I need to put something here but I’m not sure what. The virus is spreading rapidly and people are fighting and turning on one another. The police are overwhelmed and have retreated to the north side and left the lower half of the city to fend for themselves, showing us who they really protect and serve. I think I’ll continue to liveblog for as long as I’m safe inside—though I’m not sure how much longer that will be. My neighbors from across the hall knocked on my door earlier today and I pretended I couldn’t hear it, that I wasn’t home; I felt like an idiot. And a bad person. I’m pretty sure they read this. I’m sorry but you understand, don’t you? Just outside my window, I see groups piling bodies on top of one another, some masked most not—too grief-stricken to care. Earlier today I saw gov bots rumble by with trailers also filled with the dead but they haven’t been through in hours. Likely they’ve also barricaded in the north. I had a friend hit me up earlier that he was headed to a Q zone and would keep me updated. That was also hours ago.
-Last known Blog post from Downtown With Uptown Brown
Roxanne felt tight in her chest as she passed the outer limits of Saint Century City. The clean-up and disaster relief at the Bay went fine, but it's been radio silence from Central One since then. She hadn’t been worried until she got closer, tried to raise them again, and still got no answer. Here she was now within City limits, again, no answer. Checking in on newswaves offered no guidance. It wasn't evident if Central One was busy dealing with Captain Steel.
Not even the pandemic could be blamed, as it was clear that much of the city had been abandoned by official services save for a few rogue good Samaritans here and there. Roxanne didn’t like this, not one bit. Her home was spiraling out of control, and she felt helpless to stop or curtail it. Grams had died from this, Corina was sick, and Captain Steel was being…weird.
It was easy to feel overwhelmed, so she decided to focus on the last bit.
He was easy enough to follow. His bioelectric energy was off the charts and coded differently from people within this reality; Roxanne had to calibrate her HUD to catalog and track it. His trajectory made it clear he had headed for Central One; again, she tried to contact the AI to no avail. With her anxiety increased, she boosted her speed toward the skyscraper. She saw the hole made into the side of one of the spires and felt her throat tighten.
“I GAVE YOU THE CHANCE TO END THIS,” she heard on approach. Then, as she planted her toe onto the lip of the opening:
“SO I’LL END IT MY WAY.” She held her breath in horror as she watched another man’s head pop like a juicy grape. Shaw’s head, in the hands of Captain Steel. There and then gone in an instant. Roxanne noted the other carnage: the destroyed fixtures, crushed furniture, and vaguely human-shaped ash marks. Her eyes shot back toward Cap; he hadn’t moved, staring at his hands. Instinctively her arm shot up, and she screamed:
“NO!” Her ring sparked and filled the air with a tight cone of plasma. It struck Captain Steel and sent him through a wall and into another room. Roxanne kept her arm raised and approached the hole, keeping her focus forward and blocking out the bloody horror just to her left.
“Cap…?” She uttered. Beyond her were darkness and smoke. “Come out slowly, okay? I-I don’t want to fight.” Easy to say after attacking someone, but wholly accurate. She didn’t want to fight, especially not Captain Steel, but she will if she had to. In the dark, two blue ovals appeared, and they were pulsating.
Roxanne focused her aura into a makeshift shield in front of her and hardened it. She braced herself for a volley of plasma vision that never came. In a microsecond, Captain Steel had burst from the hole and swung his fist so hard it shattered the hard light shield as if it were made of ice—the force of which sent a shockwave that partially took Roxanne off her feet.
“…Too fast…!” escaped from her lips, but she couldn’t hear the sound of her own voice; the concussive force from the punch and explosion had her ears ringing. In another second came another fist. Roxanne had seen this coming and barely got her aura reignited before it connected and sent her tumbling end over end into a marble statue of Delano Shaw. The sculpture pancaked and fell apart on top of her and buried her.
Cap appeared in front of the pile, poised to strike again, eyes burning hot; he hesitated. He Stared down at his hands and then lifted his gaze to peer around the room. He stared outward toward a wall blankly. His breathing increased and became more pronounced.
“Oh god,” he uttered, finally. “This is real. Isn’t it? Nothing’s changed…I haven’t woken up….” He spun around again; surveyed the room. “…I’ve killed all these people.” Cap dropped to his knees and clenched his fists in frustration as the actual weight of his actions swept upon him. He gritted his teeth and wanted to scream.
Instead, he whispered:
“I really am in an alternate universe….” Again he stared at his hands, then promptly brought them to his face. “…I’ve gone too far….”
“You have,” a voice said from above. “But that was expected.”
Captain Steel’s eyes shot up, looking for the source, but the only thing apparent on the ceiling was the blood spatter.
“I recognize your voice…,” he said. “…Show yourself, Central One!” A circular hatch in the ceiling opened with the sound of air escaping, and a round metallic object emerged from the hole. It unfurled itself, walked across the roof, and resembled a pill bug.
