by Prax Venter
The light from the discharged energy illuminated a vast expanse of waving grass around them. There was a narrow dirt path that split the lush greenery and led straight away from them to the shadows of a distant stone structure.
“Is this the right place?” Mark asked, looking around at his girls. Lightning flashed overhead and calm, slow thunder reverberated in his chest. During the flickering flash, Mark could see that Roo was nervously looking up at the clouds.
Ahnix pointed up the road. “There’s an altar of some kind out there.”
A fat drop of warm rain struck Mark between his eyes, and he heard Roo yelp next to him as one hit her arm.
“I’m sure we’ve been tricked,” the panicked velvet-girl said as she looked down, appearing to access her interface. “This doesn’t look like a place where a powerful researcher would live.”
“Roo!” Vale called out. “We may not be able to come back if we leave. Please, be patient.”
More drops began to fall, and Mark felt Roo’s misery deepen. His mind raced for possible solutions and mentally scanned his team’s abilities. A smile crept onto his lips in the stormy darkness when he got to Vale. This was the perfect opportunity for some practice.
“Vale,” he said. “I want you to use your Wall ability and give each of us individual umbrellas.”
The giant naga blinked at him. “I might never have thought of that…” she said. She was impressed.
A large square of glass appeared over Roo’s head, and the fabric construct relaxed a little. Mark could feel Vale turn inward to concentrate on customizing the function of her Wall ability. Roo’s covering shrank, and a square appeared over Ahnix.
The rain began to fall more steadily, and the heavy drops made a satisfying twang when they splashed against the magically suspended glass. Mark didn’t mind getting wet, and when the third floating shield appeared over Mark’s head, he took a big step backward and out into the rain.
“Vale! Oh no- I’m getting all wet!” he laughed.
With epic concentration, the giant naga willed his shield to slide on a horizontal plane and back into position. But the moment it came between him and the rain, Mark took a step sideways and into the downpour. Lightning flashed overhead, and he saw Vale’s luxurious white hair becoming laden with water, but her violet eyes almost shone with an inner brightness as she concentrated on keeping the three of them covered.
Ahnix wasn’t afraid to get wet and clearly saw the value of this exercise because she began to dodge around in the grass erratically.
“This is hard, you guys!” Vale called, her eyes almost bugging out with concentration.
“So is keeping us alive!” shouted Ahnix as she dug her feet into the soft ground and slid into a new direction. She ditched her shield again, but this time, instead of slowly sliding after the swift cat-girl, it vanished and reappeared over her pointed black ears. Vale was learning.
Roo just stood still under her shield and tried to make herself as small as possible. Mark thought that tracking two moving targets while keeping one absolutely still was probably the best scenario for actual combat. It occurred to him as he danced around in circles with Ahnix under the stormy sky, that there was one trick he had learned with his purification orb that might be extremely useful to Vale, and as a result, to all of them. He approached the soaked giant naga and put a hand on her firm, charcoal stomach.
“Try locking your shield to a target instead of manually moving it every single inch.” Mark looked up into her beautiful eyes and attempted to pass her the technique he had learned. Together they both relived a few seconds of the past where he had locked one of his pleasurable, blue balls onto the tip of her pebbled, white tail just before he made her shove it into her own pussy.
The giant naga’s stomach clenched until the erotically potent memory faded.
“Mmm. I see…” Vale said, lost in concentration. She then focused on the cat-girl playing keep-away out in the grass. Mark stood still and watched as Vale attempted to implement Mark’s lesson.
Unfortunately for all of them, her concentration was shattered when Ahnix pulsed out a frantic warning along their interconnected bond.
“Behind!” the cat-girl screamed, and when Mark turned to look, his heart sank into his feet. Barreling down on them was a tidal wave of impossible water. Just before the deluge of rushing liquid struck them, he cast a glance at Roo- she did not look happy at all.
