Supercute Second Future, page 15
‘But this isn’t a combat mission.’ Meihui sounded aggrieved. ‘We’re just travelling on a spaceship.’
‘We’re on permanent combat mission rules ever since Arid Rez started chasing us.’
‘I don’t remember that. Amowie, are we on combat mission rules?’
‘Eh…I don’t know.’
‘Well if Meihui’s wearing cat ears I’m wearing them too,’ declared Raquel. Grey fluffy ears appeared on her head.
‘Now I’m feeling left out.’ Super Cat Ears immediately appeared on Birgit’s head.
‘Everyone stop it!’ said Amowie, trying to keep her voice down. ‘People are looking at us.’
They were attracting amused glances from some of their fellow travellers, all of whom were dressed in a much more businesslike manner, with extra body armour and high resistance military helmets appropriate for the conditions in Helixio.
‘Cat ears make us more vulnerable to lasers.’
‘But they give extra glamour points.’
‘There’s no glamour in Helixio. Everyone should take them off.’
‘It’s not a rule!’
‘Well, we’ll make it one.’ Amowie was not actually the leader of the group. Keoma Bishōjo had never managed to appoint a leader without it causing endless arguments, and had instead settled for collective responsibility. She did possess some moral authority, being a Supercute SuperSuperFan.
‘Fine,’ snapped Meihui. Her Super Cat Ears disappeared. ‘I’ve got plenty of glamour points already.’
‘We’ve all got plenty of glamour points,’ said Raquel.
‘I’ve got the most.’
‘Stop this!’ insisted Amowie. ‘We’re on an important mission. Arid Rez could appear at any moment. We can’t argue about glamour points at a time like this.’
‘Didn’t we have a rule not to argue about glamour points anyway?’ said Birgit.
Amowie sighed. ‘I can’t remember.’ Their rules tended to be made and forgotten about quite rapidly, depending on the situation. It was hard to keep up with them all and they rarely did.
—
Mox and Mitsu lay on their favourite couches in their private rooms at Supercute Headquarters. Visors appeared over their faces. They entered their own space, travelling through their secret route till they met Igraine.
‘We’ve opened a path to SWIX,’ she informed them. There was some blurring of their perceptions as Igraine led them through uncharted and unguarded space till they stood in front of the same large metal barrier Eupraxia had encountered.
‘Thanks Igraine. We’ll see you back at headquarters.’ Igraine departed. Mox looked at Mitsu. ‘She really suits her short blue hair.’
‘I know. It’s good having an AIFU that really gets the Supercute aesthetic.’ Their enthusiasm for Igraine’s aesthetics did produce a few quiet seconds of regret, because they’d liked their old AIFU very much and though they never spoke of it, they both regretted that they’d been obliged to discharge him.
Mitsu ran her wrist over the metal barrier, producing a doorway more easily that Eupraxia had managed. Both she and Mox had been adventuring through cyberspace since the earliest days of total immersion and there were few places they couldn’t enter. As they walked inside SWIX they were confronted by turrets, ag-scans designed to detect any hostile intrusion. The more sophisticated could detect any human brainwave pattern. The turrets ignored Mox and Mitsu, not registering their presence. They walked on. Above them on the ceiling were a cluster of drones, the golden bat-like machines that had swarmed over Eupraxia. As Mox and Mitsu passed underneath they remained stationary, also unable to detect the intruders.
Past these initial defences they came to another silver barrier, stretching unbroken in all directions. Mitsu studied it for a few moments, then reached out to touch it, causing it to vanish. In front of them was the private space of the SWIX stock exchange. Between them and the streams of data flowing freely was a pale blue barrier behind which was a row of floating turrets. Mox and Mitsu remained silent, not communicating with each other. They had no need to. In a situation like this they knew each other’s thoughts. They stepped through the barrier. Alerted to something, the turrets advanced but again were unable to discover the source of the intrusion. Mox laid her hand on the largest floating turret, quite gently, opening a small hatch on the side. Inside were several buttons, one of which she pressed. The turret’s barrels drooped towards the floor as it sank to the ground. They did the same with the other two turrets. Nothing now stood between them and the data they intended to corrupt. They shared a satisfied glance. Much of the world’s financial information flowed through this area of SWIX, and they knew exactly what they were looking for.
