***

“Augh—eck—get a hold over yourselves! I need to get back to my family--!” Aiko said, knowing the irony in that statement and letting that shame fuel her.

Added to the emotional pummeling, she was rocked back and forth, forward and back, side to side by various warm—sweating—and writhing bodies that only wanted to get somewhere, like her. She tried to gauge the situation using her enhanced sight, but had to rely on the mere snapshots she ended up with.

There were a fleet of boats, some large ferries and some personal. They were kept at bay due to what was happening on the ports.

A formation of Enforcers made a line, keeping at bay the residue that one of the Trends left behind, and something that Aiko was all too familiar with.

The victims were swallowed up within the ooze, becoming nightmares while being trapped within their own. Coming in all shapes and sizes, and very single one was wrong, one arm engorged and the rest spindly—one too top heavy that struggled to be supported by it’s serpentine lower half. All unified as trembling specters, terrors made real.

The Enforcers kept them at bay, but constantly stunning them with their rifles, but they still kept coming back. And then they yelled at the panicked people that took their protection as a cage, and even pushing them back before the developed into a stampede. Aiko wondered in her brief moments of thought, if these people were scared of either inflicting harm on innocents, or if they become victims themselves. Either way, there was no solution to this.

So that meant no escape for Aiko.

She tried strafing to the left—instantly bone rushed from the side. She tried moving away, and yet was bumped into the another, causing a chain of bouncing about amongst terrified people that jerked about in horror and screaming. She couldn’t think about using siVis, let alone use it outside of passive action.

It was suffocating. Not because of people nearly crushing her, not because of the complications what would’ve been an easy escape, not because the world was changing, and she’s being rolled about during it.

It was because the last thing her family will see of her, know of her, is being conceited fool that made her bed. She was fine laying in it, she was fine being possibly disowned, even going her separate ways.

But of all times right now, Aiko wasn’t dense enough not to see that they needed each other right now. They can resume the new usual after hugging each other, holding each other, even inform the relatives from overseas.

Disowned, damaged or even degraded—she can accept their relationship being those things. But she will never let it die.

In a mix between her rumination and sensing the smallest opening, Aiko used this chance. Immaterial.

IMMATERIAL GIRL

She jumped in place of her small spot in the crowd and dove legs first into the flooring.

Only to find herself being merged with the single tile of the ground.

Silently cursing in her head, she figured that she had to work with the idea of hoping for someone to kick up the worn tile so she can make her escape…

…Until she reasoned with herself. Or at least to her siVis, that technically, she should be able to across an object that’s connected together such as this.

She struggled, trying to realize this. And thus, she moved to the other tile. Then slid into the three tile. Worming her way across four tilts in a bound. Without anymore trouble, she surfed about the floor, until she felt the pull her siVis created when she’s at her limits.

In a burst, she sailed across the floor towards the part where it had the least stomping of feet. She jumped out instantly from the spot, causing the people who viewed her to react with fear.

But she had no time to take that in, scanning the crowd quickly to see if she could see her parents. Nothing yet, she concluded.

She began to become surrounded again, causing her to sigh in frustration, and was about to dive into the floor again.

Or. As it occurred to her.

She looked at the scared everyman that was closing in, not of his own will. All she could focus on was his brown overcoat.

IMMATERIAL GIRL

Another series of shrieks of confusion, before Aiko dived and merged into the brown coat.

A pretty bad time to twist if she can maintain the state of her “immaterial form”, but there was no better time than pressure.

As soon as she felt the coat collide with another body, it was her chance. And she had to act, because the person might throw it off in panic.

She surfed away, right into the shirt of the other civilian. And soon, she created another chain.

As she did, she couldn’t deny the negative effects started to creep up: the feeling of numbness taking the place of her senses as they slowly but surely wisp away into nothingness. Losing the odd senses of her states, and soon, her mind losing itself piece by piece “floating” away. And especially at a place like this, she needs all of her mental faculties.

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But as she was prepared to exit her current clothing vehicle, she felt something that told her that things have changed.

The wearer was running away from where the Enforcers were.

Aiko jumped out and landed.

There, she came face to face with a living nightmare.

This one was bell-lite. A flat base for a lower body, curving up to a much smaller and constricted “top”. It’s only limbs were bound as well, forming a ring that forces the creature to have their arms forward.

It begun to raise the band up, preparing to strike at Aiko.

She wasn’t sharp. It took her a bit in the precious little she had, to realize what was going on. In the quick glances she gave, she can see some Enforcers trying to rush to save in vain, and the screaming crowd that their huddled together or tried to make a run for the tunnel. All with muted sounds and colorless images.

She could only smirk and raise her hands to intercept.

And was instantly slammed into the ground for her troubles.

In that sharp impact, everything became alight again. The colors, the feeling, and the noise. Most importantly, her brain.

She got up instantly, rushing towards the nightmare while dipping downwards in pain, but righting herself up once she got close.

She used her enhanced arms and dug her arms into the nightmare’s body—causing it to scream like it’s host.

Didn’t find any trace of them and once again got whacked hard onto the ground for her troubles, the shrieks of the people in the crowds accenting the action.

The part of Aiko, the part she truly wants buried, asked her—screamed at her on it’s own, why she was doing this. She just waxed on about meeting her family again and needing them. And now look was happening to her.

She glanced at her body and started to see the cracks forming from her shoulders into her arms. The e-mail her parents got, what started the whole arguments to being with… It was happening anyways.

