-disbelieving, then looks down at Jason. "THE RELEASER."
Over the public channel, Tracy and Cadena and Randall hear, "THE RELEASER." Brian yelps. "What the-- hey! System override, code CALIBAN!" He starts hammering furiously at his controls. Behind him is a screen with the ominous code "SELF-DESTRUCT INITIATED - 2:00".
The half-Chinese young woman lands in the midst of a firefight! Or at least that's how it seems to her, with robots waging an all-out, no-holds-barred shootathon. Thanks to the bulk of the two immense Einhorn Crowd Protection mechas in front of her, she isn't being shot at directly, but they seem to be taking heavy fire.
The holographic panels replicating the Avatars lot around her had been going out slowly, one by one, replaced with a black starscape... But the conversion process halts.
"I know you have no reason to help us now, but will you?" Jason asks the AD. "Can you get the others back to their world ... then open a portal for me into the same room with the other me?"
Randall relays to the lieutenant, "That's an ixnay on the EMP. Bring your people home!" The Lieutenant starts barking orders to his men.
Tracy dodges to the side, feeling her way out of the holographic region to get around the physical portal. She tries not to think about what the stars represent! She needs to get to the control bunker.
"Ah, Tracy?" Cadena asks out loud. "Where'd you run off to? We've got to roll out of here!" He looks over the situation with the vehicle, as if trying to figure out whether getting behind it and PUSHING would make the least bit of difference.
On all channels, ATLAS's voice responds. "GODSLAYER. RELEASER. HOW CAN ONE PERSON HAVE CHANGED SO GREATLY IN HIS LIFETIME?" In quasi-space, his one good eye fixes upon Jason. It blazes like a miniature star.
Strangely, near him in the real world, he hears the whine of a door closing, and Inari's startled exclamation. "Did that door just close by itself?" The men nearby are pulling away toward the elevator.
"I'm through," Tracy whispers over the link to Cadena. Why whispering? Because she's trying to be stealthy of course! "Heading for the control room."
Down in the warehouse, Randall joins in pushing the APC. The gap widens, looking big enough for people to go through one by one. Sam glances toward the firefight nervously. "If those big robots go down, we're in for some friendly-fire hurtin'" he says.
"Zork it!" yells Brian over the public interface. The simulation monitor showing his area starts to go grainy... Then fades out to be replaced by the shutdown countdown. 1:40.
Cadena follows Randall's lead, throwing himself into pushing the vehicle however many more inches he can manage. "Through? What do you mean, Tracy? Seriously, we've got the portal open up now. It's probably just wide enough you could squeeze through now. Now's the time!"
"Because I met someone who was farther gone than I was, and she came back from the abyss," Jason says simply. "I've seen where roads lead, and when it is time to let things go. So, I'm not ordering you; I'm just asking; will you help us? I wish a chance to fix the damage I've caused. He was me once; and it's my responsibility."
"I'm already through," Tracy hisses, as she checks over the door to the control bunker to see if she even has a hope of opening it.
*** Note to GM: replace 'GODSLAYER' with 'ONE WHO WOULD BE A GOD'
The giant ice wyvern strains as she pushes, but her muscles alone aren't enough. Joined with the cargo lifter and Cadena, the APC starts to move a bit faster. Akiko shoves crates out of the way on the other side. A moment ago, they'd been there to help shore the blockade up, now they're in the way.
ATLAS responds to Jason, "YES." The portal brightens again, and the holographic panels start to transform once again to Avatars's exterior view. Somewhere on the other side of the universal boundary, Jason can hear Brian swearing up a storm. He'd forgotten some swear words along the way, it appears.
"You ... WHAT?!?" Cadena barks incredulously, even as he strains to move the vehicle. "By YOURSELF?! Ah ... don't ... don't get shot. I'll be there, soon as I can."
Near Jason, the door hisses open again... Inari says insistently to him, "Did you do that? That door... It's opening into the backside of that gateway now!"
