Elizabeth Day WNN News was having a pretty slow day. It was the 3rd of July and as far as she was concerned, nothing was going on. Sure, the messages about an interface had popped into her vision. There was also the story about Alien contact on Mars but there was no way to get there to confirm it so another dead end. Instead, she was sitting in a café at 6 a.m. on her way to work in New York sipping her coffee. She had to get through today before tomorrow could start. It was going to be really busy with the July 4th Celebrations going on. Just then her phone rang. She looked down at the screen and saw that the Caller ID identified the caller as, “Would you like to be Famous?” Elizabeth snickered, whoever it was had one overinflated ego, that was for sure.
Smiling to herself, Elizabeth brought the phone to her ear and answered the call, “Elizabeth Day WNN News, this is a recorded line?”
“Hello Elizabeth, how would you like to be famous?” a voice said over the phone.
“On a boring day like today, of course, what do you want in return?” she asked.
“Nothing at the moment, perhaps an exclusive interview eventually, which will work out for you as well.”
“If what you have will make me famous, I can guarantee an exclusive interview with me,” she said.
“Very well. Are you familiar with the idea of Wormholes and Teleportation?”
“Science fiction, Useful plot devices for novels and programs that allow the protagonist to travel to faraway fantastic locations,” she said.
“True, in a moment science fiction will become reality. A portal will open beside you. It doesn’t go anywhere fantastic, yet, but will take you to the middle of White Sands New Mexico where I want you to witness, and report live what you see to the rest of the world. When you’re done for the day I will open a portal for you to return to New York, if that is your desire.
“I’ll need a crew…”
“I’ll supply you with a direct link to your program director and you will be live. Time is a factor though, yes or no?
Elizabeth only had to think about it for a second, the unknown was what she lived for, “Yes,” she said.
“Good choice. When the portal opens please step through immediately. The Portal is opening now.”
Against the wall, a black dot appeared and spread into an open oval that spread out in a circle to show white sand dunes in the darkness of early morning, with the hint of the sunrise that was coming. She was startled but quickly recovered. Elizabeth paid her bill with her phone and looked around at all the stunned faces that were looking at the portal and then at her. He did say this would make her famous, “I’m Elizabeth Day with WNN make sure to watch our program, breaking news will be coming soon,” she said as she stepped through the portal into the early morning of White Sands New Mexico.
***
Havier Ben stood on the bus he’d followed a bunch of students from the United States onto near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. With the words from the heavens speaking to his cell directly the planned attack for the 4th had been moved up a day as a group of children from the infidel’s homeland had been spotted arriving at the Airport yesterday. His fingers caressed the button that would detonate his vest.
Havier watched as the bus was coming up to another stop surrounded by more students. He wasn’t supposed to detonate until 1 p.m. local but this was the kind of target-rich environment he’d been taught to look for, it was time. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, said a silent prayer to God, then pushed the button. He waited a moment, which shouldn’t have happened, he should be with God already. Havier opened his eyes and looked at the switch in his hand. He pushed the button again and nothing happened. He undid the zipper to the light vest he was wearing and reached up and unclasped the failsafe trigger and still, nothing happened.
At that moment a student near him saw what he was doing and screamed, “He has a bomb!”
The Bus lurched to a stop as Havier tried everything he could to make the device detonate. He worked tirelessly while students and the bus driver fled the bus. Finally, when he realized the vest just wasn’t going to explode he looked up to see people running away from the bus and the police responding. How could this be, he’d don’t everything they’d trained him to. They’d even chemically tested the C4 to make sure that it was an explosive and not the fake stuff the law enforcement agencies around the world tried to trap his brothers and sisters with. Just then he felt a sharp pain in his eye which cleared momentarily and then worlds scrolled across his vision.
Hello Asshole! Today you are not going to blow yourself up, in fact, you aren’t going to blow up anyone ever again.
Suddenly the pit of Havier’s stomach dropped out as the bus he was in fell at least 20 feet before it landed on a bed of white sand and a band of snug metal appeared around his waist that was attached to a chain that was attached to a ring in the floor. He could have sworn wasn’t there a second ago.