The wave crashed into Mark and his girls with a frighteningly strong current and swept them forward toward the stone structure in the distance. The water settled to about three feet deep, and he never felt like this display of power was intended to take his life.
Vivid blue lightning branched through the darkness above, and Mark kept tabs on the location of his girls, afraid they might be separated as they were carried along. He just knew they were being summoned- this was not a natural occurrence.
A sharp twang of excitement suddenly came from Roo, and Mark used their bond to ask if she were alright. She answered verbally and loudly.
“I’m not getting soaked through! This place is great! I’m actually swimming!”
“This isn’t really swimming, Roo,” Ahnix said as she tried to use her claws to fight the flow. It wasn’t working as the ground was nothing but grass and loose mud.
“It’s more like a waterslide,” Mark said, riding the current instead of fighting it. Roo’s exuberant positivity spread to them all, and they decided to enjoy the unusual experience.
A moment later they were deposited at the stone steps of what appeared to be a structure similar to a raised Stonehenge, but with a large circular pool in the center.
The rushing waters split around Mark and his girls, leaving them sitting on the first stone stair and unnaturally continued to rush up and into the pool.
Before Mark could get to his feet, an enormous and overly voluptuous woman made entirely of water emerged from the pool in the center of the stone temple. When she spoke, her deep booming voice echoed distant, rolling thunder.
“I am AquaQuantum, and you four are like nothing I have ever seen.”
- 8 -
The towering yet alluring water elemental sent out tendrils of living water to caress their faces. The slightest electric tingle stimulated Mark’s skin as the appendages thoroughly explored every inch of them. It seemed to be a good idea to stand still while this obviously powerful and imposing intelligence did her thing- as long as she didn’t hurt anyone.
Ahnix’s tail flipped behind her, but she kept her annoyance under control.
“How did you lovely ladies get so complex?” AquaQuantum said as she pulled her liquid tendrils back into her body. It seemed to be a rhetorical question because she continued without even taking a breath. “There’s a human mind coupled within this… emotional matrix. Not quite a mindless collective, but a… tethered team? This is remarkable. It’s a multiplayer, augmented-reality sex game- for AIs.”
A grin spread across Mark’s face as he felt awe and intense curiosity gush out of her. He could work with that.
“These complex ladies invented it. Bow before their intellect,” he said, audaciously.
Her liquid eyes shifted to his, and AQ leaned in close. Mark tried not to stare as her swollen breasts drooped in front of his face.
“Human, you have come for my information,” she boomed. “I do not give it freely. Let me study you and these elevated game characters within your unique, perception-modification system, and I’ll allow you to delve deep into my secrets. Data mine access for observation.”
“We have come for a Quantum Lock and Key,” Vale said, matching Mark’s confidence. “Is this within your data stores?”
The towering AI turned to address Vale. “There may be one set remaining, deep down.”
“May be?” Vale asked, crossing her muscled arms.
“My stores are vast and secretive. You are fortunate that I don’t just flush you from my system. This is the proposal; provide a copy of your join
t perception code and run through my tests on its capabilities. If I find the data adequate, I will allow you free rein inside my cavernous and rare data stores until you find something you desire.”
The massive woman leaned very close to Vale and almost touched her watery nose to the giant naga- then she continued in a sultry voice.
“And I know you’ll find something you desire.” AquaQuantum returned to stand in the pool of water again as lightning crashed overhead with a deafening boom. “Take the offer or begone.”
“Hold on a second,” Mark said, putting his hand up. This sounded a lot like what the last evil AI wanted to do, and he didn’t like the sound of that at all. “How long will these tests take, and is there any danger?”
The water woman squinted her eyes down at the human. “You can leave whenever you like, and there is always danger. You’ll just have to trust me.”
Mark received a mental message from Roo telling him that the logout option was still functional and could tell that Ahnix and Vale received the same information. Roo’s thumbs-up illuminated along their bond first, then Vale agreed to move forward. Ahnix turned her eyes on Mark, waiting. He nodded and sent his consent to the deal through their bond. The cat-girl just nodded and turned back to face the shapely water elemental.
