>> They All Fell Down

## Battle Mode :: [Offline]

## Trauma Inhibitor :: [Activated]

## Stimulating [endorphin] production.

Smoke pours upward. Burning a star of victory into the vast ceiling of the megaTower, high above the battle. Blood on the ground. Scraps of smoking fabric drifting across the chaos.

We lived. They didn’t.

That’s clear enough, as I stumble up the pile. My tongue wetting dry lips as I stare down at the mess that’s left. And, after a while, I breathe out. Reaching down to lift a charred fragment of collar.

Guess that's where he got the explosives.....

Blowing out a breath, I clatter and slip down the pile. Dodging shrapnel, busted weapons, and, well…. other bits. Bits of drones. Bits of people..... Demon doesn’t look up as I approach. Just leans, lightly, on one of the cars - pretending he ain’t as hurt as he is. Kami sat beside him, picking at her broken stealth-nodes.

“Badger?” I spin round. “Badger. Where are ya?” Silence. “HEY! BADGER! WE'RE LEAVING!”

Demon pushes himself, painfully, upright. “Peh’oh…. kah!" He spits in that weird language of his. "I shall…. be finding him....” He staggers away. Breathing hard. Limping. Eyes shifting and twitching through the near-manic overload of [battleStim].

I shiver. “Shit..... Hey! Hold on! Ya doin' okay? You wounded?”

“Tufty, I shall find also.” He inflects. Pointing up.

“Hang on, I'm the damn medic. I ought'a take a look. Could be-”

"I am fine." He grunts. Disappearing between the wrecks. Leaving me to spin on the spot. Blinking at Kami.

"Uhhh.... Are you..... They got you pretty hard too."

"I'm fine. Armour took it." Our [Sniper] hurls a fractured node away. “Just…. bruised. Through my suit. That bastard. Barely-” She winces, hugging her middle, and hissing. One metal arm hanging limp. “Shit….. I’ll…. bloody go with him. Damnnit.”

She spits blood, and hobbles off after.

Leaving me alone with the Carrier.

“Damn…..” I breathe. "Just....."

“Hey, uh…. mate. You doing good?” Zip’s digital ghost hesitates. Glancing after em.

“More or bloody less. No real damage.” I mumble, fretfully. Eyes still on a swivel as I itch the side of my neck with a claw. “Any more assholes? Or that it?”

Zip winces, letting out a nervous laughs. “Beats me, mate - but I bloody hope not. That last one…. I mean….”

“Yeah….” I breath out. “Damn, that was rough.”

“I know, right?” He lets off a wan laugh. “Like, damn. They nearly kacked our pilot. Thought I was gonna have to, like, walk home or something. Y'know?”

“Har har har.” I scoff, punching his avatar’s shoulder. “Y’mean ‘valiantly rescue us’?”

“Oh yeah. Yeah, that. Totally.” He smirks back, acting fake shifty.

“Uh huh?”

“Yeah! Cross my heart, and hope to - like - explode or something?”

“Sure.” I snort.

But we both know he’d be right in there after us. Armoured up, and solo. Even if it’s the exact opposite of what he’s ordered to do. Especially if we’re caught by The School.

Bad thoughts that he's fobbing off with worse jokes.

“Right.” I chuckle, patting the Carrier. “Welp. Guess there ain’t nothin’ for it then. Gonna have to abandon this hunk o junk.”

“WHAT!? Mate!!”

“I mean nab it.” I snort. “Your bleedin’ face.”

“Man. Spook. That was…. That was mean.” He huffs. “Like, I’m already out near my entire force here. Right?”

“Right. Right.” I cackle, inspecting the busted hatch. “Never thought you’d suicide a drone, t’be honest.”

“Yeah..... For a bigger drone I might?” He hesitates. “It kinda hurt though. Know what I’m saying?”

“I get yah.” My claws poke about in the panel. “Hey. Think we can grab their other van, too? We could sell it, if nothin’ else.

Zip laughs, then winces. “Ah. Yeah, about that….” A distant thud of engines perks my ears - a rising note, revving louder and louder. A hammering of horns. A clapping of bent pipes and blasting music. Rising, slowly, to filter in through my post-battle shock.

“Oh…. HELL. Scabs. Looters. Shit….. Must’a heard the battle…..” And now it’s gone bloody quiet….. Like they’ve stopped their engines. Like they’ve found the van…. My head snaps toward the Carrier. “Better make this quick…. Real quick.” I hesitate. “Any way to turn it on?”

“Oh, yeah, like! Yeah! L-like that’s easy!” Zip panic-squees, eyes lighting with a brilliant mania. “You just, gotta, like, uh…. Yeah! Gotta hit that button in the panel! There’s one to start, and- no! The other one! Yeah! That’s it! Good to go!”

I jerk back as the power thrums. Drone-shutters clattering in a menacing way. The Carrier itself shuddering, gently and lifting itself from the rubble. Zip’s drones feeding me live video of gangers rocking the Wayman trucks. Yelling and dancing about.

Distracted. For now.

