World 065: We're Finally Awake
"I understand your concern. We are doing everything we can." Therese Hansen swore for the umpteenth time. More and more calls came in from concerned parents and family members all over the globe. At first she had taken it upon herself to address those closely connected to the heroes of Pandemonium. But that quickly became unfeasible when It started. Acrates told her all about it, how a select few duelists began to act odd, started to mingle with Static's supporters. Soon they numbered into the hundreds, some more violent than others. "No, do not try to get them out yourself. You'll only risk hurting them and yourself." She did not understand why things got out of hand, how Static could sway so many so quickly. Warnings had been out out to withdraw everyone from the network before it happened to them as well, but she could do little for those already affected. "I am sorry. I am sorry." They were doing everything possible, and it was not enough.
"Has everyone been evacuated yet?" After the last call she desperately needed to hear some good news. The investigation team provided her with constant updates. "Most of them have been, including the admins. Most accespoints are also offline now, though it concerns me that we have not seen more of those.." Few updates were ever 100 % 'good news'. "They can always make more. And unless we take drastic actions, we will never be able to get rid of the root of this crisis." They had to eliminate Static somehow, which would be impossible if all doors to the virtual world were closed. They could not even send in CIDs to go after him since he controlled the Crown.
And it could still get worse. "Was that.." Exeter HQ shook with the force of a light earthquake. "I felt it too." Therese and the Investigator rushed to the window as soon as they felt it. Everyone in the building experienced it. Everyone in the city did. "No. Not a quake." And everyone also saw the wave that raced across the sky like a ribbon of light. It passed right through them. "Guh!" Therese nearly choked as her body shifted from one existence to another. For a moment she looked like Arcis Da Vinci, then she reverted to her older self. "That was your avatar? What does this mean?" The Investigator felt similarly rattled. But she was not the only one to experience the shift in a drastic way.
"I believe it means that Static has gotten what he wanted." Because suddenly Scarlet Rose stood in the middle of the office, looking just as bizarre as she did in the network. "Scarlet? You're here?" Therese did not understand how this could be, she did not look like a hologram at all. "I was always here, in your virtual office. You are the ones who came to me, miss Hansen... your whole world has." The red woman explained. "What? But everything looks the same!" Therese protested as she looked out the window. "Because you created this part of the network to resemble your reality. Exeter HQ has basically been merged with the virtual branch, which had always been separated from the main sectors anyway. But make no mistake, Static has succeeded in his plans." Scarlet could not hide a certain hint of excitement in her tone. From a purely objective standpoint, this event fascinated her to no end. "Then it is too late." At the same time it purely horrified Therese. This is why no more accesspoints appeared. "We cannot run from him or his curse anymore."
...
Far beyond the clouds a stormwave erupted that would travel the entire globe. And at the epicenter of this tempest, just outside of Shintaro manor, the silence felt the strongest. "What?" The Tower Beyond disappeared with the shockwave taking everyone inside with it except for a select few. "Static!" His opponent fled before his new world could be threatened, leaving the cyberse duelist behind with his failure. "The others?!" He was not the only one. Hydra and the gang appeared on a crater in the ground where the tower once stood, having been forced out. "You're alright!" He rushed down on his speedboard to meet Hydra and the gang. "Charles! What the hell happened? Did we win!?" Olympia took this as a good sign. She and the others had been winning all the fights that took place inside the tower after all, even if they got split up from the rest along the way. "No. We did not." Charles pointed at the hole in the wall created by the tower which led to the public streets. "Static did.."
