Chapter Forty-Six

Thoth, who was running simulations of an amateur coder to finish Seven's assignment, brought up the video footage of the hallway outside the door. The White Knights' commander rounded a corner and approached the room.

"Holy shit," Thoth said. "It's him. He's coming."

Set drifted out of a wall, turned up-side-down, and stared at the computer. "Who's coming!"

"Their commander! He must have figured everything out somehow. No, that doesn't make sense, he's alone. He must suspect something. Anyways, we're screwed. I don't see any way out of this. If we had a way to simulate her voice, we could insert it in the Ditto, but Ditto can't speak, and the moment it tried, we'd be found out for sure."

Thirty feet of hallway remained between the commander and the door. Set's eyes lit up, and the ghost chuckled to himself.

"This is no time for jokes!" Thoth hissed. "We need to think of something fast."

"I've got a perfect idea! It'll work for sure."

Thoth glanced at the door. "Fine, we'll go with your plan, but first, you have to make a pact."

"A pact?"

"You know how to use destiny bond. Use it on me, and swear that you won't mess this up. If anything goes wrong, you'll be destroyed. Got it?"

A smile split Set's face in two. His cackle dimmed the lights and made a chilly wind swirl through the room.

"Don't you remember? You already tried that trick on me."

"I – I did? The back-ups must be faulty. Did you at least do it right last time?"

"Nope! I got barfed out of a human without any pants on, and we got shot at by dozens of police officers."

Thoth's clock speed dipped as he took in the absurdity of that comment. "It was nice not remembering that."

The commander was a few steps away from the door handle. "Whatever you're going to do," Thoth said, "Do it now!"

The lights went out, and the computer's monitor turned off. The computer itself, buried beneath the desk, stayed on. Thoth watched the room through the camera, which still had power.

"Good thinking," Thoth said. "A bit silly, when you get down to it, but this way, I can simulate Allison's voice."

"That wasn't me," Set said.

"Wait, it's not?" Thoth scoured the systems for digital control of the electrical systems and found the power to their room disabled. "The commander's doing this, but why?"

From the hallway cameras, Thoth saw the commander looking at a black tablet. No, not black – a live video feed of Allison's room.

"I don't get it," Thoth said. "Is he trying to see how he'll react?"

"Well, shouldn't we open the door?" Set asked. "That's what a normal person would do."

"Yes, but he might ask questions, or try to engage in a conversation. What do we do then?"

"I still have my idea," Set said. "Come on, let me try it out."

"We shouldn't take unnecessary risks. Just wait and see if he goes away."

Set's eyes glittered in the darkness as he beamed at the computer. Thoth checked the video feed, but Set was invisible to the cameras. "You told me I couldn't mess this up. So, I'm not going to mess this up by sitting around and making us look suspicious."

"No, Set, stop! We can't risk it!"

A wet gurgle came in reply. And then Set, with Allison's voice, said, "Huh, this feels weird."

"What the hell are you doing? Don't open that door!"

"I'm reaching for the doorknob," Set said in a mocking tone.

"I command you to stop!"

"My fingers are on the doorknob."

"Are you listening to me?"

The door jerked and rattled. "Huh, it's locked."

"Oh thank God," Thoth said. "Alright, now we can stay put and wait until he goes away."

"Hey, is anyone there?" Set shouted at the door. "The lights are out and my door is locked. Can anyone get it open?"

"Keep it down!" Thoth hissed at him. "You're going to get him to come in here!"

"Is Team Rocket attacking?" Set rapped on the door. "Should I kick it down? Hello? Anyone listening? I'm a little stuck in here!"

"Don't make me come out there and zap you!"

With a click, the lights came back on, and the monitor lit up. The commander turned away from the door and walked back down the hall.

"Wait, that's it?"

"What's it?" Set asked.

"He's gone."

"Aww, I wanted to try out my new trick. Feels squishy, but I kinda like it!"

"What feels squishy?" Thoth looked out of the monitor. The Ditto, disguised as Allison, stood by the door. "Where are you?"

The Ditto turned, grinned at him, and waved. "In here! This is way better than possessing a human. I can do whatever I want to the innards, check it out!"

Fourteen's chest split open in a horrifying array of purple tentacles, dripping with green mucus. Then the flesh curled up on itself and seamlessly formed the Knights' robes.

"This is no time for games," Thoth said. "Seven's trapped in a restricted access area of the facility, and I need to get down there so I can get her back up that elevator.

"I can find her quick enough," Set said. He scratched his head with one hand, and the fingers sank into Fourteen's skull. "I can probably bring you through the vents."

"You shouldn't stray too far. There are psychics in this facility, at least an Alakazam, maybe more, and we have no idea where they are. If you get too close to them, you'll raise the alarm.