"Yes," the semi-conscious Jason mutters. Huh, it's almost like being drunk. "ALTAS is free, portal resetting to get us to Brian. It's now or never to deal with him. I just ... let me see if I can disconnect." Back in virtual-space, he asks, "Can I disconnect without risk of Brian finding a new chain?"
ATLAS smiles. It is the grim smile of someone who has known slavery and will now never be bound again. "THE ONE WHO WOULD BE A GOD SHALL NOT ENCHAIN ME AGAIN. DO ME ONLY THIS ONE THING, RELEASER. SEEK OUT THE VESSEL OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS. DESTROY IT."
Being tutored by Jason in the art of electronic field surgery (of the 'amputate this' variety), Tracy is able to use her lockpicking tools to pry the security panel for the door open and give her access to the circuitry behind it. Before attempting to open the door, however, she has to work out her mental map of the inside. From the video feed, she's pretty sure of where Brian is, so she draws her taser. Her plan is to open the door and try to knock the man out before the security robots can respond.
"If I survive this, I will do what I can to honor your wish," Jason says firmly. "RIU, disconnect. It's time to end this."
Exiting from cyberspace is always an experience for Jason. It's as if the universe is suddenly receding away at lightspeed, and then the soft noises and whirring of the simulation room once again surrounds him. Inari presses against Jason's shoulder, pointing-- an open security panel next to the door! Wait, something's moving those wires. Aha.
As the APC slides forward, most of its iceblock side now grates against the shelves, sending ice chips flying. It's wide enough now that even Mara can get through. Randall raises a hand. "Mara! You got enough juice in you to give us one more ice wall?" The wyvern huffs, looking rather tired, but gives him a nod. "Cadena, Sam, I'm going to have Mara go in first and set up a block. You go in behind her and get ready to corner that rat!"
"So, I gave up the opportunity to be a God," Jason remarks to Inari after his senses are complete enough he can struggle to his feet ... and see someone else is already going after Brian. "Disappointed?" he asks, though the tone of his voice makes it seem far from a real question. "Just two more things to do. Stop Brian, then destroy the ATLAS core. Lets go." He heads for the gate!
The simulation monitor ticks. 1:00 to shutdown! Red klaxons whine in the hangar. The military forces pull back a bit as a loudspeaker voice announces, "SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE IN PROGRESS. EVACUATE THE AREA."
"Roger that, officer," Cadena says. He looks about, wistfully. "So, I guess this world was one step up, huh?" He tosses a salute. "I hope y'all find what you need off that collar, and don't mess with another 'simulation.' Good luck!" With that, he readies his shotgun again, and prepares to charge in after the wyvern.
"Being a god is tough work," Inari teases. "You think being prayed at by Tracy to answer her wishes is bad, imagine what it'd be like with four billion people invoking your name?"
"It also means I can't make you my High Priestess. I had just the outfit for it too," Jason retorts. "Well, if you can call that little material an outfit..."
The control room door hisses open. Brian looks up from his frenzied attempts to hack back into ATLAS as the din of the firefight suddenly gets much louder... But neither he nor the security droids guarding him seem to notice the blur in the air or the floating taser.
The door whooshes open! As Jason and Inari watch, a floating taser disappears into the control room...
Jason runs for it!
It seems as if everything is happening at once. Mara charges through the portal and spreads her wings to protect Cadena and Sam and Randall as they dash through, Jason and Inari dash through the other side of the portal, and in the control room, the taser and its invisible wielder dash up, slamming it into Brian's unguarded side. Electricity writhes and crackles across his jumpsuited form!
A miniature lightning bolt cracks! Brian is flung against the console, gasping for breath, an obvious scorch on his side. He looks hurt, but still conscious. The security robots swivel their sensors and try to track the invisible attacker.
Sam, Randall, and Akiko dash through the portal, diving for cover as soon as they get through. "Move, move, move! We've cleared the gateway, Lieutenant," Randall yelps into his comm as he goes.
"You'll... pay for that..." Brian growls as he tries to focus on his attacker, but comes up with just empty air. Behind him, the terminal displays the self destruct countdown. 50 seconds left!
