I awakened floating in darkness. I lifted my hands and can see them but nothing else. I can’t remember how I got here but there is no sound or sensations just… blackness. Just as I prepared to try screaming, light erupts from massive lines of text floating in the darkness before me.
PRE-SCAN… INITIATED
SPECIES… 14C1..123.123DD3.5458A4F1
SUBSPECIES… F191FC0.0.A.2
INITIALIZATION… COMPLETE
INSTALLATION… INITIATED
The lines slid upwards and dissolved away as I tried to make sense of it all. Wave after wave of white diagnostic messages, yellow warnings, and red error codes sliding into the darkness.
PRIMARY SYSTEM… ENABLED
ERROR-006: SYNCHRONOCITY MISMATCH
CORRECTIVE ACTION… INITIATED
SECONDARY SYSTEM… ENABLED
RESCANNI-
ERROR-006: SYNCHRONOCITY MISMATCH
CORRECTIVE ACTION… INITIATED
TERTIARY SYSTEM… ENABLED
RES-
ERROR-006: SYNCHRONOCITY MIS-
ERROR-006: SYNC-
ERR-
My vision filled with red. That can’t be good.
ERROR RESOLUTION… PENDING
ADAPTIVE SYSTEM… INSTALLED
INSTALLATION… COMPLETE
A sound like wind rushing filled my ears. The darkness itself flowed past me as the final, ominous words dissolved away. A hole in the darkness opened at chest level. A vast, sucking force pulled me through. I’m slammed into a cold metal floor. I gasped for breath and trying to see through blurry eyes and a pounding migraine. Feeling metal at my back, I crawled to sit against the wall. The room I’m in was tiny, barely nine square feet and maybe eight feet tall. Rusted metal covered every surface, full of pitting, groves and symbols completely foreign to me.
What the actual fuck? I shouldn’t be here. I should be—The thoughts wouldn’t come. My headache is booming. I could practically hear every pulse thundering in my ears.
*bam*
*Bam*
*BAM*
I felt the last hit vibrate through the wall at my back before a section over my head dented in. The pounding isn’t just in my head. Something was trying to get into the room. I scurried to the opposite side looking for anything to defend myself with. There’s nothing.
A single line of blue pictographic symbols on a white background. [https://imgur.com/7hoMuU9.png]
Glowing symbols snapped into existence floating front of my vision made out of pale blue lines. I stared at them for a moment before they shift in and out of focus.
[ADAPTIVE FILTER]
Please Allocate Growth Vectors
The words have changed to English but meant nothing to me. It looks like a video game prompt but I’m not in VR. It’s all too real. I could taste the coppery metallic bite to the air. I could feel the vibrations slam through the floor. I needed to get out of this cage. I searched the walls for an exit. A small knob to the left of the dent in the wall lit up with the same pale blue glow as the letters. Writing appeared above it.
A single short line of right-aligned blue pictographic symbols on a white background. [https://imgur.com/CnM0Pn6.png]
[ADAPTIVE FILTER]
Hatch Release
As I reached for the knob, the force slamming into the metal wall breaches it. The metal screeches apart. A head the size of my whole torso slams through the gap, fangs snapping within inches of my fingers. I slammed my hand into the knob, praying the hatch release did something. The knob depressed under my fingers and the entire metal wall, head and all, jerks up. The wall was a door and as the hatch disappears into the top of the door frame, the front half of the creature’s head is sliced off by the sudden motion. It fell at my feet and the rest of the massive creature’s body tumbles to the ground on the outside. Light streamed through the entrance and I realize how dark my little chamber is. As I stepped around the head, a wall of text appeared, covering my vision.
Eleven lines of right-aligned blue pictographic text on a white background. [https://i.imgur.com/SlwVBYQ.png]
[ADAPTIVE FILTER]
Chrome Endovore [TL 48] Defeated!
