1.12 Virtual Part 4

“Yes?” replies Legacy.

“You know that Leo mentioned that the Joan as nanobots in her,” says Ceta, causing Joan to blush, “Jaylyn has revealed to me that the person behind them is a dangerous unknown opponent who is believed to be working for an unknown and hostile organisation. It should go without saying that we believe this organisation to be very dangerous, especially how it has kept itself hidden.”

“That isn’t good,” agrees Legacy as Joan pales.

“Oh my-am I going to okay!” demands Joan as she begins to panic, “I’m not going to die am I?”

“No,” answers Ceta firmly, “I simply feel that Legacy and I should investigate these nanobots and their software. We can do that by bouncing my infinity signal off of the virtual reality helmet into the nanobots. But that would mean you would have to stay here for the duration. I don’t know how long it will take, but time is experienced much longer here.”

“Leo mentioned that,” says Joan meekly.                       

“You will have to remain here for at least several hours from your perspective,” says Ceta, “I’m sure Jaylyn will remain with you and between the two of you, you can find ways to keep yourselves occupied.”

“We can do mother-daughter bonding Mother!” exclaims Jaylyn as she darts up to Joan’s side, “Aunt Ceta has access to lots of alien films and movies. She can also bring up any food that she has encountered. Which is a lot in case you haven’t figured that out. We’ll have lot of fun.”

“I’m sure we will you little squirt,” giggles Joan as she gets to her feet, “Come here Jaylyn.”

Joan bends down and picks Jaylyn up, who wraps her arms around her neck.

“Legacy and I will get going,” says Ceta and Legacy will the world around her shift.

Legacy doesn’t feel anything physically, but is still active mentally. She only gets a brief look around the nanobot she and Ceta are currently inspecting before encounter resistance. The only information that Legacy personally got is that nanobots are buglike with multiple arms and legs.

“Unidentified malware detected,” declares the enemy intelligence, “Commencing purge.”

“Oh just stop that,” says Ceta and shuts down the enemy intelligence’s access to the nanobots systems.

“Error. Error,” continues the intelligence, “Malware overwhelming security systems. Firewalls are compromised. Firewalls are down. Primary functions are compromised. Malware purge is disrupted. Malware purge is shutdown. Secondary functions are compromised. Severing infected unit from network. Warning prime-unit of-error. Error! Emergen-”

Legacy feels the intelligence die as Ceta crushes it.

“I have control of this particular nanobot,” says Ceta, “But the other ones in this network have noticed it is no longer one of theirs. They are attempting to destroy it to eliminate any threat it might pose and any risk of infection.”

“So what now?” asks Legacy.

“I will take control of the other nanobots,” answers Ceta, “You may attempt to fend off the others with this one in the meantime.”

“Okay,” replies Legacy as Ceta leaves her.

She takes control of the nanobot and gets a feel for it as others nanobots come for Legacy’s. All of the nanobots are rectangle shaped with four legs and three sets of two arms, all with a variety of tools for interacting with the human body.

Joan’s body. This is a very important battle.

Legacy darts forward in the nanobot body at the closest hostile nanobot that is coming towards her. She grabs it with her foremost arms before slicing two of its arms off with her second pair of arms.

The nanobot counterattacks with two stabs of its remaining arms, but Legacy shakes it, disrupting its attacks and causing them to miss. To finish it off, Legacy stabs into its inner mechanisms before activating the plasma cutters in arms.

It is so fun to finally do something after years of doing nothing!

The nanobot twitches before failing and Legacy lifts up the internally wrecked hull as two more nanobots come at her.

As they get closer, Legacy takes a moment to aim her wreckage at the two approaching nanobots. She pierces the power core of the destroyed nanobot before tossing it at the pair of hostiles as they draw near.

The enemy nanobots catch the hull of their fellow together, only to have it explode on them. Once the explosion is gone, Legacy is pleased to note that all three nanobots are no more.

Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t get a break as five more hostile machines are upon her. She fends off one with neither inflicting any significant damage upon each other. A second one pounces on her. Legacy is able to smash it side as she tears its outer hull open, but not before it snaps one of her arms in two.

It is then that the superior numbers of the enemy nanobots begins to become apparent. One charges her and as Legacy is fending it off, another one attacks her. It slices off one of Legacy’s arms and she knocks it away with one of her remaining four.

But the nanobots don’t let up as they rush Legacy. A third one attacks her as she continues to fight the two she is currently engaged with. It goes for her legs, taking out the two on the right side.

Another of her arms is lost and Legacy realises that she isn’t going to win this fight. There are over a hundred enemy nanobots in sight at the very least and she has lost half of her limbs.

“Done,” says Ceta as Legacy’s nanobot is torn apart.

Interlude - Freya

Freya walks down the street of her town as she heads back to her uncle’s. The drunken cretin she has to stay with due to both of her parents serving aboard in the navy.

I suppose Uncle Larry isn’t that bad. It could be worse. He doesn’t abuse me at all and is more apathetic than neglectful or malicious.

Freya blinks as a woman steps out of nowhere in front of her. The woman looks like one of those Aphrodite parahumans and is wearing a spy catsuit.

Ohh %$£*. This can’t be good. A freaking supervillain just appeared before me.

The woman flickers her black hair behind her head and Freya doesn’t even notice as the woman draws a small stick device from her belt.

Freya blink her eyes rapidly as a small flash goes off from the woman’s hand and stumbles forward.

Freya groans as she looks around before recoiling as she realise where she is or rather, where she isn’t.

The room around her is has sleek white walls, floor and ceiling and is blank except for herself and the woman in a catsuit.

Freya coughs as the woman sprays her with something.

“What was that?” demands Freya as she takes a step back.

“Insurance,” replies the woman, “My name is Oracle Miss King.”

“What do you want?” asks Freya as she tries to take another step away from the supervillainess, but body locks up and doesn’t respond.

“A test subject who won’t be missed,” answers Oracle as she slowly saunters towards one of the walls, “It is a Friday night. Your uncle won’t realise you never returned home, your parents won’t contact you until Wednesday evening. Your classmates and teachers won’t realise you’re missing until Monday and it won’t be until Tuesday that somebody puts the pieces together and figures out you’re missing. And by then, it will have been three days and it will have been more than enough time for our purposes.”

“You don’t know that,” protests Frey fearfully.

“Sure I do,” replies Oracle with a slight chuckle, “It’s my power after all.”

A portal appears in front of her and Oracle steps into it. As the portal closes, leaving Freya alone in the barren room, Freya feels her control of her body returning.

As what has happened to her finally hits home, Freya breaks down into tears. She doesn’t even realise what is happening to her body as she loses consciousness.

Why me? Does this have to happen to me?

***

“Test Subject 3-028-F16,” says a mechanical monotone voice as Freya regains consciousness, “Wake up.”

“What, what is going on?” asks Freya as she sits up.

It comes back in a rush as Freya realises she is still in the barren white room and she whimpers.

It wasn’t a nightmare.

“The tests have been completed and the Ascendant is coming to speak with you Test Subject 3-028-F16,” says the voice.

“Test subject 3-02-what it is, is that what I’m called now?” mutters Freya as she curls up. 

“Not at all Miss King,” replies a gentleman and Freya looks up to see a man exiting a portal.

The man is late middle aged with short and well-kept black hair streaked with grey. His skin is slightly wrinkled while his face looks concerned and caring.

“Who are you?” asks Freya.

“I am the Ascendant,” answers the man as he knees down so he can look Freya in the eye, “I’m sorry about how my associate Oracle has treated you Freya. Do you mind if I call you Freya? Anyway, Oracle isn’t much of a people person and since her power told her you wouldn’t join our organisation, she saw no need to treat you decently. Not that it excuses what you gone through at all. So my apologies for that.”

“Umm, you’re welcome,” replies Freya.

He doesn’t seem so bad.

“Would you like to know what is going to happen to you?” asks the Ascendant kindly.

