Location Unknown, Provisional Reality ARC, Time Unknown
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Lieutenant Olivia Rodriguez hit the far side of the merge portal on her hands and knees; she’d learned from last time, and her unbuckled helmet and facemask fell away. All around her, RST troopers dry heaved—or vomited up their breakfasts if they hadn’t read the briefing file before eating. She checked her hip for the thermos that was vital for her primary mission, then found the submachine gun hanging from her harness, still safed but loaded and ready to go. All her ammo was here, and so was the rest of—
“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area,” Command Two-A’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Jesus Fucking Christ,” L5-2 said, coughing.
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad, trooper. It’ll clear in a minute. Sound off and secure the room,” Olivia said.
“L4-5 reporting in.”
“L5-3, here.”
“L5-5, elevator door’s secure.”
As both teams checked in, Olivia unclipped the thermos and walked toward L4-3 and L5-6. The Pendleton sisters looked almost nothing alike, but at the same time, they were definitely siblings. It was the eyes—the intensity in them.
Right now, Claire was helping Alice to her feet. The older girl wore RST combat fatigues and a battle harness that fit her, unlike her sister’s oversized hoodie, but she hadn’t drawn her pistol on landing, and she didn’t carry any other weapons. Meanwhile, Claire’s Revolver was already in her hand and ready, just like she’d been trained for breaching buildings.
“Room clear,” L5-1 said. Olivia nodded and pointed to the computer. “You ready, Alice?”
“Yes. I’m ready.” The girl reached down and grabbed her sister’s hand, squeezed it hard enough to white-knuckle, and let go. She swallowed as she took the thermos.
L5-1 cleared his throat. “Remember, your only mission is to get L5-4 access to the information inside. If Li Mei starts being a problem, disengage until you regain control.”
“Got it.” Alice unscrewed the thermos lid and looked at the sludge inside. She wrinkled her nose, then quickly upended the contents into her mouth.
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I watch Alice, waiting for any sign that something’s going wrong, but my stupid, perfect sister lowers the thermos and…burps. “It’s bubbly. Next time, make it less bubbly.”
My shoulders slump. I relax, pocketing the Revolver. All around me, troopers secure the place; one breaks out the window and starts setting up a platform the size of a folding cot. It’s Daley, and he’s got a massive rifle. The barrel’s big enough to fit the whole Revolver’s barrel inside, sights and all. He takes aim, but I’m not sure at what.
“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area.”
Right. That. That’s our main mission. Alice and Lambda-Five are here, doing computer stuff. We’re…hunting an impossible-to-remember monster.
“Let’s let Alice do her thing, then move out,” Rodriguez says.
I nod gratefully. Alice is rocking back and forth in front of the computer. “James, what’s going on with her?”
[Her Infohazard Resistance is being problematic,] James replies. I raise an eyebrow. [The chemical needs to work on her brain. Until it does, she can’t interface with the computer. I’d have one of the Lamda-Five guys do it, but that resistance is also the only thing that’ll keep her alive and sane through the compound she’s ingested.]
“So it’s like a drug?”
[Correct. Specifically, it’s a derivative of LSD. It’ll affect her thought processes, but it has to break through first.]
I make a note—James didn’t tell me exactly what this entailed beforehand. I’m not sure that’s a violation of trust, but it feels on the edge. Coupled with what I already know about his relationship with the System—which I don’t trust at all—and he’s got a couple of toes over the cliff.
Alice stands up and walks to the first intact machine. She places a hand on the screen and starts breathing heavily, like she’s been playing soccer for half a game. I watch as something opens, and L5-4 jams a drive into it. “Running Ostrich-class security protocols, then Tapeworm Three. This could take some time, sir. We’ve got to translate everything, which means developing a lexicon first. How long can she hold this state?”
[Your team will need to withdraw from Provisional Reality ARC long before she stops being able to interface with the computer,] James replies for everyone to hear.
“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area.”
Lieutenant Rodriguez waves Strauss and me toward the elevator. “Alright, time for us to get to work.”
