“Ten more minutes.”
“I thought you had fifteen.”
“Fuck off, David3.”
“I’ll be the bad guy, and point out-” David2 said before disappearing with a pop.
“Focus, Guys!” Walker was forced to yell out. Who knew five Walkers would have such a hard time staying focused? “Think. Why do you all have the same Temporal distortion as myself.”
David4 looked at David3, shaking his head.
David5 continued to float in the middle of space, scratching his chin.
After a moment, David1 raised a finger in the air, “Maybe whatever strands apply to you also apply to us. At least when you make us.”
Walker nodded, “That’s true. I mean, I already have a smothering of Temporal on me. Maybe that’s leaking into the Reflection strand before I pop you all into existence.”
David3 scratched his chin, “But that’s a tricky issue. If you cover yourself in flames and pop one of us out, does that mean we’ll all be covered in flames? Or will we just be really hot?”
David2 looked over at him, “Don’t be so down on yourself, three. You’re already pretty hot to me.”
David1 looked at them both and said, “Hey man, he’s right. Oh, do you remember Jenny?”
“From the block?” Walker asked.
David2 gave him a thumbs up, “Nice one.”
Walker smiled, “Yeah, dad jokes are the best.”
David 5 smiled, “The best!”
“The best,” David1 replied with a wise nod.
“God damn it,” David3 said while shaking his head, “We’re really bad at focusing on one thing at a time.”
A few of the Davids lightly slapped themselves while Walker just shook his head.
“I think unless you really need this many of us, you should stick to just one at a time,” David1 said with a shrug.
“Yeah, we’re not the best at controlling ourselves,” David3 said with a shrug.
Walker nodded, “I agree. What are your time limits.”
Each of them gave an estimate. Three of them would disappear in the next few minutes, while David5 would last another hour. Walker had been testing if adding extra Dimensional resources would enhance the time limit of the Temporal strand, and so far, that didn’t seem to be the case. After the original David2 had punted Walker deep into space, they'd learned that Dimensional resources increased their physical presence to a high degree.
David’s 1, 2, and 4 were each a smattering of different collective resources. Their focus was to help Walker discover what happened with different levels of the Temporal strand. David two had only lasted two minutes; thus, he’d disappeared quickly from the conversation.
David3 was the test of what happens when you quadruple the Dimensional strands versus the Temporal, and his physicality was almost on par with Walker's.
David5 was the weakest of them all, as he’d only had one Dimensional strand to over sixty Temporal. Even to their eyes, he looked a little flimsy. Like a cool breeze would knock him over, which wasn’t beyond what could actually happen on any given planet.
None of them had access to their Icon, no matter how they varied the strands. The Book of Souls wouldn’t even acknowledge them when they tried talking to it, which led them to the next street down the road.
“Should we combine the three strands together?” David1 said while looking around.
“I mean, it’s the next logical step,” Walker said, although his face showed his clear nervousness. Using the Dimensional strand by itself had caused a minor explosion and a bunch of weird shit to happen. Who knew what combining the three strands together could do?
“That is why we’re out here,” David3 said while looking around. “We’re not likely to destroy anything, at least.”
“True,” David1 said.
“True,” Walker echoed, scratching the back of his neck. They talked for a few more minutes before each of the Davids poofed back to wherever they went, and then he looked over at David5, the last remaining reflection. “So, what do you think? Is it time to combine a triple?”
David5 nodded, “May as well. Although triple is a bad name.”
Walker snorted, “Then you make up a name for it.” He smiled when David made a face, completely understanding what went through his mind. “Okay, so we’ll start out nice and easy.”
Walker put the Space strand in his hand and gently combined it with Temporal, taking a little more time than necessary. The wispy, ethereal Continuum strand floated just off of his left palm, gently drifting above the darkness of his soul. Looking at David one last time, who he was sure was just as nervous as himself, Walker placed the Dimensional strand in his right hand.
Before he could make another move, the strand immediately left his palm and joined its brothers in his left. There wasn’t a thunder, nor a crack, nor a pop as Temporal, Dimensional, and Spatial strands connected to one another. Instead, there was a quiet shimmer just to his left as time and space disconnected from each other. With their sibling, the three strands lifted up, floating on their own in the darkness of space, gently circling one another.
