Part 6 - Infected

Chapter 112 - Michael's Secret

Miles held Gwen's hand a couple of days later. She was awake, although still weak from blood loss.

"We can't let him do this, Miles." She said.

"I know. We'll figure it out."

"SCP-3812. What do we know?"

"It changes reality. Clearly he knows how to control it. Eventually it will destroy that world and go up another narrative. We know most of the stuff we need to. Just not how to fight and kill it."

"'You cannot kill what is not your creation.'"

"What?"

"Liam said that."

"I'd guess the person who made 3812 is the Author of the narrative above us. That puts them two above."

"How do you plan to get there?"

"I don't know."

Gwen squeezed his hand.

"Please don't get hurt. He's a psychopath. And not my level of psycho: a real one."

"I'm not going anywhere near Liam. I want to talk to Michael."

"Why?"

"Something doesn't add up."

"Nothing adds up."

He kissed her forehead and left.

With a flash and a bang, Miles became the second person from his narrative to see the one above. He knocked on Michael's flat door. Michael frowned when he saw it was Miles, not Gwen, but pulled him inside.

"What are you doing here?"

"Gwen's in hospital and something makes no sense."

"Welcome to planet Earth."

They sat down.

"What makes no sense?"

"Well, forgetting people falling into the sky, you don't make sense."

Michael frowned again.

"Me? What about me?"

"Why would Liam wipe everyone else's memory but not yours? And why does he not keep a closer eye on you if he doesn't? You could go and tell everyone everything."

"I guess he trusts me. We've been friends a long time."

"But he wiped all his other friends' memories."

"No he didn't."

"Who else is there?"

"Nobody. I'm his only friend."

"Why didn't he make more people his friends?"

"He hates people. He is, or was, really socially awkward and paranoid."

Miles sat silently for a moment.

"Could we use that against him?"

"Unlikely. 3812 has it all covered."

He remained silent again for a few more seconds, then asked:

"What happened in Iceland?"

"Gwen popped up, there was a big fight and everything was screwed up then Liam put it all back."

"Got you."

"What?"

"Liam made Gwen promise not to tell anyone, including you. That means he wiped your mind, and it's doubtful he'd have told you. So you shouldn't know anything about the fight."

Michael's mouth made an 'O' shape then he sighed.

"Alright. You got me."

"Care to explain?"

"Do you want anything to eat or drink? This might take a while."

"Will you explain everything?"

"Of course."

"I'll have a hot chocolate."

"A fellow hot choccie lover. Good choice."

Michael left leaving Miles to sit and think for a moment. What was happening? Why couldn't Liam affect him? Was it a special ability, a personal weakness, or was Michael from a different narrative? Surely the latter was the most unlikely…right?

Michael handed Miles a hot chocolate. Miles stirred it for a few minutes to let it cool.

"You gonna tell me?"

"Give me a minute to think about this. Ah crap I burnt my tongue."

Miles chuckled to himself and took a gulp. For a moment, he thought it was normal hot chocolate. Then he felt a bitter taste in the back of his mouth. The world started to spin, his vision grew darker. Michael took the mug to stop it spilling everywhere.

"Sorry, buddy. I'll explain later."

"He's coming round." Said a woman's voice.

It had a thick Scottish accent. Miles opened his eyes groggily. His eyelids felt heavy, as if he was exhausted, but it wore off quickly enough. The woman smiled at him as Michael and someone else walked in. Miles moved his arms, expecting them to be chained down or something, but they just felt heavy like the rest of his body.

"What the…"

He tried to stand up, but the woman pushed him back down.

"Stay there." She instructed.

"Where am I?" He demanded.

"Please try and chill out. Getting venom struck isn't on my to-do list." Said the man with Michael.

"Tell me where I am and I might not."

"All in good time. Anyway, looking at you I'd say you don't have it in you at the moment."

"Try me."

The man sighed, facepalming.

"I created you, genius. At least this version of you. I know more about you than you do."

"Liam created me."

"And I created Liam."

"You created SCP-3812?"

"Oh hell no. If I did, I'd have burnt everything containing it a long time ago."

Miles stood up slowly. This time the woman didn't push him down again.

"Tell me where I am. And tell me who you are."

"Now you've asked the question I wanted you to ask because I like this bit too much."

