Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  “It’s taken care of. I’ll get you an update.”

  “Speaking of updates, how’s Mayah?”

  “She’s stable for now. The code hasn’t entered Majesta that we know of. But it’s growing. It seems like a larva, almost like it’s feeding before pupating. We have Mayah linked into a dedicated server. It’s one of the infected ones, unfortunately, but that’s where the virus is moving slowest. It’s like it knows that’s its connection. We’ve also set up two AIs to act as intermediaries to the rest of Majesta, one for input and one for output. We’ve got cleaners running in between those, searching for any foreign or aberrant code and striking it before it can make it to the active player base. We’ve also got four cores watching each of the intermediaries.”

  “The real problem,” she continued, “is that blasted Nano flea. We need to get a look at it, but it’s stuck in her helm. Every time we’ve tried to remove it, we wind up spiking the signal and damn near triggering grand mal seizures in my favorite student. We may have to take the risk and call in the team.”

  “No way,” Josh slammed his hand onto the desk. “All of you barely made it out safely and now government agencies are looking for you guys everywhere. I have a feeling they were using Mayah to try and trace you. I think it’s better if they stay out of sight.”

  “But a girl's life is at stake!”

  “Don’t you think I know that!!!” his voice echoed around the terminal hub. The technicians turned at his outburst and then quickly turned away as he caught sight of them. He took a deep breath and exhaled forcefully, quickly chaining his anger. A look of shame wiped over his expression.

  “I’m sorry, Delilah…” Josh said quietly, meeting her eyes.

  “It’s okay, there's a lot going on.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose.

  “You, more than anyone, know the stakes we’re dealing with. If there’s a hitch on the third day of release it might cripple or even completely paralyze our efforts. I promise you that Mayah’s life comes first and foremost to me, but the setbacks would be crippling.”

  “You don’t need to promise. I know what kind of man you are. This is just a monkey wrench in your dreams, but it’s only momentary. You’ll set them free.”

  “In my mind, I’ve weighed her life against my dream. I feel guilty for even thinking it. One life,” he held up his hands like scales weighing the weight of his soul, “against freeing the world from economic tyranny? That’s been my goal for decades. But no matter how close I am, I can’t have that success marred by the life of one innocent. I can’t be that cruel. I wouldn’t want to be. I can’t be what I'm fighting against.”

  “Nobody thought you were. Besides, bigger fish?” She looked back at her monitor.

  “We’ve got to get her out.” Josh ran his fingers back through his hair.

  “Yes, we do. Can you at least send the particulars to the group?”

  “That I can do.” He got up and stood beside her chair. “Keep an eye on our little cybernaut and let me know if anything changes. I'm gonna go make some calls and take a shower. Be back in a few hours.”

  He leaned in to kiss her. Her eyes locked into his. Almost too late she turned and gave him her cheek. Even still, he wound up getting the corner of her mouth. One day she would kiss him again. She had said so, but that wouldn’t happen until he finished his plan to topple the banks and give the people back their world. His love for Delilah Hobson didn’t fit into his giant plan, only after it. Love wouldn’t be possible until he succeeded. And that made him angry and determined.

  Day Four

  Flexing for the crowd

  “All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles, and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.”

  - Octavia E. Butler

  4.1 The Snake and The Cupcake

  Mayah dreamt. She floated nowhere. Floating would be a highly inaccurate description, because there was nothing for her to float on. She didn’t move because she was incorporeal. But it was also based on the fact that the “where,” where she was, was nowhere. She couldn’t see. That’s because she had no eyes. That was as it should be. There was no thought. Nobody and no body were here. Not even Mayah existed here, but here she was lucidly conscious nowhere. This was the nowhere that she escaped to every night. She didn’t normally dream. She just floated like nothing on a nonexistent breeze. Her doctors thought it might be because her conscious and unconscious mind were so enmeshed with each other that they were mostly merged.