I don’t want to leave. Something feels like it’s on the edge of going wrong in the computer lab. But Lieutenant Rodriguez insists, and Alice has all of Lambda Five with her. She’s not in any danger except the self-inflicted kind, and L5-4 isn’t acting like something’s messing up. She’s got eyes on my sister, and so does half of Lambda-Five. And, like Command Two-A said, there’s something out there that I need to deal with.
I step into the elevator. The door closes. And everything goes to shit.
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“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area.”
“Copy that, we are aware!” Strauss shouts. Command Two-A can’t hear him, but he says it anyway.
I mash the ‘emergency stop button a fifth time as my ears ring. The whole elevator smells like sewage, flowers, and gunpowder. I’m not sure if the ringing is from the not-thing that’s in here with us or from the two submachine guns ripping holes in the metal walls.
I’m pretty sure it’s the gunshots.
I’ve got my Revolver out, but I’ve already fired all six reality skippers, and I can’t switch. In this tight space, either of the other two would hurt my teammates. So would Soundbreak, and I can’t use Absolution on it. So I’m waiting.
The bastard was in here the whole time. I don’t know where it was hiding. There’s no space for it in here—but maybe that’s the point. Maybe it didn’t want to be seen, so it wasn’t seen. I can see it now, though.
Screw it.
I use Soundbreak. The wall of counterpointed sound crashes into it, knocking it into the wall. It’s done more damage than any of the bullets we’ve fired so far. The echo pops my ears, and Rodriguez yells something I can’t hear. The monster—
[Mindbender.]
The Mindbender locks its vision onto me. Then it disappears.
But only for a moment.
“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area.”
Just before it hits me, I see it again. It feels like being slammed by a brick wall being pushed over by a train—if the wall was made of meat. I dry-fire the Revolver into its body. It clicks. Something in my chest clicks, too, and a wave of pain rushes over me.
[Skill Learned: Physical Anomaly Resistance 12]
I blink.
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It’s gone.
What’s gone?
“What…what hit me?” My chest hurts like I’ve been run over by a bus, but it’s already fading. The last vestiges of shock leave Strauss’s eyes as he looks over the elevator. It’s covered in bullet holes, and sparks erupt from its control panel. Rodriguez stares at her submachine gun, switches out magazines, and starts reloading her mostly-spent one from a pouch of free shells. Both of them seem distinctly uncomfortable as the elevator creaks to a stop.
It stinks like an electrical fire. The door opens, and smoke pours out into the office space.
Command Two-A’s message comes in again as we start looking around the cubicles—though they’re more like roundicles. Every worker gets a circle of space. I shake my head, clearing it. “How long between messages?”
“Fifteen seconds. They’re relentless,” Rodriguez says.
“Okay. We’re dealing with a monster that resets our awareness of it on a less than fifteen-second time scale, but we knew it was there, so…” I trail off.
“So?” Strauss asks.
“So what?” I ask. The message comes in again. “Right. So, we only have a few seconds to react to it. We need to change plans.”
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We keep moving—but this time, we’re heading up. If that not-thing made of void vanished out of the firefight, we’re going to need to…
The message comes in.
…we need to get back to Lambda-Five. They might be in danger. As we climb the too-gradual flights of stairs, Rodriguez calls in. “Command, contact Command Two-A. Have them alter the message pattern. Once every ten seconds, all three of us on different timings.”
“Copy that, L4-1.”
[I’m working on possible workarounds for you, Claire,] James says.
“For what?”
Command Two-A interrupts me. By the time it’s done, James is launching into his explanation. [For the Mindbender.]
“Right. The Mindbender. Why am I not gaining resistance to this?”
[I’m also trying to figure that out. I’m not prepared to Analyze an antimemetic entity—especially not one that’s this similar to a Voiceless Singer. If I hit another vision like I just did, it’ll be a total disaster.] He pauses while Command Two-A’s message rolls in. It’s starting to become a rhythm to the conversation. Start with some understanding, lose focus, be reminded of our enemy, intense focus. Cycle through.
