In the light of the lamp
You were the darkness ...
In the midst of the darkness
You held the light ...
You have to run!
You have to hide!
It's far from easy
But don't give up
Girl you gotta fight to keep your life
You are what you are, yes
And always have been ...
Given more than others
Yet so much less ...
Open your eyes!
You know what's there!
It's far from easy
But don't give up
Girl you gotta fight against the lie
When all has shattered
Gather the pieces ...
Show them your power
When all looks lost ...
Give them their hope!
Give them their life!
It's far from easy
But don't give up
Girl you gotta keep them all alive
That isn't what I think it's from, is it?
The girl grinned.
You're not planning to CAMEO her, are
you?
"Oh, no, of course not. Not for a very long time ...
if ever. I was just in a singing mood ..."
Whew. Don't scare me like that,
sugar.
"No problem, and don't call me sugar."
Right, honeybuns!
The girl sighed. No use bothering.
"Catz, connect into Venus and run a check on EGC."
Should I run a security check on
mineself first?
"A security check? Catz, you're the essential backu--
wait ... come to think of it, good idea. If anyone's smart enough
to know that destroying your records is more important than
EGCRebirth.exe in Venus, I want to keep them out at any cost. Run
the check."
Inititiating security check ...
It's probably a wasted effort, she mused, I
mean, the damn idiot's so buggy he might actually let them in on purpose
if they let him call them "sweetykins" ... ah well. I only have to
put up with this for a little while, anyways, until --
Ringy dingy dingy! Security check
complete!
"Anything I should know about?"
Besides Ordinal 6442 of the Dynamic
Library MFC42.dll? Uh, nope.
Ordinal 6442 ... the accursed Ordinal, traditionally
attributed as the "Destroyer of Words", and sometimes known as the
"Antibirilis" or the "Antibilis". Mischievious in nature, if left
without regular goat sacrifices it will wreck all but the most primitive
of communication methods. It particularly likes to feed upon the
Mirabilis Aisikyuus.
However, it also happens to have a particular dislike for a
certain RL ... and this can sometimes carry its behavior beyond 'normal'
mischief. Already it had claimed Catz's viewscreens and half his
applications ...
"What now?"
Honeypuddin', I don't know.
"I mean, what did he do?" Ordinal 6442 of the Dynamic
Library MFC42.dll, like Catz, had no gender, but the girl tended to
think of him as male as well. Annoying non-organic things veered
towards maleness in her eyes, anyway.
Well, that's the thing ... I don't know
what to make of it, sweetycakes. I THINK he edited the EGC records.
"He did WHAT?!"
Edit the EGC's history ... at least, I
think he did. But there's only one file with an updatedly recent
date, and I can find only one thing out of place in it.
"And what," she spat, "pray tell, is that?"
An HTML comment line.
"Show me the file, Catz."
<font size=-1 face="Verdana, Arial,
Helvetica">
<font color="#FFFFCC">
<b>Name</b>: Dot,
still quite opaque :)<br>
<b>Email</b>:<a
href=mailto:dot_warner17@hotmail.com?subject="signed_guestbook">dot_warner17@hotmail.com
</a><br>
<b>Date</b>: 18-Sep-99
11:52 AM<br>
</font>
<blockquote>
<i>Who says there isn't a big
villain? We just haven't revealed her yet. ;p</i>
<hr>
o/ Nine green bottles,<br>
standing on the wall,<br>
Nine green bottles,<br>
standing on the wall,<br>
But if one green bottle should accidentally
fall...<br>
There'd be eight green bottles
standing on the wall... o/
<hr>
(Wherever Black Velvet may be.)<p>
Black Velvet: And now, with Chatty out
of the way, we can begin.<p>
Dr. Gerbil: But the other RLs...<p>
Black Velvet: They don't even know
what's going on. And by the time they do, it'll be too late to
stop us.<p>
(Klaxons blare.)<p>
Dr. Gerbil (<i>alarmed</i>):
What--<p>
(Both men turn to the machines
monitoring the vital signs of the Authoress in their posession.
