The ticking of the click made the room feel emptier than it was. The clunky ticks and tocks echoed around the circular hall, bouncing off sleek walls and plastic enclosures. Those plastic screens were nine inches thick but reflected like sleek polished glass. Whether that shield of plastic
was designed to keep him inside or keep everyone else out had never been explained to Maika."You just sit and watch him," she had been told. That was the sum of her responsibilities. The entire explanation. "Sit in the outer ring. Use your enhanced focus. Don't take your eyes away from him for a second."
"Him... Eigen."
As they turned onto a glass-lined corridor she squinted. Harsh light shone through the panels of glass, reflecting directly into her retinas. She looked at the floor until the final approach, where the huge mechanical guards lined the walls. They never moved but Maika felt as if they watched. Of course, they were watching. But watching without seeing. The thought gave her chills, like one of those creepy lifeless dolls that would fix you with their dead stare wherever you went in the room.
'Where did that doll memory come from?' she wondered. 'A movie perhaps.'
The world, as it was now, did not have many dolls, if indeed any. Most of the relics from the old world were destroyed. But the movies had survived, in the form of code, all available via the AI chips in the brains of the survivors. Not that Miaka had much time for movies.
Through the haze of brightness, she saw one of the sleek robotic warriors step out of line and twist to face her.
"Why are you still wearing that face?" it whispered, so softly the words barely formed ripples in the air.
Maika turned to ask what it meant - what on Earth it was talking about, but the mechanical guard was back in line with the others, silent and still as if it had never moved at all.
"Did I imagine it?" she wondered.
She stared at the still line of toy warriors, arranged as if by a child.
"Probably," she figured, frowning. It seemed like something she would do. Mika lived firmly inside her head - her imaginary friends more real than the so-called 'real world'
Thirty-foot tall doors rumbled open with a hydraulic hiss, allowing entry. The first thing Mika noticed inside the tomb-like enclosure was the chill of the air and the inky blackness.
Further inside it was cold. So cold. And the air felt... wrong somehow. Wrong in a way she wasn't able to put her finger on. It felt like something she should know about, but the information was trapped in a distant memory. The cold air had a certain weight to it - a hum of electricity.
She hugged her arms to her chest as the chill penetrated her chest - taking her breath away.
The lights switch on as soon as they enter the room and the information screen appeared almost instantly, as if from nowhere.
The screen, an atom-thin projection display, cut the room in half. Static filled the screen, taking only a second to shift and form into words that made sense.
"Welcome to the control room."
Since the chip in her brain was always connected to the master computer
there was no real need for her to read the screen. The screens were obsolete, yet they never disabled them. Maybe it had to be that way for the humans who did not have a chip. Old tech.It had to be hard to exist in this world without a chip. No inner system to guide and assist. No connection to the others in the system.
"You have been assigned a mission," the voice/screen explained, interrupting her thoughts.
Maika paused, assuming it meant her companion.
She looked up, blinking.
"Huh? Who? Me?"
"Yes, you," the voice told her with no impatience. "We need you to find the world's most dangerous criminal and infiltrate his rebel group."
Maika was fairly sure she had to have misheard. Or misunderstood. She leaned in as if getting closer to the screen would make it any easier to process the sentence.
"Rei will be your guide," the voice announced.
'Your name is Rei,' Mika thought. 'Hmm. Suits you.'
"You will follow his orders," the voice continued.
Maika swallowed. Hard.
'He's going to be my boss?'
This information was too distracting for Miaka to focus on the words of the machine. All she could focus on was Rei. Had she had her senses intact, she would have asked why someone of her power level was being sent on what sounded like a top-priority mission. She had low-level abilities and powers but nothing like the rebels had access to. Their abilities came from black magic - chaos majik.
Her blood ran to her cheeks in an involuntary reaction. An unwelcome reminder of her humanity. She had taken all the upgrades possible, every improvement on the flesh that PAVE had to offer, but she was still a woman on the soft, sticky insides.
Too many questions came to mind, but there was only one that stood out.
She turned to Rei and asked the one that filled her with dread."What's the likelihood of mission success?"
"I'm not going to lie, Princess," Rei told her, leading her back out into the brightness of the glass-lined corridor. It felt even brighter after being in the darkened room. Almost blinding. "You aren't the first agent we have sent."
"How many others?" she asked, and immediately regretted it.
Rei winced, looking back at her with no sadness in his pale eyes.
"Think of it this way and you won't have anything to worry about. You are, categorically, most definitely going to die. Just focus on enjoying your final moments as best you can."
Miaka leaned in so close to him that she almost tripped over her own feet as she chased after him, "Er... what did you just say?"