“Welp. Here I bloody go. Watch my back, yeah?” The cable clunks as it enters my skull, and I shut my eyes. Praying the looters don’t end up as 'part two' of our problems….

## Activating :: [neuroJump].

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

My consciousness jerks free of my body, and I plunge back into the Carrier. Dropping into a ruined cockpit, to face that glitching - broken - eye. Dark oil still leaking from its shattered surface. The thing twitches around to face me, and stares for far too long.

Silent, and unseeing.

This time, I feel the shifting of Polybius as it begins to crack. Systems crumbling as the core AI is murdered by our eerie, mechanical, friend.

Broken down. Dissolved. Washed away.

Yet still it stares at me. Blind, yet somehow accusing.

“Sorry.” I whisper. Though I know it’s not conscious. Or alive. Not really. Not like Polybius. It’s just a program, I tell myself. Ones, and zeros, and whatever. But the deletion of something with a voice, and almost a face, twinges my insides - enough that I look away.

Seeing it in fractions, as the inner core bleeds its thick, black, blood.

Cut apart by cogs, and silently hollowed out - right before me.

Forced to witness it, by the simple fact that Polybius needs my implant.

The outer sections peel off. Then the inner. Dissolving into digital dust, and washing away into nothing. Soon, the eye is gone. Then, even the cockpit begins to break apart. The chair. The icons. All of it dissolving away.

Silence covers the void, as I hang there in stillness.

Darkness upon the face of the earth.

Null, and without purpose.

But then….. a seed, planted deep in the emptiness. A tiny star, that unfolds into a simple, basic, interface. Loading drivers. Control systems. A rudimentary remote-control interface designed, almost, for a games controller.

No AI. Nothing else.

Pol loads a user profile. And that’s it.

Suddenly I’m back on the ground outside. Blinking up at the grand ceiling, high above.

And a highly exultant Zipper.

“Pol! Mate! Like, you’re, like - a TOTAL God of Hacking!” The blue-haired avatar breathes in shuddering excitement. Twirling that van-sized Carrier this way and that - and dragging me with it on the end of the cable. Waggling its fins, guns, gyros, and other stuff I never had direct control over. Like it’s part of him. His own body. “Mate! Mate! I’m never gonna forget this! I swear!”

“Yeah, yeah.” I yank the cable, feeling a little shaky. A little..... “Just don’t try 'trading up' again. Don't want ya rammin’ it into the back of any battleships, hoping a panel’ll pop.” My ears flick back toward the brick-pile. Toward the revving engines. “Hey, c’mon. Let’s get it someplace safe so we can strip the trackers. Eh?”

“Right! Right!!” Zip whoops, and the damn thing lifts off vertically. His eyes close. His arms raise. And support drones spew from its sides in a thundering tsunami of tiny, whirling, blades. Instantly spreading. Splitting up. Testing themselves, running backwards and forth, even as others strip the battlefield dry.

By the time the Carrier hits the end of the street, there’s barely a damn thing worth taking. Though half of it has to be carried on behind by Zipper’s new airforce.

“Jeepers.” I shut my mouth, and shake my head. “I saw ya delete it myself. But….. Seriously…? No AI? No interface?”

“Correct.” Polybius says softly. “Every drone is controlled individually.”

“Dammn…..” I breathe. “How many even is that….?”

“Including the cores he’s salvaging, sixty-five.”

I almost shiver. “That is fundamentally not bloody human.”

“He is a Demi GMO.”

“Yeah. Cause I’m real good with drones.” I snort back. “I can control, what? One at once?”

“You controlled five turrets at once.”

“Nah. I controlled one at once, and I had five. Plus they weren’t bloody flyin’. Big difference.” I lean back to stare up at them. “Zipper is somethin’ bloody else.”

“Aw thanks mate! Like, I knew you cared!”

“Piss off Zip! You multi-tasking mother-fu-!”

“WOO! Spook! Is that ours now!?” Badger yells from about elbow height, dancing about and oooing at the huge Carrier. Which I guarantee he’ll be putting jammy fingerprints all over.

“Yeah, squirt. That’s all ours. Well, uh…. Zipper’s…..” I hesitate. “Hey. Yeah! I’m bleedin’ mad at you! You bleedin’ ran off!”

Badger jumps a full mile in the air. “YAAAAAAA!” He ducks into a full-body cringe, then leaps back to ‘playing it totally casual’. Which, for him, means laughing maniacally. “Uhhhh? I mean….. whaaaat boooommmb???”

“Oh boy…...” I facepaw. “You’re so bleedin’ bad at lying, it’s adorable.”

“Woo! Pity Points!” He cheers.

“That’s not a good thi-!!” My other hand joins the first. “Badger. Just tell me. What the bleedin’ heck happened earlier? I told ya to stay hid!”

“I did!” He puffs up proudly, revealing the many ‘hidden’ bulges under his shirt.

“Not from me! You-” Deeep breaths. Deep breaths, Spook. “Badger. Did you filch that pipebomb off my armour?”

"PIPE-" The kid yelps loudly, slaps his one hand over his mouth, then laughs nervously. “Ummmmmm……? NooOOOOoo??”

