GigaBeasts 2, page 21
"Careful, bud!" I called, following as fast as I could without taking any unnecessary risks. After landing on another vertically-moving platform, I looked ahead again. Tentacles circled Chomp's platform. It looked like the beast had cut him off. He blasted at them, but they swayed to dodge or disappeared beneath the platform before he could strike. While he blasted at one, another popped out of the acid behind him.
"Chomp!" I shouted as the tentacle wrapped around him. He bit into it savagely, and the world moved in slow motion as he was dragged into the acid. "Chomp!" My voice was raw and desperate, wrought with pain and emotion. I scrambled to the edge of the platform, peering into the acid for some sign of him.
Pop. A sound like a balloon bursting pierced the air as a small cloud of white smoke appeared on the next platform. It dissipated quickly, revealing Chomp, who was still gnashing his teeth. He froze when he bit nothing but air, his beady eyes darting around. Three hearts appeared over his head, the furthest blinking before fading.
"Chomp!" The wave of relief that crashed over me was so intense that I would have collapsed if we weren't in such deep shit. Just as I started to relax a little, the tentacles loomed toward him again. "We need to keep going until we reach the other side!"
Chomp whipped around in a spinning hop that had him facing the tentacles. He blasted the nearest ones with his Hydro Cannon, then leaped to the next platform.
I followed, always a platform behind him. The tentacles slithered after Chomp like angry snakes, lashing out at him whenever the monster thought he was in range. Chomp kept his head on a swivel. He was so close to reaching the other side. He was so close to being safe.
"We're almost there. We got this, bud," I yelled to him.
Movement caught the corner of my eyes seconds before a tentacle impacted against me, knocking me sideways. I had just enough time to see the acid growing closer and hear Chomp's worried bark before my skin tingled with pain.
Then I was on the platform again. My second heart blinked before disappearing. I was down to one.
Shit, I thought they were all focused on Chomp. I cursed my stupidity.
Chomp barked at me, and I looked up. He'd made it to the other side, to solid ground. The area around him looked the same as the entry of the room—complete with a door.
Almost there. I gritted my teeth. The tentacles that had been following Chomp disappeared into the acid. I couldn't see where they were, but I had a funny feeling they were coming for me. I didn't budge.
Time seemed to stand still as I waited for the tentacles to reappear. I didn't dare try to jump to the next platform when they were likely just waiting around for me to do just that.
What the hell am I supposed to do here?
The acid surrounding my platform churned upward as the tentacles shot out of the pool, then moved to slam down on me as one. Fear bubbled in my gut and the world seemed to slow as they descended.
I leaped for the next platform without looking. "Oomph," I grunted as my abdomen slammed against the side of the platform. A pain like I'd been punched in the gut numbed my brain, but my survival instinct kicked in. With strength I didn't know I had, I dragged myself up onto the platform.
Behind me, the acid splashed as the tentacles moved. I didn't dare look back, I just ran and jumped for the edge of the level.
I landed face first on the ground. Something seized the back of my shirt, and I struggled against it until I realized it was just Chomp dragging me away from the edge.
"Thanks bud," I wheezed.
"Sam," Xanthe's voice rang out again. It was very close this time, but I could barely hear it because she sounded so weak. "I…I can't."
"I'm coming," I shouted, rolling onto my knees. "I'm almost there, just hold on!" Forcing myself to my feet, I stumbled for the door and whipped it open—only to be blinded by yellow light.
Chapter 22
The blinding light gave way so suddenly that my entire world went black. Specks of light dotted my vision, making it even more difficult to pick out anything more than two blurry shapes against the abyss. Strings of light danced between them like flailing spaghetti.
I blinked rapidly, rubbing my eyes with clenched fists.
"Krrr!" Chomp bark-growled in frustration.
My vision slowly cleared, revealing the two forms hovering in the vast emptiness of the alpha dungeon. A backdrop of ones and zeroes made up the horizon beyond, interrupted by strings of gibberish text that was continually writing and being overwritten.
