She kept pressing the switch and retracting the screwdriver. The new glove was thick enough that she could barely feel the cold metal, and the grating clicks made it clear that she would probably break something if she kept this up. But the alternative was thinking about...that.
If she stopped thinking, she wouldn't try to do anything stupid. If she stopped thinking, she could just go home tomorrow like she had never seen that news broadcast in the first place.
Like one of those games where you wait for ten minutes at the start like a normal person and get the secret good ending. Yeah.
Sighing, she took the small box out of her hoodie pocket, removed a spherical device, and slid it into the slot on the lower portion of her bracer. Maybe the fear of wasting an energy core would finally deter her from messing with the weapon.
The radio on the counter suddenly started beeping. For a moment, she wondered if she should go upstairs and get Primo, who was trying to fix the television antenna on the lighthouse roof. But grabbing a raincoat from the closets might take up too much time, and it could be an emergency call.
"Primo?" A female voice, almost drowned out in the heavy pattering of the rain, came out of the radio when she pressed the receive button.
"Oh, uh, he's on the roof. The TV antenna broke in the storm." She paused. "You are Shauni, right?"
"Ain't that great!" A low, coarse voice grumbled. "I'm telling ya', once Primo the Major Screw-up is done fixin' it, it's gonna be a pile of junk."
"C'mon, old ham. Leave the snide remarks to a time when he's actually listening." The woman chuckled. "And bingo, you're right! I hope you have a nice stay in our lighthouse."
"Yes. Again, thanks for offering me a place to stay. And agreeing to give me a free ride," she said. "Is there anything you want me to tell him?"
"Nothing, really. Just wanna let him know that we're almost at the cabin. Phew, this is one of the nastiest storms—"
There was a sharp cracking sound. She thought it was a lightning strike at first, but soon, an angry yell followed.
"Flagnamit! Stop right there, you rascal!"
"Uh?" She frowned at the sounds of rapid footsteps and panting. "What just happened? Are you okay there?"
"Hey, kiddo, Chill out! It's alright! We are fine! My uncle saw—" Shauni sounded a little nervous when she started speaking again. "It might just be some wild critters seeking shelters from the rain."
"Bollocks!" A door creaked open in the distance, followed by another round of footsteps and splashing.
"...Oh. Geez," Shauni said, after taking a long, deep breath.
"You see these muddy footprints?" The man huffed. "Wretched little thief. And I thought I didn't need to lock no doors! There goes all of our first-aid kits and Nep Bulls!"
Another creak. Shauni's voice was much fainter when she started speaking again. She seemed to have set the radio down.
"Huh. Why would they take the sleeping bags?"
"Dunno. Must be some wet-behind-the-ears camper who got caught in this storm. Y'know, if they asked nicely, ol' Uncle P would've offered them a place to stay!" A pause. "Shauni, you think your sweetheart coast guard can go chase down our rude visitor, once this storm's over?"
Shauni let out an awkward laugh. "Ah, well. Thank goodness I still have my camera with me. Let's...make his job easier, and go take some crime scene photos first?"
"Sure." She heard the sound of boots stepping over broken glass. "Here! Catch! They dropped this fancy thingamajig near the window!"
"What fancy thing?" She leaned closer to the radio.
"Oh, kiddo, you're still listening?" Shauni replied. Seconds later, a "Ka-chick" sound came from the other end. "It's just an earring. They must've dropped it while jumping out of the window."
She should've just kept her mouth shut and stopped asking. There was no way, no way that this could somehow be related to that attack in Lastation, but it wouldn't hurt for her to snip these anxious speculations in the bud before they started taking over her mind.
"Is it a tricolor one? With geometric solids on it?"
"Yeah. How do you know?"
"Just a random guess," she said. "I've seen something like that in a...souvenir store."
"Really? That's gonna be helpful when we make a report to the Guild. I gotta' go now. The sooner I finish taking these photos, the sooner we can clean up this mess," Shauni said. "See ya' tomorrow, and tell Primo we're doing fine!"
The radio signal cut off with a beep. Only then did she notice that her hands were shaking.
Tricolor earring. Unidentified chain-wielding CPU. Probably the same one who wounded Dameko's sister in the recent attack. Every inch of her reasonable, rational brain was screaming for her to sit back, relax, and forget that the radio conversation ever happened.
It's not like she'll hurt Shauni and her uncle after she'd already grabbed what she wanted. They'll come back safely tomorrow, and you'll be on your way back home. Just stop and wait for once. Leave the entire mess to the CPUs of this continent. It's not like your help actually matters.
"Phew!" The stairs creaked behind her. "Finally! It should be working now!"
You don't own that Dameko kid anything. Especially after she shut you inside her storage closet. You don't even need to know what these two are after—
"L'Ubiquité?" Primo gave her a concerned look. "Why are you staring at the radio?"
Just be patient, and you will earn your good ending.
She closed her eyes. "I need to go to Sunshine Isle."
"In this weather?! Estas loca!" Primo gasped. "What's come over you while I was gone—hey! Wait!"
Without a word, she bolted towards the main gate and slammed down on the switch. Before Primo could drag her back, she rushed outside, heading straight into the hangar cave entrance.
"Can you at least tell me why?!"
