Maxi woke up on a chair in an office but not heaving for breath like she had on countless occasions during her brief but manic time at the company. She hadn’t died. She knew what death felt like and had her fair share of it. She couldn’t remember how many times she died. She had been gassed, gored, and even almost burnt by Belinda. However, that time she was protected from the flames by a slime that was digesting her.
Coming back from the dead, or at least being reconstructed by a chair felt like what she imagined being struck by a powerline must feel, a jolt snapping her awake in an instant. She woke up in a fog that had the sensation like she may still be in a dream. She had been… knocked out… by something. She wasn’t sure. All she could remember was running down the stairs and then… maybe it was a dream.
But she could see Yancy, the abysses for eyes, the vacant stare. One, two three, each step echoing in the stairway, bringing him closer to her. Four, five, six, he was almost upon her. Seven, eight, and he was there, tilting his head, leaning toward her, and… she had woken up, here. In… where was she again?
Her mind rose from the depths of her subconscious, and back into reality, Yancy forgotten. The office was sparse, intimidating. There was a massive desk that seemed to be there to make the person in the chair she was currently using feel small. The lack of decorations or personalization also made the place seem intimidating. The lone piece of art was a rickety old time sailing ship in a tumultuous sea that seemed like it was about to be engulfed by a wave.
She was about to explore the doorways leading from the office when she heard the entry open behind her, and footsteps confidently thud their way toward her. Her heart pounded for a moment from a barely remembered dream. She reached for her weapon but realized that other than her legendary yellow shirt, she was unarmed.
The figure walked past her and sat at the desk. She was wearing a bodysuit that seemed to be entirely made of shadow underneath trenchcoat and fedora. Cassidy West starred at Maxi. The woman was ranked 1.2, and the leader of the Paranormal Investigator Branch. She reminded Maxi of an actress who always played high powered lawyers or fashion empire mogul. The woman could permakill Maxi without breaking a sweat.
“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Maxi said. “The whole terror dictator/mob boss is so you.”
Maxi didn’t know what part of her enjoyed poking bears so much, but there was something satisfying to her that kings and queens rotted in the same earth, shat in the same toilets, and was the same squishy, sometimes crunchy depending on the monster size, sacks of flesh that everyone else was.
Equality was never more apparent than the immutable fact that even if the monarchs of the modern era built castles made of concrete and glass, death would claim them in the end. Even their structures built to outlast them in death would change ownership, names, and even be torn down for whichever new ruler took their spot. No one could cheat death, even with resurrection chairs. While accidental death may be a thing of the past, the body still gave out eventually.
Maxi supposed if she thought about it, she felt people in positions of power were too often worshiped merely for being where they were over what they did. As far as Maxi knew, the PI branch only took quests when it would make them look good. She felt they were fighting monsters for the prestige and credits and saving people was a byproduct of what they did.
While Cassidy wasn’t the driving force behind the company’s culture of worshiping money over improving humanity, the woman was in a position to do something about it and yet Maxi’s scrappy little team in their short time has had more shouts and thank yous than the PIs. Instead of treating her as an ally with a good idea, the PIs have done nothing but get in the way.
From filing quest disputes to have the rewards her team earned transferred over their branch, to barging in on a situation they had handled and making the collateral damage worse, Maxi felt like they were actively trying to hamper her team when they could have been out there saving people from monsters.
The company was so short staffed that Branches that weren’t normally combat orientated like IT and Accounting were taking more quests suited for a Sales Associate or a PI. Maxi had no time for someone like Cassidy who could have been making a difference, but instead was just her influence to shore up her power.
Cassidy chose to ignore Maxi’s remark as no psychic tendrils came out to teach Maxi her place. Instead the woman said, “The painting was your mom’s. I decided to keep it. It adds an ambience to the room.”
Maxi could feel her heart sink out of her chest. She knew her mom was important to the company, and that she was 1.1, but they never talked much about her class. Tara had done such a thorough job of erasing her past that even now that her secret was out in the open, Maxi had to pry answers out of her mom.
Being that Tara earned her retirement, Maxi respected her mom’s privacy in the matter, and figured that if the woman wanted to dredge up memories that include the death of her grandparents and most likely Maxi’s dad that Tara would tell them on their own time. While their relationship had gotten better since Maxi had found out the truth, there was still a lot left unsaid.
