I set both packages on my desk next to my computer, and then turned back to double-check that my door was indeed closed. With Dad out of sight, I fished out my phone from my pocket and opened it up, going through the contacts there.
I didn't really know Alec or Rachel that well yet, most of my contact with the Undersiders either being through Brian or Lisa. Brian and Lisa were genuinely friendly, and I think I really could consider them friends, villains or not. But Alec didn't seem to care much about me one way or the other, and Rachel was still… well, my introduction to her hadn't left the best first impression on either of us. At least she seemed to be tolerating me after the planning session. Alec warmed up a bit over the movie marathon yesterday too.
Regardless, I wasn't really sure what to expect when I texted Alec.
You started messaging Alec Smith.
TH: Hi Alec.
AS: Yooooooo
AS: Are we finally getting this show on the road? Thank god
AS: At first I was on the edge of my seat but the longer I've been waiting here staring at this screen waiting for someone else to get around to joining in the more I realized that this was a game that Tats suggested
AS: Which means that this is either going to be super boring, an attempt to manipulate us into some kind of nonsense groupbuilding kumbaya thing, or something that she can cheat the hell out of with her psychic bullshit so she can feel superior to the rest of us
AS: Actually nevermind, if she's going to be cheating, that'll be hilarious
AS: So do you have the client installed already, or what?
AS: Taylor?
AS: Are you dead?
AS: Did the meteors get you already?
TH: I'm confused.
AS: Hi Confused, can you go get Taylor back so we can start this game already?
TH: Lisa told me that you were the one who was interested in the game?
TH: That she got it for you.
AS: That's hilarious
AS: Is she shy?
AS: Too shy to tell you that she bought a video game for herself?
AS: What video games officer? I've never heard of a videos game. Oh THAT video game. No, that's not mine. I'm just holding it for a friend. I'd never buy one myself, let alone force our entire team to play it out of nowhere during the middle of a national emergency
AS: Yeah, this whole thing was Tats idea
AS: So are we gonna play or what? She broke into my room at like dawn and forced the server disc into my hands and told me to be ready to go on the drop of a hat and get you started right-fucking-away
TH: Huh.
TH: Yeah we're still going to play, I just thought that it was strange.
TH: The client disc you said?
AS: That's the one slide it on in there
AS: And turn the sound up the intro music sounds pretty cool actually
I find that Alec is a bit more talkative over text than he is in person. But oh well. Lisa went out of her way to get this game to me, so I might as well see what it's about.
When was the last time I played a computer game, even? With Emma?
It's been a long time. I hope I'm not rusty.
I take out the disc from the page labeled Client, and slide it into the machine. The computer whirrs noisily for a bit, and then a black screen appears.
SBURB version 0.0.1
© BUCKET SYSTEMS INCORPORATED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SBURB client is running.
Waiting for server to establish connection…
After a moment, I saw it change.
A SBURB host user is attempting to connect with you.
Client has established connection with host.
Press [ENTER] when ready.
Without thinking too much of it, I hit the enter key. As the screen turned white, I remembered what Alec said, and turned up the volume a bit.
[
S]= = > Taylor: Press Enter
The symbol appeared, and my breath caught. I recognized it instantly- or at least I thought I did. The fourth Endbringer. The thing dropping meteorites on people all over the world. But a moment later, the symbol changed, and I let out a breath of relief. This game must have been in production for a while, right? And this new Endbringer- Delos, or whatever they were going to call it, -people only knew about it for a day, maybe two, at most.
The symbol had to be a coincidence. The concept of an Angel existed before the Simurgh appeared. That didn't make any design that happened to have wings part of a Simurgh Plot.
I focused on watching the psychedelic and colorful animation and enjoying the music that played along with it. But as the nonsensical messages below the ever-shifting mandala blew past, I found myself feeling nervous. What kind of game was this going to be?
The title appeared on the screen, and then the screen went black again, as the game exited itself out, leaving me with a blank screen. I tried clicking around the corners, but the only real option the game was giving me was to exit out. I frowned, considering texting Alec again to see if there was something wrong on his end too, but as I turned my head, I noticed that
my bed was floating.
"Shit!" I cursed, scrambling back and out of the chair, and reaching unconsciously for my bugs. My open window lets my swarm enter in and surround me in a protective cloud of flies, bees, wasps, dragonflies, and whatever else with wings happened to be nearby. Of course, those were just the ones that could be here in a moment's notice. Further away, I had spiders allow other fliers to pick them up and carry them with them, making a beeline for my house. From the darkest corners of my room, cockroaches began to appear, swarming around under the now-floating bed trying to find whatever invisible parahuman was lifting it up. Worryingly, they couldn't find any guilty parties. Flies darted forwards, filling the space all around the bed, but they couldn't sense anything either. Not even a disturbance in the air. The bed was just floating all on its own.
Of course, as soon as I thought that, the bed suddenly dropped, eliciting a loud thud.
"Taylor!?" Dad called from downstairs.
Shit!
I darted for the door, ordering my swarm to stay behind in my bedroom to keep watch, and closed it behind me. We needed to get out of here.
"Dad! There's something wrong! I think we're under attack!"
"Under attack?" he asked, confused. I rushed past him, grabbing his arms as I went, only to be stopped in my tracks as he doesn't follow, "Taylor what's going on?"
"I don't know but…" I trail off as I see the table lift up and set itself firmly between us and the doorway.
"Taylor?" Dad asked, his voice suddenly fearful.