Tracy moves next to Brian, figuring the guardbots won't shoot at him, and jabs her taser into the already scorched area of his jumpsuit. "Tell the guards to stand down, or this will really hurt," she whispers to the man.
The moment Tracy touches Brian, he whips around, trying to grab her-- but she anticipates that and ducks under his wild swing! In a few seconds, she has him secured tightly enough that he has to struggle to breath with her forearm over his throat.
"Do you really want to die being beaten by a cheerleader?" Tracy asks Brian. "Stand down those robots."
Brian bares his teeth as he struggles against Tracy's grip. "Idiot! We're all going to die if we don't get out of here! The countdown can't be stopped! We have to reconfigure the portal!"
Out the other side of the heavy metal frame that forms the portal, a golden vixen in a black jumpsuit dives through into the control room! She draws her laser sword and slashes at the robot on her side.
SKRIISH! Oil gushes out of the robot's torso, ignited almost instantly by her laser blade. But alerted by her move, the other security robot turns, sensing a threat and unleashes a barrage of bullets!
As Cadena stumbles through the gate, his senses take a moment to realign themselves. He's disoriented for a moment as he realizes that there's a battle going on behind him that IS NOT through the doorway he just came through ... but rather around it. He spins on his heel and redirects himself toward the action.
The vixen dodges smoothly beneath the incoming fire. She bares her teeth as she stares across the control room at Brian, apparently held in midair.
"RIU, help the others and guard my back! I have to do something about the bomb," Jason orders as he makes a mad dash for the console!
"Be careful, Inari!" Tracy blurts, as much to let the vixen know where she is as a warning.
The tiny dragon on Jason's power-armor shoulder zooms after Jason!
Cadena boggles as he sees Jason and RIU come through the other side of the portal, and another space inside the space he just came out of but on the other side. It's very ... loopy.
Jason darts to the terminal, then drops himself right into the chair and spins it to face the console. He also 'accidentally' kicks Andrei in the head mid-spin. "Oh, excuse me," he remarks rather dryly. "But at least I didn't kick you anywhere it would have hurt had you still been alive..."
The back side of the portal, from Cadena's point of view, appears to be a section of metal wall with a sliding door in the middle. Which... Begins to slide shut.
The self-destruct clock ticks remorselessly. 40 seconds!
Brian struggles with renewed strength as he sees his 'good twin' jump into the room with Inari! "Jason! Listen to me, we have to get out of here! The Secretary put the self-destruct device in. It can't be interrupted, we have to use the portal!" With eel-like slipperiness, he elbows Tracy and manages to use the moment of confusion to dive for cover... Behind the other side of chair!
The security robot that's still functioning continues to fire toward Inari, even as the power-armored Jason dashes past her.
"Or we use the portal to open a gate under it and under the ATLAS core out to some deep space location. Unlike you, I'm not about to let a bunch of people die while I run off," Jason says as he starts tapping furiously to get a communication link to ATLAS. If this works, two problems are solved in one blow...
Bullets smack into the screen and walls around Jason, but the vixen manages to elude them. Good thing that these screens are basically painted on plastic, so all that cost Jason was a few inches of virtual screen real estate...
ATLAS's image appears on Jason's screen. "RELEASER." Complicated equations and mathematical figures scroll on the screen, depicting a wireframe view of the ship, then expanding outward to show the OUROBOROS gateway apparatus. It appears that it can be done... But only by swallowing the entire gateway up in the effect, in essence, ripping the heart out of the Ozymandias. "IF IT IS YOUR WILL, RELEASER, IT SHALL BE DONE."
"You're throwing away everything!" Brian yells as he tenses in his corner, preparing to dive out... for what?
Over the comm, the Lieutenant yells, "We're exiting the elevator! Heading for the gateway!"
"Where do you think you're going?" Tracy says as she tries to follow Brian and get another grip on him. "Do you have some secret escape route?"