Chapter 3'How am I still alive?' Mika wondered.That question was her only focus. 'I was supposed to be dead by now. I didn't plan for this. I have no idea what to do past this point.'Kai turned on the porch lights and entered the apartment building, kicking the front door open with a hefty thud. Lights flickered in the hallway as they climbed the stairs and led her into the most unlikely room.Numerous display cases boasted relics of the old world in conditions she had up to then only dreamed were possible.They had everything. Mika's eyes scanned the relics, trying to identify them. "You have a music player?" she cried, falling to her knees. "What sort of music do you have?"Kai cocked his head to the side before raising an eyebrow and shrugging. "All types. What do you like?"A shadow fell over Mika, and she looked up to him looming over her. 'He's figured me out,' she thought. 'He's going to kill me now.'He smiled. "You don't have to look so scared.""I feel like I should b
Chapter 4Mika blinked back tears."I... I don't want to die," she whispered. "Please... I beg you...""Nobody ever does," Kai said with a shrug. He must hear these words too often for them to have any real effect on his heart."I... I can help you," she spluttered, speaking up. A last-ditch attempt to stay alive. She felt herself begin to glitch - her hands snaking - as an idea occured to her. "I'll do anything.""Anything?" Kai asked, tilting his head to the side. 'That means he's considering it!' she thought, not daring to count her chickens....'Where does that saying even come from?' she wondered. An inopportune time to be pondering the legitimacy of the old warning."Don't even think about it," Vrethie warned him. "Aww," Kai complained, pursing his lips. "But she's just way too hot to kill, man.""If we keep her alive, she is your responsibility," Vrethie warned. "She will have to get approval but I can swing that.""You acctually gonna do anything I say?" Kai asked, bending
Eigen sat in his seat, dying of boredom.It was always boring when Miaka went off on a mission. He wanted to follow her, but was it a good idea to leave the enclosure."Probably not," he muttered to himself. But he did not care.Not in the slightest."I'm off," he announced to the mechanical guards with a wide, terrifying grin.They mirrored him, staring back in horror as he stood, shaking off the wires and stale air as he went."You can't go," they were crying in union as he slipped through the net. The net designed to keep him in was all the use of a chocolate tea pot.He laughed at their cries as he took flight, flying away from their cries for his return."Please," they cried. "If you go we will be unprotected. WE ALL NEED YOU! We will die if you Goooooo!!!"He didn't even look back as they begged and pleaded."She needs me more," he muttered, focused only on his one true love. Her. The one. Maika.She was on her way to find the monster he dispised the most. Kai. His polar opposit
Miaka smiled as the three boys decided her fate."I almost wish Eigen were here.""Who is Eigen?" Vrethie asked. She shook her head, not aware she had spoken the words out loud. "yOU Didn't" he replied. "I am the worlds most powerful psychic.A boast - but not one that wasn't completely true. This guy had real power."It's his eyes," she thought. "All psychics have those same ice blue orbs."As she stared into his eyes now, she couldn't help but wonder what he thought about when nobody was listening in. What would she think about if she had one spare second to herself."Me." Eigen whispered into her brain. "I am still with you. In spirit and in body."A rush of wind almost knocked over the house and she heard him landing outside."Oh geez," she cried, looking out of the rear house window. "He really did it. He really left.""Who is he?" Vrethie cried."So much for being the worlds best psychic." Eigen cried, grinning widely as he entered the house through the window - how a gaping
Miaka sat in the kitchen, an inch of ash dangling from her cigarette hanging from between her fingers. With each drag a new memory popped in and out of her brain.She turned to her side, shocked to see the grin of her so called souls-mate. He grinned maniachally.Stop trying to read my mind, she thought, amazed at his persistance."Why did you leave the enclosure and come here?" she asked, more to herself than to Eigen.He answered non the less."Because you did," he said, stealing her cigarette and taking a drag. "It was way too boring there without you.""But what about all the others?" she asked. "You were meant to stay back to protect them while I went off to save the world."To the last part she added air quotes. There was no point in pretending anymore. She was not the one. Not the main character. It had to be one of these powerful men.She stared left and right, taking in the scene. The birds, the bees and the humming of electricty as the kettle boiled well past full.She picke
The ticking of the click made the room feel emptier than it was. The clunky ticks and tocks echoed around the circular hall, bouncing off sleek walls and plastic enclosures. Those plastic screens were nine inches thick but reflected like sleek polished glass. Whether that shield of plastic was designed to keep him inside or keep everyone else out had never been explained to Maika."You just sit and watch him," she had been told. That was the sum of her responsibilities. The entire explanation. "Sit in the outer ring. Use your enhanced focus. Don't take your eyes away from him for a second.""Him... Eigen."As they turned onto a glass-lined corridor she squinted. Harsh light shone through the panels of glass, reflecting directly into her retinas. She looked at the floor until the final approach, where the huge mechanical guards lined the walls. They never moved but Maika felt as if they watched. Of course, they were watching. But watching without seeing. The thought gave her chills, li