Variance

by Josen Llave

  “Dad, help us!” Statice cried through sounds of crowds screaming behind a constant deafening reverberation.

  Everything turned white. Amaryllis’s voice spoke to him. “How could you betray me?”

  Paul knew that Amaryllis suspected him of having sexual dreams of Siren. “I’m sorry. Nothing happened. I’m hallucinating. I swear.”

  “You swear now? Since when did you commit adultery and swear?” Amaryllis gasped and appeared heartbroken as she began to sulk.

  “Help me, Siren. Ah!” His vision transformed into streams of fire and water swirling around him.

  Siren blended in with the environment. “Paul, this is real. We’re in terrain survival mode. I had to shock you again.”

  Cyprian hovered close. “What now?”

  Paul looked up. Destroying the terraformers was not a restriction. “Destroy the source.”

  Siren identified the terraformer handling the systems control for the dome. “There.”

  They teleported upward to the energy field. Fire and water dispersed away from them. Paul and Cyprian contacted the field with their own oval field. The two energies sizzled with bright sparks and a thunderous rumble.

  Paul’s eyes rolled back, and his neck twitched, bobbing his head up and down. He opened his eyes, and the field slowly converged onto him. He pushed the field back and moved forward, following Cyprian as the boy reached the belly of the terraformer.

  As Cyprian pierced through and disappeared into the ship’s black hull, Paul’s energy boundary deteriorated around him. He fell out of the sky.

  Again, he could not think; he could only observe. His Visuals disappeared.

  The terraformer exploded. Bands of red, blue, and green sliced outward from the ship, separating it into large fragments. Something prevented him from falling. He wanted to see what it was, but he could only look straight ahead, wherever his head was facing. The fragments fell around him. He somehow teleported to a safe region. Another terraformer covered the void and resealed the arena.

  Cyprian hovered in front of him. Four golden Kalliro champions hovered behind Cyprian.

  No.

  The world spun around violently. He could not understand his situation. Everything ceased, and he found Cyprian blocking off all the champions. Thousands of plates, shields, blades, tentacles, and random shapes interacted, teleported, and shifted.

  He could not hear anything.

  He could not do anything.

  The champions vanished, and a bright light enveloped them. Cyprian had shielded them from a nuclear explosion. The blast moved fast, then slow, then fast, and then slow. The champions returned, continuing the assault. Material flowed and transported, fast and then slow.

  “Mm mmmm mmmmmm?” Who is making that muffled sound? Is it Siren? Why can’t I hear her clearly? Is it because of the explosion?

  He felt bone cracking on his head as something fixed his head in place. A warm liquid seeped around his head, around his ears, and down his neck. His eyes rolled, and he saw only bright lights. Everything else blurred and blended.

  A pain shot through him that forced him to exhale and arch his body backward. His vision turned black. Another bright light filled his view.

  He kept his eyes wide open, and the rolling ceased. Everything remained white. His pain vanished, but his body was not visible.

  He could not feel his body.

  Siren appeared before him with an apologetic posture. “Forgive me, Paul. To save your life and increase the potential to save Cyprian’s, I had to merge my brain with yours to regain control and end your psychosis.”

  She hovered over to his nonexistent body and touched where his face would have been. “Come back, Paul. Come back.” She repeated the words several times, increasing her volume. “Everyone needs you. Come back, Paul.” Siren, in human form, hovered in front of him, in between him and Cyprian.

  Paul found his arms, legs, and body intact. Another bright light and deafening boom ignited around them while Cyprian held the champions at bay.

  Cyprian screamed in his Audials. “Help me!”

  Paul replied, “I’m back.” All his senses returned.

  Cyprian gurgled. “I can’t hold them off much longer. My brain’s about to explode.”

  Paul teleported next to Cyprian. His material launched in full force and attacked, breaking through the sporadically teleporting golden metal. He used the champions’ material to his benefit, turning it against the champions.

  In a dying whisper, Ryan’s voice broke through his Audials with static. “Paul.”