The girl smiled to herself, and heard the further cracking. Due to the blows she suffered to the head, it might be clear that she’s starting to crack from the head down. And after two shots.

She got up and it was perfectly clear to her.

If she’s torn from her family and labelled as a failure, then she will go out doing some good for something action.

She struggled to get up, falling back to her back, whimpering in pain—a different kind. As if whoever she is in essence, it’s physically breaking apart. Innermost and intangible, but all-encompassing.

All that she could hear, was a dull, empty dragging sound and all she could see before her was the nightmare. Looking down with it’s sphere-head.

So when she saw Madison leap over her, tackling the nightmare, she was honestly surprised.

Regardless of the pain, she shot up, using any and all energy of shock to aid her.

Aiko looked to the Enforcers that broke formation to help, adject terror despite anything human being concealed.

“Y—you--!” Aiko croaked out. Struggling to make a stand, pointing at Madison still wrestling with the monster, likely due to her siVis. “There’s people—You can rip them out from their nightmares! siVis can work, but maybe--!”

The Enforcers looked at each other, before toggling their communications to share the intel. And with that, three of them raced towards Maddie and the nightmare, the former being pushed off, with so much force that she sailed in the air.

Aiko ran, looking up with arms forward, legs scrambling to catch her. And with the help of super awareness, she managed to do so, quickly letting and sitting her up.

“…You look like shit, by the by,” Maddie Solomon clutched at her side. Aiko didn’t need to see through her clothes to know that she too is breaking apart and just took the slight as it is.

The two girls watched as three armored people wrestled with an oil monster. Trying again and again, searching for something. The substance didn’t have any hold to it, if you dug in at some angle, you’d soon slip out of it. If you dug at the right angle, you’d be quickly subsumed and need to try everything to pull out. All wasted energy and effort, when the key to surviving siVis incidents is to make every action count and conserve energy as much as one can. This was vain, stupid and reckless.

“I GOT SOMETHING!” one of the Enforcers yelled in a shot of delirium.

The others quickly aided them, reaching their arms in to pull and grunt and scream out in tired pain. And for their efforts, they freed an elderly man from his very bad dream as it melt into ooze.

The two quickly aided the man, but the other rose up sharply, and started to set fire to the ooze with his laser.

“WE NEED TEAMS TO PULL THESE GUYS OUT! IT WORKS, I REPEAT, IT WORKS! TELL THE BOATS TO MAKE THEIR WAY OVER!”

Aiko glanced over, seeing another new batch of Enforcers protecting a much bigger crowd. And looking over further, she could see another tunnel, freshly opened up.

Connecting it all, she looked towards Maddie, who looked at her wits’ end. Lowered eyes to the point you’d be forgiven if one thought she was passing out, face covered in sweat and etched in exhaustion. True exhaustion where the pain itself that radiated is dull and pushed further than it should’ve been. Wobbling, as if she wants to be anywhere but her own two legs.

“You… Called me a coward,” Maddie snapped Aiko out of looking at her. “I’ve stewed in that shit. For nights on in. So fuck you…”

Aiko smiled, again feeling her crackling. “I take back what I’ve said. You truly are brave.”

“Eh…” Maddie shrugged. “I just wanted to put that in the record. I proved it, revoking it just… It just means that I can’t… Add anything to it…”

Aiko panted and closed her eyes, feeling the separation of across her face. “We… We helped… Both of us…”

“We’re not heroes… Get that out of your head… We got in the way and found something out… No different from trying to stop some fight…”

“We’re crackling away, like… He said… Even if we board the boats, there’s no guarantee that we will receive treatment in time…”

Maddie looked at her, studying her. As Aiko looked back at the city, teeming with activity and visual static.

“My family will surely try… Try and find some other land to hide and repeat their mistakes again…” Aiko reasoned. “If Davenport falls, becomes a Terminsys City… There’s not much hope. So they’ll be trapped into this chain until they get swallowed whole anyways…”

“But we can’t face them---” Maddie argued. “We can’t even handle their mooks and side-effects of their powers, what makes you think we can defend something?”

Aiko shook her head. “No. Just help. We both have the power… And the weakness… We can take so many hits, but we can survive. Because we survived these people before… We help when we can, sneak and lay low… But ultimately, we can be the ultimate spanner…”

Maddie sighed. Which caused Aiko to look at her.

“Surely… You know this city more than any of us… You can go and I’m expecting you to… But can you watch this place be destroyed? Your home…?”

The question stuck with the small girl. She too turned around and looked towards the city. Her city.

In the first time Aiko has known her, her sultry disposition wasn’t one of annoyance or anger.

But wistfulness. As if she was recalling everything about her experiences here at once.

“…It’s a hot mess,” Maddie begun. “But it is my hot mess. Yeah.”

She bit down her lip briefly.

“My sister’s buried here. And not gonna lie. These fuckers taking this place down means that she’s gone forever. I guess I was ready for that possibility when I came here, thought I could take that. Maybe I can in the end.”

Aiko saw Maddie’s fist tighten.

“But. Fuck. That.”

Aiko nodded sternly. And then put a hand on her shoulder.

“I really wish I was some coward, on the other hand…” she sighed, as the weight of her decision crushes her.

“We were, when you think about how we all started…” Aiko mused, but looked forward. “Time to prove to ourselves that we’re survivors.”