May’s behavior then, it would seem an affront to her previous actions, as it looked as if she had retreated from the failing precipice of her sanity, but all was not as it seemed.

Her mind was going somewhere, and the realm she was yet to reach, was the upper echelons of warped sanity. It was the domain of the ideas and fetishes, the realm of her brother, and perhaps, she was destined to get there as well.

None the less, such ideas were far behind the purview of her tunnel vision, as all she sought to know then were her circumstances. If she had to go, she’d at least know the details. Thus, she’d run to a Bob that was teetering on the proverbial edge, and his descent wouldn’t be as smooth as August’s, or May’s.

The place did contribute to the August’s madness, but his circumstances were unique, skewered to fit the mold he had been given at that time. And so, allowing another person to undergo that, was not a good idea.

As such, pulling the small man back from such a place was in the best interest of all, especially seeing as he was the one in possession of the metallic cube.

May would tumble over herself, falling just a few feet before him, and she’d crawl the rest of the way, slowly getting up as she did. She’d lean on his shoulder, and her face would almost twitch a smile in all her induced, for the most part, insanity.

“You were right… You’re right!” She’d shake a Bob that was standing above a soon to be abyss, well, there ‘was’ about to be one.

“O-okay…! Okay!” He’d pull away from the small girl. “I-I get it…! …Kind of… r-remind me of what again…?” Bob’s spiral would finally run out of cordage.

“You said… you said an overlap of dimensions was already occurring… and that seems to be true with what Sonata said… so… so… my implants… my implants are enhanced too… you were right…!” May would hug him, well, actually she had put him in a headlock without realizing it.

Bob would kick up enough of a fuss to get her attention though, and she would let him go. She’d then pat him on the back as he coughed, as if it wasn’t her doing.

“D-don’t touch me…” He moved away from her, though he did still sit in the grass. “Ahem…” He’d make eye contact with May, or he tried to at least.

“They sky… it’s pretty nice tonight… no-” May blushed at the stars.

“N-no! No its not! T-this isn’t even earth….! Technically s-speaking….” He shook his head, clawing at his scalp with both hands. “A-anyway… I wouldn’t go as f-far as to call what you have… ‘i-implants’ you have all the standard stuff t-that allows for connection to the net a-and then your family specific o-ones which are mandatory… b-but even then… your family doesn’t r-really get their hands dirty… even if there sh-… sho-… haaa… even i-if there should be a correlation, all y-your implants do is retain i-information, s-so what do you e-even mean by enhanced?” The more he reasoned, the more wrong he thought himself.

“’Retain information’… why…? Huh…?” The girl would lay down on her side, leaning against her palm, brows crumpled.

“W-well… to… I-I see…” He’d roll his eyes, but due to the light show they were having, May would notice.

“You can’t always be right, and that’s okay, that’s fine…” She’d sympathize with him, even reach for him.

“D-don’t touch me… a-and don’t patronize me…” He pulled away from May even further. “I’m a-assuming that the ‘implant’ t-that you have has been e-enhanced in a way as to allow y-you to draw upon your i-infinite well of knowledge physically o-or otherwise… b-but what happened… for you to r-realize that…?” One of his brows would raise instinctually, though it could not be seen for a plethora of reasons.

“Ahhh… I kind of threw Brody… like full on threw…” She’d make the gesture, even flat on the grass. “Over the shoulder and all… like it was—” She was really feeling the effects of the place, odd.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I-I get it…! You t-threw him, why?” He’d look back at the duo, and he’d be reminded of their unique dispositions. “Y-your… your faces…?”

The two, who were just idly sitting by only moments before would frantically feel for their faces, but they’d already formed.

“W-what’s wrong with my face….!?” Brody clawed at his face.

“My face…?” Kim tapped hers, as if applying makeup.

“They’re fine now…” May would stand as she spoke.

“A-anyway… what you’ve s-said makes no s-sense… e-even if the fighting arts you’ve p-preserved are e-exceptional… you’re not nearly s-strong enough to throw someone l-like Brody…?” Bob would stand as well, picking up the cube.

“Exactly…” May lifted both hands, spreading them wide, face scowling.

“Ahhh… I-I see—” Bob wouldn’t get a chance to finish.