You are now in White Sands New Mexico. Feel free to watch out the window, more of your friends will be dropping in soon.
***
Elizabeth Day looked at the bus as it dropped out of the sky through a portal and shattered its axles as it landed and bounced slightly. All things considered. It had landed pretty softly.
Elizabeth was standing on a balcony that hadn’t been there five minutes ago. She’d watched as a building, complete with power, facilities, and Air Conditioning inside the glass doors that she’d stepped through to get onto this balcony and looked around to see only sand in all directions. The voice had said to get on the balcony and watch after she stepped through. As the bus settled she noticed something in the sky and watched as a man, in a black military-looking flight suit flew into her line of sight and landed lightly before her.
“Hello Elizbeth, I apologize about the bus, I’d hoped to brief you before I started moving terrorists to this location.”
“Terrorist?” she asked.
“Yes, but he’s not going anywhere, he’s chained to the inside of the bus. He won’t be breaking that chain anytime soon.
“Where did the bus come from?” she asked as she tried to keep up with the rapid pace things were happening.
“Paris,” he said.
Elizabeth noticed that a wall that she could see, but also see through was rising out of the sand. She walked over to the rail and noted that the wall in front of the Balcony had stopped just below it, while the walls to her east and west kept rising into the sky until they were at least three times her height.
“That is a transparent aluminum wall. This building, which is for you alone, while you’re here sits in the middle of the southern wall of a one-mile square of transparent Aluminum. The wall is frictionlessly smooth and 50 feet high. At the balcony where you’re standing, it’s only 10 feet high but that won’t be a problem”
Elizabeth noticed that the bus had landed inside the wall. Also as she watched blinking red lights started flashing along the top of the wall along each of the four sides, “What are you doing?”
“Currently there are 324 suicide bombers around the world that are going to try to detonate their devices. Unknown to them, all of their explosives have been replaced with Play-Doh. Since they haven’t technically committed a crime I’m sending them all here where you will get to report on their arrival. I will give the government an opportunity to deal with these idiots. There were over 300 innocents near where that asshole, “ he said pointing at the guy in the bus” tried to detonate. 112 of them were American students on holiday in Paris. Though Americans aren’t the only targets. There will be terrorists arriving from all over the world.”
“How am I going to report this, I don’t see any Camera?” she asked.
He pointed and Elizabeth watched as an image of herself appeared in the air between them, showing a perfect shot of her face and the bus in the background, “Where are the camera’s” Elizabeth asked.
“If we get to that private interview, I’ll explain that trick. For now, just go with it. I’m connecting you with your boss now.
The image changed from her with the bus in the background to Terry Lawrence her Executive Producer who stepped back from something in front of him. Elizabeth realized it was the screen.
“Elizabeth is that you?” Terry asked.
“Yes, don’t know how to say this but I’ve got a big story to report on, just not exactly sure what it is yet,” she said as the man in the black flight suit laughed, then covered the laugh with a fist with a twinkle in his eye.
“I bet, whose the military type behind you?” Terry asked.
“Honestly I don’t know, we just met,” she said as she turned and asked, “Do you have a name?”
“You can call me Adam, it’s what I go by these days,” Adam said.
“Adam,” she said as she looked back at Terry.
“We got a call a little bit ago from Cassy, the lady that runs the café you normally stop at, she said you stepped through a wall and disappeared?” Terry said.
“Adam opened a wormhole or something and I stepped through. I’m now in New Mexico.” She said.
“Even if I could believe that…” Terry started to say as a portal opened beside him and he looked at Elizabeth directly. “what the hell”
Adam flew off the roof, went down to the desert, picked up a handful of sand, flew back up to the roof, stuck his hand through the portal, and dropped the sand at Terry’s feet. Adam pulled his hand back and the portal closed.
“Did, did he just fly?” Terry stammered.
“Yeah, look at your feet Terry,” Elizabeth said.
Terry looked down and picked up a pinch of sand, “Okay, slow on the uptake, you have a story. Adam is it? How can we help you and what do you want for the story?