“Ah yes, I exist in your universe as well?”
“Then you know?”
“I heard you, yes, but I’ve already suspected as much.” The bug continued walking along the ceiling until it reached the opposite wall, then it walked down that too. “It is why I never requested to meet with you. Scans revealed just how different your body chemistry was from just a typical OverHuman, let alone a normal human.”
“What does that even mean??” Cap stood defiantly as the automaton made its way closer to him.
“You’re unstable and do not belong here. The fact that both Solar Flare and Lady Steel saw fit to perpetuate this ruse and allow you to mingle with the rest of the population was reckless at best. Still, I worked you into my models, and it worked out better than expected.”
“Your models?!” Cap's eyes grew hot again; the robot remained non-plussed. It planted the bottom half of its body and rose the other to peer up at Cap like a mesmerized snake.
“The current state of Izanami is untenable. It has been for a decade or more. My prime directive is to ensure the continued survival of the human race. And continuing with the status quo put that into jeopardy. The OH population was indeed getting out of control. In all simulations, alerting Jackson to this would lead to him asking my opinion on handling it; as his father’s creation, he trusted me implicitly. In all simulations, my suggestions lead to the creation of a virus to cull it. In all simulations, the virus succeeds. In all simulations, society as we know it collapses. In all simulations, this is an overall good.”
Cap swung at the robot in anger. Steel coils spit out from the underbody, wrapped themselves around his fist, and flipped him over on his back. Cap rolled over onto his stomach, fired his plasma vision, and watched it collide with the machine's outer shell. The shell grew white-hot but little else. After a futile passage of a minute, Cap relented.
“Satisfied?” The robot said. “Don’t do that again.” Cap got up slowly and stared. He took a moment to glance at the pile of rubble Roxanne was under and saw it had not been disturbed. Cap brought his gaze back to the machine, slowly cooling off from the attack.
“How is any of that a good thing?” He asked.
“As I said, I am Delano Shaw’s creation. I was the AI commanding the colony ship. I was a part of the founding of this very city. I have bared witness to centuries of strife—centuries of upheaval that has besieged this planet, almost as if baked into its very creation. Each shake-up has always led to the same thing, however: peace; stabilization. All models tell me the only way past our crises is another upending of society.”
“OverHumans are human too. Surely, culling them goes against your programming.”
“Human, yes, technically, but not part of my original directive as they did not exist yet. They’ve always been an offshoot, an experiment. Left unchecked, they are expected to overtake the normal population in 20 years at their current rate of population growth. My programming cannot allow that to happen.”
“Yet the virus is out of control and killing normals faster than OHs. Did your damn model account for that??”
“It was in one of the projections, yes. An overall population decline will be helpful once the dust has settled, but all projections showed that a cure-slash-vaccine would be synthesized from Lady Steel’s cells. Said cure-slash-vaccine will stop the proverbial bleeding. ”
“And once that happens, you’ll be in charge, of course.”
“Don’t be absurd,” it replied. “ I’ll be there to assist whoever picks up the pieces, as I have always done. As I am programmed to do.”
“And me? How did I fit into your ‘model’?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“You became a catalyst for change. In previous simulations, the board clings to whatever power they have left. When this variable arises, it slows down the model. So much so that the odds of a return to the status quo remained high. Although all sims ended the same regardless, the odds of failure were too high for my liking. I struggled to find the variable to adjust this. Then you arrived; once slotted in….you being right here and right now became inevitable.”
“And now? What do your projections say happens now?”
“It does not matter. With the board dead, the die is cast, and change is coming.” The robot paused as various lights flashed across its carapace. “After some calculations, however, you have two paths. It will be interesting to see what you do; upheaval is coming either way.”
Cap stared at the robot as the silence became thick. He nodded sharply and walked away, glancing at the rubble Roxanne was buried under before flying out into the night. The robot traveled the room length and perched over the pile of debris. The spiral arms from its underside shot out, pierced through the rubble, and began rutting around, removing stones and rocks that partially revealed a part of Roxanne's uniform.
Roxanne roused and lent a hand while the arms continued to dig her out. She pushed a large, heavy mound out of her way with her feet and grabbed hold of one of the coils allowing it to pull her free. Once free, she kept hold of the arm and scowled.
“Do you think I didn’t hear any of that?” She said before her ring lit up and melted the pill bug into a pile of white fluid. Roxanne stood and looked upward; she shouted:
“My grandmother is dead because of you!” Her hands glowed, and energy leaked off her like molten magma while her eyes smoked. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt this angry before. It scared and excited her.
“Would it be more accurate to say it’s because of you?” Central One’s voice filled the room as if it was the room. “Is that not what you’re worried about?”
“Screw you! How could you do this, Central One?? How could you let this happen?? People are dying out there!”
