Memory Route Zero - Truth
A small blue light shines in the darkness.
The air unmoving. The whirr of motor blades. The driving of cars. The drilling of construction. The tapping of a foot. The sharpening of a blade. The heartbeat of a city. The quiet humming. His own breathing.
He breathed in through his nose slowly.
He heard the click and clack of metal parts folding in on themselves. The hum of a hologram being displayed. The muttering of a female. The groaning of another as her clothing squeaked slightly from stretching. The clunk of bat awkwardly hitting the floor as feet scrabbled to get up.
"Target found," A strong female voice "42nd floor. 20 hostiles, 1 target,"
"And the plan is…?" A young male voice. Brash.
"You're on utility. She'll deal with the hostiles, I'll deal with the target,"
"Think I can't handle the target as well?" A different female voice, just as strong but more seductive.
"I do, but he has a flux barrier hidden on his person. I'm just making sure he'll be dead,"
He heard footsteps coming closer to him, then he heard the female lean down and grab his shoulder.
"It's time, Yasuo," The hand shook him gently. He opened his eyes and looked into the face of Ashe, her blue steely eyes piercing deep into his, the optics in her eyes analysing his heartbeat. "You're the safety net, keep us suspended for 8 seconds. Got it?"
He nodded. Then stood up. He pressed a button on his neck and his helmet reassembled itself around his head, the glowing orange light coming on, a display screen coming up, blinking, in front of his blinking eyes. The sheath around his waist glowed gently, light seeping from its cracks. With one smooth motion, he pulled out his sword and held it in front of him. He moved forwards, towards the edge of the skyscraper. He stopped when he felt his toes at the edge.
The wind whipped itself around him, a tunnel of air, cool against the parched sky.
He simply allowed himself to fall off the edge.
The Arc
Sprawling outwards across entire borders it was a homage to the skies themselves, the buildings seemingly rose endlessly, the street level simply an orange glow from this height. The city ran on pure adulterated power. Beacons of light shot into the sky in the vain hope to penetrate the massive undulating clouds of smog, smoke and vapour. It rained often, the continuous culminating condensation forcing the heavens to open more often than the drug dealers on the street. Pipes were hidden in buildings, charging themselves through the abstract use of hydroelectric born off these waste clouds of production. The entire city hummed, a constant reminder of the churning, moving machine that was the never ending night of lights. It flowed together in one harmonious song, each ending feeding endlessly into another. Ouroboros. It all precariously worked. The buildings strategically placed to promote air the lower down you went, the entire floor level had a cool breeze always running through it. Roads were placed above ground level, allowing freer transportation unheeded by pedestrians and allowing advertisers to profit from another line. Hydrogen power cells regulations allowed for less pollution in the water due the need of pure water supplies and a renewable highly dangerous source of energy easily accessible to the public.
His world stung him in the eyes. Neon flashed past in a blur of grating steel and orange paste. It reminded him of the tubes. They had led straight into his body filled with that glowing substance, whatever it was. He closed his eyes as he remembered the bitter taste of the containing fluids draining from his distressed and groaning incubator. The jar that the gone off vegetable had been put in. The many jars where they'd all been, suspended organs waiting to be processed. There were stumps where his limbs should've been. Thrown onto the table like a blow up doll. He'd screamed the first time, his throat however soon got hoarse as he struggled to move some part of his body, the ghost feeling of his limbs still there almost shattered him. The mind cracked a little when reality was finally accepted. The dark fluids that'd stung like the ice cold wind, forcing it to accept the metal implants and graft that was now part of him. Attaching the nerves was the worse bit. He'd been kept awake whilst the robots did their work. The pain made remember. He felt it first, as if a hole had bored itself into his stomach, nerves losing all sense of feeling. It'd spread slowly, the draining of feeling, like being numb only you couldn't even feel the numbness. He'd then seen it, memories flashing up as he saw a hole in his stomach, organs flopping out into the empty space. He could only stand to remember the last 5 seconds of his own death until he blacked out from a combination of reality's pain and memory's pain. But he had remembered.
This was not his first life.
He looked into the windows flashing by. The entire city reflected in them, upside down. The holograms shimmered like silver fish fluttering through the air against the tall building high above the streets. A vain hope for someone to look up at the heavens. Did people pray to god anymore? He wasn't sure. A massive array of lights like little LEDs in the night stood out near the top of one building in the smog layer, offices he hoped, he pitied those that did live in the smog. He'd walked through the streets and cyberspace enough times to see depravity. He never bought anything, though by now wasn't surprised by what was sold. The higher the human race rose with technology, Yasuo focused his eyes counting the windows, the lower we seem to cast ourselves. He dropped through a cloud of orange smoke, the blistering heat causing warnings to go off inside his helmet as his entire body started to heat up. The sickly orange cloud disappeared from around him, the ground coming into view. The meters disappeared, the light blue hue covering the road becoming more and more faint as the distance shrunk. Energy surged through him as he brung down the orange glowing sword his thoughts disappearing as he activated the Tempest Landing System, blasts of air crackling with electricity coming up from beneath him. The air around him condensed, harder and harder, slowing his drop little by little. He flipped his body forwards, rolling over himself as he drifted down through the air to come to a complete halt, standing on solid air.