—
Ruosteenoja allowed Cutie to enter his private space. ‘Make it quick, I’m busy.’
‘You’re hiding in a tunnel from a Supercute search party.’
‘I’m not hiding. I’m relocating.’
‘I’d relocate more quickly if I were you. Supercute’s Head of Security will be here in seven minutes and he has a troop of armed guards fanning out through the tunnels west of here. You need to go east. I hope you’re resistant to radiation. There’s a lot of contamination when you get near the river.’
Ruosteenoja started walking. He didn’t much like talking to Cutie but he had reason to be grateful. Twice now the AimYa employee had contacted him with detailed information about Ben Castle’s movements. Had he not, Ruosteenoja would have been trapped. Ruosteenoja didn’t fear Castle but he had a squadron with him, more than the assassin could fight.
‘Did Ivo CC actually make any plans for getting you out of London if things went wrong?’
Ruosteenoja didn’t reply. His internal monitor showed rising radiation levels. Many of the tunnels beneath London were still extremely dangerous, polluted and irradiated by the long-lasting isotopes released during the Thames Estuary disaster. He had to squeeze his way past three old carriages from an underground train, abandoned on this disused part of the line. The tunnel walls were damp and the tiling in the stations was slowly being covered by green mould. He walked on, mostly aware of the real world around him but still paying attention to Cutie who walked alongside him in an augmented reality. There was no movement of air and the tunnels were hot.
‘Ms Lesuuda survived. I’m not sure your mission was worthwhile.’
Ruosteenoja halted. ‘Leave here, Cutie.’
Cutie looked hurt. ‘I’m only trying to help. We are on the same side, after all. If you do make it out of here alive, perhaps we’ll meet again at the opera.’
‘The opera? In Paris?’
‘No, Glyndebourne Two. Mox and Mitsu are planning to visit. The Supercute girls can never stop pretending to be intellectuals. One reason I’ve always disliked them. Bye!’
Waving goodbye as if she’d been talking to a good friend, Cutie disappeared. Ruosteenoja quickened his pace. He wasn’t far from the river. Once above ground there were several safer spots he could head for. He was interested in Cutie’s information about the opera. Ruosteenoja didn’t want to leave Britain without completing his task. Assassinating Mox and Mitsu would earn him a very substantial amount of money. Money was Ruosteenoja’s main motivation and always had been.
—
‘We have to register for the fights. Birgit, this is your last chance to back out.’
‘I’m fine.’ Birgit maintained her confidence. ‘I’ve been practicing.’
Amowie looked at the rotating holograms of some of the champion fighters Birgit could expect to face in the ring. Huge, savage characters, all much larger than Demolition Boy. ‘Of course you’ll be fine,’ she said, and managed to sound almost sincere. ‘We have confidence in you.’
Shortly afterwards, in the fight preparation room, Amowie, Raquel and Meihui weren’t pretending to be confident. Birgit was next door in the bio-science room, having her personality transferred into the body of Demolition Boy.
‘I never came to these fights before,’ said Meihui. ‘They never seemed fair.’
The others agreed. ‘You have to fight against these gigantic opponents. Have you seen the size of Jupiter Planet Smasher? How’s Demolition Boy going to beat him?’
‘Demolition Boy is lighter. He can move faster.’
‘He’s lighter because he doesn’t have such big muscles or as much internal hardening. Jupiter Planet Smasher only has to catch him one time and it’s over.’
‘Birgit still seems confident.’
‘Maybe she just wanted the chance to try out Demolition Boy’s body.’
They all laughed. At that moment Demolition Boy walked into the room. Taller than the girls, he was lithe, bare-chested with well defined musculature, his dark blue hair streaming over his shoulders.
