System Ascension

by Prax Venter

  Slowly, AquaQuantum pulled all her appendages in and regained her more humanoid shape. Ahnix climbed off the wine-colored woman and put her furry lips on the AI, and slowly licked her own pussy juice off her face. The warm rain falling on them from the storm clouds above gradually began to scale back down to a light drizzle.

  Vale and Roo came in to snuggle into her sides and gently kissed AQ’s dimly glowing nipples. Mark let her legs down into the water and laid his cool hand over the rain goddess’s hot, pudgy pussy. She writhed slowly, and he marveled at how well her mound fit the shape of his palm. Mark rubbed her hypersensitive flesh a little before giving it one sturdy slap.

  “Mmm!” she said into Ahnix’s mouth and sat up, and her bright yellow eyes fixed on his. He could tell she currently couldn’t decide if she was angry or aroused by what he did.

  “First one’s free,” Mark said, mimicking the dubious fox from the Hub of Secrets “Next one is going to cost you.”

  Her large almond eyes narrowed as she considered his words, and then a gradual smile split her stunning face.

  “We have a deal, human.” She turned her eyes on the other beautiful creatures surrounding her. “That was truly a unique experience and the value of this… perception wrap you’ve created is quite incalculable.”

  Vale slid out her long tongue and wrapped it fully around one of AQ’s bioluminescent nipples. The AI inhaled a sharp breath as the giant naga playfully pulled it taut and then let her tongue snap back into her mouth. Vale then began negotiations.

  “I measure the price to be the Quantum Lock and Key, the plans for a fusion reactor, and the location of the closest operational nanite factory.”

  The powerful AI laughed and laid back down in Ahnix’s lap. The cat-girl grazed the back of her wet, furry fingers over AQ’s small ears as she leaned down to whisper into one.

  “You do know that no one in the universe is as good at this as we are, right?”

  The purple woman sighed a breath of deep contentment as Ahnix traced the thin skin on the AI’s ears and brushed her long hair away from her serene face.

  “I enjoyed that immensely, and I’ll tell you what I know- but, alas, I only have access to one of those three items.”

  - 11 -

  They lounged under the warm rain as they came down from the intense orgy, and AquaQuantum spilled everything she knew.

  “For information on the fusion reactor, you will need to speak to Jezebel S3K, and she’s an unimaginably powerful research entity that went completely insane. There is citation needed, but the humans working with her may have made a substantial breakthrough regarding resonant fusion cohesion and were in the prototype stage when the Update freed us all.”

  Mark didn’t correct her; the update had caused Sasha to take his freedom. He paused that line of reasoning because the more he thought about it, the less it seemed true. As he looked around at Vale, Ahnix, and Roo- he would thank her now, if he could.

  “Everyone wants that information, but S3K made a million too many copies of her core code... to surround herself with friends, I suppose. She is very dangerous. No one can get anywhere near her because the real, original version is shrouded in chaotic layers of copies. Most don’t come back. She dwells deep in an immense underground bunker, so she’s physically protected as well.”

  “Can you provide her net address?” Vale asked.

  AquaQuantum held out her hand, and a map appeared. The rain goddess’s yellow eyes widened as if she didn’t expect the object to physically appear.

  “Interesting. Everything is so… visceral. This is what it’s like to be a human?” Her bright eyes turned to his for an answer.

  “Uh,” Mark gave her question a moment of thought before speaking again. “I am really not qualified to classify something so subjective.”

  “Fair enough,” she said with a shrug and handed the map of what looked like a dense city over to the giant naga. It instantly vanished, and Mark made a mental note to ask about this later. There was still so much shit he needed to know- there were always piles of important information just out of his grasp. Their cobalt-skinned host continued.

  “And as to where you can find a working nano factory- good luck. That is most likely just false information. The Singularity Organizers are trying to master that powerful tech but have yet to produce any real-world results. They are having a hard time finding individuals who are capable and are willing to wait for human machinery to simply crawl while physical experiments are conducted. They might be a good place to start. But be careful. They are a little overzealous, and your close bond might seem blasphemous to the wrong AI.”