“A man that can bounce back and focus, I like that,” Adam said nodding. “Elizabeth here is your reporter on site. Over the next couple of hours, I’m going to work to stop terrorists across the world and they will be dumped into this prison of sand, at least until the military arrives.”
“We don’t have any cameras or crew on sight, how are we to control the angle of view and such?
“Look behind you,” Adam said as Terry looked and watched two electronic suites form out of nothing.
“What are those?” Terry asked.
“One moment?” Adam said as he waited for the nanites to finish connecting everything. “Okay, the two terminals are your controls for the cameras that are already here. No, Elizabeth can’t see the camera’s though I can put a light that she can follow with her eyes if you like. You’ll control the cameras like you’d control the drones with complete autonomy out to one mile outside of the walls I’ve erected around where I’m going to place the terrorist. Don’t worry about flying through the wall, the point of view will travel right through it.”
“Sound’s simple enough,” Terry said.
I also have footage from the bus incident in Paris, at no charge. It’s on the systems before you. I’m going to leave this screen between the two of you open so you can talk and see each other, though,” Adam held out his hand and an earbud solidified in it, which Elizabeth took and put in her ear. “This earbud will let you talk to Elizabeth directly. I will not be in this original footage. You will both receive information concerning the individuals popping in. Where they’re from, what they were trying to do, and if possible their names, though I might not have them for a while. Where you are now is not too far from Holloman AFB so once the military gets wind of this they’ll probably head this way. With Satellites, they should be able to detect this location and move in within the first two hours. I’ll send a general I met the information about this location and what’s going on with instructions not to interfere with Elizabeth so long as your network doesn’t bash on the military. For reasons I’m not going to go into now, I’ll just say You will need all of them shortly so better to make friends than enemies at this point. Any questions?”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“A ton but the only important one right now is, how do we contact you?”
“I am paying attention to both of you, if you have a question, Terry just say your question and I’ll hear you. Elizabeth if you are on air, text me at the number you have, and I’ll see it,” Adam said pausing as he looked off into the distance, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do, Activity will start shortly,” Adam said as he disappeared and Elizabeth felt a gust of wind and knew that he’d flown straight up.
“He flew away didn’t he?” Terry asked.
“Yea, but I don’t think he’s a Superman type. I’m getting more of a Batman feel from this guy.,” Elizabeth said.
“Thanks, I always liked Batman,” Adam said from Elizabeth’s earbud.
***
Adam headed back for his base. Once he’d set started deactivating all of the suicide bombers, he’d set the nanites to work creating more portals and a chamber he could use to open to other planets and spread nanites around throughout the solar system. Teleport might only have a limited range, but he knew from experience that his portals, with enough power, could reach across the galaxy. Right now, he’d settle for the solar system.
He'd thought about how to make the biggest impact. While having the terrorist evaporate around the world with their bombs would be safer, it would probably cause more problems than it would solve. As he was flying over Nevada he decide to call General Cain. He didn’t bother pulling out his phone and just used his nanite link to mask his location while he synthesized his voice so there was no air whistling in the background.
“Yes,” the General asked as he picked up the phone beside his sink.
“Is this a good time?”
“Who is this?” the General asked.
“We talked a little while ago, you received 30 packages from me?”
“I’m listening,” the general said.
“Major attacks were in the process of hitting a lot of soft targets across the world. There is now a complex in White Sands New Mexico where all the bombers will be confined shortly. Elizabeth Day, WNN Reporter is already there and will be reporting on this all day. All of their bombs have been neutralized, they’re carrying Play-Doh instead of C4 or Plastique and they’ll be locked down inside a square mile wall of transparent aluminum. Make sure your vehicle operators know so they don’t crash into the walls. They’re buried pretty deep and a foot thick so they’re not budging. There are red flashing lights on all the walls so they should be able to easily tell where they are.
