by Prax Venter
As one, all of the pig heads snapped to his location at the edge of their chamber and instantly began to surge forward. Mark turned and ran as fast as he could away from the mob. Here and there among the din of their collected banter, a large group of them would all say, “Posh Pork!” simultaneously but mostly it was just a horde of babbling nonsense following close behind.
When Mark made it back to the large chamber, he took the other tunnel not indicated by the data stream placed by AquaQuantum.
Vale was supposed to surge forward at this point and Wall the tunnel behind Mark’s Ghost while Ahnix and Roo stayed back to guard his body.
After a heart-pounding chase through the twisting caves, Mark received the mental signal that the barrier was in place. He took one more random turn, leading them deeper off course and breaking their line of sight- then canceled his Ghost.
He was instantly teleported back to his own body and sprinted forward with Ahnix and Roo flanking his sides. The moment Mark noticed that the two dead pig-men with their backs to the wall he had passed earlier were missing, they all received a panicked pulse from Vale. She was in danger.
Ahnix activated Haste and sprinted past Mark. As he ran, Mark felt bits of his precious giant naga collect in his healing cache. He clenched his jaw and demanded his legs move faster.
He burst into the chamber just in time to see Ahnix dispatch two of the bastards with her claws while five other pig-men remained chewing on Vale’s tail. When he saw them hurting his protector giant naga while she held up the barrier keeping the horde out- he lost his mind. Pure, hatred and vengeance erupted from within him. Something snapped, Mark let out a throaty roar, and his Retaliate skill triggered with a tremendous red pulse of energy.
The heads of all five of the Posh Pork pig-men touching Vale exploded at once, erasing them from existence.
Without skipping a beat, Mark ran up to Vale and channeled all of her damaged parts back into her. The maddening bloody bite marks on her body faded, and she moaned quietly as he restored her.
Mark looked over at the side tunnel and saw slapping hands of a horde of hogs in suits- but the glass was holding.
“That Retaliate is fantastic,” Roo said, still awestruck. “You just popped all their heads with a shout.”
“Yeah, but it required Vale’s suffering. Either way the plan kind of worked.” He turned to his giant naga and put a hand on her smooth back. “How long can you hold them?”
“It’s not too bad but growing difficult. Let’s move.”
They left the quarantined virus and followed the data stream up the sloped cave Mark had scouted before. Now that the place wasn’t milling with dapper pigs, he saw backlit alcoves carved into the walls on each side. The luminous path of streaming numbers led them to the back of the cave, and Mark’s eyes bounced left and right as they passed treasure after treasure.
The arrayed objects were encased in glass and quite peculiar. They passed a metallic banana, a tennis racket, a floating lilypad, a miniature airship and a host of other oddities. The path led them to a chamber that held a glowing green lock and a red key. The objects seemed to be made from plastic and were cartoonishly basic and oversized. The digital stream ran up the side of the glass barrier and swirled around a large hole punched straight through. If he had to guess, the data stream was holding open the obstruction, allowing them access to the items.
“I can’t hold them much longer!” Vale said, putting a hand to her head.
“Roo, take them,” Mark said. “You are our key holder!”
Without hesitation, the supple masked construct thrust her arm through the glass barrier and touched the objects floating inside. With a flash, the lock and key were gone.
“Got em!” she said.
“Take us home, Roo!” Mark said. A smile spread across his face. It had always been her job to get them home. From her sudden deep breath, they could tell that Vale had dropped her shield just as the velvet-girl logged them off.
The damp cave was replaced with outer space again as they plummeted back to their home base. He noticed a black key emitting a faint red glow against Roo’s white velvet neck. She really had always been their key holder, and now she was again.
Mark’s spirit was light as they touched the white glow of their home node and ended up deposited in the dirt road. They all walked up to the white picket fence and just before he was about to ask how they applied the new Quantum Lock to their fence, Ahnix pulsed out a sharp jolt of alarm.
