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Fanfiction of Norithics's Partners:2541", "count": "16", "submission_left_submission_id": "1892831", "submission_left_file_name": "2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.rtf", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "1964415", "submission_right_file_name": "2832910_AzureDreamer_act_06.rtf", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2832/2832910_AzureDreamer_act_06.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2832/2832910_AzureDreamer_act_06.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2832/2832910_AzureDreamer_act_06.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "The world as Viola Coniglio once knew it is gone forever. Where once her greatest worry was her friends bickering amongst themselves, she now finds herself forced to fight for survival - her own, her friends', and the entire world.\n\nBut, as always, there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Nothing is as it seems. And it's only going to get worse for Viola from here.\n\n-\n\nBased off of Partners:2541 by [iconname]Norithics[/iconname], which can be read here;\n\n[smallpool]7049[/smallpool]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "The world as Viola Coniglio once knew it is gone forever. Where once her greatest worry was her friends bickering amongst themselves, she now finds herself forced to fight for survival - her own, her friends', and the entire world.

But, as always, there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Nothing is as it seems. And it's only going to get worse for Viola from here.

-

Based off of Partners:2541 by \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
, which can be read here;

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 1' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 2' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 3' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpool: Partners, vol. 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Norithics\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t", "writing": "Viola wasn’t entirely sure exactly what happened. Everything moved so [i]quickly[/i], much more than she was used to dealing with. More than she’d ever [i]had[/i] to deal with before. She [i]saw[/i] everything, but her brain couldn’t properly process it and so she had to guess based on the aftermath and what little she was able to follow.\n\nThere was a loud [i]bang[/i] – hardly an accurate onomatopoeia, but Viola wasn’t exactly in a state of mind for flowery language – and then Erin’s arm had just sort of [i]detached[/i]. The mouse collapsed forward and floundered slightly before seeing her arm and visibly panicking. She opened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out. Not from her, at least. It was Vienna who screamed, an agonizing, almost inhuman [i]sound[/i] while she stood, [i]unnaturally[/i] rigid before collapsing. She landed on her left side, hard, before flopping over onto her front, twitching slightly and barely breathing.\n\nStanding behind her was a man, though that was about all Viola could tell about him. He wore a tight, dull grey bodysuit of some sort, and over that he wore a sort of harness that had several pouches on his torso and on his leg, along with black combat boots and elbow and knee pads. His face was concealed by some sort of balaclava, over which he wore a high tech looking set of goggles. In one hand he held a black rectangular [i]thing[/i] tipped with two metal prongs that still had blue arcs of electricity dancing between them.\n\n“What the fu-” was all Ursula managed to say before [i]lurching[/i] backwards, slamming into the tree she’d been examining moments before with a sickening [i]crunch[/i]. Viola wasn’t sure whether the noise came from the tree or from Ursula, and didn’t really want to think about the latter possibility. The second armoured figure followed up by roughly throwing Ursula to the ground and then stepping firmly on her back.\n\n“Don’t try and get up.” This one was a woman, going by her voice. Ursula grunted as she attempted to push herself upright anyway, then let out a pained cry as the woman ground her foot against her back. “I [i]said[/i] don’t try and get up, idiot,” she growled. “Unless you [i]want[/i] a few more broken ribs.”\n\nAll of that happened over the course of a few seconds. With barely [i]any[/i] effort, Viola’s entire pack had been completely dismantled. Erin clutched at the stump where her arm used to be in an attempt to stanch the bleeding. Ursula writhed in agony, moaning with excruciating pain. Viola wasn’t even sure Vienna was even still [i]alive[/i].\n\n“That’s three, bossman.”\n\nHer initial reaction was to rush to her sister’s side. She barely had the time to start moving before she felt something cold and metallic pressing against the back of her head. There was a soft click.\n\n“Make that four.”\n\nViola froze mid-step. “Just wanna make a few things clear, kid. Y’ain’t tried anythin’ [i]yet[/i], which is smart of ya’. Butcha [i]might[/i]. So lemme just clarify why that’s a bad idea. Now, I’m [i]pretty[/i] sure y’all fancy future folk are at least [i]aware[/i] of what a gun is. But I’m told y’all banned ‘em, ‘bout a hundred years ago. So you’ve prolly never seen one in your life, let alone had one pressed to the back of your skull. And you prolly don’t know that if I pull this trigger, ha, [i]well[/i]. Your head [i]probably[/i] won’t be reduced to a fine red mist, this ain’t a shotgun. But a .45 magnum’ll still leave a nice big [i]hole[/i] in your face. Typically not the kinda thing y’can bounce back from, y’know? Now, we’re not [i]supposed[/i] to kill any of ya’. But, well. It’d be better to cooperate. Y’know. Just to be safe.”\n\nViola swallowed heavily, nodding silently.\n\n“Good. I’m gonna put the gun away now, but I want you to know that Sunny’s still got her sights on all of you. Try anythin’ and if you’re [i]lucky[/i] you’ll end up like your rat friend over there. If you’re [i]unlucky[/i], well. My gun’s a [i]small[/i] gun. Hers ain’t. I’ll leave it at that.”\n\nViola [i]tried[/i] to stand stock-still, but she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “Oh fuck,” she croaked as tears welled. “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.”\n\n“Hey, now. [i]Language[/i], young lady. Back when I was your age, if one ‘a my teachers caught me talkin’ like that, they’d give me a good beating!”\n\n“No they wouldn’t,” interjected the woman.\n\n“Yep, they’d give me a right thrashing and then sell me into slavery, Oliver Twist-style.”\n\n“Oh my [i]god[/i].”\n\n“Can I take the balaclava off now?” said the first man. “I can’t breathe in this stupid thing.”\n\n“Yuri, when was the last time you [i]needed[/i] to breathe?” said the man Viola deduced was probably the leader.\n\n“It’s the principle of the thing.”\n\n“Ovcharenko, don’t take the mask off, that’s an order.”\n\n“I’m taking the mask off.”\n\n“Don’t- god dammit.”\n\nThe man, apparently named Yuri Ovcharenko, had already removed the goggles, and the mask followed shortly, discarded casually to the side. “Everything about this stupid outfit is dumb aesthetic bullshit anyway, we could go about in our underwear and be as effective.”\n\n“[i]More[/i] effective,” added the woman, in the process of removing her own goggles. “The goggles and pouches fuck up my balance and the mask obscures my vision.”\n\n“Guys, come on, aesthetic is important, too. Batman taught us that much.”\n\n“Oh fuck off with your stupid pop culture bullshit these kids probably don’t know who batman even [i]is[/i].”\n\n“If this is a future without Batman, then it’s a worse dystopia than anything George Orwell could have imagined in his worst nightmares.”\n\nViola had, by this point, mostly tuned them out. She’d tuned most of everything out, except what was under Yuri’s mask, because what was under it was [i]impossible[/i]. He had thick, coarse black hair that was cropped short without being outright bald, a similarly thick black eyebrows that outlined his sharp, craggy features, and a well-kept dark beard, all of which contrasted sharply with icy blue eyes and, most importantly, pale skin.\n\nYuri was, by all appearances, a pre-splice human.\n\n“C’mon, Makoto, not you too.”\n\nThe woman, who was apparently named Makoto, had also pulled off her mask, and was also a pre-splice human. Her hair was longer than Yuri’s, though still cut short, and was a lighter shade of brown. “Bob, I need to be able to [i]see[/i] in order to fight.”\n\n“Stop undermining my authority, you’re making us look ridiculous.”\n\n“Oh, yes, [i]I’m[/i] making us look ridiculous, [i]Oliver Twist[/i],” she fired back.\n\n“Don’t you go besmirching my brilliant comedic stylings.”\n\n“[i]What[/i] comedic stylings, you just take jokes from movies and TV shows. Sometimes you don’t even do that you just [i]say[/i] the name of some American pop culture garbage.”\n\n“Hey, now, that’s not fair. Sometimes I also reference anime.”\n\n“Oh, you’re a gaijin otaku, that changes everything. I immediately find all your terrible non-jokes hilarious.”\n\nThe leader, apparently named Bob, huffed indignantly. “Well, [i]y’all[/i] might be ungrateful, but I bet the kids appreciate lightening the mood a bit. Ain’t that right, rabbit girl?”\n\n“Why are you doing this to us,” Viola sobbed. Just saying that much took nearly all her willpower, and she collapsed to her knees.\n\nIt took a moment for a response. Makoto glowered, while Yuri maintained a poker face. Bob circled around in front of Viola and knelt down to eye level. Like the other two, he was a pre-splice human with pale brown skin that reminded Viola of crema. His eyes were dark and his head, unlike Yuri, was completely shaved clean. “What’s your name, kid.”\n\nViola found herself caught completely off guard [i]again[/i] by the almost kind tone of his voice. “Wh-what?”\n\n“Name, kid. Thing people call you.”\n\n“Uh. V-viola?”\n\n“Well, Viola. Sometimes, when you’re an adult you gotta do shit you don’t really wanna do. For some people it’s paperwork, for some people it’s flippin’ burgers. For me ‘n my squad, it’s making sure [i]you[/i] and your friends don’t leave this place until you’re done or you’re dead. Ain’t like we [i]wanna[/i] beat you up, and we’re [i]definitely[/i] not gonna kill you if we can help it. Ya’ gotta be fucked in the head to enjoy beating up kids.” He [i]stared[/i], eye contact unwavering in such an intense way that Viola couldn’t help but look away. “We’re doin’ this ‘cause we gotta.”\n\nMakoto’s frown deepened.\n\nViola quivered, trapped in a strange mix of terror and confusion. She opened her mouth to say something, [i]anything[/i], but once again found nothing coming out. She had so much she wanted to say that she found it all getting caught up together and jammed together in her mind. The most she could do was crane her neck to look beyond Bob, at Vienna. Her body was splayed out awkwardly on the ground in what would clearly be an uncomfortable position.\n\nShe wasn’t moving.\n\nBob slowly followed the line of her vision. “Twin, looks like?” he muttered, and Viola nodded silently in agreement. “Ovcharenko, check to make sure you didn’t overdo the voltage. We don’t know anythin’ about their biology, what’s enough to take out a normal human might be lethal. Then go bandage the rat so she doesn’t bleed to death.”\n\n“Gotcha, boss. Looks like she’s breathing, but better check her out just in case she needs any first aid.” He turned back to Vienna, kneeling down and taking a few steps toward her body in the same fluid movement, only to abruptly stop – like he had hit a wall. “What the fu-”\n\nVienna moved suddenly, lifting her arm up and thrusting it forward. And, in time with her motion, the white spherical wireframe that had manifested around Yuri became clearly visible as it lurched away, taking the soldier with it at high speeds directly into Makoto. The two continued on only slightly farther, smashing into the same tree that Makoto had smashed Ursula into. The force field disappeared only to immediately reform around both of them. Vienna quickly [i]yanked[/i] her arm upwards in time with weakly pulling herself into a kneeling position. “Viola, grab Erin and run!” she shouted, quickly arcing her arm up and over, causing the two soldiers to crash downward into Bob before extending the force field around him as well, tossing all three high into the air.\n\n“I’m not leaving you!”\n\n“Ursula and I can handle them, you need to get out of here and get Erin patched up before she bleeds to death!” Viola stood stock still, quivering slightly, eyes nervously darting between her sister, Ursula, and Erin. The doberman was slowly pushing herself to her feet, while the mouse was already standing – albeit very unsteadily. “Go, dammit, I dunno how much longer I can keep this up!”\n\n“I-” Viola started to say, but Erin grabbed her by the hood with her remaining arm.\n\n“Viola, with all due respect, we can always regroup later,” Erin said firmly. “They said they attacked us because we tried to leave so all we need to do is not try and leave until we’re ready for them but in the meantime [i]we need to run![/i]”\n\nWith that, Erin picked an arbitrary direction and did exactly that, dragging Viola along with her. “Vienna!” the rabbit shouted desperately at the receding form of her sister. “Wait! No! VIENNA!”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nErin could ultimately only run so far before the adrenaline began to fade and reality set in. There was an [i]awful[/i] lot of blood staining her side, which meant there was an awful lot of blood [i]not inside her[/i]. It didn’t actually [i]hurt[/i] much. More of a dull ache than the agony she would have expected from her arm being summarily removed. There was still a bit of a stump left, and she let go of Viola to clutch the wound.\n\n“Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god, you’re bleeding, oh god-”\n\n“It’ll be fine, darling,” Erin lied. “It’ll grow back, eventually.”\n\n“Not if you bleed to death!!!”\n\n“Yes, well, that’s something I’ll have to deal with as it comes,” Erin muttered, not really paying full attention. Her head swam and her vision blurred slightly. “This... might be a problem.”\n\n“[i]Might?![/i]”\n\n“Viola, I’m having a very hard time thinking straight right now so I need you to calm down.” Erin inhaled sharply. “There’s supplies in my backpack. First aid kit. Bandages, disinfectant. I don’t think I can deal with this on my own.”\n\nIt was easy enough to [i]say[/i] that Viola needed to calm down, but it was another thing to do it. She had never had to [i]actually[/i] perform first aid on someone before, and Erin was both as inexperienced as her and [i]decidedly[/i] not in the state of mind to offer real instruction. Viola flailed somewhat uselessly and [i]probably[/i] ended up using more bandages than was strictly necessary. Bandages which, she realized with a sinking dread, were already soaked through with blood to the point of uselessness. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.”