Immersion 3.1
- Location
- Chula Vista
Immersion 3.1
March 17th, 2011 2:20 PM
Basilia Rubio
"Hmm…" I smirked as I rocketed past a slice of compressed air, every one of my steps coated with fire and air to speed up my movements and increase my jumps. I shot out long streams of flames at my opponent, the dark haired young woman then threw up gusts of air shielding herself from the attack.
The two of us danced, propelled forward by our own will to win as well as a ton of adrenaline. A fist punched out concussive blasts of air, and I freely weaved past them responding back with a fire bomb. My opponent inclined into a backbend, rolling back onto her feet with a short burst of wind.
She smirked and I shot forward like a bullet, spinning kicks throwing out blazing rings of bent flame. The taller girl flinched as she narrowly avoided the searing arcing attacks. I went on the attack, and a part of me wondered how I managed to develop any type of martial discipline with the kind of person I am. I jabbed repeatedly, each arm movement releasing another fireball.
A circular motion from my fellow airbender, generated a cushion that deflected my attacks off course.
"It won't be that easy." A chopping motion brought down a sharp and nearly invisible blade of wind. I threw out my hands and rocketed into the air, before slamming back down with pure propulsive force. Hazel eyes widened, and before I could even blink a whirlwind flung me a dozen meters into the sky.
As I tumbled through the air, I swung my arms bringing the life giving air under my command. I uprighted myself and fell back onto my feet with little damage to show for the force of the gust. So far we had given each other nothing more than a few bruises and hard hits, I needed to bring her down and fast. She excelled in airbending far better than I did, the element coming naturally to my sparring partner.
Why not hit her harder then…?
I tightened my hands into fists, the idea trickling down as I swept and batted aside waves of compressed atmosphere with smooth circular motions. I took a breath as I twisted on my heels to avoid a midair leaping kick from the taller(and stronger) bender. She twisted on a short lived tornado and kicked off the ground again, a flurry of punches creating blasts that were getting harder to dodge as my stamina was spent.
If there was one thing my sparring partner had in spades it was stamina and gumption. Her progress was practically prodigious and I was starting to wonder if there was something else at work here. Something from the soul itself…but without a proper and complete understanding of Applied Metaphysics I wouldn't know the truth of the matter.
Not yet at least…
I lowered my stance, and with a twist of my hips I threw a jab, concentrating on pressurizing the fire. It flew like a comet, and she yelped as it missed her my inches.
BOOM!
Rock shattered where the fireball burst, and I could feel her glare. She steeled her expression, and blue flared for less than a single breath. In a blink she was upon me, and I choked when a vicious kick knocked me off my feet. I literally skipped along the ground, rolling painfully on each skip.
Fuuuck…that huurts…
"Tayloooor…why?" I whined as I felt my stomach ache, and I could still feel the ache of her foot smashing into my poor ribs. She blurred forward, nearly slipping past me but managing to keep her footing long enough to stop a few inches from my head.
She leaned down with a scowl, and I gave a sheepish grin. "Basilia…you almost blew me up!" Taylor hissed, and my attention was focused on something else. My eyes traced her long legs, and I briefly glanced at her…why is she looking at me like that?
"What?" I looked straight up at her confused expression, ignoring the heat in my cheeks.
Taylor tilted her head. "What are you looking at?" I didn't answer her, finally realizing what I was doing and forcing myself to look away.
"N-Nothing." She rolled her eyes and offered a hand, I took it and Taylor pulled me up with ease. Once I released my grip on her larger hand, I finally started to relax despite feeling the burn of a long and hard sparring session. I blatantly didn't pay attention to the pointed smirk of Veda as she played with Queen. Besides that I had learned that she was a fair bit quieter than Veda, preferring to take care of the background maintenance of what had been Taylor's Parahuman power.
The shard-spirit was still at least somewhat bound to certain aspects of her original nature and biological imperative after all. Even if she was learning and absorbing some amount of humanity from her host, as a spirit alien inhumanity was simply a part of her.
The past week had been fairly busy, at least if I was talking about the business. Locally I sold machinery to increase the productivity of the local workers, and was using the remaining money not allotted to my own home and food to purchase a few cheap properties. I had already had a few buyers from the other unions in the area for their own suits to make work a little easier and more productive.
I had also filed…a fairly large deluge of patents, and I would soon be solidifying some licensing deals for certain manufacturing processes. Much of it was related to material science for nanostructured materials that would allow for more interesting materials.
One of the patents would be for inexpensive and relatively easily manufactured super steel alloys with high tensile strengths between six and ten gigapascals. Plus a fair amount of strong and durable nanoceramics, carbon matrix composites, as well as a ton of other nice and tough materials that the world desperately needs. There were also a few patents for hydrogen fuel cells, which was thankfully a pretty empty field, and I could always hire a few of the experts that did exist. I was also expanding the electrolytic manufacturing of iron…
It was hilarious how almost all the tech I was offering was basically the scraps off the dinner table of 'Tinkertech' in my head. If I tried going full out I'd probably be arrested for destabilizing the world economy.
"Basilia…hey snap out of it." I yelped when Taylor flicked her finger along my nose, the pain getting my attention. The brunette smirked, and I already knew my befriending of her would prove to be damaging to my already tenuous sanity.
"Sorry I'm just thinking…" Taylor nodded with an understanding glint in her eyes.
"So how much have you found out then?" She asked, and I finally got my focus back on track.
"Let's take this inside then," I sauntered across the room at a hurried pace. "It's a little more private and I left the towels in here anyhow." Taylor caught up, easily keeping pace with a combination of airbending and low level mass reduction. While both our biotics were underdeveloped, we had still managed some improvements. Both pull and push were under our command, and we could manage a little mass reduction at times.
Barriers were a work in progress though…
Weirdly enough I had the feeling that biotic martial arts would be easier to learn than airbending, coming more naturally to me. Not that it made it easy, mind you.
A towel found itself around my face, sweat soaking it from the built up from working out. I rolled my shoulders and twisted my torso, the movements providing a little relief for my taxed muscles.
"Queen, could you come in here?" My gently put question summoned the shard, teleporting in a buzz of insects that gave me vertigo. I opened my eyes, taking in the sight of the spiritual environment and using the boon given to me by Veda. The land was filled with spirits once again, and I imagined a small cut into the High Spirit. My nose rackled at the foreign stench, though it swiftly shifted to honey at a whim.
"Yes…?" Queen hissed out, skittering shyly behind the Forklift spirit progressively shifted into a bigger and tougher forklift. The other local spirits did their jobs, a result of me finally making use of my ability to communicate and manipulate spirits.
"Can you still feel a connection to Danny…?" Taylor didn't seem to understand the question, though her expression told me she would figure it out quickly.
"Partially yes…an inanimate piece of my corpus remains in his possession," the spirit didn't seem concerned. "It likely provided the catalyst for his rapid manifestation of the first Victory. In time it may reform into a bud, but that could be in hours or decades." She went quiet, going back to watching the world pass by.
"Why would my dad have a piece of my power?" Taylor clearly hadn't been appropriately informed so I decided to do her shard's job for her.
"Because the Administrator was slated to be your dad's power, but when he didn't break it found a better, younger and more vulnerable host."
