Re: The Great Belligerency [Round 2: New Shambhala]
02-04-2011, 11:51 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by slipsicle.
Ambrose Lom sat awkwardly on a park bench. Few public areas in the city were safe anymore, but this one had been cordoned off by what was left of the city's security force.
Mainly because it was directly in front of Administration.
Despite the late hour, the area was extremely well-lit; probably more than was absolutely necessary, but given recent events, no one was complaining. Especially not Ambrose. From what she'd seen happening elsewhere...
Her thoughts were interrupted as a short, balding man approached her shyly. "E-excuse me, are... are you Minotaurus's friend?"
Ambrose looked at him sharply, and gave the man a quick once-over. Poorly-fitting clothing (almost as bad as her own), old-style mechanical watch, nervous, fidgety demeanor... probably harmless. "Maybe. Who are you?"
The man fidgeted some more. "I'm... well, you sent him some data on an electromagnetic field and... I'm the one who analyzed it."
She brightened. "Oh! Have a seat!" She patted the bench, and the little man sat next to her nervously. Ambrose looked around. "I thought I'd be meeting with Minnie..."
"He's dead," the man blurted.
Ambrose blinked. "What."
"There was an explosion... look, the whole city's gone to crap. I think he knew he was about to die, because he sent me here to meet with you. He told me I had to tell you what I'd found. He-"
"Wait wait wait, Minotaurus is dead? I... this is..."
"Yeah, I know."
"Crazy."
"Yes, it is."
The sat in silence for a bit.
"... w-what's your name?" the man asked, nervously.
"Ambrose. Ambrose Lom."
"Mine's Nick Locuse."
Silence again.
"... are you someone who can... do something about this information?"
"I don't know! I don't even know what it is!"
"Well, Minotaurus told me to give it to you. He was very urgent about it."
Ambrose looked at her lap. Her eyes felt weird. "He was just... keeping a promise..." She sniffled. Damnit, she didn't even particularly like Minotaurus. He was rude, unsociable... brilliant, honorable, respectful in his own way... ok so maybe she missed him a little but that didn't mean she should be crying.
Except she was. She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "Just tell me what you found."
Nick looked around, as if concerned someone would overhear. "That electromagnetic field you found? Well, thanks to the data you provided, I was able to get a clear picture of, well it turned out to be an electrostatic field, and it was interacting with the background field of the city oddly, so I-"
Ambrose held up a hand. "Nick, man, I'm not a scientist. Layman's terms?"
Nick took a deep breath, and said, "Whatever's generating that field did not come from this universe."
The sentence shocked her out of mourning. It took a few seconds for Ambrose to realize her mouth was hanging open. "Wuh... what? No. That's-"
"It's a fact. The only explanation for the way that field interacted with regular matter is that whatever's generating it came from a place with different universal constants. Very slightly different, but still different."
"Wow." Ambrose sat back on the bench, absorbing. "That's... not what I was expecting." She frowned, then, remembering how Minotaurus had warned her about getting into this.
The two sat in an uncomfortable silence, neither really knowing what to say.
"Uh... nice watch," tried Ambrose. Nick grinned excitedly, and brought up his hand.
"Yeah, it's entirely mechanical. You get the time from reading these slivers here, called 'hands', right now it's... uhh..." Nick fumbled with the display, and Ambrose glanced over. "6:30pm," she proclaimed. Nick stopped fumbling and blinked. "Uh... yeah." He looked around bashfully. "I uh... mostly just grab the time off the 'net," he admitted. Ambrose nodded and made sympathetic noises.
They sat awkwardly some more.
Finally, Ambrose exhaled, and got up. "Well buddy, thanks for telling me, but I'm not really sure what I can do with that information."
"Yeah... yeah." Nick looked towards Administration. "I was going to tell them after you. My favor to Minotaurus took priority."
Ambrose smiled. "I understand. Well! I need to get back home."
Nick looked startled. "You're leaving? But the streets, they're not safe!"
Ambrose waved him off. "Oh I'll be fine. I got here, didn't I?"
Nick grumbled, "Well, yes..."
"I appreciate your concern, but I need to get back to my apartment!" All my stuff is there and I haven't been outside for this long in a while and it's making me anxious and you smell kind of funny and oh god I probably do too, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime!"
Nick grinned. "Yeah, I'd like that." But Ambrose was already leaving. In her haste, she completely missed Reinhardt striding purposefully across the park and into Administration. Nick sighed. He'd almost hoped Ambrose would wait with him. His appointment with the Administrators wasn't for a few more hours, so he had some time to kill. He pulled out a small holographic reader and settled in to wait.
---
Julia clung to Phil's arm as they navigated the deserted streets and walkways. She shivered and jumped at the occasional shout, distant boom, or flash of running figures. With nightfall the damage to the city from the day's events became more apparent; streetlights, self-illuminating sidewalks, and other sources of light flickered threateningly or never turned on at all.
Phil cursed his luck, wishing the Administrative Bloc were closer to Minotaurus's spiraling tower, instead of halfway across the city. Most forms of public transportation were down at this point, which meant they were walking the whole way. At least he'd finally gotten access to some tourist's maps, available for public download on the city's still-active 'net.
The long walk through the darkened city was not good for Phil's nerves. While the streets appeared deserted, there was always a sense of some unseen predator, waiting, watching. Minute to minute, it seemed inevitable that their progress would expose them to the numerous threats lurking just beyond detection.
They walked for hours under this oppressive gloom, occasionally pausing at one of Balance's forcefields, following it until they could find a way through. The barriers only made the journey that much more tortuous.
Finally, they rounded a corner, and were rewarded with light from a security cordon flooding the streets. Julia started to run towards the light, but Phil put a hand in front of her, and continued forwards cautiously.
Their footsteps rang unchallenged against the looming buildings. Phil drew his rifle. The silence was unnerving him. They crept towards the lights, waiting for a sign of life; a challenge, the sound of a weapon being cocked, the shuffling of impatient feet... anything.
The pair stepped beyond the floodlights illuminating the street and found only bodies. A few of the city's security forces lay around the lights, mangled beyond recognition, often with gaping holes blasted out of them. Julia cowered behind Phil; the armored commando hefted his rifle, and continued onwards towards Administration.
