Ne’lix woke up from an astoundingly vivid nightmare where he’d been brutally killed. He rubbed his chest just to make sure there wasn’t a knife tip sticking out. He’d been stabbed through the back in that dream. Satisfied that it had been a dream he, rolled into a sitting position on his bed and rubbed his eyes. In a daze, he made his way into the bathroom, relieved himself, and then stripped down and hopped in the shower. After a long hot shower, he stepped out, grabbed his towel, and dried off. As he was dying off he noticed that a piece of paper was taped to the bathroom mirror.
Ne’lix hung his towel, picked the note off the mirror, and opened it.
“Ne’lix,
Last night wasn’t a dream. Like I said, you get to come back now. Watch your back today
Adam”
Ne’lix quickly read the note. When he set the note down it dissolved into nothing. So he’d been killed. What the hell, he hadn’t even seen who’d done it. All he remembered was being turned over on his belly after his throat had already been slit and then a knife plunging through….
Ne’lix put those thoughts to the back of his mind and finished getting ready for work then made his way downstairs and across the plaza to the portal facility. Once there he made his way through the checkpoints, to his office building, and rode the elevator up to his office.
As Ne’lix stepped out of the elevator he noticed two police officers talking to his assistants as he heard a voice come over the radio.
“56 to Dispatch, No sign of missing person at the address reported”
The police officer on his left turned away from his dayshift 2nd assistant Madison Stoll as he reached for his mic. Ne’lix must have caught the police officer’s attention out of the corner of his eye because he focused his gaze on him, brought a picture in his hand up then looked back at Ne’lix.
“Excuse me, Sir, are you Ne’lix, the Manager of this Office?” the police officer asked.
“Yes, that’s me, I’m Ne’lix. Can I help you?”
“Have you had any issues today sir, anything you need to report?”
“None that I can think of, is everything okay?” Ne’lix said.
“Hold on for one second Sir, I need to call this in.”
“34 to Dispatch” the police officer called over his microphone
“Go ahead 34,” dispatch said through the speaker on his vest.
“I have the alleged missing person in front of me. Say again, I have the individual reported as missing in front of me. He just arrived at his office.” The police officer said.
“Copy 34, logging the anonymous tip as false. Please notify me when back in the field”
“Copy dispatch, will notify when available,” the officer said then turned to Ne’lix as he twisted a knob on his vest, and the voices coming from the speaker on his vest reduced in volume, “Thank you for your patience, sir. We’d received an anonymous tip that you were missing.”
“No problem, as you can see I’m here,” Ne’lix said.
“Do you have any questions, sir?”
“No, I’m sure you had access to my apartment because of the position I hold here, just thank your fellow officers for their diligence, and have a very nice day,” Ne’lix said
“You too sir, Ralph let’s let the assistants and Mr. Ne’lix here get back to work,” the first officer said as he, then the officer named Ralph turned and walked out of the office.
***
Adam’s Thor Aspect watched Adam as he zipped around the solar system dropping his nanites off. He also, reviewed Ne’lix’s interactions with police as he arrived at work and then started researching Ahrem’s path as he’d been asked to. Once Thor was sure Ne’lix was safe for the moment he focused his attention on Eloise, the assassin, to see what she’d been up to this morning. This of course was not exactly how Thor reviewed the three individuals as he monitored them. His mental capacity would monitor all three individuals at the same time and miss nothing. What he was doing now was an in-depth review of what the nanites had recorded because, for him, everything was history.
***
After Eloise had called in the anonymous tip she went to work. She made sure to arrive within her normal window of arrival. She grabbed a cup of coffee and then made her way to her desk. She was sipping her coffee looking out of the office she was in which overlooked the hallway anyone arriving through the portal would take. She heard footsteps and looked up. As her mind registered what she was seeing, she froze and looked again. Yes, Ne’lix was walking by her office. It took a few moments but Eloise was able to relax her muscles, set down her coffee, and stand. She made her way to the bathroom and went into a stall there. She sat down on the toilet and then activated her ability Annulled Trace. Once her ability was active she cast telepathy and requested a mental conversation with her direct superior within The Agency. After a few moments, she felt the mental link solidify.
Yes, – Eloise’s supervisor Mao thought to her questioningly
The target is alive, I say again, my target is alive – Eloise thought to her
You reported that you had killed him. The scryers backed up your claim, what are you talking about that he is alive?” – Mao responded, agitation leaking through the link.
The “target” just walked by my desk on his way to his office upstairs, I can confirm this personally – Eloise stated
Understood, remain on site, and follow standard protocols. We’ll look into it and be in touch – Mao thought to her as she dropped from the connection
Eloise ended the link, deactivated Annulled Trace, and grabbed some tissue. She discarded it into the toilet then flushed as she stood, fixed her clothes, and stepped out of the stall. Eloise washed her hands and made her way back to her desk.