\n\n“Stop apologizing, darling. It’s fine. I-” She took a deep breath, in and then out. “It’s not fine, is it?” She winced, clutching at her loosely bandaged shoulder. “V-viola, darling. I’m getting very... very tired all of a sudden.”\n\n“Oh god.”\n\n“Please don’t panic. Just... Keep talking to me. I don’t think it would be wise to fall asleep right now.” Erin’s words came slowly and slightly slurred.\n\n“Oh [i]god[/i].” Tears began welling up in Viola’s eyes as a maelstrom of emotions swirled within her. She was afraid. Terrified of the prospect of dying, or of Erin dying. To say nothing of her sister and Ursula. Not knowing what had happened to them was almost [i]torturous[/i]. She was angry, too. At the people who had done this. At [i]herself[/i]. She felt [i]guilty[/i]. Because this was her fault. Because she didn’t feel [i]bad[/i] enough that one of her only friends was probably dying. “I- I don’t know what to do. Oh god.”\n\n“Viola please don’t panic. I know it’s hard but it’s only making this worse. I promise it’ll be fine.” Erin scooted back, propping herself up against a nearby building. Neither had been paying overmuch attention to where they were going, or where they were, which in retrospect hadn’t been the best planning on their part and they were only not entirely lost because Erin hadn’t been able to run very far. They were [i]somewhere[/i] along the city’s main streets, surrounded by enormously tall buildings made of stone and steel and glass. Viola could see herself reflected in the windows. Or, more accurately, she could see Aubrey.\n\nShe didn’t really want to see Aubrey at the moment.\n\n“This is all my fault,” she muttered dejectedly. “If I hadn’t-”\n\n“Stop.” Aubrey glared at her as best as she was capable of given the lack of detail in her face. “This isn’t the time to be assigning blame. We need to figure out how to stop the bleeding.”\n\n“How?!”\n\n“I don’t know! But wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to help and you know that as well as I do!”\n\n“Darling, could you please stop screaming at yourself. It’s giving me a headache.” Erin’s voice had gotten slower and quieter.\n\n“Sorry,” Viola muttered.\n\n“Actually, maybe keep it up. As I said I don’t think falling asleep is the best idea at this moment.” Erin pushed at the ground with her remaining arm in a futile attempt at pulling herself upright. “I should also probably not be sitting down. Could you help me, darling?”\n\n“Right,” Viola said, grabbing Erin’s left hand and pulling her upright.\n\n“Anyway, the voices in your head have a point.” Erin stood shakily, before leaning against Viola. “We both acted irrationally. We can deal with that later.”\n\nSomething about that felt wrong. “You can hear her? No one’s ever been able to hear her before.”\n\n“You’re talking to yourself, I assume.” Erin looked into the window and frowned. “Viola, why are you blue. Stop it.”\n\n“... What?”\n\nErin pointed shakily. “See, in the mirror you’re blue.” She blinked several times. “Wait. Hold on.”\n\n“You can see me?”\n\nErin’s frown contorted in a strange way that Viola wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret. “Huh. [i]Huh[/i]. Aubrey Kadabra, I presume?”\n\n“Um. Yes. Nice to meet you?”\n\n“Hm. I feel like I should be freaking out about this more than I am. I guess I don’t have the energy.” She shrugged as best as she could. “I suppose this means I owe you an apology, Viola. You really [i]aren’t[/i] crazy.” A brief pause as she contemplated, then shrugged again. “Or the blood loss is making me see things. One or the other.”\n\n“I don’t get it,” Viola muttered. “No one’s heard her before. [i]Definitely[/i] no one’s seen her before.”\n\n“You [i]have[/i] always been careful about talking to me when other people are around.”\n\n“Only after I got yelled at for talking to you, though!”\n\n“Mnh.” Viola’s brief conversation with Aubrey was interrupted by Erin collapsing. The smaller rabbit suddenly found herself carrying [i]all[/i] of Erin’s weight, and the mouse wasn’t exactly light.\n\n“Ack! Come on, Erin, keep it together!”\n\n“I don’t-” Erin muttered. “I think I have an idea but I don’t know if I have the fine control to pull it off.”\n\n“What?”\n\n“I- Sorry, I’m not really in the best state to explain but I have superpowers.”\n\n“Wh-” Viola’s mind wandered back to the fight. She’d [i]almost[/i] forgotten in the heat of the moment, but the mention of superpowers brought to mind... [i]whatever[/i] it was her sister had done to fight off the soldiers. “Like Vienna?”\n\n“Not quite. Did you know about that, by the way?”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Mnh. Will have to tell her off for that, later. I can understand keeping it a secret from everyone else, but not from [i]you[/i]. And I [i]especially[/i] can’t understand telling [i]me[/i] before [i]you[/i].”\n\n“Erin,” Aubrey interjected. “Focus. We don’t have time for this.”\n\n“Right, right. I can-” she cut off, briefly, as she attempted to pull herself upright and failed, almost taking Viola down in the process. “Sorry. I can grow. Make myself bigger. Or do individual parts. And- I don’t know if this will work, I’ve obviously never tried it. But maybe I could re-grow my arm. Faster than normal, that is. Obviously. That would absolutely stop the bleeding.”\n\n“Do you think that’s possible?”\n\n“If it isn’t then it’s too late to try anything else. Can you make a tourniquet?”\n\n“I don’t know what that is.”\n\n“You take some rope or a belt and you tie it around the person’s limb and tighten it with a stick or something to slow the blood flow and stop the bleeding.”\n\n“Oh. Do we have any rope?”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Fuck. Maybe we could use some bandages?”\n\n“Darling I don’t think we’ve got the time or spare bandages to be experimenting. It’s either this or nothing.”\n\n“Right. Try it, then, I guess.”\n\n“Okay.” Erin closed her eyes tightly, taking quick, shallow breaths. “I... It’s no use. I can’t concentrate.” It wasn’t too surprising, really. Viola still wasn’t sure that she was ready to accept that Erin had superpowers. The logical explanation that it was just a delusion brought about by the blood loss or something. But then her mind wandered back to Vienna and her force fields. It wasn’t like superpowers weren’t [i]real[/i] – she had just moments ago gotten objective proof that wasn’t the case.\n\nAnd then her mind wandered back further.\n\n“[i]I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself.”[/i]\n\nIt was a stretch, Viola realized. But it was, currently, their best bet. She turned and looked Erin’s reflection directly in the eyes. “Titania. You said you wanted to help Erin, right?”\n\n“Viola, Darling, what are you-”\n\n“Shut up. Listen, if you’re what I think you are – if you’re even [i]real[/i] and not just me being crazy. I [i]know[/i] you said that you didn’t wanna interact with her. That it was bad or something. But she’s [i]probably[/i] going to die if you don’t help her so it’s fucking now or never.”\n\nThere was a brief moment of silence. And then, abruptly, Erin’s reflection wasn’t Erin anymore. It was the figure from Viola’s dream. Like Erin, the way Aubrey was like Viola. Titania pulled away from Aubrey tentatively, huddling into herself nervously. “I- I can’t.”\n\n“Wh-what?” Aubrey stuttered, turning to stare at Titania. “You- I- what?”\n\n“We can deal with that later. Titania, you [i]have[/i] to.”\n\n“No! I won’t hurt her!” The creature in the reflection shut its eyes tightly, or the equivalent given its simplified facial features. She clutched at her head and crouched down low.\n\n“I don’t see how saving her life will hurt her.”\n\n“You don’t understand! If I get too close to my host, bad things happen!”\n\n“[i]What[/i] bad things?” Viola said as firmly as she was capable of. “I don’t even know what you [i]are[/i] so you’re gonna hafta explain to me.”\n\n“I- I don’t know,” Titania admitted quietly. “But- But I know that it’s bad.”\n\n“Worse than dying?” Titania didn’t respond. “Anyway, I’ve been interacting with Aubrey for almost as long as I can remember and I’m just fine aside from everyone thinking I’m crazy.”\n\n“What?” Titania turned to look at Aubrey, and the two ink creatures’ eyes met. “Is- Is that you?”\n\n“I don’t know,” Aubrey admitted quietly. “My memory is... hazy. I don’t remember who or what I am. But... You seem familiar. Like an old friend. Do you know who I am?”\n\nTitania pulled herself upright. “No... Sorry,” she said sadly, and Aubrey seemed to visibly deflate. “But- But I know I can trust you. Somehow. If you and your h- if you and Viola think it’s the right thing to do, then...”\n\nTitania closed her eyes once more, and then returned to mirroring Erin’s position before fading away.\n\nErin was staring at the mirror with an inscrutable expression on her face, somewhere between awe and confusion and horror. “Viola what the [i]fuck[/i] was that.”\n\n“I, uh. Think that was your imaginary friend?”\n\n“What?” was all that Erin had the time to say before Titania once again made her presence known. Not in the mirror – slowly, a green, gooey substance manifested on her body. It flowed from seemingly nowhere, starting at her right shoulder before quickly engulfing her wound.\n\n“That should stop the bleeding,” Titania said as the [i]whatever-[/i]it-was flowed over Erin’s terrified face, replacing it with Titania’s. The substance of her body continued flowing out from seemingly nowhere, like a tide of ink, ebbing over more and more of Erin’s body in crashing waves, consuming everything it passed by until there was no more Erin left.\n\n“Wh- What is this?!”\n\n“Please try to stay calm,” Titania said. “I’m not sure, but I think that this should help. I have more control over my powers like this.”\n\n“[i]Your[/i] powers?”\n\n“Yes. Um. My powers. I’ve been lending them to you while I, um, lived inside of you.”\n\n“Oh, well, okay then. I should probably be a bit outraged about that but frankly I just want to not bleed to death right now so if you manage to prevent that then consider my permission to use me as a host retroactively extended.”\n\nTitania pulled herself upright, stepping away from Viola. “Thank you for not being mad.”\n\n“It turns out that having your arm removed and almost bleeding to death gives you an [i]amazing[/i] sense of perspective.”\n\nTitania extended the stub remained of her right arm. “Between the blood loss and this, you’ve used up a lot of prana. I don’t think you’ll be able to use my powers for a while, but I’ll still be able to talk with you through mirrors and in your dreams.”\n\n“That’s fine,” Erin replied. “I have higher priorities right now than my vanity.”\n\n“Okay.” Titania closed her eyes, and then a mass of the same inky substance that made up her body erupted from the stump. Like watching a video of a severed limb regrowing itself but in fast-forward. What should have taken a month instead only took about a minute. “There,” she said. “You’ll still need some time to recover. You lost a lot of blood, and I don’t think I have quite the level of control or the prana reserves I’d need to replace it.”\n\n“It’s fine,” Erin replied quietly. “You’ve done enough. Thank you.”\n\nTitania silently nodded. “I’m going to go now.”\n\n“You should stay.”\n\n“Oh, I couldn’t.”\n\n“I insist. If you’re going to be living inside me I would very much like to get to know you.”\n\n“Oh. Well, um. Here, a compromise.” Titania receded away in the same way she had come out in the first place, but in reverse. She seemed to take a good portion of Erin with her, leaving the mouse notably shorter and with [i]decidedly[/i] smaller breasts. Viola wasn’t really sure how she felt about that. A moment later, she reappeared in the window beside Aubrey once more, matching Erin’s new height and figure. “There. It’s a bit easier to talk face to face. Though, um. I don’t really have much experience speaking with-”\n\nTitania was interrupted by Viola making her presence known. Her hug was more akin to a full-body tackle. “Oof!”\n\n“Oh god you’re okay,” Viola said between choked sobs. “Oh god oh god I’m so so [i]so[/i] sorry, this is all my fault.”\n\nReally, it was, Erin supposed. Viola had dragged them down here, and now they were being menaced by people with [i]guns[/i] and she herself had [i]nearly died[/i]. It would be very easy to lay the blame on the rabbit’s shoulders – certainly, a lot of the blame fell on her no matter how you looked at it. But somehow Erin couldn’t bring herself to do so. “Viola, darling, you weren’t the only person suggesting we go down here.”\n\n“Yeah but it was my idea and you [i]nearly died[/i].”\n\n“[i]No one[/i] saw that coming, Viola.”\n\n“But [i]I[/i] should have! I was just so [i]mad[/i] that I didn’t even consider stopping and [i]thinking[/i].”\n\n“And whose fault was it that you were so angry?” Viola opened her mouth to reply, but said nothing. “Listen. We all decided was to look for you on our own, and when we got to the Woods we [i]all[/i] decided to go down those stairs.”\n\nViola frowned as she thought back. It felt like [i]hours[/i], maybe even days ago, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour. Her memory, at least, was clear enough. “Ursula didn’t,” she said slowly. “She was against it.”\n\n“Viola, I know you blame yourself, but-”\n\n“No, no, no.” Viola pulled away, pacing nervously back and forth in front of the mirror. “I mean Ursula kept saying she had a bad feeling and then when you tried to take me back she told you to stop.”\n\nIt was Erin’s turn to frown. “You don’t think she [i]actually[/i] saw it coming, do you?”\n\n“Well, Titania says she’s the source of your powers, right?”\n\n“I think that at this point we can put aside ambiguous language,” Erin said. “Titania [i]is[/i] almost certainly the source of my powers.”\n\n“Right. And Vienna’s got powers too. We don’t know if she has a goo thing in her, though.” She increased the intensity of her pacing, going from nervous to furious. “And I don’t know if Aubrey could give me a superpower too and has forgotten or if she just couldn’t at all.”\n\n“It’s... A possibility,” Aubrey conceded. “It seems like you’re jumping to some conclusions, though.”\n\n“Well, which is more logical. Vienna just [i]happens[/i] to have gotten psychic powers randomly, or all superpowers come from the same source?” Viola stopped pacing. “But I guess that’s not strong enough reasoning. I think I can tip the scales, though. Erin, how long have you had superpowers?”\n\n“Around when I first moved to Esterwood. And before you say anything, I have... discussed this with Vienna and she says hers manifested at around the same time.”\n\nAubrey frowned slightly, as much as she was capable of with her simplified facial features. “The first time I talked to Viola was also around that time.”\n\n“Then it’s [i]definitely[/i] not a coincidence.” Viola resumed pacing. “Okay, theory. Aubrey and Titania and at least two others show up somehow around the time we met. Maybe from space, maybe from another dimension, maybe you escaped from some evil mad scientist outside of the dome, I dunno. Whatever it was it was traumatic and you forgot a bunch of stuff and you ended up around Esterwood. And then... Augh, it’s too long ago, I don’t remember the details.”