They'd actually been in the Administrative Bloc for some time; given the multi-layered nature of New Shambhala, city Blocs were divided into cubes. Phil and Julia were currently on the top of the cube that was the Administrative Bloc, but the buildings they'd been passing and the unseen depths beneath their feet were all part of the same section of the city. Administration was but a single building in the Administrative Bloc; the most important, to be sure, but every other building in the Bloc served its purpose in running New Shambhala. Or at least, they used to. Now only Administration was left.
The building itself was low-standing, and strongly resembled a squat, wide mushroom. A short cylinder, maybe 3,000 feet in diameter, was topped by a convex disc. The entire thing was brilliantly white, though only small portions were currently illuminated by emergency floodlights. A circular parkway wrapped around the building, sandwiched by sprawling promenades, which acted as buffers between Administration, the parkway, and the surrounding buildings.
It was through this parkway which the two contestants now walked. Phil paused as they passed a bench; a glint on the wrist of the body laying next to it had caught his attention. He lifted the corpse's hand and checked the watch. It had been broken around the same time the man's chest and head had been blown apart, the hands of its anachronistic clockface reading approximately 8:45. His armor's internal clock read 13:52; it was not military time. New Shambhala's day was a little under thirty hours, and he'd synched up his own clock to the city's a while ago. He stood.
"This happened around five hours ago. The people responsible are either dead or gone. Either way, we should continue towards that building." He gestured towards Administration, and Julia nodded weakly, pale face still transfixed on the grisly sight before her. The pair trudged onwards. Occasionally, they would come across the body of some alien or another; a tangled mess of limbs here, a large, limp pile of hair-like tendrils there... the only thing which struck Phil as odd about the alien corpses were that, while all the humans had some large hole blown in their bodies somewhere, the aliens all appeared to have been beaten, stabbed, or sliced to death. Whatever had been firing at the humans had either been ignoring the aliens, or had been used by them.
They exited the parkway and walked across the promenade towards Administration, and Phil barely had time to notice that a makeshift barricade had been established around what must have been the main entrance, before several uniformed humans popped up from behind the barriers, some of them pointing weapons at the pair.
A voice rang out across the empty way. "Remove your helmet!"
Phil raised his rifle. Only two were armed, and at this distance he could probably take them all out... but there was no cover anywhere near, and Julia was right next to him. He was considering just tossing a grenade and running when Julia put a hand on his arm. He turned to look at her, and found her gazing up at him. "Please, Phil. They are human, and we are human. I don't think... I think you should do as they say."
Phil considered. If this really was a human sanctuary, it wasn't very secure. Only two weapons for seven guards? Still... they probably wouldn't shoot if he complied, and he was interested in seeing what other armaments they might be hiding inside. He holstered his rifle, and removed his helmet.
The two armed guards lowered their weapons and motioned for the pair to approach. A third stepped forward, waiting until Phil and Julia were closer, before saying "Corporal Leonard O'Shanssey," glancing at Phil's armor and weapons, "... Sir. Sorry about that, but we had to make certain you weren't an alien. Some of them look the same as us, if you don't count the head. We needed to see your face." The guard offered a hand, and Phil shook it. "Welcome to Administration, the last secure, safe area for humans in this damned city."
Phil nodded towards the armed guards. "You seem to be rather lacking in weapons, Corporal."
The man nodded. "New Shambhala's security forces are normally armed with non-lethal, non-projectile weapons. We were attacked about five hours ago by a group of aliens armed with five of these gauss rifles," gesturing towards the guns. "They're centuries below the weapons tech I'd prefer to be using, but still excellently designed. We think they were cobbled together from pieces of broken maglev trams. Ingenious, really, and designed to be universally compatible with any anatomy." The corporal looked out across the promenade, towards the parkway. "You've probably already seen how effective they are," he added grimly.
The three humans stood in a respectful silence for a bit. The corporal shook himself. "Come on in. We could use someone with combat experience, which," he looked up and down Phil's blood-spattered armor, "it looks like you have. I'll take you to see Vanhart." The corporal led them through the doors, and the other guards resumed their positions, keeping an eye out for more potential threats.
Phil frowned. "Who?"
"Some bigwig security consultant from outside the city. He arrived something like seven, eight hours ago... jeez, only eight hours? It feels like longer..."
They were walking through a rather cluttered entry hall, obviously now converted into serving whatever purposes the now-vacant peripheral buildings of the Administrative Bloc had previously handled, as the gutted mechanism of the Administration struggled to remain functional. The corporal continued. "Anyway, he came in and had a chat with all the Administrators, and when he came out he was head of all the city's remaining security forces."
The corporal led them up a flight of stairs to the second floor.
"He only had two hours to reorganize us before those damned aliens attacked. There were twelve of them, and they only had five guns, but we had nothing. They would have made it inside if Vanhart hadn't joined us in the field and started carving them up with that sword of his."
They turned down a hallway, and entered a waiting room.
The corporal gestured towards the large double-doors on the other side of the room. "Anyway. He's in there now, talking with the other Administrators. They basically made him head of goddamn-near-everything after he saved our bacon. He's apparently got some blueprints for cheap and easy weapons that we can make ourselves; we've converted the Special Dipolmatic Hanger into an assembly line, since it's the biggest one and it's not like it'll be used any time soon.
"He should be out soon, and then I'm almost certain he'll want to talk to you." The corporal pointedly looked only at Phil for that last sentence. Julia apparently didn't notice. "Feel free to have a seat while you wait." The corporal left, and Phil and Julia were alone.
Phil didn't particularly feel like sitting down, and Julia seemed content to wander around the room, admiring the various paintings and artistic works. A few minutes passed before the double-doors opened and Vandrel Reinhardt strode out. Phil snorted. "So, you're calling yourself 'Vanhart' now?"
"Watch your mouth. Fortune smiles upon you that I so need you in the future," Reinhardt cut in, placing a hand on Phil's shoulder. "Matthew Vanhart, if you please. I've been hoping you'd show up. These soldiers are woefully inexperienced and underequipped. An instructor as skilled as you could make all the difference, with the experience with such materials as you possess."
"Well, I'm not exactly the teaching type..."
Julia bounced over. "La, I think it is a wonderful idea!" She grabbed Phil's hands. "Phil, you should accept! You would finally no longer be working alone! I have only been a hinderence... la, but with these men, you may find some worthy of following you!"
"I-"
Reinhardt spoke into a communicator on his wrist. "sergeant Cobb, I require your presence."
"What's-"
The door behind them opened, and another uniformed security guard walked out, and saluted. "Sir!"