***
Thor reviewed the history of the nanites in Trix’s office and focused his attention there. Three individuals had teleported into the office. A woman that reminded Thor of Kate Beckinsale from the movie Underworld and Trinity from the Matrix franchise. Lots of leather and a long coat. She looked to be in charge. There were also two men with her but they were in standard business suites that you might see in a 007 movie.
The reason the nanites had flagged them was that when they entered the office none of them had nanites in them. That fact was being remedied as the nanites in the office infiltrated and flooded their bodies. As the entirety of Vrax had been infiltrated it didn’t take very long to accomplish.
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Thor watched as the woman went to the computer inserted a wand that allowed her instant and complete access to the drive and then downloaded everything onto the wand. The men made their way around the office looking here and there, tearing things apart, and making a complete mess. When they looked to be done they both moved in front of the desk and waited for the woman to finish. A hard drive eradication program was loaded and started as the woman stood and looked at the men inquiringly
“Nothing,” the first said
“Nothing,” the second said.
“Fine, let’s go,” the woman said as she came around the desk. She pulled out a device and pushed a button and was teleported or translocated to the space station in orbit above North America in the same dimension that Adam was zipping around the solar system in. The three appeared in a room that was not dissimilar to the way the transporter rooms on the Enterprise had been set up. There were outlines on the floor and even a terminal. As yet, the nanites had not made it to the station but now that didn’t seem like it would be a problem as his nanites were spreading out from all three of them even now.
The woman turned to both men and said, “Return to your normal duties, I have a report to make. If I need you I’ll call for you.”
Both men nodded and walked out of the room. As they exited the room they turned right. The woman nodded to the technician manning the computer terminal and walked out behind the men and then turned left as she headed in the opposite direction. At the end of the corridor was an elevator. She entered the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor.
Thor noted that the nanites inside her had issues. There was almost no problem with their infiltration of her body until they tried to enter her brain. The nanites had no such issues with the two men so this must either be a spell of some sort, which Thor doubted, or an ability. An ability that didn’t allow nanites to enter brain cells. That sounded like a very handy ability. There was probably an ability that would prevent someone’s whole body from being taken over. For now, Thor was only able to get information from the nanites that made up the rest of the woman’s body. He was hoping her name would drop soon. Thinking of her as just the woman or a woman was tiresome.
The woman stepped through an open set of double doors and walked forward until she stood before the man sitting behind a desk. There was a window that looked down on Earth behind him. Thor continued his review as he keep the spread of the nanites in mind so that he could keep everything in context and provide Adam with accurate, real-time data for when he was.
Thor noted that the window that looked outside the station was made of transparent aluminum which ensured there were no structural integrity issues. As the woman stood there and waited Thor had his nanites spread and infiltrate everything they could. The man continued to look at his screen, tapped a few keys then looked up.
“Katja, back already? I take it things did not go well?” he asked.
“No Director, they did not. As far as I could determine there was nothing in that terminal nor did my two assistants discover anything.
“That’s fine, this threat to the emperor has been dealt with. The threat of this Ahrem child that Trix was looking into must still be dealt with through,” the director said.
“Didn’t he disappear out of that system they discovered him in?”
“Yes and no. Our sensors tracked him moving faster than light toward the edge of the solar system and lost him near Pluto. Our sensors on the outside of the Helios Sphere didn’t detect him so we think he may have dropped in on Pluto,” The Director said.
“How long until we have a ship in orbit?” Katja asked.
“The ship is already there and has been surveying the planet from orbit. While the planet isn’t very big, there is a huge area to scan. The captain of the Akmen, that’s the name of the ship. The captain thinks we should have a full scan done by tomorrow.”
“What would you like me to do until then?” Katja asked.
The elimination of Trix will require a replacement. No, we are not putting you in such an irrelevant position. The Emperor ordered the actions we took earlier today because he believed Trix thought she was the actual head of the Vrax Empire. In the past, she’d even gone so far as to threaten people here and across the government. The Emporer was done with that air of superiority she had. Besides, where is she now?” The director asked with a smile
***
Thor relayed all of this information he’d discovered to Adam as he zipped around the Solar System. While they were one entity, when separated like this Thor had been noticing that his biological self was more prone to emotional outbreaks and Thor had noticed when Adam seemed to be getting angry. One of those telltale signs that indicated his temper was flaring was when Adam started mumbling to himself.
“Mother fuckers want to kill me while I’m sleeping.”
“Even better they can’t take the time to make sure the target they went after was the correct target…”
Thor knew what Adam was trying to mumble because their minds were connected. Adam was, of course, making no sound as he was currently traveling faster than light through a vacuum.
