Monica was used to teleporting instantly, but when she left the version of Earth on the second framework... wherever that could be as she was aware that the cosmos she inhabited was some strange amalgamation of letters on leaves, computer code, and a human mind or universe trying to understand itself... she instead found herself dancing through simulations.
Waves of data and cosmic lights were gliding around her—it was evident she was no longer jaunting the way she used to.
During her time in 1 platoon she was limited to jaunting on just the version of Earth she was originally in and the Earth that had the twisted town of Derry Hill. The Earth with the glitchy town of Derry Hill was the planet she was born on. Unbeknownst to her until she joined 1 platoon, she had gotten so good at jaunting that she was able to jaunt to people's memories by touching their heads, or at least a tiny part of her mind would jaunt. She became a subject of study for Infamogen as she was the first supersoldier to show that the line between jaunters and espers was not so rigid, and the company discovered that the soldiers classified as espers did the same thing, they just could not jaunt their entire body and consciousness to a location that would be visible to the human eye.
However, when Monica betrayed Ember and began assisting Alice, with the near infinite influx she received from the biological and technological singularity named Spiderland that had numerous forms, she was able to jaunt so far into the cosmos that she was able to go to a universe that was either in the past or in the future of her own universe. It was not necessarily her going back or forwards in time as most humans imagined it, her jaunting would take her to a universe on the eternal grid where events played out exactly the same way it played out in her own simulation.
In one particular timeline, out of mere curiosity, Monica influenced the past in one universe that was identical to hers, then went back to the one she originally was in to see what happened to it.
Monica ended up influencing both universes, another confirmation to Alice that perhaps they were inside a human mind, a human story, or a human-made computer simulation. Perhaps a combination of all of them.
Infamogen observed the surroundings an esper's mind would jaunt to while they channeled their abilities, and they discovered that the dark matter in the environment mirrored the landscapes that the esper's target either remembered or imagined.
The same way Kaya form could heal wounds faster and cause beings to have superstrength, the advanced technique of creating a fetus hard drive made it possible to swap out classified memories because these little beings made of flesh and influx made it easier to also locate these fields of dark matter, thus causing Spiderland or any espers or jaunters that mindlinked with vis to have multiple avenues to manage these memories. However, Alice was not comfortable leaving them as fetuses with very human memories to only function as wireless drives, so she created a being out of them that could fuse together using nanobots, influx, and Prunus Tantalum bark while also letting the being have free will.
Thus the being Spiderland, Spiderland being one of vis many names as it was another avatar of the cosmic influx tree or the universal nervous system, was created. There is speculation the gods above Spiderland were similar in one way or another, but the gods at this level kept their powers secret as they operated at the level of information. A god at the level of information having their powers no longer be mysterious was a certain way for them to become a dead god, however mere infinite power or time shenanigans could not defeat them alone.
With whatever shenanigans Monica was now in as she kept noclipping through thousands of simulations, were Infamogen's findings in previous timelines still true, or has that all changed?
If anything... she was so busy looking at the cosmic vista above her in awe, that it took her several seconds to sense her legs wrapped around a galloping being. She tilted her head down to find an undead centaur wearing a dapper business cybersuit.
"Are you Iggy? I... I believe we may have mindlinked a few times during our reruns, but I have never met you," Monica murmured.
"Indeed, I am also known as the Centaur Herald. Consider this thanks for saving Alice's family, you would have died from your jaunt earlier," Iggy said.
Monica glanced away from the being for a moment then gulped.
"Why?" she managed to ask.
"Not only were you trying to jaunt to a deleted universe, but the framework you were teleporting inside of was not ever going to run again," Iggy said. "You were just going to be data without consciousness. Do you follow?"
"For the most part... but frameworks still are beyond my understanding," Monica said, resting her manicured milky nails and palm on her temple.
"There is no need for you to do so," Iggy said as he kept glitching throughout all the data that ever was and ever will be.
"Those are the realms of the gods."
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Before Joaquim could react to her question, the Lil' Morti bot who said their name was Renée clinked her way across the boutique to hug Joaquim's leg. The rest of the spawned players ran on all fours towards the zombie mobs outside the shattered windows.
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"Aww. Well, that was the first objective," Zinnia said with a smile, still standing beside Joaquim.
"Mom?" Joaquim asked. "How come I can't remember you... why is Gabe keeping secrets?"
When Joaquim raised his hand to put it around Renée, who was currently half his height without her human body, Renée instead went to grab his hand to hold it.
"Ember," Renée said with static in her voice, her eyes and mouth glowing depending on how loud she was. "Ember is the reason. With her mastery in esper abilities, the only strategies that worked was systematically making us forget memories that would help her and Ameen. However, Ameen has betrayed her every timeline... not in the same way every time... but he always had. He has been able to successfully destroy Fornia and Ember Tree City back to back by exploiting Ember's business venture. Ember wants to start a simulation tourism business that all connects to Ember Tree City, also unintentionally rushing our first contact with araks before humanity is ready. We need to stop Ember from destroying the fabric of reality and at the same time stop Ameen from committing urbicide."