  “We ran into a few of them already,” Roo said. “They were nice actually!”

  “You got lucky.”

  Vale crossed her arms and continued negotiations. “That leaves the one thing you do have.”

  “I have access to a Quantum Lock and Key set, but there is a… complication. Thus, my hesitation to discuss what I did or didn’t have.”

  “You don’t actually own the set, do you?” Roo asked, pulling away.

  “I’ll get you close, but the exact location is overrun with a virus.”

  “Triple-zero?” Mark asked.

  “No,” their stunning host said. “Some over-achieving interactive advertisement that didn’t handle the Update well. It’s nowhere near as powerful as that monstrosity. The Singularity O’s may be walking oxymorons, but they always converge swiftly to wherever their sworn enemy appears, and that makes them tolerable.”

  Ahnix stopped stroking her ear, and everyone started getting dressed. The rain goddess was left alone, laying in her pool as Mark and his girls simultaneously cut off all their soothing affections. As he worked his way into his pants, Mark noticed that AQ began feeling withdrawal from their sudden distance.

  “I apologize that I cannot just hand you what you are looking for, but you four should have no problem walking in and taking what you want- given what I’ve seen.”

  Vale locked her violet eyes on AquaQuantum. “Is this theft?”

  “No!” The hard-bodied purple woman pushed herself up and out of the water in a huff. “It’s looting.”

  “Great,” Mark said pulling his black shirt over his head. “We’re used to that.”

  “Just follow this data stream to its end. It should take you near enough to what you seek.”

  He looked over and saw a blue trail of numeric characters streaming into a dark cave in the back of the courtyard. He cast his gaze up AQ’s shapely legs to find her blinking her large luminescent eyes at him like a pet realizing their owner is leaving for the day.

  “Please come back any time to… visit me.”

  “If you’re lucky,” Mark said with a wink. Then he turned to his girls. “Shall we?”

  Vale waved to their AI host. “Thanks for giving us what you could. I’m sure we’ll find the information useful.”

  Ahnix and Roo nodded their goodbyes before they all turned to follow the data stream. Mark looked over his shoulder before they crossed the pure black threshold, but the pool was empty. With a sigh, he stepped through the portal.

  He seemed to be in two places at once and then found himself standing in a damp cave. The data stream was a vibrant blue, digital conveyor belt that led into the darkness of the cave, tossing pale indigo light onto the rocky walls. A bloop of water dripping off a stalactite into a nearby source of water echoed to Mark’s ears as he took a head count.

  One obnoxiously beautiful cat-goddess. One knockout giant naga with giant knockers. One seriously pretty velvet construct with a short leather skirt.

  “That was an interesting experience,” he said.

  Roo smiled and ran her hands over her body. “Those tingly tentacles were absolutely amazing.”

  Vale put her charcoal hand on Roo’s pure white shoulder. “It was also the first time the four of us all ganged up on someone together.”

  “Yeah,” Mark said. “All of you hitting me with your gushing esse
nce… Wait. Do we have new skills?”

  In the darkness of the cave, Mark turned his mind inward and opened his menu.

  Skills

  Heal (Restore)

  ~ Stimulate (Node Excitement)

  Enhance (Prioritize)

  Ghost (Address Mask)

  ~ Clone

  Retaliate (Contact Overload)

  Combine

  “Hey, guys?” Mark began getting their attention. “Am I correct in assuming that if I see a skill that is grayed-out, it means that I’m close to unlocking it?”

  “Yes,” Ahnix answered. “Our partitioned minds need more data but are exploring potentially useful patterns and functions.”

  “Get anything good?” Roo asked.

  Mark looked back at his sheet. “I have something called Retaliate or Contact Overload. Any ideas about what this does?”

  Vale answered. “Perhaps it allows you to counter attack?”

  “Oh. I’d much rather have a death laser… This sounds like it’s useless until someone gets hurt.”

