[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Lucky Paine]

[Level: 2]

Lucky was the one to notice the smoke first.

It latched onto the back of their throat, constricting their breathing in a way that few other things could. More than the smoke itself, it was the panic that arose upon tasting it that pinned her to her seat. But the birds didn’t take advantage of her prone situation.

No, their concern was with the new arrival. The one trailing this smoke in her wake. Ciera, with the tendrils hidden amongst the smokescreen, who she and Ben had soundly beaten back in Tracklands.

“I know what this is.” She admitted to Tench, when it became apparent he had noticed the strange shift in atmosphere too, “There’s a Harbinger somewhere on the island.”

“Like… Lucian?” Tench asked, “Where in CephaloRaven were we, anyway?”

“Wherever it was, he’s still there. Our opponent is Ciera.” She pointed, and finally the air began to clear of the birds, all rushing away to roost away from prying eyes.

With no killer birds to shield them, the island seemed miniscule. But still, Ciera’s bright hair lit a beacon all the way across the island. Ciera wasn’t their opponent, she realized. She was here for Ben.

Or had been at least.

Lucky could see the woman’s crumpled body in the sand, lying next to where Jared and Verity were securely tied up in black tentacles. There were signs of life from the other two, but Ben… not so much.

She struggled to get her breathing under control. It was fine. It had to be fine. She needed to focus on the fight that was coming up – but how? She had no weapons, no guns, no giant expandable legs with knives fitted on the end. There was no way to fight her.

In one day, they had lost two of their own. Asadullah and Terry were nowhere to be found. It was beginning to look hopeless.

“Well, aren’t you going to try and run?” Ciera demanded, marching up to her, finally in earshot.

“And let you stab me while I have my back turned? I have more dignity than that.” She narrowed her eyes and straightened her spine as best as she could. If this was going to be how it ended, Lucky was not going to go down begging.

Ciera rolled her eyes, “Well, it’s no fun like this.” Something beeped from around her waist, and she scoffed and muttered to herself, “Alright, alright, keep your hair on.” Before looking at Lucky closely, “Hey, you took Burks’ Console into Paterson’s Sub-Level, yeah? You help him get out, too?”

Lucky blinked, unsure of how to react to this. Wasn’t Ciera going to stab her through the chest?

“I- uh- no.” She finally answered, her hands feeling empty without anything to defend herself with, “I was trying to keep my Console away from him. He started that all by himself.”

“Clever girl.” She nodded condescendingly, “Don’t associate with the likes of him. He hasn’t gotten a proper Harbinger Console yet, but it’s only a matter of time. So stay here and don’t. Move.”

And then she dispersed into a puff of smoke. Leaving them standing there. Though, not unguarded, Lucky considered, as she noted the birds still watching them from every angle.

“What now?” She asked.

Tench shrugged and took a step towards Jared and Verity and perhaps Ben. All the crows tensed, backs arched and feathers puffed up. He paused, attempting to take another step forward, but in the end deciding better of it and ducking back to safety.

“Well, we can’t talk to those two. And we can’t make sure Ben’s alright.” He pointed out.

“I think we both know she’s dead, Tench.” They told him shortly, “They’re getting bloodthirsty now. That’s two of us down, and two more whose lives are up in the air. We need to think of something – some way to fight back or- or-” They struggled to think of any options that led to their success. Even if they came up with a plan, the corvids were listening to every word. They would relay it all to Ciera, or whichever other Harbinger they worked for. Because nothing could ever be uncontrolled, could it? It was always a puppet. A devious little trick.

“We need to run.” Tench finally suggested.

“There’s no outrunning this. What do you think we’ve been doing so far?” She snapped.

Tench shook his head, eyes bright with inspiration, “No, no, think about it. We need to get close to them. Like they have gotten with us. The Harbingers do what they can because of their System, yeah? Then we simply gotta wreck it. Skip all the middlemen and hit them right in the Developer’s weak spot.”

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“We’ll need a Console for that. And I’m all out.” Lucky reminded him.

Tench frowned, and then pointed towards a hole in the ground, partway between them and the bundled-up children.

Both of them paused to look at the opening to their base. This was the island that their base was hidden upon. How had Lucky not noticed?

“We still got the Console in there, I wonder?” Tench asked, keeping his voice low.

“But we can’t transport ourselves around automatically.” Lucky hissed. That part truly seemed to stump him as he rubbed his temples. Truly, couldn’t Verity’s mother have made this slightly easier on their end?

He paused for a second, struggling to explain.

“I have a theory.” He finally settled on saying. Lucky suppressed a groan. They couldn’t hedge all their bets on a theory, “Yeah, yeah, I know, but hear me out. My theory is that the people in Delica have an NPC file somewhere on the System. But when they activate their Consoles, they create a Player file, saved on that Console. If it gets lost or deactivated, everything defaults to the NPC file.”