  But the nothingness that was nowhere healed her mind. Gave her neurons a rest from firing like jet engines. There was nothing to stimulate for either the absent observed or imperceptive observer.

  In this nowhere where nothing existed, she was pushed to the side with a gentle pulse. Nowhere rippled. The observer slowly awakened and nowhere faded into blackness. Not the true blackness of nowhere but the blackness of somewhere without light. In this “here” her eyes returned along with her ears or at least with the senses those organs utilized. The pulse moved past her again she turned her presence to focus where the pulse touched her and felt it again. She stretched out and touched the source. It slid underneath the sensations of her mind like a sheen of oil across the surface of her consciousness. It was moving. Curiosity awoke and bade distance to form the map of the where. Everything was black except for the outlines and shadings in blue, not unlike a blueprint in reverse. Stretching out before her, a giant snake, twelve-feet thick and at least hundreds of miles long, slid past her. As she looked on, time awoke and she watched it for long moments. She never got to the beginning or end of the snake. She didn’t expect to. She moved her perception-self to a mass of the body she saw in the distance of her mindscape. It formed a giant ball with its many coils and twists; this was the only part that didn’t slither. The ball rolled and revealed an eye. She assumed it belonged to the head of the serpent, its features hidden by the slithering coils. The eye glanced around, lit on her and locked. The cold, predatory look in the serpent's eye awoke fear. As the ball began rushing towards her, its eye first, she awoke, kicking at her sweaty blankets in the dorm room. She jumped up and stared at her bed like it was a portal to the devil’s bedroom.

  Ding!!!

  AwarenessLevel: 4

  Sometimes in order to be aware of things you just need to know how much you don’t know. Did you figure it out yet? No? Then you better pay attention.

  11% increase to perception

  What the heck was that? Her whole body trembled as excess adrenaline coursed through it. She sat back down on the bed and closed her eyes. There’s no way I’m getting back to sleep now. Get your mind together. How did I level an ability in a dream? She woke the rest of her consciousness and stood up from her most recent torment.

  The sun had yet to make its appearance, and she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. She looked out of the window and saw the empty training field. Figuring it was as good a time as any, she decided to work on her sad attack power. Later on, she would go and get the book on runes and visit John Maam at the smithy. First, a drink of water and some terravole meat to stave off the hunger debuff that would come after six hours of not eating. She then threw on her bag and her cloak and made her way outside.

  The training dummies were lined up at attention, their commanding officer AWOL. How am I gonna get Crushing Blow and Whack-A-Vole to work together? Well, let’s figure it out.

  She launched into a successive string of Crushing Blow hoping to raise its level. Since it only used 25% of her available mana, it could be used until she had no stamina left. With a headache, she realized she could get off about seven Crushing Blows in thirty seconds. The blows got weaker and slower as her stamina dropped. The last one only did 5 damage points. She let her stamina rebuild to full and activated Whack-A-Vole, hitting the target as many times as she could till her stamina ran out. The
re were only five of those rapid succession hits as her stamina drain was multiplied with every hit. It was like a combo attack from some of the fighting games she played with her brother. The real problem here was her stamina. She needed more of it. When I need more mana, I can use my stamina. I wonder if the opposite is true? She drained her stamina halfway and used Crushing Blow while focusing on her mana bar. Sure enough, the 25% draw came from her mana pool. After checking her logs, she found that it exchanged at a rate of 2 mana points for every 1 point of stamina. She had a ton of mana but it recharged slower than her stamina. It would tide her over in times of need. She looked at the training dummy and said, “You’re mine now.”

  …..

  The sun warmed her back against the chill of the receding dawn. Sweat dripped down her face and she was happy. She activated Whack-A-Vole and Crushing Blow, dropping her to 70% stamina. Mid-swing she dropped 60 mana points into stamina and swung again with another Crushing Blow. Another 60 mana into stamina, Crushing Blow, another 60 into stamina, and Crushing Blow. She could go all out and inflict nine direct Crushing Blows in 24 seconds. After that, she delivered five more Crushing Blows for another 15 seconds. She could also drop just 20 mana into stamina at a time for a longer and less powerful attack. She could keep these rapid-fire hits going for almost two minutes now. Crushing Blow was up to level 3 which gave her a chance at 400% attack damage, which was 12 damage points for each blow. On the flip side, the stamina requirement had risen.

