DVANDOM _____ ______ _____ _______ LOOSE ENDS Part 4 of ?? [ ]__ [ ] [] [ ]__)) [ ] ` [ ]__ #88 - "Another Ceiling" [ ] [ ] [] [ ] \\ [ ] [ ] copyright 1998 Dave Van Domelen [_] [_]__[] [_] \\ [_]___/ [_]____ -------]==+ <*> +==[------- [cover shows the Angstvangelion Prototype suspended as if crucified, held aloft by silvery tentacles wrapped around its body and arms.] "Look, everyone was so busy with their own problems I doubt anyone even *saw* you sitting there, Shane," Anna said with her most reassuring voice. "Mr. Zklmcgyx kept people pretty occupied while he was in the mall." [For details, see RACC Presents #3 - Ed.] Shane didn't turn any less red as he shook his head. "Lynk," he started, too embarrassed to speak on familiar terms with her, "stores have security cameras. They also have underpaid security guards who would love to make a few extra bucks selling video from these cameras to some local news channel. And from what little experience I've had with this time's news media, they LIVE for this sort of thing." "Especially since it was the only thing the cameras could pick up," the VAXX rumbled from the back of the van. "What?" Shane turned around to face the VAXX's monitor-shaped visage. "What did he mean by that?" he asked, turning back to face Anna, who was trying to keep both eyes on the road. She sighed, having hoped she wouldn't have to reveal this particular point. "Zklmcgyx is a dream-dimension imp. His powers revolve around dreams, whether waking or sleeping. Everyone around him saw all the bizarre things he did to people, but cameras would only pick up the real actions of the victims. So, yes..." Anna was interrupted by the phone in her purse ringing. "Could you get that, I need to watch the..." Then Shane's phone rang as well. He pulled it out and checked the display. "It's the automatic system back at the base," he said, digging Anna's phone out and checking it as well. "This one too." He pushed the receive button and put his phone to his ear while Anna took her phone from him and turned it off. "Well?" she asked. "Trouble," the VAXX mumbled under his breath. "Like the man said," Shane added, his face no longer flushed with embarrassment, but rather going pale as the familiar adrenalin rush of imminent danger hit his bloodstream. "No details, just that something BIG attacked the house and we need to get back ASAP." Anna looked in exasperation at the heavy holiday traffic on the snowy road in front of her. "That may not be very soon." "Can't we shortcut through the dreamlands?" "Ordinarily, I might want to do that, but there's too much chance we'll run into an annoyed Mr. Zklmcgyx there, which would slow us down even more. I'd call it a last resort right now. Hope there's enough people around to handle whatever it is...." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Squidman ran, the December chill searing his lungs as he drew in huge gulps of air. He dropped a few inkbombs to obscure vision, hoping that the giant mechanical monstrosity didn't have sensors which could penetrate the inky blackness. As soon as it got a bead on him, that would be it. Barring a serious chunk of luck, no one but the prototype team was close enough to even hope to arrive in time...even at top speed, Macroman would be several more minutes getting back from Keystroke City, and he probably wouldn't be able to go top speed through the snow. Anna's group would have been there already if they were able to travel the dreamlands, so obviously something was preventing that. A steely coil slammed into the ground next to Squidman, missing by too great a margin to be unintentional. Squidman jumped back, not about to be caught twice by the same trick, and narrowly avoided the tentacle bursting out of the ground where he would have been running. The creature was almost toying with him, as if it were bored and trying to pass the time until something worth fighting arrived. Which, Squidman decided, was probably the case. His mind racing as quickly as his feet, Squidman deduced that the monster wanted to gather everyone together in one place, either to capture or kill them. And a live Squidman would draw more allies in than a dead Squidman. Carefully, avoiding several near-misses and sprays of muddy snow, Squidman worked his way towards the fallen form of Sidewinder. If Sidewinder was dead already, Squidman would be joining him soon...but so long as Sidewinder was alive, there was a way out. He waited for a major attack to tie up most of the available cables, then leapt over to his friend, shaking him into consciousness. "Sidewinder, get us out of here!" he shouted, pressing the external control stud for Sidewinder's Web of Diversion. Monofilaments snaked out without any real control and draped over both of them. "Whurgh?" came the incoherent mumble. "Use your power!" Squidman yelled, not daring to look back over his shoulder at the treetrunk-thick metal tentacle no doubt slamming down towards them. Just as it was about to impact, Sidewinder pulled himself together enough to trigger the power which was also usually his curse, and he and Squidman drifted out of the