The alarm jolted Red into consciousness. She couldn't remember what her dream was about, but she knew that familiar cold, clenching feeling firmly lodged around her heart. She was dreaming about the Collapse again. She breathed a sigh of relief as she gently grasped the handle of the Transistor. The Collapse has been over for three years. She had no need to worry, especially after what she was to do today. Today she was scheduled to clear the Process from Bracket Tower, the final infested area of Cloudbank.
"It's okay Red, I'm here." The familiar voice of her former lover spoke softly. She gave a small smile and wrapped the luminescent sword in a hug.
"I know, Blue." She whispered. After the momentary display of affection, she placed Blue back in his case and climbed out of bed. Taking only a moment to stretch she grabbed a towel from the nearby open closet and sauntered towards the shower. She knew that Blue liked to watch, despite not being able to do anything, save for the few times she was feeling frisky. The shower was heavenly, if brief. She couldn't afford to dawdle, after all. Today was the day she was going to finally be rid of the nightmare that plagued her slumber and start fresh.
"I enjoyed the show," Blue said slyly. She couldn't help but crack a smile. "Maybe tonight we could… uhhh…" He trailed off, knowing that she knew what he was asking.
She shot him a coy grin. "We'll see," Despite the noncommittal tone, both knew that that meant yes. Red walked into the closet and selected an identical version of what she wore three years ago when she first came into possession of the Transistor. Some of Cloudbank's younger survivors had gone so far as to call her a super hero. She adored her younger fans, hence why she played up the outfit. Though this one had gone through several modifications over the years. The leggings had gone from normal stockings to ones made of a dense ballistic mesh. It stopped the more in your face types of Process from doing too much damage before she could end them. The jacket was reinforced with light armor plates. After a Jerk had managed to briefly pin her under one of its arms, she felt an upgrade was in order. The same weave she wore on her legs also adorned her arms. It was mostly fire retardant and practically immune to the forms of energy that the Process used. Both Cloudbank and her own skills had improved massively since the Collapse. She now held four of each Function and could rearrange them at any time. She could even upgrade a Function with two more of the same to create a Program. It was any given function taken to the extreme. Her personal favourite was Reap, a thrice-stacked Cull. It cut all but the most powerful Process in half with only a single use.
"It's almost time to go," Blue's urgent voice drew her out of her thoughts. She had finished securing the straps that held the jacket together in front and quickly drew her hair back into a ponytail. She grabbed the Transistor and, with a wave of her hand, shut the door and strode down the sidewalk towards Bracket Tower. It was a short walk, only a kilometer away. Cardio was something that Red had nearly died from a lack of during the Collapse. Weakness and drowsiness had almost brought her life to an end as often as the energy beams of a Younglady or a Jerk's drill arms. She reached the edge of the enormous crowd within ten minutes, a mere quarter of an hour before she was officially supposed to be there. The crowd parted like a school of fish before an apex predator, allowing her access to the podium where she was to make her speech beside the mayor.
"Pleasure to see you again, Red." Cloudbank's mayor, a pudgy woman by the name of Alyssa Reisz, none other than the half-sister of Sybil, greeted her. Alyssa's election was a matter of controversy once the list of people responsible for the Collapse was released to the public, but she had been a very good mayor to the people of Cloudbank. Always fair in her dealings with the other surviving towns and cities. Red had examined the logs and found that several other cities were under assault by the Process, but they had mysteriously withdrawn solely to Cloudbank at around 2 A.M. She managed to piece together that that was about the time she stabbed the Transistor into the Spine's heart. Evidently slaying one of the Process's most fearsome automatons was something that garnered their attention. She had won in the end, though. The crowd had finally begun to settle down and Mayor Reisz was beginning her portion of the speech.
"People of Cloudbank, three long years ago the Collapse threatened to end humanity as a whole. Only due to the actions of our very own Red Aurorae were we able to survive to this momentous day. Today is the day where humanity's scourge, the Process, is wiped from the face of Cloudbank forever. Behind me stands Bracket Tower, the headquarters of the Camerata, those of whom were responsible for the Collapse. In mere minutes, Red will enter the tower and begin cleansing it, thus bringing the boogeyman known as the Process, to its official end." The crowd roared in approval. "Before she begins, Red would like to say a few words to our fine city." With that, Alyssa retreated to the side and offered Red the center stage. Having long since become accustomed to the spotlight, Red felt no fear in going up before Cloudbank's 20 million plus citizens.