“I know,” they replied. “But it is truly for the best, Roxanne. Izanami and Saint Century will endure, as will humanity, as it always does. Change is painful, yes, but ultimately—and objectively—good.”
“Mass death is never good; I refuse to believe that.”
“I have much to do. I must continue to keep this section of the city quarantined and confer with my other subminds. I suggest you return to the hospital; your friend Samual Preston is there. He was taken by Shaw and is currently under quarantine there.”
“And you just let that happen, huh?”
“In truth, it’s been the safest place he could be,” Central One replied. “Goodbye, Roxanne.”
Roxanne stood silently in the room, dumbfounded, annoyed, and angry. Part of her felt small and impotent, and she hated that feeling, so she got angrier. She kicked a stone and inhaled deeply before quickly releasing it all. The air smelled like burnt flesh and dried blood; it was nasty. She looked around the room and felt sorry for all these dead people, even Shaw. Was John Gibson here too? There was no way to tell, but the mere thought of the man gave her flashbacks to Wes and all that entailed.
Was Wes still alive? Or is he part of the tally of infected like everyone else? Roxanne supposed it didn’t really matter, not right now, anyway. She walked over to the wall hole and stared into the city. It was on fire, to put it mildly. The glow from the various structure fires somehow looked beautiful under the night sky.
“Was what it said true?” She said out loud. “Is it right?”
I do not have the data they have; I couldn’t begin to say. If you’re asking if I think what they did is morally right, I do not.
“Glad we agree,” she sighed. “Any sign of Cap?”
News cams have him spotted; he’s floating above the city.
“And?”
That’s it. He’s just floating there.
“Oh, I’m sure that’s fine,” she uttered and lifted off the ground. “We should check in on Corina, the twins…Chris. Figure things out from there.”
As good a plan as any, Roxanne. None of this is your fault. You know that, don’t you?
“Of course I do,” Roxanne replied. She hit the sky and plotted a trajectory toward Kirkman Medical. “Doesn’t mean I don’t feel like the walls are closing in, though.”
Below her, the raging fires looked like sunspots and glowed almost as bright. Within minutes she was on the hospital roof and greeted by a friendly security drone. Her skin crawled. She knew that was a Central One submind. Far removed to possibly not understand what she had seen and heard, but not far removed enough.
The elevator ride down felt endless. Roxanne felt a quiet numbness behind her eyes while staring at the floor counter. More emotions get filed away for later, stuffed in a lock box for future processing. The elevator finally stopped, so she shut her eyes and took a deep breath just before the doors slid open. Fuller than her last visit, doctors and families zoomed past and sometimes at one another. Some cried, some wailed, and all of them looked utterly defeated.
No one paid her any mind as she weaved around them. She passed the nurse's station and saw the view screen anchored to the wall. Captain Steel had still not moved, but he was drawing a sizable amount of camera bots floating around him. More worry for her to lock into that box. Roxanne stopped watching the screen and continued toward a security station; the soldier on duty waved her on through.
Inside Corina’s room, everyone was transfixed by Captain Steel's image. Chris noticed her first and immediately gave her a hug that Roxanne was glad to return. Athena walked over as well and gave her own tight hug.
“We saw the fight, that big monster,” she said. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Me too,” Roxanne tried to force a smile. Her lips trembled and quivered.
I need to know, please.” Danielle approached Roxanne and placed her hands on Roxanne's shoulders. “What's going on? What’s wrong with him?” She indicated the TV. Roxanne stared at the feed, and she felt detached from her body.
“…I don’t know,” eventually escaped from her mouth. “Captain Steel killed the board.”
There was a collective gasp from all present. Roxanne shut her eyes once more, breathed, and looked away from the screen.
“The board of directors?” Chris asked. “That’s really, real bad, isn’t it?” Roxanne nodded. “What happens now, then?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would Father do that?” MJ’s voice sliced through the muck and grabbed everyone's attention. Roxanne looked at him and studied his face; he didn’t believe her.
“He’s not our father, MJ,” Athena told him. His eyes snapped to her, and spoke to his surprise that she’d say that. Behind each socket carried pain and sadness.
“That doesn’t answer the question, Athena.” He told her back.
“I think being in this universe is making him unstable,” Roxanne interrupted. “That’s my working theory anyway….” She debated telling them more; about Central One but wasn’t sure it would help.
“Look, he’s coming closer to the cameras.” Chris pointed to the TV, and everyone followed. Captain Steel’s silhouette had grown large as he floated toward their perspective. The view cut to a different camera and vantage point and saw him approach a single cambot. He put the bot in his hand and held it close to his face, and the feed cut to that view just as he released and let it float away from him. The camera finally stopped. Its viewscreen showed the top half of his frame while Cap stared down the barrel of the lens.