***
Adam zipped around the solar system reviewing what his nanites had found, and noticed that he was mumbling to himself. Once he realized what he was doing he took a deep breath, well at least he tried to, and stopped mumbling. He continued zipping around the solar system because it was fun, but also, because he was looking for any population settlements. While this was a copy of planet Earth, it was unlike the Earths he normally dealt with as there was no life on this one. Even the seas were dead. There were trace amounts of oxygen on the planet but nothing that would sustain life. So far his nanites had found nothing on any of the other planets as well. The only sign that there was any kind of sentient life was the space station that was orbiting the Earth in this dimension in geosynchronous orbit above where New York would be.
Adam reviewed the data coming in concerning Ne’lix, Eloise, Katja, her director, and anything else he could learn. He even checked in on Anna to find her enjoying herself on her vacation on a beach somewhere that hadn’t been fully infiltrated by his nanites. Adam needed to let his nanites do their thing and that would take time so he came to a stop on the opposite side of Pluto in this dimension from the station. Then he willed himself into the Astral Plane.
He was pleasantly surprised when that trick worked. Adam found himself floating in a gaseous void filled with gases of every color. He also felt himself being pulled towards something bright off in the distance. Adam made sure he still had the ability to control his movement and then released himself to be drawn along by the light. As he looked around he realized he wasn’t alone and activated his True Sight spell which showed him the outlines of people as they were drawn along beside him.
Adam cast Analyze on them. They were all designated as Basic Souls but no information was given other than creature type from his spell. Adam was sure he could create a stronger version of the spell if he wished but at this point didn’t feel that it was necessary.
He floated along with all the souls until he entered a region that he could only describe as a tunnel. A tunnel wider than the Earth and longer than he could see. As he was floating down the tunnel some souls floated toward the top of the tunnel while others floated towards the bottom. Adam found himself being pulled off to the side where a humanoid figure stood next to a door.
“Mortal, the tunnel of The Divide is not for you,” a man with blue skin and white hair stated then waved through the door. “You may use this door to exit this region of the Astral Plane. When you feel the tug ignore it and you will not be drawn here again until it is your time.”
“If I might be so bold as to ask, what is the Divide and what does it do?” I asked.
“That is for those that have passed on to find out,” he started to say before he froze.
Bored with this conversation already Adam mentally attacked and dived into the mind of the creature. Once the attack was underway Adam also reached up and touched him to allow his nanites to invade his body. Sure he didn’t need to kill everyone but sometimes he just wanted to know some stuff without wasting time. It was a weakness, he knew, but he needed to get a handle on this Cosmos’s layout.
As his nanites invaded and mapped out the blue person’s mind he held him and wiped his memory of the last couple of minutes and the next few minutes as well. Then, Adam stepped to the door and passed through to find himself back in the Astral plane in another location. Adam pulled up his mapping function and zoomed out until he could see where he’d been, where the blue man was, and where he was now.
Unfortunately, there was no scale but it looked like the blue man was very far away from him. Adam looked around quickly to see if anyone or anything was nearby and found himself alone except for the gases. Adam released some nanites into the void around him. They found material to infiltrate and utilize but it was nothing like the realms of chaos he’d encountered before. The material was sparse and spread out, unlike the thick liquid-like substance that raw chaos was. No sooner had he thought about Chaos than his perspective shifted and he found himself looking at a wall of chaos.
That was surprising, but not unexpected. It looked like thought and will could take you where you wanted to go in this version of the Astral. Good to know. Adam was surprised when a group of beings formed a semi-circle behind him. There were humans, orcs, dwarves, elves, dark elves, gnomes, and even a prismatic dragon. Well, the creatures looked like creatures from his fantasy games anyway, he wasn’t given time to figure it out what their races truly were. Why? Because a man in black robes standing in front of Adam said, “Finally, a worthy sacrifice,” as a gigantic tentacle, the size of a planet whipped out of the broiling chaos. The tentacle was at least the size of a planet across as that part became visible as it left the Chaos. This made the tentacle incredibly long as it snaked from the base becoming smaller and smaller until the last 5 feet near the tip wrapped around Adam and drew him from where he was standing into the chaos.
As he was pulled into liquid Chaos the people behind him rejoiced. Adam’s nanites were already infiltrating the creature and dropping into the chaos around him as his Adaption ability modified his sight and he was able to see through the liquid normally. Adam followed the tentacle until he found the Jupiter-sized monster it was attached to that had many eyes, tentacles, and mouths looking at Adam as it drew him towards itself.
Adam willed himself to stop. Suddenly the tentacle was straining against an unmovable force. Adam cast a version of the Tongues spell that would allow him to converse with any creature, looked directly at the creature, and said, “We need to talk.”