[Right now, my best protection is to support you indirectly, not to engage the antimeme myself,] he continues. We keep climbing the stairs. [I’ll get your system figured out. Just keep hunting.]
“Got it.”
Strauss stops at the door to the next floor. Hopefully, it’s the one Alice and Lambda-Five are on. His submachine gun’s ready, but he waves me forward, then puts his hand on the door. I count down from five.
[Skill Learned: Urban Combat 5]
The door opens, and I open fire. This time, I’ve got the gravity rounds in. I unload them all into the not-thing. Rodriguez is right behind me, opening up with her submachine gun, but Strauss is slow to react. After a second or two, he also starts firing.
The thing vanishes into the roundicles. This time, I see it go. It’s hurt, and if I can just…
What was I doing?
James speaks up. [I’m figuring it out, Claire. Don’t worry. Just keep up the pressure, and I’ll keep figuring stuff out.]
Right. That. I dive into the roundicles before Command Two-A’s reminder can hit me. That alone is a huge victory, but what’s even better is that I catch another glimpse of the Mindbender. It’s fleeing. We’ve hurt it—bad.
Now I want to kill it.
I start counting. It takes eighteen seconds for me to lose focus again. During that time, I use Bullet Time, Slither to keep up, and fire my flame rounds and reality skippers dry. It tries to crush me but misses. The submachine guns open up again. Strauss and Rodriguez tear the roundicles apart with stray shots; the whole office looks like it got ran through a paper shredder.
The second the reminder comes in, I count again.
This time, it takes twenty-one seconds. I’ve got a theory about why, and hopefully, James can fill in one of the variables so I can see if I’m right.
The next time, I don’t lose focus. The Mindbender’s not-void body lies in the middle of the room. It’s dead. Then, out of nowhere, it’s gone.
“Command, this is Rodriguez. We’ve neutralized the antimemetic anomaly. There may be more than one, but the closest threat is down.
[Skill Learned: Memetic Resistance 10]
Skill Merging: Infohazard Resistance 10+ and Memetic Resistance 10+ into Mental Fortitude 1]
[Stability: 8/10]
I can feel the skills merge. It’s both infohazard and memetic resistances, but together. At the same time, my Stability…stabilizes. I feel more focused, more mentally together, than I have in a while. It’s not like before. I know too much to ever be like it was before. But it’s close.
James fills the silence, explaining how the antimeme eliminated the skill increases. They were happening, but we didn’t see any of them. I doubt Mental Fortitude is strong enough to ignore the antimeme completely, but based on the count, I’ll have—
“RST Lambda-Four, be advised that there is an antimemetic entity in your area.”
Right. It might be dead, but we need to make sure the skyscraper’s secure. Rodriguez is already giving orders; Strauss heads back up to get to work on the beachhead’s Universal Reality Anchor, while Daley stays at his sniper rifle. He’s been tracking something on and off, but keeping quiet so we could focus. That means there’s more than one.
The next twenty minutes are sweeping the building. My Mental Fortitude jumps another level, to two, and so does my Revolver Mastery, to nineteen. I have almost forty seconds before the antimeme defeats my defenses now, which means that it has basically no window to disappear. Without its…mind-bending…the Mindbender isn’t any tougher than a thinling was. It takes a few more shots, but it’s nowhere near as vomit-inducing as the constantly shifting anomalies.
When the Universal Reality Anchor on Strauss’s rover activates and the wave of shimmering Jell-O passes over me, I finally relax. The beachhead’s a little more stable now. James confirms it a moment later. [That should lock both RSTs in for the next five to seven hours.]
There’s another Mindbender—the fourth—in the lobby. Once it’s dead, my mind feels like it’s cleared. Rodriguez’s shoulders slump, and the tension bleeds from her face as she collapses into an armchair. “Strauss, we’re clear in the lobby. Do you have anything autonomous for security down here?”
“I’ve got just the thing. Give me five.”
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What Strauss has are land mines.
They’re boxy, with what looks like a sensor on one side and a laser pointer on the other. Every single one of them is labeled ‘point front toward enemy,’ and they’ve got arrows making it obvious which side they mean.