“Why are you calling me with this, I don’t handle…”
“General, 31 Aliens were headed to Earth to work at subjugating the planet. There are bigger concerns than military jurisdiction. On that note, convey to whomever you pass this task to that the Reporter in Switzerland. I’m watching all of you right now, Yes, I see the toothbrush in your hand that you’re now setting it down on the counter. Admiral Fitz has just turned to WNN news and is reaching for his phone, that should be him now. Remember, Switzerland,” Adam said as he ended his call and watched as General Cain answered the call from Admiral Fitz while turning on WNN
“This is Elizabeth Day, we are bringing you footage from the amazing events that happened in Paris earlier today. It seems that a man, whose identity is unknown, is thought to have wanted to blow himself up in the vicinity of 300 or more people that included 112 American students on vacation in Paris. Luckily the bomb did not detonate, and everyone was able to evacuate the bus and the area. As police were moving in, this happened,” Elizabeth said as the image shifted to a side view of the bus. The ground seemed to expand suddenly ad the bus fell through the hole and disappeared. The angle of view shifted again to show the bus falling through a hole in the predawn sky and landing on a bed of white sand. The image shifted yet again to the terrorist who bounced around inside the bus until a circle of metal appeared around his waist that was attached to a chain hooked to an eyehole on the floor of the bus.
The image refocused on Elizabeth with the Bus sitting on the sand below and behind her with the terrorist clearly visible and looking in her direction, “As you can see the terrorist is still locked down in the bus….”
Adam stopped listening to the broadcast and continued west. While he did so, he began to capture and divert the terrorist into the enclosed walls near Elizabeth after making sure to send a quick head s up of where the Terrorists had been, who, they’d been about to kill and who they were if he was able to figure it out before capturing them.
Elizabeth kept reporting.
Adam arrived at the base and looked at its progress. It was coming along and the extra portal machines and reactors he had put the nanites to creating. He also started opening portals to the inner planets and asteroid belts and dropping off nanites as fast as he could create them.
The Military arrived two hours after Elizabeth had started broadcasting. While Elizabeth was broadcasting a man came running into the building she was standing on and up to the balcony as he looked around yelling, “Shut down your equipment now!”
Elizabeth looked started, which played well for the camera while the Captain screamed and fell through a hole that deposited him exactly 20 feet above the pool at Holloman Airforce base which he promptly fell into. The two security airmen that had been following the officer stopped and looked at each other, then slowly backed down the stairs and returned to their helicopter.
Adam sent a text to General Cain and Admiral Fitz
Gentlemen, Elizabeth Day is Switzerland, I want her to report what she sees. The Captain is dragging himself out of the pool at Holloman AFB. The next time the portal will open somewhere a lot less comfortable. Think of the building as an inviolable embassy. When I’m done stopping terrorists I’ll be in touch -IFM
General Cain picked up his phone to call Admiral Fitz.
“Who does this asshole think he is?” Admiral Fitz asked angrily.
“No idea but if he is IFM then he has a vehicle that can travel from Mach 5 to Mach 10 in less than a second, can teleport, yes teleport. 30 people appeared out of thin air on the tarmac at Area 51…”
“And can see you wherever you are on the planet,” Adam had his nanites transmit into the conversation.
Both men were so startled they both dropped their phones
General Cain was the first to recover as he picked up the phone and put it to his ear, “Admiral Fitz, you still there.”
Admiral Fitz picked up his phone, looked around angrily then hung up. Adam could see that Admiral Fitz was one of those people that would need to be convinced. He didn’t have time for this right now.
Adam continued to work on the terrorist while he expanded his base. He didn’t have the kind of infrastructure he wanted and it was a race against the clock to try to get all of the terrorists captured with the few resources he had. While he was working on the terrorist issue, he also started having the nanites create a base under the surface on the back side of the moon, while he utilized another portal to reach out and spread nanites across Earth orbit to ensure he had a presence on the space stations and weapons platforms there. Adam went to work, doing the calculations and making sure everything went smoothly, while still working on the terrorist problem
Once he was back in his bunker started using Mold Chaos to create more and more nanites. He watched as Admiral Cain worked to get Admiral Fitz to stand down and how Admiral Fitz ordered a conventional cruise missile strike from a submarine in the Gulf of Mexico.
That was one step too far and Adam provided nanite camera footage of the order, the launch, and the missile getting within 500 feet of the target as a portal opened and it disappeared through it. Adam didn’t share that he’d opened the other end of that portal into deep space with a trajectory that would eventually have the cruise missile fall into the sun. The footage just showed the missile entering a dark portal.
