“Still, I feel like shit that I didn’t take that thing down quicker. Genos wouldn’t have had to do that, otherwise. We’re a man down now and at the gate.” He looked back at the logo and grunted in annoyance. “It didn’t take any damage at all. I’m out of thermals and ballistic rounds. We got enough firepower to bust that thing open?”
Chiyo walked past him and picked something up off the ground. “It would seem Genos left us a parting gift,” she said, throwing Kaiden the Tsuna’s cannon.
“Why didn’t it disappear with him?” he asked after he caught it.
“Probably because it wasn’t equipped. He had the other rifle, so when he was de-synced, that rifle was considered his main weapon and disappeared with him,” Amber reasoned.
The ace held down the trigger, hearing the cannon buzz and come to life. He aimed it at the wall as the others stood back. “Planned or just luck, I appreciate it either way.” He released the trigger, blasting the logo and the wall apart.
When the dust had settled, the four looked inside, and Kaiden retched, “Is that what I think it is?” he asked. Behind the wall stood a tall device. Cylindrical and with a small circular panel on the bottom, it looked similar to an open Animus pod but more like an older model with the only light being the one from the pad on the ground.
“It’s a teleporter,” Chiyo stated and moved closer. She saw a screen on the right and activated it, and the teleporter turned on. “There’s only one destination—coordinates that make no sense. X, Y and Z are all an infinity symbol.”
“Is that supposed to be symbolism, or is this thing saying it can port us to an infinite number of destinations?” Kaiden asked as he slung Genos’ cannon on his back. “If that’s the case, I hope it doesn’t do it all at once.”
“Technically, that would be impossible,” Amber refuted.
“So are most of the things we’ve been running into,” Flynn countered.
The ace walked up to the pod. “Send me in, Chiyo.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I’ll have to do this one at a time. It shouldn’t take long, but you’ll be temporarily alone.”
“I’m used to that,” he admitted. “Not that I don’t appreciate the company, but that’s been my natural environment for most of my life. I can handle a minute or two of no hand-holding.”
She looked at him for a moment before smiling slightly and nodding. “Beginning teleportation. Step inside.”
He stepped into the pod and leaned back. “At least this way, if I puke when I get there, y’all won’t be around to see it.”
“Try to do it in a corner or something, mate,” Flynn requested. “I don’t wanna teleport in there and immediately slip on your breakfast.”
“No promises,” he ribbed as the teleporter activated and he vanished.
“Next up?” Chiyo asked, looking at Flynn and Amber.
They looked at each other, each raising a fist. “Best two out of three?” she asked.
“Nah, one shot. Let’s get this over with,” the marksman said. At the count of three, they revealed their hand, Flynn with rock and Amber with paper. “Dammit.”
“You and your edgelord cloak get into the pod.” Amber chuckled.
Kaiden appeared in a new room in what felt like less than a second. He stood up and stared at the space around him in awe. “What is this place?” he wondered aloud. The room was a mass of black and white formations, and the space around him flowed with blue lights drifting through the sky like a river. It all floated through the air, heading in the same direction and over a vast expanse of black metallic wall with a lone open doorway through it.
“This seems more like a lair,” Chief noted, floating around the room and observing the streams. “You feeling all right?”
“Wha? Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Guess I got used to the teleportation thing pretty quickly, or that stuff Chiyo gave me is still working.”
“Or it’ll hit you in a few minutes. At least you can yack over the sides and into the pretty void below.”
He looked to the left of the path, seeing nothing below him but more of the blue lights. “Better not trip.”
“Long-ass trip down,” Chief agreed. “Might wanna move. One of your buddies will be coming through soon.”
“Oh, yeah…right,” Kaiden stammered, quickly taking a few steps forward as he continued to try to take in the vista. “How long until the next one arrives?”
On cue, Kaiden saw a bright flash and Flynn landed on all fours. “Oh, Lord, that is frightening!” he exclaimed.