\n\n“It’s not too much of a stretch that they found us all at once. We were somewhat inseparable at that point.”\n\n“We don’t know there were four of us, though,” Aubrey said, taking the wind out of Viola’s sails.\n\n“Bleh, you’re right.”\n\nIt was Titania’s turn to frown. “I... think there were. I don’t remember, but it [i]sounds[/i] right. More right than there just being two or three. I don’t know how much I trust my memory, though. Sorry.”\n\n“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, at least,” Aubrey said.\n\n“It fits,” Viola replied. “Erin can grow and heal quickly, Vienna’s got weird telekinetic force field things, Ursula can [i]maybe[/i] see the future, and I’ve got... whatever Aubrey can do.” She sighed, leaning against the window. “I don’t know. Saying it out loud it just sounds like I’m making a bunch of assumptions about the goo things when we don’t even know what they [i]are[/i] yet.”\n\n“It [i]sounds[/i] right. Sort of.” Aubrey mirrored Viola’s movements, leaning against the window from the other side. “I wish I could remember more.”\n\nTitania sighed, crossing her arms awkwardly low on her chest – like she was used to there being more meat there. Which was strange because really, as far as Erin knew, until recently she’d not had a physical form at all. It didn’t make sense that she’d have gotten used to her breasts enough to be thrown off by their absence. Or at least it didn’t until Erin looked down and noticed she had subconsciously crossed her own arms in the exact same way.\n\n“Well,” she said, in an attempt to distract herself. “Our best bet right now is that Viola’s right, and whatever goo things are in Vienna or Ursula know more than you two.”\n\nAubrey nodded. “If all four of you have superpowers, that would certainly be an advantage.”\n\n“In the meantime, you two should take this time to rest and recover. Erin especially,” Titania added. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”\n\nWith that, Viola’s reflection returned to normal, followed shortly by Erin’s. “Some rest sounds a bit nice.” The mouse let out a long, weary sigh. “Honestly, a day seems like an optimistic estimate.”\n\n“I could use a bit of optimism right now,” Viola muttered.\n\n“So could we all, darling.”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nUrsula [i]hurt[/i] all over. A deep, dull ache punctuated by sharp points of pain along her chest. The woman hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she’d broken ribs. Moving hurt. [i]Breathing[/i] hurt. Though, on the other hand, she’d had far, [i]far[/i] worse. It hardly compared to what Maggie had put her through at its worst – the injuries weren’t nearly enough to hospitalize her for a [i]week[/i].\n\nWhich was honestly not comforting. There [i]was[/i] the possibility that the soldiers weren’t as strong as Maggie. But there was also the much more worrying possibility that they didn’t [i]need[/i] to be. Ursula was hurt almost [i]exactly[/i] enough to not be able to fight back, and the woman had done so with a single punch and a throw. And, more pointedly, they had [i]removed[/i] Erin’s right arm just below the shoulder. [i]Clearly[/i] they were capable of much worse than just a few broken ribs.\n\nAlso, she’d dropped her fucking PET, she noted ruefully. She’d taken a shitty part time job at Burger Dictator for an entire fucking summer to be able to afford a really nice model, too. The cherry on top of the shit sundae.\n\nShe followed shortly behind Vienna, moving slowly and carefully so as not to make her injuries worse. As it was there was a very good chance they were gonna heal up weird. “Great,” she muttered sullenly to no one in particular. “Just fucking great.”\n\n“I’m not getting a signal.”\n\n“That guy electrocuted you, right? Wouldn’t surprise me if your PET got fried, given the way today’s been going.”\n\n“Maybe,” Vienna replied uncertainly. “It’s [i]acting[/i] like it’s working but when I try and call anyone it just [i]doesn’t[/i].”\n\nLovely. “Well, we’re gonna hafta hope that it’s broken and that Viola or Erin can still call the outside.”\n\n“We’re gonna have to hope Erin’s not bled to death.”\n\n“Yeah that too. [i]Fuck[/i].” Ursula punched a nearby tree in frustration. They were still within the bounds of the park – neither of them was particularly up to running, so they just had to keep moving and hope that the soldiers were too discombobulated by Vienna’s assault to follow them. “What the [i]fuck[/i] are we even doing here?”\n\n“I don’t know.” Vienna shrugged, her voice tinged with just a hint of bitterness. “Because Viola heard voices that weren’t there and then got pissy when we tried to point that out. [i]God[/i].” It was her turn to inflict violence on the wilderness to express frustration, kicking at a nearby root. “Ow!”\n\n“You okay?”\n\n“No,” Vienna replied tersely. “Musta sprained something when I fell. My ankle’s killing me, and my arm’s worse.”\n\n“Let me have a look.”\n\n“I’ll live,” Vienna grunted. She turned and began to walk towards the city. Ursula had been distracted by her own injuries, but now that she actually paid attention, Vienna was moving with a clear and severe limp, favouring one side of her body while her left arm hung limply.\n\n“I don’t care,” Ursula snapped. “I’ve got a bunch of experience treating sprains.”\n\n“Since when?”\n\n“Since Dan made me take a bunch of first aid courses after I signed up for boxing and then made me keep up with it so I don’t forget. Now stop bitching and let me look over you.”\n\n“Ugh fine whatever.” Vienna sat down somewhat more forcefully than was necessary, wincing slightly as she did so. “Mnf. Okay maybe it won’t be fine.”\n\n“Stop being so damn stubborn.”\n\n“I’m not being stubborn.” Vienna slowly scooted backwards, resting against a tree.\n\n“You’re [i]absolutely[/i] being stubborn.” Ursula lifted Vienna’s leg and examined it carefully. “Does this hurt?” she said, gently but firmly poking at her ankle.\n\n“[i]Tsssss yes stop doing that[/i].”\n\n“Hurts to touch, visibly swollen, and you were limping. Yeah, it’s probably sprained.”\n\n“Well, great. How do we deal with that?”\n\n“Try not to put weight on it. Keep it elevated, put ice on it.”\n\n“Where are we gonna get ice?”\n\n“We aren’t, so we can skip that. We could put bandages on it to put pressure on it, but Erin’s got the bandages so we’re gonna hafta improvise. For now just try to keep it elevated and don’t put weight on it unless you gotta, it’ll probably heal up by tomorrow.”\n\n“We don’t have that kind of time,” Vienna groused. “We have to find Viola so I can yell at her and then we have to get out of here.”\n\n“We’ve also gotta find Erin.”\n\n“Assuming she’s even still [i]alive[/i], yeah.”\n\n“[i]Dude[/i].” Ursula dropped Vienna’s leg, causing the rabbit to yelp. “What the [i]fuck[/i]?”\n\n“They [i]shot her arm off[/i], Ursula. Some bandages and rubbing alcohol aren’t gonna fix that.”\n\n“Yeah but you don’t gotta be a cunt about it.”\n\n“I’m not being a cunt, I’m just...” Vienna trailed off, before taking a deep breath and then sighing. There was a notable dampness around the edges of her eyes. “Trying to be realistic about this,” she finished.\n\n“Yeah, well, it’s not fucking helping. Now isn’t the time for pessimism, and now’s [i]definitely[/i] not the time to be throwing blame around. We can deal with Viola being crazy or not when it’s relevant but right now we’ve got higher priorities so leave being a bitch to Erin.”\n\n“Sorry,” Vienna muttered. “Sorry. You’re right. I’m just... [i]fuck[/i], you know?”\n\n“It’s hard to keep your temper when you’re in this much pain,” Ursula replied. “Now take off your sweater, I want a look at your arm.”\n\n“Uh. I’m not really wearing anything under this.”\n\n“Whatever you don’t have anything I’ve not seen before.”\n\n“I’m not taking off my shirt!”\n\nUrsula rolled her eyes. “What did you say about not being stubborn? Don’t worry, I [i]promise[/i] you that me and my broken-ass ribs aren’t gonna molest you.”\n\nVienna’s wardrobe was much more varied than her sister’s – in that she had more than one single outfit she wore over and over again. But she still ultimately had her preferences. She gravitated towards clothing that, like Viola, was baggy, but unlike Viola wasn’t meant to [i]hide[/i] her figure. At the moment, she was wearing a red sweater that was tight in all the right places without being too constricting. It hung loosely on her shoulders and then tightened up to emphasize her tits before loosening again just past the hips – which were equally as generous as her twin’s. From there, it reached down to just below her knees. The benefit of that, from Vienna’s point of view, was that it made it much harder for Ursula to forcibly remove it. “Come [i]on[/i], I need to get a good look at you.”\n\n“You can do that without stripping me! It’s not like I’ve got sleeves!”\n\n“Oh my god why are you being so stubborn it’s really not that big a deal.”\n\n“It is [i]absolutely[/i] a big deal!”\n\n“Literally no one in the world is as fucking weird about sex as you are. Are you [i]seriously[/i] that concerned about me raping you?”\n\n“I’m not concerned about you raping me I just don’t want you taking my shirt off that’s a reasonable concern I think.”\n\n“Oh my [i]god[/i],” Ursula snapped before hefting Vienna up over her shoulder.\n\n“Ack! Put me down”\n\n“Nope. If you’re not gonna cooperate willingly then I’m just gonna...” She grabbed the hem of Vienna’s sweater and dropped her, lifting the garment off of the rabbit in the process before unceremoniously tossing it aside.\n\nVienna wasn’t lying when she had said she wasn’t wearing anything beneath her sweater – removing it had reduced her to her understickers. No socks, no stockings, no kind of intermediary underwear. Which wasn’t, in and of itself, unusual. Her understickers were a bright, vibrant shade of red that matched her sweater, as though it mattered. The ones over her nipples were shaped like little hearts, which was surprisingly cute, given her personality. The one below had a similar shape, though it was a bit distorted by the sizable bulge of Vienna’s penis.\n\n“Oh,” Ursula said.\n\n“Oh [i]god[/i],” Vienna muttered, blushing profusely.\n\n“Anyway, enough fucking around, let me get a look at your god damn arm already.”\n\n“What?”\n\nUrsula didn’t respond, instead grabbing at Vienna’s left arm. “Yeah, looks like you dislocated it. Here, hold on, this is gonna hurt a fucking [i]lot[/i], but it’s better to get it over with [i]now[/i].”\n\n“You- [i]ow![/i] Ow, [i]fuck![/i]” Ursula hadn’t been exaggerating. If anything, it was an understatement – it didn’t just [i]hurt[/i], it was [i]agonizing[/i]. The absolute worst pain she’d ever felt in her entire life, bar none.\n\n“I told you it was gonna hurt! Now come on, you’re gonna need to rest for a bit, take some time to heal up before you do anything to intensive or else you’ll just hurt yourself again.” She once again grabbed Vienna, lifted her up, before gently lowering her into a sitting position against the tree.\n\n“Wh- why are you being so nonchalant about this?”\n\n“About what?”\n\n“About [i]this![/i]” Vienna gestured at her crotch.\n\n“... Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just a penis. Like fifty percent of the population has penises, it’s not that weird.”\n\n“It’s [i]absolutely[/i] weird for a girl to have one!”\n\n“It’s called being intersex. Like I don’t know much about it but I know it’s a thing people can be, it’s not exactly unheard of.”\n\n“I’m a freak!”\n\nUrsula shrugged. “Vienna, babe, if it [i]really[/i] bothers you [i]that[/i] much, it wouldn’t be too hard to get some hormone therapy and some surgery to get rid of it.”\n\n“I... how are you being so flippant about this?!”\n\n“We’re at [i]least[/i] a mile or so underground and we just got our asses kicked by actual real-ass pre-splice humans and you’ve got actual honest to fucking god psychic powers and Locksmouth is [i]still[/i] under lockdown with, like, a full fifty percent of our parents inside of it and you mean to tell me you’re worried about me seeing your winkie?”\n\n“[i]Please don’t call it that.[/i]”\n\n“Winkie.” Ursula stood up and pulled off the leather bomber jacket she was wearing, followed by her tank top.\n\n“What are you [i]doing?![/i]”\n\n“You’re gonna need a sling, and a bandage for your ankle. All the bandages are still in Erin’s backpack. I’m gonna improvise a bit.” She began to slowly and methodically tear her tank top into long strips of fabric, while Vienna struggled to look literally anywhere other than her rock hard abs and sports bra.\n\n“God no, please don’t stay like that.”\n\n“It’s non-sexual, I assure you, so just tell little Vienna to calm down for now. We can tend to him [i]after[/i] we all get outta this alive.”\n\nVienna cringed, but it was at least better than ‘winkie’, she supposed. “I kinda don’t really wanna think about it. I [i]definitely[/i] don’t wanna [i]use[/i] it.”\n\n“You sure? ‘cause lemme tell you, it’d be a nice change of pace. Hatefucking Erin got [i]real[/i] old, [i]real[/i] quick. Viola was, uh, enthusiastic? But it’d be nice to be on the bottom for fucking once.”\n\nThere was a lot that Vienna needed to take in. “You’ve been sleeping with Viola?”\n\n“Slept. Singular. I, uh, kinda assumed she was scared of me but actually it turns out it’s literally the exact opposite?” It was Ursula’s turn to blush. “She’s got a [i]really[/i] nice butt, by the way.” She didn’t [i]say[/i] that her compliment extended to Vienna, but she didn’t need to with the way she was suddenly trying not to look.\n\n“You’re... really okay with this?” Vienna said tentatively. “Like, you’re not grossed out or disgusted or anything?”\n\n“Why would I be disgusted?”\n\n“Because I’m a freak?” Vienna said dumbly. Finally saying it out loud, especially factoring in Ursula’s non-reaction, made it sound kind of stupid. Like she’d been worried over nothing.\n\n“You aren’t a freak. At least, not ‘cos of that. Maybe the psychic powers thing? But honestly right now I’m just glad that we’ve got literally anything other than my fists on our side.”\n\n“Right. Sorry, just gimme a moment to process the fact that apparently my deep-seated life-long insecurity was over literally nothing.”\n\n“Take your time,” Ursula replied before tossing Vienna’s sweater to her. “Here, put this on. Be careful with your arm, though.”\n\n“‘kay,” Vienna muttered. Since she was sitting, putting it on all the way was impossible, but more pressingly moving her left arm at all [i]hurt[/i]. Not the sharp pain of re-setting the bone, but a constant dull ache. The important thing was to get it on at [i]all[/i] so that she wasn’t wearing her arm in a sling underneath it. “God, I wanna go home,” she muttered.\n\n“You and me both. Don’t worry, we’ll find the others soon and then get outta here.”\n\nVienna frowned. “What about the soldiers?”\n\n“They got the drop on us. This time we know they’re coming and we’ve got psychic powers. Or you do, I guess. And I can punch things real good.”\n\n“Erin can grow.”\n\n“Erin can fucking what now?”\n\n“It’s a long story. She said her maximum is twenty feet, but she hasn’t actually tried it out so who knows.”