"Would you please escort this man to the barracks? I've finally found you someone that can teach your men to be the brutally effective warriors they need to be."
The sergeant grinned, and saluted again. "Sir, yes sir!" Turning towards Phil, "This way, sir!"
Phil threw a helpless glance over his shoulder as he was escorted from the room. "Pay him no mind, I assure you that he shall serve your men well," Reinhardt added with a smirk, in his own way of consoling the sergeant. The sergeant and Girnham left, leaving Reinhardt and the girl alone.
The girl crossed her arms. "You've been busy."
"Indeed. I want to thank you for your gift, earlier. Such technologies as these people have developed are invaluable to my plans of establishing my presence in this land."
The girl smiled. "You enjoyed that, did you? I see you used it well."
The tyrant nodded. "The Administrators were more than willing to give me anything I asked for after I demonstrated my competence. They are also all convinced that the alien resistence movement is very real and very organized. However..."
Reinhardt pursed his lips. "There is still a strong alien presence amongst the Administration, as much as it pains me to see such an otherwise magnificent society blightened by the subhuman taint. I have stoked the fires of prejudice where I am able, but I will need more gifts from you to sway them to my cause."
The girl nodded. "I understand. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to remain here for a while longer. Girnham," she jerked her head towards the door Phil had left through earlier, "may get suspicious if I disappear now. I must maintain my cover. But," she held up a hand, warding off Reinhardt's protest, "I am still capable of operating as necessary, even here. In fact, I may be able to do more here than out there..." the girl trailed off, already formulating plans for a schism between the human and non-human Administrators. "Give me the rest of the night. You'll have the backing of a human-only Administration, and the permission to begin a purge of all non-humans by morning."
Reinhardt almost smiled. "Satisfactory."
The girl approached him. "There is one more thing," she began.
"Yes?"
"I think we're ready to check for replies from the Network."
"Excellent." Reinhardt prepared himself, clearing his throat and brushing his jacket free of any wrinkles, and the girl reached out with one finger touched his forehead.
Again, they found themselves in the familiar circular room, although this time they were alone. Reinhardt looked around, stroking his beard in contemplation. "Where is your brother? I had been under the impression he would be joining us."
The girl actually had no idea. Her brother's absence was more unexpected for her than it was for Reinhardt; from what she understood of the multiverse (which was very little), time did not so much "flow" as "jump" from one nexus of causal worldtracks to the next. Causal worldtracks which shared points of similarity, like for instance, her and her brother, were more likely to temporally intersect. Considering all the points of similarity she shared with her brother, not including their recent efforts with the Network, he should have appeared here, at this point in time, whenever he happened to try. Time would simply redirect him, so that his worldtrack would intersect with hers and Reinhardt's.
That it hadn't was worrying.
"He must be busy," she lied. "I imagine he'll come when he's available, or when he feels his presence is required."
Reinhardt shrugged. "No matter. Let us peruse the replies to my message." The girl nodded, and the room darkened, leaving the center illuminated.
"I cannot predict the exact nature of each reply, so I'll be rendering them in whatever form they appear here, in the center of the room," the girl explained. The two collaborators stepped away from the center, and the girl nodded.
Instantly, the room was filled with a cacaphony of alien noises, words, crashes, explosions, all with an accompanying whirlwind of images swirling through the center of the room. Reinhardt and the girl struggled to make out anything coherent.
"Greetings, Master Vandrel Rrrrrreinhardtttt, Iiii am indifferent to do battllllle, depending, of couurrrrrrse, on many new words. Therrrksshtrre's one in particular I WANT a chance at freedom. Fffcchkkkwwwwwe have only just managed TO DESTROY an island with a vvvviolatevvvolcano and an ocean. This is SyvMagXadrBriaRikYOUR HOPEKareTitaThomBlaKSSHH-
Images spasmed through the center of the room: a ghostly spectre floating atop of disc; an incomprehensible mathematical fractal; a giant, unblinking eye; things which no mortal mind was ever meant to see, with oases of mundanity sprinkled amongst the mind-searing images.
The girl turned to Reinhardt and shouted, "Something is wrong!" over the voices and the noise.
Reinhardt glared back at her. "Obviously! What sort of fell machinations are these? What foolishness is this?", he said, pointing angrily at the disc.
The girl shot him a glance. "Hang on! I'm going to try something!" She wasn't exactly certain how her multiversal communicator worked; she knew she was exploiting the already-established link between herself and her brother to broadcast and recieve, but that was about it. She thought for a moment. If she considered her transmitter to be a lightning rod for these messages, then perhaps to attract them with more coherency, she would have to enhance the rod. Since her transmitter was based upon quantumly entangled particles, she reasoned that creating more entangled particles would strengthen the transmitter's attractive properties. As a bonus, creating those particles was well within the means of her internal cybernetics.
After a few minutes, the sounds and images became less frenzied.
"-am Xadrez, and I am also in a universe-spanning battle to the death. Vandrel Reinhardt, if you can help us fight back against the Gr-who? No, I don't know. This isn't what I wanted. No! Also no. Maybe. Listen, I'm going to go over there, knock on her door, and then we're gonna fu-Riko, and I'm also stuck in a battle to death. I did not catch the entire message you were going to send me, but judging by your wording you too are stuck in one against your will. I have contacts with the outside world, and if you would like to cooperate, and escape from these arenas-"
The girl and Reinhardt listened intensely to each fractured message, knowing that, whoever these people were, they would soon all be joined together by a common cause.
"-until this moment, unaware of the existance of multiple battles. I'm sorry to say that my methods of contact through the multiverse are limited. I spent several hours alone on working out a way of returning your call for aid. Nevertheless, if you are in need of another individual joining your-who you are, but I'm in another of these battle-to-the-death things you mentioned. I'm guessing it's the same deal with you, randomly pulled from your home to kill some people with no real explanation. Honestly, I'm content with just escapin-variational approximations in discrete nonlinear next-nearest-neighbor couplings phase mismatch on second harmonic integrable quantum spi-many new words. Self, Magog, chaos, lost. These words are all mine. I am in a battle somewhere, on an island with a volcano and an ocean. In exchange for your help finding myself, I will make 'ally' one of-"
Despite the girl's meddlings, the replies were still frustratingly incomplete. She could tell they were missing what must be valuable pieces of information. She perked up when two more replies resolved themselves, each mentioning the same entity.