Elevated Qualification Earned: Titan Slayer
Conditions: (Solo) Defeat a threat at least 25 levels above you
Apex Qualification Earned: Savant
Conditions: (Solo) Defeat a threat without any system features
See [Qualifications] for further information
3781543120 Potential Acquired
WARNING: Potential Limit Exceeded
Growth limited to 10 Threat Levels [Overseer 03 Authorized]
Please visit your nearest allocator to collect your reward
I swatted at the words. Seeing the the gibberish overlaid with English was only making my headache worse. The entire sequence read like some kind of post-battle reward screen. I glared at the wavering gibberish trying to will it away. Whoever designed the interface needed to be fired. The whole system was invasive and unhelpful.
[Intent detected. Adaptive Filter has been set to default. Messages minimized.]
Thank god, I thought as I stepped out of my cage and into a lit chamber. The room flashed and pulsed. I paused to take it all in. A round chamber made of the same rusted metal. Random sections of the walls lit and electricity popped and crackled through its surface. The only exit to the space? A large, open rectangle of gloom. A shuffling noise sounded out of the darkness and I scrambled back into my cage to hide from the next monster.
“We got a live one over here!” A voice called out nearby. A burly man in a dirtier version of my own grey outfit edged out of the gloom wielding a club made of some repurposed machinery and glancing around cautiously. “Come on out, I can see your life scans.”
I forward slowly, hands up. Something about the scenario felt familiar but the memory remained maddeningly out of reach. Hard light blinded me momentarily
“Hot damn, it’s a girl!” He shouted over his shoulder, a nasty smile forming.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, no problem at all.” He wiped his empty hand down his chest before offering it to me. “We just don’t see too many of you ladies make it through a solo cross. ‘Specially one so…” He jerked his head towards the massive corpse my feet. “Adventurous. Speaking of that, how’d you manage to take down the Splitjaws?”
I frowned back.
“Skip the ma’am crap. Call me…” I paused, frantically searching for a name. Only a single letter came. “Call me Tee. I don’t know what any of that means. Where… am I?”
“Welcome to Hell, Tee. Or as we call it round here, the ‘Logorinth.’”
Two more figures rounded the corner behind the greaseball, looking equally seedy.
"You seen the System yet?”
“You mean the floating words?”
Mephis grinned. “Words, huh? We got us a Beta or better.”
The man on the left who somehow managed to be mousy and over six feet tall let off a guffaw. “Nice! Respite’ll pay a hefty rescue fee for bringing her in.”
Alarms were going off and I pondered if I could climb back in the pod before they reached me.
“Relax, relax Tee. I’m Mephis and these are my crew, Tangler and Jay. Nobody wants to hurt you. You probably don’t remember much. Crossers never do. It’ll come back one little ache at a time. That’s what my nan used to say.”
“Okay Mephis, why don’t you boys stay over there and just clue me in a bit. A girl likes to know who she’s talking to, y’know?”
“Sure, sure.” Mephis tucked his club into a holster slowly and raised his hands like I was a wounded animal. I hated how it made me feel safer.
“First thing’s first. Whoever you were before, wherever you came from, this ain’t it. Nobody is really sure what this… thing… is but it’s not your world, and it’s not whatever time you came from. Follow so far?”
I nodded slowly. It’d all sound like crazy talk if not for the fucking monster at my feet.
“You? You’re what we call a Crosser. You came from some normal life and suddenly popped over here. Me and my boys? We’re Natives. We were born here but our families started from Crossers too. My nan was a Crosser. I get it.”
I started to ask a question but Mephis stopped me with a finger.
“Unless I miss my guess, that critter at your feet was your first kill. It’s called a Splitjaw and it’s a terrifying beastie. Still, the system’d have something shiny for you and you should check what it’s got. Go on and bring up your Interface.”
“How d—”
The thought alone snapped a glowing box into existence floating between us. I stepped back and threw my hand up.
[Interface Activated]
Name: Tee (Self-assigned)
TL: 10
Potential: 2047/2048 [Alert: Growth Limited 38:46]
Combatant Class: Unassigned [Alert: 9 Threat Levels Earned Classless]
Noncombatant Class: Unassigned [Alert: 9 Threat Levels Earned Classless]
Qualifications: 2 [ALERT: 2 Unexamined Qualifications]
“There it is.” Mephis grinned. “My favorite part of recovering Crossers. It’s all so bloody new to ‘em.”