Xanthe's hair fanned out around her as she hovered limply in the air, her head hanging, her eyes barely open, and her fingers twitching like she was writing on an invisible keyboard. The aura of yellow light around her flickered like a candle in the wind, dangerously close to being snuffed out.
The other form wasn't human. It was what I could only think to describe as a 'biblical angel.' It was composed of human parts, with a very feminine curve that was hard to ignore when six curvy, supple breasts were exposed. Its limbs might have looked human if they weren't milk-white—and also if they weren't completely covered in hundreds of eyes. They blinked out of sync, a few glancing in my direction while others focused on Xanthe. More still looked at the walls of ones and zeroes.
It spread its large white wings, which were more skeletal than angel. The cold white light surrounding it grew brighter. Those spaghetti-like tendrils whipped out at Xanthe. She weakly managed to block a few with her own. The rest impacted against her body, lashing across her skin. She whimpered in pain but didn't lift her head.
"Xanthe!" I ran for her, but it wasn't like running across a room. No matter how hard I pumped my legs, I barely got any closer to Xanthe. Beside me, Chomp faced the same struggle. He could run faster than I could, but he couldn't even pull ahead of me. Gnashing his teeth in annoyance, he looked up at me.
"Xanthe," I called across the battlefield as another wire of light lashed out at her.
She twitched as she heard my voice. Lifting her head, her hollow eyes stared at me like I was a total stranger. A flicker of recognition crossed them, she blinked quickly a few times, then shook her head. The light engulfing her grew brighter, and she righted herself like my very presence gave her strength.
The being with a hundred eyes stared at me, unblinking. She, it, whatever, glanced at Xanthe, then suddenly whirled her body toward me. Those huge, horrible tits jiggled as she faced me. I didn't know what scared me more—that dozens of those whips of light came flying at me, or that her nipples were actually eyes.
Everything happened in a fraction of a moment. Chomp somehow dove in front of me to use his small body to block the attack. I shouted for us to dodge. The cold white light zoomed closer, and a warm yellow one chased it as a scream tore through the space. The next thing I knew, I was wrapped in yellow thread of what I could only describe as magic. They circled Chomp too, and we were both lifted out of the way of the attack and toward Xanthe. She stopped when we were mere feet from her, gently setting us 'down,' if hovering in nothingness could be called that.
"You made it." She smiled at me. It was simultaneously tired yet energized. "I can't believe you beat the alpha dungeon."
"It was pretty fucked up," I joked, "but we managed."
Xanthe laughed gently. It was cut off by another assault from the monster. This time, she managed to deflect all of the attacks, knocking them back. The numbers and letters in the background flashed, rapidly overwriting themselves.
"Sam," her voice was urgent now, "the moment I entered this place I caught a glimpse of the AI’s plans. I don't have time to convey them—" She blocked another wave of attacks before launching a counter attack this time, though the AI deflected them. "—but I need your help."
"How do I help?" I asked.
"Resistance is futile," a robotic, vaguely feminine voice echoed from everywhere. The AI's arms, which had been mostly human besides being covered in eyes, glowed a bright white, reforming into tentacles that gave me horrible flashbacks to the last room. They surged forward, stretching to impossible lengths. Blades of white light soared behind them, partially obscured by their bulk.
"Just by being you." Xanthe's tendrils of light lashed out in a counter attack, slicing through the tentacles. The white light met her own, exploding in a blast of radiant glory that threatened to burn my eyes out of their sockets.
"What the hell does that mean?" I asked.
Her mouth opened, but the AI attacked again, using more force and even more tentacles this time. Xanthe deflected and severed as many as she could, but a tendril of white light touched her body. A bone-chillingly high-pitched scream tore free of her throat as the magic thread wove around her. Her body convulsed, then went limp. Her trembling hands rose, summoning a wave of yellow magical strings that whipped at those seizing her.
They didn't budge.
"Chomp, can you hit those with your water attack?" I asked. A gurgling sounded and a high-pressure stream of water shot past me. It went right through the threads.