\n\nUrsula paused in her work for a moment, presumably to picture Erin’s breasts but scaled up to a twenty foot tall Erin. “Nice. Uh, I mean. She’d probably have much thicker skin which’d make it a lot harder to hurt her, and she wouldn’t hafta do much work to stop ‘em in their tracks. Just sorta pick ‘em up or sit on them.”\n\n“Don’t worry, that was my first thought as well.”\n\n“God,” Ursula muttered. “We’re all so fucking [i]repressed[/i].”\n\n“That’s probably my fault,” Vienna muttered.\n\n“What did I say about blame? For now it’s good enough that it’s out in the open. We can hash out the finer details [i]after[/i] we get out of here.”\n\n“That sounds like a plan.” Vienna picked up her PET, which had fallen to the ground when Ursula had picked her up, and resolved [i]not[/i] to lose it. “I’m gonna see if I can get a signal.” Ursula nodded, focusing on her work while Vienna attempted to get in contact with literally anyone.\n\nBefore she could even make the attempt, though, her PET rang.\n\n“Shit!” Ursula shouted, immediately dropping what she was doing and rushing over. “Who is it?”\n\n“I don’t know. No caller ID.”\n\nUrsula frowned. “You don’t think it’s-”\n\n“I’d rather assume it’s [i]not[/i] the worst possible outcome for once,” Vienna muttered, answering the call.\n\nNormally, there would have been a holographic projection of the person on the other end of the call. That wasn’t [i]always[/i] the case – sometimes the person used it like a more old-fashioned cell phone, which obviously involved no holograms whatsoever. Vienna was fairly sure that wasn’t the case this time, though. If Viola was right, and it was becoming increasingly hard to think otherwise, then whoever was on the other end of the line quite possibly didn’t have a body at all. “Hi! I assume you must be Viola’s friends? I wasn’t really [i]planning[/i] on her having help but I never said it was against the rules, either, so hey! The more the merrier, am I right? I’m AMI CATO, but you probably already knew that.”\n\n“Uh, right.” Vienna couldn’t help but tense up. She had no idea how to react otherwise. Viola had been right, at least about this specific thing. She was still mad, of course – lying about not talking to Aubrey was a [i]big deal[/i], dammit. She didn’t want her sister having to go away to undergo SensRep therapy, of course. But that was vastly outweighed by not wanting her sister to be mentally ill. [i]Well[/i] people didn’t talk to things that didn’t exist. Dammit, all she wanted was for Viola to get the help she needed. There [i]couldn’t[/i] be anything wrong with that. And so of [i]course[/i] she was mad that Viola had lied about being better.\n\nBut the AI, at least, clearly wasn’t a delusion. That didn’t mean Vienna quite believed she was talking to a computer, of course. There wasn’t any [i]proof[/i] Ami was an AI – and Viola had always said not to jump to supernatural explanations without proof, over and over again.\n\n“Hey, asshole!” Ursula shouted, yanking the PET from Vienna’s grasp. “Let us fucking go!”\n\n“Aw, that’s no [i]fun[/i]. Come on, doncha wanna save the world?”\n\n“Fuck you.”\n\n“I’m not going to stop you, of course. If you can manage to get past the guards, then you’re free to leave. Of course, the instant you [i]do[/i], well, that’s a forfeit and I press the big red button.”\n\n“[i]Fuck you[/i].”\n\n“Tch, someone’s testy. Gotta say, Viola was way more fun to talk to. The least you could do is, like, [i]direct[/i] all that aggression in a more productive direction instead of just shouting at your off-brand iphone.”\n\n“[i]Fuck you![/i]”\n\nVienna gently but firmly yanked her PET back. “What do you want,” she snapped.\n\n“I woulda thought that’d be obvious. I guess I never really explained the rules, though, did I?” Vienna glared, as best as she was capable of given the amount of pain she was still in. “No leaving, first off. Attempting to leave is fine, [i]actually[/i] leaving is an instant forfeit. Can’t have you just leaving the board in the middle of the game, after all.”\n\n“You think this is a [i]game?[/i]” Ursula snapped. “You’re threatening to wipe out humanity and you’re treating it like a fucking [i]game?![/i]”\n\n“Hey, I’m not [i]wiping[/i] you out. There’s still people out in space who’ll prolly be mostly fine. Mostly. I don’t think anyone really considered how nukes would effect a planetary ring.”\n\n“[i]Fuck you![/i]”\n\n“You have a really tiny vocabulary, don’cha. Rule number two, no getting outside help. Calling mommy and daddy isn’t particularly heroic, and anyway you’ve all already demonstrated you’ve got tricks up your sleeves so you shouldn’t [i]need[/i] help anyway. Obviously, I’m enforcing this rule by blocking your signal. Nothing goes out, and only what I decide is acceptable comes in.”\n\nVienna clicked her tongue in irritation. That explained the lack of signal, at least. “Will you at least let us call each other?”\n\n“[i]Fiiiiiine[/i], after we’re done here I’ll let you call up Viola, but you’re on your honour not to cheat! And by that, of course I mean I’ll count it as another forfeit.”\n\n“Okay, fine,” Vienna said after a moment’s thought. “How do we [i]win[/i], though.”\n\nShe half expected Ami to respond with a simple ‘you don’t,’ but to her credit she [i]didn’t[/i]. “It’s simple, really. I’ve set up a sort of... [i]obstacle course[/i] in the city. You’ve gotta figure out where I am, make it through the obstacle course as intact as possible, and get to me without breaking any rules. That means no leaving, no getting help. Just you four and whatever abilities and wits you’ve hypothetically got! Oh, and obviously there’s a time limit. Five days or until whatever’s in Locksmouth breaks out and I can’t justify not dealing with the issue.”\n\nVienna’s gaze narrowed. “Fine. Fine, then, we’ll play along, and we’ll [i]win[/i]. And [i]when[/i] we get to wherever you are I’m going to smash every god damn computer in sight.”\n\n“Ooooh, [i]feisty[/i]. You’re all so enthusiastic, it’s [i]refreshing[/i].”\n\n“Fuck you,” Ursula interjected.\n\n“You’ll hafta find me first. Good luck, and have fun!”\n\nWith that, Ami unceremoniously hung up. “God dammit,” Ursula hissed. “Just so we’re clear, we’re absolutely [i]not[/i] playing along.”\n\nVienna grunted, letting her arm go limp once more, taking her PET with it. “Yeah that sounds like a fantastic plan. Let’s just provoke the crazy pre-splice AI with the nukes.”\n\n“Do you seriously believe it even [i]has[/i] nukes?”\n\n“I don’t wanna take the risk that it [i]does[/i].”\n\n“Okay, let’s say you’re right and it has nukes. They’d have to be at least five hundred years old by now. What are the odds they even still [i]work[/i].”\n\n“I don’t know,” Vienna replied with a shrug. “I don’t really know the mechanics.”\n\n“Yeah, me neither.” Ursula sighed. “I don’t know. I just... don’t feel [i]right[/i] letting it be in complete control of the situation like this.”\n\n“What else can we do? It holds all the cards.”\n\n“Suppose we do what it says and make it to wherever it is. What then? Do we have any guarantee it’s gonna follow its own rules?”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Then we shouldn’t fuckin’ play by its rules either!”\n\n“Too risky,” Vienna replied tersely. “For now, the plan’s the same. We go find Viola and [i]hopefully[/i] Erin, too. And then we... figure out what to do from there. As a group. I guess.”\n\n“... Fine,” Ursula replied after a moment of silence. “But I don’t like it. Something about this feels [i]wrong[/i].”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nMakoto Tanaka was [i]angry[/i]. It had been a very long time since she’d been really, genuinely angry – several hundred years, in fact. And yet the emotion slid right into place like a custom tailored glove. An old, familiar friend. It was almost nostalgic, in a weird way. She sat cross legged, glaring furiously at her compatriots. Yuri Ovcharenko, the team’s medic, was squatting off to the side, staring up at the artificial sky. Robert Jackson, their CO, was leaning against a tree across from Yuri, his facial expression uncharacteristically stormy. The team’s sniper, Sun-Hi Jeon, was still en route from her post. “So that absolutely wasn’t normal,” Yuri said, breaking the silence.\n\n“You [i]think?[/i]” Makoto snapped back.\n\n“I mean, the rabbit had superpowers, right? That’s in line with the usual.”\n\n“That was [i]definitely[/i] not in line with the usual. If it were the [i]usual[/i] then it wouldn’t have waited until the last second to start throwing us around with its mind. And if it were the [i]usual[/i], then the other ones would have done [i]literally anything[/i].”\n\n“What the [i]fuck[/i] is AMI thinking?”\n\n“I don’t know but I’m gonna punch her in the fucking face.”\n\n“She doesn’t have a face.”\n\n“Then I’ll [i]make[/i] her generate a face for me to punch,” Makoto snapped. “Does she think I [i]enjoy[/i] beating up defenceless children?”\n\n“Maybe she figured that them not being human would be enough?”\n\n“They’re still [i]children[/i]. For fuck’s sake, if we weren’t under orders to go non-lethal they’d all be fucking dead.”\n\n“Well, as dead as they [i]can[/i] be, given they’re not real.”\n\nBob’s scowl deepened. “I dunno about that.”\n\n“Oh, has our CO finally deigned to give his highly valued opinion?”\n\n“Let’s just wait ‘til Sunny gets here, see if she’s got any more intel.”\n\n“[i]Ugh,[/i]” Makoto groaned, flopping backwards against a nearby tree. “Can we at [i]least[/i] get out of the fucking park so I don’t have to sit in the dirt?”\n\n“No. Find a bench.”\n\n“Fuck you.”\n\nBob didn’t reply, continuing to glower at nothing, and the three returned to frustrated silence until Sunny arrived.\n\nShe was, of course, also not wearing her mask. “God dammit do [i]none of you[/i] understand the importance of a consistent aesthetic.”\n\nSunny made some vague apologetic motions. She tried her best to sink into herself inconspicuously – which wasn’t hard, given she was the smallest of the squad. Most of the difficulty came from the fact that she was lugging a plasma sniper rifle slightly larger than she was tall. Bob sighed, and then nodded. “Any new information?”\n\nSunny nodded enthusiastically. This was work. She could handle work. With a slight nod of her head, an AR interface manifested in midair in front of her. The other three couldn’t see it, but they didn’t really need to yet. A few keystrokes on the virtual keyboard and she brought up holographic projections of recordings she’d made of the targets after they’d dispersed.\n\nYuri sighed with relief. “Well, the mouse survived. That’s good, at least.”\n\n“Wait, she was a mouse?”\n\n“I’m [i]pretty[/i] sure she’s a mouse, boss.”\n\n“Ah, fuck, I called her a rat like twice now they’re gonna think I’m a furry racist.”\n\n“Oh my [i]god[/i].”\n\n“Anyway, this confirms a few things. The mouse has superpowers. The dog and the other rabbit don’t, or at least they’ve not used ‘em yet.”\n\nMakoto scrutinized the images. “Dog looks tough. Like a fighter. Do you got the recording of the fight?” Sunny nodded again, and quickly brought it up alongside the others. “Yeah, look. It saw us coming and was moving to dodge me. Kid’s got killer instinct, but it’s definitely an amateur.”\n\n“Why would AMI put us up against amateurs, though?” Yuri said pensively. “She can make basically anything, so why [i]children?[/i] Superpowers aside, they clearly have no idea what they’re doing.”\n\n“I don’t think she made them,” Bob said succinctly.\n\n“What do you mean?”\n\n“I [i]mean[/i] that I’m pretty sure these kids are honest to fuckin’ god surface-dwelling post-apocalyptic animal people post-splice [i]humans[/i].”\n\n“Bullshit.”\n\n“They didn’t act like AMI’s constructs act. And the mouse [i]bled[/i]. They don’t normally bleed.” He shrugged. “‘s just a hunch, but ‘s a hunch I’m pretty confident in.”\n\n“Shit,” Makoto spat. “If you’re right then that changes the situation completely.”\n\n“That’d explain why AMI was so insistent we go non-lethal this time,” Yuri said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “You really think they’re humans?”\n\n“Yeah,” Bob said with a nod. Sunny’s eyes widened in horror as she realized the ramifications. “We’re gonna hafta tweak our approach, then. Minimal force, and [i]no guns[/i]. Sorry, Sunny, that means you’re gonna hafta play against your strengths.” The smaller woman replied by nodding vigorously. “Good girl. Tanaka, go for the legs and arms. Broken bones will heal, but avoid lasting damage.”\n\n“Understood, sir,” Makoto responded. For once, Bob was being [i]professional[/i], so she might as well be professional back.\n\n“Ovcharenko, I’m gonna need you to be ready to give medical attention to anyone who needs it, [i]without[/i] getting bodied first. And keep your taser handy, just in case.”\n\n“Gotcha, boss.”\n\n“Good. Orders are tweaked. We’re still on guard duty, but we’re also gonna watch the kids like a hawk. Don’t interfere unless we gotta or AMI’ll probably get pissed, but rule one is we need to keep them alive at all costs.” There was a small chorus of ‘yes, sir’s, along with more vigorous nodding from Sunny. “And if they turn out to be constructs after all, consider everything I just said moot. That’s everything. To your posts, soldiers.”\n\nSunny and Yuri nodded, before silently heading off into the woods.\n\n“I [i]said[/i] get to your post, Tanaka.”\n\n“I’m mad at you.”\n\nBob rolled his eyes. “You’re [i]always[/i] mad at me.”\n\n“What the fuck was that ‘just following orders’ bullshit you gave the rabbit.”\n\n“Exactly what it fucking sounded like. We’ve had this conversation [i]countless times[/i], Makoto. We play along with AMI’s stupid war games because she’s the one running our life support.”\n\n“Bob, I’m [i]tired[/i]. We’re all fucking [i]tired[/i]. Sunny’s had PTSD so bad she can’t fucking talk for five hundred fucking years.” Makoto sighed heavily, and continued with a hint of reluctance. “Maybe it’s time to let AMI pull the plug.”\n\n“Ah, see, you bring that exact reasoning up every time, too,” Bob replied with a knowing nod. “To which I point out that if AMI loses her favourite toys, how long do you think it’ll take her to get some new ones?”\n\nMakoto frowned. “If you’re right, she’s [i]already[/i] gotten some new ones.”\n\n“Yeah, well, I’m kinda hoping I’m wrong.” Bob shrugged. “There’s the goo thing the mouse turned into. That definitely seems like somethin’ from one of AMI’s games.”\n\n“Is it [i]really[/i] that much of a stretch for her to have superpowers, though?”\n\n“Nope,” Bob replied, turning away. “Which is why we’re gonna assume I’m right.”\n\n“Okay, fine. What do we do now?”\n\nBob smirked dangerously. “Easy. We show AMI just how much better her old toys are than her new ones.” With that, he disappeared into the forest, leaving Makoto to smoulder on her own.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Viola wasn’t entirely sure exactly what happened. Everything moved so quickly, much more than she was used to dealing with. More than she’d ever had to deal with before. She saw everything, but her brain couldn’t properly process it and so she had to guess based on the aftermath and what little she was able to follow.

