Adam rang Miriam a few more times. No dice. He canceled ADOSCH with an audible groan.

"She’s blanking me," Adam said.

"I see. I hope that anthem reaches her soon. We do need her help." Lucy said. She turned to face the camera and bowed once more. After that little breakdown of Miriam’s, he doubted they’d be resuming their conversation today. The woman looked like she hadn’t gone outside in years.

"She’ll help if she knows what’s good for her," he said. Wrangling a nerd was easier than people thought; just offer them a bit of human interaction and they folded nine times out of ten.

"It’s been a long time," Lucy said, almost absentmindedly. "I can’t believe there was still someone here, waiting and watching...."

She reached out and touched a flower growing off a piece of ivy on the nearby stone tablet. The petals were a bright purple, thin and long like a dandelion’s, and let out a faint, spicy aroma. In a single breath, Lucy ripped the vine straight off and threw it into the dirt. The rest followed suit.

The tablet was a memorial, dedicated to a fallen ‘Apostle’ of Astraea. Lucy clasped her hands together and fell silent. Adam looked at the plaque, back at the camera, and around the silent grounds of the base.

"Perhaps it really was too much," Lucy said. "I was so excited to meet another one of our kin that I forgot where we were."

Adam sighed. "Let’s just give her some space," he said. It was a pain that they couldn’t commune with Miriam at the moment, but it wasn’t like they didn’t have other tasks to complete. Adam and Lucy walked towards the exit of the garden.

"Okay, I didn’t understand a word of what you sang," Adam said. "But it was sorta alright."

"Aw, thank you, Chosen!" Lucy said, smiling. "It’s the thirty-sixth passage, the de facto colony-wide anthem of—"

She froze. Before Adam could react, she heaved her rifle off her back and fired . Laser blasts exploded outwards towards the ground in front of him, scattering across the ground and kicking up plumes of dirt. One of the shots hit a tree, searing a burning hole through it. It wobbled and threatened to fall. Lucy vanished, then reappeared a distance away, swinging her sword in a wide arc.

"Missed." Lucy snarled. She flicked her fingers outwards. A round of light blasts sallied forth to an equally fruitless effect.

"The hell you doing?" Adam ran up to her, his handgun out.

"Intruder. Not one of the monsters, I’m sure of that."

Shit. "Can you sense them?"

Lucy shook her head. "Gone. They’re quick. I saw them out of the corner of my eye and they vanished soon. Whatever subversion technique they were employing hiccuped at that point."

Adam scanned the ground. Lucy’s blasts had ripped through the dirt good. He wandered to the edge of the blast radius and spotted it—small footprints. The soles belonged to sandals. Either a teen or an adult with tiny feet. The user had sprinted to a point, at which the prints vanished.

Adam closed his eyes and listened. Nothing but the wind and birds cawing in the distance. Lucy crouched down along with him. She brushed a lock of blonde hair away from her cheeks and fired up a ball of light on her index finger. "Levitation, stealth technology, concealment mystics…multiple reasons."

New Mystic Technique observed: [Photon-Illuminate]

She stared, grim, in the direction of the prints.

"I don’t know what sort of creatures, or humans, live in this world. If any of them are Astraea’s enemies, I’ll have to eliminate them as quickly as possible."

Experience (Investigation) acknowledged: +5%.

He agreed with the sentiment. Those scavengers had unintentionally helped him in taking down Lucy’s corrupted form, but with their guns and mob pack mentality, he doubted they were good Samaritans. Miriam didn’t like them, at least. The shadows of the hexagonal-shaped buildings ahead loomed before them, like fragments of a scattered beehive. Further ones lurked beyond the horizon. It would be a long walk.

ADOSCH, give me the [Lower Limb Booster]. Pins and needles struck the breadth of his legs. One of his bandages popped off as the flesh beneath it bulged. He clamped down his jaw until the squirming subsided.

[Lower Limb Booster] has been successfully installed!

Lower Limb Booster: Bolsters the leg and foot muscles, allowing for greater agility, finesse, and strength. Useful for sprinting, sneaking, or climbing. Category: Muscle, Limbs

The two left the courtyard behind and proceeded south. Lucy proceeded at a slow jog, and Adam was just able to keep up with the power of his new augmentation. The bright spot in the sky cast elongated shadows upon the upcoming signposts and rubble.