narrative.... -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Her opponent was visible almost as soon as she piloted the prototype out of the gravel pit. Both it and her Robo were so tall that the effective horizon was miles farther than the distance between them. It seemed concerned mainly with something below its eye level, which wasn't too surprising...nothing in that part of Illi.net got *above* its eye level. Kat spurred her reluctant "mount" into a loping run, hoping to reach the mansion before the giant mass of tentacles ahead of her finished off Squidman and Sidewinder. It turned to face her. This was very bad. One, she had lost any hope of surprise. Two, it probably meant that there was nothing nearby to occupy it now. It was happening again. Her friends were falling in battle and she couldn't stop it. The Angstvangelion ran faster. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Seth was confused. Seth was always confused, mind you, since his mind had never really recovered from the process which turned him into this roiling mass of metal which could only mock its once-human form with the help of a framework to hang from. But he was more confused than the level he had grown accustomed to. His sensors told him that the two small (to him) net.heroes were still there, even now moving slowly towards the dubious safety of the house. But his mind kept refusing to accept that input. They weren't important anymore, they were not part of events. They should be ignored. They were sidelined. The struggle between what he *knew* and what he *believed* went on for perhaps a second or so, before a third piece of data impinged on his decision-making routines. Someone was running towards him. Someone large enough to be a true challenge. Someone not in his memories from the "briefing" which had been downloaded into his diffuse neural network. Someone on an obvious attack vector. Someone who was a clear, unambiguous target. Seth turned his head to face this new target, wondering why he did this even as he turned his body as well. A remnant of his old life (what old life?) perhaps. Of a time when he had eyes instead of sensors, when he was limited by the form he now took out of sentimental (irrelevant?) reasons. A cascading feedback surged along his neural network, the diffuse brain spread out throughout his whole body. It was the thrill he once felt (when was "once"?) when facing a challenge. Anticipation of a good fight. A contest. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- No contest. It should have been no contest. Her will to live should have overridden any newly-reacquired heroic tendencies by now. If Squidman and Sidewinder were still there, they were dead, so there was no point in trying to rescue them. And Kat was in an untested prototype with suicidal tendencies going up against the product of technology at least as advanced as her own Robo. And with more resources to back it up. But not only was her instinct for self-preservation *not* winning the struggle, she was actually feeling guilty for even *thinking* about running away. A side-effect of being synchronized with a clinically depressed artificial consciousness? Or a sign that she was buying into this whole "hero" thing even more than she thought she *could*, much less would? Then the thing moved towards her, and she knew running would have been pointless anyway once it had spotted her. It didn't so much run towards her as flow like a waterfall, slamming into her like a wall of liquid metal before she could react. The anti-impact fluid cushioned most of the blow, but for an instant she felt like she was under tens of atmospheres of pressure. She heard several of the armor plates on the prototype's chest buckle and groan. Or were the groans her own? She tried to bring the Robo's arms around to slash at her foe, and succeeded in ripping through a dozen or so of the thick cables which made up its body, but this seemed to do little more than annoy it. Were the severed ends healing back together? She couldn't tell, because the roiling mass shuffled the damaged pieces deeper into itself, but her fear told her the thing *was* healing. Tentacles swept out and wrapped around the prototype's left arm, then started to squeeze. PAIN! The synchronization was TOO good! She was feeling the damage done to the robot that she was linked to! She howled soundlessly in the blood- smelling anti-shock fluid...it had been so long since she really felt pain this intensely. Not since she was last human, not since the last battle she fought as a human. Then, her body had been so badly damaged her mind had been transferred into a RoboMAC body to save her life. Now, ironically, the pain was being transferred from a robot into a human body. Hers. It was too soon. She wasn't ready. The prototype wasn't ready. The creature...it WAS ready. It would kill her like it killed Squidman and Sidewinder, then it would pick off the rest of the team as they came home, and that would be that. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Aurora was laughing at her. "Couldn't save *these* squishies either, could you?" the voice mocked, reminding her of the day she'd turned her back on the "good" RoboMACs who had made her into one of them. Then, it had been the nanoplague destroying her friends and acquaintances. Now, it seemed to be another product of that same plague, because this monster just screamed that it was sent by the Century Pact. Because she'd come to this dimension in the first place, the Pact's leaders had been born. She'd doomed everyone. It was all over. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Seth was rapidly growing bored again. While his new opponent matched him in size, it was slow and clumsy, tied to a single form. To his perceptions, it moved like it was half-asleep, like its mind and body were not one. As parts of himself sank into the metal skin of his foe, Seth realized why. This was no equal, it was merely a shell with a human inside it, trying his or her best to control a body not her (yes, "her," that seemed likely based on new sensor data) own. Still, Seth was not here to enjoy himself. A faint feeling which might be called disappointment in normal humans flickered across his neural network. Along with what could actually be a hope, a hope that someday he *would* be there to enjoy himself. But for now, his task was to destroy those he found here. The sooner he removed this feeble pretender, the sooner he could turn his attentions back to the others (what others?) who had vanished (ignore them) and seemed to slip from his mind like quicksilver. Then the disappointment was wiped away by something else. Astonishment. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- There comes a point when despair breaks...like a wave. From a gentle, quiet, seemingly harmless thing it crests into a torrent of surf and foam and fury. When the inward-directed power of the emotion suddenly builds up to where it has nowhere to go, and violently turns outward, crashing through anything and everything in the way. The Angstvangelion threw back its head and howled such a cry of violent sorrow and hopelessness that had anyone human been near enough to hear it, it would have frozen their hearts solid and turned their spines to water. It was a cry of hopeless hope, of joyless exultation, the resigned rage of one who has sunk as low as they can go into the pits of darkness. When there's nothing left, it's what's there in the nothing. The total surrender which is the last resort, the defiance in spite of the sure knowledge that it won't do a damn bit of good. The forsaken wail of the damned, and the rallying cry which so often preceded annihilation. But it was *never* a certain thing who would be annihilated in its wake. There was no thought, no intention, no strategy. There was only desperate, despairing action. Green and red limbs, stained brown by ruptured lubricant and coolant lines, moved like the blades of a combine, harvesting destruction and pain. Strike, strike and strike again, punishing hammerblows which shattered the framework that held Seth together. In what could only be described as desperation, the ropy metallic mass hurled itself from the fragmented skeleton and tried to strangle its attacker, constricting around limbs, body, head. But this did not even slow the greyish-green Angstvangelion, as it started to hammer on its own body to destroy the tentacles which encircled it. Energy poured from its skin through concealed projectors designed to help it melt through barriers, and rapidly-vibrating blades sprang from fingertips to saw at Seth. Then, so suddenly that it seemed like Seth must have already been dead for some time, with only reflex holding it together, the severed coils fell to the ground and lay still. And the Angstvangelion fell to its knees and moved no more. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- Kat's eyes fluttered open and she saw the ceiling above her. She sighed in annoyance, which was about all her body felt up to at the moment. She hated to wake up looking at the ceiling...it triggered too many memories she wished she could let go of. Waking up battered and broken after her two failed attempts at proving humans could compete in a world of giant robots. Waking up alone many times before that, having gone to bed curled up against some friend, acquaintance or stranger with a compatible genetic profile, and finding he'd pushed her away and left during the night. Not wanting to roll over into the cold spot which should have been warm, unable to sleep even if she did. Since she'd become human again, Kat fell asleep more often then not with her face buried in her pillow, trying to shut out the world and desperately trying not to wake up to see the ceiling. The clean white acoustic tiles of the infirmary's ceiling mocked her. "Kat?" asked a nearby voice. Kat turned to face the speaker. No, not really...she turned to face away from the ceiling. Facing Kid Pocky was just an excuse. "yes?" she managed to croak out. Her lungs felt too dry, too empty. Side effect of having been filled with oxygenated anti-shock fluid, she realized. She'd have to alter the mix before next time. She almost smiled at the ludicrous optimism of that. *What* next time? She