Communication Tool Extracting 00:01

The countdown had been stuck there for days now. Myles tapped the screen. The screen was still imaginary so his hand passed right through. He was glad no one was around because he was sure he looked like a bit of a nob. The worst thing about the virtual menu was its imperviousness to percussive maintenance.

The armour too was acting up. When Myles overclocked the healing, burning up reserves of fae matter to get himself up and about after his battle with Cerulean Sweet it had refused to initialise for an hour. After overclocking the completion of the Trigger component repair the suit was refusing to initialise manually. This had caused a lot of worry at first but relief came in the form of red sparks as Myles was at the corner shop buying an ice cream. He was so glad the Trigger was still working that he was not even mad his mint chocolate chip ice cream was squashed under a terracotta foot. It seemed the Trigger was in some sort of recovery mode from the strain, but that just meant no frivolous activity. Repairs and existing commitments were ticking along slowly. But everything he could craft was greyed out and unavailable. The suit would absolutely not come unless there was a fairy to trigger it.

Myles supposed this would have inevitable. Rest was as big a part of getting stronger as training and working out. Rest however was something neither he nor the suit had much of since they first bonded. It had been go go go since that first night and some pretty mental things on top of it. Fighting and absorbing a genius loci from what he could tell was not something anyone hot off the press should have been going up against. That last stunt of trying to save Charlie had been the final straw.

Down time was impossible though. The turn has cut the town off from the regular world, fae were pouring in. If Myles took time off the residents would barely last the night. Even now he did not want to know how many had died. He knew he could not save everyone, he knew there was only so much he could do. But it was very had to ‘know’ while he looked upon the broken body of a grandmother or young boy.

Taking his thought back into a box his future self could sort through Myles returned to his task. He picked up the shovel and continued digging. The Fae came in when the ebbs and flows of the other side brought it close. He supposed he could track it and work it out, but he had Llex for that. With a rough idea of the time and the known geographical locations Myles had started setting traps, placing diversions and doing his best to obfuscate obvious routes to population dense areas. Myles wondered if the amount of physical labour involved in working smarter made it ironic. His current project was a pit in the park. It didn’t need to be perfect, just enough of an obstacle it made following Myles’ preferred route the path of least resistance for any eldritch abominations out on a jolly. This was where a manual suit activation would have been handy but there was no sense complaining about something he could not change. If he survived this he would be asking Barrington, Rusty or even Llex exactly where he could go for a whole week solid undisturbed by fae nonsense. Red sparks flickered. They were early.

Unaided by any ancient weapons technology Myles Endeavour retraced his steps from the old quarry back to the pit he had been digging. One of the few things he was thankful for being in the turn was how it messed with peoples memories and perception. So much of the other side had bled in it was telling people ‘don’t think about it to hard’ or ‘just ignore it and carry on’ so Myles had not had to explain to anyone why the sky was purple or what the vicious monster in the post office was… no not Mrs Jenkins the big green one. So even if someone had an issue with his pro bono landscaping they wouldn’t remember a thing by the next day. He hoped that would be true when the turn ended or he would be in big trouble with the local council. He had only just arrived at the destination in the park when his virtual meme screen flashed up.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Communication Tool Extracting 00:00 - Complete

Updating Recommendations - Suspended

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation Y/N

Myles selected yes.

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation 04:59

This better be worth ten grand thought Myles. He would know the answer in just under five hours. If it could bring him a set of bright orange and green flashing lights turning up. Or at the very least ready to help the survivors. Then he would take the big hole in his bank balance on the chin. Because he was not unaware that should he survive everything, the however long the turn lasts he would face well armed Sweetbright employees and potentially a fresh well rested Cerulean Sweet. If he was jacked up on Trigger derived tech he probably had some means of regrowing his arms, or at the very least robot hands. At least robot hands might save wear and tear on interns. Myles could deal with that later. He had a pit to finish digging.

Absolutely knackered Myles flumped onto his sofa, he knew he should have had a shower first, but he was too tired and needed a sit down before attempting anything as complicated as stairs. He patted the armoured cocoon next to him on the sofa. He had made a little nest of blankets around it.

“Get well soon mate.” said Myles.

Myles flicked the television on and booted up one of his boxed sets. Something then occurred to Myles.

“Llex, why do we have electricity?”

“Don’t think about it too hard.” Said Llex

That phrase seemed to crop up far too often when dealing with fae bullshit. Myles put on a bit of background comfort television and checked the progress on his expensive communications gamble.

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation 00:03

Nearly there

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation 00:02

Myles, crossed his fingers.

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation 00:01

“come on, you beauty!” said Myles.

Communication Tool - Integration with System Operation 00:00 - Complete

The virtual menu screen fuzzed out and shut down. It popped back up, rebuilding and reorganising. The menu of old was being replaced with that looked like the apps from the special phone. The functionality was plugging right into his suit. No to see if this would be worth the replacement cost. Myles selected his contacts and sent out his message in a bottle.

Endevour

I’m stuck in an artificially induced turn. Sweetbright Industries was behind it. The town is being attacked by fae several times a day. I don’t know how to get out or get anyone in. Barrington is trapped on the other side. My cat was hurt. The internet is down.

Myles thought he had nailed all the important points. It was two hours later after a shower and food that he finally managed to get a reply.

Zara

Myles! Where the fuck have you been? You dropped off the face of the earth. Your mother has been worried sick

Rusty

Myles the message was garbled, can you send it again?

Sending a mental apology to his soon to be diminished savings account, Myles did his best to reply. But to no avail, there was a link, but it was a feint delicate things and anything going through it was getting mangled before their devices could receive it. Still, if he could read theirs then there was some hope.

“Llex, is there anything we can do to make the signal stronger and get an actual message out?” Asked Myles

“Hold on let me have a think” Said Llex, he paused for a while, pondering “I think I got it, You know those things on the fernseherfetts heads. Those are little arials they use to talk with each other.”

“I should have loads of those Llex, I’ve been fighting non stop for a fortnight.” grumped Myles

“Ah, no. Those are crap. What you need is to get the big one off a fernseherfett king.

“And how exactly do I get his majesty to rock up to town, send him a postcard?” Said Myles who was worried he was about to sign up to the shit list of another fae faction.

“Don’t worry Myles, this will be easy, you are going to love it!” said Llex.

There was a rather unsubtle feeling in Myles’ gut that he most defiantly would not love it.