"What?"

"Call me Null. It's not my real name, but if I told you that I'd have to kill you."

"I'm Zero." Said the woman.

"Let me guess. Michael's gonna be called Nothing or something?" Miles sneered.

"Nah. My real name isn't Michael, but same with the other two."

He mimed shooting Miles with a gun.

"You got a code name, then? Or just 'Michael'?"

"Sometimes they call me 'Agent Forty-Two'."

"Why do you have such weird names?"

"Me and Null are computer nerds. Null is the value given to a string variable by default if you don't give it a starting value. As for Zero, it's pretty similar. Unless it's part of a binary sequence in which case…ya." Replied Zero.

"What?"

"That's gonna be a common word today. Let's go for a walk and we'll tell you where you are." Null answered.

Miles sighed and followed him into the corridor. Zero and Michael tagged along behind.

"The three of us are part of an organisation called INTF, or 'International Narrative Task Force'." Started Null.

"So we're in its HQ?"

"You're catching on quick."

Miles stopped at a window and looked out. They seemed to be in a skyscraper in a city he didn't recognise.

"What's INTF?"

"Other than a letter off being a sixteen personalities type, we're a group set up to stop our world being blown up by multiple instances of SCP-3812."

"Multiple instances? There are more Liams?"

"No, there's only one Liam, thankfully. The other 3812s are of less concern. We've almost got a way to deal with them. The problem with Liam is he's fully aware of what he is doing, and can control it."

"And a psycho."

"Indeed."

Null waited for a few moments in case Miles had anymore questions, but he said nothing so continued on his explanation.

"Liam is a bigger problem than just a psychopathic instance of 3812. Let's go back to the roots. In November 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, a certain idiot we'll refer to as SnakeRapter sat down and…"

"Pandemic? Is the virus still around?"

"Not really. COVID-19. You get the odd spike of cases in the anti-vax community but otherwise it's fine. Want to give him the rundown, Michael?"

"Sure. Don't eat bat soup. 2020 was a bad year: pandemics, murder hornets, BLM."

"The murder hornets were only in the US." Said Zero.

"Oh come on Zero. Don't you know the US's problems are the world's problems? The USA is the only country in the world." Null joked.

"It's not a bad country." Michael replied.

"Rule Britannia is all I'll say to that."

"We booted Britain, so that's not an argument."

"You call that independence, we call it a lucky escape."

"The British Empire's army sucked. Face it."

"Really? I call to mind the Battle of Rorke's Drift: one-hundred and fifty British redcoats versus thousands of Zulus. The British forced them to retreat."

"Yeah…well…"

"Can we get back to what's happening?" Miles interrupted.

Zero laughed.

"They'll be at it all day now they've started." She said with a smile.

Null sighed.

"Where were we?"

"Some idiot called 'SnakeRaptor' or something."

"Right. Right. Well this idiot decided to write an Into the Spiderverse fan-fiction. So along comes Conall and beats you and Gwen to a pulp. Next comes Helltreader who beats your son and Ganke to a pulp, then the two of you again; more importantly he drags the SCP Foundation crossover in. After that, Gwen goes evil and someone introduced the weirdest crossover in existence."

"If you say those dragon riding Vikings. Yeah. Weird."

"Perfect guess. So dragons and stuff, then comes a certain Empire which we'll promptly skip over. Finally comes Khahrahk, and oh so clever SnakeRaptor had the idea that your wife would get a piggyback to another narrative and try to write him out. Of course, SnakeRaptor botched it massively. The ending changed: part five was supposed to be the final part. Max was never supposed to become a God. Gwen was supposed to find out Khahrahk won and killed you all before fading out of existence. Hell, Grace wasn't even supposed to be a character the readers would meet."

"You lost control?"

"Umm…yes?"

Miles stopped walking and looked over the edge of a barrier they were walking past. He estimated it was at least ten storeys to the ground.

"You know how tempting it is to throw you over the edge, Null?"

"Please don't. I have a really bad fear of heights."

"And needles. If you ever want to knock him out, threaten to take a blood sample." Zero teased.

Miles turned back to Null.

"You realise how much pain you've caused? How many people you have killed?"

"It's hard to keep track."

"What about Peter?"