Her heart has stopped beating.)<p>
Black Velvet
(<i>annoyed</i>): I thought I told you to watch how much
sedatives you were pumping into her.<p>
Dr. Gerbil
(<i>panicking</i>): I didn't change anything!<p>
Black Velvet
(<i>annoyed</i>): Whatever. Revive her
already.<p>
(A jolt of electricity runs through the
bubble. Nothing happens.)<p>
Black Velvet (<i>VERY ticked off
now</i>): Release her. (<i>aside</i>) I swear,
if you have to do something right, you have to do it yourself...<p>
(The bubble lowers to the ground gently
and disappears. Black Velvet goes up to the unconscious
figure.)<p>
Black Velvet (<i>ball of light
forming in his hands</i>): Time to wake up, dear guest...<p>
<i>Sike.</i><p>
Black Velvet (<i>realizing too
late</i>): Sh--<p>
(Before Black Velvet can complete his
sentence, he's thrown to the other side of the room by a blinding flash
of energy. When the light fades, a young woman stands in Dot's
place.)<p>
<i>Okay, you've had your
fun.</i><p>
Black Velvet (<i>seething with
fury</i>): You--you---<p>
<i>You should have known better
than to underestimate an Authoress. So long.</i><p>
(With a wave, the Authoress disappears
from the room.)<p>
Dr. Gerbil (<i>timidly</i>):
I suppose this wouldn't be the right time to ask what just happened?
<!-- Fine job ... you
manipulated him well. Now, let's see ... you've upheld your end of
the bargain, so I suppose it's my turn ... -->
"Stop! Relay that line again!"
<!-- Fine job ... you
manipulated him well. Now, let's see ... you've upheld your end of
the bargain, so I suppose it's my turn ... -->
It couldn't be. That couldn't be it.
"One more time!"
<!-- What, are you
dense or something? Get it through your thick skull:
I. HAVE. BEEN. HELPING. THE. MAD.
SCIENTIST. -->
The girl's jaw dropped.
Something wrong, honeybunny?
"Uh ... no," she lied. "Catz, connect to Venus and check for
remants of the Ordinal."
Connecting ........
He's been helping the one thing I've ignored the most in
this crisis, she thought. The one thing that knows how to
cut off an RL from the EGC, too ... damn, that Ordinal's too clever by
half ...
Oh Sweet Holy CRAP!
"What? What is it?"
He's got his dirty little mitts over
everything! It ... it REEKS, electronically speaking ...
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
You didn't ASK, dearling.
The girl growled.
No, I'm serious! He's been here
and there in a serious way, but behind the behind the BEHIND, know what
I'm saying?
"Behind the behind the behind? As in, where the posts
don't go?"
As in where the posts aren't being
written, hon.
... as in where Dr. Gerbil would be ...
"Goddamn it all!" She slammed her hand on the cockpit
armrest. "Catz, prepare for manual override..!"
The manual override? You can't be
serious.
"I am too serious."
But that thing's too slow! It puts
turtles and glaciers to shame!
The girl turned a slight shade of red. "Catz, I hate
to break it to you, but the manual override is only as slow as the ...
person ... overriding it."
Oh. You mean to say you're that
slow?
"You don't help any," she snapped.
Don't spit in the hairspray, m'darlin',
it was just a question.
"Some question. Prepare for manual override."
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for
flying Density Airlines. Preparing manual override ...
"Bailiff, please bring in Roach and Vermin!"
Miang sighed and sat down. "Well,
that -- OW!"
Seraphita jumped. "Miang?
You okay?"
Her hand snapped up to her mouth. "Nmo, I justm stmuck myselmf mwith a splimter!"
The RL-rep looked up at her drunkenly. "A ...
splinter?" He/She hiccupped. "Y'certain of that?"
"Of course I..." Miang paused,
looked at her hand and blinked.
"That's not a splinter," said
Seraphita. "That's a pin."
"Oh," said the RL, hiccupping. "I get stuck with those
things all the time ..."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Yep, right outta nowhere ... always wear shoes, Miang-chan,
always wear shoes ..."
"Thanks for the tip," she said,
drawing out the pin and looking it over. "That's
the fifth one this week I've gotten stuck with ..."
The RL stared. "Fifth?"
"Yeah, fifth." She frowned. "I keep getting stuck with these things."
Seraphita nodded. "Ever since
the battle for Uptown EGC."
"Pins like me, I think."
The RL-rep's eyes narrowed, and the wheels started turning
...
In the very back of the court, a very short figure in a red
mackintosh and rain hat ran outside during the commotion centered on the
new witnesses. He rounded the corner into an alley and stopped.
He whipped off his rain hat, shook out his antenna, and
sighed with relief.
Then he pulled out a comm and clicked it on. "Doc?"
"Yeees?" came the reply, crackling with static.
"I did it." The young roach shook with pride, and so
did his voice. "I ... I got her stuck with the last one!"
"Very good. I'll see to it that you get a promotion,
boy."
The young roach beamed. "Thank you, Dr. Gerbil!
Thank you!"
"It doesn't count if you just sit there. Report back
as soon as you can."
"Yessir!"
"By the way, did you notice any changes in her behavior?"
"Nossir."
"What a shame." On the other end, Dr. Gerbil was
probably smirking ...