While the duelists could not feel any differences, they could certainly see them. And they could be seen by them. The people of the city stared at the two monsters standing in the rubble-filled crater. Most were bewildered; a few onlookers appeared to recognize them somewhat. If they had been invisible before, they certainly were not now. "Then it is true. Static has used the seven items, that is what happened." The Legendary Fisherman sighed. "This is nuts. How does this even work? Is STHEREA a part of the real world now?" Heleil did not see what else it could mean, since the Shintaro estate still showed off all of its virtual castle components. That sight drew a lot of attention from the citizens as well. But they were far more curious in these five duelists.. especially the two ADIs
"I suggest we leave." Or rather, the six. "Hydra?" Charles could not see him, only hear him. The invisible duelist's 'power' seemed to have been restored along with all their other powers, now that Continuum no longer interfered with them. "Yes it is me. We lack the capacity to comprehend this mad new world. But you, Charles, know brighter than minds than ours." Hydra stated, cluing Charles in on what he could do next. "Yes. I get it. Though I don't know how that will work now." He still had the bracelet attached to his wrist, the one that would send him back to his real body at the research facility. If his body existed in two places at once, could he still activate it? There was only one way to find out.
"What about us? What about lady Echo? We have to find her!" Olympia grumbled. They could not exactly go anywhere like this. "Maybe one of us can help you. If the worlds really are one, perhaps.. we can quickjump back into it from here. You may even... be able to go to other locations in the real world." Charles figured. Because there was only one reason for Static to go such lengths to bring his world into the world of man. It was so he could go wherever he pleased. "We should also see what happens if we log off, the sooner we can understand our options, the better." Charles suggested to both of them. "That sounds like a plan. I will take these two to Exeter HQ. I gotta meet up with the rest anyway." Heleil graciously offered.
"You do what you must. Me and Crescent will stay here to see if Tycho and Himiko are still doing well. We cannot leave anyone behind after all." The unseen duelist proposed. "That's good too. If you meet Tycho, tell him to use his own bracelet to follow me. That is.. if this works of course." Charles figured he might as well be the first human to try dimensional travel. It sounded like a dream, but then again everything did now. He took a deep breath and triggered the bracelet. "It's working!" It activated, within seconds it would take him back to the facility. Though it did not make much of a difference when he thought about it. No part of this world was safe anymore.
...
"It is done, at last." At the top of the Beyond tower, Static Void let out a long deep breath. The seven legacy items surrounded him, their power having caused all of this. He could take in the air, taste the bitterness of reality. His senses were flaring up, the rich scent of humanity disgusted him. "You could not stop me, could you? Or did you allow it? I don't care one way or another." Void said to the one he knew would be watching him. "We will see how orderly your world will be when I am done with it, little brother."
It could not stop him, and neither could HE. The one whose alternate name and face he now wore. Of course He came close, he always tended to be. He even saw something he should not have. But it would not matter in the end.. What made this one human so particularly tenacious anyway? Why did he deserve his hatred more than any other? They were all equally loathsome in the end. Did Charles Adami really want this feud to be between just the two? The whole world would feel his wrath now, and not a single soul could stop him. He finally got what he wanted. Static did not need to keep returning to that man, he cast him outside of his thoughts... and turned to the one human that still mystified him. "And we owe it partially to you, Midsummer Nightmare."
Static Void not only shared his victory with this man, he gained his victory because of this man: the masked nightmare. "You speak as if a debt is owed. I would only ask of you that I be paid in gratitude." Midsummer had come to him, out of nowhere, with his body still scarred by Static's own hand. It should have been easy for him to finish the job, to pull the masked man's mind into the same spiteful state that he had dragged so many others in. Others like Baron Schwarzwald.. "I make it a habit to never trust people who ask too little. Why did you do it, Midsummer? Why did you betray miss Echo?" The Baron accepted Midsummer's presence at the ceremony of the seven legacies. But he could only abide so much from 'a human'. "I did not betray her. I helped her, dear baron. I do not expect you to understand. She did not understand either. But in the end, she will see that this was necessary." Midsummer Nightmare could openly admit to anything without fear of reprisal. His mind had already been warped enough on his own and it rejected any notion of forgetting his human self through other means. "Then if that is all.. I will take my leave."