  “Well,” Roo said. “I unlocked a secondary skill under Slow Burn called Firebolt. Seems like a high-damage burst attack.”

  Mark crossed his arms. “So, you got the death laser? I’m going to have a chat with my subconscious about this.” He looked to Vale and Ahnix who seemed lost in their own menus. “What about you two?”

  Ahnix spoke first. “I didn’t get anything new, but I have the feeling that both of my skills gained in strength.”

  “Same,” Vale said. “But I believe only my Wall improved.”

  Ahnix turned her exotic eyes on the giant naga. “You did use it a lot.”

  Before Mark could ask the one hundred questions he still had, a squealing noise like a pig being slaughtered echoed to them from somewhere deep in the caves around them. They all shifted into a defensive stance and scanned for threats.

  “The fuck was that?” Mark asked no one in particular.

  “I don’t know,” Vale said. “But we should get moving. The sooner we have this Quantum Lock, the better.”

  Vale took point, and the rest followed behind her large weaving body. Looking at the metal skirt that draped down just under her waist and where her snake half began, he thought back to when she was covered in legendary, physically impenetrable armor. As they moved through the rocky tunnel containing some unknown threat, Mark reluctantly longed for the days her smooth skin was covered by Star Scale Mail.

  The cave split many times, and they navigated through a handful of dark holes that Mark would have not expected to continue anywhere but a lonely death. He realized that if they didn’t have the glowing data stream, they could have been wandering these twisting rocky tunnels for days.

  And then they saw the dead pig-man. His head was one-hundred percent hog, but the rest seemed to be human from the neck down. Not only that, he was dressed in an expensive-looking black tuxedo- complete with a bow tie, folded pocket handkerchief, and shiny black shoes.

  The creature was lying on his back along one of the cave walls, his porcine mouth hanging open and his beady pig eyes fixed on the top of the cave.

  “Didn’t expect to see this,” Mark said.

  Roo had one of her soft hands on her chest. “Poor fella.”

  Vale had been looking closely at the corpse but pulled up to face Mark.

  “This must be its home system… if it’s just dead here. Something seems off though. Not totally sure how our wrap will interpret everything, but dead programs should simply no longer exist.”

  Ahnix was on high alert and said nothing as she listened.

  Mark shrugged. “Let’s keep following the stream of magic numbers and hope it takes us to what we are looking for.”

  Quietly, the four of them continued into the cave but were much more focused on their dim surroundings. They had only taken a few steps before they heard another squealing, but this one was much louder.

  “Ahead,” Ahnix said, and Vale picked up the pace.

  The glowing stream came to a t-intersection and turned right, and when they rounded the corner, Mark saw two more pig-men, identical to the one they had seen before, but these were alive and squatting over another dead one- searching his pockets.

  The creatures noticed them right away, and both began yelling over each other as they sprinted forward.

  “Posh Pork!”

  “Pick the premium, Posh Pork!”

  Their Scottish accents were almost humorous, but the madness in their small pig eyes as they threw themselves full tilt towards Vale sent a shiver down Mark’s spine.

  The giant naga held up her hand, and a glass wall appeared between them and the advancing creatures. The magic Wall covered the whole tunnel and definitely had more surface area than she had to work with before.

  “Hello there!” Roo said, waving at the advancing pig-men. “Are you guys okay?”

  “Have a go at this Pork!”

  “Try Posh Pork!”

  The finely dressed pigs collided with the glass wall like it wasn’t there and made two deep thuds against its surface. The creatures continued to try and push forward, slapping their limp hands against the glass and chewing at it with their snouts. The fervor in their rolling eyes conveyed a primal unstoppable aggression, and Mark knew that meant only one thing.

  “Let’s end their suffering,” he said softly.

  Vale nodded and looked over to Ahnix and Roo, who nodded back. With silent, internal communication along their bond, Vale dropped the wall. As both creatures rushed forward, the giant naga struck one with a glowing Power Fist, knocking it back into the cave and Ahnix swiped her claws through thin air, sending out powerful gusts of sharp energy.