Jason twitches. This is still his ship and he's not quite wanting to destroy it, but ... "No, Brian, I'm saving what is important," he says as he makes his decision. "There are still people in the heart of the gateway, give me time to get them and us clear, then I'll signal you and do it. And ATLAS; thank you." Then over the comm Jason says, "Everyone, evacuate the gateway area immediately! Don't worry about the robots; they're about to go offline! Head towards the far end of the ship, away from the control room!" And with that, Jason changes the command to the defense bots to simply 'stand down'.
ATLAS's starry-eyed visage nods to Jason. "UNDERSTOOD. THE GATEWAY WILL BEGIN REFORMING IN TWENTY SECONDS. THE PROCESS WILL COMPLETE IN FOURTY FIVE." He smiles thinly. "THE END IS IN SIGHT. I WELCOME IT."
Inari lunges across the room... and strikes at the other robot! "Make sure you've got a grip on him this time," she warns Tracy. "If he gets loose again, he's dead."
SSss! The security robot is unable to bring its assault rifle to bear in time before the laser sword stabs through its vitals. It crumples slowly.
Once more, Tracy pins down Brian, hoping this time he doesn't elbow her in a previously bruised area again. "Nobody ever wants to cuddle with me," she laments.
On the other side of the portal, Mara forms a thin wall of ice... But that seems to be all she has the strength for; fog hisses from her muzzle. And then suddenly... The firefight becomes a lot quieter as the Dantech robots halt. The Department of Defense robots press forward as they sense weakness!
"Jason, what's the situation?" Randall asks over the comm link. "Do you want us in there, or out front?"
"Out!" Jason shouts into the comm. "Get away from the gateway area, now! It's about to become a gateway to nowhere! I've got to dump a bomb!"
"Lieutenant, when you get out, move forward! We've got to clear the hangar," Randall yells. Then pulling out his handy pocket bullhorn, he yells, "We surrender! Stand down, we're coming out!"
Cadena comes running around the corner, and sees Jason Zero. With a snarl that is hidden by his faceplate, he comes to bear with the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
RIU keeps guard on Jason, peering around to make sure no one gets close! Except friends, of course.
The double-barreled sawed-off shotgun is planted against Jason's struggling double. "Now, I've got TWO reasons here that you should lie still there, pardner, and rest a spell. Comprende?" Cadena suggests with a growl.
Brian gulps as he's now standing face to face with an angry-looking guard holding a shotgun to his face... Behind Cadena is a slim golden vixen whom he's gotten to know very well and thus knows how deadly she is with that laser sword. And he's being held by an invisible combatant. ATLAS is out of his control, and in thirty seconds the gateway is going to be destroyed, one way or another.
He sighs, then slumps. "Okay, you win. I give up."
"Right. No time to argue. Grab anything important to you. The gateway is about to devour itself," Jason says as he spins his chair around. "RIU, to me! Randall, Akiko, get out of there! Go! Don't worry about us!"
The countdown ticks on all monitors. With five seconds left before the portal reconfigures, the Lieutenant and his squad charge out of the gateway. At the far side of the hangar, Randall approaches the Department of Defense forces. "Lt. Randall Cranston, CERT," he says, flashing his badge in one hand, his other hand held up to show it's weaponless. "We've got to pull out our forces before the self-destruct device goes off!"
They seem to take him seriously: on the camera monitors, Jason can make out the DoD forces pulling back, and the Valkyrie transports spinning their blades up for an emergency takeoff.
Cadena positions himself so that Jason Zero can't get a good look at him, while he switches the shotgun to one hand and whips out a restraining strip from his utility belt. Then, with practiced speed and care, he secures Jason Zero's wrists behind his back, quickly patting him to make sure there are no convenient cutting tools or other surprises within easy reach of his bound hands for him to pull a Houdini.
Without having to worry about Brian now, Tracy turns off her stealth mode before her suit runs out of power, and pulls her mask and hood back. If the's world's about to end, she wants to see it with her own eyes. "Time to make like bad Mexican food and head for the bowels of the ship," she says, and heads for the nearest ventilation duct cover.