“Yes please sir,” replies Freya.

“Splendid,” says the Ascendant cheerfully, “Just come with me then.”

He helps Freya to her feet and leads her over to the wall just in time for a portal to appear in front of them.

“Just this way dear,” says the Ascendant as they both step through it.

Freya looks around the room they appear in. It is a pleasant, fancy office feel to with wooden walls and door in addition to traditional wooden desk. A soft green carpet covers the floor while the desk as a computer on it with three different screens. Behind the desk is a large fancy armchair with a tall back.

“This is my office,” says the Ascendant, “I hope you don’t mind standing. I would have another chair, but it is extremely rare for me to have guests so I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Not at all Mr Ascendant,” replies Freya as she looks around, “This is a very nice office you don’t mind saying so.”

“I’m glad you like it,” replies the Ascendant as he sits down at the desk, “Now if you just like to stand behind me and I will show you some things on my computer here.”

“Okay,” says Freya as she does as the Ascendants says.

“Take a look at this,” says the Ascendant as one of the screens shows a bar chart.

“What is this?” asks Freya as she looks at it.

­Red - 19

Blue - 3

Black - 19

Purple - 5

Yellow - 8

Pink - 3

Green - 11

White - 8

“What do all of these mean?” asks Freya.

“These are the colours of the Shard that my organisation will insert you with,” replies the Ascendant.

“The Shard?” asks Freya nervously.

“A form of power, one of several types,” answers the Ascendant as Freya feels her body freezing up again, “I would ask you if you mind this happening to you, but that would imply you had a choice and the only purpose of your answer would be to make me feel better. And so I won’t give you a false choice to make me feel better.”

The Ascendant is silence as he draws a hi-tech tube containing a silver liquid inside.

“And I will apologise in advance for changing your memories of this day and the last one,” says Ascendant, sounding genuine to Freya as her world goes black, “We can’t let you retain the knowledge you have gained about us if you’re not going to join us.”

***

Freya groans as she wakes up. She looks around, realising she is half submerged in the local river on the outskirts of town.

She pulls herself out of it easily before evaluating the situation.

Let’s see, I got a completely different body, no memories of the last two days, but I don’t feel tired at all. Not only that, but I can sense this water, the liquids in my body, the liquids in all the plants. How is sensing all of that not driving me insane? How I am not freaking out? I just feel...so calm and serene.

Freya looks around her body.

I got big breasts, a nice butt and a very good figure. And my clothes are still intact somehow. They’re still no longer fit to wear, but at least I still got some modesty. To be honest, I would have expected them to fall if not be completely destroyed. I mean, they should be. I should count myself lucky.

Ha! I’m lucky indeed. I got *&%#ing superpowers and what I bet is one of those freaking awesome Aphrodite bodies as well.

Now all I have to do is get back home and prove to people who I am. Which will be harder since no one saw my manifestation.

Interlude - The Ascendant

“Orion,” says an aging biracial man, his face slightly wrinkled and his black hair laced with grey, “Bring up the reports of the fight with Armageddon Harbinger from yesterday. I want to know the latest data.”

“Yes sir,” relies the mechanical monotone voice, “On screen now.”

“Thank you Orion,” replies the person known only as the Ascendant to those around him.

He looks through the reports. It states that the source of Armageddon’s name is the transdimensional alien known as the Guardian. From the information provided to the US government from the vigilante Gears, Guardian has faced Armageddon on past occasions and that Armageddon is part of a group known as the Dozen Harbingers of the End Times.

The Ascendant leans back in his comfy leather office chair. With more of these monsters ready to plague this world, perhaps the Transcendency should commit some of its resources to fending them off.

After all, Superior was pretty annoyed at not being able to fight Armageddon. He was eager to test his strength against that of the Harbinger even if Superior’s strongest asset would have been useless against the inhuman monster.

The Ascendant brings up the footage of the bloodied monster as it fled through a portal with unknown origin and destination. With both his eyes taken out with Guardian’s sword, once by Guardian and the second by Gears, Armageddon escaped and its current fate unknown.

