Everyone has a breaking point.
You really, really don’t want to see Lissa’s.
* Emmelyn 'Limelight' Seras to Freesia Bayden, 2053
***
‘I’m gonna kill her.’
I wouldn’t blame you.
Standing in the door of a small partially ransacked pawn shop we had found, I tap my foot impatiently against the ground as Freesia rummages through an open topped box of weapons.
“Oh, what about this one?” She pulls out a long, wicked dagger, then throws it over her shoulder and goes back to rummaging. “Nope, too malicious looking.”
I stumble over, picking the blade up.
“I dunno, I think it fits you pretty well.” My cheek twitches when I see her leave one box to move to another. “Can you hurry up already?!”
She chuckles, pauses, then lifts up what I recognize as a taser baton. “Found one! let’s go.~”
I roll my eyes as she walks past me, humming as she twirls the weapon around in her hand. I clench the knife in my fist to resist the urge to knock her on her ass.
Technically, though obviously a bit misled, she has the right idea. You need new weapons.
I grimace as my exhausted muscles twitch, then respond, ‘I think I need something to fight for me, I don’t know how much more physical work I am gonna end up doing tonight.’
There are a lot of things for you to choose from, but keep in mind you do have access to advanced stimulants in order to alleviate that issue. Any addiction can be cleared out with just a few paltry points.
I roll my eyes as I fidget with the dagger a bit. ‘I’ll be fine, I know better than to rely on things like that. Recommend me something that won’t give me away to cameras, as well as maybe the human eye? I want something hard to fight against for humans.’
Hm… Interesting, for reference, how opposed to minor cerebrum modification are you?
I pause, then start walking when Freesia turns to look at me.
‘As in, brain augs?’
Precisely, in this case, it would be used to allow for easier parallel control of the drone.
I run my tongue against the roof of my mouth, examining a small burn I obtained from dinner and missed until now.
‘Would it change my thoughts or emotions? Any negative side-effects?’
No.
I shrug, putting my hands behind my back.
‘Yeah, if it doesn’t do that I’m fine with it. Don’t see the point in being wishy-washy about it when it could mean the difference in survival or not.’
Put your judgement on hold until I explain. My idea mainly revolves around four separate purchases. First, is to purchase a combat model of your choice from the Class-I Advanced Framework Models (Avatars) Catalog. Then, we’d get a hard light emitter for your eye, and finally a cerebrum upgrade to allow for simultaneous use of the creation alongside your body. This would cost between one hundred eighty to two hundred twenty points, but would allow for what you ask for plus more in the future.
I take a moment to parse her explanation, then tilt my head.
‘Wait, so I’d be able to make physical things in reality with basically just my mind?’
It’d be limited to a very short radius, as well as requiring pre-prepared three dimensional models designed specifically for the purpose. Thankfully, those are not very expensive in the long run, and you could even potentially learn how to make them yourself.
I groan, putting my face into my hand. ‘Dammit, you sold me on it. Admittedly great idea Raya. Just get me a basic combat avatar for now, doesn’t need to be anything specific.’
If that’s what you want.
Starting Total:
232 Points
Catalogs Unlocked!
Class-I Advanced Framework Models (Avatars): 50 Points
New Purchase!
SHLE/CSE Eye Upgrade: 30 Points
CMPC-Core: 50 Points
Tactical Avatar B21232 (Customized): 50 Points
Total Cost:
180 Points
Final Total:
52 Points
For a moment nothing happens until a single package pops into existence about a foot in front of me. I hastily take a step forward to catch it, only to end up juggling the box around a bit. I breathe in relief when I finally have it only to then look up, just to see Freesia grinning at me.
“What’d you buy, Lissa?”
I stuck my tongue out at her, refusing to explain, then flicked the container open to reveal a contact lens and a syringe of some sort.
I assume you know how the lens works, but all you need to do for the other is inject it into your body somewhere, the nanobots will do the rest. Do please also put the contact on your working eye please, all it’ll do otherwise is irritate your already damaged flesh.
Remembering the pain of the other one, I decide to take the harder route first, so I place the dagger on the edge of the box. I take a deep breath, then stab the needle into my arm and press down on the plunger. There’s a slight pain as the machines enter my body, but as I brace myself for more, nothing actually follows, beyond a slightly discomforting tingling. A bit reassured, I then put the contact into my left eye.
Of course, I end up hissing through my teeth as it almost immediately feels like I stuck my eye into lava. I kneel down while pressing my palm against my eye until the heat begins to disperse, then take a breath as I grab the dagger I ended up dropping as I stand up again.
Careful, you might not want to be standing for this.