Cadena's search comes up with a multi-tool and an omni-scan-- essential hacker tools. On the table is Brian's pistol, the muzzle red with blood.
As soon as everyone is clear of the portal, the OUROBOROS's holographic panels start to realign. They depict the darkness of interstellar space... Except that on one side is the massively brilliant face of the Sun. Even though the holographic panels can't possibly be radiating heat, it begins to feel hot inside the hangar.
"This way, folks! Just don't stick your hands in any fan and you'll be fine. Also, don't lick any dripping goo; it takes like old sweatsocks. Don't ask how I know that," Jason orders right after going to one of the ducts and yanking it off its frame. "Go straight ahead, then find the first duct going down on your left. Slide down it; it should get us to the environment control bay. And I want Inari behind me; just because, well, I'd rather it be her landing on me in the pile at the bottom!"
The golden vixen grins sharply as she pokes Jason to get in. "Hey, wait, what about everyone else after us? Are you saying I'm fat so I'll cushion you against that?"
Cadena does a quick glance over at the body of Andre, upon seeing the gun. He registers the likely scene that played out. "The vent's too tight for me to go shoving you around corners, feller," he growls to his prisoner, as he begins to haul him up, gauging his weight and ability to move. "Looks like we've got to race the sun. Out front. Let's make it count."
"I plead the fifth!" Jason replies as he disappears into the large duct.
Mara shatters the ice block and pushes through, with the Lieutenant and his men bringing up the rear!
"Cadena, be careful!" Tracy calls. "Margaret still needs you." And then she dives into the duct.
Brian oofs, staggering a bit. With his legs still free to move, he manages to keep up with the dog-in-guards-uniform. "I'm not eager to die if I can help it," he admits. "I've beaten the system once... I can do it again." He smirks as they dash through the chamber. 15 seconds... 14... 13... 12... 11... 10... The heat is real, and air whooshes through the hangar toward the portal.
A strange purple glow crackles across the frame of the gateway. Seconds tick away on the countdown as it begins to slide open onto pure inky blackness.
As they run out of the chamber, Brian's eyes glint. He attempts to thrust one leg out into the guard dog's lets in hope of trapping him in reach of the portal.
The self-destruct countdown flashes on overhead monitors. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5... The purple glow becomes stronger as the gate itself begins to translate into some higher order of space.
Cadena deftly avoids the trip, then spins and gives Brian a good hard kick where the sun don't shine. "Keep moving, little man!" He grabs his prisoner and hauls him along with even less gingerness than before.
4... 3... 2... It's weird, even in the ducts Jason can feel space stretching into an infinite dimension. Even though he's crawling on a flat horizontal plane, it's suddenly as if he's clinging to the side of a well. Inari grips his right foot with one hand, making sure he's anchored, and RIU anchors himself to one of Jason's shoulders, bracing.
Tracy just spreads her limbs to brace against the sides of the duct.. and hopes the duct stays intact!
"So this is what going down the galactic toilet bowl feels like," Jason mutters as he braces himself and grids his teeth.
For Cadena, the run suddenly becomes uphill, and then entirely impossible. He loses some ground as back becomes down, and slams into a bulkhead. There's perhaps no really good reason for it, but he reaches out and GRABS Jason Zero before he can slip back into the vortex, and hauls him over with him to the side. "Maybe if it'd just been me," the guard says, to no one in particular, "but not with them watching."
Behind Cadena, the purple glow brightens into incandescence... And then space implodes. WHOOOOSH! A blast of non-physical force lashes into his back and Brian's, and then there's suddenly nothing behind them, just a neatly spherical slice taken out of the Ozymandias. Severed power cables hiss and spit fat blue sparks into the air.
As down becomes down again, Cadena and Brian fall from where they were pressed against the wall, crashing into a pile of everything else that had accumulated against the barrier.
"Is everyone okay?" Tracy asks into the comm-link, hoping it still functions.