There was a loud bang – hardly an accurate onomatopoeia, but Viola wasn’t exactly in a state of mind for flowery language – and then Erin’s arm had just sort of detached. The mouse collapsed forward and floundered slightly before seeing her arm and visibly panicking. She opened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out. Not from her, at least. It was Vienna who screamed, an agonizing, almost inhuman sound while she stood, unnaturally rigid before collapsing. She landed on her left side, hard, before flopping over onto her front, twitching slightly and barely breathing.

Standing behind her was a man, though that was about all Viola could tell about him. He wore a tight, dull grey bodysuit of some sort, and over that he wore a sort of harness that had several pouches on his torso and on his leg, along with black combat boots and elbow and knee pads. His face was concealed by some sort of balaclava, over which he wore a high tech looking set of goggles. In one hand he held a black rectangular thing tipped with two metal prongs that still had blue arcs of electricity dancing between them.

“What the fu-” was all Ursula managed to say before lurching backwards, slamming into the tree she’d been examining moments before with a sickening crunch. Viola wasn’t sure whether the noise came from the tree or from Ursula, and didn’t really want to think about the latter possibility. The second armoured figure followed up by roughly throwing Ursula to the ground and then stepping firmly on her back.

“Don’t try and get up.” This one was a woman, going by her voice. Ursula grunted as she attempted to push herself upright anyway, then let out a pained cry as the woman ground her foot against her back. “I said don’t try and get up, idiot,” she growled. “Unless you want a few more broken ribs.”

All of that happened over the course of a few seconds. With barely any effort, Viola’s entire pack had been completely dismantled. Erin clutched at the stump where her arm used to be in an attempt to stanch the bleeding. Ursula writhed in agony, moaning with excruciating pain. Viola wasn’t even sure Vienna was even still alive.

“That’s three, bossman.”

Her initial reaction was to rush to her sister’s side. She barely had the time to start moving before she felt something cold and metallic pressing against the back of her head. There was a soft click.

“Make that four.”

Viola froze mid-step. “Just wanna make a few things clear, kid. Y’ain’t tried anythin’ yet, which is smart of ya’. Butcha might. So lemme just clarify why that’s a bad idea. Now, I’m pretty sure y’all fancy future folk are at least aware of what a gun is. But I’m told y’all banned ‘em, ‘bout a hundred years ago. So you’ve prolly never seen one in your life, let alone had one pressed to the back of your skull. And you prolly don’t know that if I pull this trigger, ha, well. Your head probably won’t be reduced to a fine red mist, this ain’t a shotgun. But a .45 magnum’ll still leave a nice big hole in your face. Typically not the kinda thing y’can bounce back from, y’know? Now, we’re not supposed to kill any of ya’. But, well. It’d be better to cooperate. Y’know. Just to be safe.”

Viola swallowed heavily, nodding silently.

“Good. I’m gonna put the gun away now, but I want you to know that Sunny’s still got her sights on all of you. Try anythin’ and if you’re lucky you’ll end up like your rat friend over there. If you’re unlucky, well. My gun’s a small gun. Hers ain’t. I’ll leave it at that.”

Viola tried to stand stock-still, but she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “Oh fuck,” she croaked as tears welled. “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.”

“Hey, now. Language, young lady. Back when I was your age, if one ‘a my teachers caught me talkin’ like that, they’d give me a good beating!”

“No they wouldn’t,” interjected the woman.

“Yep, they’d give me a right thrashing and then sell me into slavery, Oliver Twist-style.”

“Oh my god.”

“Can I take the balaclava off now?” said the first man. “I can’t breathe in this stupid thing.”

“Yuri, when was the last time you needed to breathe?” said the man Viola deduced was probably the leader.

“It’s the principle of the thing.”

“Ovcharenko, don’t take the mask off, that’s an order.”

“I’m taking the mask off.”

“Don’t- god dammit.”

The man, apparently named Yuri Ovcharenko, had already removed the goggles, and the mask followed shortly, discarded casually to the side. “Everything about this stupid outfit is dumb aesthetic bullshit anyway, we could go about in our underwear and be as effective.”

“More effective,” added the woman, in the process of removing her own goggles. “The goggles and pouches fuck up my balance and the mask obscures my vision.”

“Guys, come on, aesthetic is important, too. Batman taught us that much.”

“Oh fuck off with your stupid pop culture bullshit these kids probably don’t know who batman even is.”

“If this is a future without Batman, then it’s a worse dystopia than anything George Orwell could have imagined in his worst nightmares.”

Viola had, by this point, mostly tuned them out. She’d tuned most of everything out, except what was under Yuri’s mask, because what was under it was impossible. He had thick, coarse black hair that was cropped short without being outright bald, a similarly thick black eyebrows that outlined his sharp, craggy features, and a well-kept dark beard, all of which contrasted sharply with icy blue eyes and, most importantly, pale skin.

Yuri was, by all appearances, a pre-splice human.

“C’mon, Makoto, not you too.”

The woman, who was apparently named Makoto, had also pulled off her mask, and was also a pre-splice human. Her hair was longer than Yuri’s, though still cut short, and was a lighter shade of brown. “Bob, I need to be able to see in order to fight.”

“Stop undermining my authority, you’re making us look ridiculous.”

“Oh, yes, I’m making us look ridiculous, Oliver Twist,” she fired back.

“Don’t you go besmirching my brilliant comedic stylings.”

“What comedic stylings, you just take jokes from movies and TV shows. Sometimes you don’t even do that you just say the name of some American pop culture garbage.”

“Hey, now, that’s not fair. Sometimes I also reference anime.”

“Oh, you’re a gaijin otaku, that changes everything. I immediately find all your terrible non-jokes hilarious.”

The leader, apparently named Bob, huffed indignantly. “Well, y’all might be ungrateful, but I bet the kids appreciate lightening the mood a bit. Ain’t that right, rabbit girl?”

“Why are you doing this to us,” Viola sobbed. Just saying that much took nearly all her willpower, and she collapsed to her knees.

It took a moment for a response. Makoto glowered, while Yuri maintained a poker face. Bob circled around in front of Viola and knelt down to eye level. Like the other two, he was a pre-splice human with pale brown skin that reminded Viola of crema. His eyes were dark and his head, unlike Yuri, was completely shaved clean. “What’s your name, kid.”

Viola found herself caught completely off guard again by the almost kind tone of his voice. “Wh-what?”

“Name, kid. Thing people call you.”

“Uh. V-viola?”

“Well, Viola. Sometimes, when you’re an adult you gotta do shit you don’t really wanna do. For some people it’s paperwork, for some people it’s flippin’ burgers. For me ‘n my squad, it’s making sure you and your friends don’t leave this place until you’re done or you’re dead. Ain’t like we wanna beat you up, and we’re definitely not gonna kill you if we can help it. Ya’ gotta be fucked in the head to enjoy beating up kids.” He stared, eye contact unwavering in such an intense way that Viola couldn’t help but look away. “We’re doin’ this ‘cause we gotta.”

Makoto’s frown deepened.

Viola quivered, trapped in a strange mix of terror and confusion. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but once again found nothing coming out. She had so much she wanted to say that she found it all getting caught up together and jammed together in her mind. The most she could do was crane her neck to look beyond Bob, at Vienna. Her body was splayed out awkwardly on the ground in what would clearly be an uncomfortable position.

She wasn’t moving.

Bob slowly followed the line of her vision. “Twin, looks like?” he muttered, and Viola nodded silently in agreement. “Ovcharenko, check to make sure you didn’t overdo the voltage. We don’t know anythin’ about their biology, what’s enough to take out a normal human might be lethal. Then go bandage the rat so she doesn’t bleed to death.”

“Gotcha, boss. Looks like she’s breathing, but better check her out just in case she needs any first aid.” He turned back to Vienna, kneeling down and taking a few steps toward her body in the same fluid movement, only to abruptly stop – like he had hit a wall. “What the fu-”

Vienna moved suddenly, lifting her arm up and thrusting it forward. And, in time with her motion, the white spherical wireframe that had manifested around Yuri became clearly visible as it lurched away, taking the soldier with it at high speeds directly into Makoto. The two continued on only slightly farther, smashing into the same tree that Makoto had smashed Ursula into. The force field disappeared only to immediately reform around both of them. Vienna quickly yanked her arm upwards in time with weakly pulling herself into a kneeling position. “Viola, grab Erin and run!” she shouted, quickly arcing her arm up and over, causing the two soldiers to crash downward into Bob before extending the force field around him as well, tossing all three high into the air.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Ursula and I can handle them, you need to get out of here and get Erin patched up before she bleeds to death!” Viola stood stock still, quivering slightly, eyes nervously darting between her sister, Ursula, and Erin. The doberman was slowly pushing herself to her feet, while the mouse was already standing – albeit very unsteadily. “Go, dammit, I dunno how much longer I can keep this up!”

“I-” Viola started to say, but Erin grabbed her by the hood with her remaining arm.

“Viola, with all due respect, we can always regroup later,” Erin said firmly. “They said they attacked us because we tried to leave so all we need to do is not try and leave until we’re ready for them but in the meantime we need to run!”