"Is that all?" Doubt remained within his remaining allies. Static Void could sense that as well. He lost Donna, and Zettai lost herself. And Veyron still questioned him at every turn. "Is it done? Are the two worlds one?" The speed duelist stayed so he could collect his World Wand, and to find out if Static had delivered on the great promise. "Yes. It is done. We have won the game set out by the Creator. Now your former world is our world as well. Soon we will be able to bring our freedom to the world at large. But for now, I will allow you to take what is owed to you and shed what bonds you may still have that hold you back. For instance, if you would like to visit your brother again, Veyron. All you need to do is think about it and you will be able to jump to his location. Or to any location you can vividly remember. Your old body will no longer hold you back." Static was certain the duelist of speed would appreciate such instantaneous movement. In this new virtual kingdom 'quickjumping' took on a whole new meaning. "As for you, Midsummer. You are free to leave."
"I thank you. We will meet again before the next sunset." Midsummer claimed enigmatically as he stared out into the sky above the tower. The sun had already set on the pacific ocean, he still had plenty of time to do what he wanted to do. "Yeah I think I am gonna head out too!" Wagnerok shouted. He already formed his own idea on what places and which people to visit. He eagerly picked up the World Shield from the arena floor and immediately jumped away. Veyron and the Wand likewise headed off without leaving so much as a hint of where he would be going, while Scarlet Fever simply headed back downstairs to return to her work.
As for Khan... "Heh. If you ask me, we already have all the entertainment we need downstairs." His immediate plans mostly involved returning to the lower levels to join Chiaroscura's never ending party. Or so he thought.. "Not so fast, Khan. I have a special task for you." But Void could not be refused. "A special task? Why?" Khan inquired with a mild feeling of apprehension. "Because you have done such great work for me.. for us.. so far. It was you who led the new troops into the bowels of Shintaro's domain and reclaimed the Chalice. And you were the one who tried to make up for past failures in the first place. I believe you deserve this." Static picked up the first item, while Schwarzwald looked on from a distance. "The chalice... is mine?" Khan could hardly believe it. Though he did take a moment to throw a smug sideglance at the black baron. "What do I need to do in return?" Now he had a more vested interest in these new future plans. "Same as you have always done, unearth the secrets the ones on the top do not want to be shared. But I have a particular target in mind for you.. a more strategic focus."
Static Void did not have time to focus on his own personal anger anymore. Because he would soon turn the whole of humanity against itself.
...
"I dont say this often but.. this is screwed up." Getting back to the facility proved to be the easy part of Charles' journey. He and eventually Tycho as well found their way back to the pods and got out safely, though he did not feel very tired. In hindsight that should have been the first sign of trouble. Somehow this did not sink in at first. It was not until the scientists began to explain how it looked from their side, that the abnormality of it all hit him. "That is Stherea.." They started with a grim visual: a shape that Charles could identify right away. On the screen he saw a satellite photo of an island with the same layout of all STHEREA sectors combined. The various smaller islands around it also fit with that design.
"Yes, our sensors tracked the focal point of all this activity to these coordinates. The network may have been grand in scope, but it holds less square kilometers than one percent of the global total. This island manifested in the pacific ocean as a solid projection of that game world. At least that is what we have figured out so far, this only sprung up ten minutes ago. We have not been able to investigate further yet."
"So is the virtual network just restricted to that part of the ocean?" Tycho grunted. "I am affraid not. Whatever this entity started, it reached us all. A pulse of energy crossed from one end of the planet to the other at hundred times the speed of sound. By now it has covered every country and every sea. This place in particular is affected, warped as it were. Our own closed system is fortunately not that large." The researcher laughed nervously. They'd been able to contain their empty virtual space inside the testing room, since they shared the same dimensions. "What about the other hot spots? Like those fake cities Hansen made! They must be overlapping with the real thing too, right?! I wonder what the people who normally live there will think about that?!"