"Why?" Taylor asked, her inquisitive tone begetting answers.
"Parahuman powers prefer young people, and preferably traumatized young people," I explained, and I could see how the implications disturbed her. "It makes the experiment last a little longer before they kick the proverbial bucket. That time allows them to gather more data, as well as allowing them to form buds."
"Are you saying powers are parasites?" Queen coughed, not meeting her host's eyes.
"Pretty much…they're essentially using human beings and other species to make up for the creativity they lack," I sighed, drying off the back of my neck with my towel. "They might be big and have an enormous amount of processing power, but they're not exactly the epitome of ingenuity. Kind of like island sized uncreative biocomputers, with occasional spurts of more complex emotion…"
"I…" Queen tried to defend herself but a head shake from Veda denied her the chance. Neither could erase what they had been, and there was a reason they had been ascended into spirits rather than developing souls like humans did. They were too bound to their biology, too much like animals with enormous capacity for attaining a form of sapience but without the appropriate software to truly be like humans. They were sapient…but they had failed to meet the threshold for a true soul instead of a living spirit.
"So he was supposed to get powers but didn't and I got them instead?" I nodded, smiling at the younger girl. "So powers can move to other people…is that how kids can get powers like their parents?"
I shrugged, giving a so-so gesture with my hand. "Pretty much, once someone lives long enough their power splits a section off to experiment a bit…" her expression shifted back and forth between a series of emotions I couldn't identify.
"Well that answers that…" apprehension hit me at her tone. "Now I have another question to ask you." Taylor took a seat on a bench, and I followed her scooting up next to her…a leg bouncing nervously even as I sat down.
"What?"
"Why does Panacea make you feel so nervous?" My mood was spoiled.
I froze, and didn't answer…instead counting each tap of my fingers on the bench. Taylor showed concern, and I wasn't sure how I wanted to answer her question. There was a lot to unpack with the woman who would become the Red Queen after what she did to…to…her sister. She wasn't quite that crazy right now but I didn't yet have the wordsmithing skills to magically make her better. Taylor had been more or less a fluke…
"It's…her power." I blurted it out, deciding it was better to get it over with right this second instead of later. "It's not healing…it's something a lot more powerful and a lot more dangerous."
"Not healing…what else could it be?" The realization dawned on her and she gasped. "It's…she's a biokinetic?" She sounded a little shocked at the idea, but not completely since even just healing would still qualify.
"Healing powers only exist as a subset of other powers, Panacea is instead the most powerful biokinetic in the world. Complete control of biology with her touch…"
Taylor looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "But that doesn't make her bad…does it? I've got…unnerving powers too, so what's the difference?" I felt my body ached, cold swallowing up the inner fire I had built over the past two months.
"I don't know how to help her Taylor, besides trying to befriend her…and I'm not good enough at that for someone with that many problems." I really was not qualified as a therapist or a psychologist and I wasn't going to try being one.
"Is…does something bad happen to her in…the future?" Taylor really had learned how to get into the subtext of my replies.
"Yes…she…she…"
She doesn't get better really…I haven't read Ward…but I know enough to say that's she's a bundle of psychological problems I am not qualified to deal with.
"So you don't even want to try? Is that it?" I bristled at the unsaid accusation.
"I'm not a therapist Taylor. All I can do is recommend that she gets help, and to develop positive influences outside her own family," I gave her the opening. "She scares me for a lot of reasons and while she isn't a bad person…it's unnerving for me in a fairly wide number of ways."
Her ability to manipulate biology…what she had done in the original story hit closer to home than I thought. Panacea made me feel uncomfortable in a way I had never felt before with anyone. Which was strange…because the idea of control over biology has always been appealing to me. It was the field of genetic engineering I had been planning as my future after all.
Yet…it didn't ease my worries, instead it inflamed them, whispers of worry and fear that left me empty. Empty…
"Basilia…?"
Why does it hurt…where am I…where is my…it hurts…please…stop. I want to go home…stop…please. Stop it…why are you…leave me alo—
A hand clasped at my left shoulder, and I noted the wetness in my eyes, blurring my vision with their watery distortion. I blinked away the hint of salty water, and I felt confused at where that had come from. A sense of primordial terror and…and…
"Sorry." I replied in a flat tone.
"You don't need to apologize…it's fine if she makes you uncomfortable," her brows drew together. "But even then…we do need to deal with her."
…
Right. She had seen Danny earthbend, and that created an enormous amount of problems for us. Best case scenario she thinks he triggered and ended up lashing out, the only issue would be that his behavior and age didn't fit. He had been both too stable, and just too old in general to be a Parahuman. Even the old lady had likely triggered when she was less than 30. Taylor had pretty much gone through a psychotic break in canon, and the only reason that didn't happen here was because the power had been acting up since the moment she triggered.
"I don't think she'll talk, she's not really the type to spill other people's secrets." Taylor didn't seem alleviated but it was her dad on the line here. "But I understand your caution perfectly."
I really did.
"I'll figure something out…then. You'll at least try to help right?" Her soft eyes left me reeling, and I gave her a shaky smile.
"I'll…try my best."
Basilia Rubio
What a horrible mistake to promise anything.
I had been sitting in an uncomfortable silence, the calm atmosphere of the library broken by the awkward air between Amy Dallon and I. Taylor had apparently managed to finagle a meeting between us and the biokinetic, thankfully she had managed to deal with talking to Glory Girl. Which for her was obviously a rather similar nightmare. The blonde brute was a bit too peppy for Taylor's taste. The only reason she tolerated me was because I could stay quiet longer. But I might be being a little harsh on myself.
"Sooo…how's your day been?" Amy didn't reply to my drawled question, and shifted my thumbs between each other. She hadn't done much beyond leafing through a biology textbook, and to be fair I was…sort of okay with that.
Especially since it gave me time to examine the thrumming soul beating its song out into the world. It was a nice and pretty shade of amethyst purple despite the slightly haggard aura it gave off. Shaper had also changed appearance, shrinking down to about the height of Taylor, its skeletal arms waving in confusion. From under its cloak I could see that it's face now resembled its master, though they still burned with an eerie light. Their…her face was painted with the design of a skeleton, the extra arms appearing from her back…and staring directly at me.
Yeah…no…
Panacea continues to ignore my existence, and I began to ponder more on the nature of this world. It was obviously not the original but it was similar enough to make no effective difference. I think a few people had different ages, but that didn't necessarily apply to everyone. It had mostly only been Panacea and Glory Girl who seemed older, though the family as a whole might have had an extra year themselves. But it wasn't like I had a guidebook to the ages of every person on the planet.
Even then the butterflies from that were either beyond my current comprehension or my own world had simply not gotten a perfect image of this world. And now I'm wasting time…let's get this over with.
"Hey…what's the point of agreeing to this if we aren't going to talk for even five minutes." I poked her this time, and she reeled back at me…and I promptly retracted back myself. Her power worked by skin contact…and I didn't like that at all.
"What…how are you alive?" She hissed in what sounded like horror, and I didn't understand what she meant. My own health was fine, wasn't it…?
"I'm…not sure what you're talking about." She gaped like a fish, and I was starting to think there was some underlying remnant of what had occurred to me.