I scoff, but as I open my eyes again, I end up wincing as a lot of new information begins to flow into my brain. It takes a moment for me to process not only the new subtle colors spread basically everywhere, the basic info of how the hologram emitter works, and even a distinct shift in how my body naturally moves. I lift my hands up, slowly moving them in unison in front of my eyes.
“This is fuckin’ weird,” I murmur before I turn the emitter on and create the only model I have access to. After barely a moment of delay, a feminine figure, with most of her details completely washed out by violet light, forms in the air in front of me, floating weightlessly as she stares down at me. I move her hand to wave down at me, then chuckle to myself as I start moving her around through the air. “Correction, this is super fucking weird.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Freesia’s eyebrow raises as she asks, “You know how annoying it is to only get pieces of what’s going on?”
I move the avatar down to stand beside the woman, throwing a peace sign. Raya giggles in head my as I respond, “Yeah, I do. Get guiding, Freesia.”
Her eyebrow goes higher, but she still turns to walk as she comments, “Oh, confident after that purchase, are you?”
I move the avatar to the side and have it slam a fist into a concrete wall, breaking a small hole into it with ease. I tilt my head momentarily as Freesia’s head shoots over to look at the noise, then say, “A bit.”
Nervously, she looks back at me, then around the area to find how I just did that, but it’s to no avail. The woman takes a moment to look at me, then turns and starts walking. I chuckle quietly under my breath as I follow behind her. A thought pops up into my head as I move the avatar around in the about ten foot radius it seems to be able to exist in.
‘Hey, why did I need to get an avatar like this anyways? It’s really cool and all, but wouldn’t it be way more efficient to just… make a knife or something to stab things from a distance?’
It’s really not that simple. The hard light constructs you can make are limited in certain ways, mainly in that unless specifically designed for it, they can’t move on their own. Sure, the emitter could reproduce the construct to animate it as if it were moving, but not only is that an incredible waste of energy, it wouldn’t have any force behind it. You can’t just move objects with your mind, or at least not yet.
I blink, then share a look with my avatar. ‘Okay wait, how is it moving then?’
Through the power of its coded framework converting energy into force. As strange as it sounds, the hardlight you make with the hologram emitter isn’t directly reliant upon the emitter to keep its form, but rather the internal stores of energy contained within its mass. As long as it’s within a certain radius of you, it can exist in this form as long as you can supply your hard light emitter with energy. Even if you close your eyes, it’ll still be there.
‘Wait, if the emitter isn’t what’s controlling it, what is?’
The new core we connected to your cerebellum. It’s why you can move it like it’s part of your body. In the future you could likely create multiple autonomous units by getting AI cores with their own emitter.
‘Huh.’
I move the avatar over and place my palm against its own. Despite the fact that I know I have no senses coming from it, a phantom sense tells me that I can feel my hand pressing against it, almost like it is numbed. I stare at it for a moment, then close my eyes and sigh, moving the avatar to hover behind me as I proceed in my trailing behind Freesia.
We walk for a little while, neither of us really saying anything. I don’t know if I spooked her with my little show of power, but the woman is ominously quiet. At least, until we begin to approach an intersection between blocks where we find a group of at least a dozen Model-Seven zombies standing eerily still upon one of its corners. The entire group is staring blankly up at what is probably one of the only working street lamps on the floor, seemingly completely entranced. Immediately upon seeing them we dip into an alleyway, where after clenching her teeth, Freesia turns to look at me.
“Well, Miss Samurai, time to use your magic powers to open the way.” While her tone is nonchalant, perhaps even a bit uncaring, I can see her trembling at the sight of the zombies.
I shrug as I cautiously start over to the group, fidgeting with the dagger still in my hand as I do my best to be sneaky. As I get about halfway there though, I grin, then toss the weapon to my Avatar, with which I effortlessly catch the blade. I hear Freesia gasp behind me, likely at the floating weapon, which is actually sort of reassuring, since it tells me that normal humans really can’t see my avatar.
I slowly creep closer until I am just in my ten foot range, then will my puppet forward. As it approaches, I sort of worry for a moment the zombie is going to notice it, but thankfully that isn’t the case. In a swift single moment, I stab the poor corpse in the back of the head, causing it to collapse to the ground unceremoniously. All of the zombies abruptly jerk their heads to me, which certainly makes my heart skip a beat.
In a terrifying single unified movement they all rush at me, and the reality of the situation dawns on me. The previous hordes I had taken out, Dad and Pops were there to support me in the fight. They’re strong, confident, and both trained in combat in a way that I’m not. However, I bite my lip to reassure myself that I have an advantage they don’t.
I’m a Samurai.