already knew she couldn't bear to do that again, not for a long time, if ever. "Are you...okay? I mean, you know, mentally." "n-no. I'm not okay. I am *very* not okay," she said, her voice gaining strength and a sort of nervous intensity as she spoke. She felt herself starting to tremble, and winced as the many bruises on her body spoke out to her of their existence in the language of pain. "Shhh...try to stay calm," Kid Pocky said, checking the readings on a small device he had in his left hand. "You synchonized too well with the MAC [Mobile Artificial Consciousness - Ed.] mind, I'm not sure you're totally disconnected from it, even at this distance." "Now you know how it feels to have someone rape your mind!" said Macroman, from behind Kat. "What?" she turned in panic, but there was no one there. "Doug?" She looked around, but the door was closed and hadn't been opened. Kid Pocky gave Kat a puzzled look. "Doug's not here, he's out following the path that monster took to get here." "But, I...." Al frowned. "Hallucinating. Your brainwaves are still in a jumble from the synchronization, your brain's probably going to be kicking out random bits of angst until it settles down." Kat took a moment to look carefully at Algernon's face. Stubble was starting to grow on his chin, and his eyes were reddened from lack of sleep. "Why did you stand watch over me?" she asked. "Well, only Zwarghoff and I knew enough about the interface system to know what to watch out for, and his bedside manner is horri..." "Bull. You don't look like you've left this room since you brought me here...and I think it's a safe bet you personally carried me the whole way. If it were just bedside manner, you would have let others take turns watching me, and to call you in if anything changed." "No, I really..." "Will you stop carrying that damn torch for me?" Kat demanded. There was an uncomfortable silence, broken only by the faint whirring of Kid Pocky's scanning device. The word "no" started to form on Pocky's lips, then he paused and cocked his head to one side. "You've never really been loved before, have you?" "WHAT?" Kat exclaimed, trying to sit up and regretting it instantly. "Ow..." she groaned and sank back into the bed. Algernon put down the scanner and rested his chin on his fist. "Kat, I've been...interested...in you for a long time. Okay, obsessed at times. And I had the resources of a worldbeater supervillain back when I was Acton Lord. I know a LOT more about your history than you'd think...even things no one besides you knows, thanks to some of my former time-corruption powers. I think it was somewhere along the line during this research that I stopped seeing you as an enemy who had thwarted my plans and needed to be destroyed, and started loving you." He sighed sadly. "I know you had many lovers when you were first human, but I guess I figured at least once there must have been real love behind it. But there wasn't, was there?" Kat kept her silence, looking at her feet to avoid both Kid Pocky's gaze and the ceiling's reminder of the truth of Al's words. "No, I guess there wasn't. Maybe you loved some of them, but they never saw you as anything more than a friendly lay. And then you spent a lifetime keeping everyone away so they couldn't kill you..." he trailed off, not wanting to say anything trite or condescending. He took a different tack. "I know you're proud of your ability to read a person's intentions by their body language. You've been around me for months now...tell me I *don't* love you. Go ahead. And don't try to counter by saying you don't deserve to be loved by anyone, you'd be telling the wrong damn person." "That's just it," Kat sighed. "Everything I've done that should make people hate me, you've done worse. A lot worse. I've never enslaved entire worlds, I just destroy lives one at a time. But you still turned around, managed to pay your debt and come out clean. Every time I look at you, I'm reminded that no matter what I do, I'm still a traitor, a spy and a rapist. It's just another reminder that I'm a failure. That I can't reform." Al gently took Kat's hand in his own. She was strong enough to pull away, but for some reason didn't. "Kat, do you think I could have done it alone? I was staring into the eyes of one of the most powerful beings in the cosmos, at the threshold of the Source Code itself, and I had the opportunity to make one truly free choice [Dvandom Force #60 - Ed.]