"Your sister and uncle!" She yelled, without turning back, "There's a dangerous criminal lurking on that island, and they don't know it! I'm sorry, I-I can't just—"
Her eyes were glowing when she made that leap onto the hovercraft. Without any hesitation, she switched on the motor, and its jet engines came to life with a roar, snapping the thin chains tying the ship to the dock as the ship zoomed out of the cave. Primo's shouts were soon drowned out by the pouring rain and splashing waves, as she pulled a life vest over her head.
After all, who bought an action game just to wait ten minutes for a "good ending"? Without even getting to shoot anything?
It sure looked like the ship could jump-boost over the incoming wave. Instead, there was a spluttering sound, followed by a whiff of smoke coming out of the jet engines. The next second, the entire hovercraft toppled over. The freezing cold of the water hit like a truck, and she was coughing and gasping when she raised her head out of the water, barely kept afloat by the life vest.
She wasn't far away from the shore. Behind the veil of rain and mist was the dark outline of mountains and woods, but the waves kept pushing her back. The saltwater stung her eyes, and for a moment, she couldn't feel her body anymore. Everything was sinking into this drowsy, floaty darkness as she waddled towards what she thought was dry land, her limbs growing slower, stiffer, and weaker with every passing second—
A golden glint flashed across her vision, and her eyes snapped open. With her newfound strength, or perhaps numbness, she resumed her swim, and even the prickling pain of the cold had been dispelled by the warmth that flowed through her limbs. Only after her feet touched the solid rock of the shore did she realize that she was dangerously close to the time limit.
She counted to three again, out of instinct. Immediately, her legs gave out under her, and she collapsed into the water. Waves slammed into her face, and the sharp pain of water entering her lungs triggered the power instantly. Before she knew it, she had staggered out of the shallow water, onto the narrow stretch of coarse pebbles, and unbuckled her life vest with numb, stiff fingers.
This might not even be the right island. But there was no turning back now. She needed to find a building before she blacked out again and succumbed to the cold, there had to be one in these woods, somewhere...
Between the uncontrollable shivering and the severe discomfort of her wet clothes frosting over like a straitjacket, she only had enough focus left to keep herself walking. If she stopped, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to get up again. Everything faded to a blur of motion, with no destination nor clear goals in mind, until...a woman popped up a few feet away from her.
A woman she knew.
Great. The hallucination had hit. Was this a less grim time, seeing Blizz's stoic, harsh spouse—who seemed to be allergic to anything upbeat and positive—wearing a rainbow scarf might actually make her laugh out loud.
Gosh darn it, why couldn't she see her own family and friends while on the verge of death?
"Still not telling me anything, I presume?"
Oh no. No no no no. Her hallucination was talking now. She bolted in the opposite direction, as fast as her legs could carry her, but that...thing was still standing at the edge of her vision, when she briefly halted in front of a steep drop and circled onto a gentler slope nearby. Shaking her head like mad, she covered her ears and charged through the tangled woods.
She must be at the foot of the hills right now. The terrain was getting more rocky, and maybe there would be a house upstream, if the creeks weren't already flooding in this weather—
"You see, despite my feud with your first Goddess, Tari is my birthplace."
"I-I don't care, g-go away..."
"Were you not sheltering Filina, I'd hate to let its last divinities perish at my hands."
"Shut up shut up shut up shut up..." Her breaths were getting shallower, choked up by the sinking feeling in her chest. She had definitely gone over the time limit now.
Was this what happened when she didn't black out? Just...losing her sanity bit by bit? Her power was the only thing keeping her conscious and moving right now. If she cut it off again, she'd surely pass out, and maybe the voice in her head was just a delayed syndrome of freezing to death—
"But we all have to bear the full weight of our decisions, don't we, Lynka?"
In the blink of an eye, her hallucination was standing in front of her. With a yelp, she stumbled backward—right off a slope, and into the pit below.
"Please, say hello to Rei Ryghts for me. And tell her that her successors were better CPUs than she could ever hope to be."
She was still lying in the muddy water, struggling to sit up, when the woman bent down, her arms outstretched in an embrace. The rainbow-colored scarf flashed across her vision, and seconds later, the pain hit.
Piercing, crippling pain. Like her entire body was dunked into a vat of molten metal. Her screaming drowned out everything in the surrounding, as she jumped up from the ground, against her will, at a speed that sent surges of white-hot lightning through her nerves with each movement.
It didn't stop. The force was puppeting her, keeping her running, leaping over fallen logs and rocks at a dizzying speed, while she screamed and screamed for what seemed like an eternity until she couldn't even hear her own voices anymore. She tried to stop, to turn—if collapsing onto the ground and smashing herself into a tree could make it end—
A pair of glowing scarlet eyes floated out of the shrubs in the distance.
She felt herself charging in that direction, before the pain exploded in a dizzying firework and drowned out all her senses. The next second, the eyes were gone, and her charged screwdriver connected with a cluster of leaves, sending little blue sparks flying all over the place. She could move her arms again, but the muscles were freezing up, threatening to wrestle control away from her once again—
In a sudden burst of strength, she turned the tip of the screwdriver towards herself and stabbed down hard.
There was a faint burning smell as she knelt over, twitching and spasming. Then her head hit the ground, and merciful unconsciousness finally fell upon her.