Rijohe

Rijohe was in an endless void for an untold amount of time. It was nothing but waves of black as he thrashed in a near eternal unconscious dreamless state. It at first seemed that this would be his permanent new reality until he was eventually able to open his eyes.

“Welcome back brood sibling,” his sister said to him smiling. She was in her winter outfit and her red symbiote gave him a sign of appreciation. Rijohe looked all around him extremely started. How was he back on Ultir? He had left years ago. This was impossible.

“Wait what is this? How am I here?” Rijohe asked with little strength. He felt over his body and was all there for the most part besides his symbiote. Somehow he was in his own nest in their main home back on Ultir. None of this made sense. The last thing he remembered was being rescued by Finik’s special forces.

“You were in a battle and got horribly injured. They decided to send you back to me,” his sister Jithila said with cheer as she tried to feed him some sarapela she had in a bowl. As he concentrated on his sister she went fuzzy for half a moment.

He shook his head in disbelief, his head was pounding in pain.

“Is something wrong brood sibling? You just need more rest. Everything will be just fine,” his sister said while laughing as he lost consciousness yet again.

****

Mind Games: 013

Completed.

Winner: Jon M.

Prizes: The AI of Kevin G, all earned skills of Kevin G. Command Minion Travel has been upgraded.

Congratulations! You are the first challenger to complete three Mind Games. Additional reward given: Tripotent Command.

Processing upgrades….

“Oh fuck!” I heard Jennifer’s pained yelling as I came out of the white room and ran into Kevin’s lifeless body with the shopping cart. Tea spilled everywhere as the room continued in its chaos.

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“Cure,” I managed to mumble to her before a staggering migraine hit me.

Hundreds of new links attacked my psyche as the weight of many more people were added to my legion. Hundreds of voices cried out in my head in confusion and it was becoming increasing difficult to tune them all out.

Mr. Beasley looked over at me in shock as he shook off the hobo comforter.

“Kid. Um I mean Jon. I’m sorry. I wasn’t myself,” Mr. Beasley said while putting his gun on the dirty table next to him. There was too much information coming in to even attempt a response. He needed to warp to Michelle as soon as possible the last thing he needed was for her to get caught. If only it wasn't so hard to think on top of the voices.

“Boss are you-“ George was walking over to me when I lost consciousness in the shopping cart.

****

Jennifer’s foot was slowly being put back together as she saw Jon pass out in the cart. She saw the giant hole closing and the veins reforming and decided she would start wearing steel toe boots from now on because this was both disgusting and traumatizing.

Jen? Hale thought to her.

Hey Hale what’s been going on while I’ve been gone? Jennifer thought back.

Hale somehow was able to send her emotions through their link with Jon. Warmth and gratitude and happiness.

I’m…I’m so glad. That was a close one friend Hale thought.

The Kevin man was a nightmare. He was a total control freak and kept talking about how Jennifer looked like a younger version of his mother. It was only a few hours but she never wanted to go through that hell again. Having no control over herself was really getting old. She continued thinking of all the people that were under his control and how life would now change for the small legion.

“Wait hold up he’s stirring he’s ok” Lonnie said checking on Jon.

“Julio help me up and let’s go check on the radio that’s what he's about to tell us to do anyway” Jennifer told the small man.

“Soooo this is weird,” Jon said in a voice that wasn’t his as he sat up in the cart and put his legs up to his chest.

“Bro why are you talking like that it’s weird,” Julio said as he helped to lift up Jennifer.

“Umm. Jon isn’t here for some reason this is Juli,” Jon/Juli said.

The room was shocked into silence. Even Mr. Beasley stopped stammering his apologies to everyone.

“….do you know when he’ll be back maybe?” Julio asked.

"Cindybot what's going on?" Jennifer asked hoping the AI would talk to her.

The small glowing woman now had a tiny AI ball of her own floating next to her head. Her face was open in shock just as much as anyone so this must have been new to her too.

"My guess is that was too much all at once for him to handle. His legion grew by twenty times its size, he got a new command, and some further upgrades. He's probably just processing it all?" the AI finally said.

I have the moped now I'm coming to you quick, Kendall thought to Jennifer.

"Its 2024 bro its ok if you want to be a girl you don't have to pull this, we love you anyway," Julio said as they went into the room with the radio.

"How mad would he be if Julio wasn't around when he came back?" Jennifer heard Jon/Juli ask Cindybot.

The radio in the cramped and dusty room read Baofeng in small letters and looked like a cell phone Jennifer had in the early 2000s. It was dead so they had to find new batteries which took awhile in all of the mess. Juli and Cindybot were discussing the upgrades Jon received in the other room while Lonnie and George tried to look for something to eat for lunch in the apartment. They finally found the spare back up battery and turned it on as they heard Kendall arrive in the moped outside.

"....hundreds of us....aliens....not under their control...." a woman on the other end of the radio said between static.

Julio grabbed the radio before Jennifer could do anything.

"Heyyyy mami" he said into the radio with too many y's in the end.

"Julio what the fuck" Jennifer yelled.