"-carnage. To this end, I shall do my best to aid in your endeavor to overthrow these 'grandmasters'. I shall, perhaps, even bring this message up with those whom I am pitted against. I purpose that a list of these 'grandmasters' be composed, along with any known or useful information. The master of this particular battle is one that calls itself The Monit-little girl here, and no chance in hell I’m letting her die, powerful entities or not. The Monitor is the name of the one holding-"
The girl added "The Monitor" to her mental list of Grandmasters; it was a short list. She and Reinhardt continued to listen.
"-been abducted and forced to do battle. This same communications channel should serve well for a good while. As for overthrowing, we're certainly interested, but we're hardly in a position to do-this day! Curse the foul Zelmeraga what espouse tradition and worship the Olmerang! Rise, rise to-Identify. Titan. Irrelevant. Yes. Searching. Family. Irreleva-the Blank, replying to Mr. Reinhardt's trans-universal message. Sorry I am a bit late on the reply, I've only just managed to get a hold of proper technology. Things are a bit chaotic on my end, and I would really appreci-onderful. Great. Excellent. The sooner we can kill these bastards, the better. There's one in particular who I would love to disem-"
The messages flowed in, some accompanied by sound, others by images, others by both, or none. Some were merely text. Some emitted strange odors. Some radiated nothing but emotion. They were as numerous as they were varied, and Reinhardt and the girl stood and listened for hours, attempting to distinguish the ones which seemed to be replying to them from the melting pot of communications.
After a while the girl gestured. The messages faded, and the room brightened once more. "I believe we have all that we need, for now. I'm not certain how to communicate with any of these beings directly, though..."
"That will be uneccessary. A second blanket message, broadcast into the multiverse once more, should be enough. I will tell them that I have recieved their replies, and that I shall soon find a way to contact them all personally."
The girl looked at Reinhardt, and he shrugged. "It doesn't matter if it's true. Likely, many of these beings will die before I can make good on my promise, and it will give them... hope."
The girl nodded. "All right. I'll also embed some additional data into this message, essentially detailing what I did to better resolve these replies. It should allow our future allies better reception for other multiverse messages, though we're along way from direct, real-time communication. At the very least it will allow them to receive any of our future messages with greater ease, and perhaps communicate amongst themselves, to a limited degree. Ready when you are."
Reinhardt gathered himself and faced the girl. He cleared his throat and proceeded to give his oration, having much experience in the field as a ruler.
"Beings of the multiverse, denizens of all that heed to the whim of the gods, the day has came for us to unite, to forge a new era. Together we shall form a mighty union, we shall come together and crush all opposition beneath our combined feet. I, Lord Vandrel Reinhardt, am an experienced master in tactical planning. My armies have conquered lands far and wide and brought all that oppose us to their knees, hacking their heads from their pitiful necks to punish them for their misdeeds. Future allies! I have heard your replies, and you are not alone! With access to all of you, we could form an army more great, more powerful than ever I had layed mortal eyes upon. As a gift, I include within this message information which shall allow you to better communicate across the multiverse! We shall come together and strike back at all that oppose us! Together, the empire we form shall extend across never-before-matched boundaries, encompassing dominions never before dreamed of! My friends, my allies from all imaginable walks of life, this is it! THIS SHALL BE OUR HOUR!"
The girl nodded. "Message sent. I think it's time we got back to New Shambhala. Time may flow quickly here, but we've been standing still there for about thirty seconds too long. Breaking connection..."
There was a rushing sensation, and the two contestants found themselves back in the waiting room. "I must return to the Administrators," Reinhardt began, "there is still much to be done. You go and find Girnham, and get to work on delivering your promise. I will send you relevant information on the Administrators, which I am certain you will put to good use."
The girl bowed acknowledgement, and turned to leave the room. She paused as she opened the door, and through a glance over her shoulder. "Be seeing you, Vandrel," she said. Then she was gone. Reinhardt looked after her, briefly, before turning on his heel and returning through the double-doors.
---
Ambrose was back in her apartment, hunched in front of her cubes once more. She rocked back and forth, thinking hard. There was a puzzle here, she just knew it, and she had a few of the pieces... but she couldn't see how they fit together. Vanhart, "Julia", Minotaurus's death, the electromagnetic field from another universe, the rioting and explosions and racial tension - all of it fit together. It had to. But how?
"Graaaah!" Ambrose grabbed at her temples and whacked them with her fists. "This is so frustrating!" Vanhart had completely disappeared, and her 'net coverage was starting to get patchy as sections of the city went down, and message boards went inactive as their users died. Her sources of information were dwindling.
Letting out a frustrated "Hmph," Ambrose stuck her hands back into her cubes and began to work in earnest. If Vanhart was no longer an option, then "Julia" was obviously her prime focus. She would find this person, and then she'd get some answers.
---
The girl navigated through bustling hallways towards the barracks, pausing occasionally to ask for directions from helpful passers-by. As she was nearing her goal, a notification flashed in her vision, indicating an incoming message through her multiversal trasmitter. Curious, she answered, and was greeted by the image of Arnold Scarlet.
"Finally! I've been trying to get through to you forever. I don't know exactly what's going on but for some reason this... device... took a really long time to connect to you. Kept throwing up errors, something about 'multiversal interference' or something."
The girl nodded. "That would make sense. Message transmission through the multiverse has been less than ideal, of late," first my brother, then the messages, now Arnold... "I managed to tweak my own transmitter and increase its signal strength, but it wasn't enough."
"Yeah. Listen," Arnold removed his aviators briefly, and massaged the bridge of his nose. He looked... tired. Defeated. He put the aviators back on. "I don't have much time as it is. I don't think I can help you with this interference thing, but..." he glanced over his shoulder and moved closer to the pickup, "the... thing that's keeping me here, The Controller, he's been seeming a little flustered recently. I don't really know what's going on but I get the impression that something is worrying him, and others like him."
The girl smiled. "I think I may know the cause. This is useful intel. I suggest you start listening in on wideband multiversal frequencies. What you find may be of interest to you."
Arnold nodded. "Right. Yeah. I'll-" he looked somewhere to his side, cursed, grabbed for the camera, and the connection was cut.
The girl brought herself back to reality, to find an anonymous message waiting for her, sent across the city's dying 'net. It flashed across her vision and nearly froze her on the spot: Someone will die. You are the only one without a guardian angel. Be seeing you. -M Recovering quickly, she continued walking. But Minotaurus wasn't dead, and he knew more about her, and more about this battle, than she was comfortable with.