As calmly as I can with the horde rushing at me, I direct the avatar to start picking off the targets as I frantically whisper, ‘Raya, spear and shield, preferably light enough that I won’t exhaust myself.’
Complex, but easily done.
Points Earned!
10 Points
New Purchase!
1x Class-0 FAL-CHI One-handed Naginata: 10 Points
1x Class-0 Basic Alloy Kiteshield: 10 Points
Total Cost:
20 Points
Final Total:
42 Points
My new tools appear just in time for me to raise my shield to hold back several of the zombies from ripping out my throat. I grunt from the impact before I start stabbing forward over and over again, sinking a blade into a corpse with each movement. I yell as I knock the zombie on my shield away as two start to move around the first group to hit at my sides, stumbling backwards and barely managing to avoid getting grabbed. Slowly but surely, I retreat from harm as my avatar picks off the ones I don’t end up stabbing, until finally I pull my new spear back out of the final enemy.
I look behind me at Freesia nervously peeking around the corner, then yell, “Thanks for the help, Bayden! It’s over, come on!”
As she slowly trudges over to meet up, I hand my spear over to the avatar as I walk over to the light pole and lean against it. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, then open them again when I hear Freesia stop a few feet away.
“I really… don’t think I gave you credit for being a samurai.” She muttered, looking disgusted down at the corpse around me. “I could never do this.”
“Oh, but you could abandon my sister after so long and blackmail me about my literally kidnapped parents?” I snap, pushing a bit to the side of the pole as I glare at her.
Freesia flinches at my movement, yet still responds with conviction:
“Neither is my fault. I just want to survive.”
“Explain.”
Her voice trembling, Freesia says, “I realized a few months ago, despite her wishes, there’s no way she’d have been able to escape this place! No one can!”
“Bullshit."
Clenching her fist, Freesia takes a step towards me. “You know it’s true! Not only are you all here, but the central administration would never let someone that competent leave! They’d have saddled her with some made-up crime and put her somewhere she could be useful!”
“And that’s grounds to abandon her?!”
“If she got arrested, I’d get dragged down with her!” Freesia points towards the center of the floor. “Only a samurai can even hope of escaping, and even as samurai you both got burned by them, you’re just luckier than she is!”
I blink, then narrow my eyes.
“Wanna repeat that for me?”
Freesia pales in realization, before she looks at the ground and very quietly mutters, “She was a samurai, and they still killed her.”
I clench the spear in my hand hard. “How the fuck do you know that?”
I’m a bit taken aback when the woman looks up with tears in her eyes. “Look, okay?! The Lysanders are the family that runs the floor, so I was able to get back down here after their son died on the second with me! On the way down, the guards were chatting so I overheard them! She slaughtered the staff of an entire floor before they got her!”
I slam my new shield into the pole, causing the light to begin to flicker. A whirlpool of despair begins to swirl around me.
Off-On-Off. Off-On-Off.
Black. White. Black.
“If she really is a samurai,” I whisper as the world begins to shrink around me, “there’s no way she’s dead.”
Tears running down her face, Freesia puts a hand on her chest. “I swear to god, I saw the footage! One second she was there and the next she was gone!”
Off. There’s no way.
On. The last time I saw Emme pops into my head.
Off. It wasn’t anything special.
Feeling a bit short of breath, I scream:
“Stop fucking acting sad or scared or whatever this goddamn is! Tell me the fucking truth for once!”
Freesia takes a deep breath, and all the emotion drops off of her face.
“She’s really, truly dead, Lissa. If we’re going to survive, you need to accept that.”
Black. I hate her.
White. Why is she the one who gets to claim this?
Black. What if she isn’t lying?
“How can” I whisper, unable to regain the breaths I’ve lost, “I trust you after everything you’ve done?”
Freesia scoffs. “I don’t expect you to. The truth will speak for itself.”
Dark. What do I-
Light. How do I-
Dark. Who do I-
Now completely out of breath, out of words, I stare blankly at the woman in front of me. My heart slamming against my ribs, I move the avatar to put her hands on my shoulder, a tiny bit of support when my legs feel like giving out beneath me.
“Regardless, Lissa, we need to get moving,” Freesia states in monotone, “Who knows how long they’ll keep your parents alive.”
Freesia takes a step towards me, offering me a hand.
“You look shaky. I’ll support you when she can’t, it’s what Emme-”
I sink the avatar’s dagger into Freesia’s throat.
Shaking, her hands reach up to brush against the blade hilt deep in her flesh, releasing her crimson life to trail down her ebony skin. She slowly crumples to the ground, her eyes never leaving me. As her final breath leaves, the lamp above me stops flickering.
Light.
“You didn’t deserve to speak her name.”