He followed her attention and noticed an old woman with a long green dress standing by their tire swing- on the other side of their fence.
“Welcome home,” she said with a casual wave.
- 12 -
Just seeing this little old lady with her gray bun, thick half-spectacles, and a pastel floral scarf tucked into her collar, Mark would be far from fearful- but Ahnix, Vale, and Roo were all very clear along their bond that a stranger past this gate was undesirable. This was an intruder in their home.
“Good to be home,” Mark said with a grin. He paused to open the gate for his girls, keeping his eyes on the old lady. He was getting mild curiosity and caution from her and decided to play it cordial. Mark walked in last, leaving the gate open.
“You snuck past our defense for a reason,” he continued when everyone was inside the fence. “I’ll bet it’s not to sell cookies.”
The woman gave a small curtsy.
“My name is Evelyn, and I represent the Singularity Organizers.” Her voice was light and pleasant with just a hint of an Irish accent. “I learned of your group from a report submitted by two of our Primes, Alpha-9 and Marcail-17. When I heard there was a new digital human mind tied closely with three entertainment characters, I had to come see for myself.”
She passed her sharp green eyes over Mark and his girls, and his skin rippled with a phantom, half-imagined tingle under her scan. Ahnix’s tail started to flip behind her, and he sent her a message of calm. These people might be great allies- or not. But it was much wiser at this point to hear the intruder out. The older woman continued.
“Not a mote of light between you, yet you still seem to be individuals. This… bubble you’ve created out of your native entertainment software is intriguing- if a bit dangerous. One tiny glitch and you may find your individual identity overwritten by the group mind and reduced to a violent blob of instinct.”
Mark looked around at his girls before he turned back to Evelyn with a smile.
“My name is Mark. This is Ahnix, Vale, and Roo. We very much cherish our individuality. And I will say that the Singularity Organizers interest me. I saw how your Primes, as you called them, dealt with Triple-zero. I kind of have a personal goal of ending its existence.”
Her eyes narrowed. The woman’s carefully crafted mask slipped a little, and he could tell she did not expect him to say that. Evelyn stepped forward, and Mark noticed that she had bare feet beneath her dress.
“I can imagine. That monster has erased humans as well as AI…and, as a human, you don’t wish the rest of us ill will?” Mark could sense her passive scan focus sharply on him after she asked that last question.
“What? Are you asking me if I hate all AI?” He looked around into the eyes of his girls again and then turned back to her. “Only the individuals that try to hurt me or my friends.”
The gray-haired woman nodded sharply. “This is good news, Mark. I’m glad I came for a visit. I can see that you are serious, and if you agree to separate as individuals, I will begin the ordination process and grant your lovely home the protections that come with devotion. Always remember- alone, we can do anything.”
Mark’s heart sank as this potential avenue dried up. There was no way he was severing his bond with his girls. Ahnix’s tail hopped again, and he was getting similar negative reactions from Vale and Roo as well.
“Well, Evelyn, I’m also glad you stopped by for a visit. The four of us need to discuss how we wish to move forward with your generous proposition.” Mar
k held his hand out toward the open gate, his message clear.
The older woman kept her smile locked in place as her sharp green eyes bounced around everyone present and settled on Ahnix.
“I have yet to hear the rest of you speak as individuals. Ahnix my dear, how do you feel about joining with the SO? I can really make it worth your while.”
Everyone turned to face the cat-girl. Was this woman trying to split them apart?
Ahnix crossed her arms. “Under your conditions, never.”
Vale spoke quickly afterward. “Our perception wrap is keeping Mark’s mind from going insane. It is not designed to merge our patterns, and we work extremely well as a close group of individuals.”
Roo gave a little curtsey. “Nice to meet you, ma’am, but there is no way I’m ever going to separate from Mark or my friends.”
Mark raised his eyebrows and pulled in a big breath. “Welp, looks like that’s it. Perhaps we can find a way to work together in the future to fight our common enemy.”