  “Ryan.” Paul sliced one champion’s arm off and absorbed it into his assault.

  Ryan continued in text. “Kill me.”

  Paul severed the head and arm of another champion, gaining more material. “What?”

  “I’m in Kalliro. Save Cyprian.”

  Paul retracted all his material, and the other champions shifted metal to a single fighter, who broke through Cyprian’s defenses. It had to be Ryan.

  Ryan launched a stronger assault on Cyprian. “No control. Kill me.”

  “Help!” Cyprian’s protective field dwindled. His eyes strained and reddened.

  Siren highlighted weak spots on Ryan’s suit. “You have to kill the pilot.”

  “I can’t.” Paul let Ryan’s material advance closer to Cyprian.

  Siren pushed Ryan’s offensive back. “You have to do it.” She continued teleporting him to openings in the champions’ defenses.

  Lily. The “Secret Potato” file. Siren’s not the killing machine. I’m the killing machine.

  Ryan consistently blocked Paul with metal barriers, separating him from Cyprian.

  “Help!” Slivers of gold cut through Cyprian’s cockpit.

  Paul screamed. In combination, Paul and Siren advanced Infinity through the golden network of liquid-metal defenses and projected a fine strand of material through Ryan’s cockpit. The end of the strand penetrated Ryan’s brain, sending a pulse of electricity that killed Ryan swiftly and painlessly. Paul attached Ryan’s cockpit to his back, with Siren using more of the suit’s metal and engine.

  Cyprian was safe.

  Paul teleported, and his streams spread everywhere. He cut holes through the Kalliro fighters and then imploded them inward into small orbs. The nuclear inferno faded away as smoke vacuumed into the top of the arena.

  Paul and Cyprian hovered over a massive burning crater. The terraformers removed the barrier and gathered into formations. The material of four Kalliro suits flowed into his suit, discarding the champions’ blood and carcasses.

  For a few seconds, a gentle wind broke up the silence, and snow danced around them.

  Paul had killed the man who had helped him obtain victory.

  Fireworks erupted around him, and crowds roared from the stadium.

  Cyprian hovered next to him. “What now? Is it over?” He appeared sleepy with droopy eyes. Blood dripped down his nose.

  Paul had been forced to kill Ryan. It was not over.

  “Siren, we need Cyprian out of the suit and in a medical capsule. Can you take him there, away from here, and protect him?” Paul needed to seek Shadow alone.

  Siren pinpointed Shadow outside of the arena, in the city limits, outside of the nuclear blast that had occurred prior to the championship. She also pinpointed a location in the Forever Fall region where she could remotely control the suit to protect Cyprian. “I’ll take care of you, Cyprian. Just relax and stay awake.”

  “Okay, Miss Siren.” Cyprian breathed through his mouth as he flew away.

  Paul’s battle interface alerted him to see Shadow to redeem his reward. His life expectancy had dropped to twenty-two hours or less. A rising surge of pain overwhelmed him, and he teleported to the ground.

  Exiting the suit, he landed on the steaming ground and gently lowered Ryan�
��s body in his arms out of the back of the shell as he knelt down. By touching the stiff and cold hand, Siren confirmed it was Ryan.

  “He wasn’t able to kill Shadow. He should have stayed with us. Why the fuck did he leave?” Paul said.

  Siren carefully took Ryan’s body from Paul and wrapped him in a cocoon of material. “He followed his heart. You would’ve done the same.”

  “Take him somewhere peaceful.”

  “I’ll take him to his family’s gravesite.” She launched the capsule into the sky until it disappeared.

  He stood up. “Farewell, Ryan.”

  His eyes shut from the intensity of the pain, and he collapsed onto his knees, imagining material cutting his head open. Forcing his eyes open to look up, he watched white and golden knives hovering over his head.

  “Quit it, Siren. It hurts.” He punched his face several times and attempted to pull his eyes out of their sockets.

  Material wrapped around his wrists, preventing him from touching his eyes. Siren materialized and hugged him.