"Tycho, calm down. They did not start this." Charles shouted. "They did not stop it either! I cant believe you are taking their side! Did you not listen to those Shintaro bastards? This was their plan all along! They wanted to copy as much of the real world as possible, so they could force everyone to live in it like braindead zombies! They got what they wanted!" Tycho did not care to hear their excuses, whether these were unintended or intended consequences of Exeter's actions. In his eyes, they were all responsible for it together. "Pointing fingers is not gonna help us right now, Tycho. What Static wants is not what Exeter or Shintaro wanted. They are not on the same side. And right now, we have to focus on one enemy." Charles did not trust Shintaro either, but Static posed the more immediate problem. "And I say we take care of the enemies in front of us first!" Still, Tycho could not see past his hatred. In fact it got him so riled up that he literally flared up. "Tycho!? Look!" He had turned back into his virtual avatar. "What the? What did you do?"
"Fascinating. I mean. We did not do anything." The scientist stammered. "Your avatar has merely been combined with your physical body, the same way any virtual space has been merged with any physical counterpart. Your emotional reaction must have triggered it.."
"Emotional?!" Tycho snapped. "No this is good, Tycho. The same thing happened with Himiko.. Nakana I mean. She shifted into her avatar when she thought her family was.." At first Charles turned his thoughts to the mechanics at work behind this avatar/human body interaction. But then he came to a sudden and more terrifying realization. "Family." They were not the only ones at risk anymore. Everyone was.. his family was. He had to warn them!
Not before they were warned about a different matter however. "Hey! Mister Renner has returned!" One enforcer came into the monitor room, running and shouting. "He's right." Another researcher switched the monitor to a live feed of the recroom. For a full day now, Renner had been trapped inside a permanent STHEREA barrier. That was no longer the case, they could see his unconscious body sprawled out on the floor. "He is unharmed.." Several enforcers surrounded him and discovered him to merely be asleep rather than comatose. His virtual captivity had left the man in a state of extreme exhaustion. "That bozo again? What, did Static drop him because he has no more use for him?" Tycho did not really consider this news worth yelling about.
"No. I doubt that. Static would never let his hostages go, not even him. This has to mean that..." Charles reached a different more hopeful conclusion.
...
"I did it!" Echo cried out excitedly. At long last she had managed to break into the nightmare prison in front of her. "Did what? Release the souls of the damned?" Sundown muttered. The moment the veil got ruptured, flashes of various colors and lights pierced outwards along with sharp noises, scents and other inexplicable images.. "I released them! I was right, Static placed someone new in there just now. But I got her too.. I got all five of them." The explosion of light tore the paradise of flowers to pieces and returned everything to the emptiness of the dreamless sleepers. Their long nightmare had ended. "Five? Scura, Khan, Vigionaire and the newcomer... Who's the other one?" Cierze counted the known prisoners with her talons, only getting to four herself. "I think I can find out. If I follow the trail of memories. I can see five paths.."
"Paths? You mean they went for a walk in STHEREA already, without thanking us? The nerve.." Cherry started to grumble. "I don't think it works like that, Anise." Blanche replied. "That fifth guy could be the man Charles was talking about. I forget his name, it was kinda bland. Echo. Just pick one of our friends. They've been waiting long enough."
"Yeah.. I can do that. You want.. Scura, right?" Echo held out her hand and closed her eyes. "Well I dont want to play favorites, but..." The blue-eyed would be lying if she pretended not to care about Scura the most. Either way the decision had already been made and the subconscious realm began to shift according to Echo's will. In her own mind she saw the memories that project Flute had taken from Scura the duelist, and that started a flow of images towards a new destination. The void turned into a tunnel of vague sensations, one that they could move through without even taking a step. "Uh.." Parts of the emptyness were starting to solidify as a cubical space. "Is this.." Four of its sides turned into white walls with abstract paintings on them, the bottom became a floor with beige tiles, the top a ceiling. "Is this her home?" Blanche eventually realized that they were in an apartment's living room, one that looked merely affordable as far as she could tell. Yet something felt off about this whole area. A table, a fridge, a radiator.. this dream seemed to have a lot more details than usual.