Speaking about everything else but their feelings was how it had always been with Maxi, even growing up. When she had found out her best friend kissed a boy that she was interested in, Maxi never told her friend or the guy how it had made her feel. Instead, Maxi had acted out and took her frustrations out on her mother as teens tend to do, but never once did she tell her mom either about what she was going through.
Even now, where she felt like she could tell her anything. She didn’t. Instead, she talked about all the victories at work, questions about particular beasts or comparisons like how the cafeteria had changed from a dismissal place of despair to the hip hub of employee fraternization it was today.
Their conversation never once went to their feelings, or the past that her mom kept locked up. When Maxi first learned that her mom was 1.1, she was upset, confused, and had a hard time handling it. Now that she learned her mom was a PI and the head of the PI Branch, it made her sad. How could what her mom built turn into what the PIs were today? Or was her mom part of that cult worshiping money and power, and the death of her dad was the thing to snap her out of it?
Maxi had many questions, but she didn’t think Cassidy was here to talk family history nor banter as the leader of the PIs said, “Von Patrick gave you a quest.”
“Yeah,” Maxi said, curious about where it was going. Most of her interactions with Cassidy involved “stay in your lane” conversations.
“How much did he tell you?”
“Company secrets can get a person terminated.”
“Not when they are both on the same quest,” Cassidy said, and after a moment of her eyes glazing over with the implant interface, a notification appeared on her screen:
Cassidy West has shared screen shot with you:
Maxi opened the file with a tap on her phone, and she saw a screen that had a listed current quests accepted by Cassidy. It was quite extensive and all of them were blurred out except for one: A favor for Patrick Von Patrick.
“50,000 credits seem like a waste of your time.” Maxi said, “Doesn’t picking up a quarter off the street cost you more in terms of credits per hour then you’d gain by grabbing the money.”
Maxi read somewhere once that certain billionaires would have to find a thousand dollar bill on the street to make it worth their time in terms of calculating their hourly pay and then dividing it by the time it would take to pick it up off the street. She assumed that the Power Twelve were all akin to billionaires, maybe even with more wealth than the people appearing on the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world.
However, like any wealthy person, it wasn’t like they had that money in cash. There was no vault where rich people would dive into a pool of cash like certain cartoon ducks were known to do. Their money was all tied up in business ventures or companies. Maxi wondered how much money was real or just a line item on a company book.
A billionaire buying a yacht or a multimillion dollar home assumed they would be able to sell the object and thus counted towards their wealth, but it was all an illusion. If no one wanted to buy the yacht or the home, it was effectively worthless. If grutomatons caused the world to go postapocalypse, playthings of the billionaires wouldn’t have as much value if any. She imagined Cassidy’s wealth was measured in the same way. She probably owned a set of equipment that wasn’t usable to anyone but a PI of her rank and level, so even if she did want to sell, there wouldn’t be a buyer.
“Rewards only increase with level and tier,” Cassidy said. “But I didn’t take this quest for the money. Believe it or not, I care about what happens to this company. Your mother was a patriot and a credit to her class. It’s a shame she lost sight of the mission.”
“Lost site of the mission?” Maxi said. “Lost sight of the mission? If the company focused less on bureaucracy and more on fighting monsters–”
The bear decided to show its teeth, and Maxi felt the psychic tendrils cut her off before she saw them. Two tentacles of energy sprung from Cassidy’s body and wrapped around her so quickly that Maxi’s brain took a while to process what she was seeing.
“The company will go out of business otherwise,” Cassidy said. “You haven’t seen what’s out there.”
Maxi had heard this argument before, maintain the status quo because the alternative was worse. It was the same bullshit that political parties would spout when anyone with a good idea for a change came along and threatened their pocket book.
Maxi felt the tendrils loosen.
“I didn’t bring you here to talk politics,” Cassidy said.
“So that was you in the stairwell?”
“My operatives, yes.”
“You could have asked us to come.”
“They heard a noise and thought you were more grutomatons.”
“Are Daisuke and Belinda safe?”
“They are in a waiting room, they are fine.”
“And my pet?”