The older woman only stared for a moment before nodding slowly as she considered their words. Then she sighed.
“What good is being an individual if you can’t make your own choices? I do hope at least one of you will reconsider. The Triple-zero virus is a formidable and relentless enemy.” She walked over the lush grass of their front lawn and exited through the front gate, closing it behind her. She rested two age-knotted hands on the wooden posts and looked straight at Mark before continuing.
“If you change your mind and want to help make the world a better place, please reconsider my offer. Until then, I’ll be keeping a close eye on you- for your own protection of course.” Evelyn took her wrinkled hands off the fence and vanished with a buzz of static.
Mark let out a big sigh. His mind was trying to figure out what to ask first but just stalled again.
Vale sensed his exhaustion and put her hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get that lock in place before we do anything else.”
“Good idea,” Roo said as she stalked towards the wooden gate through the grass. She held up her fabric hand, and the large, green padlock appeared. The velvet-girl thrust her palm outward, and the white picket fence instantly shifted upwards into a towering wall made from a rough black stone.
Mark approached their new defenses and put his hand on the massive hunk of basalt bordering their front lawn. He got the sense that this was a very sturdy wall indeed. A ramp was cut into the side that allowed access to the top where protective crenellations provided cover. There was only a single archway through, and he saw a portcullis barring the way. Beyond the iron bars blocking the entry point was the dirt road that ran outside their home.
“This is quite the substantial upgrade,” Mark said, looking up. It had to be two stories tall and six feet deep.
“It is,” Vale said. “If someone were to try and even look at the password, it would instantly change to a new one. The quantum linked key we hold will update with the new entangled password. There is no physical range limit, and the data is impossible to intercept- because it doesn’t actually travel to the key.”
Ahnix stepped up to join them by the gate. “The real world holds magic, after all.”
“Spooky…” Roo said, playfully.
Mark was about to ask how distance mattered if everything was contained in his apartment- he shook his head to clear out his amateur knowledge of quantum mechanics. Ahnix was right, but that was a subject he had neither the patience nor the expertise to discuss with them right now.
He slapped the immovable fortification with his hand. “This will keep grandma out, right?”
The giant naga shrugged. “It should.”
“Okay, so. It seems like our best option now is to check out our fusion lead.”
“Jezebel is such a great sounding name,” Roo said, dreamily.
“You know she’ll end up being a monster,” Ahnix said.
Mark nodded and tuned out as Ahnix and Vale teased Roo about changing her name. Warm, sourceless sunlight spilled straight down on them, always locked at noon. He looked up at the scatter of stars above them. Time didn’t seem to have any meaning here, and he realized that he wasn’t hungry at all, or tired. His brain certainly seemed to get fatigued trying to absorb all the new rules of this world though. Mark let his mind drift to explore the edges of his digital existence.
Physical pleasure was undoubtedly a thing, and he had napped out in this soft, lush grass before- so he could sleep if he wanted to. He could probably still experience eating too. When they got back into The Crystal Heart and launched into space, he supposed they could experience existence any way they wanted. A nagging feeling in the back of his mind made him think he was forgetting something important- but there were so many important things, they all seemed to meld together.
Roo waved a white fabric hand in his face.
“Hellooo. You good to go?”
Mark blinked away his deep meditations. “Yeah. Just a lot on my mind. Um, go where?”
“To see what Jezebel SK3 knows,” Vale said, looking at him with faint concern.
Ahnix purred, stepping in close to his ear. “I’m still trying to collect a full load of essence. AquaQuantum drained the pool.”
His eyes found hers and the half-lidded, royal frown she wore clashed with her obvious lust for him in a way he found irresistible. Mark mentally embraced his bond with all three of his girls and let out a content sigh. The only real and important thing was being near his three loves. And the sooner they were away from the insanity on this doomed planet, the better.