‘Nice abs, Birgit.’
‘Beziki!’
—
Mox and Mitsu were in good spirits as AimYa’s share price plummeted. Mox laughed as Igraine informed them that SWIX had been obliged to temporarily suspend trading in their shares. ‘That’s so humiliating for them.’
‘SWIX is investigating them for fraud!’ Mitsu laughed too. ‘They suspect AimYa’s board was up to something underhand and it went wrong.’
Igraine was cautious. ‘AimYa will suspect you were behind it.’
‘That’s fine, Igraine,’ said Mitsu. ‘We want them to suspect that. It can’t be proved and SWIX won’t believe we were involved. We didn’t leave any traces behind.’
‘All they know is there was a lot of highly dubious share dealing involving AimYa and an apparent attempt by their directors to syphon off billions of their shareholders’ money into private offshore accounts.’ They were still laughing. Igraine had rarely seen them in such good humour.
‘What will happen now?’
‘AimYa will back off from attacking us. They’ll have to. We’ve already let C19 know we suspect them of conspiring against us. If they try to retaliate they’ll face some heavy sanctions.’
‘They’ll also face another share price disaster. We’ve let them know what we’re capable of.’
Igraine had been present when Mox and Mitsu shot Moe Bennie dead. She already knew what they were capable of. ‘I’ve heard talk from other AIFU’s. You’re right that no one knows you were responsible, but the whole affair has garnered a lot of interest. AIFUs don’t like it when things happen without a reason. It makes us uneasy.’
‘I can understand that. We used to feel the same. When Supercute started growing so much, we learned it’s not that unusual. Sometimes things start and you never know why, or what was behind it. You just have to deal with the consequences.’
‘Like Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend,‘ said Mox.
‘What do you mean?’ Igraine was curious.
‘Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend was said to have started off as an anonymous piece of fan fiction. A bad piece of fan fiction. Then someone wrote a better version. After that it was turned into quite an explicit piece of yaoi manga and then it was made into a short film by a company in Korea who didn’t pay anything for the rights but put it into Free Global Film Space anyway.’
‘That company told people their film starred the real Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend though as far as anyone knew they were just fictional characters. But they said they were the originals and the first piece of fan fiction had really been written about them. So the actors that played Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend — or the actors that actually were them — both became minor celebrities and they ended up being interviewed on Fab 306 where they turned out to be quite an entertaining couple. Kirei19, who is of course not an actual person or even a physical reality, interviewed them a few more times and soon after they got their own show. Now Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend are regulars on Fab 306. They’re popular with our fans. We still don’t know if they’re the original Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend. We don’t even know if there ever was an original couple. They just seem to have emerged from nothingness into reality.’
‘That would have troubled us at one time,’ said Mitsu. ‘People emerging with no discernible backgrounds. Fictional characters becoming real and you can’t tell if they were ever fiction or not. But we’re used to it now. Whoever they are, they present a good show and we sell a lot of Silvex and his Supercute Boyfriend merchandise. It’s a profitable line.’
Igraine brought up life-size holograms of the characters in question. ‘Is Silvex’s boyfriend super cute?’
‘I’d say so. He’s probably had some cosmetic modifications but it’s good work, you can’t tell just by looking at him.’
—
Sorg 4kckl18: People are terrible, I wish they’d all just leave me alone.
4kctf22: The air is so full of smoke and dust you can’t breathe outside. I haven’t left my house for eight days.
4kgta91: I have the worst boyfriend ever.
4kgwz30: I’m in love. It’s never going to go right. We’re just too different. I’ll always be unhappy.
—
Mox and Mitsu sat on a cracked, blackened balcony, wiping dirt from their faces. Above them the dark sky was full of smoke, ash and swirling debris.
‘Fuck this,’ muttered Mitsu. She shook her head. ‘And fuck these Sadanumi simulations.’
‘I can’t believe it brought us here.’
‘The destruction of Beijing.’
‘We already had to live through this once.’