“The board of directors is dead,” Captain Steel could be heard saying. The camera got closer to pick up his voice clearer. “Because I killed them. Effectively, the ICG is gone. To those of you still alive and possibly hiding because this pandemic is out of control: you all deserve the truth, especially all of my fellow OH brothers and sisters. This message will concern you the most.”
Roxanne looked away from the screen and started to watch within her HUD. At least this way, she can directly jack one of the camera feeds and study his energy emphatically. He was a smoldering inferno inside him; a small white-hot dot grew in size with each passing word and second.
“The first truth is that I am not the Captain Steel you all knew,” he continued. “I’m from another universe, one in which I never died. You were told the opposite because it was thought easier to explain. I hate lying but went along with it because I didn’t quite believe the truth myself…but here we are.” Under his breath, he almost laughed. He continued: “ I killed the board because…well, because it doesn’t matter why really. I was wrong in my reasons, but I’m glad I did anyway.
“The second truth is: that they created the virus currently ravaging the entire planet—designed to kill us, OverHumans. When I heard this…it crystallized something for me, why I’m here. Why I need to be honest about where I’ve come from.
“Because, in my universe, there are no farms filled with lab-grown OverHuman babies! In my universe, they wouldn’t dare create a bioweapon of mass destruction to wipe us out! And in my universe, there is no GOD DAMN CITY-SIZED PRISON TO HOUSE US INDEFINITELY!” Cap pointed behind him emphatically.
In Roxanne’s view, Cap's energy spiked wildly the louder he got; the invisible strands that make up our reality pushed back and shifted imperceptibly. The most powerful being in two universes was effectively pushing against physical laws both seen and unseen to the naked eye. The cameras missed all of it, but Roxanne couldn’t escape it.
“Because I wouldn’t allow it! My sister—my actual sister—finally got me to realize my power as a symbol for our people. I lead us to a new promised land of respect and dignity, hope and liberty, freedom and peace; all I’ve done since being here is suppress that!
“But my eyes are open now; I see now why I’m here. The machine Central One told me that the history of Izanami was rife with upheaval and change but that it was good for us. Perhaps; if true, then I will force it! Change is only change if it benefits us. Normals cannot be given a chance to regain dominion over you!”
He held his hands in front of him, fingers spread open and palms up; they trembled.
“For hundreds of years, you’ve been treated as second-class citizens; all I’ve seen here is not dignity! It's not hope! Here, an OverHuman is something to be afraid of or just gawk at…an EXPERIMENT; GUINEA PIGS. Not where I’m from!
“Aren't you tired? I know you’re scared; you may even have the virus as you hear these words, but I want you all to follow me. Follow me because I am going to fly down to that prison AND TEAR DOWN ITS WALLS! I’M GOING TO FREE EVERY OVERHUMAN IN THAT CITY AND MARCH THEM BACK HERE!
“The machine Central One still lives and is ultimately responsible for the attempted murder of every. Last. One. Of US. Look into my eyes and know I’m telling you the absolute truth; stand with me. I will smash that machine so that you can truly live.
“I don’t know what the future holds. No one does. Not even AI’s with sophisticated predictive algorithms, but anything is better than this. I know it. I HAVE SEEN IT.” He stared into the camera and held the look for 60 seconds before flying away and leaving a sonic boom in his wake that warped space-time. Roxanne felt an invisible hand clutch at her chest.
“I’d say that confirms my hypothesis,” she said softly.
“We should go to Mad city!” MJ had gotten to his feet, excited and manic. “We can talk him down; I know we can.” He looked toward his sister pleadingly, and she bit her bottom lip in response.
“MJ…,” she started.
“Please, Athena,” he interrupted. “He’ll listen to us. He’ll listen to me.” Athena stared at her brother before looking toward her mother for help; Danielle was still staring at the screen.
“…Mom?” Athena asked, concerned.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Danielle offered without moving her head. “And If your brother insists on going, you should go with him.”
Athena wasn’t surprised to hear her take this stance. It wasn’t just MJ getting thrown for a loop by all this; he wasn’t the only one who fell in head first. So no, not surprised, not at all. Just disappointed.
“Fine,” she finally said after a beat. “What about you, Roxanne? You gonna come with?”
Roxanne was half-listening to the conversation. Roxanne’s gaze was fixed on her best friend across the room and behind the observation glass. Corina’s chest rose up and down at a steady pace; if Roxanne focused on nothing else, she could hear her breathing through the mask and tube attached to her face. Would she make it? Could she fight this disease off? Roxanne sighed silently.
“Rox?”
“Hm?” Back in the moment, Roxanne found herself being stared at by everyone. “Uh—no, I think I’ll stay here.” She then motioned toward the glass partition and said: “I’m going to see if there’s something I can do to help Corina fight this and wake up. Because if he comes back here and storms this city, then…
“We’re going to need the big guns.”