. This is something almost no one in this entire reality ever gets to do, perhaps no one in any reality. The temptation to use this to gain power was phenomenal, and under any other circumstances redemption would have been an almost impossible choice. But I chose it so that I might have a chance, however small, of winning your heart. Maybe you've been failing so long because you were only turning *away*. Away from your past, away from your misdeeds. Maybe if you had something...someONE...to turn *towards,* it would work out this time?" "I'm tired," Kat said, closing her eyes and turning her head away from Kid Pocky. A moment later, she was asleep. Which meant she couldn't see the tear running down Al's face. -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Doug tracked the attacker back to an area in the Topicdriftless Region, a part of central Wisconsi.net unaffected by the last Noise Age. It's rocky and uneven, with terrain features remaining tightly grouped together. Hard to get around in, easy to hide in. Odds are they're already packing up to move now that we killed this thing...and it's almost 100% that it's the Pact," Squidman said, gesturing at a map display on the wall of the conference room. "Now is our best chance to tie up this huge loose end once and for all...IF we can get our robots into action soon enough. Zwarghoff, status?" The 000SUPERGUY native coughed and looked at some readouts. "The prototype will require about a day to repair, although I have my doubts about the interface system. We have enough parts to assemble a second, ah, 'Angstvangelion' unit within another day, presuming Macroman assists in both tasks. I've put out some feelers to my meager contacts in the Yakuza, who have agreed to sell us a pair of G*nd*m Beam Rifles via one of their front companies which does business with King Transshipping. They should arrive by the time the two Angstvangelion units are ready." Squidman nodded. "Pocky, how's the medical situation?" "Hm? Oh, ah, Sidewinder has a couple of cracked ribs, he's out for at least a week. Kat's...bruised. Physically and mentally. The bruises to her body should be okay within a few days, but I don't know when she'll be up to fighting again emotionally," he said, as straightforwardly as he could manage. He thought, but didn't say, "Or anything else emotionally." "Hm. Not good, but could be worse. Lynk?" She shook her head. "I took a quick jaunt into Harnegu. Mr. Zklmcgyx has set up housekeeping. Until I can spend a good long night clearing him out, I don't want to risk taking anyone else into the dreamlands. Too bad we can't find a way to sic him on the Pact. They're not human anymore, they wouldn't even see his pranks." "Most of the Pact's lesser members are still pretty much human, aren't they?" Doug asked. "Living proof," Shane pointed to himself. "Why not try to bait Zikkykibblesandbits into assaulting the base somehow? I'm sure he could slow down any attempts to move out, at least, hold them there until we're ready?" Doug suggested. Lynk nodded. "I think I can manage to pull that off." "Okay, everybody, you know what to do, let's get cracking," Squidman said, closing the meeting. Al lagged behind and buttonholed Lynk. "Anna, could I talk to you about something? It's an idea I had for a last-ditch tactic...." -------]==+ <*> +==[------- "Moving day again, I guess. I'll miss these big ol' purple rocks," Joe mused. "We're not moving," Dirk said quietly but firmly. "Huh? Come on, our sensors already picked up Kid Macroman nosing around the area, tracking Seth back to his cradle. They'll be running up here with as much force as they can muster as soon as they can muster it." "No, they won't. From what Seth broadcast before his destruction, it's clear that we managed to seriously injure if not kill at least one of their number. That means, by the foolishly dramatic rules of this timeframe, that they will make this *personal*. They will come here without raising the entire LNH to come down on us, it will merely be whatever personal resources they can put together. I doubt they'll even inform anyone else of our location. No, it's time to end this conflict once and for all, and remove Dvandom Force from our affairs. They will vanish on a mission and never come back, and there will be little or no evidence to point to who did it. Finally, the ludicrous metaphysics of this world work in our favor." "Ah, in case you didn't notice, they've got themselves some Robovectors which can make mince of our Agents. Seth's in little Sethbits now. Bite-sized, even," Joe countered, leaning on the bank of monitors. "Yes, they do. Which means we simply accelerate the development of Enosh and Kenan. And should they fail, there's always the Hydrablaster. It would mean personal combat, which always has an element of risk, but thanks to the improved breed of nanomachines in the Hydrablaster, it's unlikely we will lose." Joe rubbed his hands together. "I thought we'd never get personally open up that particular can of whupass." He grinned evilly. "I almost hope the Agents fail...." ============================================================================ NEXT ISSUE: The final conflict, and it isn't even a "big number issue!" Be here for the final part of Loose Ends, as we present, "Hope's End!" ============================================================================ Author's Notes: The Driftless Region is a part of Wisconsin which the glaciers never touched, so it's full of all sorts of interesting features and big purple quartzite rocks. I'd set a big fight scene at Devil's Lake, but it's a major tourist camping area and is busy enough year-round that the Pact would never put its base anywhere near it. It was established back in Dvandom Force #55 that the Yakuza has no silly net.name. One does not mess with the Yakuza.