Panacea took a deep breath, her harshness softening just a tad. "I don't think you realize how much genetic damage you've received," my breath hitched. "Your DNA was absolutely shredded at some point…you shouldn't even be walking. The best I could tell was some of your chromosomes had to be mirrored…I don't it's almost like…" she muttered, and I had a sinking feeling she was digging into things she shouldn't be digging into.
"Could you stop please." My body felt hot, my blood boiling at the violation of my privacy. I didn't want to know how badly I had been hurt…didn't want to know what had turned me into this…
She paused, and then paled. "S-Sorry. I'm…sorry." The healer apologized, and I relaxed in the library seat reading some book about a protagonist fighting against the alien parasites gifting people with power to enact their evil agenda.
The fact that the protagonist was a Precog was also a bit on the nose.
"It's…alright…just don't pry into other people's business like that, it's rude." How many powers violated privacy rights…? There had to be many of them.
My ears picked up the excited whispers, and my nose got a more precise bearing of someone approaching. Their metaphysical weight was another shining soul, and I knew who it had to be.
The girl peeked her head from a bookcase, bright blue eyes looking at me with an amount of childish affection I didn't feel like I deserved. The look reminded me too much of my youngest brother despite him being only two.
"Hello Elle…when was the last time I saw you again?" Despite that thought I amicably greeted the young girl regardless, finding her unguarded enthusiasm rather cute.
The Shaker 12 smiled, her eyes burning with a sharp intelligence. "That was only yesterday Silia." My face colored at the silly nickname from what was supposed to be a dangerous Parahuman. But who was instead a devious girl with a penchant for doing everything she could to get some time with me.
I'd think it cute and sweet if it wasn't so weird at the same time.
"So did you need something or did you just want to talk some more?" I asked with a smile on my face, Elle had been a balm on my weary soul. Despite the trauma hanging off of her, it seems like a soul had done some real good for her.
"I just wanted to talk…" her shy smile sold it for me, and I gestured to the seat next to mine. She happily accepted the offer, and Panacea looked a little bemused.
"So Amy this is Elle, this little brat has been pestering me for weeks now," Elle's eyes sparkled with mirth, and I feared for her fellow mercenaries sanity. "Good kid but a total weirdo…" her nose scrunched up, and she shoved me playfully.
"Hmm…" at her touch, reality warped and a few images of distant realities flashed across my memory. Those other worlds were filled with an infinite number of environments, each of them birthing countless spirits. And in the absence of intelligent life they spread across the land unchallenged. Wiggling their way out from rifts and portals. Labyrinth had sought some of them out, and was rebuffed by most of them.
Elle's expression was knowing, and I knew what kind of soul she had gained though it had been obvious before with her interactions with the spirits.
Labyrinth was a Shaman, those born(or made…) to communicate with the entities that call the Spirit World their home. She had made a subtle call for help, forming an adhoc film using her own memory and a merging of several dimensions to direct light into my eyes.
Why is nothing ever simple?
I mouthed later and her smile was wide, and the subject changed instantly. "So is she your friend?" Elle pointed to Amy with a dainty finger, the teasing tone not lost to me.
"No…we're…" Amy's denial was a little hurtful but she was right. "Acquaintances?" I gave a half shrug, finding the answer to be more or less accurate.
"You could be friends couldn't you?" Elle's intentionally precocious question left Amy with a lack of words. I glanced over to the freckled face of Panacea, and I very much wanted to sigh. I didn't though.
"I suppose…but Elle I can't really force friendship." I could see a certain mercenary leader prowling, keeping a careful eye on us. Melanie Fitts…which answered one question I had. She didn't seem particularly suspicious of us, but I didn't want to take my chances.
"You're right…but it would still be nice." Elle gave me a sad look, and there was an undercurrent of uncertainty. Did she know something I didn't?
…
"Elle?" The kid's eyes narrowed to slits, and the air had turned cold. The spirits had become agitated, a few of them flying to my side. They hid wherever they could, and Panacea violently flinched when a larger aspect touched her waist. Her vision had cleared, and she barely suppressed a scream when she took notice of Shaper.
The library warped and the normal humans stilled, all of them shivering as the air lensed around a spot between Faultline and us. My senses screamed at the rift in spacetime, and thousands of pages fluttered into creation. They formed a tornado, and the people around us besides Melanie and Elle didn't notice a thing. The way the world and the library itself came to life told me one thing.
"What is this!?" Panacea backed away, her eyes wide open as the entity revealed itself in full. I put myself in front of her, glaring at the spirit that had decided to interrupt.
"My…my…two shamans…and four of the aberrations. Though the difference between the six is you is so very small." I could only stare at the alien majesty of the spirit before us.
It was about twice my height, and resembled a classical scholarly wizard, pointy hat and all. But it's dress was made out of a fractal mess of books, scrolls and even computer code. It's face was covered in what had to be hundreds of crystalline eyes, each of them looking between the four of us with little difficulty.
"Spirit." I squared my shoulders, finding no reason to allow the loss of my secret identity to weaken my ability to defend us.
"Basilia?" The mention of six people became clear when Taylor emerged with Glory Girl in tow, her powers still functioning if her floating didn't make it obvious. The damn spirit chuckled, his voice echoing across the High Spirit equivalent of the Brockton Bay Central Library.
"Hey Taylor…hey Vicky." My enthusiasm for this incident dropped lower, as Glory Girl's aura surged across the spirit world. Elle's eyes widened in alarm, and mine did the same.
"St—" the library darkened, and the higher spirit let out his own aura of insulted rage. The agitated cape choked as a papery claws wrapped around her throat from a distance that didn't matter in a place like this.
"SHUSH!" The spirit hissed and to my own shock, her aura died down to a simmer that the life form found more acceptable. She fell to the ground and Amy rushed to her sister's side.
"Vicky!" She checked her sister over, and her expression dilated for a moment. A spirit had touched her hand at some point and Panacea seemingly went catonic for a moment.
I couldn't bend and I didn't have anything except my biotics…they still work? How? No it doesn't matter…I need to…
"What's going on?" Glory Girl had snapped out of her stupor, and while her aura didn't obey her commands, her shield did. "Did…did you do this?" She accused me and my lips downturned into a scowl.
"No I did not." She didn't believe me with the way her shield was flexing. I rubbed my forehead, not wanting to deal with any nonsense. "That spirit did this, for some reason that I'll have to ask for myself."
"Huh?" Her expression was pure confusion.
"Spirit. Why did you bring us into your Genius Loci? Did we offend you somehow?" I asked with politeness. Their fairy-like tendencies may be annoying but that didn't mean I shouldn't pay them respect.
Elle practically teleported to my side, and Taylor had already corralled the remaining three into a tighter knit group.
He smiled despite lacking a mouth. "No you and your ally are fine, as is the young shaman and her caretaker. It is the Dallon's shards who have insulted me…" his contempt honeyed his every word, and I could see their powers shrinking back at his glare.
"The hell is a shard?" I groaned when Vicky spoke, and her pupils turned to pin pricks at the pressure the spirit suddenly exuded. "Nevermind…" she muttered under her breath.
"Sorry…" Glory Girl shivered, and let out a low sound of surprise when her shard bowed her head, sullying the image of pure unadulterated glory and light. She didn't change much at all, since she had already paid a strong resemblance to her host due to her youth.
