Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance

by Joshua Anderle

  Laurie’s frown turned into a small smile. “I certainly approve of your deduction skills. You grow more dynamic every time I see you.”

  “Compliments are always good for the ego. And as much as I would enjoy getting a few more, and however much I would also like to know why you sent Wulfson my way, I have a different reason for being here.”

  “And what would that be?” the professor inquired.

  Kaiden pointed to the drawer on Laurie’s left, indicating to him to bring out the EI pad.

  “Something else wrong with your EI?” Laurie asked as he retrieved the pad and set it on the table.

  Kaiden removed his oculars. and whipped them at the pad. Chief appeared. “I wouldn’t say problems, but me and a few friends of mine have had a rather interesting day today in the Animus.”

  “What happened?” Laurie asked.

  “I had a mission which took place in Houston during the incursion of 2097,” Kaiden responded, watching Laurie’s face for tells.

  “I ran through the synopsis with them. It seemed like a reenactment mission, nothing too surprising. But they had to deal with waves and waves of junkers and cracked security droids and only a few terrorists in the first wave.” Chief sounded clipped and overly polite.

  “I see…” Laurie hummed and looked at his computer. “Continue.”

  “There were supposed to be five waves, but we’d dealt with three when a countdown started on the fourth wave. Chief told us that during the fifth wave, we were supposed to hold out for reinforcements and pick-up, but all the bots we destroyed simply exploded at the end of the count-down.”

  “They didn’t disappear?” Laurie asked. “The tangibility setting should have only been around three for an initiate. You do know about the connection settings, correct?”

  Kaiden nodded. “I got a crash course about twenty minutes ago.”

  “You didn’t find it strange that the bodies didn’t disappear?” Laurie asked.

  “Take a look at the map’s CS, Professor. It wasn’t exactly a normal scenario,” Chief pointed out.

  Laurie scrolled down the screen, his eyes widening in surprise. “These setting are far too advanced for initiates. Only second-class victors and above would use a map of this scale, and only with advisor supervision.”

  “Dr. Soni said the same thing, roughly,” Kaiden confirmed.

  “The synch is high enough that you would be too engaged to truly notice the bodies remaining during the mission… And an equi of nine? Good Lord, that must have been a painful experience for the lot of you,” Laurie exclaimed.

  “It took us about an hour and a half of sitting around to get enough strength to start stretching for another half-hour before we could make it to the med bay.”

  Laurie’s eyes darted away from the screen. “You didn’t get your EI to call for a retrieval?”

  “No. One of my partners was a Tsuna. He said he was worried they would be pulled out if word got back that one had been seriously injured this early on. We also thought it was nothing more than a mixture of high Animus oscillation and the fact that we were literally in the middle of a massive explosion,” Kaiden explained.

  The professor sighed, going back over his screen. “I see…understandable. I have to say, working with many of the Tsuna delegates has been an exhausting venture. Good people, for the most part, and fascinating science applications. Though they appear to be worriers in general, or at least the political clans are. Much prefer to work with Mirus.”

  “Speaking of which, I got to meet Dr. Mortis last night.” Kaiden glowered. “His bedside manner could use a little work.”

  “Emotions don’t come easily to them. Or I suppose it would be better to say that emotions aren’t as heightened for them. It may take some work getting used to it for most, but it has made both political and scientific collaborations much smoother, not to mention interesting.”

  “Glad you get to have fun every now and then,” Kaiden jeered. “Perhaps we should get back to the task at hand?”

  “Yes, of course.” Laurie nodded. “My guess is that your question is how you were able to get access to this map?”

  “Yeah. I was the only one who had it. The others couldn’t bring it up.”

  “It only came up when Kaiden cast me into the hub,” Chief clarified.