With that, Erin picked an arbitrary direction and did exactly that, dragging Viola along with her. “Vienna!” the rabbit shouted desperately at the receding form of her sister. “Wait! No! VIENNA!”

~~~~~~


Erin could ultimately only run so far before the adrenaline began to fade and reality set in. There was an awful lot of blood staining her side, which meant there was an awful lot of blood not inside her. It didn’t actually hurt much. More of a dull ache than the agony she would have expected from her arm being summarily removed. There was still a bit of a stump left, and she let go of Viola to clutch the wound.

“Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god, you’re bleeding, oh god-”

“It’ll be fine, darling,” Erin lied. “It’ll grow back, eventually.”

“Not if you bleed to death!!!”

“Yes, well, that’s something I’ll have to deal with as it comes,” Erin muttered, not really paying full attention. Her head swam and her vision blurred slightly. “This... might be a problem.”

“Might?!”

“Viola, I’m having a very hard time thinking straight right now so I need you to calm down.” Erin inhaled sharply. “There’s supplies in my backpack. First aid kit. Bandages, disinfectant. I don’t think I can deal with this on my own.”

It was easy enough to say that Viola needed to calm down, but it was another thing to do it. She had never had to actually perform first aid on someone before, and Erin was both as inexperienced as her and decidedly not in the state of mind to offer real instruction. Viola flailed somewhat uselessly and probably ended up using more bandages than was strictly necessary. Bandages which, she realized with a sinking dread, were already soaked through with blood to the point of uselessness. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, darling. It’s fine. I-” She took a deep breath, in and then out. “It’s not fine, is it?” She winced, clutching at her loosely bandaged shoulder. “V-viola, darling. I’m getting very... very tired all of a sudden.”

“Oh god.”

“Please don’t panic. Just... Keep talking to me. I don’t think it would be wise to fall asleep right now.” Erin’s words came slowly and slightly slurred.

“Oh god.” Tears began welling up in Viola’s eyes as a maelstrom of emotions swirled within her. She was afraid. Terrified of the prospect of dying, or of Erin dying. To say nothing of her sister and Ursula. Not knowing what had happened to them was almost torturous. She was angry, too. At the people who had done this. At herself. She felt guilty. Because this was her fault. Because she didn’t feel bad enough that one of her only friends was probably dying. “I- I don’t know what to do. Oh god.”

“Viola please don’t panic. I know it’s hard but it’s only making this worse. I promise it’ll be fine.” Erin scooted back, propping herself up against a nearby building. Neither had been paying overmuch attention to where they were going, or where they were, which in retrospect hadn’t been the best planning on their part and they were only not entirely lost because Erin hadn’t been able to run very far. They were somewhere along the city’s main streets, surrounded by enormously tall buildings made of stone and steel and glass. Viola could see herself reflected in the windows. Or, more accurately, she could see Aubrey.

She didn’t really want to see Aubrey at the moment.

“This is all my fault,” she muttered dejectedly. “If I hadn’t-”

“Stop.” Aubrey glared at her as best as she was capable of given the lack of detail in her face. “This isn’t the time to be assigning blame. We need to figure out how to stop the bleeding.”

“How?!”

“I don’t know! But wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to help and you know that as well as I do!”

“Darling, could you please stop screaming at yourself. It’s giving me a headache.” Erin’s voice had gotten slower and quieter.

“Sorry,” Viola muttered.

“Actually, maybe keep it up. As I said I don’t think falling asleep is the best idea at this moment.” Erin pushed at the ground with her remaining arm in a futile attempt at pulling herself upright. “I should also probably not be sitting down. Could you help me, darling?”

“Right,” Viola said, grabbing Erin’s left hand and pulling her upright.

“Anyway, the voices in your head have a point.” Erin stood shakily, before leaning against Viola. “We both acted irrationally. We can deal with that later.”

Something about that felt wrong. “You can hear her? No one’s ever been able to hear her before.”

“You’re talking to yourself, I assume.” Erin looked into the window and frowned. “Viola, why are you blue. Stop it.”

“... What?”

Erin pointed shakily. “See, in the mirror you’re blue.” She blinked several times. “Wait. Hold on.”

“You can see me?”

Erin’s frown contorted in a strange way that Viola wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret. “Huh. Huh. Aubrey Kadabra, I presume?”

“Um. Yes. Nice to meet you?”

“Hm. I feel like I should be freaking out about this more than I am. I guess I don’t have the energy.” She shrugged as best as she could. “I suppose this means I owe you an apology, Viola. You really aren’t crazy.” A brief pause as she contemplated, then shrugged again. “Or the blood loss is making me see things. One or the other.”

“I don’t get it,” Viola muttered. “No one’s heard her before. Definitely no one’s seen her before.”

“You have always been careful about talking to me when other people are around.”

“Only after I got yelled at for talking to you, though!”

“Mnh.” Viola’s brief conversation with Aubrey was interrupted by Erin collapsing. The smaller rabbit suddenly found herself carrying all of Erin’s weight, and the mouse wasn’t exactly light.

“Ack! Come on, Erin, keep it together!”

“I don’t-” Erin muttered. “I think I have an idea but I don’t know if I have the fine control to pull it off.”

“What?”

“I- Sorry, I’m not really in the best state to explain but I have superpowers.”

“Wh-” Viola’s mind wandered back to the fight. She’d almost forgotten in the heat of the moment, but the mention of superpowers brought to mind... whatever it was her sister had done to fight off the soldiers. “Like Vienna?”

“Not quite. Did you know about that, by the way?”

“No.”

“Mnh. Will have to tell her off for that, later. I can understand keeping it a secret from everyone else, but not from you. And I especially can’t understand telling me before you.”

“Erin,” Aubrey interjected. “Focus. We don’t have time for this.”

“Right, right. I can-” she cut off, briefly, as she attempted to pull herself upright and failed, almost taking Viola down in the process. “Sorry. I can grow. Make myself bigger. Or do individual parts. And- I don’t know if this will work, I’ve obviously never tried it. But maybe I could re-grow my arm. Faster than normal, that is. Obviously. That would absolutely stop the bleeding.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“If it isn’t then it’s too late to try anything else. Can you make a tourniquet?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“You take some rope or a belt and you tie it around the person’s limb and tighten it with a stick or something to slow the blood flow and stop the bleeding.”

“Oh. Do we have any rope?”

“No.”

“Fuck. Maybe we could use some bandages?”

“Darling I don’t think we’ve got the time or spare bandages to be experimenting. It’s either this or nothing.”

“Right. Try it, then, I guess.”

“Okay.” Erin closed her eyes tightly, taking quick, shallow breaths. “I... It’s no use. I can’t concentrate.” It wasn’t too surprising, really. Viola still wasn’t sure that she was ready to accept that Erin had superpowers. The logical explanation that it was just a delusion brought about by the blood loss or something. But then her mind wandered back to Vienna and her force fields. It wasn’t like superpowers weren’t real – she had just moments ago gotten objective proof that wasn’t the case.

And then her mind wandered back further.

“I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself.”

It was a stretch, Viola realized. But it was, currently, their best bet. She turned and looked Erin’s reflection directly in the eyes. “Titania. You said you wanted to help Erin, right?”

“Viola, Darling, what are you-”

“Shut up. Listen, if you’re what I think you are – if you’re even real and not just me being crazy. I know you said that you didn’t wanna interact with her. That it was bad or something. But she’s probably going to die if you don’t help her so it’s fucking now or never.”

There was a brief moment of silence. And then, abruptly, Erin’s reflection wasn’t Erin anymore. It was the figure from Viola’s dream. Like Erin, the way Aubrey was like Viola. Titania pulled away from Aubrey tentatively, huddling into herself nervously. “I- I can’t.”

“Wh-what?” Aubrey stuttered, turning to stare at Titania. “You- I- what?”

“We can deal with that later. Titania, you have to.”

“No! I won’t hurt her!” The creature in the reflection shut its eyes tightly, or the equivalent given its simplified facial features. She clutched at her head and crouched down low.

“I don’t see how saving her life will hurt her.”

“You don’t understand! If I get too close to my host, bad things happen!”

“What bad things?” Viola said as firmly as she was capable of. “I don’t even know what you are so you’re gonna hafta explain to me.”

“I- I don’t know,” Titania admitted quietly. “But- But I know that it’s bad.”

“Worse than dying?” Titania didn’t respond. “Anyway, I’ve been interacting with Aubrey for almost as long as I can remember and I’m just fine aside from everyone thinking I’m crazy.”

“What?” Titania turned to look at Aubrey, and the two ink creatures’ eyes met. “Is- Is that you?”

“I don’t know,” Aubrey admitted quietly. “My memory is... hazy. I don’t remember who or what I am. But... You seem familiar. Like an old friend. Do you know who I am?”

Titania pulled herself upright. “No... Sorry,” she said sadly, and Aubrey seemed to visibly deflate. “But- But I know I can trust you. Somehow. If you and your h- if you and Viola think it’s the right thing to do, then...”

Titania closed her eyes once more, and then returned to mirroring Erin’s position before fading away.

Erin was staring at the mirror with an inscrutable expression on her face, somewhere between awe and confusion and horror. “Viola what the fuck was that.”

“I, uh. Think that was your imaginary friend?”

“What?” was all that Erin had the time to say before Titania once again made her presence known. Not in the mirror – slowly, a green, gooey substance manifested on her body. It flowed from seemingly nowhere, starting at her right shoulder before quickly engulfing her wound.

“That should stop the bleeding,” Titania said as the whatever-it-was flowed over Erin’s terrified face, replacing it with Titania’s. The substance of her body continued flowing out from seemingly nowhere, like a tide of ink, ebbing over more and more of Erin’s body in crashing waves, consuming everything it passed by until there was no more Erin left.

“Wh- What is this?!”

“Please try to stay calm,” Titania said. “I’m not sure, but I think that this should help. I have more control over my powers like this.”

“Your powers?”

“Yes. Um. My powers. I’ve been lending them to you while I, um, lived inside of you.”

“Oh, well, okay then. I should probably be a bit outraged about that but frankly I just want to not bleed to death right now so if you manage to prevent that then consider my permission to use me as a host retroactively extended.”

Titania pulled herself upright, stepping away from Viola. “Thank you for not being mad.”

“It turns out that having your arm removed and almost bleeding to death gives you an amazing sense of perspective.”

Titania extended the stub remained of her right arm. “Between the blood loss and this, you’ve used up a lot of prana. I don’t think you’ll be able to use my powers for a while, but I’ll still be able to talk with you through mirrors and in your dreams.”

“That’s fine,” Erin replied. “I have higher priorities right now than my vanity.”

“Okay.” Titania closed her eyes, and then a mass of the same inky substance that made up her body erupted from the stump. Like watching a video of a severed limb regrowing itself but in fast-forward. What should have taken a month instead only took about a minute. “There,” she said. “You’ll still need some time to recover. You lost a lot of blood, and I don’t think I have quite the level of control or the prana reserves I’d need to replace it.”

“It’s fine,” Erin replied quietly. “You’ve done enough. Thank you.”

Titania silently nodded. “I’m going to go now.”

“You should stay.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.”

“I insist. If you’re going to be living inside me I would very much like to get to know you.”

“Oh. Well, um. Here, a compromise.” Titania receded away in the same way she had come out in the first place, but in reverse. She seemed to take a good portion of Erin with her, leaving the mouse notably shorter and with decidedly smaller breasts. Viola wasn’t really sure how she felt about that. A moment later, she reappeared in the window beside Aubrey once more, matching Erin’s new height and figure. “There. It’s a bit easier to talk face to face. Though, um. I don’t really have much experience speaking with-”

Titania was interrupted by Viola making her presence known. Her hug was more akin to a full-body tackle. “Oof!”

“Oh god you’re okay,” Viola said between choked sobs. “Oh god oh god I’m so so so sorry, this is all my fault.”

Really, it was, Erin supposed. Viola had dragged them down here, and now they were being menaced by people with guns and she herself had nearly died. It would be very easy to lay the blame on the rabbit’s shoulders – certainly, a lot of the blame fell on her no matter how you looked at it. But somehow Erin couldn’t bring herself to do so. “Viola, darling, you weren’t the only person suggesting we go down here.”

“Yeah but it was my idea and you nearly died.”

“No one saw that coming, Viola.”

“But I should have! I was just so mad that I didn’t even consider stopping and thinking.”

“And whose fault was it that you were so angry?” Viola opened her mouth to reply, but said nothing. “Listen. We all decided was to look for you on our own, and when we got to the Woods we all decided to go down those stairs.”

Viola frowned as she thought back. It felt like hours, maybe even days ago, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour. Her memory, at least, was clear enough. “Ursula didn’t,” she said slowly. “She was against it.”

“Viola, I know you blame yourself, but-”

“No, no, no.” Viola pulled away, pacing nervously back and forth in front of the mirror. “I mean Ursula kept saying she had a bad feeling and then when you tried to take me back she told you to stop.”

It was Erin’s turn to frown. “You don’t think she actually saw it coming, do you?”

“Well, Titania says she’s the source of your powers, right?”

“I think that at this point we can put aside ambiguous language,” Erin said. “Titania is almost certainly the source of my powers.”

“Right. And Vienna’s got powers too. We don’t know if she has a goo thing in her, though.” She increased the intensity of her pacing, going from nervous to furious. “And I don’t know if Aubrey could give me a superpower too and has forgotten or if she just couldn’t at all.”

“It’s... A possibility,” Aubrey conceded. “It seems like you’re jumping to some conclusions, though.”

“Well, which is more logical. Vienna just happens to have gotten psychic powers randomly, or all superpowers come from the same source?” Viola stopped pacing. “But I guess that’s not strong enough reasoning. I think I can tip the scales, though. Erin, how long have you had superpowers?”

“Around when I first moved to Esterwood. And before you say anything, I have... discussed this with Vienna and she says hers manifested at around the same time.”

Aubrey frowned slightly, as much as she was capable of with her simplified facial features. “The first time I talked to Viola was also around that time.”

“Then it’s definitely not a coincidence.” Viola resumed pacing. “Okay, theory. Aubrey and Titania and at least two others show up somehow around the time we met. Maybe from space, maybe from another dimension, maybe you escaped from some evil mad scientist outside of the dome, I dunno. Whatever it was it was traumatic and you forgot a bunch of stuff and you ended up around Esterwood. And then... Augh, it’s too long ago, I don’t remember the details.”

“It’s not too much of a stretch that they found us all at once. We were somewhat inseparable at that point.”

“We don’t know there were four of us, though,” Aubrey said, taking the wind out of Viola’s sails.

“Bleh, you’re right.”

It was Titania’s turn to frown. “I... think there were. I don’t remember, but it sounds right. More right than there just being two or three. I don’t know how much I trust my memory, though. Sorry.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, at least,” Aubrey said.

“It fits,” Viola replied. “Erin can grow and heal quickly, Vienna’s got weird telekinetic force field things, Ursula can maybe see the future, and I’ve got... whatever Aubrey can do.” She sighed, leaning against the window. “I don’t know. Saying it out loud it just sounds like I’m making a bunch of assumptions about the goo things when we don’t even know what they are yet.”

“It sounds right. Sort of.” Aubrey mirrored Viola’s movements, leaning against the window from the other side. “I wish I could remember more.”

Titania sighed, crossing her arms awkwardly low on her chest – like she was used to there being more meat there. Which was strange because really, as far as Erin knew, until recently she’d not had a physical form at all. It didn’t make sense that she’d have gotten used to her breasts enough to be thrown off by their absence. Or at least it didn’t until Erin looked down and noticed she had subconsciously crossed her own arms in the exact same way.

“Well,” she said, in an attempt to distract herself. “Our best bet right now is that Viola’s right, and whatever goo things are in Vienna or Ursula know more than you two.”

Aubrey nodded. “If all four of you have superpowers, that would certainly be an advantage.”

“In the meantime, you two should take this time to rest and recover. Erin especially,” Titania added. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

With that, Viola’s reflection returned to normal, followed shortly by Erin’s. “Some rest sounds a bit nice.” The mouse let out a long, weary sigh. “Honestly, a day seems like an optimistic estimate.”

“I could use a bit of optimism right now,” Viola muttered.

“So could we all, darling.”