The spirit chuffed. "More respectful than that old windbag…" the knowledge spirit turned to Shaper, it's face scrunching up in distaste. Amy yelped when her power tightly gripped her wrist, bones shifting and crackling.
The scent of old paper hung in the wind, and I carefully started my best analysis of the spirit.
I needed a name…there was a name for this being…to this living representation of the library.
"Centralis. That is your name?" The sp—Centralis smiled, and with a gesture of his hand we were forcefully sat down.
"Yes…I am the caretaker of this place, born from the metaphysical weight of this library. I remember every man, woman and child that has sought enlightenment and knowledge within these sacred halls." The whole place came alive, thousands of spirits rising up in unison.
I carefully removed the sweat forming on my brow.
"Why are you mad at…this thing?" Amy didn't seem to have the best charisma did she? Her shard didn't much like the way Amy addressed her.
"The Shaper's aura is positively foul with contempt, positively foul with a need to horde data. Creatures like us should get along…yet she refuses to impart a tithe."
Elle shut her eyes, before reopening them to stare at Shaper. "Centralis is a library, Shaper…it is only fair to share data. The Fragile One is already doing so…" Shaper grumbled, and after a time it began to form a small text. It passed it to Centralis, and the atmosphere beamed with newfound joy.
Centralis threw a few globs of pure spiritual information, and Shaper readily took them into itself. The world began to fade, and I could feel us getting slowly kicked out of the spirit world.
Was that really it?
"Shaman…I impart you with a piece of wisdom. Will you listen?" I nodded and Centralis chuckled. "The world is changing, the spirits have awoken with the birth of the Victory. Humanity must harness their burgeoning power, must learn how to strike down the darkness from beyond this reality. Must learn to become greater than what they once were. You and those like you will be the guides in the new age yet to come. Do not disappoint, or all of creation will burn."
My blood ran cold.
Basilia Rubio
Once we had returned to the physical realm, I had promptly been pulled into an empty alleyway along with Taylor. Both Elle and Faultline had fled, the signs of dimensional breakage so very clear.
Labyrinth had figured out how to create gateways between worlds now. If her power was expanding in the same way that Taylor's had been…it meant her Shaker 12 was even more deserving. It also meant that I was going to have to figure something out quickly, because that was a perfect way to break into Cauldron's home dimension.
"Are you even listening?" Vicky hissed into my ear, holding me up against the wall with her physical strength. Surprisingly her grip was quite weak for what I expected, her shield curling around her arm and acting differently.
"I'm just trying to piece together the implications from what just occurred. Physically threatening me isn't a solution so…calm down." I was pleasantly surprised when she did as I asked, and I was lowered back to the ground.
"Talk." I could feel her trying to use her aura but her slightly unnerved expression told me it wasn't working.
"Right Centralis over there…" I pointed in the direction of the library. "Is a spirit, an entity born from events in the physical realm. He essentially is the library itself, and your powers pissed him off."
"Spirits don't ex—" The Fragile One leaned against her host, cooing affectionately. Her face had turned stark white
"They do exist, and your powers were turned into them due to your proximity to me." That didn't help their distrust in me…
"You did what to our…" Panacea stopped her sister, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked me right in the eye with no fear.
"Did you actually do anything to us…really?" That question was almost unanswerable.
"Maybe? I'm getting the feeling this might be outside my influence…maybe I just stabilized the transition?" The one thing I was sure about after some tests was that I wasn't actually responsible for the sudden and spontaneous emergence of the soul. The range for affecting other people was small, maybe about eight to ten meters. Since I tended to keep to a small amount of places, the chances of tens of thousands of people starting to develop souls was unlikely. Even the infection of the Entity network was unimaginably slow…
Panacea looked exhausted "Okay then…this is just a mess, isn't it?" She looked pissed, but she was able to keep herself in a better state of mind than her sister.
I sagged, the stress of this job was going to kill me if I wasn't taken out by some other shit. This had literally come out of nowhere and if I was lucky I wasn't going to get outed by some nosy spirit in public.
Glory Girl relaxed further, her anger curtailed for the time being. "Alright…fine. Then can you tell me who you are?"
My eyes narrowed, my lips raising into a cheeky grin. "We've already met Glory Girl…about a week ago in fact." She swiftly understood, her jaw dropping for a bit.
Her eyes darted to Taylor, and the general tenseness of the taller teenager seemed to catch her off guard.
"We should go." I hopped over to Taylor, pulling her by the wrist. She didn't resist, and I swiftly gave them a number to call.
"Hey wait…" I glared at her and the blonde backed down.
"We can deal with this later please. This little incident proves I need to be less complacent. The two of you seem to be good at keeping secrets, so keep your mouths shut until I can give you a better explanation. Is that clear?" I didn't expect them to really hold this a secret but I wasn't in the mood.
Both capes nodded.
I pulled harder, and with little fanfare shunted us back into the spirit world. Taylor tripped on her feet, and I promptly began to run with her in tow.
"BASILIA PUT ME DOWN!" I ran faster even as Taylor protested my uplifting of her entire body on my shoulders. For several minutes I ran flat out at more than triple normal human limits. Something that made me glad my body followed the physics of soul-chi bullshit instead of the mundane laws of reality.
I snapped back into the base, crashing into the new couch with a wheeze when Taylor crushed me with her greater weight. I slammed my face into the soft cushions, the urge to scream being incredibly strong. I could feel Taylor wiggle her way off of my back, and the additional warmth she provided vanished.
She was kinda comfy…
"This is my life now isn't it? Disaster after disaster until I crack…" I thanked literally anyone that our corner had been quite empty, and that Centralis had definitely removed that little talk with his natural control over the library.
I curled up into a ball, and Taylor scooted over in response. Her hips met with my feet, her face apparently not knowing what expression to settle on. Her arm started to move very delicately at first, and her hand lowered to…pat my head?
"It's…it's going to be okay." The mechanical patting was a strange experience, but the words of comfort were…nice.
I feel like I'm treading water all the time, and I feel so tired of it…it feels good to have someone say that it can get better. Even if it wasn't really true, a friend willing to tell me that even as a platitude was comforting.
I was never one for large groups of people as friends, and sometimes I think I didn't need any. But that wasn't really true…I did need people, did want people who would be interested in my topics, interested in me.
Since graduating a lot of those people who had tolerated my weirdness had sort of drifted away from me. It was…I'm not sure what I was feeling back then really. I had always been unsure of how they really felt about me…there was always a snide dark voice that told me they only hung out with me because I was weird. That they didn't really care…I don't think it was true. But I did make it difficult, and I'm pretty sure I've only gone out with friends maybe half a dozen times in four years.
Sometimes I did feel…lonely. Being sent here had simply worsened that hollow feeling, and I didn't remotely like it.
"Thanks." Taylor looked confused, and I smiled at her from my resting position.
…
This has turned from a minor correction to a complete mess…but it was fixable. I just needed to work at it, and I wasn't alone here.
It was a small comfort but it was enough to keep me going.
This is where the first ripples from the Spirit World and the effect of the soul start spreading. There will be a lot of alterations that will be both positive and negative…to varying degrees.