  His pain decreased to a severe headache. His chest pounded. He hyperventilated.

  What the fuck did she do?

  She rested her forehead against his, calming him down by removing his pain. “Everything will be all right.” Her lips remained closed. He heard her conscience. “I love him so much.”

  What did you say?

  Siren gasped, “You heard me?”

  Of course he had heard her. What had she done to him? He heard her thoughts, felt her emotions, and saw faint screens of code stretching across his entire view.

  His communications interface received a text message from Amaryllis. He shook his head at the inundation of Siren’s thoughts and read the message. “We’re not far. The fleet is descending on its approach. We miss you. Hope you’re all right. We’ll try to call soon.” The message included spatial coordinates relative to Forever Spring.

  He closed his eyes and focused on a mental image of Amaryllis. “We need to go.”

  Siren stepped back, and the suit enveloped him.

  Alarms blared around the arena as thousands of terraformers returned. Siren expanded news broadcast through the battle interface. One headline read, “Game Master of Divine Might Denounces Reward to Utopian World Champion.”

  A reporter, accompanied by a video of Paul screaming at the Kalliro champion in the previous battle, said, “Paul Benedict, Azurian Utopian, was deemed an international terrorist by government organizations from all three regions. His weaponry and hunger for death make him a threat to Xameeshee. Please seek shelter immediately.”

  Footage ran of military warships, tanks, and soldiers entering the region outside of the arena. Other footage of bodies falling from the sky and spectators crying played on repeat.

  Another reporter said, “His disguise as a nonviolent Utopian allowed him to work his way up the championship ladder with sponsorship, because of the positive response of a Utopian winning for good. As you can see, he’s a murderer on the loose with a mission to terminate all Kazats and establish global Utopian rule.”

  Riots around the world erupted against Utopians. People were dying because of his victory. Banners proclaiming “World Crisis” and “Implement Evacuation Procedures” littered the media feeds.

  “I have to end Shadow. He just turned the world against us. How are Azurians supposed to seek refuge? These people will attack us until we are dead. Until Amy and my girls are dead.”

  Pain spiked randomly across his body and brain.

  He sent a civilization to destroy my home with a mission to annihilate our race. He killed our founder. He set me up against my own friend. He turned the world against me. I did nothing wrong. I went through hell to get here. I gave up my life to save the solar system for the greater good.

  His hands shook. “I did nothing wrong. That motherfucker. Fuck these people.”

  Time seemed to slow around him as he let out a long, drawn-out, rage-filled scream. The ground beneath him rose into the air.

  He teleported, crashed through the top of a building, and hovered before Shadow.

  13

  WX-X-X

  PAUL EXPANDED HIS MAGNETIC FIELD for his Infinity suit to hover between two floors. Electrical and water utilities sparked and sprayed around him. A man stood with ten Crimson guards behind him. The man appeared to be a younger, more muscular version of Shadow. He wore a black suit with a golden halo angled down toward his forehead.

  “Mr. Benedict.” The man had Shadow’s voice.

  Paul hovered out of his shell with a bodysuit. Siren formed and followed. He said, “Where’s Shadow?”

  The man, apparently unbothered by Paul’s entry, replied, “What do you want?”

  Siren reviewed Shadow’s physical data from their previous meetings and confirmed a match. “It’s him.”

  Paul stepped forward. The Crimson guards stepped forward. “Cut the bullshit. Reinstate our contract. I don’t want to kill you if I don’t have to.”

  Shadow stood still. “Do you really think I will negotiate with the devil? Come on, Paul. Listen to yourself. You want to kill people. Terrorize them.”

  “I just want to kill you and whoever stands behind you. I can make peace with those who wish to coexist.” Paul tried to decipher Shadow’s confidence and appearance. Was Shadow’s secret weapon more powerful than Siren’s Infinity suit?

  Shadow laughed. “All by yourself? Correction: just you and your AI—or is she the one in control? You know, I didn’t think you would kill your friend. You caught the world by surprise.”