“Your first time?” Kaiden asked as he walked over to help him up and pull him away.
“We had some time with teleporters in prep, and I used the teleporter stations in Melbourne from time to time, but it was never that fast or intense,” he explained, taking several deep breaths. “That was a ringer.”
“Might wanna come down from that quickly and take a look around,” the ace advised.
“Oh… Well, this is different.” Flynn gasped.
“Right? Looks like cyber-purgatory,” Kaiden mused. “Let’s hope we don’t have to stay here long.”
“What the hell is all that floaty business?” Wulfson grimaced. “Where are they? This one of your pet projects, Laurie?”
The professor shook his bottle of wine and sighed at its emptiness. “Although I would hate to spoil your sense of discovery, I also know that’s something lost to you,” he lamented as he placed the bottle back on the table. “It’s a separate map that contains the Animus personification of the Director EI. Kaiden and his friends are the first to see it in twenty years.”
“So they actually made it,” Wulfson bellowed, his voice growing more jovial. “I was beginning to think they were on a wild goose chase. Looks like they are taking home the gold.”
“Not necessarily,” Sasha interjected. “The EI won’t simply submit or deactivate when you press a button. They still have one last trial.”
“How do you know, Sasha?” Mya asked, now engrossed in Kaiden’s travel. She was no longer watching her team’s progress—fortunately, for they had been one of the first to fall once the Honor was activated. “You’ve read the reports? Or seen the vids from the first team?”
“I had no reason to,” Sasha stated, paying close attention to the screen as Amber and Chiyo appeared.
“Then how do you…” Mya’s question trailed off.
Laurie chuckled. “Putting it together, Miss Mya? I must admit, I’m a little envious that dear Kaiden seems to take more after our commander than me.”
“In some ways,” Sasha said, watching as the team set off down the path. “I wish he would take notes in other ways, but in a few, he surpasses me.” He leaned forward to rest his head on his folded hands. “Let’s see how this concludes.”
The group walked down the path and into the hallway. Kaiden called a halt when he saw that the path in front of them ended. “Did they not finish the road?” he snarled, looking at the vast expanse between them and the end of the hallway.
Chiyo walked over and leaned over to press a hand down, causing ripples to appear. “Hard light bridge,” She revealed and stood. “Scan, Kaitō.” She was silent for a moment as her lenses flared and dimmed soon after. “It will take us all the way to the end.”
“Like I trust that? What’s to stop it from disappearing under our feet and dropping us into the pit?” he asked.
“What’s to stop it from doing it now?” she asked, tapping her foot on the floor. “It might appear solid, but the Director controls everything in here. This is just as susceptible to being removed as the bridge.”
The ace frowned as he took a cautious step onto the bridge, “I hate being in the domain of what is essentially EI Jesus.”
“Losing your nerve when we’ve come this far?” she asked.
He glared at her and sighed. “Clever girl.” After a few more cautious steps and seeing the translucent floor send small ripples around his feet, he relaxed slightly and continued. His teammates followed slo
wly.
When they reached the other side, the infiltrator bumped into his back as he suddenly stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing much…” he sputtered, leaning over so she could see past him. “Just whatever the hell that is.”
The group’s eyes all went wide as they saw a massive orb of white energy. All the blue streams flowed into it and green streams flowed out. It floated in the middle of the circular room, surrounded by pillars of an octagonal shape.
The group moved forward, looking at the massive sphere in shock and confusion.
“Is that your big brother, Chief?” Kaiden asked, pointing at the giant shimmering orb.
“If I had relations, I’m pretty sure I would know about this one,” Chief stated, observing the construct. “But if he is, he better not ask for money.”
“So, this is the Director thing?” Amber asked.
“Yes, those streams are representations of data flowing to and from it. This is what we’ve been searching for,” Chiyo explained.
“How the bloody hell are we supposed to deal with that thing?” Flynn asked.