"If I was a Gengar, sure, but I'm too small for them to notice. Trust me, it'll be a cakewalk."

"We can't risk it," Thoth said. "Also, the lower levels vent themselves separately from this facility. To access their vents, we would need to leave, find wherever the vents are on the outside, and navigate them without raising an alarm. It would take too long."

"We'll go down the elevator."

"Not possible. There are four guards stationed at the terminal, at the end of a long hallway. There's nowhere to hide."

Set grinned and stretched his face. Fourteen's blobby flesh stretched like hot tar.

"I'm hiding right now."

"My records show that the commander is the only one on this level with permanent access to that area. Anyone else has to have his permission for a temporary visit."

"Then we'll go disguised as him. Simple!"

"Simple? We already did that. Do you think the guards wouldn't notice that their commander hadn't gone back up when we walk up to them?"

"Probably not, but do you have a better idea?"

Thoth checked the simulations he ran of the most probable means of getting down there and found all chances of success in single digits. Set's ludicrous plan had a whopping twelve percent chance, if they waited for the next shift of guards.

"This is going to be suicide," Thoth said.

Set roared with laughter. "Suicide? I can't die, and if you kick the bucket, they'll just make a new one. Hell, I don't think you can kill this blob either. I've been in here long enough to kill a Dragonite, and this thing isn't even tired."

"You can still be destroyed," Thoth said.

"True, but you can't die if you're already dead. Seems like fun, crossing over to the great beyond and all that stuff humans say happens to you after they die."

"You don't mind at all?"

"Nope!" Set grabbed his head and twisted it up-side-down. The flesh knit itself back into place, leaving a hairy collar around his neck, eyes where his mouth should be, and a waxy stump for hair. He waved his arms around and took a few dizzy steps forward. "Hey, look, I'm doing a headstand!"

"Stop that, we're getting off track." He brought up pictures of the commander on the computer. Without having to worry about facial features, Fourteen made a passable attempt at imitating the image, except it copied the exact dimensions and had the commander's silver badge on the wrong shoulder.

Set, now stuck in a body ten inches tall, jumped and waved at Thoth from the floor. "Wow, you would not believe all the insane stuff that happens in this body when it changes!" Set called in a high-pitched, squeaky voice. "This thing's cells ate themselves!"

Thoth flipped the image and had Fourteen match it. Then he had Set make Fourteen expand. After some effort, the Ditto bubbled up, and a life-sized commander, garbed in his robes of office and hidden behind the plain white mask, pinched and poked at the flabby folds of the robes.

"What else do you think I can make?" Set asked. "Ooh! I could be Giovanni!"

"Change it, and I will electrocute you."

Set held up his hands. "Hey, I'm joking. Put away your zappy things before someone gets hurt."

Thoth sighed and checked the hallways. The commander was back, and he was already halfway down the hall.

"You have got to be kidding me," Thoth said with a groan.

Set chuckled and asked, "What is it? Is the commander back?"

"Yes."

With a giggle, Set looked around the room. "Should I try hiding under the bed, or are we going to clobber him over the head?"

"Are you seriously rhyming at a time like this?"

Set crossed his eyes, and blinked. "Oh, sweet! I wasn't even trying for that, what a feat!"

"Just do something, he's by the door!"

"At the door, or before?"

"No, a little bit off. And stop rhyming, it's bringing up search results for Wordsworth on my browser. He stopped by another room. Hold on, I'll check his tablet."

Thoth inserted himself into the computer and jumped into the cameras. From there, he latched onto the tablet and examined the screenshot. It read, "Thoth, are you there? Please disable the cameras in the hallway so I can get back in."

Pure shock rattled the Porygon's CPU. In its confusion, it overrode the cameras, replaced the footage, and informed Seven. She transformed, walked into the room, and stopped dead when confronted by the commander.

"So, you made it back? Aww, we did all this for jack."

Seven stiffened, plucked a knife from thin air, and plunged it into the Ditto's chest. The knife slid out of the goopy flesh and hit the floor.

"That's Fourteen," Thoth said. "We were about to come down the elevator for you, and speaking of, how the heck did you get out?"

"The security's one-way. I didn't need the card down there."

Thoth's inner screaming made itself manifest through a brief flicker on the screen. Then the program said, "At least you made it back before anything else happened."

Seven's eyes narrowed. "Did something happen while I was gone?"

Thoth explained the commander's appearance and the black-out. By the end, Seven was sitting on the bed, rubbing her temples with one hand.

"He knows about the Mirage project and suspects I'm here," she said. "That's the only explanation."

"I have no data on that project."

"Nevermind. For now, we have to lie low. I've learned as much as I can, and once Admin Colson gets here, we can plan our next move."

Thoth glanced at Set, who was juggling his own feet and ears, and decided not to predict how long this mission would take.

Changelog

12/25/18 – minor edits