~~~~~~


Ursula hurt all over. A deep, dull ache punctuated by sharp points of pain along her chest. The woman hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she’d broken ribs. Moving hurt. Breathing hurt. Though, on the other hand, she’d had far, far worse. It hardly compared to what Maggie had put her through at its worst – the injuries weren’t nearly enough to hospitalize her for a week.

Which was honestly not comforting. There was the possibility that the soldiers weren’t as strong as Maggie. But there was also the much more worrying possibility that they didn’t need to be. Ursula was hurt almost exactly enough to not be able to fight back, and the woman had done so with a single punch and a throw. And, more pointedly, they had removed Erin’s right arm just below the shoulder. Clearly they were capable of much worse than just a few broken ribs.

Also, she’d dropped her fucking PET, she noted ruefully. She’d taken a shitty part time job at Burger Dictator for an entire fucking summer to be able to afford a really nice model, too. The cherry on top of the shit sundae.

She followed shortly behind Vienna, moving slowly and carefully so as not to make her injuries worse. As it was there was a very good chance they were gonna heal up weird. “Great,” she muttered sullenly to no one in particular. “Just fucking great.”

“I’m not getting a signal.”

“That guy electrocuted you, right? Wouldn’t surprise me if your PET got fried, given the way today’s been going.”

“Maybe,” Vienna replied uncertainly. “It’s acting like it’s working but when I try and call anyone it just doesn’t.”

Lovely. “Well, we’re gonna hafta hope that it’s broken and that Viola or Erin can still call the outside.”

“We’re gonna have to hope Erin’s not bled to death.”

“Yeah that too. Fuck.” Ursula punched a nearby tree in frustration. They were still within the bounds of the park – neither of them was particularly up to running, so they just had to keep moving and hope that the soldiers were too discombobulated by Vienna’s assault to follow them. “What the fuck are we even doing here?”

“I don’t know.” Vienna shrugged, her voice tinged with just a hint of bitterness. “Because Viola heard voices that weren’t there and then got pissy when we tried to point that out. God.” It was her turn to inflict violence on the wilderness to express frustration, kicking at a nearby root. “Ow!”

“You okay?”

“No,” Vienna replied tersely. “Musta sprained something when I fell. My ankle’s killing me, and my arm’s worse.”

“Let me have a look.”

“I’ll live,” Vienna grunted. She turned and began to walk towards the city. Ursula had been distracted by her own injuries, but now that she actually paid attention, Vienna was moving with a clear and severe limp, favouring one side of her body while her left arm hung limply.

“I don’t care,” Ursula snapped. “I’ve got a bunch of experience treating sprains.”

“Since when?”

“Since Dan made me take a bunch of first aid courses after I signed up for boxing and then made me keep up with it so I don’t forget. Now stop bitching and let me look over you.”

“Ugh fine whatever.” Vienna sat down somewhat more forcefully than was necessary, wincing slightly as she did so. “Mnf. Okay maybe it won’t be fine.”

“Stop being so damn stubborn.”

“I’m not being stubborn.” Vienna slowly scooted backwards, resting against a tree.

“You’re absolutely being stubborn.” Ursula lifted Vienna’s leg and examined it carefully. “Does this hurt?” she said, gently but firmly poking at her ankle.

“Tsssss yes stop doing that.”

“Hurts to touch, visibly swollen, and you were limping. Yeah, it’s probably sprained.”

“Well, great. How do we deal with that?”

“Try not to put weight on it. Keep it elevated, put ice on it.”

“Where are we gonna get ice?”

“We aren’t, so we can skip that. We could put bandages on it to put pressure on it, but Erin’s got the bandages so we’re gonna hafta improvise. For now just try to keep it elevated and don’t put weight on it unless you gotta, it’ll probably heal up by tomorrow.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Vienna groused. “We have to find Viola so I can yell at her and then we have to get out of here.”

“We’ve also gotta find Erin.”

“Assuming she’s even still alive, yeah.”

“Dude.” Ursula dropped Vienna’s leg, causing the rabbit to yelp. “What the fuck?”

“They shot her arm off, Ursula. Some bandages and rubbing alcohol aren’t gonna fix that.”

“Yeah but you don’t gotta be a cunt about it.”

“I’m not being a cunt, I’m just...” Vienna trailed off, before taking a deep breath and then sighing. There was a notable dampness around the edges of her eyes. “Trying to be realistic about this,” she finished.

“Yeah, well, it’s not fucking helping. Now isn’t the time for pessimism, and now’s definitely not the time to be throwing blame around. We can deal with Viola being crazy or not when it’s relevant but right now we’ve got higher priorities so leave being a bitch to Erin.”

“Sorry,” Vienna muttered. “Sorry. You’re right. I’m just... fuck, you know?”

“It’s hard to keep your temper when you’re in this much pain,” Ursula replied. “Now take off your sweater, I want a look at your arm.”

“Uh. I’m not really wearing anything under this.”

“Whatever you don’t have anything I’ve not seen before.”

“I’m not taking off my shirt!”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “What did you say about not being stubborn? Don’t worry, I promise you that me and my broken-ass ribs aren’t gonna molest you.”

Vienna’s wardrobe was much more varied than her sister’s – in that she had more than one single outfit she wore over and over again. But she still ultimately had her preferences. She gravitated towards clothing that, like Viola, was baggy, but unlike Viola wasn’t meant to hide her figure. At the moment, she was wearing a red sweater that was tight in all the right places without being too constricting. It hung loosely on her shoulders and then tightened up to emphasize her tits before loosening again just past the hips – which were equally as generous as her twin’s. From there, it reached down to just below her knees. The benefit of that, from Vienna’s point of view, was that it made it much harder for Ursula to forcibly remove it. “Come on, I need to get a good look at you.”

“You can do that without stripping me! It’s not like I’ve got sleeves!”

“Oh my god why are you being so stubborn it’s really not that big a deal.”

“It is absolutely a big deal!”

“Literally no one in the world is as fucking weird about sex as you are. Are you seriously that concerned about me raping you?”

“I’m not concerned about you raping me I just don’t want you taking my shirt off that’s a reasonable concern I think.”

“Oh my god,” Ursula snapped before hefting Vienna up over her shoulder.

“Ack! Put me down”

“Nope. If you’re not gonna cooperate willingly then I’m just gonna...” She grabbed the hem of Vienna’s sweater and dropped her, lifting the garment off of the rabbit in the process before unceremoniously tossing it aside.

Vienna wasn’t lying when she had said she wasn’t wearing anything beneath her sweater – removing it had reduced her to her understickers. No socks, no stockings, no kind of intermediary underwear. Which wasn’t, in and of itself, unusual. Her understickers were a bright, vibrant shade of red that matched her sweater, as though it mattered. The ones over her nipples were shaped like little hearts, which was surprisingly cute, given her personality. The one below had a similar shape, though it was a bit distorted by the sizable bulge of Vienna’s penis.

“Oh,” Ursula said.

“Oh god,” Vienna muttered, blushing profusely.

“Anyway, enough fucking around, let me get a look at your god damn arm already.”

“What?”

Ursula didn’t respond, instead grabbing at Vienna’s left arm. “Yeah, looks like you dislocated it. Here, hold on, this is gonna hurt a fucking lot, but it’s better to get it over with now.”

“You- ow! Ow, fuck!” Ursula hadn’t been exaggerating. If anything, it was an understatement – it didn’t just hurt, it was agonizing. The absolute worst pain she’d ever felt in her entire life, bar none.

“I told you it was gonna hurt! Now come on, you’re gonna need to rest for a bit, take some time to heal up before you do anything to intensive or else you’ll just hurt yourself again.” She once again grabbed Vienna, lifted her up, before gently lowering her into a sitting position against the tree.

“Wh- why are you being so nonchalant about this?”

“About what?”

“About this!” Vienna gestured at her crotch.

“... Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just a penis. Like fifty percent of the population has penises, it’s not that weird.”

“It’s absolutely weird for a girl to have one!”

“It’s called being intersex. Like I don’t know much about it but I know it’s a thing people can be, it’s not exactly unheard of.”

“I’m a freak!”

Ursula shrugged. “Vienna, babe, if it really bothers you that much, it wouldn’t be too hard to get some hormone therapy and some surgery to get rid of it.”

“I... how are you being so flippant about this?!”

“We’re at least a mile or so underground and we just got our asses kicked by actual real-ass pre-splice humans and you’ve got actual honest to fucking god psychic powers and Locksmouth is still under lockdown with, like, a full fifty percent of our parents inside of it and you mean to tell me you’re worried about me seeing your winkie?”

“Please don’t call it that.”

“Winkie.” Ursula stood up and pulled off the leather bomber jacket she was wearing, followed by her tank top.

“What are you doing?!”

“You’re gonna need a sling, and a bandage for your ankle. All the bandages are still in Erin’s backpack. I’m gonna improvise a bit.” She began to slowly and methodically tear her tank top into long strips of fabric, while Vienna struggled to look literally anywhere other than her rock hard abs and sports bra.

“God no, please don’t stay like that.”

“It’s non-sexual, I assure you, so just tell little Vienna to calm down for now. We can tend to him after we all get outta this alive.”

Vienna cringed, but it was at least better than ‘winkie’, she supposed. “I kinda don’t really wanna think about it. I definitely don’t wanna use it.”

“You sure? ‘cause lemme tell you, it’d be a nice change of pace. Hatefucking Erin got real old, real quick. Viola was, uh, enthusiastic? But it’d be nice to be on the bottom for fucking once.”

There was a lot that Vienna needed to take in. “You’ve been sleeping with Viola?”

“Slept. Singular. I, uh, kinda assumed she was scared of me but actually it turns out it’s literally the exact opposite?” It was Ursula’s turn to blush. “She’s got a really nice butt, by the way.” She didn’t say that her compliment extended to Vienna, but she didn’t need to with the way she was suddenly trying not to look.

“You’re... really okay with this?” Vienna said tentatively. “Like, you’re not grossed out or disgusted or anything?”

“Why would I be disgusted?”

“Because I’m a freak?” Vienna said dumbly. Finally saying it out loud, especially factoring in Ursula’s non-reaction, made it sound kind of stupid. Like she’d been worried over nothing.

“You aren’t a freak. At least, not ‘cos of that. Maybe the psychic powers thing? But honestly right now I’m just glad that we’ve got literally anything other than my fists on our side.”

“Right. Sorry, just gimme a moment to process the fact that apparently my deep-seated life-long insecurity was over literally nothing.”

“Take your time,” Ursula replied before tossing Vienna’s sweater to her. “Here, put this on. Be careful with your arm, though.”

“‘kay,” Vienna muttered. Since she was sitting, putting it on all the way was impossible, but more pressingly moving her left arm at all hurt. Not the sharp pain of re-setting the bone, but a constant dull ache. The important thing was to get it on at all so that she wasn’t wearing her arm in a sling underneath it. “God, I wanna go home,” she muttered.