She pursed her lips and activated her holoscreen. It immediately flashed red and disappeared. “I’ve been locked out?”
“You didn’t believe it would be that simple, Initiate Chiyo Kana?” The voice actually sounded like several voices speaking at once in various tones—whispery and mellow, loud and booming, calm and melodious.
“Was that the big thing?” Amber asked.
“You speak Japanese?” Chiyo asked.
“Japanese?” Kaiden questioned, “I didn’t hear any moon-speak.”
“It is a simple matter for me to translate my communications into whatever language I need to for conversation,” the Director stated. “I’m speaking to you individually, although you may all hear it. I choose the primary language of the listener for convenience. That includes English, Japanese, and code for your flying friend there.”
“What?” Kaiden looked at the orb. “Is that thing talking to you in clicks and chirps or something, Chief?”
“It’s a little more technical and nuanced than that,” Chief grumbled. “Like I said, this thing is the deluxe collector’s edition, super-special-awesome version of normal EIs. What he’s doing is essentially what all EIs do to ‘talk’—translate our coding into human or alien language.”
“You keep hyping this thing. I thought you were supposed to be the uber EI here,” Kaiden admonished.
“I am, among normal EIs,” Chief explained, his eye narrowing. “This thing is a few tiers above, though. It essentially ran the entire Animus system for more than a decade. That’s a hell of a lot of power and function.” Chief turned to address the Director. “I have to admit, it is nice to speak to someone on my level for a change. You wouldn’t believe what it’s like to work with this guy.”
The voices chuckled. “Yes, I have records of all of your exploits. Some are rather amusing.”
“You can feel amused? You have emotion?” Chiyo asked, astonished.
“Hmm, no more so than any other EI. We can approximate human emotion through programs and make educated deductions about how to understand a situation, depending on various parameters and tags. I found Initiate Kaiden Jericho’s mishap at the beginning of the Division Test to be quite humorous.”
“Which one?” Flynn asked, he and Amber looking at the ace.
Kaiden sighed. “I stepped on a mine right after landing.”
They laughed. “Seriously? I spent half that test thinking you were a badass. That would have put things in perspective.” Flynn chortled.
“I expected to come here for a fight, not spend the end of this test having to deal with an EI running through a montage of my fails,” Kaiden growled
“Oh, that will come. I wanted to be a gracious host and offer simple conversation and alternatives before we devolved to that,” the EI responded calmly.
“Wait, you are gonna attack us?” Flynn snapped, arming his sniper rifle. “You seemed like such a nice chap.”
“As I said, I would prefer not to,” the director reiterated. “There are a number of ways this could go. You have done so well to get here, I feel like it would be something of a tragedy to get this far and falter now.”
“Now that it’s starting to feel like itself, the resemblance is starting to come out a bit more, Chief,” Kaiden jeered, taking his rifle in both hands. “As much as I would like to shoot something, especially after that bot you sent at us killed my alien buddy, I can be placated. How many of these solutions of yours end with us winning?”
“Hmm, that was unfortunate. I have less information on the Tsuna, but to see one act so selflessly was a nice experience. It gives me hope for the future of your two species, knowing that there are those among them like that.”
“I haven’t worked with too many, but the ones I do run with are both like that,” Kaiden stated.
“Noted and added to my directory.” The EI construct flashed briefly. “As for solutions that would end in immediate victory for you, well, there are none, definitively,” the Director admitted. “But I can teleport you to anywhere within the building or the island that you wish. I can grant you weapons of your choosing and empower your armor. You would have a clear advantage over the remaining initiates.”
“There are only forty-two initiates left besides y’all,” Chief informed them. “Most are alone or have lost at least one teammate. You could just run through the rest.”
“That would lead us to fighting each other,” Kaiden protested.
“I know that we promised to leave each other at the end, but now that we’ve gotten here together, I would feel terrible if it came to that,” Amber admitted.