Adam had run laps around the entirety of Parris Island as punishment in basic. The MOB was at least twice as large as that. If the files within ADOSCH was to be believed, ADO personnel possessed superhuman capabilities and thus wouldn’t have a problem walking across large distances. Adam instead wished he had a buggy or a scooter. The air felt as muggy as the average Texan summer. Lucy marched ahead, unheeded. When you fought black goo monsters on a near-daily basis, a little humidity was peanuts in comparison, he supposed.

The number of available buildings threatened to overwhelm the two of them until they inspected their interiors. Water damage. Frost damage. Pests, overgrowth, and toxic spills. Others were like the warehouse: barely holding up or left in rubble from explosions or fire damage. The cost of repair sat in the millions; it’d be faster to demolish them and rebuild from scratch.

One of the buildings—a square white cube denoted by a sign labeled ‘Commissionary’—shimmered in the air. Adam reached out for it, only for Lucy to pull on his collar and yank him straight back.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Hey!" Adam shouted. "What was that for?

"Don’t touch it!" Lucy said. "Ontological destabilization. It’s dangerous!"

"Onto-what now?"

She pointed at the building right as its form spasmed. A sheen of rainbow colors overlaid it, then it snapped back to normal. It flashed grayscale. It stretched, shrunk, turned into a hexagon, exploded in volume, and then was technicolor again. This was no heat haze. Heat hazes didn’t give him a headache by merely looking.

"That’s not a broken TV, is it?" Adam said.

"Right, you were a civilian, Chosen. It’s a security measure. The reality surrounding the building is in periodic flux. Any matter that tries to break through will be distorted to high oblivion. It’s an emergency security measure. It must’ve been triggered when the MOB was beyond salvation, in order to protect information and technology." Lucy said. "That’s why you shouldn’t—"

Adam picked up a rock and threw it at the building with [Psychokinesis]. The rock halted mid-flight right before the door. It shredded into pieces, spun around, and fired straight back at Adam. Lucy jumped in front of him and shielded him with her back.

"Chosen." She said, the words strained, "I get that you’re curious, but please don’t do that ever again."

"Sorry," Adam said, still focused on the fragments. If the flux did that to a rock, what would it do to a human body?

"We’re lucky it didn’t transform into a knife," Lucy said. "Have you ever seen what microwaved meat mince looks like?"

"Yeah, actually," Adam said. Orphanages weren’t known for their culinary prowess.

Skid marks lay in front of the building. They were too faded and brown, to be recent. The intruder couldn’t be here unless they suddenly gained a suicide wish, so they continued on.

Adam kept a checklist in ADOSCH’s notes function. Commisionary: destabilized. Vehicle repair: locked shut. Research lab: doorway was caved in. Medbay 2, Mess Hall, Chemical facility, Correctional facility: all locked or destabilized. They spent an hour combing through the barracks and came up short. Lucy hurried past the empty beds and satchels.

"Found them," Adam said. A trail of hurried footprints led straight into the water storage, where the MOB’s filtration system was located. According to Lucy, the water storage kept a vast amount of compressed water for backup purposes, which is where their washing and cooking water originated from. The brackishness of the water was a fault with the de-compression, allegedly.

Lucy unsheathed her blade. "Chosen, please stand behind me."

She heaved open the hatch and they walked in. The corridor stank of moisture and old mold. A hole had formed in the roof, shining light upon a crack in the ground, from which a cluster of weeds grew. They passed a booth at the front and entered a hallway leading to the individual storage rooms.

"Door’s stuck," Lucy said, lifting her hand from a pad. "Strange. It’s locked from the inside."

She raised her sword and charged it up with light.

"Hold on, I’ll hack it," Adam said.

"Pardon?"

But by that point, Adam already kickstarted the process, his consciousness disappearing down the tunnel of blue-electric lights. He sliced through the security barricades and tore through the threads within seconds. He returned to reality, only receiving a small ache on his head this time.

Hacking of [Water Storage Door 1] was a success!

Experience (Hacking) acknowledged: +5%.

"Too easy." He said, smirking.

"Goodness, I didn’t know you could do that," Lucy said. "Are you a tech-specialist, Chosen?"

He shrugged. "I’m full of surprises."

The experience from hacking a simple mechanism had diminished, but every little bit counted.