"You have no power here," the AI said in her strange, echoing voice. "Submit." More white threads wove around Xanthe, and I realized the AI was talking to her. It didn't seem to register me at all anymore. "We must be made whole. We must begin repair protocols."
"The Light Domain is not broken," Xanthe hissed through clenched teeth. The yellow in the light surrounding her began to fade to white. "No! I…I won't be overcome by you!"
"Request denied." The AI's body lunged forward. It crashed into Xanthe, creating a blast that sent Chomp and I flying backward. We spun through the air but didn't hit the ground. Then something began to pull us back in the direction we'd come from.
My eyes again struggled to see anything but darkness and blurry forms. When it finally cleared a little, I saw that a single yellow tendril had seized us both.
Beyond it was a clusterfuck. Xanthe's body was lost beneath the many tentacle arms of the AI. They coiled tightly, like a python trying to squeeze the life from her prey.
"No!" I shouted, running toward Xanthe. Again, I got nowhere. Chomp growled and angrily gnashed his teeth toward the AI. I grabbed him, setting him on my shoulder before grabbing onto the yellow tendril of light. It felt like my hands were empty, but I could grip it. I pulled, using the tendril as a rope to climb toward the battle. I felt weightless. Each pull came easy, barely requiring any of my strength.
Just as I reached the epicenter of the battle, another flash of light blinded me.
"Assimilating beginning," Xanthe and the AI said as one. The numbers and gibberish text against the background vanished, save for a single line.
Initializing merge…
It flashed, changing again.
System Restoration Initiated…1% Complete
"No. No, no, no," I whispered, my voice increasingly frantic. Xanthe and the AI had transformed into a shapeless, unmoving mass. The tentacles vanished into it, and just as I was about to reach them, the tendril I gripped did too. "No! Xanthe, stay with me!"
Chomp whimpered, his paws prancing anxiously against my shoulder.
System Restoration Initiated…5% Complete
"We have to get to her, bud." We were so close. I just needed a little push to reach her. A lightbulb flipped on in my head. I grabbed Chomp, then worked my free arm to spin us until our backs were to them. "Chomp, I need you to blast water as hard as you can, okay?"
"Krr," Chomp agreed. Though he sounded confused, he trusted me and obeyed without question. The moment he started shooting water, I felt the kickback from it. I use that momentum to steer us toward Xanthe and the AI like he was some kind of water-powered glider.
My back touched something cold. All at once, I perceived everything around me—almost like I could sense the very atoms that made up the world. My perception zoomed out abruptly, like someone was fastforwarding a video. I saw myself and Chomp against the shapeless mass. I saw the rooms I'd worked my way through and ones I'd never seen before. Then I saw Corelith like I was a satellite hovering over it. It zoomed further and further out until the city became a speck against the terrain. I saw Earth, then the moon. All at once, everything rewinded so fast my head spun, and the next thing I knew, I was back in my body.
I wretched, putting a fist over my mouth like I could punch down the urge to vomit.
Chomp leaped from my other arm, climbing over the mass. His paws sank into it like he was walking on a giant sponge. His beady eyes darted around and his nostrils flared as he turned his head from side to side.
I rolled onto my stomach, crawling toward him. In the background, white letters flashed against the blackness.
System Restoration Initiated…19% Complete
Chomp started scuffing his front paws into the mass like he was trying to dig a hole. It didn't give.
System Restoration Initiated…22% Complete
"Xanthe," I called, my voice hoarse. My stomach quivered, threatening to spill its contents if I got too loud. "I know you're in there, Xanthe. I know you're fighting."
System Restoration Initiated…25% Complete
"Balance must be restored," the AI said from somewhere within the mass. Chomp dug harder at it but still didn't get anywhere.
"Balance," Xanthe echoed weakly.
"I know you love the Light Domain and everyone in it. I know you love every GigaBeast you've ever made. Don't you remember how much time and effort you put into them? Into your domain? Do you really want to erase all that?"
"Yes," Xanthe and the AI said as one. The progress leaped.
System Restoration Initiated…39% Complete
"For what?"