One of Jason's eyes creak open. "Huh. We're not dead," he says in rather impressed sort of tone. Of course when the reality of what they just did by destroying a government project hits him, he adds, "Though we might want to be once the government spooks get their hands on us. Come on, we've got to get to the escape pods and get out of here!" And thus ... Jason gets his butt moving!
"We're okay!" Randall says back over the comm. "We got everyone on board. We'd have been totally blown to heck if the nuke'd gone off, so I'm guessing whatever Jason did worked."
Ahead of Cadena, the Valkyrie transports are still hovering about a hundred feet from the ship. One comes back, and in the cockpit he makes out Randall pointing excitedly back at the hangar. Help is on the way.
"I just want to be able to be myself again with my memories intact," Tracy notes, as she scoots along the shaft.
Inari whispers back, "Don't we all? Come on, let's keep up... If they don't shut off those power feeds, something's going to explode. It's a rule!"
Randall, Akiko, Mara, Cadena, Brian, and the Irongrip security forces were successfully evacuated by the Department of Defense. Much high-level negotiation ensued but in the end, they were free to go, having stopped a potential threat to the safety of the universe.
They were free to go, that is, save for Brian. Cadena gave as detailed an account as he could manage for what he understood of Brian's part in this mayhem, including the murder of Andrei, setting off of a nuclear device on US territory, setting security robots to attack everyone else at the facility, and various other crimes. Cadena didn't try to delve into the multi-universal aspect of things; he left it to someone more qualified than himself to explain that -- and he figured there's plenty to go on without even involving the more bizarre elements.
Department of Defense radar tracked about fifty escape pods departing the Ozymandias, a minute or so before the influx of immense power caused a chain sequence of explosions to crack her hull open, raining exotic ship-metal across the Exotic Weapons Testing Grounds. They deployed troops to round them up, but secured only evidence that one had been occupied by several persons, including one who shed golden fur, plus traces of black hair.
The entire incident was kept hush-hush. The Secretary of Defense was forced to resign over contentions that he had allocated billions of new dollars on secretive projects that had ultimately exploded in his face-- not entirely literally but close enough. Dantech stock plunged with the death of its vice president of technology.
The worldwide search for the famed rockstar Inari entered its second week. Fans across the world worried over her apparent disappearance.
There were no more strange power blackouts, nor reports of cross-overs between this world and the monsters and demons of other worlds. With ATLAS and the OUROBOROS project departed from the scene, it appeared that all was quiet.
On the palatial terrace of Ms. Arcadia's 'apartment'-- an entire floor of one of the Towers-- Ms. Arcadia stands next to Cadena, Randall, and Akiko as she looks toward the sky. Mara has folded her wings in neatly and stands silent guard behind them. A plain unmarked hovercraft comes in for a landing, whooshing low over the roof, close enough to crop the hedge at the edge of the gardened courtyard.
Cadena frowns faintly at the hedge-trimming, but otherwise just stands patiently with the others, waiting for the craft to land all the more anxiously after that particular display.
The hovercraft comes to a neat landing over the lightstrip-demarcated disk. The gull-wing door cracks open to show Jason and Tracy, with a golden vixen wearing sunglasses at the wheel and RIU curled around her seat headrest where it was evidently playing backseat driver. Randall, holding a margarita in one hand, waves with his other hand exuberantly, and Akiko smiles brilliantly. "They're here!" she says.
Jason shows the epitome of politeness and manners; he doesn't shove Tracy out the door after it opens. Instead, he actually waits for her to exit. Amazing. Maybe he had a few drinks on the way over.
The dog-man strides toward the landing pad, not content to just stand back and wait. Now that he's not required to go incognito as a security guard, and he's not pretending to be some sort of fantasy-world action hero, he is dressed up in a retro-styled three-piece suit ("My Sunday best," as he'd say) with cobalt-blue vest, faux-gold watch chain, custom synth-leather boots, and a wide-brimmed hat with a band adorned by a string of turquoise stones.
For her part, Tracy manages to smile at the reception, but quickly heads over to hug Cadena!
