Most historians agree that there was little way Earth’s pre-2025 governments could have predicted the First Emergence. Chalmers Lyngriff, in his book Shades of Red, White, and Blue: Social Responses to the Emergence Wars in the Western United States, claims that the United States government had no legal or moral responsibility to defend its citizens against a technologically superior enemy like Emergence Machines. According to his book, there was little to no way for anyone on Earth to know that anything else was in the galaxy. Organizations like the SETI Institute had been neglected, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, had their best minds working on diverting asteroids and comets from Earth’s orbit and returning humankind to the moon. Without systems to defend Earth, terrestrial governments had no obligation to do so.

Lyngriff is correct in his analysis that Earth’s resources failed to focus on predicting a fight against a world-ending threat, or on how to protect the planet from a danger like the Emergence Machines. However, in this paper, I will argue that the threat of an alien invasion, mechanical, biological, or otherwise, was a well-thought-out scenario in film and popular culture and that most pre-Emergence governments were uniquely positioned to respond to such a threat, and as such, were obligated to do so.

* Excerpt from “Apocalypse Then: Refuting Claims of Innocence in Emergence Responses”, by Jonathan Doniger, 2037

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Chapter Three

“No need to panic, kid. That Type One won’t come back for a while. I’m not doing so great either.” Overclock propped herself up on her left arm. Her face shone with sweat, her headband sported rips all over it, and she was going to have a black eye when the redness across the right side of her face faded. The hem of her black skirt was shredded, one of her boots had come off, and the right sleeve of her blazer had been torn clean off.

So had the arm that was supposed to be inside of it. Her shoulder was patched with some sort of off-white goop, but below that, nothing. Just a jagged bit where the bone, I assumed, jutted out.

She shrugged as my face whitened, an awkward motion without an arm. “It’s not my first field medical intervention. James says I need to be more cautious, but what are you supposed to do, am I right? I mean, big Type Twenty-One shows up, two thousand civilians in an open field, with 15 seconds of warning, and my power does that? I spread it way too thin.” She paused, and I could see her throat moving as she subvocalized for a few seconds. “Okay, James is right. Introductions first, as is polite. Then bitching about our battle wounds. I’m Overclock, but judging by your gown and your face, you already knew that from the ceremony. Who’re you?”

“I’m…Alice.” I’d fantasized about getting to have a conversation with a Magical Girl for years. Ever since the Battle of Vancouver. But covered in blood and vomit, with a broken nose and cut up hands? The pain hit me all at once. Tears filled my eyes, and my cheeks started burning. I slumped back down against the door, arms crossed over my chest.

“Okay, Alice. First things first, we need to get you to the shelter. Is your aug still showing the arrows?”

I choked down a sob. “Y-yes.” The arrows were blinking their way down the dark hallway, back toward the main hall and the cafeteria. I gingerly pushed myself up off the ground, careful not to put my bleeding palms on the floor. Then I walked slowly over to Overclock and reached out a hand.

“That looks…not great.” Overclock winced as she saw my hands. “James, override exhaustion protocols and get me an Omnipatch spray. Yes, I’m aware of my mana situation. No, she has higher priority than me, per Sanctuary’s directives. Look, a field med-kit isn’t going to fix this arm, and I can’t afford more right now, so getting the civilian functional is more important. Thank you, James.”

A pink aerosol can shimmered into existence next to Overclock, and she let herself lay back down on the cinder blocks. “Okay, let me see those hands, Alice.”

I sucked in my breath as she sprayed the cuts on my hands. It burned. A lot. I tried to hold them still as the foam stuck to my palms and stung.

“You can wave them around. It usually helps me.” Overclock finished spraying and dropped the can. I flapped my hands back and forth while she looked at me critically. After ten seconds, she nodded. “Alright. Rub that shit off on something, then help me up. My leg’s not great either, but it’ll get us to safety.”

“Safety? I can make it to the shelter myself. You can go stop the Emergence! You can…” I trailed off as she looked at her stump and glared at me.

“Okay, kid…Alice. Let’s get a few things clear. First, I’m not at the top of my game right now. Under the right conditions, I could take a Class Three Mack, but it wouldn’t be a sure thing. Down an arm, with other injuries and no mana? I’m stronger than you because I work out, but there’s no way I can beat that Type Twenty-One out there. Hell, the Type Fours it carries would give me a tough time one-on-one.

“Second, I’m not a soloist. Get me another Magical Girl to work with and my Mana Surge is incredible. But solo? Useless. James is in touch with the other Operators, and he’ll have the rest of ResCute here as soon as possible. When they get here, they’ll get the Emergence under control and we’ll all be out of this school in no time.

“For now, my job is to make sure as many people as possible make it through this, and that means you. I know you’re scared, kid, so I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. Your best bet - no, our best bet for surviving this is to get to the shelter, so that’s what we’re gonna do. Now help me up.”

I nodded, tears flowing again. My hands were scabbed over, like the glass had cut them a week ago, and when I pulled on Overclock’s hand, I only got an achy pain instead of the sharp agony I’d expected. I hoped she'd be able to help with standing, but Overclock had to put all her weight on me to get off the ground. Once she was upright, she wobbled a bit, leaning against the wall.