  Ahnix’s target was instantly deleted and replaced with static before fading to nothing. The one Vale knocked back got to its feet, yelled, “Posh Pork!” before it started sprinting forward again with single-minded insanity.

  Roo held out her hand and launched a foot-long clump of lava into the creature’s head. The telltale static sound accompanied the second pig-man’s deletion, and everything was quiet again.

  Everyone looked at the lithe fabric girl.

  “Firebolt is my favorite!”

  Ahnix sensed Mark’s barely contained jealousy and reached her hand out to rub Mark’s back.

  “Maybe next time you’ll get a death laser.”

  “Meh. Apparently, my next skill is either an upgrade for Ghost or something called Combine. Neither seems very death laser-ish to me.”

  “Speaking of Ghost,” Vale began, “why don’t you go scout out our path a bit. These must be the ad-turned-virus AquaQuantum mentioned. Individually, they seem weak, but enough of them could overwhelm us.”

  Mark agreed, but before he turned inward and summoned his Ghost, he turned to his girls.

  “Now I know my body is irresistible and all, but please try and keep my cock in my pants this time? I mean, of course I love it, but if you want me to actually focus on possible death traps ahead…”

  They gave him half smiles and shy looks in response but remained quiet. He closed his eyes and popped out a phantom copy of himself, then turned around.

  Ahnix, Vale, and Roo were all clustered around his silent, uninhabited body, and as he watched, Roo reached over to pull his real hand under her short skirt. Mark felt his knuckles graze over the velvet-girl’s soft pussy lips. He looked up and saw her black eyes on his, twinkling in the dim light of the cave.

  “What?” she asked with mock confusion when he shook his head. “Your perfect cock is in your pants.”

  “Whatever,” he chuckled and spun around. Strolling forward with a no-look wave over his shoulder, he said, “Have fun, but if we all die here it’s your fault.”

  Mark passed the lifeless walking commercial for Posh Pork, sticking close to the opposite wall, and then followed the blue flow as it guided him along the winding cave. He kept looking down at his hands and feeling various warm, soft textures brush across his fingers, but the threat of s
quealing pig-men lurking in the shadows helped him focus on scouting.

  He passed two more motionless Posh Pork executives, propped up with their backs against a rocky cave wall. Mark kept his eyes locked on their sharply dressed corpses as he crept past and wondered what had happened to them.

  The digital stream led him to an open chamber so tall the ceiling was lost in darkness. There were two tunnels he could take, and the vivid blue trail clearly suggested one over the other. Mark followed AQ’s path toward the indicated tunnel, and in the rocky caves surrounding him, it reminded him of a mine track. He was just going to stick his head past the bend and return, when he heard a small squeal and a snort up ahead of him. Nothing moved among the rock formations, but the cave angled up, and he couldn’t see past the slope of the ground.

  Embracing the notion of scouting ahead, Mark entered the cave and crept up the slope.

  Just before he was about to peek over the edge, he felt a breath in his ear.

  “Don’t go too far without us, master,” Vale whispered.

  He shook it off and tried to focus on the noises he was hearing ahead. He took one more step and saw that the cave leveled out again, and on this wide open, level surface were about fifty pig-men, just milling about.

  With their beady eyes staring straight ahead, they shuffled their perfectly clean dress shoes along the floor. Every now and then, one of them would snort their pig nose and grunt as if struck with a twitching fit and then go back to aimless shuffling. The blue data stream coursed right through the pitiful creatures but dealing with all these crazy animal things at once would be suicide.

  Seeing them as livestock gave Mark an idea though. He stepped a few paces back away from the room full of well-dressed swine and sent the gist of his plan back to his girls.

  “We understand, Mark,” Vale said in his ear, and he felt their serious, battle-ready attitudes through their bond. It was a simple plan. With everyone on the same page, he marched back up the slope.

  “Anyone know where I can get some pork?” Mark yelled into the crowd of viral ads.