"Three years ago, I spent blood, sweat, and tears to bring an end to the Process. Though something that none of you know, just before I began cleansing the city, I was moments away from ending my own life." The crowd gasped, as if she had said that she was going to end her life then and there. "It was only due to the actions of my partner, who unfortunately perished that fateful day, did I stay my hand and begin cleaning up our city to honor his memory." She held back a sob. "Which is why today we all stand here, in a city of freedom. Of life, and love. Of hope." Red unsheathed the Transistor from her back and held it easily in one hand. "My partner gave me hope that day, something that I had almost lost. He sacrificed himself so I could live on. And today, I bring my promise to him to its ultimate conclusion. Today I claim the last part of the city infested by Process in the name of humanity. Today, I take back the last piece of the city that was lost three years ago to the vile Process!" She raised Blue into the air with a cheer, which the crowd mirrored with aplomb. They could probably hear the cheering all the way up in Junction City. She turned about face and marched into the sealed tower, the doors parting by force of will alone. Once she was inside she sealed the doors and reinforced the quarantine. No Process would be leaving here today. She would make sure of that.
"Finally, it's almost over," Blue spoke softly. Red squeezed the handle of the Transistor in acknowledgement. Red steeled herself and marched forward deeper into the almost blindingly white building. The first enemy to attack her was a Creep 3.0. Not even bothering to go into Turn(), she cast a Get() on it and bisected it with a slash from her weapon. That was another thing that Red had improved upon vastly in the time since the Collapse. She had grown much stronger and could wield the hefty Transistor like an actual sword. Despite not appearing sharp, it still functioned as well as the sharpest katanas in existence. She could alter almost anything about the Transistor at will. The device that she wielded was a fickle thing at first, but now she had truly mastered it, even to the point where she could transform it from a thick zweihander into many different melee weapons. Her personal favourite was the zweihander, but she often found herself using the axe form of it. The battle axe was the longest reaching version of her weapon, often needed against the more dangerous forms of Jerks and Man. Speaking of which, a green-haired Man appeared from the wall a short distance in front of her. Even before her brain could process the fact that it was raising its hands to summon a Haircut, she triggered Turn(). The world slowed to a crawl as her brain interfaced with the Transistor, lending its processing power to her. She walked forward with almost a casual gait, and slashed at the green haired Man thrice. Ending the action, she felt her body speed up and move of its own accord. Just as the Transistor lent its power to her, she lent her body to it, enabling the superhuman feats that she performed. The Transistor acted out her action, quickly closing the gap between herself and the Man. In the blink of an eye, three slashes were imparted upon the Man, rending it into six pieces. The Haircut that was forming ceased to exist, being hit by two of the slashes.
"Easy as cake," Red spoke with a grin as she moved on from the slowly evaporating Process. As if beckoned by the death of their comrade, four more Men appeared in typical fashion, summoned from seemingly nowhere. One of each color, she noted dryly. This would be a more difficult fight, but nothing she couldn't handle. Taking a deep breath, she triggered Turn() once more. The power of SuperUser suddenly flowed through her, making her take a moment to relax. She looked around at the four Men that surrounded her with a dangerous smirk. She could feel everything. The subtle whirring of whatever made the Process tick, the slow, raspy breathing of the Men, even the distant, dull speech that the mayor was still giving outside. She felt it all. With a gesture, she cast Kill() and ended Turn(). The world around her exploded with electric energy, the Process around her tensed up and began seizing, their distorted voices groaning in pain. The Kill() field ended, causing the four Men to collapse to the ground, dead. She slowly floated to the ground and looked around to appraise her work. She had figured out how to control the SuperUser function over a year ago, but it still popped up randomly from time to time when she used Turn().
"Still as deadly as ever, Red." Blue chimed in during the brief respite.
"You know it, Blue." Red replied with a smirk as she ventured further into the infested building. She cleared out four floors before she found a somehow still active terminal. Curious, she disabled the screensaver and was presented with a survey.
Help make Cloudbank better again:
The Goldwalk Channel has always been a popular destination, but has been plagued by debris and litter. This petition would clear all litter from the area and add new trees and plants to the area in an effort to beautify it.
Signatures needed: 316,255
Signatures acquired: 316,254
Red stared at the screen dumbfounded. This was a three-year-old survey back when Cloudbank ran off of the automated systems. It had long since been transferred to manual control, but the fact that this survey was only one signature away proved that the old system was still active. Even more curious, was the fact that the survey was only one vote short of being passed.
"Is this real?" Red asked Blue, staring down at the Transistor currently leaning against the terminal.
Blue was silent for a moment before responding. "I don't know, it looks real enough, but you disconnected the server from the city, so it shouldn't be any problem." He elaborated, assuaging Red's fears. She put in a vote for yes, if only to see what would happen. The terminal beeped, before lines of text began scrawling across it faster than she could comprehend. Eventually, it resolved whatever glitch had been caused.