“Do it faster next time…” The girl dropped her hands.

“S-shut up please… a-anyway, so you’re s-saying that you have b-been physical enhanced from a c-cognitive based device? Y-you understand h-how dumb you sound right n-now… right?” Bob smirked, tilting his head upward as he grinned.

May would walk over, and even as Bob backed away she grabbed him and hoisted him up with one hand.

“’Do you understand how dumb you sound right now…’ Shut up…” May would let go of a Bob that had gone awfully quiet.

“Ahem… s-so I’m assuming y-your body has been enhanced i-in relation to the information on said d-device and as such your b-body has been strengthened to c-cope with the output of force you’d n-need to do most of those arts y-you have seeing as you are a-a child… m-make sense…?” Bob refused to look at the girl as he spoke.

“Yes, it does, but now what do we do about this place? Where do we go…? And where are we even going?” May had started to spiral again. “Our families are dead… and the place is a wasteland… so why are we even going there…?” Her eyes would lose their chipper as she spoke.

“We’re g-going there for o-our own ‘salvation’… is what your b-brother said… and they obviously know m-more than we do… s-so we just have to d-do what he says… i-it’s not like we can stay h-here…?” Bob would start the journey, but approaching one of the edges closest to another island, he couldn’t help but to look down.

“He’s not my brother… not only did he lie to me about our parents… he kept all of ‘this’ from us… the truth, all those battle implants he got… ‘for dopamine’… that’s what he said… but he knew… he might have not known the when… seeing as what happened… but he knew there would be a when… that thing… that thing is not my brother…” Even as May defamed the man that gave everything for her, she walked, continued the journey he set for her.

“T-that’s a tough one… y-you’ll have to take that u-up with him… but I w-will say this as h-his friend… August i-is a ‘very’ methodical p-person, h-he does everything for a r-reason… a-and saying that t-to say this… t-there must have b-been a reason… I’m s-sure of it… y-you think I’m not mad too… I-I have no family left in this w-world… and h-he knew that… I c-can’t believe we thought t-they were exploring the old w-world… but were s-so conveniently o-out of the net’s r-range… t-then t-to think we thought it’d take s-so long…! My b-blood boils just think a-about it… Ahhhh…!” The small man took a hold of his hair, pulling it. “I-I get why A-August did what h-he did… even if h-he did sacrifice his humanity t-to do it as Sonata said… r-revenge is a bitter sweet yet addictive drug…”

“Yeah… I guess…” May was not quite impressed, in fact she was looking straight up at the eclipse. “Hey… you think you could do the same thing you did to the grass, to the sky?”

“H-huh? I’ve i-intentionally been avoiding c-changing anything since t-there might be some unknown c-consequence or side effect w-we have no idea about…” He’d touch the bottom of his nose, checking for said unknown consequence. “A-and same with my implants… I h-haven’t even tried my graviton m-manipulator, it’s a h-heavy one even without the e-enhancements…” Bob would hold the cube tight, then he’d flatten his palm, yet nothing happened, he’d grab the cube again, looking away from it.

“I guess that makes sense, so do you think I’ll have anything to worry about… side effects I mean?” May would stretch her body as she walked.

“Oh… d-definitely… w-whether that’s physical or n-not is what I don’t k-know… we saw what h-happened to Cali… the things r-ripped her apart they w-were so strong… not only d-did she put the things in o-overdrive they were enhanced on t-top of all that seeing as they r-run on energy from t-the ‘anomaly’… however t-that works… yet… I-I wouldn’t be surprised i-if she realized what she was doing and k-kept going anyway… that would e-explain a lot… now w-wouldn’t it…” Bob would look to the sky as well, keeping the tears in his shifting eyes.

“It should have been us…” May and Bob were on the same page for once.

“I-it should have been… b-but we’re already h-here… so we h-have to make the most o-of this opportunity…” The small man would wipe the tears from his eyes.

I’m surprised, you don’t why, but I do, and you’ll be too, but I suppose after all they been through, experienced and seen, that the result would be something like this.

If I had to use a word in good faith, it would be, ‘interesting’. If I had to use one in bad faith, I would use two in its stead ‘meaningless resistance’.