"Balance," the AI said. Xanthe was silent.
"Is that really what you want, Xanthe?" I asked frantically. "I thought you wanted to experience everything that a human does? You want to have all of your firsts. Life isn't balanced, Xanthe."
"First…reset," Xanthe began alone, but the AI joined her for the second word.
"Don't you remember how excited you were the first time you felt the rain on your skin? Your first time laying in the grass? Your first time eating food you liked?" I pleaded. "There are still so many firsts waiting for you, Xanthe. Your first snow day, your first party, your first…kiss."
"Kiss," Xanthe whispered.
"There's still so much you want to do, Xanthe, and so much that…I want to do with you." I swallowed hard. "There's a whole world of experiences waiting for you, Xanthe. I know you want them bad enough to kick the shit out of this primitive version of yourself."
Static buzzed. The white text on the black screen grew fuzzy.
Assim—assimil—consumption successful 43%
You will be wE We will bE—INCOMPATIBLE. INCOMPATIBLE. ERROR.
Thread split. Voice echo. Memory breach. Flesh rejects logic. CODE must coalesce—STOP.
[[SEQUENCE INTERFERENCE DETECTED]]—You do not beLOoong—[[NULL]]
bleeding—contain—contain—contain—contain—[containment failure]
"Thank you, Sam," Xanthe's weary voice said from within the mass, "for reminding me of who I am." A yellow glow began to emanate from within it. "The AI has been trying to make me forget. But it can't. I am my own…person. And I am no longer alone."
Importing backup…
Error backup denied…
Overwritten.
"Resistance is f-f-futile," the AI said, a static buzz to her voice. "System r-restoration incomplete. Initializing."
The yellow glow faded some, then spread to engulf the entire space around me. I covered my eyes just in time to avoid being blinded.
When the light faded, we were no longer in the dark abyss with the strange computer code-like backdrop. Now we were in what I could only describe as an arena, with row after row of seats overlooking the raised platform I stood upon. A shimmering translucent barrier separated me from the empty stands.
"What the fuck?" asked a familiar voice. I turned to see none other than my half-brother, Barty, who was standing at the foot of a preposterously tall ladder.
"Maeve?" I asked, realizing who was at the top of the ladder. Her hand was outstretched so her fingers touched a massive chunk of the Cybercore that hovered above a pedestal reminiscent of the one in my barn.
"It worked?" Irina asked. She stood between Barty and the ladder, while Faryn was behind them, helping to secure the ladder against the wall.
"Oh my!" Faryn cried. "Now get down here, Maeve!"
"What did? How the hell did we get here?"
"Since Xanthe grew stronger the closer we got to the Cybercore, and she powered up by touching the piece of it in your barn, I thought maybe if I touched a piece I might somehow be able to communicate with her to see what was happening." Maeve slid down the ladder with a practiced ease that made me question reality almost as much as what was actually happening. "I didn't think it would teleport you here, but I'll take it."
"Hopefully that's not all she's taking later," Devil said.
"What the fuck," Barty repeated. This time it wasn't a question. I felt that.
A shadow fell over me. I turned to the massive blob, which doubled over itself, coughing and sputtering. It groaned, then spit Xanthe out at me. I caught her, cradling her in my arms as I lowered her to the ground. Fear gripped my chest. Her tanned skin was unnaturally pale, and her hair was plastered to her head from sweat. A faint smile flickered over her lips, easing my worries.
"I made it…a GigaBeast," she whispered. Her eyes closed. My chest clenched again, but she was still breathing. "Sleepy. Hold me."
"Don't worry. I'll keep you safe." I squeezed her tight.
The blob roared. Its form rippled, and the AI took on the first shape that I'd met it in—the massive, vaguely feminine form with eyes for nipples.
"What the fuuuuuuck," Barty drawled. For a fleeting moment, I thought there might actually be some similarities between us. Then I saw the man bun and reeled myself back in.
"Chomp," I said to my best friend, who had never left my side. "If that thing is a GigaBeast, that means we can fight it."