March 17th, 2011 2:20 PM
Basilia Rubio
"Hmm…" I smirked as I rocketed past a slice of compressed air, every one of my steps coated with fire and air to speed up my movements and increase my jumps. I shot out long streams of flames at my opponent, the dark haired young woman then threw up gusts of air shielding herself from the attack.
The two of us danced, propelled forward by our own will to win as well as a ton of adrenaline. A fist punched out concussive blasts of air, and I freely weaved past them responding back with a fire bomb. My opponent inclined into a backbend, rolling back onto her feet with a short burst of wind.
She smirked and I shot forward like a bullet, spinning kicks throwing out blazing rings of bent flame. The taller girl flinched as she narrowly avoided the searing arcing attacks. I went on the attack, and a part of me wondered how I managed to develop any type of martial discipline with the kind of person I am. I jabbed repeatedly, each arm movement releasing another fireball.
A circular motion from my fellow airbender, generated a cushion that deflected my attacks off course.
"It won't be that easy." A chopping motion brought down a sharp and nearly invisible blade of wind. I threw out my hands and rocketed into the air, before slamming back down with pure propulsive force. Hazel eyes widened, and before I could even blink a whirlwind flung me a dozen meters into the sky.
As I tumbled through the air, I swung my arms bringing the life giving air under my command. I uprighted myself and fell back onto my feet with little damage to show for the force of the gust. So far we had given each other nothing more than a few bruises and hard hits, I needed to bring her down and fast. She excelled in airbending far better than I did, the element coming naturally to my sparring partner.
Why not hit her harder then…?
I tightened my hands into fists, the idea trickling down as I swept and batted aside waves of compressed atmosphere with smooth circular motions. I took a breath as I twisted on my heels to avoid a midair leaping kick from the taller(and stronger) bender. She twisted on a short lived tornado and kicked off the ground again, a flurry of punches creating blasts that were getting harder to dodge as my stamina was spent.
If there was one thing my sparring partner had in spades it was stamina and gumption. Her progress was practically prodigious and I was starting to wonder if there was something else at work here. Something from the soul itself…but without a proper and complete understanding of Applied Metaphysics I wouldn't know the truth of the matter.
Not yet at least…
I lowered my stance, and with a twist of my hips I threw a jab, concentrating on pressurizing the fire. It flew like a comet, and she yelped as it missed her my inches.
BOOM!
Rock shattered where the fireball burst, and I could feel her glare. She steeled her expression, and blue flared for less than a single breath. In a blink she was upon me, and I choked when a vicious kick knocked me off my feet. I literally skipped along the ground, rolling painfully on each skip.
Fuuuck…that huurts…
"Tayloooor…why?" I whined as I felt my stomach ache, and I could still feel the ache of her foot smashing into my poor ribs. She blurred forward, nearly slipping past me but managing to keep her footing long enough to stop a few inches from my head.
She leaned down with a scowl, and I gave a sheepish grin. "Basilia…you almost blew me up!" Taylor hissed, and my attention was focused on something else. My eyes traced her long legs, and I briefly glanced at her…why is she looking at me like that?
"What?" I looked straight up at her confused expression, ignoring the heat in my cheeks.
Taylor tilted her head. "What are you looking at?" I didn't answer her, finally realizing what I was doing and forcing myself to look away.
"N-Nothing." She rolled her eyes and offered a hand, I took it and Taylor pulled me up with ease. Once I released my grip on her larger hand, I finally started to relax despite feeling the burn of a long and hard sparring session. I blatantly didn't pay attention to the pointed smirk of Veda as she played with Queen. Besides that I had learned that she was a fair bit quieter than Veda, preferring to take care of the background maintenance of what had been Taylor's Parahuman power.
The shard-spirit was still at least somewhat bound to certain aspects of her original nature and biological imperative after all. Even if she was learning and absorbing some amount of humanity from her host, as a spirit alien inhumanity was simply a part of her.
The past week had been fairly busy, at least if I was talking about the business. Locally I sold machinery to increase the productivity of the local workers, and was using the remaining money not allotted to my own home and food to purchase a few cheap properties. I had already had a few buyers from the other unions in the area for their own suits to make work a little easier and more productive.
I had also filed…a fairly large deluge of patents, and I would soon be solidifying some licensing deals for certain manufacturing processes. Much of it was related to material science for nanostructured materials that would allow for more interesting materials.
One of the patents would be for inexpensive and relatively easily manufactured super steel alloys with high tensile strengths between six and ten gigapascals. Plus a fair amount of strong and durable nanoceramics, carbon matrix composites, as well as a ton of other nice and tough materials that the world desperately needs. There were also a few patents for hydrogen fuel cells, which was thankfully a pretty empty field, and I could always hire a few of the experts that did exist. I was also expanding the electrolytic manufacturing of iron…
It was hilarious how almost all the tech I was offering was basically the scraps off the dinner table of 'Tinkertech' in my head. If I tried going full out I'd probably be arrested for destabilizing the world economy.
"Basilia…hey snap out of it." I yelped when Taylor flicked her finger along my nose, the pain getting my attention. The brunette smirked, and I already knew my befriending of her would prove to be damaging to my already tenuous sanity.
"Sorry I'm just thinking…" Taylor nodded with an understanding glint in her eyes.
"So how much have you found out then?" She asked, and I finally got my focus back on track.
"Let's take this inside then," I sauntered across the room at a hurried pace. "It's a little more private and I left the towels in here anyhow." Taylor caught up, easily keeping pace with a combination of airbending and low level mass reduction. While both our biotics were underdeveloped, we had still managed some improvements. Both pull and push were under our command, and we could manage a little mass reduction at times.
Barriers were a work in progress though…
Weirdly enough I had the feeling that biotic martial arts would be easier to learn than airbending, coming more naturally to me. Not that it made it easy, mind you.
A towel found itself around my face, sweat soaking it from the built up from working out. I rolled my shoulders and twisted my torso, the movements providing a little relief for my taxed muscles.
"Queen, could you come in here?" My gently put question summoned the shard, teleporting in a buzz of insects that gave me vertigo. I opened my eyes, taking in the sight of the spiritual environment and using the boon given to me by Veda. The land was filled with spirits once again, and I imagined a small cut into the High Spirit. My nose rackled at the foreign stench, though it swiftly shifted to honey at a whim.
"Yes…?" Queen hissed out, skittering shyly behind the Forklift spirit progressively shifted into a bigger and tougher forklift. The other local spirits did their jobs, a result of me finally making use of my ability to communicate and manipulate spirits.
"Can you still feel a connection to Danny…?" Taylor didn't seem to understand the question, though her expression told me she would figure it out quickly.
"Partially yes…an inanimate piece of my corpus remains in his possession," the spirit didn't seem concerned. "It likely provided the catalyst for his rapid manifestation of the first Victory. In time it may reform into a bud, but that could be in hours or decades." She went quiet, going back to watching the world pass by.
"Why would my dad have a piece of my power?" Taylor clearly hadn't been appropriately informed so I decided to do her shard's job for her.
"Because the Administrator was slated to be your dad's power, but when he didn't break it found a better, younger and more vulnerable host."
"Why?" Taylor asked, her inquisitive tone begetting answers.
"Parahuman powers prefer young people, and preferably traumatized young people," I explained, and I could see how the implications disturbed her. "It makes the experiment last a little longer before they kick the proverbial bucket. That time allows them to gather more data, as well as allowing them to form buds."
