Published at 17th of September 2024 7:28 am

Chapter 278: Friends and Family

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“You’re starting to piss me off, kid,” Solaris said, raising a hand over Perry’s face. “You’ve given me almost as much trouble as John, but I think it’s about time you-”

“It’s Stacy now,” Perry corrected him.

“What?” Solaris asked, frowning. “What do you mean by that? Is Professor Replica still alive?”

Oops. Threw Stacy under the bus. It was hard to know what Solaris remembered, and what he didn’t.

Perry was carefully formulating a response to the question when Solaris shook him, jostling the rebar in his lung.

Ow.

“Is Professor Replica still alive!?” he demanded, leaning closer to Perry and searching his eyes, before leaning away, his eyes flickering back and forth, accessing his more damaged recent memories, while his face writhed with contesting emotions of hope, fear and disgust, and…something inhuman.

Perry opened his mouth to say anything that would get Solaris to stop shaking him when he spotted subtle Essence surrounding them invisibly as it travelled through the fifth dimension, creeping in the edges of reality.

Something was about to go down.

Perry checked his other versions.

Four of them were still alive and fighting to reach the MRI machine and take another shot at him, but there was no Essence bubble being quietly formed around them. they were simply moving too fast for the mystery helper to build the net.

Guess it’s just this one then.

“You could write a book with the amount of things you’ve forgotten recently,” Perry offered to buy an extra second as the fifth dimension filled up around them with loaded Essence.

Perry saw the twitch in Solaris’s eye as he noticed the change around them.

NOW.

Perry threw his hand in front of his skull, modifying the air to disperse light and heat.

“Agh!” Solaris screamed as glowing bands of scintillating green light emerged from thin air and wound their way around his arms.

Solaris’s mouth unleashed a blast of light that seemed to contain his entire being, as if he was a snake trying to slip out of his skin and escape the confining Essence binding his limbs.

The beam of light bounced off Perry’s left hand, frying a good portion of it, but leaving his head untouched.

An instant later, Perry watched as the beam of light was frozen in midair and painstakingly reeled back into Solaris’s mouth, with a shuddering whump, whump sound that reminded him of a stalling engine about to throw up.

“That’s not going to last forever!” Perry heard his mother’s voice shout. “Run!”

The Essence bubble around them parted easily as Perry shoved himself backwards, leaping away from the struggling Solaris.

Now would be a great time to get some distance and hide. Perry needed some time to process the fight, recover Essence, and come up with better countermeasures.

Portal.exe.

Not enough Essence. Please Try again Later.

Goddamnit.

Perry turned and ran towards the nearby staircase. Anything less than several thousand miles in the next few seconds wouldn’t buy Perry enough time to make himself scarce, but it was the principal of the thing.

His persistence was rewarded as a shimmering portal opened at the top of the stairs, his mother standing next to it, giving him the ‘GO GO GO’ hand motion.

Never look a gift portal in the mouth, Perry thought, diving through the portal, finding himself in a bunker of sorts.

It radiated a sense of heaviness and isolation, lit by a single dim incandescent bulb that cast pools of shadows in the corners, unable to completely light up the dark grey concrete that seemed to loom low over his head.

In the fifth dimension, Perry could see weaves of Essence that made the bunker separate from the rest of the world, stronger than any natural material, and with magic that would consistently turn attention away from itself, making even finding it’s location a near-impossible task.

Form and function bled together as the oppressive fifth-dimensional magical protection oozed into reality and contributed to the oppressive ambience.

In short: The place was hella creepy.

It’s a small price to pay. Where Solaris is concerned, an ounce of avoiding attention is worth a pound of ashed flesh.

Perry glanced down at his ashed left hand. It was already starting to hurt less as it scabbed over and healed at a visible rate.

Same for the shrapnel in his gut and the rebar in his lung.

If he didn’t have The System, he’d be on an IV drip in a hospital ward, wrapped from head to toe in bloody bandages, not walking around.

Or more likely just dead.

Gonna need some food, though. Perry thought, scanning his surroundings. He wasn’t able to grow his fingers back without magic, but it was still going to take a lot of energy to heal the stump and the shrapnel in his stomach.

Plus…

Something about the place didn’t seem…ideal.

There were no doors.

Presumably an actual entrance to a bunker designed to hide from Solaris was a security risk, and those who knew about it could teleport, but still…something felt off.

“Thank god you’re okay, Perry!” Mom gasped as she stepped through the portal behind him, closing it promptly.

“Define ‘Okay’,” Perry grunted as he pulled the MRI machine shrapnel out of his stomach. A couple seconds of holding the wound closed allowed it to begin healing.