“Yeah, about that. You know you can’t tame grutomatons.”
“I did.”
“Anyone with the skill can do that. The virus degrades their brains. It will turn on you.”
“Sounds like my problem, not yours.”
“I’ll be sure to send you PIs when it happens,” Cassidy said with a false smile.
Maxi ignored the comment and said. “So what about Von Patrick’s quest? I don’t think this is an Avengers/Hydra teamup?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“No, this is more a warning. Has he shared with you the list of people who had access to the server room?”
“Yeah, but this whole lockdown thing has kinda been occupying my time.”
“The lockdown is connected. The grutomaton cages, opened by someone with computer access. What you don’t know yet is that same person also tried to trigger the containment protocols.”
“Containment protocols?”
“The entire building is vaporized in a contained nuclear blast. Much more pleasant way to permadie than the napalm equivalent they used to use. Vaporization doesn’t feel like anything. You are there one moment. Gone the next.”
“But what about safeguarding the Earth?”
The containment protocols are more about safeguarding the multiverse. The Earth will already be lost at that point.”
Maxi tensed. Had the virus spread?
Cassidy continued. “The Earth is fine. The grutomatons let out of the cages are contained. PIs are doing a floor by floor sweep to mop up the rest. The real worry was how close we all came. The containment protocols can only be triggered when seven of the power twelve vote or permadie.”
“You’re connected to a bomb? Isn’t that something Upper Management decides?” Max said. Upper Management were the mysterious figureheads of the company, but Maxi never saw them, nor did they ever intervene. Maxi wondered if they were just a fiction created by the Power Twelve to deflect the fact that they really ran the company.
But her mom had told her otherwise. “Upper Management exists,” Tara had said. “But they leave most of the governing to the Branch leaders. The only time they intervene is when it’s a matter of interdimensional law, like when we are about to lose a raid.”
Cassidy considered Maxi for a moment and said, “How much do you know about Earth religions?”
“I know enough that there’s a lot of them and everyone is convinced that they’re right.”
“But can they all be right?”
“Yes? No? Maybe? I don’t know. I never studied much theology.”
“Our world is secular.”
The way Cassidy said “ours” implying kinship because they happened to escape from the same dead world grated on Maxi, but she decided to hold her tongue. As much as she enjoyed poking the bear, this was the first time Cassidy was opening up to her even if it was just a crack. While Maxi knew the woman would never be a friend, they were on the same team, even if the members were playing by a different set of rules where she didn’t agree.
“That explains Present Day,” Maxi said.
“Quite right, but what is religion? Is it truth?”
“People believe it to be truth.”
“But they all can’t be right. Some believe in one god and others many. How can those coexist?”
“I mean we wait in the same drive through lines. Shit in the same toilets. We haven’t nuked the world over ideological differences so far,” Maxi shrugged. “Are you getting to a point? Because it seems we have more pressing issues going on.” Okay, maybe she’ll poke the bear just a little. If she wanted pseudo philosophical bullshit, she’d sign up for one of Swami Robinson’s meditation classes.
“The point is,” Cassidy said, annoyance finally cracking on her face. “that religion is just another version of storytelling. Whether it’s a true story or not is irrelevant. People believe that it’s true so they live according to the tenets of their beliefs. Some stories are so powerful, so persuasive that they don’t need to be true to alter people’s behavior. Need people to be nice to each other. Tell them a story about scale in the afterlife that will weigh their deeds or an angel with a book that decides who gets admission into heaven and who goes straight to hell. So how do you keep a company full of people who are so powerful, they could overthrow the United States government with breaking a sweat? How do we keep Sledge from deciding to be dictator for life and stipulating that singles combat will decide the next ruler?”
“You’re saying Upper Management is fake?”
“I’m saying that people tell stories about powerful beings who interfere in the realm of mortals. What’s to say that Zeus and the entire pantheon isn’t just a story of powerful players from another dimension who traveled to Earth long ago?”
“I thought the company didn’t establish themselves until the 80’s.”
“Yes that is true, but interdimensional travel has always been a thing, it’s just easier with elevators.”
“But what about the intermediaries to Upper Management? Isn’t there people telling you how high to jump?”