Petition reached required signatures.
Accessing…
.
.
Unable to access mainframe.
Error…
System compromised…
Resolving…
Unable to resolve…
Shutting down….
The terminal beeped and went dark. Red stared at it surprised. She didn't know what to expect, but she hadn't expected it to just shut down with no glamour. She hummed in disappointment and moved on. There were still Process to kill after all. A group of Badcells decided to ambush her as soon as she left the defunct terminal. They blasted her with their blackish energy. She managed to dodge most of them, but the cells were incredibly dexterous. She fired a Bounce(Breach(Ping())) at one of them, and watched in satisfaction as the charge bounced and hit half a dozen more of the cells before fizzling out. She finished off the remaining two cells with simple slashes. The cells quickly dissolved into nothing and the Transistor told her that there was only one enemy remaining in the tower. She quickly ascended to the top floor. Her chrono told her that nearly three hours had passed since she entered the building.
"Careful Red, I'm not feeling so good." Blue chimed in weakly from the fizzling Transistor. She scanned around, looking for the hidden Process, when a loud roar suddenly came from above. She leapt backwards just in time to avoid the head of a Spine crashing down powerfully where she was standing. It roared at her, spewing cells everywhere. Most of them were absorbed by the Transistor, but the few that hadn't were changed into the varying forms of Men. Seven of them to be exact. This would be an incredibly tough fight, especially given that SuperUser was still recharging. As one, the Men summoned Haircuts that proceeded to move forward towards her. She grit her teeth and cast a Tap(Cull(Breach))). The shadowy haircuts were thrown backwards towards their masters, detonating upon impact with the ground. The Men were still alive, but heavily damaged. They Masked once more and began to circle around her, all the while the Spine was overseeing the fight, as if content to wait for the Men to deal with her. With a thought, she converted her Zweihander into a long lance. She spun and embedded the bladed end of the head into a red colored Man, causing the Process to shut down and begin dissolving almost instantly. The remaining Men made a synchronized Jaunt() at her, hoping to catch her off guard. She loosened the weapon from the decaying Man, spun, and stabbed forward where two Men were standing, piercing both through the chest. With a powerful leap, she leapt onto the head of the black-colored Man. With a yell, she ripped the spear downward, slicing the two Men in two pieces. Before they could even begin dissolving, she leapt into the air and twirled her spear around, striking a fourth Man in the back of the neck, decapitating it. Three Men left, then she had to deal with the Spine. It loomed overhead, observing her. The Men charged at her again, this time one of them caught her with a swipe across her armored back. This his sent her out of control across the room towards where she had entered. The Men took advantage of the momentary lapse in awareness and summoned three Haircuts.
"Look out, Red!" Blue alerted her to the danger. She triggered Turn() and launched a kick at the three Haircuts, sending them back to the Men. She turned her attention to the Spine. It stared at her through the hyper-accelerated time. She launched three triple stacked Void() at it. Each of the three Abyss() Functions decayed the outer shell of the Spine slightly, she Jaunted behind the head of the Spine and applied Mask() to herself. All that was left to do was to use Reap(). She activated the function and executed Turn(). All at once, the Spine roared in pain as the Abyss() took root in it, the Men were destroyed by their own creations, and the Reap() rendered the Spine into two slowly decaying parts. She landed back on the ground without much pomp. With a smirk, she walked from the room towards the roof staircase.
"All that's left to do is to purify the building itself." Red spoke softly, the fact that the nightmare of the Process was nearly over not sinking in yet. With a flourish, she transformed the Transistor back into the zweihander form and stabbed it into the ground. She focused her will into the building itself, dispelling the Process. Slowly, the building began to heal from a blinding white, to a dull grey and brown. Satisfied that the building was enough along to finish itself, she pulled the Transistor and replaced it in the sheath on her back. Almost immediately, she knew that something was wrong.
"Reactor self-destruct sequence reinitialized. Resuming countdown. 11. 10. 9." A female robotic voice over a previously converted intercom announced in a monotonous tone. She knew that she could never find the bomb in time to disarm it. She focused her will once again, this time to create a shield around the building. She poured her energy into the shield, and had she been looking, she would have seen a teal-colored barrier appear between the crowd outside and Bracket Tower. "8, 7, 6." The crowd fled at the sight, presuming that something had gone wrong and that Red was trying to keep the Process from escaping.
"5, 4, 3." The intercom buzzed dully, as if uncaring of what it was saying.
"Red…" Blue said solemnly. "I'm sorry." The only indication that Red gave that she heard him was a small smile. At least Cloudbank would be safe from the Process after she had died.
"2, 1, 0." Her world disappeared in a bright white light.