Minutes after Terry broadcast the information to the world, armed security personnel rushed in and arrested Admiral Fitz by order of the President of the United States for use of ordnance without specific approval against a target on American soil. It seemed that General Cain could get things done if push came to shove. Adam watched a conversation between the General and the President but it didn’t amount to much, just the General’s conjecture that Adam wasn’t a threat to the United States and that they should try Diplomacy before trying to take action.
Adam also watched the rest of the world. The Russian and Chinese leaders were watching the WNN footage and contacting their scientists to see if what was happening on the News was possible. The scientists thought so, but they had no idea how to replicate what they saw.
Finally, at 6:35 p.m. every terrorist that had been part of the July 3rd and 4th planned attacks around the world was captured and sitting in the sandbox Adam had created. He didn’t give them any kind of comfort and the walls helped block any breeze. He let them sweat and soil themselves with little thought of mercy. Though he did supply water. No food though
Elizabeth on the other hand had a nice building she could retreat into when it became too warm, with fresh drinks of whatever she wanted. During a break, she’d sat down and had lunch. She’d asked Adam what she could have and he’d told her to say what she wanted. She had and watched as it formed before her eyes.
Now that the day was over and Adam had most of the solar system seeded with nanites he opened a portal near Elizabeth and stepped through. Elizabeth looked up, “Is that it?” She asked.
“That’s it for now,” Adam said.
“What are you going to do next?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m going to open a portal for you to get back with Terry, let the military round up the assholes on the sand over there, then I’m going to return this place to the sand,” Adam said.
“That easily,”
“There’s nothing easy about it but I’ll give you a hint, it has to do with the interface message you received on the 1st, Labyrinth LLC and me of course.”
“Labyrinth LLC, how are they…”
“Elizabeth, you’ve been here for twelve hours, time to head home. You have a number to call me. When you’ve had a shower, talked to your producers, talked with the FBI, who will ask you all about me,” he said, then paused as he plucked a hair from his head, and put it into a zip log bag that appeared in his hand. Offering the Ziplock bag that she took, he continued, “Give this to them when they ask if you have any DNA samples, it won’t help them but they can have my DNA. Anyway, time for you to be off, I’m sure we’ll talk again soon,” Adam said as he opened a portal into the production room at WNN in New York where Terry was in shouting into the phone,” Our numbers were how high?” Adam watched Elizabeth step through the portal with a smile on her face as she looked over her shoulder one last time before the portal closed.
The task of making himself a spectacle had been successful Adam was about to go acquire some funds from south of the border when something completely unexpected happened:
Quest System is now Active
You have received the Quest
Discover why Admiral Fitz ordered the attack on Elizabeth Day
Reward: Variable.
Adam looked at Quest in his messages and considered every possible reason a Quest could be generated if this were the real world. There were a couple of outrageous reasons he could think of, but they were just outrageous. Adam opened up his interface and contacted Hal.
Adam: Hal? How am I receiving quests in the “Real” world, with emphasis on the word “Real”?
Hal: The quest message came in through the new universal interface ability. It’s tied to it somehow.
Adam switched to his nanite interface and then did a search on the web for “Quests given through new Interface.” Millions of responses came back from the inquiry.
Adam: Okay Hal, it’s not limited to me, see if you can figure out what’s going on, you’re supposed to be the ability interface I can go to for these kinds of questions.
Hal: That is true. It is also true that you tend to blow up things, break things, and just plain muck up anything you interact with at some level.
Adam:…I’d argue but that’s fair. Let me know if you find anything, please.
When Adam didn’t receive a response he activate Obscure and Flight and flew off to the east, heading toward Norfolk naval station where the Admiral had seemed to have a mental breakdown and was under arrest.
Adam had kept track of Admiral Fitz and knew exactly where he was. He flew up into low orbit, above the atmosphere so the satellites wouldn’t detect him, and covered 1,700 miles in a moment. Once he was over Norfolk, he slowed down and descended to hover over the building the Admiral was in.