My ear tilts up. “‘Um yeah’, ya mean?”

“Uhhhhhh…… I mean….. Uhhhhh…..” He prattles in guilty panic. Grasping the air, one-handed, like he’s hoping it’ll pop outta nothing.

So I oblige - creating a virtual copy.

“Heeey! That’s my- UH!! I MEAN-” He erupts into a sudden fit of embarrassed coughing giggles. Rubbing his puffball hair, and looking away. “Uhhhhh? Hahahah…..”

“So you did nick it.” I growl. Resisting the urge to pull the video outta his implant.

I wanna hear him say it.

“Uhhhhhh…… Nooooooooooooooo?” The kid suggests, in a very slow ‘spinning for time’ voice. “Uh…..”

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow. “Well. If it weren’t you, who was it? Huh?”

“Uhhhhhhh……” The kid sweats. Foisting me with his biggest, most panicky, smile ever. With just the cutest lil chipped tooth. “OOOH!!! Maybe one of the pirates snuck up behind you, and (yeah, uhhh….), stole it?? YEAH!!!”

“Uh huh?” I raise an eyebrow.

“RIGHT! RIGHT!” He leaps. “And maybe it started beeping??”

“Mmmm—hmmm?”

“SO THEY THREW IT OUT THE WINDOW!!!” He yells, with much flailing. “And it made a HUGE KABOOOOM!!!!!!!”

“Badger.” I sigh. “I know it was you.”

“Wha!? Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?” Badger gasps in very convincing shock. “Yahaha! Spook! HAHAHA! You know I wouldn’t-!”

“Badger….” I rub my face. “I never bloody told you it exploded.”

“AH! Nahahah! I mean!” He laughs, hair frizzing harder as that hand starts to generate actual static off the back of his head. “Yeah, uhhhhhhh! I was just guessing! Cause it’s obvious! Yeah! Coz that’s what I’d do!" He catches himself yet again. "IF I DID IT! Yeah?”

“Really? And what else would ya do…. if you did it?” I prompt.

“OOH! Well I’d pack it with EXTRA BOOM to TEACH THEM A LESSON!!! YEAH!!! POW!! AND ADD ON SOME MORE! WEEE!!!!” He squeals in mad, pyro-crazed, laughter - waggling so hard he nearly falls over. “IT’D BE SUPER MEGA BRUTAL!!!” He coughs suddenly. "UH! I mean, uh! I bet that's what happened!! Yeah!!!"

“Y'do huh?” I lean down, poking at his shirt. "Cause that sounds an awful lot like what happened."

"IT DOES!?" Badger gasps, like he's been let off the gallows.

"Oh yeah." I smirk. Poking harder. "Almost like you was there."

"REALLY!?" He beams in relief. "Wow! I gotta be super good at guessing!"

"Yeah." I smirk. "That..... Or you're the 'Pirate'."

Badger makes a choking noise. "Uhhh....."

"I mean...." I add, in the tone of one offering extra rope. "Unless ya saw who threw it up that hill....?"

“OOH! YEAH I SAW…..” Badger stops like he got punched in the guts. Eyes widening. Stuttering off into nothing. "Saw a....?" He gasps out, as if fighting for breath. Lips moving. Eyes fixed on nothing.

"Badger!?" I reach for him, and jerk back. Like I was scolded. "Badger!?!?"

"Um......" He mutters in a very different, distant, sort of voice. Hands dropping. “Uhhhh…..”

I blink. “You..... saw where the bomb went, right?”

“Dunnoo…..” He slurs, actually confused. “Yeah. I….. I dunno? I…..”

My medic training kicks in, and I peer right into his eyes. Pupils seem normal. Pulse elevated. Breathing elevated. "Hey, shortie? You alright?"

"....yeah.....?" He frowns again, then beams at me. "YEAH!"

I lean back. "Then.... Ya saw it explode. Right? I heard ya laughing.” I tilt my head, and crouch a little. “Didn’t ya?”

He blinks those big, questionably innocent, chocolatey eyes at me. “Saw what…..?”

“The…..? The blast....?” I prompt. To more blinking.

Badger looks away. Looks back. Then splits hugely cheesy grin with a cute lil chipped-tooth. “Uh….. what're we talking about?”

I rock back, like it was my turn to get punched. “What….? The bomb. The…. the bomb I took off ya? The one ya threw at those guys? During the fight?”

He stares at me blankly. Like a totally, utterly, different Badger got swapped in. “Um….. Uhh….. What fight???”

“What….” My insides do a flip. “The fight. Just now…..”

He shakes his head. Totally confused. Actually confused. Like he’s not making stuff up at all. Like…..

Like he just….. suddenly…. forgot.... everything.

Or learnt how to lie.

“Badger…?” I start, but the boy just beams at me hugely. “OOOH! LOOK! IT’S TUFTY!!!!” He cheers - waggling and smiling as he rushes to grab a sad kitty and spin him about. Asking where he was, and what’s going on.

Leaving me to stare. Open mouthed.

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