"Are you saying powers are parasites?" Queen coughed, not meeting her host's eyes.
"Pretty much…they're essentially using human beings and other species to make up for the creativity they lack," I sighed, drying off the back of my neck with my towel. "They might be big and have an enormous amount of processing power, but they're not exactly the epitome of ingenuity. Kind of like island sized uncreative biocomputers, with occasional spurts of more complex emotion…"
"I…" Queen tried to defend herself but a head shake from Veda denied her the chance. Neither could erase what they had been, and there was a reason they had been ascended into spirits rather than developing souls like humans did. They were too bound to their biology, too much like animals with enormous capacity for attaining a form of sapience but without the appropriate software to truly be like humans. They were sapient…but they had failed to meet the threshold for a true soul instead of a living spirit.
"So he was supposed to get powers but didn't and I got them instead?" I nodded, smiling at the younger girl. "So powers can move to other people…is that how kids can get powers like their parents?"
I shrugged, giving a so-so gesture with my hand. "Pretty much, once someone lives long enough their power splits a section off to experiment a bit…" her expression shifted back and forth between a series of emotions I couldn't identify.
"Well that answers that…" apprehension hit me at her tone. "Now I have another question to ask you." Taylor took a seat on a bench, and I followed her scooting up next to her…a leg bouncing nervously even as I sat down.
"What?"
"Why does Panacea make you feel so nervous?" My mood was spoiled.
I froze, and didn't answer…instead counting each tap of my fingers on the bench. Taylor showed concern, and I wasn't sure how I wanted to answer her question. There was a lot to unpack with the woman who would become the Red Queen after what she did to…to…her sister. She wasn't quite that crazy right now but I didn't yet have the wordsmithing skills to magically make her better. Taylor had been more or less a fluke…
"It's…her power." I blurted it out, deciding it was better to get it over with right this second instead of later. "It's not healing…it's something a lot more powerful and a lot more dangerous."
"Not healing…what else could it be?" The realization dawned on her and she gasped. "It's…she's a biokinetic?" She sounded a little shocked at the idea, but not completely since even just healing would still qualify.
"Healing powers only exist as a subset of other powers, Panacea is instead the most powerful biokinetic in the world. Complete control of biology with her touch…"
Taylor looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "But that doesn't make her bad…does it? I've got…unnerving powers too, so what's the difference?" I felt my body ached, cold swallowing up the inner fire I had built over the past two months.
"I don't know how to help her Taylor, besides trying to befriend her…and I'm not good enough at that for someone with that many problems." I really was not qualified as a therapist or a psychologist and I wasn't going to try being one.
"Is…does something bad happen to her in…the future?" Taylor really had learned how to get into the subtext of my replies.
"Yes…she…she…"
She doesn't get better really…I haven't read Ward…but I know enough to say that's she's a bundle of psychological problems I am not qualified to deal with.
"So you don't even want to try? Is that it?" I bristled at the unsaid accusation.
"I'm not a therapist Taylor. All I can do is recommend that she gets help, and to develop positive influences outside her own family," I gave her the opening. "She scares me for a lot of reasons and while she isn't a bad person…it's unnerving for me in a fairly wide number of ways."
Her ability to manipulate biology…what she had done in the original story hit closer to home than I thought. Panacea made me feel uncomfortable in a way I had never felt before with anyone. Which was strange…because the idea of control over biology has always been appealing to me. It was the field of genetic engineering I had been planning as my future after all.
Yet…it didn't ease my worries, instead it inflamed them, whispers of worry and fear that left me empty. Empty…
"Basilia…?"
Why does it hurt…where am I…where is my…it hurts…please…stop. I want to go home…stop…please. Stop it…why are you…leave me alo—
A hand clasped at my left shoulder, and I noted the wetness in my eyes, blurring my vision with their watery distortion. I blinked away the hint of salty water, and I felt confused at where that had come from. A sense of primordial terror and…and…
"Sorry." I replied in a flat tone.
"You don't need to apologize…it's fine if she makes you uncomfortable," her brows drew together. "But even then…we do need to deal with her."
…
Right. She had seen Danny earthbend, and that created an enormous amount of problems for us. Best case scenario she thinks he triggered and ended up lashing out, the only issue would be that his behavior and age didn't fit. He had been both too stable, and just too old in general to be a Parahuman. Even the old lady had likely triggered when she was less than 30. Taylor had pretty much gone through a psychotic break in canon, and the only reason that didn't happen here was because the power had been acting up since the moment she triggered.
"I don't think she'll talk, she's not really the type to spill other people's secrets." Taylor didn't seem alleviated but it was her dad on the line here. "But I understand your caution perfectly."
I really did.
"I'll figure something out…then. You'll at least try to help right?" Her soft eyes left me reeling, and I gave her a shaky smile.
"I'll…try my best."
___
March 17th, 2011. 4:00 PM
Basilia Rubio
What a horrible mistake to promise anything.
I had been sitting in an uncomfortable silence, the calm atmosphere of the library broken by the awkward air between Amy Dallon and I. Taylor had apparently managed to finagle a meeting between us and the biokinetic, thankfully she had managed to deal with talking to Glory Girl. Which for her was obviously a rather similar nightmare. The blonde brute was a bit too peppy for Taylor's taste. The only reason she tolerated me was because I could stay quiet longer. But I might be being a little harsh on myself.
"Sooo…how's your day been?" Amy didn't reply to my drawled question, and shifted my thumbs between each other. She hadn't done much beyond leafing through a biology textbook, and to be fair I was…sort of okay with that.
Especially since it gave me time to examine the thrumming soul beating its song out into the world. It was a nice and pretty shade of amethyst purple despite the slightly haggard aura it gave off. Shaper had also changed appearance, shrinking down to about the height of Taylor, its skeletal arms waving in confusion. From under its cloak I could see that it's face now resembled its master, though they still burned with an eerie light. Their…her face was painted with the design of a skeleton, the extra arms appearing from her back…and staring directly at me.
Yeah…no…
Panacea continues to ignore my existence, and I began to ponder more on the nature of this world. It was obviously not the original but it was similar enough to make no effective difference. I think a few people had different ages, but that didn't necessarily apply to everyone. It had mostly only been Panacea and Glory Girl who seemed older, though the family as a whole might have had an extra year themselves. But it wasn't like I had a guidebook to the ages of every person on the planet.
Even then the butterflies from that were either beyond my current comprehension or my own world had simply not gotten a perfect image of this world. And now I'm wasting time…let's get this over with.
"Hey…what's the point of agreeing to this if we aren't going to talk for even five minutes." I poked her this time, and she reeled back at me…and I promptly retracted back myself. Her power worked by skin contact…and I didn't like that at all.
"What…how are you alive?" She hissed in what sounded like horror, and I didn't understand what she meant. My own health was fine, wasn't it…?
"I'm…not sure what you're talking about." She gaped like a fish, and I was starting to think there was some underlying remnant of what had occurred to me.
Panacea took a deep breath, her harshness softening just a tad. "I don't think you realize how much genetic damage you've received," my breath hitched. "Your DNA was absolutely shredded at some point…you shouldn't even be walking. The best I could tell was some of your chromosomes had to be mirrored…I don't it's almost like…" she muttered, and I had a sinking feeling she was digging into things she shouldn't be digging into.