  “Then that would mean…” Laurie swiped something on the screen, tapping on his holo-board for a few seconds before he cocked his head thoughtfully. “This is quite interesting.” He flipped the monitor around, showing Kaiden a list with five maps in it. “These maps are victor or master designation level. They cannot be accessed without authorization. For victors, it requires the proper class and pre-approval, and for the master class, it requires an advisor to supervise and for combatants to be victor first-class.”

  “So how the hell do I have them? I’m an initiate second-class.”

  “That would be the center of the mystery, wouldn’t it?” Laurie pointed to a green circle next to Kaiden’s name on the top of the screen. “This means these maps have been approved for you by someone higher up.”

  Kaiden leaned forward. “By who, exactly? I don’t remember any of the teachers or staff telling me about it.”

  “None of them would have the ability either, at least not to clear maps this difficult for private use.”

  “Then who would—” Kaiden blinked, looking at the screen and then at Laurie. “Did Sasha clear them? Does he want to test me too?”

  “No, I do not believe Sasha would do something so harsh.” Laurie slid the monitor back around “Not to mention that it would be quite immature for him not to tell you—or me, for that matter.”

  “Then I’m at a loss, unless you gave Wulfson a bunch of maps and he’s having a laugh at my expense.”

  Laurie chuckled. “That is something he would be liable to do, but no, even he wouldn’t give you something like this. Too much to handle in the beginning.”

  “We did fine,” Kaiden insisted. “We would probably have won—maybe, though it was a little dicey at the end. But this was a no-win situation. The explosion covered at least a quarter of the city.”

  “I can definitely tell you that’s not in the history books.” Chief chortled. “A headline like ‘Chunk of city went ka-blooey’ would have been archived.”

  “You’re certainly correct there…give me a moment.” Laurie continued to tap his board, his eyes scanning along the screen.

  “What are you looking for?” Kaiden asked.

  “I’m scanning through the programming of the map. For the most part, it doesn’t seem to be anything other than a reconstruction of Houston at the time of the insurrection. Let me check the mission programming.”

  “If something was drastically different, you would probably have picked up on it, right, Chief?”

  Chief whirled around to look at Kaiden. “Yeah, I wasn’t actively looking for anything like that, but if the parameters changed or the main objective was switched, I would have informed y’all.”

  “That would explain it,” Laurie muttered, causing Kaiden and Chief to look at him. “The mission programming itself has been changed.”

  “I didn’t notice anything. And something like that ain’t gonna get past me.”

  “I admire your pride, you wonderful little powder puff,” Laurie cooed, smiling at the EI.

  “Hey!” Chief shouted. His eye furrowed and he took on a raging red hue.

  “Have to remember that when I need new insults,” Kaiden instructed himself. “So how could the mission change and neither Chief nor any of the other EIs not notice?”

  “The new parameters were sneaked in. They changed it in such a way that when certain events were triggered, they switched to the new commands. It made the scenario seem like it was running according to plan. No reason for you or your EIs to think anything was amiss.”

  “Until the apocalypse came a-knockin',” Chief finished grimly.

  “Can you figure out who changed them?” Kaiden asked.
<
br />   “Not without rigorous digging. It will require more time, possibly days.”

  “Grand. I love a slow-burn.” Kaiden responded with angry sarcasm, sliding down in his chair and now thoroughly deflated.

  “On the positive side, whoever changed it is also probably responsible for giving you the clearance in the first place—or at least is aware of who did.” Laurie sat back, tapping his fingers on the desktop before flashing the ace a smile. “Not to worry, dear Kaiden. I don’t think it was anything malicious. Things like this happen—rarely, of course,—but usually, there’s a mix-up and some lower years will get some higher difficulty missions by accident.”

  “What about the changes to the scenario?” Kaiden asked.

  Chief turned around, his color changing back to its natural blue. “Well, the doc did say that this is usually used in special tests. Maybe it was changed for an upcoming test for the victors?”

  “Quite probable. The no-win scenario is a fundamental test for victors to get them to understand the feeling of failure and how to keep oneself composed. It also has the benefit of showing one’s true character during times of hopelessness,” Laurie noted. “Although we try to keep these things under wraps, I guess we’ll have to be a little more careful in the future to keep it a surprise.”