"A MONSTER! A DEMON!" It also had people in it that none of them recognized: a darkhaired older woman and a bearded older man. "Where did you come from? Are you the ones who hurt her?" One screamed louder than the other and neither seemed to be all that receptive to their presence.
"Monster? Are you talking about me? I am not a monster! Who are you guys?!" An indignant Cierze cried out. From her own point of view this was just as confusing. But Blanche at least came to a stunning realization. "They're her mother and father. Scura's mother and father.." She'd never seen them before, but they reacted just like she imagined anyone's parents would when five people just so suddenly popped up in their daughter's room. "What? Her parents? You mean we have to fight them now to get to her?" The Harpie Lady asked rather brazenly. The two humans flinched when she spoke, but they did not move from their spot. "No. I dont think we should. I dont think we're in dream-wonderland anymore." The white haired duelist held Cierze back. "Huh?" She did not understand, and Blanche could not blame her. "This is not a dream, Cierze. This is reality. He has done it, Static has merged realities." Sundown bitterly spelled it out for her. "What?!"
"What are you talking about? What are they talking about?" Hearing all these strange words and terms right in front of her somehow did not calm the mother down very much. "I do not know. But they know our daughter! You better tell me why you are here, or I will call the cops!" The father was on the verge of a breakdown himself. "Please. We do not mean you any harm. We are Scura's friends. I mean we're... Jenna's friends." Miss Echo did not want either of them to feel like this anymore, and she had the power to ease their confusion. But she also had the words they wanted and needed to hear. "Friends? Her online friends?" These two both knew that their daughter did not have any companions in the real world. They'd been surprised to even hear her mention making friends through the network. And now they were here, in her own apartment. "That is.. one of those dueldisks. You're duelists. How is this possible?" It just did not make sense. "I do not trust it! They just want to hurt her! We cannot let them.."
"Why is everyone yelling so much, geez!" A somewhat familiar voice rang through the room just after the one shouting slammed the door to her bedroom open. "Jenna!?" Her mother and father were immediately overcome with joy and rushed to her side to wrap her up in an involuntary embrace. "Mom? Dad? What the...heck?" She found that strange enough, she could make even less sense of the other figures in her room. "Blanche? Guys? How the hell did you... am I still dreaming? This is another nightmare isn't it?" Jenna cursed as she pried herself loose.
"No. No it's not, Scura. It is a looooong story though." Blanche let out a content sigh. Finally, they were getting somewhere. Even if the world had to go insane first.
...
"Himiko, you are awake!" Crescent let out a restrained cry of joy when he saw Nakana Shintaro wake up from her slumber. "Aurora?" She looked around with a little bit of confusion. "Then it was not a dream?" She was back in her own room, on top of her own bed. But Crescent's presence clearly meant that everything that had happened before, truly did happen. "Yeah. Zanbatou brought you here. Hydra is here too.. though you cannot see him obviously." Crescent nudged at the door to her room, still burned down to bits due to Olympia's earlier attack. "Zanbatou?" She now saw the samurai stand next to the opening, protecting her like he was supposed to. Yet he did not say a word or show any kind of reaction to her awakening. "Oh." She remembered why now, and she also remembered why she had passed out. "My mother and father..."
"Good you are awake. I do not mean to be insensitive. But I think it is best for us to leave this place." Hydra interrupted. He'd been itching to vacate these premises, but everyone else insisted to wait for her recovery. "I disagree." And Nakana would make him wait a little longer. "Himiko. You may not realize this, but a lot more has happened since you lost consciousness." The now visible duelist argued back at her. "Then you can inform me along the way. But I am not leaving until I find my answers. Continuum has my parents and I want to know how to save them. Everything else can wait."
(To Be Continued in World 066: Guilt Sold Separately)