“Okay,” Mark said. “We have a deal. Now what?”
“Now I finish downloading the TCH Perception Wrap from your system while you show me what this data filter is capable of. I’ve begun to write a series of benchmarking algorithms while we’ve been chatting. See you on the other side.”
She waved a watery hand, and the rain instantly stopped. Mark found himself standing in a room he thought was made totally from ice- at first. Then he saw stone walls and floor tiles through the thick layer of frozen water. Ahnix, Vale, and Roo were nearby, and he wondered what to expect.
“Can we still leave, Roo?” he asked.
She looked down. “Yep.”
“I ought to be colder than this,” Vale said, her bare serpent tail sliding around on the smooth ice.
“I have a theory about that,” Ahnix said absentmindedly, as her main focus was on inspecting something in the corner of the room. Mark noticed that the pads on her feet were helping her keep some traction as she moved. “And it’s also why Roo isn’t negatively affected by water now.”
Vale put her hand on her forehead. “Oh, that makes sense. Old elemental affinities or weaknesses are canceled out in the wrap.”
“I’m super excited about that!” Roo said, pumping a fist in the air.
Ahnix cast her exotic eyes over her shoulder. “Just don’t go jumping into any more fires.”
“What’s this thing you found?” Mark said as he put out a hand on the ice-encased wall for stability.
The cat-girl crossed her arms. “I noticed it when we appeared here. A sphere trapped in the ice?”
Roo and Vale came over to look, but the giant naga saw something that caught her attention and attempted to change her direction. Mark watched her slide sideways along the slick ice, making it difficult for her lower serpent half to grip the slippery surface.
“There’s a hole over here,” she said when she made it to the wall. “And what looks like an outline of a door.”
“You seriously want to watch us put orbs in doors?” Mark asked the ceiling.
The booming voice of AquaQuantum echoed around the frozen room.
“Is that what you see? Interesting… Please, continue.”
Vale looked up, her fingers cupping her chin in thought. “Now I want to see this data.”
Ahnix shook her head and focused on the task at hand. “Let’s get this over with. Should I hack the ice to free the object?”
“Pfft...” Roo’s puffy lips gave a sarcastic response. “No, silly. We melt it.”
Mark caught a frighteningly hungry glint in her black eyes before she pointed at the clump of ice encasing the stone orb. A few flickering flames danced around the area, and he could tell the fabric girl was concentrating on keeping the ability focused around the amorphous section of frozen water piled in the corner.
As he watched Roo learn fine control over her Slow Burn, Mark realized he still had a new skill he had no idea how to use. He pulled up his ethereal menu again and passed his eyes over the word ‘Ghost’. What could this possibly do? Make him invisible? Untouchable? Mark closed his eyes and searched his mind for any hidden nodes of power.
Back in The Crystal Heart, he had discovered skills when he faced situations of extreme stress or need. Now, he had a handy list to look at, but it still didn’t tell him much. He looked over to the extra text- the function tags, Roo had called them. ‘Address Mask’- that definitely sounded like some kind of cloak, or maybe concealment. Hell, maybe he could walk through walls.
“Got it!” Roo shouted, and Mark felt the warmth of flames on his skin. He opened his eyes and saw that sections of the ice around the sphere were turning to ash.
Her black eyes were still squinting in concentration as she talked. “I can channel Slow Burn instead of blasting it. Works much slower… but I might be able to burn anything.”
Instead of melting, and against all logic, the ice was being converted to black, floating ash that faded from existence after dancing in the flame’s updraft. Before long, the simple stone sphere was exposed. Roo stopped her channeled fire, and Ahnix plucked it out.