“Ladies, let’s go get us some fusion power.”
“Be ready for anything,” the giant naga suggested and then summoned the map she had received from AQ as part of their trade. An instant later they were falling through the stars again.
“How does that work?” Mark yelled over the rushing wind. “Was that an item?”
“Yes and no,” Vale yelled back, her pure white hair streaming over her head. “The warp will sometimes interpret sets of important data as items- When in doubt focus on the intent.”
Mark didn’t quite understand what she said, but it seemed similar to how he used his abilities without knowing how. Perhaps it was best if he just let go and just went with everything like it was normal. He was getting good at that, and it served him well in the past.
They plummeted through a long stretch of pure darkness before they collided with the bright datapoint that was their destination.
As Mark surveyed his new surroundings, he was having a hard time enacting his plan to just go with everything.
He was standing on a sharply sloped desert. The land angled away from him up to a narrow summit up into the painfully bright teal sky. It was as if the world was stretched over a humongous triangle, or a pyramid, and he was down near its base. About twenty yards behind them, the angled surface fell away into a void of dark nothingness, and he watched as loose sand sloughed out to seemingly fall forever.
As his eyes scanned up towards the top, Mark noticed perfectly square patches of forests, meadows, hills- there was one patch that held a dense field of soft, golden wheat.
“Who wants to bet we need to climb this bizarre mountain,” he said, his boots sliding slightly in the uneven terrain.
“No doubt,” Vale said, locking her eyes forward and leading the way. They had to fan out slightly, or Vale would send cascades of sand down onto whoever was behind her winding serpent tail.
Trudging up the sloped desert made Mark remember his first night with Ahnix as they set out to explore a new world. He felt as clueless now as he did then.
It didn’t take long before they reached an abrupt pine forest, and he estimated the distance for each distinct biome was about half a mile. The smell of the earthy sap melded perfectly with the brisk coolness of the air, and Mark marveled at the sudden change.
“I told you he’s not gone!” a voice yelled from a tall tree above before a rope net dropped down over them. Ahnix sliced th
e net to shreds with a swipe from her Wind Claw, and bits of rope rained down over their heads instead.
The four of them stood back to back as they were surrounded by five metal robot hunters. They were humanoid-shaped and had definite feminine features, but were mostly metal plates and exposed gears. Three held what appeared to be elephant muskets, and the others were armed with bows and arrows. They were all identical with succubus-like features. Thickly curled ram’s horns emerged above their temples, and they had feathered wings and no tail, but still had goat legs complete with hooved feet. Every part of these robots seemed made from polished chrome.
“It’s not him,” one said, her high voice slightly distorted- muffled.
Another nervously flipped her metal wings. “He’s not gone, though.”
“No! He’s out here somewhere,” a third said as she scanned the area for their intended target.
“Um. Hi,” Roo said, lifting one of her soft hands. “We’re looking for Jezebel S3K. Have you seen her around?”
One of the metallic creatures had kept its camera lens eyes focused on Mark, studying him. She spoke now.
“This is the closest match to date. This human means hope.”
They all nodded and mumbled among each other. “Yes. Hope. There’s still a chance.” Mark watched as the robot constructs that weren’t quite succubi dispersed into the woods, headed in different directions. A moment later and they were alone among the quiet of the pine needles.
Mark shook his head. “Okay… So we just keep moving forward?”
Wordlessly, Vale took point again and wove farther up the slope through the dense green trees.
Next, they came to a rolling meadow where a single wooden watchtower stood at an awkward angle to the ground, but it was the only horizontal thing in sight. Someone in the tower blew into a horn that caused a long, mournful bellow, and Mark saw shadows in the stilted building scrambling down a central ladder. The same metallic creatures they had seen earlier reflected glints of teal sky as they sprinted through the grass to reach them. They would make tiny leaps of excitement as the mechanical hunters ran down the slope, but he had a bad feeling they were about to be let down.