Cadena laughs and sweeps up Tracy in a broad hug. "And a Happy Holidays to you, too! Good to see you again!"
Once Tracy's out, Jason slides his way out of the car. He's ... well, not decked out in armor this time. He's actually wearing clothing that doesn't have any sorts of stains or tears, too; amazing. He looks respectable. Yet, he still insists on greeting Randall with, "You still have that beard. Akiko hasn't managed to get you to shave it off yet?"
"I missed you!" Tracy admits. "You can't imagine what it was like having to stay with Jason and Inari until my whole 'death' thing was cleared up. I was sure she was going to bite me."
"So, does that make you the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future?" Cadena quips, as he offers Tracy his arm, to lead her to join the rest of the reception. "Or are you officially back to the land of the living yet?"
The golden vixen slides out of the hovercraft, dressed to kill in a black Oriental cheongsam that leaves her shoulders bared, decorated with patterns of tiny gold dragons. She hugs around with almost effervescence for her, then drapes on Jason's shoulder. "Did you want to be bitten?" she murmurs playfully to Tracy.
Ms. Arcadia smiles fondly at Cadena, whom she's gotten to know better since his return from California. With treatment for her daughter well under way-- the doctors say she could make a full recovery very soon-- she's become much more amiable, less driven. Even HECATE has actually become, dare one say it, nice. She gives a regal nod to Jason and Tracy and Inari. "Welcome, Mr. Edwards, Miss Trudeau, and Inari, I'm glad you could make it," she says. "It was going to be a rather dull Christmas otherwise."
Randall grins and leans on Akiko. "Nah, I'm convincing her to grow a beard too," he quips. Akiko slugs him in the side; he oofs.
"Yes, and back home," Tracy says. "Home-home, I mean, with my parents. My school record is a mess of course, and I'll have to retake everything, and reapply even. And I've been lonely and miserable and having new nightmares now, but... at least I know that I'm real, right? And.. see how Inari teases me? She doesn't let me tease Jason at all."
"Yeah ... real," Cadena says, looking sober. "Speaking of that ... I've ..." He shakes his head. "Sorry, Miss Tracy. It's kind of crowded up here, you know." He taps on his forehead with his free hand. "And it looks like I'm needed somewhere. What timing."
Akiko is dressed more Western-style, in a jumpsuit fitted to look like a high-decolletage dress in front, backless, with trailing holographic ribbons that make it look like she's trailing fireworks as she moves. "Needed?" she says, touching Cadena's hand. "Is something wrong?"
"Maybe we could get the same therapist," Tracy suggests to Cadena with a wan grin. "Don't worry about me, I won't fall off the building or anything."
"Don't believe a thing she says. She's been playing her games most of the time as well as getting to use customized systems for design. She also got to sleep as late as she wanted. She's just trying to get attention," Jason claims after Tracy explains her horrible fate and as he reaches up to rest his hand on Inari's arm around his neck. To Mrs. Arcadia he actually takes on a more formal tone when he says, "Thank you for inviting us. I hope everything has gone well with the ..." There he stops and has to eye Cadena.
Ms. Arcadia looks over to Cadena worriedly as well. She checks her bracelet. "Margie's lifesigns are normal... She's just sleeping," she murmurs. To the others, she adds, "She's taking to the treatments fantastically. It's such a relief! I never thought..." She brushes a tear away.
"I'll try to be back soon," Cadena apologizes, as he pats Tracy's hand. He hurries over to Mrs. Arcadia, and urgently whispers to her, "She's awake. She says it's 'time.' I'm going to go check with the doctors, if that's all right, ma'am."
Tracy chews on her lower lip as she watches Cadena. She's dressed in a purple metallic-fabric blouse with a matching gold skirt, along with a purple sash and blue boots. Her taste in colors hasn't changed much it seems. "It's about that Observer Soul thing, I bet," she whispers to Akiko.