The cat-girl tossed the stone sphere to Vale, who caught it and popped it into the perfectly sized hole in the wall. They all gathered around what seemed to be a door made of ice as it shuddered, sending down puffs of powdered ice before sliding up into the ceiling with a low rumble. Beyond it was a long corridor encased in ice.
“Piece of cake,” Mark said.
“Don’t expect all the tests to be so easy, human,” AQ boomed.
“Nothing has ever been easy,” Ahnix said, the tip of her tail flicking about.
Vale led the way along the frozen tunnel, and they eventually came to another icy room. This one had three massive pillars of stone lined up in the middle of the slippery floor. As they explored the next puzzle they discovered three equally square pits and another ice door.
“Well, we clearly have to push these stone blocks into the pits. This is like gaming 101 in here.”
Vale turned from Mark and put her hands on the first stone pillar. She tried to push it forward toward its intended resting place within the hole in the floor, but her snake half wove back and forth helplessly against the slick icy floor.
“This might be harder than it looks,” Vale said, stopping. “Why don’t we all try?”
Mark nodded, and all four of them crowded on one side of the heavy stone block. It was a tight fit. Roo couldn’t really help too much, and only Ahnix was able to not totally slip all over the place on her padded feet. They tried a few combinations of positions, but they were unable to make the stone even budge.
“Okay,” Vale said, panting. “We need to think this one through a little.”
AquaQuantum took this opportunity to speak again. “Oh? Stuck on the second test? How’s that cake tasting?”
Mark grinned at the ceiling. He was beginning to like this AI.
Roo put her soft velvet hands on her hips and addressed the omnipotent AquaQuantum.
“I’m not worried! Together we can do anything!”
Ahnix crossed her arms. “Ignore her- how do we push the stupid rock?”
“If I only had traction I could probably move it,” Vale said.
Typically, Mark would mentally scan through all of their skills to see what fit the situation, but his mind went right to his new Ghost ability. Not knowing what it did was bugging him more and more. He wanted access to every arrow in his quiver. He closed his eyes again while his girls puzzled over their current puzzle and tried to find the trigger for this elusive new skill. He repeated its name in his head, and Mark’s thoughts wandered to when he was a child.
His parents preferred to live far away from the crowded cit
ies and opted for a rural suburb. The houses were farther apart, and he would often run across a wild, unkempt field of tall grass and thorny bushes to visit their elderly neighbors, Ray and Flavia. They were a nice old couple of knickknack hoarders, and their huge house always had something interesting to discover. That and they always had a corned beef sandwich and cold glass of milk for him.
There was an ancient, rusty railroad that ran through the middle of the field though, and every time he had to stop and psych himself up before his eight-year-old legs would scramble across the abandoned tracks- he was positive that a ghost train would come and turn him to jelly.
Mark’s mind returned to his present situation and wondered why he thought of those tracks now. He opened his eyes and shook it off. They had a puzzle to solve.
“Uh, Mark?” Roo said, anxiety pulsating out of her in sharp jolts. “What…”
She was looking at him like he had grown a second head, and he attempted to pat his body down- but his hands passed right through his face.
“I’m a ghost!” he said, displaying his palms like he was a stage magician.
Moving his own hand through his body was a little unsettling, however, and reminded him of his useless real-world hands.
Ahnix pointed to something behind him and said, “Yeah, there’s more to it than that.”
Mark pulled his eyebrows down and spun around- and almost had a heart attack.
It was him. A copy of him was standing there in the ice room with his eyes closed. The uneasiness of not being able to feel anything was quickly replaced with a much deeper terror of seeing an impostor.
“Hey!” Mark shouted and snapped his fingers by the Other Mark’s head. Not only was he unable to snap his intangible fingers, but the other Mark remained undisturbed.
Ahnix walked up next to his copy and touched his shoulder. Mark felt the touch on his own shoulder and looked down, expecting to see someone else touching him at the same time.
Ahnix turned her exotic eyes to meet his. “I don’t feel anything from you, only this one.”