A pulse resonated from the convergence point as a white light began to take shape toward the center of the three spiraling strands. Time slowed even further than Walker’s two distortions allowed, each moment seeming to be caught in the grip of something greater than his eyes could see. The area around him and David twisted and flexed, pushing outward as if controlled by two massive hands wringing them for the smallest drop of space they could find. Small pops echoed around them as tiny explosions occurred, each in a different color with odd happenings within that was indescribable.
In what felt like an hour but couldn’t be more than a few seconds, the strands spiral picked up force. The ethereal nature of Temporal energy began to slow while its brothers only picked up speed. With a gulp, the white center of the greater strand seemed to swallow it, taking on the qualities of time within itself.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
A shattering noise, not unlike the tinkling of broken glass, rang out as Time seemed to stop all around him for a moment. As time reasserted itself, David and Walker looked at each other with big eyes. They didn’t have a moment to speak as the Space and Dimensional strands moved faster until they just became a blur of blue and a hazy rainbow, circling a partially transparent white center.
The blue of Space was the next to head toward the center of the strand, plunging deep toward the middle and disappearing as elements of the Continuum strand showed themselves. A hazy blue and white ball appeared, seeming to sit for a moment as if thinking. Without warning, it then greatly expanded, taking itself to the edges of his eyesight and beyond. As the edges flew into the distance in a spherical arc, the center grew as well. Walker felt it brush up against him and David, almost shoving them out of the Temporal bubble. As it reached an unknown distance, it all crashed down in front of him, forming back into a small ball.
When he refocused on the event, he found that Dimensionality almost seemed like it didn’t want to join its fellows. At this point, a spiraling rainbow continued around the central strand, still picking up speed as both the Creator and his reflection could hear the passing of its movement, a deep thrumming sound drifting toward their ears. All at once, the spinning stopped, and rather than follow the other two toward the middle, the hazy blue and white orb moved to meet it.
No words were spoken by either of them as, for a fleeting moment, they glimpsed the vast universe within the small ball in front of them. The Dimensionality strand sat still while first Temporal pulled itself away from space, creating the Reflection strand he’d just grown used to. A moment later, Space settled on them both, seeming to be sucked into the convergence as if a man needing a deep breath of air after a long dive underwater.
Walker felt a powerful sense of Vertigo as the edges of the Dimensional strand popped, becoming as seemingly real as anything he’d seen before. The Temporal strand exited the center of the strange hexagon in front of him, pushing to the edges and looking like nothing less than a mostly transparent flame blowing in the wind.
When it was finally done, Walker’s vertigo continued as he looked at it. It felt like someone was ringing a bell in his mind, demanding his attention. He looked at David and found that while he felt as if the skin was dripping off his face, the reflection seemed unaffected in the slightest. He spoke a few halting words as he continued to experience odd sensations throughout his body.
“Soooo, what do you think?”
“Fuck me, man,” David replied, running a hand through his hair, “I almost felt like it was going to blow me away there when Space joined in.”
Walker nodded, “Yeah, it was…awesome….” He couldn’t help but give a Cheshire smile. “It was an interesting experience, to be sure. I-uhhhh.” Walker felt something pushing up from the bottom of his stomach. A moment later, bits of his stomach acid floated out into the darkness of space. He pulled out his Vault and took a few breaths, handing it to David, who was also running low on air.
“Sorry,” Walker said a bit sheepishly.
David replied by just waving a hand at him, “Meh, I’d obviously do the same.” He looked back at the triple strand, “What do you think we’ll get for this, reward-wise?”
Walker shrugged, “I don’t know, man. But I do know that that shit was crazy.”
“Such apt descriptions, Walker. You’re a genius with words,” David deadpanned back.
“Weird to call me Walker?”
“A bit, and I’d like to say I’ll get used to it, but,”
Walker nodded without speaking, then pushed himself toward the strand. While they’d been speaking, it hadn’t done anything, just continued to sit in the middle of space, waiting to be claimed.