“What is this?”
“So it’s visual? Good, good.”
Mephis weighed me from the other side of the display. I clammed up. Something wasn’t adding up. The way he studied my face. The way Mephis seemed happy I was seeing something. The glowing display. The weird symbols that turned into words. Mephis calling the creature a Splitjaw instead of an Endovore. A suspicion began to form.
“What should I be seeing right now?”
The goon on the left, Tee, “Some funky—“ Mephis waved him off.
“What do ya see?”
I stared back, letting the silence grow. Mephis waited with me.
“Some weird symbols. How am I supposed to read this?” I lied.
“Good, good, so you’re an Alpha-type.” Mephis said with a grin. “Don’t worry, nobody can read that crud when they get here. It’s Syslang and it’s a bloody headache. When I get you back to Respite they’ll sort you out and help you figure the ins.”
I was right, we don’t all see the same thing. I thought. What does alpha mean and why is that a good thing?
The cunning look was back in his eye.
“Say, mayways I could give ya a leg up. You draw me what the symbols look like, and I can give ya a hint or two about what it might say. I’m sure there are some nuggets after surviving a Splitjaw.”
He was right. The system blurted out something about qualifications before. With that thought, the display blinked.
[Qualifications]
Savant (APEX): Terminated a threat without system features
Authorization(s):
* Standard safety limitations may be voluntarily overridden.
Upgrade:
N/A
Titan Slayer (Elevated I): Terminated a threat 25+ Threat Level advantage
Authorization(s):
* 5% increased potential share from terminating any threat with a 5+ Threat Level advantage.
* One-time Elevated Cache rewarded [Collect at Fabrication Station]
Upgrade:
(25/100) Terminate threats with a 25+ Threat Level advantage.
Total threat level advantage must meet or exceed 100 Threat Levels.
“…so what to ya say. Tee? Want to draw some pictures for your ol’ pal Mephis?”
“I—“
“You don’t need to do that. Mephis, you know better.” A man interrupted, stepping out of the shadows behind them.
Mephis sneered. “I was just tryin’ to help-“
“-yourself. I know you, Mephis. And you know the protocols. Most valuable thing the girl’s got is in her menus and you’re trying to scoop it.”
Three more stepped out of the shadowed doorway behind him; another man and two women. Mephis and his thugs shuffled over. The tension was palpable.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
The man smiled back. It had none of Mephis’ oiliness. “Oh just fine. Just fine. Isn’t that right, Mephis?”
“Fuck you, Rhodes. I found her first. You aren’t stealing my finder’s fee.”
Rhodes raised his hand and tapped something in midair.
“System Oath: I, Rhodes St. Johns, affirm that I will report Mephis Cal’s finder’s fee for the discovery of a new Crosser named—“
He paused and waited for me.
“Tee.”
“—Named Tee, upon reaching Respite. I will make no attempt to delay or mislead anyone about this.” Rhodes said before paused. “There you go Mephis, you know where I’m at now. System'll confirm it for you. Now, why don’t you leave the delivery to me so that no more ‘accidental protocol breaches’ happen along the way?”
“No need for all that, Rhodes.” Mephis said, hands raised. “Me and my boys can deliver Tee safe and sound, by the book.”
“Uh huh, sure you can. Mind giving me a System Oath on that, just for peace of mind?”
Mephis glanced back at me before spitting.
“Fuck you, Rhodes. My word is good. You wanna do my work for me? Fine! Deliver the bloody chit yourself but you make sure to log my finder’s fee.”
Mephis gestured and his whole crew stomped their way back out into the shadowed hallway, leaving me behind.
“What was that all about?”
Rhodes shrugged. “Best case, maybe he thought he could pump you for some intel worth selling before dropping you off. Worst case, maybe he thought he could sell you off to the right folks.” I flinched and he held up a placating hand. “Probably not that last one after he heard me oath to report you.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Welcome to the Logorinth, Tee. It’s a fucked up world, and it’s all yours now.”