"Window," I said, dragging at his arm again. And this time, luckily, he follows. We dart across the living room, heading for one of the windows, only to halt as the wall
warps in front of us, stretching out and taking the window farther away from us. My eyes glance downward, and I realize that the floor isn't stretched. The carpet's not damaged- there's just more of it. The pain on the walls hasn't been stretched either. The new section to our house is just as old and made of the same material as everything else around it.
But we saw it being created in front of us.
In my room, heard by my swarm, I could sense the cellphone vibrating. I chose to ignore it. I had bigger problems. Outside, bugs began to search the surrounding area. Whoever was doing this, they were likely close. Watching our house through the windows, maybe? I order bugs to start climbing up the windows, to block as much of their view as possible.
"Taylor, I want you to keep behind me," Dad says slowly, his eyes darting from place to place. His eyes were lingering on the windows, revulsion starting to color his features as he took note of the bugs, "I don't think the windows are safe either. Let's… let's try to get the back yard."
"Right."
I let him lead the way this time, but as we pass through the kitchen, the table is suddenly yanked in our way. I look around, but there shouldn't be any way of seeing where we are right now from outside. Is whoever is doing this listening in? Am I wearing a wiretap or something?
Above us, the ceiling stretches. Through the little window on our back door, I can see that something has shaded the yard. I hear three loud thumps from upstairs. Through my swarm, I detect that like the downstairs window, my room just grew a lot bigger, and somehow, three big, blocky, objects have appeared.
"That was my room," I say, "I think… it wants us to go there."
"It?"
"Whatever Parahuman is messing with us."
Dad's eyes widen even further, "But- why? Why would a villain care about us?"
Probably my fault.
But I didn't have time to explain. I drop his arm, and start heading for the stairwell, glad when nothing suddenly drops in front of me to block my way. My swarm tells me there's no other movement at least. I swing open my door, and then watch as my phone, still vibrating, lifts up into the air and hovers towards me.
I sense Dad following me, but he pulls up short when he sees the swarm of insects, and the floating device coming towards me.
Without saying a word, Dad steps past me, and grabs the phone. His face is furious, and he snaps it open, hitting answer, "What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" he growls into it, the rancor in his voice making me flinch, "Fucking with my family's house, messing with my daughter-"
"Dad," I say.
"Game? What game!? What- No I'm not going to put Taylor on the line, tell me-"
I grab the phone from him, and hear Alec's voice on the other end, "-old man. Oh, thank fuck. Taylor, when your phone rings, you should answer it. Just, you know, helpful advice."
"I'm kind of dealing with something, Alec."
"Alec?" Dad asked, surprised, "One of your friends?"
"I'm the thing you're dealing with. Taylor, you're not gonna believe this. But right now, turn your head to the left." I look at my window, "No, the other left."
I sigh, and look to my right, at the bizarre pieces of tinkertech that now dominate my now much,
much larger room. "Alec," I begin, "Please tell me this is you."
"Yep."
"How? You're not really a-" I almost say telekinetic, but my Dad is right here. Shit, I'm going to have to tell him everything, aren't I? Even if this most recent craziness I have no clue about.
"It's Sburb," he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice, "This is crazy, I can see your entire house from here. It's like the Sims, except
you're the Sim."
"Look, just stop destroying things. Tell me what's going on."
"I have no clue."
God damn it, he still sounds so happy.
"Taylor," Dad says, sounding insistent, "What's going on?" he repeats, looking nervously at my swarm, and at the bizarre machines that filled my room.
"Alec, my friend, is the one doing stuff to the house," I say, "The games, they're tinkertech or something."
"The games? The games Lisa brought?" he asked, anger beginning to blossom again and turn his face pink, "Why!?"
"I don't know! Neither does Alec. We're figuring this out."
"Is he doing the bugs, too?"
I flinch, and then look at the swarm.
He'll need an explanation.
I sigh, and reach out my hand. The swarm obeys, approaching my arm and beginning to fly in complex formation. Since it was still on my mind, I have it start mimicking the shifting mandala I saw in the game's loading screen, "The bugs are… my thing. Dad, I'm a parahuman. It started after the locker. I didn't know what was happening, so I brought them in to try and find… I don't know. An invisible attacker. But there isn't one. It's just whatever SBURB is."
He stares at me for a few seconds, before covering his face with his hands and breathing out in a long sigh, "I… Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay. Is… Is
Alec going to keep destroying the house? Our house? Annette's house?" he asked, his voice just a little desperate.
I glare down at the phone, "He's not going to mess with the house any more,
right, Alec?"
I hear a crash from the bathroom.
"Oh fuck," Alec says from the phone, genuinely apologetic.
"I'm putting you on speaker. Don't be rude to my Dad."
"Cool. So, what do the machines do?" Alec asks.
"You don't know?" Dad asks right back.
"Nope. They all have really weird names, too. These are all items from something called the…" he trailed off for a moment, "Phernalia registry. The giant sewing-machine looking thing is called a Totem Lathe, the platform with the robot arm is called an Alchemiter, and the weird furnace-looking thing is a… yeah, no, I'm not gonna try with that one."
"What are we supposed to do with them?" I ask.
"How am I supposed to know?"
I sigh, "I'm calling Lisa. I want to know why she wanted us to play this so badly."
"Kay, bye." Alec hangs up without any further ceremony, and I quickly bring up Lisa's number.
She better have more of an explanation for this than he does.