Probably noticing she was rambling, Renée stopped herself and locked eyes with Joaquim while setting her other metal hand on Joaquim's. "I missed you so much. I could cry if I had human eyes."
Joaquim lifted his other hand to rest on hers while he gulped. "What memories would be dangerous for Ember to know? I don't want you to tell me something that will put us in danger if Ember reads my mind."
"Alice, your other mom–"
"Gabe and I have two moms?" Joaquim interrupted.
Renée's eyes glowed brightly for a few seconds, then she tilted her head down slightly.
"Yea," Renée said, glancing up at him again with googly eyes. "With Dominic's help... Alice had you while I had Gabe."
"Dominic? Do you mean..." Joaquim stammered. "Me and Gabe are the sons of Earth's Don? That would explain why espers would be so heavily involved with our memories..."
Renée nodded. "We're descendants of the houses of Seraphis and Felix."
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SIMULATION: Derry Hill 2
DATE: Sometime in the past, SPACETIME_SYNTAX_ERROR
Eve, with her body getting destroyed in the vacuum of space, perpetuated her consciousness until she was able to possess another body as her influx body danced through simulations. Oddly enough, thanks to the previous mind before her bringing a mirror to the elementary school class Eve was now sitting in... her face pretty much looked exactly the same.
However, she was not ready to face herself yet.
She glanced over at the levitating hologram screen above her desk to check the name at the top.
EMBER COMSA
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Hydris Lacuna, Hydris Lacuna, Calypso, Brennisteinn, South Pole Wall...
The first two assigned weapons for a nervous Uzi and Maverick spawned.
For Uzi, a set of knife missiles dropped to vis left, while a stun pistol made for a human spawned beside Maverick. The distant sun of the Calypso solar system casted four long shadows on the astral battle stage the talking lion and the arak were standing on.
"How ironic," Maverick said as he bit the gun. The gun morphed within his fangs, akin to how mercury-influx would liquify before solidifying. The grip wrapped around the back of his snout, with the trigger transforming into metal plates that he could bite down on to fire it. "These two weapons are from advance spacefaring human civilizations, and I have no intention to let humanity ever get there... because they were never capable of it in the first place."
"Or who knows, maybe it's sign that you are not going to win," Uzi taunted.
Maverick scoffed. "Say. I noticed you were nervous again... long after your ammonia geyser trap failed. Were you trying to go inside my mind?"
"It was only to confir–"
"This is when the existing one takes Sincerus's place," Maverick interrupted. "You wanted to confirm that you no longer have mind abilities. Luckily, you should still have telekinetic abilities. You're going to need them my octopus-spider friend."
Uzi tapped each knife that hovered above the rocky thin platforms, eight of them to be exact, and they lifted off the platform above the ammonia lake to dance around ver in circles. "If you are so confident in killing me here and now, perhaps you can tell me why at this point in time jaunting and espering changed?"
Maverick, with a flick of his mane, seemed as if he was about to leap into battle, but he stopped himself when the arak asked the question. "Funny. You have been sending your consciousness back in time thanks to the help of Bastian, yet you have not figured that out?"
Uzi stayed silent. Even though the first few times they met they would fight more than talk, on top of Maverick's memories bleeding in regardless of which timeline he had experienced them... they had become closer to the point that they would be better considered rivals rather than enemies. They were supposed to be on the same side after all until Uzi betrayed the Brennisteinnian exiles ve left with.
"I'll tell you then," Maverick said. He tried to prowl closer on the platform both of them were standing on, but ve hovered backwards as he moved forwards. "Ameen, for one reason or another, was so confident that we exist in a book simulation, and he started a cult in the HALT simulation. This was during the cyberpunk age where death and murder were normalized in reality TV and game shows. Ameen and Ember met each other in that simulation and Ember joined his cult. Whether Ameen had some kind of divine power or got really lucky with the cult he created... with Ameen's help Ember was able to use artificial intelligence to monitor the existing one. If we are inside a book, the narrator technically has the power to never be at the wrong time or place. By using the scientific method to replicate the existing one's power to be anywhere at any time he wishes... Ember was able to get certain supersoldiers to jaunt and become espers. It seems the only way to stop us was to change the rules, so your side... of course... made the existing one change the rules by taking Sincerus's place."
Even though Uzi did get distracted at the revelations for a moment, ve was not distracted enough to get hit by Maverick's stun probe. As Uzi swayed to the right to dodge, ve knew the probe took exactly three seconds to respawn in the plastic cartridge.
"Apparently you don't respect me enough to use your influx abilities," Uzi said as ve levitated one knife missile above vis bubble wrap eyes. "I know your body is here as well. This is your home simulation after all."
Maverick gave ver a toothy grin as the probe flickered back into the cartridge.
"More weapons will spawn soon," Maverick warned. As the stars hovered above them in the simulated cosmos, the setting sun of Calypso was only casting their shadows to be even longer.
"I will give it... one more weapon that specializes in taking multiple hearts, and one Kaya slash from my claws... and you will be a dead arak Uzi. It will be over before you even know it."