  Whack-A-Vole was now level 4, increasing her attack speed by 40%, and the drain rate on her stamina was now only 44%. Her mana had risen by 2 as well as her intelligence by 1 point. Her rhythm was broken when she heard a voice.

  “Hey lady, what’cha doin'?” She turned and surveyed the area, seeing no one near. She checked by her feet as well. That first groak had taught her that lesson. Seeing nothing, she turned back to the dummy. “Maybe I'm using too much mana," she mumbled and squared herself up for the next barrage. She lifted Happiness.

  “So, you're just going to ignore me, lady?” said the high-pitched voice.

  Her head whipped back and forth, searching for the speaker. There was no one there but she had a funny thought. What if I just... she tightened her grip on Happiness and swung through her shadow, knocking a surprised- looking Grax into a tumbling ball of fur that rolled out in the sunlight.

  “Ha!!!! Thought so.”

  “Geez, Fluff, you didn’t have to hit me.”

  “I thought you needed to be taught a lesson.”

  “What lesson?”

  “Not to stealth on innocent little ladies and play games.”

  “Yeah, whatever," Grax said, wiping the grass and dirt from his fur with a paw. “So, what are you doing?”

  “Leveling up my attacks.”

  “It looks like you’ve got a ton of stamina. I can hear those hits from the other side of the field.”

  “Nope, not much. But I’ve discovered that you can turn mana into stamina, and since I’ve got a ton of mana, I just learned to keep it going. I got a couple of special abilities from my hunting yesterday, so now I'm working on getting some power to my attacks. When I upgrade Happiness, you better watch out.”

  “I’m already watching out. You’re too dangerous as it is.”

  “You wanna know how dangerous?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve got your bow right in my bag.”

  “No way am I wearing a bow.”

  “Not even if it gives you a 5% boost in speed?”

  “Say what now?”

  “A 5% boost to your max speed.”

  “Well… that’s kind of interesting. Let me see?”

  “What’s the magic word?” She teased.

  “...Please may I see the bow?” She nodded and reached into her bag on the ground, pulling out the black bow.

  “Oh, thank god it’s black,” he said in relief. He stood up on his hind legs and reached for the bow. “Wow, +5% to max speed!”

  “It’s just a prototype. The finished product will be the pinkest pink to ever be called pink.”

  “Whatever, Fluff, you’re worse than my little sister.”

  “You have no idea. You gonna try it on or what?”

  He placed the bow on the front of his neck and fastened it behind his head. “It doesn’t fit too bad. Now let me try it out.” He was off in a flash, heading to the far side of the field. When he got back he, was wearing that crazy feline smile and panting slightly.

  “I tried the mana to stamina thing. It filled my stamina right back up! That is amazing. How did you figure it out?”

  “Just an educated guess. I tried it and it worked. I wonder if there’s an achievement like Wellspring but in reverse. We’ll talk more about It when we get to Jensen’s. But before that, lets race.”

  “Really? There's no way a two-legger like you can outrun me.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  “Last one back to this dummy gets to pay for dinner at the tavern tonight.”

  “Deal.”

  They lined up and counted down, then ran for all they were worth. They started off neck in neck, but Mayah blew past him about a quarter of the way across the field. He was only at the ¾ mark when she turned around and raced back. At the dummy, she turned and saw that he was only a third of the way back to the dummy. Geez... I'm not even breathing hard.

  “What took you so long, slowpoke?”

  “How did you pull that off? I was using my dash ability and you still beat me.”

  “There's a Dash ability?”

  “I’m not saying.”