“Not to mention that if Jaxon and Luke’s teams are still kicking, they’d hold the fact that we were powered up when we took them down over our heads,” Flynn pointed out.
“Agreed. No dice, big guy.” The ace raised his rifle and placed his finger on the trigger. “Deactivate yourself, or we’ll find a way to do it for you.”
“I am still bound to follow the orders of others within certain conditions. Are you sure this is your choice? Perhaps I can still offer something to end this more amicably.”
“Nah, we’ve made up our minds,” Kaiden declared, looking at the others. Chiyo and Amber nodded back, drawing their weapons as the marksman took aim.
“Understood. Activating defenses.” The group saw numerous droids, mutants, and mercs appear around the room. “I wish you luck. I would predict that your chances of survival are around thirty-two-point-three percent.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Anyone got a plan?” Flynn asked, trying to snipe some of the hostiles as they were ported in.
“Not dying, for starters,” Kaiden snapped, backing up as a trio of Assassin droids ran toward him. He fired several shots, taking two out as another made a leap toward him. Three shots to the head dropped it as Chiyo reloaded her Scorpio. She fired another shot from her shock pistol at an advancing grunt, stunning him, and Amber finished him off.
“Leap down,” Chiyo ordered.
“To what?” Kaiden demanded. He vented his rifle and looked over the edge. “Those pillar things?
“We can’t stay here, we’ll be overwh—ah!” She cried out in pain as she took a shot in the back.
“Dammit!” Kaiden cursed, closed the vent, and destroyed the Assault droid that had shot Chiyo. He fired on two heavies that were starting up their chain guns.
“Climb on,” the ace said. She held onto his shoulders and scrambled onto his back. “This won’t be a safe landing,” he warned as he jumped down.
Flynn and Amber kept firing from the bridge as they backed up to the edge, then jumped down and followed them.
Kaiden and Chiyo landed hard, the infiltrator falling off his back as he nearly slipped off. There was a brief moment of respite before shots were fired from above. “We’re not exactly safe down here either,” he shouted. “And now we’re on the lo
w ground!” He saw their teammates land on a pillar across from them, then took out a healing serum and tossed it to Chiyo.
She drank it quickly and looked up. “Kaiden, over there.”
Kaiden looked over to see a node in the shape of a pointed obelisk, bare of any accents or markings. “What about it?”
“We need to get over there. That could be a direct connection to the Director.”
“We’ve kind of had shit luck with nodes.” Kaiden took a bullet in the left shoulder from an Assault droid, shattering the last remnants of the shoulder pad. “Tenacious bastards,” he growled, firing back, and managed to hit one as the others ducked out of range.
“The Director said there was a chance we could win this. It isn’t a no-win scenario. We can’t take on waves of opponents with only the four of us,” she reasoned. “We have to make it across.”
“Kaiden, look out,” Flynn shouted, firing past him. The shot hit a Guardian droid that had appeared on a pillar behind him and Chiyo.
“These things are zipping all around the room now,” he hollered, firing at the newly-appearing enemies. “Go, I’ll catch up!”
She nodded, then ran and leaped to another pillar, using her Scorpio to shoot anything in her path. The ace took out a duo of merc grunts before leaping to the next pillar, venting his rifle. An Assault droid appeared, its back to him. He kicked it off the edge and drew Debonair with his free hand, firing at two drones that were flying his way.
“This is crazy even for us,” Chief shouted.
“Keep moving, keep shooting,” Kaiden declared. “We’ll make it out of this.”
“You think this will get worse?”
Before he could respond, the entire room was bathed in white light. When it receded, he stood on a sand dune. The room they had been in had transformed into a desert.
“Never mind, I’ll shut up.” He sighed.
“At least it’s better footing.” He grunted, rolled to the side, and fired at a grunt who ran down a hill. He heard a beastly shriek behind him and saw a devil bird flying overhead. “Hey, look, it’s our old buddy.”
Animus series Boxed Set Page 90