“Orion, display the reports on the estimated fates of the Trinity and the Chicago Junior Heroes Union,” says the Ascendant as he pauses the footage as the portal closes.

The AI brings up the medical reports and statuses, but the Ascendant waves them away on the interactive screen.

“Summaries please,” says the Ascendant, “I’ll review the full data later if I need to.”

Several summaries of each parahuman’s current status and estimated status appears on the Ascendant’s screen.

“Ah, thank you Orion,” says the Ascendant and begins to flick through them.

John Clarkson, also known as Atlas, suffered minor injuries and was released from hospital within an hour of being brought there. Timothy King or the Mentalist wasn’t directly involved in the battle with Armageddon and therefore wasn’t hurt.

The third member of the Trinity, Elizabeth Summers aka Lightbringer, was taken away by her brother, Charles Summers aka Darkness, before the full extent of her injuries could be found out.

The Ascendant strokes his beard. Darkness, along with the Guardsmen, is a dangerous unknown with no easy way to make him less of a threat.

While the Syndicate is easy to infiltrate, the Transcendency has no one close to Darkness himself and the core of the Syndicate operations since Atrox was killed. And the Ascendant still isn’t sure if the Darkness knew about Atrox’s true loyalties or if his death was simply unlucky.

And Gears and his fellow Guardsmen aren’t worth the trouble. Minimal useful data on them available and any attempts to get more than been fended off almost casually. In fact, the Ascendant doesn’t believe that the Guardsmen even know how hard that is. To be able to fend off the most technologically advanced and smartest people in the world and a strong seed AGI with access to grand amounts of computing power with ease is nothing to be laughed at.

It makes the Ascendant wonder what secrets the Guardsmen have hidden from him and the rest of the world. Especially since Gears and Guardian took down Darkness, a feat that should be impossible to be accomplished by someone of their power level.

No, best to just leave the Guardsmen be until otherwise.

The Ascendant goes back to reviewing the status summaries of the Chicago Junior Heroes Union.

Charlotte Clarkson aka Alexandria is still in hospital with over 90% of the bones broken or otherwise damaged by Armageddon. Her power is keeping her alive and with her B+ class healing factor means that she should be mostly recovered in between one to two weeks and fully recovered in double that time. Physically at least.

Nicola Hatheway aka Glowbug suffered more severe injuries, the primary ones being a broken back and the loss of the right arm and both legs. At this point in time, Nicola has yet to awaken from a coma she is in and is protected by her power generating a personal energy field. Due to her powers and the uncertainty of the situation, only time will tell what will happen to Glowbug.

Another interesting development in Glowbug’s situation is an apparent boost to her power. Previously a B class energy projector, Oracle says that Glowbug’s power has increased to A class. Both she and Orion recommend watching Glowbug in greater detail and perhaps intervening to ensure her recovery if necessary.

Ascendant hopes his suspicions are right and the girl has achieved her second Manifestation.

The status of the other members is simple. Clarence Redmund aka Shift went missing during the fight and has yet to be found either alive or dead and is currently presumed KIA. Vanessa Horn aka Flamefly went down early in the battle and suffered only minor injuries. They were minor enough for her to be released from hospital.

Gemma Jones aka Pathfinder is in the same state as Flamefly except she was active throughout the entire battle from the point she entered it and was coordinating the defenders.

An interesting thing about Pathfinder is that her witnessing Guardian’s death is the only record of it. Perhaps he will have one of his agents bring her in for questioning. It could be useful to have a sleeper agent on the Chicago Junior Heroes Union.

The Ascendant closes the summaries and goes back to what he was doing before, reviewing the Fowler situation.

Such a concentrated group of closely connected and high level parahumans. The Transcendency needs a sleeper agent in that family and at moment, only Breanne Fowler and Joan Fowler are viable candidates.

And one or both of them need to be turned before their powers are awoken.

“Hmm,” mutters the Ascendant as one last thought hits him, “Perhaps Guardian is the one I know.”