  “Oh, come on, don’t be a sore loser.”

  “I’ll tell you when we get to Jensen's.” He stuck out his tongue out at her.

  “Fine. Then I won’t tell you about Crushing Blow.” Mayah returned the stuck-out tongue and added a cross eyed salute. “Loother,” she lisped, then snorted. “I gotta go grab some stuff and I'll meet you at Jensen’s in 20?”

  “Sure thing. By the way,” he paused and his face became deathly serious. “I won't underestimate you again,” he growled, then dashed off.

  Walking into her room refreshed her. It finished all of her regen and actually made her feel like she just walked out of the shower. Her clothes had been laundered as well. No wonder I always wanted a shower but never took one. Never even asked about it actually. Oh well, you learn something new every day.

  She took off her bag and emptied the bin of finished items into it, poured some water from the pitcher into the glass then quickly drained it. She walked out of her door and onto the street.

  …..

  …What wasssss that

  …I sssaw it with my eye

  ...My eye

  ...My

  ...Me

  ...Who am I

  …What am I

  …..

  “Morning Jensen.”

  “Hey there, Fluff, this fur ball tells me ye’ve gotten yerself another miracle to show me.”

  “Well maybe, but a gentleman should never tell a lady’s secrets.” She eyed Grax icily.

  “Well maybe if you were a lady,” Grax muttered. Jensen plucked the cat in the head.

  “Have yerself some respect. Fer me if not fer yerself, cat.”

  Mayah chuckled at Grax’s scolding.

  “Okay, okay…” Grax said, rubbing his head with a paw. “So, what's the plan for the day?”

  “Grax, yer going hunting. Try and find a friend and party up or something. And Mayah, what do you have planned since yer well over double this little miscreant’s level?”

  “You’re over level six? No wonder you beat me.”

  “It’s also the reason I took today off so you could catch, up ya scrub. And besides,” she leaned in and picked at the bow tie, “you’re already wearing the bow, so I win the bet.”

  “Dang it!” he mewled. “I hate when she’s right. Oh well, I'll just have to put it to good use," he smiled.

  “Kawaiiiiiiii…!!!!”

  “No, no yo
u don’t…”

  Mayah had the kitty in a bowtie in her arms so fast he hadn’t had time to react.

  As she snuggled him she leaned into his ear and whispered, “You underestimated me again.”

  “MRRRRAAAAAAAAWRRRRRRR….” he hissed and spat. His hackles rose and his legs pumped furiously to escape Mayah’s grip. When he landed on the cobbles, Mayah reached for him again, but Grax had had enough. His claws narrowly missed her fingers.

  “Never again,” he roared. At least the Kitty cat version of a roar. He pointed a clawed finger, eyes slit in warning, then slowly backed away.

  “Good boy. Now go and teach that forest a lesson. I expect good things from you," Mayah said in an over-motherly tone. He hissed and skulked away, hair on end.

  She turned back to Jensen who was holding in his laugher with both hands. Tears were coming out of his eyes and his cheeks were purple. He finally burst when he saw Mayah’s perplexed reaction to his predicament. Snot flew from his nose as the explosive laughter burst forth.

  “...Ewwwwwww….” Mayah said, as she took a disgusted step back.

  when Jensen could finally stand again and his tears and mucus were mostly wiped out of his mustache, he took a deep breath. “That cat’s been heading fer a good hiding fer awhile now. I just never thought it would be ye. Ye leveled him without a blow.”

  “That’s not technically true. I had to hit him with Happiness earlier.”

  Jensen looked confused.

  “I played kitty cat croquet with Graxiel Destruir.”

  Jensen’s laughter started up again.

  While that happened, Mayah tried to be patient, until she couldn't be.

  “C’mon Jensen, I’ve got a full day planned,” Mayah complained.

  “Okay, okay,” he laughed, “tell me about this miracle of yers.”

  “Did you know that you can turn mana into stamina like Wellspring in reverse?”