Walker reached out gently, feeling cramps in his stomach growing more powerful the closer he moved. Grasping the strand, he tried to pull it closer, but it wouldn’t budge. Attempting to move it felt akin to trying to move a planet. There simply was no point in trying.
Walker threw up in his mouth a little bit, surprised to see a spot of red as it dripped down his chin. Flaring his darkness helped alleviate the symptoms a little, but it felt like a drop at the bottom of a very large bucket. That meant there was a time limit to this, and he didn’t know what would happen if he ran out at a pivotal moment.
Not knowing what would happen if he applied it to himself, which was certainly nothing a sane person would do, Walker started to stretch his neck towards it in an attempt to place the strand within his resources.
“What the fuck are you doing?” David yelled at him.
“We doing?” Walker said through strained teeth. The closer he moved his skull, the greater the vertigo that struck him. At this moment he felt like everything was spinning around him, or he was spinning around everything, he couldn’t tell the difference.
“That’s not funny, asshole. If you die, that’s the end of everything! I don’t even think you should touch that thing.”
“Trinity!” Walker said in a brief moment of triumph, the strand only inches away from his face. He coughed out a plume of blood into space, drifts of red smoothly drifting away from him.
“What?” David said back in confusion.
“These triple combos, man!” A particularly powerful cramp hit him, twisting his innards. “Trinity! I came up with the-”
The strand touched his overlay, and to say it was rebuffed would be a gross understatement. Walker felt like his skull had been slapped around for a few hours, but he felt something ever so slightly holding him from behind.
“I got you, man!” David yelled. “If you’re all in, so be it!”
Understanding what he was doing, Walker nodded and continued to attempt to force the Trinity strand into his overlay. Pushing a double strand was difficult, taking several minutes and a great helping of effort. But this….This was a whole different monster.
Time moved by slowly, but Walker couldn’t pay attention to it. All he could focus on was the strand and his overlay. He’d been rebuffed repeatedly, but each time, it felt like some form of resistance was beginning to give.
On the fourth time he coughed out blood, he felt something slight give in his chest. Something he felt like he’d probably need to continue living. The only thing he could do for a chance at success was to continue on. With that thought in mind, he doubled down on the pressure.
David had, of course, been speaking gently the whole time. Basic positive sayings like:
You can do it!
Walker’s number one!
And a few naturally impolite jokes to get him not to think about how it felt like his organs were all turning inside out. His most recent one forced Walker to give him a red smile.
“What’s the difference between a G-spot and a golf ball? A man will actually search for a golf ball.”
“Good one,” Walker wheezed out, “Parson is fuckin funny.”
“Shit yeah,” He heard from behind him.
Several more minutes of bleary pain continued. David was commenting on how Walker had stated his hand felt like an overblended can of soup, when something changed. The resistance holding back the Trinity strand seemed to crack finally, and without almost any effort at all, Walker felt it slide into his overlay.
A series of notifications blasted into his vision, completely skipping his requirement that they only be shown when he wanted to see them. Still, before he could even look at what had rolled down his reward mountain, he found his vision taken over by the Origin’s system.
The Tower reappeared, forcing his mind to completely blank out upon seeing it. He felt no pain, no joy in this moment. All that was, was the tower. It was the only thing that mattered to him.
His vision pushed him toward the gargantuan structure. As he grew closer, he began to notice the coloring. From a distance, it looked black, but it was certainly gray upon growing closer. He couldn’t see a single joint or cut in it, as it was one singular monstrosity rising from a pit of emptiness. Just as he began to grow closer, the red door opened a small crack.
Before he could look inside, the vision ended, and Walker felt a shake ripple through his body. He mentally pushed himself back into the moment, trying to place the tower in the back of his mind. That’s when he noticed David gently shaking him.
“Walker! Snap out of it!”
“Huh, what?” Walker replied slowly, trying to collect himself.
David patted him on the back several times, although it felt like someone gently tapping him. He did it so much that Walker had to ask him to stop.
“I’m alright; I just need some time.”
“Okay, buddy,” He replied with a grin, moving himself to fill Walker’s vision. “So, what’d you get? Was it worth it?”
“What?” Walker asked, then remembered the rewards. He pulled them up and felt his mouth drop open.
“Well…fuck.”
“