  Paul’s energy field increased in intensity. He pointed at Shadow. “You set me up to kill a good man. I had to kill for a purpose. You killed for power.”

  Shadow stepped to the edge of Paul’s field. “You set yourself up by coming to Xameeshee to enter Divine Might. You killed for power. I killed for a purpose. I have already won this fight. You have proven to the world, all on your own, that Kazats are righteous and Utopians are evil. We will not allow your kind to exist in God’s universe. You have to kill me to save your people, and we will hunt down every Utopian, down to the last infant.

  “I will ensure the death of you and your people by my own human hands. Their bodies will compress and vaporize, and their souls will remain in hell for eternity. I am your limit.”

  Paul chuckled, his laughter building up to a cackle. “Then I will summon hell unto Xameeshee and claim this world as our domain!” He teleported spears of material toward Shadow’s head at hypersonic speed.

  A continuous stream of rail-gun bullets, lasers, and missiles blasted all around Paul. A gravity field distorted time and redirected his spears around Shadow. The spears pierced through and killed several Crimson guards.

  “Enhancing.” Siren absorbed the suits of the dead guards and simultaneously upgraded the Infinity suit.

  The remaining guards activated gravity fields to support Shadow and block Paul’s flows around Shadow, only to incur fatal blows and absorption of the suits. The alien bodies vaporized in Shadow’s field and explosions.

  A golden electrical dust cloud appeared around Shadow’s head, forming a face mask and helmet. The black suit vaporized as golden and black matter increased in volume around his body.

  Paul’s and Shadow’s clashing electromagnetic and gravitational fields destroyed the building around them and reflected the streams of projectile bombardment outward. The building collapsed on itself, falling over them and vaporizing around the fields.

  Use all of me, Siren.

  Siren processed harder and used the majority of his brain.

  His vision switched from visible light to capture all frequencies, shifting from ultraviolet to microwaves. Energy patterns emitted from Shadow’s body, and gray shades of gravitational fields helped Paul understand the forces around him. The additional gravity engines and material helped
him isolate Shadow in place.

  Time slowed down for Paul. He felt Siren’s power. He heard her logical instructions. They thought together in harmony.

  Paul watched Shadow attempt to teleport by moving in a faster time region. He focused all his energy to slow down time in Shadow’s path. Shadow stopped and redirected the energy toward Paul.

  A dense energy wall penetrated Paul’s field and smacked into him, sending him two kilometers through the city. Rocked inside his cockpit, he reactivated his field just before an entire building rising high into the sky came crashing toward him with a high-pitched whistle. His field cut through steel, concrete, and people, and he charged toward Shadow.

  Their fields increased in two clashing ellipsoids and vaporized everything around them for hundreds of meters. The city collapsed all around them. Even the ground disappeared below them. In fractions of a second, ten thousand exchanges occurred between Paul’s and Shadow’s material.

  Paul directed all the nearby metal into Shadow’s gravity fields. Skipping event horizons, the metal soared toward Shadow. Able to defend against Shadow’s attacks, he used all nonmetal objects to penetrate Shadow’s defenses. Vehicles, ships, and structural steel cluttered Shadow’s field, causing the field to decrease in strength and increase elsewhere.

  Paul could not find an opening.

  “We’ll find it.” Siren continued analyzing every move.

  Shadow managed to find another opening and entered Paul’s field. With a hard, forceful downward punch, he hit Paul in the chest with a fist that was small compared to his large shell.

  Paul zoomed through concrete foundations, deep into the earth. Buried in darkness two hundred meters below the city, he shook his head and teleported out of the hole with a smoldering tunnel behind him. Military vehicles attempted to follow him with streams of conventional weaponry. Shadow leaped toward him, and he evaded the tackle.

  Two chains of microterraformers lined around Paul and transported him toward Shadow like a rail gun. In the moment of contact between their two fields and thousands of microsecond material exchanges, Shadow broke through with a knee to Paul’s chest, damaging the cockpit. Paul flew backward, accelerated by the terraformer chains, through the entire city and landed on the other side.