She would have to deal with him personally.
Spoiler
Ambrose Lom sat awkwardly on a park bench. Few public areas in the city were safe anymore, but this one had been cordoned off by what was left of the city's security force.
Mainly because it was directly in front of Administration.
Despite the late hour, the area was extremely well-lit; probably more than was absolutely necessary, but given recent events, no one was complaining. Especially not Ambrose. From what she'd seen happening elsewhere...
Her thoughts were interrupted as a short, balding man approached her shyly. "E-excuse me, are... are you Minotaurus's friend?"
Ambrose looked at him sharply, and gave the man a quick once-over. Poorly-fitting clothing (almost as bad as her own), old-style mechanical watch, nervous, fidgety demeanor... probably harmless. "Maybe. Who are you?"
The man fidgeted some more. "I'm... well, you sent him some data on an electromagnetic field and... I'm the one who analyzed it."
She brightened. "Oh! Have a seat!" She patted the bench, and the little man sat next to her nervously. Ambrose looked around. "I thought I'd be meeting with Minnie..."
"He's dead," the man blurted.
Ambrose blinked. "What."
"There was an explosion... look, the whole city's gone to crap. I think he knew he was about to die, because he sent me here to meet with you. He told me I had to tell you what I'd found. He-"
"Wait wait wait, Minotaurus is dead? I... this is..."
"Yeah, I know."
"Crazy."
"Yes, it is."
The sat in silence for a bit.
"... w-what's your name?" the man asked, nervously.
"Ambrose. Ambrose Lom."
"Mine's Nick Locuse."
Silence again.
"... are you someone who can... do something about this information?"
"I don't know! I don't even know what it is!"
"Well, Minotaurus told me to give it to you. He was very urgent about it."
Ambrose looked at her lap. Her eyes felt weird. "He was just... keeping a promise..." She sniffled. Damnit, she didn't even particularly like Minotaurus. He was rude, unsociable... brilliant, honorable, respectful in his own way... ok so maybe she missed him a little but that didn't mean she should be crying.
Except she was. She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "Just tell me what you found."
Nick looked around, as if concerned someone would overhear. "That electromagnetic field you found? Well, thanks to the data you provided, I was able to get a clear picture of, well it turned out to be an electrostatic field, and it was interacting with the background field of the city oddly, so I-"
Ambrose held up a hand. "Nick, man, I'm not a scientist. Layman's terms?"
Nick took a deep breath, and said, "Whatever's generating that field did not come from this universe."
The sentence shocked her out of mourning. It took a few seconds for Ambrose to realize her mouth was hanging open. "Wuh... what? No. That's-"
"It's a fact. The only explanation for the way that field interacted with regular matter is that whatever's generating it came from a place with different universal constants. Very slightly different, but still different."
"Wow." Ambrose sat back on the bench, absorbing. "That's... not what I was expecting." She frowned, then, remembering how Minotaurus had warned her about getting into this.
The two sat in an uncomfortable silence, neither really knowing what to say.
"Uh... nice watch," tried Ambrose. Nick grinned excitedly, and brought up his hand.
"Yeah, it's entirely mechanical. You get the time from reading these slivers here, called 'hands', right now it's... uhh..." Nick fumbled with the display, and Ambrose glanced over. "6:30pm," she proclaimed. Nick stopped fumbling and blinked. "Uh... yeah." He looked around bashfully. "I uh... mostly just grab the time off the 'net," he admitted. Ambrose nodded and made sympathetic noises.
They sat awkwardly some more.
Finally, Ambrose exhaled, and got up. "Well buddy, thanks for telling me, but I'm not really sure what I can do with that information."
"Yeah... yeah." Nick looked towards Administration. "I was going to tell them after you. My favor to Minotaurus took priority."
Ambrose smiled. "I understand. Well! I need to get back home."
Nick looked startled. "You're leaving? But the streets, they're not safe!"
Ambrose waved him off. "Oh I'll be fine. I got here, didn't I?"
Nick grumbled, "Well, yes..."
"I appreciate your concern, but I need to get back to my apartment!" All my stuff is there and I haven't been outside for this long in a while and it's making me anxious and you smell kind of funny and oh god I probably do too, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime!"
Nick grinned. "Yeah, I'd like that." But Ambrose was already leaving. In her haste, she completely missed Reinhardt striding purposefully across the park and into Administration. Nick sighed. He'd almost hoped Ambrose would wait with him. His appointment with the Administrators wasn't for a few more hours, so he had some time to kill. He pulled out a small holographic reader and settled in to wait.
---
Julia clung to Phil's arm as they navigated the deserted streets and walkways. She shivered and jumped at the occasional shout, distant boom, or flash of running figures. With nightfall the damage to the city from the day's events became more apparent; streetlights, self-illuminating sidewalks, and other sources of light flickered threateningly or never turned on at all.
Phil cursed his luck, wishing the Administrative Bloc were closer to Minotaurus's spiraling tower, instead of halfway across the city. Most forms of public transportation were down at this point, which meant they were walking the whole way. At least he'd finally gotten access to some tourist's maps, available for public download on the city's still-active 'net.
The long walk through the darkened city was not good for Phil's nerves. While the streets appeared deserted, there was always a sense of some unseen predator, waiting, watching. Minute to minute, it seemed inevitable that their progress would expose them to the numerous threats lurking just beyond detection.
They walked for hours under this oppressive gloom, occasionally pausing at one of Balance's forcefields, following it until they could find a way through. The barriers only made the journey that much more tortuous.
Finally, they rounded a corner, and were rewarded with light from a security cordon flooding the streets. Julia started to run towards the light, but Phil put a hand in front of her, and continued forwards cautiously.
Their footsteps rang unchallenged against the looming buildings. Phil drew his rifle. The silence was unnerving him. They crept towards the lights, waiting for a sign of life; a challenge, the sound of a weapon being cocked, the shuffling of impatient feet... anything.
The pair stepped beyond the floodlights illuminating the street and found only bodies. A few of the city's security forces lay around the lights, mangled beyond recognition, often with gaping holes blasted out of them. Julia cowered behind Phil; the armored commando hefted his rifle, and continued onwards towards Administration.
They'd actually been in the Administrative Bloc for some time; given the multi-layered nature of New Shambhala, city Blocs were divided into cubes. Phil and Julia were currently on the top of the cube that was the Administrative Bloc, but the buildings they'd been passing and the unseen depths beneath their feet were all part of the same section of the city. Administration was but a single building in the Administrative Bloc; the most important, to be sure, but every other building in the Bloc served its purpose in running New Shambhala. Or at least, they used to. Now only Administration was left.