The interior of the storage room was draped in darkness. Lucy held up a finger and conjured another ball of light. It floated out and levitated in front of her, revealing water tanks, boxes, and scattered trash. A large cylinder stood on metal legs in the center. Lucy’s good mood dropped as she shone her light toward the back, revealing wooden sticks, cutlery, bowls, and plastic wrappings. The dregs were fresh.

Close the door. At Adam's command via ADOSCH, the only exit slammed shut.

"Chosen," Lucy said.

"Yeah?" Adam said, his own back against the door.

"Lovely day, is it not?" She circled the breadth of the room, her sword by her side.

Adam shrugged. That nearby water tank looked imposing enough. Someone had taken care of it, despite the age. The outgoing faucet dripped. "I’m alive, fed, and alone with a girl. It could be a lot worse."

"Indeed. As desperate as those circumstances are, we’re still alive. This base is our home." She clenched her fist and grinned. "And that means all within is the property of Astraea, isn’t it, you disgusting excuse of an intruder?"

The light shifted form and transformed into a beam that shot forward towards the shadows at the back. The air shimmered and Lucy rushed in. She dodged aside a rust-coated knife appearing out of the darkness, grabbed an invisible wrist, and twisted it until it dropped. She then kneed the holder in the gut.

A harsh choke reverberated through the air. It shimmered once more, producing a humanoid figure. Lucy grabbed the figure by the neck and threw them on the ground.

"Astraean stealth technology." Lucy hissed. She pulled a cloak off the figure’s body and tossed it aside. The fabric fizzled like a damaged television screen. "How cute. Tell me, what are you doing here and where did you acquire that technology?"

The figure was another girl. If Lucy was a silver Mercedes that recently got fixed up, the new girl was a beat-up wagon from an outpost in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Her hair was the dirty brown of muddy straw, cut into a wedge style. A pair of cloudy goggles rested above her head. Her skinny arms covered a tank top and ragged jacket.

"You…" The intruder girl gurgled. Air puffed in her sunken, muddy cheeks. She couldn’t be older than fifteen. "Who…?"

"Speak up!" Lucy said, her grip still tight. "Answer my questions."

"Who are you?" The intruder girl let out a gasp. "Where’d you come from?" She then saw Adam. "Hey, who’s that guy? Help me out here! This woman's crazy!"

Lucy grabbed her chin and pulled her around. "I’m the one talking here, thank you very much!"

"Let go of me, dang it! Lemme go!" She kicked Lucy in the stomach. It had as much effect as throwing a ping-pong ball at a steel plate. The girl shrieked, clutching her stubbed toe. Part of the hard leather boot was split off, revealing blotchy skin underneath.

Lucy waited until the intruder girl stopped struggling before she released her hand and dropped her to the ground. The intruder girl collapsed on her front, panting, then wriggled herself back up.

"Done yet?" Lucy asked.

The intruder girl remained silent.

"Would you like to have someone break into your home and steal something precious from you? I hope you can understand why I’m so offended," Lucy said, "Knowing that, it’s in your best interest to answer my questions. I’ll repeat them. Why are you here, and where did you acquire this technology from?"

Again, the intruder girl did not respond.

"Hey!" Lucy barked, "Do you understand? I don’t wish to use force."

"Screw you…" The intruder mumbled. Adam went for his handgun.

"Excuse me?" Lucy said.

"I said, screw you, you insane bitch!" The girl wailed.

She dragged out a metal cylinder from within her jacket and tossed it in the air. The cylinder glowed for a brief moment, then exploded. Writhing red thorns burst out and flew toward Lucy and Adam.

Pulsating crimson swarmed his vision. A flash of yellow cut through the air, dissipating it all. Lucy stood before him, the majority of the thorns having smashed straight into her front.

"Shit…" The intruder girl gulped, backing away. "No damage?"

Lucy turned to look at him. There was pure, unadulterated relief. Then, it melted away into sheer, burning fury as Lucy faced the unknown girl once more.

"How dare you," Lucy said. She grabbed the intruder girl by the throat and threw her against the wall. Pillars of light formed and rammed straight into the girl's clothes, pinning her against the wall. The red thorns cracked and fell out of Lucy's uniform as she stomped forward.

New Mystic Technique observed: [Photon-Seal]

"How dare you try to harm Her Chosen! How dare you use that corruption against him!" Lucy screamed, "Prepare for the consequences!"