  “At least from me and the others.” Kaiden chuckled.

  “Mind telling me their names?”

  Kaiden rolled his eyes. “I ain’t a snitch, Prof.”

  “Perhaps not. You do seem slow, however.”

  “What the hell are you talkin’ about?” Kaiden bridled at the affront.

  Laurie tapped next to the EI pad. “Since I had your EI hooked up, I took a look around and noticed you hadn’t used your synapse points yet.”

  This time, Kaiden shifted uncomfortably and avoided the professor’s look of accusation. “Yeah, right, I was going to get to that…”

  “You said that the last time you were here. That was six weeks ago when you had three points, and now you have almost seven.”

  “Almost seven? I was halfway to six this morning.” Kaiden placed his oculars back on and looked at his personal data, seeing that he now had six points and was just shy of a seventh. “Well, damn, even failure comes with perks.”

  “Now that I have you here…” Kaiden saw the professor press a button under his desk. He heard the elevator behind him lock, while another appeared behind Laurie. “I must insist, as a member of the teaching staff and as the patron of your EI device, that you accompany me to the Animus so that we can get this little matter sorted.”

  “Ha! He’s got you now, dumbass,” Chief chirped, his eye squinting in delight at Kaiden’s current predicament.

  “As for you, Mr. Chief…” Laurie continued, and Chief turned, his eye wide.

  “Me? What the hell did I do? And why is everybody picking on me today?”

  “I recall requesting from you that you make sure your partner did spend his points and apply them as soon as possible.”

  “It wasn’t my fault, Professor, honest. I tried to badger him into doing it, but he always ignored me,” Chief declared, shifting into a sad dark-blue hue.

  “You rat bastard.” Kaiden fumed, grabbing at the EI’s hologram on the pad in anger.

  “He threatened to put me into a toaster and bash me to pieces.”

  “That was for something else entirely.”

  “Now, now, the both of you, calm down please,” Laurie chided, rather like a nanny with her charges. “This will only take a moment, Kaiden. Come on, now. You’re wasting precious resources and one of the main draws of the Academy.”

  Kaiden scratched the back of his head. “I know, but I just… I guess I don’t know why I haven’t spent the points. It doesn’t seem earned.”

  “Of course it’s earned. Through your hard work, you have gathered enough SXP to further your skills and ambitions, and it is up to you to spend them how you see fit.”

  Kaiden stood up slowly “This isn’t gonna take long right? I still have training with Wulfson, and it’s getting late.”

  “I’ll send a message to Wulfson and tell him you are with me. It shouldn’t take too long, and the rest of your night is free. Another thing you’ve earned.” Laurie chuckled.

  Kaiden nodded, accepting the inevitable, and walked around Laurie’s desk and into the elevator. “Uh, aren’t you coming?” he asked the professor who was still seated.

  Laurie turned back to his computer. “Go to the theater, third floor. I’ll be up soon. I need to send a few messages first.”

  Kaiden shrugged. “See you there then. Try not to be too long, all right? Your droids seem skittish around me.”

  “They don’t bite.”

  “Maybe not, but they have lasers,” Kaiden retorted before pressing the button for the third floor. The elevator doors closed with a faint hiss.

  Laurie waited for the sound of the elevator ascending and took his hands off his holo-board. “Aurora?”

  “Yes, sir?” an ethereal voice asked. A hologram appeared on his table—a female figure with a body made of glowing lines and long hair composed of shimmering lights that faded in and out of existence.

  “I need you to contact Sasha. Tell him we need to meet tonight. It would appear someone in the Council found a new way to play with us.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Are you there, Kaiden?” Laurie’s voice echoed around him. Kaiden opened his eyes. He was surrounded by and standing on darkness, a lone light emitting somewhere above him.