The building itself was low-standing, and strongly resembled a squat, wide mushroom. A short cylinder, maybe 3,000 feet in diameter, was topped by a convex disc. The entire thing was brilliantly white, though only small portions were currently illuminated by emergency floodlights. A circular parkway wrapped around the building, sandwiched by sprawling promenades, which acted as buffers between Administration, the parkway, and the surrounding buildings.
It was through this parkway which the two contestants now walked. Phil paused as they passed a bench; a glint on the wrist of the body laying next to it had caught his attention. He lifted the corpse's hand and checked the watch. It had been broken around the same time the man's chest and head had been blown apart, the hands of its anachronistic clockface reading approximately 8:45. His armor's internal clock read 13:52; it was not military time. New Shambhala's day was a little under thirty hours, and he'd synched up his own clock to the city's a while ago. He stood.
"This happened around five hours ago. The people responsible are either dead or gone. Either way, we should continue towards that building." He gestured towards Administration, and Julia nodded weakly, pale face still transfixed on the grisly sight before her. The pair trudged onwards. Occasionally, they would come across the body of some alien or another; a tangled mess of limbs here, a large, limp pile of hair-like tendrils there... the only thing which struck Phil as odd about the alien corpses were that, while all the humans had some large hole blown in their bodies somewhere, the aliens all appeared to have been beaten, stabbed, or sliced to death. Whatever had been firing at the humans had either been ignoring the aliens, or had been used by them.
They exited the parkway and walked across the promenade towards Administration, and Phil barely had time to notice that a makeshift barricade had been established around what must have been the main entrance, before several uniformed humans popped up from behind the barriers, some of them pointing weapons at the pair.
A voice rang out across the empty way. "Remove your helmet!"
Phil raised his rifle. Only two were armed, and at this distance he could probably take them all out... but there was no cover anywhere near, and Julia was right next to him. He was considering just tossing a grenade and running when Julia put a hand on his arm. He turned to look at her, and found her gazing up at him. "Please, Phil. They are human, and we are human. I don't think... I think you should do as they say."
Phil considered. If this really was a human sanctuary, it wasn't very secure. Only two weapons for seven guards? Still... they probably wouldn't shoot if he complied, and he was interested in seeing what other armaments they might be hiding inside. He holstered his rifle, and removed his helmet.
The two armed guards lowered their weapons and motioned for the pair to approach. A third stepped forward, waiting until Phil and Julia were closer, before saying "Corporal Leonard O'Shanssey," glancing at Phil's armor and weapons, "... Sir. Sorry about that, but we had to make certain you weren't an alien. Some of them look the same as us, if you don't count the head. We needed to see your face." The guard offered a hand, and Phil shook it. "Welcome to Administration, the last secure, safe area for humans in this damned city."
Phil nodded towards the armed guards. "You seem to be rather lacking in weapons, Corporal."
The man nodded. "New Shambhala's security forces are normally armed with non-lethal, non-projectile weapons. We were attacked about five hours ago by a group of aliens armed with five of these gauss rifles," gesturing towards the guns. "They're centuries below the weapons tech I'd prefer to be using, but still excellently designed. We think they were cobbled together from pieces of broken maglev trams. Ingenious, really, and designed to be universally compatible with any anatomy." The corporal looked out across the promenade, towards the parkway. "You've probably already seen how effective they are," he added grimly.
The three humans stood in a respectful silence for a bit. The corporal shook himself. "Come on in. We could use someone with combat experience, which," he looked up and down Phil's blood-spattered armor, "it looks like you have. I'll take you to see Vanhart." The corporal led them through the doors, and the other guards resumed their positions, keeping an eye out for more potential threats.
Phil frowned. "Who?"
"Some bigwig security consultant from outside the city. He arrived something like seven, eight hours ago... jeez, only eight hours? It feels like longer..."
They were walking through a rather cluttered entry hall, obviously now converted into serving whatever purposes the now-vacant peripheral buildings of the Administrative Bloc had previously handled, as the gutted mechanism of the Administration struggled to remain functional. The corporal continued. "Anyway, he came in and had a chat with all the Administrators, and when he came out he was head of all the city's remaining security forces."
The corporal led them up a flight of stairs to the second floor.
"He only had two hours to reorganize us before those damned aliens attacked. There were twelve of them, and they only had five guns, but we had nothing. They would have made it inside if Vanhart hadn't joined us in the field and started carving them up with that sword of his."
They turned down a hallway, and entered a waiting room.
The corporal gestured towards the large double-doors on the other side of the room. "Anyway. He's in there now, talking with the other Administrators. They basically made him head of goddamn-near-everything after he saved our bacon. He's apparently got some blueprints for cheap and easy weapons that we can make ourselves; we've converted the Special Dipolmatic Hanger into an assembly line, since it's the biggest one and it's not like it'll be used any time soon.
"He should be out soon, and then I'm almost certain he'll want to talk to you." The corporal pointedly looked only at Phil for that last sentence. Julia apparently didn't notice. "Feel free to have a seat while you wait." The corporal left, and Phil and Julia were alone.
Phil didn't particularly feel like sitting down, and Julia seemed content to wander around the room, admiring the various paintings and artistic works. A few minutes passed before the double-doors opened and Vandrel Reinhardt strode out. Phil snorted. "So, you're calling yourself 'Vanhart' now?"
"Watch your mouth. Fortune smiles upon you that I so need you in the future," Reinhardt cut in, placing a hand on Phil's shoulder. "Matthew Vanhart, if you please. I've been hoping you'd show up. These soldiers are woefully inexperienced and underequipped. An instructor as skilled as you could make all the difference, with the experience with such materials as you possess."
"Well, I'm not exactly the teaching type..."
Julia bounced over. "La, I think it is a wonderful idea!" She grabbed Phil's hands. "Phil, you should accept! You would finally no longer be working alone! I have only been a hinderence... la, but with these men, you may find some worthy of following you!"
"I-"
Reinhardt spoke into a communicator on his wrist. "sergeant Cobb, I require your presence."
"What's-"
The door behind them opened, and another uniformed security guard walked out, and saluted. "Sir!"
"Would you please escort this man to the barracks? I've finally found you someone that can teach your men to be the brutally effective warriors they need to be."