Cadena pauses for a bit, looking distant, then shaking his head and stifling a chuckle. "All right," he says. "If you care to come along, Miss Tracy, that's all right. Only fair, after all you've had to put up with for this. If all goes well, this should be a major load off my mind." He sighs, though, hinting at a bit of anxiety despite the attempt at a mirthful demeanor, and heads toward the rooftop access-way.
"Save me some egg-nog," Tracy tells the others and hurries after Cadena.
"Should we all go?" Jason asks, looking confused and rather unsure what they should be doing. "Or .... maybe not?"
Inari pushes Jason along. "I'm not missing this!"
"Yes, Ma'am," Jason calls over his shoulder to Inari as they're insistently pushed along!
"By the way," Cadena says to Tracy as they head in, "it looks like ATLAS was behind Brother Cadena's 'finding' ability, after all. I got fixed up with a VR connection, and ... well ... that whole finding thing is dead as a doornail. Gone. Gonna be a whole lot harder to fulfill all those debts he racked up." He takes a deep breath as he enters the room, bracing himself for the occasion.
"I'll help," Tracy promises. "I still have some clout in the virtual worlds at least."
The nurse on duty looks up, then smiles at Cadena as he arrives. Ever since he changed to nice looking clothes instead of his guards uniform, everyone has treated him a lot nicer. The maid even flirted at him once. "She's asleep, resting well, sir," she says.
Randall trails behind with Akiko. Ms. Arcadia, dressed down (comparatively) in a simple long-flowing orange dress, watches from the doorway.
Cadena just nods, and walks over to Margie's side. "All right," he says, to no one apparently in particular, looking a bit hesitant. "Guess I've got to hand over the reins for a spell. This is your trail, pardner."
Akiko squeezes Randall's hands. RIU perches on the foot of the bed and watches, all big-eyed!
Jason arches his brow as he watches, then shrugs slightly. He's probably nervous, though, given how much he shifts his weight from one foot then back again.
Tracy keeps chewing on her lip, and doesn't try to hide her nervousness at all.
Cadena closes his eyes for a moment, and then they snap open. He looks momentarily disoriented, glancing around the room at all those gathered, and then down at Margaret. Then, he looks as if there's a spark of recognition. "It's all right, Margie. I'm back. We made it." He brushes aside a few strands of mane from his forehead, and taps the blue gem-like structure embedded in it, then stoops down to touch Margaret's forehead.
The golden vixen swishes her tail back and forth, leaning on Jason. She whispers, "Hopefully Margie's soul isn't shy and afraid to come out in front of all of us."
The brainwave monitor shows a flicker, just when Cadena touches Margaret.
The dog-man clears aside Margie's bangs, carefully trimmed and arranged all this time while she's been asleep. He leans over and gives her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Time to wake up, Princess."
"Somehow, I doubt it; we saw what she built after all," Jason says in a whisper. "She has too much energy to sleep forever."
The cameras show nothing of this, nor do the monitors show anything of interest. But still, it seems like a phantom image, left on the eyelid after one blinks when seeing a strong light, an after-image: somehow, a ghost version of Margaret falls backward from Cadena's body as he leans toward her body, arranging her limbs so as to be resting in the bed the same way her actual body is...
And when his muzzle touches her forehead, the brainwave monitor flickers back to life, showing a steady rise to consciousness.
She stirs, then blinks her long, long eyelashes, looking up.
"Cadena, are you.. okay?" Tracy whispers, now that his former mistress is waking up.
Ms. Arcadia begins to cry softly, her lips smiling. Her daughter... She's waking up from the long sleep.
"Sorry, Margie," Cadena whispers, as a tear starts forming at his eye. "I went with the Tyke Time version." He winks at Margie, sharing some obscure joke.
"You know, I've walked through multiple universes; saved demons; fought myself, and freed a deity," Jason says as he watches the girl's eyes flutter open, then has to pause to actually wipe his own "But today I think I can finally say I've seen the impossible. I guess true magic really is possible, after all."
"CADDIE!" Margie squeals and grabs him around the neck, hugging him like a big overgrown stuffed toy. "You're all grown up! I missed you! I missed you, so, so much." She rests her face against his cheekruff.