“Yes, even the Power Twelve has to answer to the intermediaries, but how do I know that they aren’t just powerful player from another dimension?”
“Are you say there is no one steering the ship? The whole company is run by middle managers? No offense,” Maxi said.
To her surprise, Cassidy chuckled, and said “None taken. The point is that when an intermediary shows up in person, I can tell that they are much higher level than me, even Izzod.”
Izzod was the head of the Janitorial Branch, and probably the single most powerful person in the company, and probably on Earth. If the rumors were true, a janitor could rule the world if they wanted too. However, Maxi wasn’t sure what Izzod did all day. She never met the guy.
Cassidy continued, “The point is that whether or not there is Upper Management, or just powerplayer from another dimension taking a cut of our profits, I wouldn’t know. But I do know that the story of Upper Management is powerful. People create religions to feel like there is someone in charge, so that if our aunt dies in a car accident we can assign meaning to the event rather than a shitty roll of the dice.”
“Okay, I get you. Upper Management may be just a story so people don’t freak out that no one is steering the boat but what does this have to do with Von Patrick’s quest?”
“You figured out the conspiracy to throw the raid last month. You’re a smart girl. Figure it out.”
“Why not just tell me! What’s with all the cryptic bullshit?” Maxi said, frustrated. Then added a sarcastic remark that turned into a serious question. “Jeez, Maxi. I’m pretty sure Upper Management doesn’t exist, and some powerplayers in another dimension are just siphoning off some of our profits. It’d be nice if you check out this person because I’m pretty sure they are the reason this is all happening. So why me? Can’t PIs chase down this lead? They like getting in the way of my quests.”
“Your team has been known to get in the way of quests too. I know we will never see eye-to-eye about the best way to keep Earth safe. I haven’t changed my belief that you are hindering the PI efforts to handle monster attacks by charging in to be the first people across the finish line, but I’m willing to put aside my differences to work together in order to solve a more pressing issue of someone with internal access attempting to override our safety protocols which is a threat to all of us.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“I have my suspicions but the more important question is why?”
“Who has a god complex that’s willing to risk the fate of humanity, for what? Power? Prestidge? Wait, you don’t think it’s a person auditioning for a job in one of the less reputable interdimensionals?”
There were companies in the multiverse that made hers look downright humanitarian.
Cassidy smiled, “That’s why I think we made the mistake with you. A job audition is a lead I’ll have to follow that I didn’t think about till now. For what it’s worth. I think we made a mistake on failing you from the PI trials.”
“You…” Maxi didn’t have a word to say. She felt bad about being mean to Cassidy, not that she would join the PIs now if she had the chance to do it over again. She preferred her hodge podge group to anything the company could offer.
“With that being said. I still think you are reckless and are on a collision course with disaster. My regret is that I couldn’t mentor you.”
“You’re trying to compliment me or pick a fight?”
“We both know who’d win that fight.”
Maxi shrugged, smiled, and met her gaze without backing down. While Cassidy could run circles around her now that wouldn’t always be true, at least if Maxi had anything to do with it. Training and leveling were still the goals, but not so she could humiliate Cassidy. Perhaps that’s what Cassidy was doing now, showing just enough sympathy but turning around and being a hardass to give Maxi a reason to fight.
That showed what Cassidy thought of herself. The woman clearly felt so self important that she thought Maxi was motivated by being in competition with her. The truth was Maxi never thought about Cassidy at all. The woman was no more a part of her thoughts than a handhold on a familiar staircase. Maxi would notice the cool touch of metal, maybe a chip of paint that grew over the years, but she wouldn’t think of it beyond her trek up the flight.
Cassidy was so used to being worshiped as one of the Power Twelve that she must assume everyone spends some portion of their day adoring her or plotting her demise. While Maxi was sure it was true to some extent that people with Cassidy on the brain would flock to her, Maxi wasn’t one of those people.
She thought about Cassidy about as much as she thought about the billionaire tech moguls that ruled the NPC world, somewhere as close to zero as one could possibly get. But Maxi didn’t worship at the altar of power and wealth. She knew deep in her heart that it was a matter of circumstance that put people in their place. Had a business leader with the same gumption and drive grown up in a war torn country, would they be a warlord and something to be reviled? Or would they be too traumatized by their childhood to do anything but chase phantoms in a mental hospital?