... probably, that is. In actuality, he had very
little time to develop a smirk before a nuisance would have wiped it off
his face again.
This nuisance had a name ... Experiment 255-96-24.
"Goddamn you stupid little bugs!
LET ME OUT OF THIS INFERNAL CONTRAPTION!!"
The anthropomorphic mad scientist rodent turned around
slowly, staring coldly at the interrupting experiment.
And then he smiled.
"I'll get back to you later," he said into the comm, and
clicked it off. Then he began to approach the restraining device
that held the infamous Experiment 255-96-24.
Experiment 255-96-24 was a mean experiment ... a fierce
experiment ... a downright nasty, almost rabidly hateful
experiment. Some of the roach attendants to Dr. Gerbil said she
was almost a demon. Foulmouthed and as violent as a completely
restrained human could get. When she'd originally arrived, they
thought she was exceedingly nice for a captured subject -- which isn't
actually that nice, mind you, but such's the power of positive thinking
or whatnot -- but after a week, she'd turned into this ... vicious ...
thing. It was almost as if her personality had twisted to match
itself to her fire-red hair.
"Hello, my dear." Dr. Gerbil glanced up at her and
smirked. "Are you going to eat today? It might be a good idea. You
haven't eaten much in the past three days."
"Hell yes, if you let me outta this
thing! I'm starved! And stop quoting 'Bass is Not a Fish'..!"
Dr. Gerbil grinned. Good, she's catching on
quickly.
"Are you as annoying as you'll ever be?" he asked, with all
due seriousness.
"Look, Dr. Smartass, I'll be as
annoying as I HAVE to be in order to get OUT of this goddamned
whateverthefriggitis!!"
"Then you're ready to be let out, Sweet Child O' Mine," he
drawled. A nearby assistant dropped a beaker in horror, then
turned on his heels and ran, screaming all the way. Dr. Gerbil
ignored him. He walked over to a nearby computer terminal and
began typing a ridiculously long password. The hit of the [Enter]
key, and .......
The restraints on Experiment 255-96-24 clicked. The
energy field surrounding her fizzled out. She threw herself out of
the contraption, stumbled about, and finally staggered up to -- no, over
to Dr. Gerbil, and glared down at the mad scientist half her height.
"You'll have some trouble with your balance for a few
minutes," he said, smirking back up at her.
She continued to glare down at him. "I could pummel you right now, you know."
"You won't," he said disinterestedly. "It's not in your
personality anymore." He turned around and walked over to a different
terminal.
"Oh, it is, is it?"
"If you insist on being so stubborn, why don't you go ahead
and try?"
The Experiment clenched her fists, ran and swung at the
scientist ... stopping inches from his head.
He glanced back over his shoulder. "That's a good
Elhaym ... I told you you wouldn't."
"That's only because it isn't fair,"
Elly snapped. "It's like hitting a ...
hitting a ..." She paused. She had intended to say
'it's like hitting a newborn baby', except it suddenly occurred to her
that she would hit a newborn baby in this state.
This was not an entirely new feeling, unfortunately.
"What exactly did you do to me,
anyways?" she asked. "Pump me with a
consistant supply of 'Drive'?"
Dr. Gerbil chuckled and turned back to his terminal, typing
away. "No, child, you've just been infected with Virus 6442 ...
also known as the 'OOC Bug'." He turned around. "Of course, you were
infected by proxy. I was trying to get Experiment 255-96-255
infected as well, but apparently any changes happening to her are going
to be very subtle indeed."
"Who's Experiment 255-96-255?"
"Take a wild stabbing guess."
She stood up straight and rubbed her chin. "255-96-255 ... let's see here ..."
And suddenly, she thought of purple hair.
"Miang Hawwa?"
The mad scientist beamed. "Very good, Elhaym dear.
That's exactly it."
She blinked. "Infecting Miang
infects me as well? How's that?"
"It's not as much of a physical virus as a mental one,
child. Think of a virus infecting your neural network in the same
manner as a computer hack virus infecting a hard drive, and you wouldn't
be too far from the truth. It's a wonder it doesn't spread like
wildfire during dreams ... you would think the collective unconscious
would be the best conductor ... but if it did that, it'd probably wreak
chaos."
Elly sniffed. "That's a rash weapon
to test. It sounds a little too risky if it can cause mass
insanity ..."
"Theoretically, Sweet Child O' Mine, theoretically.
Iwakura Lain's probably acting as a buffer."
"Iwakura who?"
"Never mind. And it's not a weapon either, dear."
"What's the MRA experimenting with it
for, then?"
Dr. Gerbil smirked. "As much as I hate to admit it,
it's for the good of this city in the next war."