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“Alright, that’s one thing taken care of. Now, Alice, I’m not in much shape for a fight, so you’ll need to protect us. Here.” Overclock reached down, awkwardly pulling her dagger out of its scabbard, then tried to flip it over and catch its blade. She missed, avoiding cutting herself and sending it clattering to the ground.

“Dammit. You’ll need to take that. If we run into something, you should be able to break a Type One’s armor with it. Maybe take off a leg, that way we can get away from it.”

I picked it up, a sinking feeling in my stomach. I wasn’t supposed to be in charge of protecting us. Here I was with a real Magical Girl, not some videogame simulation, and she couldn’t do anything to help me. Worse, she needed my help? To protect her?

Overclock must have seen my face, because she shot me a look and swung her arm over my shoulder. “If we’re attacked, I’ll be dipping into the last of my mana to try to give you an edge. Believe me, I’ll have a harder job - my mana levels are redlined, and any use is going to disable my shield completely. Might open my arm back up, too.”

We started down the hallway, limping past Mrs. Apodaca’s math room. I glanced in, then jumped back as a yellow light flashed across the safety window in the door. A moment later, it flickered red.

“Shit. Just keep moving. If it’s a Type One, it won’t bust through the door. It’ll go back and report what it saw, though, so we can’t be here when whatever it gets comes to find us.”

“Oh.” I paused for a second. The red light grew brighter. Suddenly, something crashed into the door!

I jumped, knocking Overclock off balance as a segmented off-white tentacle as thick around as my leg punched through the glass. She fell into a locker across the hall with a crash as I flinched away from the tentacle.

“Cut it, kid!” Overclock shouted from the ground.

I gripped the dagger, chopping at the metal tentacle like a maniac, but the blade only scored the armor’s surface. After a dozen chops I finally caught the plastic underneath. It parted like butter and revealed the pulleys and gears inside it. The tentacle slid back through the window, the damaged bit hanging up on the shattered glass for a moment.

I turned to pick up Overclock again. As I yanked on her wrist, feeling her weight in my shoulder muscles, I heard a hideous splintering sound of crushing wood. A tentacle punched through Mrs. Apodaca’s door, then another.

“We gotta go!” Overclock slung her arm back over me and I glanced at her wounded shoulder. Blood had started soaking through whatever she’d sprayed on it. Together, we hobbled down the math hall, away from the machine and toward the shelter. “That Mack’s a Type Four, it’ll tear that door down! We have to break line of sight before it gets through or find something more solid to stop it!”

Sure enough, we weren’t halfway down the hall when the Type Four finished tearing the door apart and scrambled through it. Its body was small, perhaps the size of a poodle, but four long tentacles hoisted it up until it almost touched the ceiling. The one I’d cut lagged behind the other three as it moved far, far too quickly toward us. If nothing changed, it’d get to us for sure.

I looked around for something better than the dagger to defend myself with. Nothing. Nothing better than a dagger against an eight-foot-tall robot tentacle monster.

Then I had an idea.

I shoved Overclock down the hall and ran right at the machine toward the nearest fire alarm. I reached it, grabbed the lever, and yanked as hard as I could. The blare of the alarm filled my ears and another message popped up on my eye augment.

Warning!

Fire Detected!

Fire Protocols Overridden!

Due to the Emergence active in your area, please continue to the nearest shelter.

* Please remain calm and follow your optical augment’s directions to the nearest shelter.

* Avoid contact with aberrant Machines at all costs.

* Do not, under any circumstances, interfere with any Magical Girls operating in your area.

* Check all doors for heat before opening them.

* Stay low to avoid smoke.

I quickly blinked it away, only to see the Type Four looming over me, tentacles plunging toward my face.

I screamed, cringing and squeezing my eyes shut.

“Override Exhaustion Protocols! Activating Overclock! Fuck!” Overclock shouted, pain filling her voice.

My eyes cracked open. The tentacles that should have killed me were frozen just over my head, and Overclock had once again stopped moving. The big, steel fire doors that were closing next to her had stopped moving too, and I sprinted toward them.

The frozen…well, everything…lasted longer this time. Long enough for me to grab Overclock. As soon as I touched her, both she and the Type Four started moving and the doors started shutting.

We staggered through. The doors slammed shut, and a split second later, the Type Four’s tentacles started pounding on it.

One look at Overclock and I realized we weren’t going to have time to see if the Type Four could break through steel fire doors. Her face was ghost-white and her arm had started bleeding more heavily. “I’m sorry!” I started to tear up. “I didn’t rea-”

“Stop.” Overclock took a deep, shaky breath. “Girls’ bathroom. Use some…paper towels. On my arm. And use this. Talk to you…later, James.”

She reached up to her head, behind her ear, and pulled a chip from her drive port. Then, she held it out for me. I clasped it in my hand, and together, we hobbled into the restroom.

I sat Overclock down against a stall door, grabbed some towels from the dispenser, and shoved them against her arm, getting a gasp of pain for my troubles before she fainted. The towels soaked through, and I ran to grab more. When those soaked through too, I panicked and did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the chip, pulled open my drive port, and shoved it in.

The world went black and silent for a moment as my augs cut out, then I heard a boy’s voice. On the surface, he had the best customer service voice I’d ever heard, but there was an edge of concern. No, panic. “Overclock, what did you do? I’ve got your vitals again, but something’s wrong.”

“I…” My mind froze. I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tried again. “I need help.”