"Could you stop please." My body felt hot, my blood boiling at the violation of my privacy. I didn't want to know how badly I had been hurt…didn't want to know what had turned me into this…
She paused, and then paled. "S-Sorry. I'm…sorry." The healer apologized, and I relaxed in the library seat reading some book about a protagonist fighting against the alien parasites gifting people with power to enact their evil agenda.
The fact that the protagonist was a Precog was also a bit on the nose.
"It's…alright…just don't pry into other people's business like that, it's rude." How many powers violated privacy rights…? There had to be many of them.
My ears picked up the excited whispers, and my nose got a more precise bearing of someone approaching. Their metaphysical weight was another shining soul, and I knew who it had to be.
The girl peeked her head from a bookcase, bright blue eyes looking at me with an amount of childish affection I didn't feel like I deserved. The look reminded me too much of my youngest brother despite him being only two.
"Hello Elle…when was the last time I saw you again?" Despite that thought I amicably greeted the young girl regardless, finding her unguarded enthusiasm rather cute.
The Shaker 12 smiled, her eyes burning with a sharp intelligence. "That was only yesterday Silia." My face colored at the silly nickname from what was supposed to be a dangerous Parahuman. But who was instead a devious girl with a penchant for doing everything she could to get some time with me.
I'd think it cute and sweet if it wasn't so weird at the same time.
"So did you need something or did you just want to talk some more?" I asked with a smile on my face, Elle had been a balm on my weary soul. Despite the trauma hanging off of her, it seems like a soul had done some real good for her.
"I just wanted to talk…" her shy smile sold it for me, and I gestured to the seat next to mine. She happily accepted the offer, and Panacea looked a little bemused.
"So Amy this is Elle, this little brat has been pestering me for weeks now," Elle's eyes sparkled with mirth, and I feared for her fellow mercenaries sanity. "Good kid but a total weirdo…" her nose scrunched up, and she shoved me playfully.
"Hmm…" at her touch, reality warped and a few images of distant realities flashed across my memory. Those other worlds were filled with an infinite number of environments, each of them birthing countless spirits. And in the absence of intelligent life they spread across the land unchallenged. Wiggling their way out from rifts and portals. Labyrinth had sought some of them out, and was rebuffed by most of them.
Elle's expression was knowing, and I knew what kind of soul she had gained though it had been obvious before with her interactions with the spirits.
Labyrinth was a Shaman, those born(or made…) to communicate with the entities that call the Spirit World their home. She had made a subtle call for help, forming an adhoc film using her own memory and a merging of several dimensions to direct light into my eyes.
Why is nothing ever simple?
I mouthed later and her smile was wide, and the subject changed instantly. "So is she your friend?" Elle pointed to Amy with a dainty finger, the teasing tone not lost to me.
"No…we're…" Amy's denial was a little hurtful but she was right. "Acquaintances?" I gave a half shrug, finding the answer to be more or less accurate.
"You could be friends couldn't you?" Elle's intentionally precocious question left Amy with a lack of words. I glanced over to the freckled face of Panacea, and I very much wanted to sigh. I didn't though.
"I suppose…but Elle I can't really force friendship." I could see a certain mercenary leader prowling, keeping a careful eye on us. Melanie Fitts…which answered one question I had. She didn't seem particularly suspicious of us, but I didn't want to take my chances.
"You're right…but it would still be nice." Elle gave me a sad look, and there was an undercurrent of uncertainty. Did she know something I didn't?
…
"Elle?" The kid's eyes narrowed to slits, and the air had turned cold. The spirits had become agitated, a few of them flying to my side. They hid wherever they could, and Panacea violently flinched when a larger aspect touched her waist. Her vision had cleared, and she barely suppressed a scream when she took notice of Shaper.
The library warped and the normal humans stilled, all of them shivering as the air lensed around a spot between Faultline and us. My senses screamed at the rift in spacetime, and thousands of pages fluttered into creation. They formed a tornado, and the people around us besides Melanie and Elle didn't notice a thing. The way the world and the library itself came to life told me one thing.
"What is this!?" Panacea backed away, her eyes wide open as the entity revealed itself in full. I put myself in front of her, glaring at the spirit that had decided to interrupt.
"My…my…two shamans…and four of the aberrations. Though the difference between the six is you is so very small." I could only stare at the alien majesty of the spirit before us.
It was about twice my height, and resembled a classical scholarly wizard, pointy hat and all. But it's dress was made out of a fractal mess of books, scrolls and even computer code. It's face was covered in what had to be hundreds of crystalline eyes, each of them looking between the four of us with little difficulty.
"Spirit." I squared my shoulders, finding no reason to allow the loss of my secret identity to weaken my ability to defend us.
"Basilia?" The mention of six people became clear when Taylor emerged with Glory Girl in tow, her powers still functioning if her floating didn't make it obvious. The damn spirit chuckled, his voice echoing across the High Spirit equivalent of the Brockton Bay Central Library.
"Hey Taylor…hey Vicky." My enthusiasm for this incident dropped lower, as Glory Girl's aura surged across the spirit world. Elle's eyes widened in alarm, and mine did the same.
"St—" the library darkened, and the higher spirit let out his own aura of insulted rage. The agitated cape choked as a papery claws wrapped around her throat from a distance that didn't matter in a place like this.
"SHUSH!" The spirit hissed and to my own shock, her aura died down to a simmer that the life form found more acceptable. She fell to the ground and Amy rushed to her sister's side.
"Vicky!" She checked her sister over, and her expression dilated for a moment. A spirit had touched her hand at some point and Panacea seemingly went catonic for a moment.
I couldn't bend and I didn't have anything except my biotics…they still work? How? No it doesn't matter…I need to…
"What's going on?" Glory Girl had snapped out of her stupor, and while her aura didn't obey her commands, her shield did. "Did…did you do this?" She accused me and my lips downturned into a scowl.
"No I did not." She didn't believe me with the way her shield was flexing. I rubbed my forehead, not wanting to deal with any nonsense. "That spirit did this, for some reason that I'll have to ask for myself."
"Huh?" Her expression was pure confusion.
"Spirit. Why did you bring us into your Genius Loci? Did we offend you somehow?" I asked with politeness. Their fairy-like tendencies may be annoying but that didn't mean I shouldn't pay them respect.
Elle practically teleported to my side, and Taylor had already corralled the remaining three into a tighter knit group.
He smiled despite lacking a mouth. "No you and your ally are fine, as is the young shaman and her caretaker. It is the Dallon's shards who have insulted me…" his contempt honeyed his every word, and I could see their powers shrinking back at his glare.
"The hell is a shard?" I groaned when Vicky spoke, and her pupils turned to pin pricks at the pressure the spirit suddenly exuded. "Nevermind…" she muttered under her breath.
"Sorry…" Glory Girl shivered, and let out a low sound of surprise when her shard bowed her head, sullying the image of pure unadulterated glory and light. She didn't change much at all, since she had already paid a strong resemblance to her host due to her youth.
The spirit chuffed. "More respectful than that old windbag…" the knowledge spirit turned to Shaper, it's face scrunching up in distaste. Amy yelped when her power tightly gripped her wrist, bones shifting and crackling.