"Which one? If you mean the one Kingpin killed, that would be a question better put to Christopher. He'll be down in the civilian offices between floors one to five. Either ask him, or ask Shameik, Hailee, Nicolas, Jake…the list is extensive. Of course, don't ask them about Spiderverse three. Sony threatened to cut the lot of them off if they told the INTF anything."

Miles barely restrained himself from actually throwing Null over the edge.

"I don't care about whoever those people are. I mean my son. You killed my son."

"Your son wouldn't have even existed if it wasn't for me."

"Yes he would! He'd still be alive!"

"And what about Max and Charlotte? Charlotte might be alive, but Max might not. You said you were proud of him. What would he say if he found out you'd rather have your dead one year old than him?"

"You're a real stuck up piece of work, aren't you."

Zero put a hand on each of their chests and pushed them apart.

"Calm it, both of you. Feel free to beat the shit out of each other later. But right now we need to beat the shit out of Liam."

Miles looked at her and took a deep breath, trying to regain control. It was harder than anyone could possibly imagine. Here he was, standing in front of the person who had caused him so much pain. Still, what would Gwen say if he punched someone like this?

"One last shot to fire: Charlotte did drugs once."

Miles pushed Zero out of the way and grabbed Null by the collar, shoving him against the wall.

"Tell me everything."

"A little cut start to part five. Peer pressure and stuff, but she hated it and never did it again. Technically I never wrote it, so technically it never was."

Miles stepped back, letting Null go. Null smirked.

"You're far too easy to piss off, you know. And don't blame me for everything: blame whoever decided Spiderverse should revolve around you not yet another Peter Parker."

"Unlike you, I don't think the world revolves around me."

"I don't either. I just act like it does."

"Enough! Both of you!" Michael yelled.

Null seemed to cringe then go silent, and Miles took the hint.

"Thank you."

Zero took over from Null in explaining.

"After part five was finished, Null decided to start experimenting. He wrote that Liam sent up an iPhone, and it happened. He kept doing this, experimenting with much more exotic tech. That was until 3812 completely broke out of the loop and sent him a severed hand with the middle finger raised instead of a nanotech Iron Man suit. The world governments got wind of this, and the impending threats of 3812 instances blowing up the world, and INTF was formed. Liam became our biggest priority. Michael was sent back in time in the fan-fiction and placed as a sleeper agent in Liam's narrative. The plan was to enlist your narrative's help and kill 3812 before it could come to our narrative and kill all of us."

"Why did you drug me?"

"A half-dead person is easier to transport between narratives than a fully alive one. This is far more complex than just dimension skipping."

"And you'll drug me again to take me back?"

"No. We'll give you the discs you need."

"Where are we going?"

"To get you what you need, and to give you a message to share with your narrative. We need Max, Miles. He's the only one who stands half a chance of beating Liam."

"No can do at the moment. He's disappeared."

Zero stopped.

"Disappeared?"

"Yeah. He's in a rough spot so I figured I'd let him be for the minute."

"Hmm. So long as he's ready when the time comes."

"He will be."

Michael accompanied Miles back to Liam's narrative. The latter had a briefcase inside which was a collection of narrative hopping watches.

"You'll get used to Null. He's a nice guy, usually." Said the former as they prepared to go their separate ways for the moment.

"He's a jerk."

"He can be, but he doesn't mean any harm. He's had more than his fair share of being on the receiving end."

"Of what? The school bully?"

"It's more complicated than that."

"Everything's always more complicated. I'm gonna be honest, Michael. I'm sick of all of this. When Liam's dealt with, I think I'm gonna retire."

"You? Retire? I doubt it."

"You're probably right. I won't. I'll keep going until something kills me."

"Kills you properly, you mean."

"Yeah."

"Well look, if you do retire you've done a lot for a lot of people. I don't just mean the people you've helped; you're a role model for people in narratives hundreds above my own."

"Yep. It get's exhausting."

Michael slapped Miles on the back.

"Keep going, buddy."

"Only if you promise not to drug me again."

"I promise. Now go, before Liam finds us."

"Yeah."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- SCP Foundation

And the mother of all fourth wall breaks. Technically two narratives above Miles' is ours sooooooo...
I'm pretty sure the INTF doesn't exist, so please don't start an conspiracy theories! :)