Half a second later, the others landed.
Another half second. Ekko threw up a small metallic ball and smacked it with his green bladebat. It smashed into the window, shattering it instantly.
Another half second. Katarina jumped forwards warping into the very centre of the room. Her belt regurgitating dozens of knives.
Another half second. Those in the room spotted them.
Too late.
In slow motion he watched an invisible shockwave go through the room. He could only tell it was there by the ripples of movement stopping. An arm still moved to grab its gun whilst the owner's face was frozen until it too stopped moving altogether, each finger coming to a halt after the next. A human piano in reverse. The blaring blinking light blue lamp stopped flickering, casting a harsh hard glare down onto the occupants. It reflected off the bald man's head, each security guard casting a cone of shadow, the umbra hiding their guns from onlookers. Red velvet chairs stopped falling, having been thrown back in a rush as their occupants stood up. They hung there in space, their inevitable descent no more. He blinked, the darkness seeming like an eternity. It was all still there. The blue figure beside him dropped to one knee, the bow unfurling itself with complex machinery. He could hear the small motors of it whirring in defiance of the heat that burned within them. Then it started. Katarina spun. A hologram rose bloomed in the room, its thorns reaching out and stripping them of their necks. Knife after knife sang in joyous harmony as they flew through the air. Crimson covered the rose, her mute white hair stained with blotches of red. An unmistakable snap ran through the air as the knives directed towards the balding man bounced off an invisible barrier. The barrier pulsated white, revealing the it's spherical shape around the man.
An arrow was loosed. It span as it traveled, slowly rotating in the windless and timeless environment. It glowed a hissing neon blue. Yasuo watched it fly. It dived through the broken glass of the window that was still falling, slipping past the glass falling around it. It span by the rose, gliding beside its waist as more knives appear from the bottomless grey packs on it's belt.
It reached its destination.
The wall behind the balding man exploded.
Bricks and foundations crumpled outwards in a massive sonic boom. The bald man was blown forwards, smashing into Katarina and sending her tumbling towards the window. Bricks and concrete flew in a gigantic storm towards them, smashing into many of the frozen bodyguards, piercing their bodies. Limbs became warped, contorted in unnatural positions, others disappeared, ripped from their owners and Yasuo watched a headless body hit the floor. In a panic he threw up his deflection shield. Ashe took the lead by throwing Ekko into the mess of flying rubble, retrieving Katarina behind the shield before more came out. The lights cut out instantly as they quickly sprang to the edge of the broken window, the Tempest unable to keep them aloft any longer. they all stood on the precarious brink as all the debris finally crashed down, slamming into the floor. Yasuo looked into the darkness. The darkness waited.
He tapped the side of his helmet.
"Switching to heat-visi…"
An orange glow appeared right in front of them. It spilled out of a line that was cut out of the back wall of the room. It blared from the 10 meter long line drawn in an almost perfect stroke. The occasional piece of concrete tumbled into the room, loud thuds of them hitting the fake wooden floor. The orange glow shifted a little, not big enough to fill the entire line of destruction in the wall. The line looked like it'd been done by a huge sword, the outer brick and concrete had been blown away by it but the foundation held firm. Yasuo stepped forwards slightly, glancing down at his feet for their target. This was not in the briefing whatsoever. He was certain of that. In anticipation he drew his sword, the blade glowing orange illuminating a small way into the darkness. All too similar to the glow he thought. He pressed a series of buttons on the hilt with his thumb and it hummed as it started vibrating. He stopped moving and listened. The groan of an alive man in front of him. Their target with his barrier was down. Yasuo breathed in gently and raised his sword to strike. He stopped, looking at the floor as he heard a massive groan come from the building, feeling his balance go. The floor was bending beneath him he realised and he swung down desperately at their target that was already sliding away from him, down towards the back wall. Yasuo hit the floor with his sword, the vibrating metal easily cutting through it but he looked up at the back wall. Rocks rolled down past him as he could barely hear his comrades yelling at the sudden change of landscape. He heard the whine of gears and looked down at the bottom of the slope that was the hotel floor.