Right. She was following along so far.

“But that isn’t the same for us.” She pointed out, “I clearly didn’t fade, and neither did the Harbingers.”

“Because they all already have NPC files in place for such an issue.” He explained, “Or, I think that’s how it works. Since Jared was talking about all that Vera’s mother did to her head and the new file she created on her.”

“And what do you expect to happen, Tench?” They asked impatiently, “Get to the point.”

“What if we delete all of her other files?” He burst out finally, “Then she’ll have to default to the Harbinger slot. Which is located in the Developer’s layer.”

It was risky. Too many unknown variables. Hell, it was more like a wild stab in the dark than any real plan. But Lucky looked across the island, to see Verity watching them with hawk eyes. Maybe she was lip-reading. Or maybe she had applied an ability to let her read lips. Either way, she looked at them carefully, and then nodded.

Somewhere in the distance, thunder and lightning clanged as two foes faced off. Ciera’s outraged battle cry could be heard from miles around. It seemed that the fight against Paterson had begun.

Lucky cringed, “We’re gonna have to figure out some way to get away from the birds.” She settled, trying to somehow signal that that was meant for Verity to figure out and maybe relay to Jared. The birds were getting suspicious, but they clearly didn’t have the grasp on English needed to decide what to do.

Verity looked at them for a moment, and then a box she assumed was only showing up for them appeared in the middle of the field.

[Lucinda Hemmings is Applying Deception!]

Lucky looked down at her arms, finding them coated with an odd sheen. She moved them a few inches to the side, and found that her real arms were now translucent. While foggy recreations of her arms stood, shifting artificially.

Tench nodded sharply, and then slid out of his own illusionary doppelganger to head to the base. He came out not a few minutes later, with the precious laptop clasped within his arms. All the while, the birds were none the wiser.

Moment of truth, they opened the laptop.

The display winked on at the Party Page. There was all eight of them. And then a Character Slot on Verity’s end, denoting a ninth.

Lucky was on this Console, she realized shakily. They were registered as part of Party(Main). Of course, they wouldn’t have been thrown back to Tracklands.

“Alright, let’s see here.” Tench double-clicked on Verity’s profile, selecting the menu option ‘See All Relating Character Slots’. It revealed four slots.

V.Monroe (NPC), Verity Monroe (Player), Verity M. (Harbinger), and Lucinda Hemmings (Alt Player – Active).

They both looked up at Verity – or Lucinda? When had that become a thing? – who was trying not to make eye contact but nodded slightly. Giving them her blessing.

Tench took a breath and deleted the NPC slot first. A warning popped up naturally.

[This is a Backup File saved on the System.]

[Deleting this will mean your data will be lost upon deletion of your Player file, as there will be nowhere to default to.]

He paused but went ahead with it. At least the phrasing of it seemed to agree with his theory. It gave her little hope in the long run, but it was all they had.

Instead of going for the Player slot next, Tench skipped all the way to the Lucinda one. Deleting that was a little different, though.

[Eject Player From Current Host?]

Sure, yeah, why not.

Pressing that button, however, made a scream erupt from the other side of the island. Lucky looked up in alarm, finding Verity-Lucinda convulsing in the prison of tendrils, clear slime pouring out from her eyes and mouth and even ears.

The illusions were flickering too, she realized with worry. Quickly, she grabbed the laptop and shoved it under the sand, trying to hide it while the birds were distracted by the display.

Verity let out one final strangled noise, and then lay still, breathing clearly again. The slime pool quivered on the spot, and then burst into a cloud of clear avian silhouettes, all darting for the skies before regrouping to form a humanoid figure, hovering in midair.

“Huh. This is new.” She murmured in a warbly voice. All the birds stared at her. Some cawing curious remarks. She did her best impression of a smile and cawed right back.

Taking advantage of their surprise and distraction, Lucky pulled the laptop out again and put in the final nail of the coffin. Deleting the Player Log.

She couldn’t help it. She glanced at Verity, who was only just recovering from the de-possession and looked completely confused and discombobulated. But Jared was whispering to her. Giving her instructions. And finally her eyes darted their way, and Lucky knew she was up to speed with what was being asked of her.

The fight between Harbinger and Man was still raging behind them. Yet, for some reason, screams were echoing from another direction, too. She screwed her eyes up and tried to ignore them, clicking the Delete button stubbornly. This had to work. It was their only shot.

When she opened her eyes, it was just in time to see Verity wink out of existence, the tendrils falling slack into the sand.

All the birds turned to look at them, fury radiating every wing flap.

[Player Log End!]