The sergeant grinned, and saluted again. "Sir, yes sir!" Turning towards Phil, "This way, sir!"
Phil threw a helpless glance over his shoulder as he was escorted from the room. "Pay him no mind, I assure you that he shall serve your men well," Reinhardt added with a smirk, in his own way of consoling the sergeant. The sergeant and Girnham left, leaving Reinhardt and the girl alone.
The girl crossed her arms. "You've been busy."
"Indeed. I want to thank you for your gift, earlier. Such technologies as these people have developed are invaluable to my plans of establishing my presence in this land."
The girl smiled. "You enjoyed that, did you? I see you used it well."
The tyrant nodded. "The Administrators were more than willing to give me anything I asked for after I demonstrated my competence. They are also all convinced that the alien resistence movement is very real and very organized. However..."
Reinhardt pursed his lips. "There is still a strong alien presence amongst the Administration, as much as it pains me to see such an otherwise magnificent society blightened by the subhuman taint. I have stoked the fires of prejudice where I am able, but I will need more gifts from you to sway them to my cause."
The girl nodded. "I understand. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to remain here for a while longer. Girnham," she jerked her head towards the door Phil had left through earlier, "may get suspicious if I disappear now. I must maintain my cover. But," she held up a hand, warding off Reinhardt's protest, "I am still capable of operating as necessary, even here. In fact, I may be able to do more here than out there..." the girl trailed off, already formulating plans for a schism between the human and non-human Administrators. "Give me the rest of the night. You'll have the backing of a human-only Administration, and the permission to begin a purge of all non-humans by morning."
Reinhardt almost smiled. "Satisfactory."
The girl approached him. "There is one more thing," she began.
"Yes?"
"I think we're ready to check for replies from the Network."
"Excellent." Reinhardt prepared himself, clearing his throat and brushing his jacket free of any wrinkles, and the girl reached out with one finger touched his forehead.
Again, they found themselves in the familiar circular room, although this time they were alone. Reinhardt looked around, stroking his beard in contemplation. "Where is your brother? I had been under the impression he would be joining us."
The girl actually had no idea. Her brother's absence was more unexpected for her than it was for Reinhardt; from what she understood of the multiverse (which was very little), time did not so much "flow" as "jump" from one nexus of causal worldtracks to the next. Causal worldtracks which shared points of similarity, like for instance, her and her brother, were more likely to temporally intersect. Considering all the points of similarity she shared with her brother, not including their recent efforts with the Network, he should have appeared here, at this point in time, whenever he happened to try. Time would simply redirect him, so that his worldtrack would intersect with hers and Reinhardt's.
That it hadn't was worrying.
"He must be busy," she lied. "I imagine he'll come when he's available, or when he feels his presence is required."
Reinhardt shrugged. "No matter. Let us peruse the replies to my message." The girl nodded, and the room darkened, leaving the center illuminated.
"I cannot predict the exact nature of each reply, so I'll be rendering them in whatever form they appear here, in the center of the room," the girl explained. The two collaborators stepped away from the center, and the girl nodded.
Instantly, the room was filled with a cacaphony of alien noises, words, crashes, explosions, all with an accompanying whirlwind of images swirling through the center of the room. Reinhardt and the girl struggled to make out anything coherent.
"Greetings, Master Vandrel Rrrrrreinhardtttt, Iiii am indifferent to do battllllle, depending, of couurrrrrrse, on many new words. Therrrksshtrre's one in particular I WANT a chance at freedom. Fffcchkkkwwwwwe have only just managed TO DESTROY an island with a vvvviolatevvvolcano and an ocean. This is SyvMagXadrBriaRikYOUR HOPEKareTitaThomBlaKSSHH-
Images spasmed through the center of the room: a ghostly spectre floating atop of disc; an incomprehensible mathematical fractal; a giant, unblinking eye; things which no mortal mind was ever meant to see, with oases of mundanity sprinkled amongst the mind-searing images.
The girl turned to Reinhardt and shouted, "Something is wrong!" over the voices and the noise.
Reinhardt glared back at her. "Obviously! What sort of fell machinations are these? What foolishness is this?", he said, pointing angrily at the disc.
The girl shot him a glance. "Hang on! I'm going to try something!" She wasn't exactly certain how her multiversal communicator worked; she knew she was exploiting the already-established link between herself and her brother to broadcast and recieve, but that was about it. She thought for a moment. If she considered her transmitter to be a lightning rod for these messages, then perhaps to attract them with more coherency, she would have to enhance the rod. Since her transmitter was based upon quantumly entangled particles, she reasoned that creating more entangled particles would strengthen the transmitter's attractive properties. As a bonus, creating those particles was well within the means of her internal cybernetics.
After a few minutes, the sounds and images became less frenzied.
"-am Xadrez, and I am also in a universe-spanning battle to the death. Vandrel Reinhardt, if you can help us fight back against the Gr-who? No, I don't know. This isn't what I wanted. No! Also no. Maybe. Listen, I'm going to go over there, knock on her door, and then we're gonna fu-Riko, and I'm also stuck in a battle to death. I did not catch the entire message you were going to send me, but judging by your wording you too are stuck in one against your will. I have contacts with the outside world, and if you would like to cooperate, and escape from these arenas-"
The girl and Reinhardt listened intensely to each fractured message, knowing that, whoever these people were, they would soon all be joined together by a common cause.
"-until this moment, unaware of the existance of multiple battles. I'm sorry to say that my methods of contact through the multiverse are limited. I spent several hours alone on working out a way of returning your call for aid. Nevertheless, if you are in need of another individual joining your-who you are, but I'm in another of these battle-to-the-death things you mentioned. I'm guessing it's the same deal with you, randomly pulled from your home to kill some people with no real explanation. Honestly, I'm content with just escapin-variational approximations in discrete nonlinear next-nearest-neighbor couplings phase mismatch on second harmonic integrable quantum spi-many new words. Self, Magog, chaos, lost. These words are all mine. I am in a battle somewhere, on an island with a volcano and an ocean. In exchange for your help finding myself, I will make 'ally' one of-"
Despite the girl's meddlings, the replies were still frustratingly incomplete. She could tell they were missing what must be valuable pieces of information. She perked up when two more replies resolved themselves, each mentioning the same entity.