"What?"
He stepped away from the terminal. "Have a look at
this report, Elhaym." She did so, crouching down to view it at eye
level.
Gerbil:
Well, I
was right. She is planning the Mirror War to start
sooner. Joyous, isn't it? She always listed the deadline in
her notes as "when Consternation is over". What the Hell that
means, I don't know. She's very secretive about this Consternation
... she has it listed in another bunch of notes as meaning "extreme
paralyzing fear". Rather appropriate for the prelude to a war ...
except now it seems that she's dumping it entirely. Some
explanation to Miang and Seraphita seems to have changed her mind about
it. So no Consternation, whatever the hell it was, and that means
the new war is happening sooner. After the trial, maybe? Or
perhaps she'll be a dramatic sod and start it during her trial ...
I do know
how she plans to do it, however. She has far too many notes with
far too much symbolism of the easily translatable kind. Remember
the odd gathering of items? White materia, black materia, and
replica longinae? Think carefully. White materia,
representing the EGC ... black materia, representing something called
the NGC ... and the replica longinae, the lance form of the
Conduit. It's a connexion, a portal to a universe so
opposite from the EGC that it isn't even possible to connect to it any
other way but this drastic little ritual. Of course, she's got her
little puppet and her puppet's puppets convinced that the war
guaranteed by contact will kill everyone on both sides, so no qualms
from the foolish Angel of Death on this issue.
All these
hints about 'saving a damned universe' and now I finally find out
how and why.
Apparently what's damned this NGC is that all of the divine forces
involved in the EGC were and have always been evil there.
Even the Sentai -- especially the Sentai, actually, since most of the
city seems to be run under the iron fist of the demon Lilith. Yes,
I said 'demon' ... there's has a 'Demon Sentai' up at the very top of
the cake. For some reason, they remind me of a bad cross between
the Galactic Empire, Team Rocket, the Galactic Empire and ... the
Galactic Empire. Oh, Hell, they just reek of Star Wars. But
I've only got notes to go on here ... goddamn her ...
In any
case, prepare for the Mirror War. I'd recommend finding something
that can make for a very fast turncoat, mind you ...
# 6442
Elly blinked. "There's going to be another
war? Already?"
"Yes," said Dr. Gerbil, "and I suspect rather soon, too ...
isn't it ironic that the only ones who know are you, I, and this stupid
number? If anybody else found out they'd try to stop it ..."
"Or jump the gun like a stupid ass,"
said Elly. "Never underestimate the stupidity of
idealists and wanna-be heros." She stood up and stretched. "Speaking of which, am I in the MRA now?"
Dr. Gerbil was amused. "You, in the MRA? Where
did you get that idea?"
Elly smirked. "The next file."
His eyes widened. He immedately dashed back and turned
off the monitor screen.
"So," said Elly, still smirking, "What's my rank?"
"Your rank? Bigglesworth."
"Bigglesworth?"
"Bigglesworth. A.k.a. my Head Assistant. Since
you're the highest ranking loyal --" he spat out the words "--
member of the MRA, that also means you get ownership of Gregor."
"Gregor?" Elly twitched her
nose. "Is that a gear?"
"Indeed it is ... a giant, hulking, ugly brown behemoth of a
gear. I think you'll like it."
"Are you certain? My favorite
color's always been pink ..."
Dr. Gerbil grinned. "Is it anymore?"
She paused. "Come to think of
it," she said, "I detest pink. And
purple and lavender and pastel yellow and --YEEECH! WHY am I
wearing a WHITE uniform?! GAH!" She yanked up a
passing assistant and held him up by the collar. "You!
Get me a decent black uniform, goddamnit, or I'll have your head diced
and freeze dried!"
"A-a-a..." said the assistant, nodding and twitching his
antennae.
"And get me a good blaster pistol too,"
she added, "WHY I've haven't been using one
lately, I have no idea." She dropped the assistant roughly. "Go fetch."
The assistant screamed and ran off, plowing through a few
other assistants on his merry way.
Elly grinned. "You know, I think I
rather like being a brainwashed member of the MRA ..."
"You're one of us, that's for certain," Dr. Gerbil said
proudly. "Definitely one of us ..."
That's certainly trouble ... and hey, I
pick up more trouble on the outskirts ... wait ... hon, how does an
infinite, neverending city have outskirts?
No response.
Sweetheart?
No response.
HONEYPIE?!
The sound of snoring, followed by some rather
uncomplementary somniac mumbling about 'telling all too soon, the little
bastard'.
Whew. Sorry, forgot that manual
override took so much out of you. I guess it's back to the hangar
now?
Snoring.
Sweet dreams, then. Deactivating
prose ...