A massive orange metal claw was gripping the floor. Light bled off the blade, spilling out into the darkness of the deformed room. Yasuo watched as the frozen bodies of the bodyguards fell past him, only to be cut in half as another claw appeared out of the darkness, it's light only just coming on. He shrank back, one hand gripping the carpet for balance as the orange glowing claws that doubled his height drew back. Two gigantic robotic eyes arose out of the darkness. He watched, astounded as the rest of its humongous body melted into view. He stared as the body of their target tumbled down towards it and with another heedless flick of a claw, his body split in two. He stared at the iron monster. It was 5 times the size of him and from the looks of it, just as agile. Spikes grew out of his shoulders, each one a deep red. Metal hexagonal wings sprouted out from its back. The metal limbs were curved and shaped to a point, curving fluidly alongside the straight metal. It looked humanoid, but with a massive dose of insect. The face confirmed it, the oddly shaped sleek head, it cheeks flared outwards, antennae sprouting high above it. He watched the lights in its eyes flicker, become unmoving as it discarded all other senses. Then suddenly, a massive autonomous tone rang out.
"PRIMARY OBJECTIVE COMPLETE,"
Yasuo watched carefully, the room silent. His comrades too looked down from the window's edge, weapons drawn.
"OTHER BEINGS DETECTED,"
Yasuo blinked and shook as the massive orange eyes looked directly at him. This was not a part of the plan. He glanced up at his comrades and wordlessly made a motion directing them to get out of there. They wordlessly refused.
"ARE THE BEINGS ALIVE?"
This autonomous voice had a different tone to it. A scarier one to them. One that gave Yasuo a chill. The voice of someone interested in science. His breathing hitched as he held his sword up in front of him, his hands shaking. He had no idea what he could do against it.
"NO," The autonomous voice of the mech standing in front of him was much quieter now in comparison.
The world seemingly cut out. He knew his comrades hadn't heard it, but he had. He was nothing more than a machine now. His being, actions and thoughts not his. The memories? Were they his? Pain swelled in his head as his mind tried to comprehend everything going through him. Images flashed in front of him, the round fell away from him until all he hung onto was the carpet. He shook and failed against the darkness of his mind as his spare hand grasped at the helmet trying to rip it off. He tugged and tugged no matter what pain to hack his way free of this enclosure. Blind though he was, confused though he was, the helmet stayed on. Warning blared in his ears, lights coming up in front of his face flashing him in his chaos.
He screamed.
But even so, could hear the next words spoken.
"IS THE BEING HOSTILE?"
The massive eyes in front of him refocused themselves, as if weighing up all the possibilities and understandings of behaviour. He still gripped his helmet recklessly fighting off invisible thoughts and feelings, words and voices, motors and gears of him. He grunted and screamed in rage, in defiance of the truth.
"IS THE BEING HOSTILE?"
The silence that followed was louder than all of the Projects yelling combined.
"YES,"
The response cut through his thoughts in a single stroke. He watched as a giant orange claw drew itself back.
"ACTIVATING SECONDARY OBJECTIVE. COLLECTING METAL FROM HOSTILES,"
"Yasuo!" Ashe's voice burst into his hearing as she screamed down at him "Run!"
Yasuo looked up at her. Her mask was off. He'd always considered her pretty. An unnatural thought for them and he knew it now more than ever but… those billboards that they passed, the advertisements, the screens. Occasionally when they had to blend in he'd actually stopped and watched them. He imagined the four of them inside one. What if they'd lived that life? It was a weird thought, but these were the only people he knew. His comrades. But he never seemed to fit in them. The others had, he could see them all there, in those colourful advertisements, in worlds unlike their own. They fitted there. He didn't. He looked up at her and shook his head. He readjusted his footing, the floor still at a 45 degree angle.
"Run," he yelled up at them. He watched them all yell at him, Ekko extending his hand, Katarina starting to take off her utility belt. But he simply stared at Ashe. The steely blue eyes stared back, defiant in leaving him behind. He shook his head again. He gripped his sword that was stuck into the floor, the blade growing a blinding orange. He watched it charge to maximum as Katarina threw out her utility belt towards him in a vain attempt to reach him. He knew that it was not to be.
"I need to find out the truth,"
He flicked his sword at them, blasting them with a barrel of air out of the window. The power threw him towards the massive mech and out of the way of the swing of the claw. He bounced off the chest of the iron beast and after a mighty fall landed down near its feet. He dove to the side as another claw came down and hauled his sword up block the other claw that quickly reacted. The mech almost looked surprised as each blade hummed against each other, each desperately trying to each away at the other's sharpness. He smiled at his opponent, his arms shaking against the force of the mech.
"Wait, I know a line for this situation. Um, is it take me to your leader?" Yasuo smiled behind his mask in vain hope.
The metal didn't react. Well, he thought to himself, at least he'd remembered something.