"-carnage. To this end, I shall do my best to aid in your endeavor to overthrow these 'grandmasters'. I shall, perhaps, even bring this message up with those whom I am pitted against. I purpose that a list of these 'grandmasters' be composed, along with any known or useful information. The master of this particular battle is one that calls itself The Monit-little girl here, and no chance in hell I’m letting her die, powerful entities or not. The Monitor is the name of the one holding-"
The girl added "The Monitor" to her mental list of Grandmasters; it was a short list. She and Reinhardt continued to listen.
"-been abducted and forced to do battle. This same communications channel should serve well for a good while. As for overthrowing, we're certainly interested, but we're hardly in a position to do-this day! Curse the foul Zelmeraga what espouse tradition and worship the Olmerang! Rise, rise to-Identify. Titan. Irrelevant. Yes. Searching. Family. Irreleva-the Blank, replying to Mr. Reinhardt's trans-universal message. Sorry I am a bit late on the reply, I've only just managed to get a hold of proper technology. Things are a bit chaotic on my end, and I would really appreci-onderful. Great. Excellent. The sooner we can kill these bastards, the better. There's one in particular who I would love to disem-"
The messages flowed in, some accompanied by sound, others by images, others by both, or none. Some were merely text. Some emitted strange odors. Some radiated nothing but emotion. They were as numerous as they were varied, and Reinhardt and the girl stood and listened for hours, attempting to distinguish the ones which seemed to be replying to them from the melting pot of communications.
After a while the girl gestured. The messages faded, and the room brightened once more. "I believe we have all that we need, for now. I'm not certain how to communicate with any of these beings directly, though..."
"That will be uneccessary. A second blanket message, broadcast into the multiverse once more, should be enough. I will tell them that I have recieved their replies, and that I shall soon find a way to contact them all personally."
The girl looked at Reinhardt, and he shrugged. "It doesn't matter if it's true. Likely, many of these beings will die before I can make good on my promise, and it will give them... hope."
The girl nodded. "All right. I'll also embed some additional data into this message, essentially detailing what I did to better resolve these replies. It should allow our future allies better reception for other multiverse messages, though we're along way from direct, real-time communication. At the very least it will allow them to receive any of our future messages with greater ease, and perhaps communicate amongst themselves, to a limited degree. Ready when you are."
Reinhardt gathered himself and faced the girl. He cleared his throat and proceeded to give his oration, having much experience in the field as a ruler.
"Beings of the multiverse, denizens of all that heed to the whim of the gods, the day has came for us to unite, to forge a new era. Together we shall form a mighty union, we shall come together and crush all opposition beneath our combined feet. I, Lord Vandrel Reinhardt, am an experienced master in tactical planning. My armies have conquered lands far and wide and brought all that oppose us to their knees, hacking their heads from their pitiful necks to punish them for their misdeeds. Future allies! I have heard your replies, and you are not alone! With access to all of you, we could form an army more great, more powerful than ever I had layed mortal eyes upon. As a gift, I include within this message information which shall allow you to better communicate across the multiverse! We shall come together and strike back at all that oppose us! Together, the empire we form shall extend across never-before-matched boundaries, encompassing dominions never before dreamed of! My friends, my allies from all imaginable walks of life, this is it! THIS SHALL BE OUR HOUR!"
The girl nodded. "Message sent. I think it's time we got back to New Shambhala. Time may flow quickly here, but we've been standing still there for about thirty seconds too long. Breaking connection..."
There was a rushing sensation, and the two contestants found themselves back in the waiting room. "I must return to the Administrators," Reinhardt began, "there is still much to be done. You go and find Girnham, and get to work on delivering your promise. I will send you relevant information on the Administrators, which I am certain you will put to good use."
The girl bowed acknowledgement, and turned to leave the room. She paused as she opened the door, and through a glance over her shoulder. "Be seeing you, Vandrel," she said. Then she was gone. Reinhardt looked after her, briefly, before turning on his heel and returning through the double-doors.
---
Ambrose was back in her apartment, hunched in front of her cubes once more. She rocked back and forth, thinking hard. There was a puzzle here, she just knew it, and she had a few of the pieces... but she couldn't see how they fit together. Vanhart, "Julia", Minotaurus's death, the electromagnetic field from another universe, the rioting and explosions and racial tension - all of it fit together. It had to. But how?
"Graaaah!" Ambrose grabbed at her temples and whacked them with her fists. "This is so frustrating!" Vanhart had completely disappeared, and her 'net coverage was starting to get patchy as sections of the city went down, and message boards went inactive as their users died. Her sources of information were dwindling.
Letting out a frustrated "Hmph," Ambrose stuck her hands back into her cubes and began to work in earnest. If Vanhart was no longer an option, then "Julia" was obviously her prime focus. She would find this person, and then she'd get some answers.
---
The girl navigated through bustling hallways towards the barracks, pausing occasionally to ask for directions from helpful passers-by. As she was nearing her goal, a notification flashed in her vision, indicating an incoming message through her multiversal trasmitter. Curious, she answered, and was greeted by the image of Arnold Scarlet.
"Finally! I've been trying to get through to you forever. I don't know exactly what's going on but for some reason this... device... took a really long time to connect to you. Kept throwing up errors, something about 'multiversal interference' or something."
The girl nodded. "That would make sense. Message transmission through the multiverse has been less than ideal, of late," first my brother, then the messages, now Arnold... "I managed to tweak my own transmitter and increase its signal strength, but it wasn't enough."
"Yeah. Listen," Arnold removed his aviators briefly, and massaged the bridge of his nose. He looked... tired. Defeated. He put the aviators back on. "I don't have much time as it is. I don't think I can help you with this interference thing, but..." he glanced over his shoulder and moved closer to the pickup, "the... thing that's keeping me here, The Controller, he's been seeming a little flustered recently. I don't really know what's going on but I get the impression that something is worrying him, and others like him."
The girl smiled. "I think I may know the cause. This is useful intel. I suggest you start listening in on wideband multiversal frequencies. What you find may be of interest to you."
Arnold nodded. "Right. Yeah. I'll-" he looked somewhere to his side, cursed, grabbed for the camera, and the connection was cut.
The girl brought herself back to reality, to find an anonymous message waiting for her, sent across the city's dying 'net. It flashed across her vision and nearly froze her on the spot: Someone will die. You are the only one without a guardian angel. Be seeing you. -M Recovering quickly, she continued walking. But Minotaurus wasn't dead, and he knew more about her, and more about this battle, than she was comfortable with.
She would have to deal with him personally.
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