Inversely had one of the NPC tech moguls taken a different class in college or met the love of their life early on, or not had that inspiring teacher, would they still be who they were or would another person taken their place who had the same idea but was maybe a month or two late to the finish line? Maxi could just as easily imagine a world where a young software developer was spending so much time with their significant other that someone else beat them to their world changing big idea.
Maxi didn’t believe that one great person could change history, but that history trudged forward regardless of who benefited or was crushed by it. All the great people could do during the march of time was decide if they wanted to make the world better for themselves or better for others because the two were not always mutually exclusive. In order to make it better for others, she had to become a great person herself.
She laughed.
Cassidy’s forehead creased for a moment. Whether it was confusion or anger, Maxi couldn’t tell, but that only made her laugh harder. Cassidy sent out a tendril of psychic energy to constrict Maxi, but it wasn’t violent. More like a gentle squeeze that increased to the point of being uncomfortable. The mirth settled in Maxi’s system like a welcomed blanket on a cold morning. While Cassidy’s attempt to throw her off balance didn’t cause her unease if that was the intention, it did help Maxi focus.
Cassidy released the energy and said, “Are you finished now?”
“Yeah,” Maxi said. “Oh, while I have you. I wanted to ask. I’ve been finding these lately.”
She pulled out the flier with the shadowy figure in a top hat. Cassidy looked it over and said, “We have too, but the link is broken.”
“Von Patrick was interested in it.”
“Von Patrick was interested in a lot of things. It’s probably just remnants of the conspiracy you uncovered.”
“I haven’t seen them around till now.”
“People plan marketing materials in advance all the time. Do you think retail stores make their Christmas catalog in December? They probably do it in summer, hell spring, I don’t know. The point is someone could have made this flier and programmed it for distribution at a later time.”
“But that means someone who was part of the conspiracy is handing it out.”
“Not necessarily. It could be an unwitting mail carrier and told to deliver at a certain time or a computer virus set to print it out. It could be someone we missed from Farhad’s analysis, or something else all together. All we know is the link no longer works, and the most likely reason is people responsible for it have probably already been taken of. But do you know what hasn’t been taken care of?”
“What?” Maxi said.
“The breach in the server room that caused the Monster Holding failure. Most of the people in the server room recently have good reasons to be there being employees whose jobs involve going into that room. Others don’t seem like a threat, but we are still following the leads after what happened with Yancy. That leaves one name on the list who potentially is a threat, Daisuke Hax.”
“Daisuke? What would he be doing in the server room?”
“I thought you could tell me.”
“He never went down there, as far as I know.”
“Has he been acting strange lately?”
“Something’s got his goat, but honestly, I thought it was just you all. Wait, you don’t think he is pulling another Yancy?”
“The truth is we don’t know if there is anything to pull. Yancy was a person with a family and a normal life. All investigations into his past doesn’t show any erratic behavior which leads us to the conclusion that he’s possessed. The entity inhabiting his body got into him at some point. Daisuke was in the Server Room when Yancy killed the monitoring equipment.”
“So was that tech!”
“IT has put him on paid leave for mental health reasons. Daisuke is the only one who was alone with Yancy when he disabled the cameras.”
“But Daisuke was dead, decapitated. You saw it!”
“We don’t know how the possession works. Maybe the host has to be dead. Perhaps the resurrection chairs activate it. Either way, I need to know I have your cooperation on this. I can remove the quest if you want.”
“No,” Maxi said. “You can count on me.”
However, Maxi wasn’t entirely sure that she was being truthful with herself, but if Daisuke was possessed, Maxi knew in her heart, it was better that she was part of it. He was one of the Lus3rs, one of her own, if it became evident that someone needed to put him down, it would have to be her, though she wasn’t sure she could do it. At the very least, being close to the investigation would let her find another away, there had to be another way.
The elevator door to her office dinged, and Belinda and Daisuke were inside with Dalek buzzing around them. The creature fluttered up to Maxi and a wet nose sniffed her ear.
“Okay, okay,” Maxi said. “I’m fine.”
“Looks like the elevator network is back up,” Cassidy said with a smile. “I’ll let you get back to your work.”