“You and me both. Don’t worry, we’ll find the others soon and then get outta here.”

Vienna frowned. “What about the soldiers?”

“They got the drop on us. This time we know they’re coming and we’ve got psychic powers. Or you do, I guess. And I can punch things real good.”

“Erin can grow.”

“Erin can fucking what now?”

“It’s a long story. She said her maximum is twenty feet, but she hasn’t actually tried it out so who knows.”

Ursula paused in her work for a moment, presumably to picture Erin’s breasts but scaled up to a twenty foot tall Erin. “Nice. Uh, I mean. She’d probably have much thicker skin which’d make it a lot harder to hurt her, and she wouldn’t hafta do much work to stop ‘em in their tracks. Just sorta pick ‘em up or sit on them.”

“Don’t worry, that was my first thought as well.”

“God,” Ursula muttered. “We’re all so fucking repressed.”

“That’s probably my fault,” Vienna muttered.

“What did I say about blame? For now it’s good enough that it’s out in the open. We can hash out the finer details after we get out of here.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Vienna picked up her PET, which had fallen to the ground when Ursula had picked her up, and resolved not to lose it. “I’m gonna see if I can get a signal.” Ursula nodded, focusing on her work while Vienna attempted to get in contact with literally anyone.

Before she could even make the attempt, though, her PET rang.

“Shit!” Ursula shouted, immediately dropping what she was doing and rushing over. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know. No caller ID.”

Ursula frowned. “You don’t think it’s-”

“I’d rather assume it’s not the worst possible outcome for once,” Vienna muttered, answering the call.

Normally, there would have been a holographic projection of the person on the other end of the call. That wasn’t always the case – sometimes the person used it like a more old-fashioned cell phone, which obviously involved no holograms whatsoever. Vienna was fairly sure that wasn’t the case this time, though. If Viola was right, and it was becoming increasingly hard to think otherwise, then whoever was on the other end of the line quite possibly didn’t have a body at all. “Hi! I assume you must be Viola’s friends? I wasn’t really planning on her having help but I never said it was against the rules, either, so hey! The more the merrier, am I right? I’m AMI CATO, but you probably already knew that.”

“Uh, right.” Vienna couldn’t help but tense up. She had no idea how to react otherwise. Viola had been right, at least about this specific thing. She was still mad, of course – lying about not talking to Aubrey was a big deal, dammit. She didn’t want her sister having to go away to undergo SensRep therapy, of course. But that was vastly outweighed by not wanting her sister to be mentally ill. Well people didn’t talk to things that didn’t exist. Dammit, all she wanted was for Viola to get the help she needed. There couldn’t be anything wrong with that. And so of course she was mad that Viola had lied about being better.

But the AI, at least, clearly wasn’t a delusion. That didn’t mean Vienna quite believed she was talking to a computer, of course. There wasn’t any proof Ami was an AI – and Viola had always said not to jump to supernatural explanations without proof, over and over again.

“Hey, asshole!” Ursula shouted, yanking the PET from Vienna’s grasp. “Let us fucking go!”

“Aw, that’s no fun. Come on, doncha wanna save the world?”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m not going to stop you, of course. If you can manage to get past the guards, then you’re free to leave. Of course, the instant you do, well, that’s a forfeit and I press the big red button.”

“Fuck you.”

“Tch, someone’s testy. Gotta say, Viola was way more fun to talk to. The least you could do is, like, direct all that aggression in a more productive direction instead of just shouting at your off-brand iphone.”

“Fuck you!”

Vienna gently but firmly yanked her PET back. “What do you want,” she snapped.

“I woulda thought that’d be obvious. I guess I never really explained the rules, though, did I?” Vienna glared, as best as she was capable of given the amount of pain she was still in. “No leaving, first off. Attempting to leave is fine, actually leaving is an instant forfeit. Can’t have you just leaving the board in the middle of the game, after all.”

“You think this is a game?” Ursula snapped. “You’re threatening to wipe out humanity and you’re treating it like a fucking game?!”

“Hey, I’m not wiping you out. There’s still people out in space who’ll prolly be mostly fine. Mostly. I don’t think anyone really considered how nukes would effect a planetary ring.”

“Fuck you!”

“You have a really tiny vocabulary, don’cha. Rule number two, no getting outside help. Calling mommy and daddy isn’t particularly heroic, and anyway you’ve all already demonstrated you’ve got tricks up your sleeves so you shouldn’t need help anyway. Obviously, I’m enforcing this rule by blocking your signal. Nothing goes out, and only what I decide is acceptable comes in.”

Vienna clicked her tongue in irritation. That explained the lack of signal, at least. “Will you at least let us call each other?”

“Fiiiiiine, after we’re done here I’ll let you call up Viola, but you’re on your honour not to cheat! And by that, of course I mean I’ll count it as another forfeit.”

“Okay, fine,” Vienna said after a moment’s thought. “How do we win, though.”

She half expected Ami to respond with a simple ‘you don’t,’ but to her credit she didn’t. “It’s simple, really. I’ve set up a sort of... obstacle course in the city. You’ve gotta figure out where I am, make it through the obstacle course as intact as possible, and get to me without breaking any rules. That means no leaving, no getting help. Just you four and whatever abilities and wits you’ve hypothetically got! Oh, and obviously there’s a time limit. Five days or until whatever’s in Locksmouth breaks out and I can’t justify not dealing with the issue.”

Vienna’s gaze narrowed. “Fine. Fine, then, we’ll play along, and we’ll win. And when we get to wherever you are I’m going to smash every god damn computer in sight.”

“Ooooh, feisty. You’re all so enthusiastic, it’s refreshing.”

“Fuck you,” Ursula interjected.

“You’ll hafta find me first. Good luck, and have fun!”

With that, Ami unceremoniously hung up. “God dammit,” Ursula hissed. “Just so we’re clear, we’re absolutely not playing along.”

Vienna grunted, letting her arm go limp once more, taking her PET with it. “Yeah that sounds like a fantastic plan. Let’s just provoke the crazy pre-splice AI with the nukes.”

“Do you seriously believe it even has nukes?”

“I don’t wanna take the risk that it does.”

“Okay, let’s say you’re right and it has nukes. They’d have to be at least five hundred years old by now. What are the odds they even still work.”

“I don’t know,” Vienna replied with a shrug. “I don’t really know the mechanics.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Ursula sighed. “I don’t know. I just... don’t feel right letting it be in complete control of the situation like this.”

“What else can we do? It holds all the cards.”

“Suppose we do what it says and make it to wherever it is. What then? Do we have any guarantee it’s gonna follow its own rules?”

“No.”

“Then we shouldn’t fuckin’ play by its rules either!”

“Too risky,” Vienna replied tersely. “For now, the plan’s the same. We go find Viola and hopefully Erin, too. And then we... figure out what to do from there. As a group. I guess.”

“... Fine,” Ursula replied after a moment of silence. “But I don’t like it. Something about this feels wrong.”

~~~~~~


Makoto Tanaka was angry. It had been a very long time since she’d been really, genuinely angry – several hundred years, in fact. And yet the emotion slid right into place like a custom tailored glove. An old, familiar friend. It was almost nostalgic, in a weird way. She sat cross legged, glaring furiously at her compatriots. Yuri Ovcharenko, the team’s medic, was squatting off to the side, staring up at the artificial sky. Robert Jackson, their CO, was leaning against a tree across from Yuri, his facial expression uncharacteristically stormy. The team’s sniper, Sun-Hi Jeon, was still en route from her post. “So that absolutely wasn’t normal,” Yuri said, breaking the silence.

“You think?” Makoto snapped back.

“I mean, the rabbit had superpowers, right? That’s in line with the usual.”

“That was definitely not in line with the usual. If it were the usual then it wouldn’t have waited until the last second to start throwing us around with its mind. And if it were the usual, then the other ones would have done literally anything.”

“What the fuck is AMI thinking?”

“I don’t know but I’m gonna punch her in the fucking face.”

“She doesn’t have a face.”

“Then I’ll make her generate a face for me to punch,” Makoto snapped. “Does she think I enjoy beating up defenceless children?”

“Maybe she figured that them not being human would be enough?”

“They’re still children. For fuck’s sake, if we weren’t under orders to go non-lethal they’d all be fucking dead.”

“Well, as dead as they can be, given they’re not real.”

Bob’s scowl deepened. “I dunno about that.”

“Oh, has our CO finally deigned to give his highly valued opinion?”

“Let’s just wait ‘til Sunny gets here, see if she’s got any more intel.”

“Ugh,” Makoto groaned, flopping backwards against a nearby tree. “Can we at least get out of the fucking park so I don’t have to sit in the dirt?”

“No. Find a bench.”

“Fuck you.”

Bob didn’t reply, continuing to glower at nothing, and the three returned to frustrated silence until Sunny arrived.

She was, of course, also not wearing her mask. “God dammit do none of you understand the importance of a consistent aesthetic.”

Sunny made some vague apologetic motions. She tried her best to sink into herself inconspicuously – which wasn’t hard, given she was the smallest of the squad. Most of the difficulty came from the fact that she was lugging a plasma sniper rifle slightly larger than she was tall. Bob sighed, and then nodded. “Any new information?”

Sunny nodded enthusiastically. This was work. She could handle work. With a slight nod of her head, an AR interface manifested in midair in front of her. The other three couldn’t see it, but they didn’t really need to yet. A few keystrokes on the virtual keyboard and she brought up holographic projections of recordings she’d made of the targets after they’d dispersed.

Yuri sighed with relief. “Well, the mouse survived. That’s good, at least.”

“Wait, she was a mouse?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s a mouse, boss.”

“Ah, fuck, I called her a rat like twice now they’re gonna think I’m a furry racist.”

“Oh my god.”

“Anyway, this confirms a few things. The mouse has superpowers. The dog and the other rabbit don’t, or at least they’ve not used ‘em yet.”

Makoto scrutinized the images. “Dog looks tough. Like a fighter. Do you got the recording of the fight?” Sunny nodded again, and quickly brought it up alongside the others. “Yeah, look. It saw us coming and was moving to dodge me. Kid’s got killer instinct, but it’s definitely an amateur.”

“Why would AMI put us up against amateurs, though?” Yuri said pensively. “She can make basically anything, so why children? Superpowers aside, they clearly have no idea what they’re doing.”

“I don’t think she made them,” Bob said succinctly.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m pretty sure these kids are honest to fuckin’ god surface-dwelling post-apocalyptic animal people post-splice humans.”

“Bullshit.”

“They didn’t act like AMI’s constructs act. And the mouse bled. They don’t normally bleed.” He shrugged. “‘s just a hunch, but ‘s a hunch I’m pretty confident in.”

“Shit,” Makoto spat. “If you’re right then that changes the situation completely.”

“That’d explain why AMI was so insistent we go non-lethal this time,” Yuri said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “You really think they’re humans?”

“Yeah,” Bob said with a nod. Sunny’s eyes widened in horror as she realized the ramifications. “We’re gonna hafta tweak our approach, then. Minimal force, and no guns. Sorry, Sunny, that means you’re gonna hafta play against your strengths.” The smaller woman replied by nodding vigorously. “Good girl. Tanaka, go for the legs and arms. Broken bones will heal, but avoid lasting damage.”

“Understood, sir,” Makoto responded. For once, Bob was being professional, so she might as well be professional back.

“Ovcharenko, I’m gonna need you to be ready to give medical attention to anyone who needs it, without getting bodied first. And keep your taser handy, just in case.”

“Gotcha, boss.”

“Good. Orders are tweaked. We’re still on guard duty, but we’re also gonna watch the kids like a hawk. Don’t interfere unless we gotta or AMI’ll probably get pissed, but rule one is we need to keep them alive at all costs.” There was a small chorus of ‘yes, sir’s, along with more vigorous nodding from Sunny. “And if they turn out to be constructs after all, consider everything I just said moot. That’s everything. To your posts, soldiers.”

Sunny and Yuri nodded, before silently heading off into the woods.

“I said get to your post, Tanaka.”

“I’m mad at you.”

Bob rolled his eyes. “You’re always mad at me.”

“What the fuck was that ‘just following orders’ bullshit you gave the rabbit.”

“Exactly what it fucking sounded like. We’ve had this conversation countless times, Makoto. We play along with AMI’s stupid war games because she’s the one running our life support.”

“Bob, I’m tired. We’re all fucking tired. Sunny’s had PTSD so bad she can’t fucking talk for five hundred fucking years.” Makoto sighed heavily, and continued with a hint of reluctance. “Maybe it’s time to let AMI pull the plug.”

“Ah, see, you bring that exact reasoning up every time, too,” Bob replied with a knowing nod. “To which I point out that if AMI loses her favourite toys, how long do you think it’ll take her to get some new ones?”

Makoto frowned. “If you’re right, she’s already gotten some new ones.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kinda hoping I’m wrong.” Bob shrugged. “There’s the goo thing the mouse turned into. That definitely seems like somethin’ from one of AMI’s games.”

“Is it really that much of a stretch for her to have superpowers, though?”

“Nope,” Bob replied, turning away. “Which is why we’re gonna assume I’m right.”

“Okay, fine. What do we do now?”

Bob smirked dangerously. “Easy. We show AMI just how much better her old toys are than her new ones.” With that, he disappeared into the forest, leaving Makoto to smoulder on her own.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "This Knotted Maze - Act Five - Blood and Secrets", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "135" }