  “Ah, memories.” Kaiden rolled his shoulders. “It’s my favorite map. ‘An eternal abyss that you will never leave until the madness finally consumes you.’”

  “It is actually called ‘Dead Space,’” Laurie corrected.

  “That’s…better?”

  “Less rambly, certainly,” Chief noted, floating from behind Kaiden’s back to face him.

  “It’s simply a place-holder map. We’re going to run through your talent options here and, should you wish, I’ll load a map for you to get a bit of practice with your new and improved abilities.”

  Kaiden swiveled his head, hearing a loud crack when he turned quickly to his left. “I guess we’ll see. I think Dr. Soni’s serum is starting to wear off. Apparently, pain from the real world transfers into the Animus…oh, joy.”

  “You’ll do all right. I’m monitoring you all the way,” Laurie assured him. “For now, let’s bring up your synapse trees.”

  Four different windows appeared in front of Kaiden. They were labeled General, Soldier, Ace, and EI. They split apart and circled around him, and he took a brief look at each one. “Where should I start?”

  “With whatever you feel is best.” Kaiden saw a holographic vision of Laurie appear before him. “You earned the points, so you should decide where they go.”

  “You don’t have to do that avatar thing, Laurie. I’m pretty used to this now.”

  “I’m sure, but I always feel that my presence lightens the mood and improves the situation,” Laurie declared with a flourish of his hand.

  “You certainly add…something when you’re around,” Kaiden agreed amicably. He looked at the different trees. “I guess looking through Soldier and Ace is probably the least valuable right now.”

  “How do you figure?” Chief asked.

  “I’m already doing workshops for my class, and when I’m doing missions, it’s as a soldier. Plus, I think I’ve plenty well demonstrated that I know how to work a gun.”

  “Oh, certainly,” Laurie agreed. His avatar hovered over Kaiden in the air, smiling at him like the Cheshire Cat. “However, can you do more than just ‘work it,’ as you say?”

  Kaiden stared at the floating professor for a moment whose eyes were half-closed and non-reactive. He looked up into the darkness above. “You know, the floating professor thing is actually not conducive to my learning at the moment.”

  “Hey, it made you say ‘conducive.’ Extra points for scrabble,” Chief chirped.

>   “It also adds pizzazz.” The hologram smiled. “If that is your choice, then so be it. You’ll gather more points in due time. However, the higher your level, the slower you’ll gain new ones, so I would suggest you take a second look at all the trees to be sure you aren’t passing up the opportunity to get an edge.”

  “Fine, I’ll shop around,” Kaiden acquiesced. “But the whole getting levels slower thing wouldn’t be as much of a pain if I got the SXP boost you promised me before shoving that device into my skull.”

  “Ah, yes, about that. I’ve actually had the update complete for a couple months now.”

  “You what?” Kaiden shouted, reaching out for the professor before stumbling through his intangible form.

  “You really don’t seem to understand that holograms can’t be touched, huh?” Chief chuckled.

  “I saw no point in giving it to you if you hadn’t yet used the points that you had,” the professor explained, drifting lazily through the air. “What point is there in you having extra points if you’re merely going to leave them to rot?”

  “I said I was getting to it.”

  “And yet here you are.” Laurie shrugged. “So, I had an interesting idea.”

  “Oh, God, no,” Kaiden mumbled. “What did you do?”

  Laurie crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t sound so aghast. It makes me think you believe I’m some sort of mad scientist or something.”

  “You live in opulence in a building filled with technicians that do your every bidding, you spend most of your time making robots and machines that connect to people minds, and most people seem to think you’ve disappeared or are in hiding… All you’re missing is a cat.”

  “First of all, I don’t use my technology for evil means but for the advancement of humanity and our galactic neighbors. Second…I do have a cat, actually.”

  He reached out an arm, and a white-furred Persian cat appeared in his hand. “His name is Schrodinger.”

  Chief floated up to Kaiden’s ear. “I’m not feeling too good about that cat’s future,” he whispered.