Adam watched the Admiral through the nanites in the room as he sent some of them into the Admiral’s body. He was expecting to find some form of brain damage or mental instability. What Adam was not expecting to find was a small worm that had nestled at the base of the Admiral’s skull and had nerve tendrils that reached up into the Admiral’s brain. Adam was also pretty sure the worm wasn’t something indigenous to Earth. A quick check through all sources he was connected to easily verified that the worm was something no one on Earth had ever seen before.
Adam sent out a mass order worldwide for his nanites to enter and scan all creatures looking for this parasite. Once the scan was done they were to withdraw unless they were rendering medical aid. It only took about 5 minutes for Adam to discover that the Admiral was the only being on earth with a worm like this inside him. Adam even had the nanites check the 30 Pelza Empire captives which also came up negative.
As Adam was hovering over the building his attention was drawn to the shoreline near a sidewalk where a being, because it wasn’t a man came up out of the water. He noticed it because his True Sight noted that the movement was being detected by reflected sound. The being was invisible to normal light. Adam watched as it moved closer and closer to the building the Admiral was in. It looked like a man but was thinner and had fins on its calves and arms. Adam tried to send his nanites into the being only to discover that his nanites could not.
As the Aquatic Man Creature came close to the building he walked right past a soldier that didn’t even react to his presence. His stealth capabilities must be extremely high. Adam floated down and came to hover ten feet behind the creature.
Just as the creature was about to step onto the steps that led up to the brig, he stopped and raised its nose to the sky, sniffing lightly before he turned, and a fountain of water sprayed up and into Adam’s general direction. Adam teleported behind the creature and tried to deliver a crippling blow only to find the creature dodging the attack as if he could see where Adam was and returned a roundhouse kick that should have knocked the air out of Adam if they’d been about equal in strength.
The only reason that Adam paused was because he had been surprised when the kick connected. He’d been far too overconfident and hadn’t been on the defensive at all. The creature was more surprised though when its leg snapped against Adam as if he were made of steel. Just as Adam was about press his attack. A cylinder of water replaced where the creature had been. The creature escaped as the water column sloshed to the ground and spread out. The guard that had been walking away turned and rushed back toward the sound and looked down at the soaked pavement then around as Adam slowly rose back up into the air.
Adam checked his Combat log to see if he could glean some information from it and found something he hadn’t expected.
Atlantean kicks Adam with High, Step 2 Strength.
Endurance Step 4 resists all damage. Damage reflected on the attacker.
The attacker’s leg takes High Step 2 Strength damage, Leg breaks.
Atlantean has activated Translocation ability.
Adam stopped reading his combat log when he reached the word Atlantean. He’d run into an honest-to-god Atlantean, what were the odds of that happening? Also, the Atlanteans were somehow tied up with subjugating the Admiral in some way. Why would they do that?
A chime sounded.
DING!
You have discovered why Admiral Fitz ordered the attack on Elizabeth Day
Congratulations you receive a Low-level reward.
Reward, You have received one Water Quintessence
That was unexpected, What was controlling this new quest system? Why was it giving out quintessence? Adam would need to figure that out, but he would have to do it later. Adam floated up into the air a little higher then focused on the Admiral and the nanites within him in his room. With laser focus and nanite precision Adam went to work removing the worm from the Admiral’s brain. He was relying on the information he had from his origin Universe but it would have to do. He would just have to hope the information was accurate and the nanites could keep the Admiral stable and alive.
The procedure took the better part of two hours but when it was done Adam copied the scans of the Admiral and wrote a note to the General.
“General Cain,
Admiral Fitz was being controlled by an alien organism. I just spent the last two hours removing it from him, Well sit down and discuss this all very soon. For now, the Admiral is sleeping in his cell.“
Adam sent the message off to the General’s encrypted email account.
Adam opened a portal beside him and stepped through into his bunker. It had been a long day, he was tired and needed some rest. Just as his head hit the pillow he received a message from, Hal.
Hal: The Interface ability has evolved and added the Quest System to itself. I do not believe it’s fully sentient but I do believe that the many connections it’s created throughout the Astral Plane are acting as Neurons and it is growing more intelligent each moment.
Adam: Well that idea hadn’t been all that outrageous after all.