He keeps calling them claymores. One of my favorite melee characters in Knights of the Apocalypse uses a claymore, but that’s a giant-ass sword that’s taller than she is. These look way more explosive—and way less badass.
I could have bonded with an anomalous sword instead of the Revolver. That would have been cool; I could have used Carnation’s moveset. Instead, I got a gun.
The gun is better, on balance.
But why couldn’t I have gotten both?
The land mines sit there menacingly. I stare at the entrance; anything that wants to come in that way is in for a world of hurt. Strauss shakes his head at it, though. “I’m not even sure if these damn things will activate for whatever we’ve been killing. It’ll handle just about anything else, though. They’re regular old military-surplus claymores, not anything special—but they shred like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
[Claire,] James interrupts, [you need to come upstairs. Now.]
I turn and start heading for the elevator, then smell the electric smoke and go for the too-wide, too-short stairs. It’s probably a fifteen-minute climb, and James is giving me status updates the whole time.
[She started freaking out. It might match up with the data we’re pulling, but I can’t be sure. I’m not Analyzing any of it.]
[She’s stabilizing. We’ve paused the data transfer. L4-4 is reporting movement in the street below. He’s holding fire and tracking.]
[Alright, your sister’s good to go. She’s fine, Claire, and you can continue your mission.]
That’s a lie. Not that Alice is fine. Not that she’s good to go. Those ring true—James would tell me if he thought she was in real danger. But I can’t continue my mission. Alice has no reason to be here anymore. James says we’ve got a stable connection with the computer, and L5-4 is pulling data into a storage system. The only thing that’s here for Alice is a Mindbender. Or a Voiceless Singer. I need to get her back home—back to R-0. The others can continue their work without her.
Soldier Alice might be ready to stick out the mission, but the real Alice is my little big sister, and sisters have to look out for each other.
When I enter the computer lab, Alice is on the ground. L5-2 and L5-5 have a needle in her arm, and the whole room smells like stress sweat—the kind that stinks. They’ve got a strap around her arms and chest, and her arms strain against it as her eyes roll.
I’d kill James if I could. Alice doesn’t look fine at all.
[She’s stabilized. Right now, she’s experiencing extreme hallucinations as a result of the compound she ingested. I told you this would happen.] He didn’t. [It should fade in the next half-hour.]
“I’m pulling her out of here,” I say.
“Negative,” Command says. “L5-6 represents a unique set of skills, and without her presence, we may be locked out of additional information.”
“Don’t care.” The Revolver’s out. It’s pointing at everyone. At no one. “I agreed to help you to keep my people safe. This isn’t safe for Alice. We’re leaving.”
“L4-3, in order to keep the rest of your people safe, we need the information your sister is helping recover,” Command says.
“Then I’m done.” My words hang in the air. I don’t think I can win a fight against two Recovery and Stabilization Teams. But I know I’m too valuable to SHOCKS to lose—especially right now. They lose me here, they lose both teams. That’s all their organized combat forces in Victoria.
You can feel these moments sometimes—when everything shifts. One second, seven troopers have their weapons not quite aimed at me, and my finger’s on the Revolver’s barrel. I’ve got my first three targets picked out: Rodriguez, L5-1, and L5-4. Strauss is fourth if I can manage it. He knows too much about my powers. That takes out their biggest threats and keeps my shots away from Alice. I’m going to Bullet Time the first three, then Smoke Form and Slither to reposition.
Then I’ll play it by ear.
But before anyone makes a move, Commands says, “Fine. We’ve got a window in fifteen minutes. You can take her here, then return to Provisional Reality ARC and continue with your primary objective. We need a Voiceless Singer, and now that we’re secure, we can start hunting for them while we decipher all that data.”
“Fine.” I can live with that. The Revolver goes back in my hoodie pocket. Everyone’s guns lower, and people go back to what they’re doing—mostly. But the whole time the fifteen-minute timer ticks down, I can’t help but notice that at least two troopers have their eyes on me.
The room’s a tinderbox, and I’ve got flame rounds.