The scent of old paper hung in the wind, and I carefully started my best analysis of the spirit.
I needed a name…there was a name for this being…to this living representation of the library.
"Centralis. That is your name?" The sp—Centralis smiled, and with a gesture of his hand we were forcefully sat down.
"Yes…I am the caretaker of this place, born from the metaphysical weight of this library. I remember every man, woman and child that has sought enlightenment and knowledge within these sacred halls." The whole place came alive, thousands of spirits rising up in unison.
I carefully removed the sweat forming on my brow.
"Why are you mad at…this thing?" Amy didn't seem to have the best charisma did she? Her shard didn't much like the way Amy addressed her.
"The Shaper's aura is positively foul with contempt, positively foul with a need to horde data. Creatures like us should get along…yet she refuses to impart a tithe."
Elle shut her eyes, before reopening them to stare at Shaper. "Centralis is a library, Shaper…it is only fair to share data. The Fragile One is already doing so…" Shaper grumbled, and after a time it began to form a small text. It passed it to Centralis, and the atmosphere beamed with newfound joy.
Centralis threw a few globs of pure spiritual information, and Shaper readily took them into itself. The world began to fade, and I could feel us getting slowly kicked out of the spirit world.
Was that really it?
"Shaman…I impart you with a piece of wisdom. Will you listen?" I nodded and Centralis chuckled. "The world is changing, the spirits have awoken with the birth of the Victory. Humanity must harness their burgeoning power, must learn how to strike down the darkness from beyond this reality. Must learn to become greater than what they once were. You and those like you will be the guides in the new age yet to come. Do not disappoint, or all of creation will burn."
My blood ran cold.
___
March 17th, 2011. 4:10 PM
Basilia Rubio
Once we had returned to the physical realm, I had promptly been pulled into an empty alleyway along with Taylor. Both Elle and Faultline had fled, the signs of dimensional breakage so very clear.
Labyrinth had figured out how to create gateways between worlds now. If her power was expanding in the same way that Taylor's had been…it meant her Shaker 12 was even more deserving. It also meant that I was going to have to figure something out quickly, because that was a perfect way to break into Cauldron's home dimension.
"Are you even listening?" Vicky hissed into my ear, holding me up against the wall with her physical strength. Surprisingly her grip was quite weak for what I expected, her shield curling around her arm and acting differently.
"I'm just trying to piece together the implications from what just occurred. Physically threatening me isn't a solution so…calm down." I was pleasantly surprised when she did as I asked, and I was lowered back to the ground.
"Talk." I could feel her trying to use her aura but her slightly unnerved expression told me it wasn't working.
"Right Centralis over there…" I pointed in the direction of the library. "Is a spirit, an entity born from events in the physical realm. He essentially is the library itself, and your powers pissed him off."
"Spirits don't ex—" The Fragile One leaned against her host, cooing affectionately. Her face had turned stark white
"They do exist, and your powers were turned into them due to your proximity to me." That didn't help their distrust in me…
"You did what to our…" Panacea stopped her sister, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looked me right in the eye with no fear.
"Did you actually do anything to us…really?" That question was almost unanswerable.
"Maybe? I'm getting the feeling this might be outside my influence…maybe I just stabilized the transition?" The one thing I was sure about after some tests was that I wasn't actually responsible for the sudden and spontaneous emergence of the soul. The range for affecting other people was small, maybe about eight to ten meters. Since I tended to keep to a small amount of places, the chances of tens of thousands of people starting to develop souls was unlikely. Even the infection of the Entity network was unimaginably slow…
Panacea looked exhausted "Okay then…this is just a mess, isn't it?" She looked pissed, but she was able to keep herself in a better state of mind than her sister.
I sagged, the stress of this job was going to kill me if I wasn't taken out by some other shit. This had literally come out of nowhere and if I was lucky I wasn't going to get outed by some nosy spirit in public.
Glory Girl relaxed further, her anger curtailed for the time being. "Alright…fine. Then can you tell me who you are?"
My eyes narrowed, my lips raising into a cheeky grin. "We've already met Glory Girl…about a week ago in fact." She swiftly understood, her jaw dropping for a bit.
Her eyes darted to Taylor, and the general tenseness of the taller teenager seemed to catch her off guard.
"We should go." I hopped over to Taylor, pulling her by the wrist. She didn't resist, and I swiftly gave them a number to call.
"Hey wait…" I glared at her and the blonde backed down.
"We can deal with this later please. This little incident proves I need to be less complacent. The two of you seem to be good at keeping secrets, so keep your mouths shut until I can give you a better explanation. Is that clear?" I didn't expect them to really hold this a secret but I wasn't in the mood.
Both capes nodded.
I pulled harder, and with little fanfare shunted us back into the spirit world. Taylor tripped on her feet, and I promptly began to run with her in tow.
"BASILIA PUT ME DOWN!" I ran faster even as Taylor protested my uplifting of her entire body on my shoulders. For several minutes I ran flat out at more than triple normal human limits. Something that made me glad my body followed the physics of soul-chi bullshit instead of the mundane laws of reality.
I snapped back into the base, crashing into the new couch with a wheeze when Taylor crushed me with her greater weight. I slammed my face into the soft cushions, the urge to scream being incredibly strong. I could feel Taylor wiggle her way off of my back, and the additional warmth she provided vanished.
She was kinda comfy…
"This is my life now isn't it? Disaster after disaster until I crack…" I thanked literally anyone that our corner had been quite empty, and that Centralis had definitely removed that little talk with his natural control over the library.
I curled up into a ball, and Taylor scooted over in response. Her hips met with my feet, her face apparently not knowing what expression to settle on. Her arm started to move very delicately at first, and her hand lowered to…pat my head?
"It's…it's going to be okay." The mechanical patting was a strange experience, but the words of comfort were…nice.
I feel like I'm treading water all the time, and I feel so tired of it…it feels good to have someone say that it can get better. Even if it wasn't really true, a friend willing to tell me that even as a platitude was comforting.
I was never one for large groups of people as friends, and sometimes I think I didn't need any. But that wasn't really true…I did need people, did want people who would be interested in my topics, interested in me.
Since graduating a lot of those people who had tolerated my weirdness had sort of drifted away from me. It was…I'm not sure what I was feeling back then really. I had always been unsure of how they really felt about me…there was always a snide dark voice that told me they only hung out with me because I was weird. That they didn't really care…I don't think it was true. But I did make it difficult, and I'm pretty sure I've only gone out with friends maybe half a dozen times in four years.
Sometimes I did feel…lonely. Being sent here had simply worsened that hollow feeling, and I didn't remotely like it.
"Thanks." Taylor looked confused, and I smiled at her from my resting position.
…
This has turned from a minor correction to a complete mess…but it was fixable. I just needed to work at it, and I wasn't alone here.
It was a small comfort but it was enough to keep me going.
___
AN: The first chapter of Arc 3 Immersion is here, and I'm pretty much working through the Interludes of the next arc before moving on to number 5, while working on outlines beyond 10.
This is where the first ripples from the Spirit World and the effect of the soul start spreading. There will be a lot of alterations that will be both positive and negative…to varying degrees.
Last edited:
