The District

by Skyler Grant

  "So make it helpful" Anna said giving him a long look.

  "Focus on why the Wolves haven't found her yet," Magpie said.

  Again Magpie said something useful. The Wolves most likely did have an excellent sense of smell and should have been able to track her. If they weren't it meant she had to be somewhere that had a fully self contained ventilation system.

  Finding her directly might be nearly impossible, finding what was hiding her could well be within our capabilities.

  "I can build a scanner into the collar as well that might help," Mechos said.

  "You want to send Emma?" Anna asked.

  "The tunnels between here are there aren't even full maintenance tunnels in places. A human wouldn't make it through but a Gobble might," Mechos said.

  "I'll go then. I want all of you to see if you can gain control of the cities teleportation gates," I said.

  "What are you thinking?" Anna asked.

  "I'm thinking that if this doesn't work our next best of all the horrible plans is staging an enemy invasion of this city. We unleash a war and hope that in the chaos we gain some advantage," I said.

  "Knock down any of the district heads a bit and we can take them. We burn a few of them all up and Wolf wouldn't have his majority," Hot Stuff said.

  "But we then have to deal with an invading army," Mechos said.

  He was usually smarter than this.

  "Not if you are in control of the gates. We allow in just enough and then regulate then cut the flow," I said.

  Mechos thought about this and nodded.

  "Or you just let in the Righteous. I know you don't like the plan but it really is the best chance for you to get everyone you care about out of this alive," Tara said.

  Given I'd been thinking about blowing the entire city to fragments a short time ago it was worth considering.

  It would mean defeat though, and letting yet another force I largely considered to be an enemy have this city.

  I wanted it for myself. In a pinch I'd settle for someone I somewhat trusted, such as Crystal, having control but the Righteous were bottomed out on the trust meter.

  38

  The power core was located beneath the central district, so you would think it would have been a straightforward trip to get to Sylax's castle. It wasn't. The tunnels were winding and unpredictable and matters weren't helped by the tendency of my host to get distracted and go bounding off in unpredictable directions.

  Of course it was when I finally arrived that things really got dangerous.

  The last of Sylax's defenses had been neutralized but with her still on the lose Wolf wasn't taking any chances and that meant his forces were everywhere. While Sylax might have tucked herself away into a room with closed ventilation to hide her scent I didn't have that luxury and was in a host that would seem a quick and delicious snack.

  It meant that I really had to keep on the move. Fortunately, my host fully agreed on that score. They didn't want to get eaten any more than I did.

  It was a challenge to figure out where Sylax would have a saferoom. While normally logic would dictate that it would be close to her quarters, Sylax could teleport. Even if a threat happened while she was in her sleep with a thought the moment she snapped awake she'd be able to move herself somewhere more secure.

  I thought it likely that saferoom would actually be located near the control center. I was experiencing first hand how inconvenient it was to be cut off from my systems.

  I steered the Gobble through the airducts and eventually reached the main control room.

  Sylax's paradigm ruled here, there were magical interfaces carved with runes in addition to large display screens and computers. There was also a familiar figure tapping away at the consoles. Crash.

  Wolf must have actually conquered his district in secret, there is no other way Wolf would trust him this much if he weren't under some form of compulsion. Crash was tapping away at the keys intently and completely preoccupied. The question was why.

  At this point things in the city should largely be settled. While finding me and Jade might be a priority Crash wouldn't need access to these systems for that.

  I still needed to find Sylax but it was worth waiting a bit to figure out what he was up to. From the air vent I could view the screen, and that meant with some time I could figure it out.

  I had the Gobble settle down and get comfortable while I watched.

  Crash was trying to override the timers. Given the control I'd already seen him show over some of the cities systems that seemed it might be within his power. It would also give Wolf an immediate victory if he were to succeed. Sylax had to wait.

  What I needed to figure out is what I could do about it. Crash wouldn't be winning many fights but neither would I while contained with this body.

  Was that really true though. I hadn't even tried to upgrade my host, but if I still had access to my stockpile of resource points I should be able to do quite a bit.

  I tried to pull up a host menu.

  Madam Gobbles

  Age: 8 Days

  Physical Stats

  Values out of 25

  5 is the Gobble Average

  Cuteness: 6

  Agility: 4

  Strength: 5

  Endurance: 5

  Intelligence: 9

  Special Traits

  Wrong Place Right Time

  Somehow you will always be in exactly the wrong place at exactly the right moment to cause the most trouble

  Lucky

  You stay one step ahead of disaster. Somehow.

  Madam Gobbles was a stupid name, but my host wasn't stupid at at all according to what I was seeing. So far as Gobbles went they were a genius, although I could make them a good bit more intelligent yet.

  On my human drones Intelligence wasn't an option. I wondered if this was something with the Gobble itself or because I was actually inside the host when doing the upgrade.

  I also could upgrade values far higher than I could with a human. I wasn't sure how Gobble values would map to human, but given the extensive cost it looked like some high level upgrades would have they might actually be comparable.

  I eased Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Endurance up to fifteen and added accelerated healing, teleportation, and bioarmor.

  While the destructive value of something like the fire matrix would have been valuable, it also would have taken away all my potential for stealth.

  Once the uprades were done it was time to strike. It was far easier to get the Gobble to do what I wanted now, I think because of the upgraded intelligence. I had her back all the way up in the vent and then charge forward at full speed even as I engaged Bioarmor.

  Perhaps the values were equivalent to human afterall for the vent was forcefully flung across the room.

  Crash looked up startled, "What the.."

  Looking up was a mistake. A bundle of armored clawed Gobble landed on his face. Flailing backwards in his chair he fell to the floor and my host went with him. I was prepared to shred him into non existence but the fall caused his him to smack his head with a loud thud and rendered the man unconsciouses.

  I could kill him. Perhaps I should kill him but if was compelled then really none of this was his doing. His ability to subvert complex systems was also a valuable ability, one I'd hate to see loss.

  Perhaps it wasn't even necessary. I turned loose Madam Gobbles on the room. With her armored coating and super-Gobble strength the cabling of the computers stood little chance. Within ten minutes there was not a function system in the room, smoke openly poured from several panels.

  It could be repaired, but I got the impression that Crash was a software and not a hardware kind of guy. This would be beyond him, and while Wolf had technicians it would take them time.

  I headed back for the vent, back on my quest.

  39

  My ability to actually do some form of sabotage while in this form raised all new kinds of possibilities.

  I was working t
o find Sylax, but perhaps I didn't need to. If I was right and she had located her saferoom somewhere where she would still have access to her camera feeds and systems then it would be easier my far to have her find me.

  I just needed to do something dramatic enough that it would get her attention.

  With a Castle full of werewolves on fire I even had an idea just what I might be able to do about it. In a way my past struggles with Hot Stuff and her followers were a good thing because they left me well prepared on how to fight those with a Fire Matrix.

  There were two techniques in the past I'd used to great advantage and they both came down to a matter of oxygen. Take too much away and their flames would die, keep it away and they would quickly become unconsciouses as well, keep it away even longer and the cells in their body would start shutting down. The cells of someone with a fire matrix active were especially oxygen dependent.

  The other option was too much oxygen. Flood them with it and they burned too hot and too bright, enough that it would do damage to their cells and make a ruin of their surroundings as well.

  Of the two I thought the later was more likely to overwhelm their accelerated healing. That meant that I needed to find the source of the buildings oxygen supply. Fortunately given that my Gobble had been crawling through the ventilation ducks I already had a good idea where that might be.

  The atmospheric systems of a building like this had to be varied and adaptable given the wide range of attributes the powered had. The main room for ventilation actually turned out to have over half a dozen tanks of different atmospheric gases and the requisite generators to produce more.

  There was also the control panel that allowed the whole thing to operate. I wasn't Mechos and I didn't have nearly the control over city systems that he did. Still, that just meant that what he could do quickly would take me some time.

  I thought that my best option would be to close the external vents for a time while I built up a pressurized supply of oxygen in the ducts. Given how quickly the Wolves burned through the stuff I wouldn't have much time, but even several minutes should let me build up a high concentration. Then I could open all the vents at once and release a mostly pure supply into the building.

  I say mostly because I thought that I could probably do even better. The backup tanks had a wide variety of chemicals and I thought I could do better than just a straightforward burn. I could accelerate things even further with the right mixture.

  It took me more hours I didn't really have. It was time enough for Crash to regain consciousness and for the Wolves to begin a search of the building. Fortunately they were focusing near the control hub and expanding outward from there, I had time enough to get done what I needed to do.

  Once the sequence had been programmed I initiated. It was a long five minutes for the desired pressure to build in the vents.

  The other part of this plan was just how to survive what I was doing. The plan was to flood the chamber I was in with inert gasses and to follow up the oxygen blast with a flood of them as well. It should stop me from getting any blast backward. I'd suffocate, a bit, but I could still maintain some oxygen content in my own air.

  On schedule the next part of the program triggered and the vents around the building opened.

  The castle actually trembled, blasts of super heated flames running through the corridors as Wolves screamed and burned as the heat became too much even for them.

  I couldn't be sure any of them would stay dead but I thought many would. At the very least I'd made their day very memorable.

  It worked exactly as planned. There was a brief flicker and I suddenly found myself being picked up by the scruff of my neck and raised to eye level of a peering Sylax.

  I'd been teleported. We were in a room that really looked much like the control center I'd found earlier, except the screens here still all functioned.

  "Emma? You look ridiculous. On the plus side I get to do this," Sylax said as she reached up with her fingers to break one of my paws before flinging me against a wall. Bones snapped. I was glad I'd given my host accelerated healing, even with it she was in a lot of pain.

  I opened a connection on the console.

  "Looking for you? You're obviously antsy from being locked up as you're even more a monster than usual," I said.

  I rather appreciated that I could say mean things about Sylax and keep them completely true. There were virtues to knowing someone truly awful, it put things in perspective.

  "My castle has been taken by that brute and all your clever plans didn't help. Crystal is working for them now. That is a problem for me," Sylax said.

  "Can she take your powers back?" I asked.

  "No, it isn't quite that simple but she can give them a full accounting of everything that I can do. It is knowledge I'd prefer not be out there," Sylax said.

  I could understand that.

  "We're planning an invasion through the portal gates. When we do you'll have your chance to hit Wolf, take him by surprise this time," I said.

  Sylax snorted dismissively, "That is your new scheme? It is even worse than the old one."

  I didn't disagree.

  "If you are capable of anything besides cruelty and whining do feel free to make a better suggestion," I said.

  Sylax stared at my host for a long moment and then a cruel smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Sylax never looked so fearsome as when she looked happy. "Oh I've got a plan. How about you move out of the slums and into a palace."

  40

  Could Sylax actually be suggesting what I thought she was suggesting?

  What else could it be. It was an offer to exchange my current cost for her.

  "I'm quite certain I have no desire to live inside your head. That is less palace and more creepy haunted sanitarium," I said.

  "Oh I could hurt you until you say yes," Sylax said before beaming a smile, "Why I will hurt you until you say yes but it doesn't have to all be broken bones and screaming. You want to defeat Wolf as much as I do."

  I did.

  "We suspect that Wolf became so powerful because he began to mirror you. We think that you have some sort of amplification core. Do you?" I asked.

  "You figured that out," Sylax said making an expression of distaste. "Unfair of him to turn my own tricks against me. A powerful thing to combine with an ally with an upgrade crystal."

  "It makes sense out of what we witnessed. If I move on will it affect me as well?" I asked.

  "That is the question isn't it. I believe so. I think it will boost both of our powers and then you can give me tricks that Wolf has never dreamed of," Sylax said.

  Perhaps I could, and if it worked Sylax would be reluctant to let me go.

  This woman craved anything which gave her more power. I was wary about that, with good cause, but I also didn't see where I choice but to agree. Sylax was right, she could hurt my current host until I agreed and with a clock ticking down this really might just make her strong enough.

  "If it is even possible. I hadn't known it was until I came into this Gobble," I said.

  Transfer Option

  A compatible biological matrix has been found for core transfer and an offer has been extended. Do you wish to initiate transfer?

  Well that was that. I gave my current host instructions to run and hide as soon as I was out. I didn't trust in Sylax not to torture it to death simply out of boredom. Then I triggered the transfer.

  If I'd felt a bit slow and dimwitted when I first transferred into the Gobble it was the opposite sensation going into Sylax. The sensation of power and intellect was intoxicating.

  Her senses were well beyond what those of ordinary humans should have been. I was picking up colors and textures when she focused as if I were using a magnifier on my cameras. The sense of coiled power in even the most basic maneuvers were immense.

  I tried to pull up her stats but only got an empty buzzing when doing so.

  "I think not Emma," Sylax thought.

  We didn't need to
communicate verbally, this was useful, and alarming.

  "If you want me to be able to upgrade you I need to see what you have," I thought.

  "My secrets are mine. What can you do for me?"

  If she wasn't going to show me hers I wasn't inclined to show her mine, at least not anything that she wasn't already aware of. Really I thought that a simple combination of two abilities might be enough, offensively she was already quite strong enough on her own. Where she'd failed was in Wolf really being able to not just hurt her, but to recovery faster than her.

  "I can give you the ability to generate your own armor plating and to quickly heal from damage. If these abilities are boosted by your core the combination should make you virtually invulnerable to anything that he can throw at you," I thought.

  I'd always thought she was invulnerable already but her earlier fight with Wolf had made me rethink that. The woman I saw him hurt couldn't have survived my bombs at close range. What I at the time thought had been invincibility had to be her teleporting away just in time.

  I willed the upgrades into place and felt that they seemed to click. I'd done something, at least.

  "The armor has a limited use. Save it for a big fight," I thought

  "Fine," Sylax said as she drew one arm back an delivered a savage punch upwards at her own jaw. Through her I heard the brunch of bone and felt a moment of dizzied disorientation that quickly faded. Sylax waggled her jaw that had already healed. I'd done enough studies of Ophelia to know how soon she would have healed that injury. I think Sylax had actually beaten it.

  Unlike the Gobble she was also intimately linked and connected to the city systems as its ruler. I was able to start pulling surveillance and movement information far superior to anything I had in my own district. Doing much with it was a bit of a problem but I could at least make it useful for Sylax.

  In one corner of her vision I constructed an overlay of the castle and marked on it those Wolf guards who were still up and on their feet after my explosive display. I'd done a lot to thin their numbers but reinforcements were arriving through the bottom level already.