Mitsu shuddered. She and Mox had witnessed the destruction of Beijing in real life. They’d watched from a hill far outside the city where they’d been visiting a Buddhist Temple as part of their business negotiations, looking on as the gigantic meteorite exploded with a force far greater than any man-made nuclear explosion, gouging a trench twenty kilometres long. They’d taken shelter with the terrified monks inside the temple, hiding from the falling wreckage and struggling to breathe as the enormous cloud of smoke and ash fanned out over the region. Twenty-five million people had died in the initial disaster; many more had succumbed afterwards.
‘Why would Sadanumi make a simulation of this?’
‘It is an uncomfortable situation, I suppose.’
Mox looked around her. ‘This balcony isn’t safe.’ Behind them the door into the apartment was broken and blocked. There was no retreat and nowhere to go.
‘Remember the fire and the rain at the same time?’
Mitsu nodded. ‘I do. Black rain.’ Not far away three huge tower blocks had collapsed into each other and flames were raging from the twisted remains. People still seemed to be scrambling from windows though it was hard to make out in the gloom. Mitsu put her hand to her face. ‘Here comes the rain.’
They sat there miserably as black rain began to pour from the sky.
‘Can we really not get out of this?’
‘It’s an hour minimum, even at basic level.’
‘We could break the code.’
‘We promised ourselves we wouldn’t do that.’ There was no legitimate way of departing. They’d be here for another fifty minutes at least unless they cheated, something they’d agreed not to do while experiencing the Sadanumi simulations. Mox’s lips tightened at the sounds of more screaming from below. Moments later there was an enormous explosion only half a kilometre away. For a moment the sky lit up revealing the devastated ruins around them. Flames from the explosion leapt high into the sky, even as the black rain poured down.
‘This is a nightmare.’
‘It was a nightmare the first time.’
‘No wonder our brains never went back to normal.’ There was more screaming nearby, down at street level. The black rain intensified. Incongruously, a helicopter appeared. Whether it was trying to flee or attempting a rescue wasn’t clear. As they watched it stuttered, the rotors damaged by the dust and debris that still filled the sky. The helicopter’s engine roared, then cut out as it plummeted towards the ground. It exploded on impact, the flames again creating a temporary illumination in the dreadful gloom. They saw shadowy figures trying to flee without any clear idea where to go. By now the air was so thick with dust as to be unbreathable. Mox and Mitsu’s facemasks slid over their mouths and noses, filtering the air. They huddled together on the balcony, linking arms for mutual support.
‘Friendship in discomfort,’ muttered Mox. ‘They certainly got that right.’
—
‘Nice abs,’ Raquel prodded Demolition Boy’s bare abdomen. ‘Feel how hard they are.’ Amowie and Meihui joined in.
‘Hey, stop that, it’s weird,’ protested Birgit, now inhabiting Demolition Boy’s android frame.
Raquel laughed. ‘You decided to be Demolition Boy instead of Demolition Girl. Can’t blame us for being interested.’ Birgit fended off their hands and was rescued when Meihui noticed a small screen rotating freely in the room. ‘Look, you can bet on the fights. Should we do that?’ She gestured with her hand, pulling the floating advert towards them. Amowie looked puzzled. ‘What are these figures?’
‘Betting odds. Demolition Boy is five to one in his match against Jupiter Planet Smasher.’
‘Is that good?’
‘Depends what you mean by good,’ explained Meihui. ‘It means all the bookmakers expect him to lose, so that’s not good. But it’s a good price for placing a bet if he wins.’
Amowie and Raquel were nonplussed. Neither knew anything about gambling. ‘Should we do it?’
Raquel shook her head. ‘We can’t afford to lose any credits.’
‘But it would be good to win.’ Meihui was interested. Unlike the others, she had some acquaintance with gambling, having sat with her mother as she played cards with her neighbours in the Wudalianchi Volcano Disaster Relocation Camp.
‘We could bet a small amount,’ suggested Amowie. ‘I’m sure Birgit’s going to win.’