“Alive,” Mom said, rolling her eyes as she walked past him, deeper into the bunker.

“Nice place you got here, mom…” Perry mused as he followed her into the next room, where she was returning from further down the hall.

“Well, you know what they say, ‘you never know when Solaris is going to get dementia and go on a suspicion-fueled rampage.’” She said, tossing him a fresh set of clothes.

On the shirt was a cringy cartoon that he’d been obsessed with when he was a teen, causing Perry to wince. Ugh, I guess it’s better than bloody scraps. Marginally.

“They say that, huh? Thanks.” Perry muttered, changing the properties of the blood and rubble dust that clung to him to slough off, skipping the shower altogether.

“Soooo, how’re my grandkids?” Mom asked as Perry threw the clothes on. It was a little awkward while missing a few fingers, but Perry managed.

“Still alive.”

“And my two beautiful daughter-in-laws?”

“Also still alive,” Perry said, not volunteering anything.

The two of them sat there in awkward silence for a moment before Mom sighed, resting her hand on the nearby kitchen sink.

“When did you figure it out?” she asked.

“The instant you didn’t heal me as soon as you arrived.” Perry admitted with a shrug. There was only one reality where his mother didn’t immediately smother him in healing spells as soon as she saw how badly he was hurt.

A reality where it was more advantageous for her if he remained severely wounded.

One where she was a mimic.

She glanced at his slowly healing stomach and sighed before turning to the cabinet. “Yeah, that’s what did it for me too…We still have a moment to talk before I catch on.”

Hexen snapped her fingers and living essence lurking on the walls constricted inwards, plastering itself around him and disrupting any essence coming out of him, effectively preventing him from casting spells.

“Anything you’d like to talk about?” she asked, fishing out a bowl of cereal and a bowl. “Sorry, we don’t have any milk.” Mom said, sliding the bowl across the table towards him.

“No problem,” Perry muttered, walking up to the table and sitting down before digging in. it might be dry and stale, but he needed every ounce of calories he could get.

“You have no idea how happy I am to know you’re alive,” Mom said, lacing her fingers together and resting her chin on them. A distinctive behavior of hers.

Perry’s eye twitched.

A list of topics flickered through Perry’s mind like fire. Questions he could ask her that might give him a marginal advantage in the upcoming battle. A way to eke out that tiny edge that might keep him alive. But it just…didn’t feel right. He owed her more than that.”

“…Anything you’d like me to tell Dad, if I see him?” Perry asked between spoonful after spoonful of dry granola.

“Tell your Da-…tell Darryl I have no regrets. Absolutely none. I’ll be waiting for him in Elysium.” Mom said with a wistful smile.

“Do you want to take a shower, or a nap?” She asked, her expression shifting back to comforting and reassuring. “You gotta rest and heal up before we figure out how to take on the Solaris Problem.”

The Essences around him shifted the Fate dimension him to make that seem like a really good idea. That was what he was going to do, so reality itself rearranged itself to match the inevitability.

It was among the highest level magic: Creating a desired result, then seeping backwards and creating the circumstances that would make it happen. The kind of stuff that Perry had never imagined he’d be able to perform, let alone comprehend when he was originally making his casting machinery.

He actually yawned for a moment before his leaden fifth dimensional form broke through the enchantment like crisp ice on a fall morning.

“Yeah, in a moment,” Perry said, desperate to hear just a few more of his mother’s words before she was gone for good.

He knew it was a stupid impulse and every second he spent not launching a pre-emptive attack against the mimic that had taken her place was a second wasted.

But he would hate himself forever if he didn’t get in what few words he could.

“You know, I always knew you were proud of me,” Perry said, spinning the spoon on his finger. “You told me every day about how amazing I was and how proud you were, even when I couldn’t see it myself.”

“But did you know I was always proud of you?” Perry asked. “I always thought I was trying to get magic for myself, but more recently, I’ve realized it was because I felt like not having magic alienated me from my biggest hero. I spent a decade trying to get that connection to you back.”

“Yeah. I knew.” Mom said, her eyes brimming with tears.

“…Good.” Perry said, tapping the spoon against the table. “That clears up a few worries I had.”

“That’s wonderful sweetheart.”

Now that he’d set aside more important concerns, it was time to turn to less pressing issues, like knowing what the hell was going on, and surviving the next few minutes.

“So why save me?” Perry asked. “Aren’t you all working together.”

“I don’t know if you noticed,” Mom said, glancing up and to the side as she gave one of her bubbly shrugs. “But Solaris is a little…out of control right now. If I had to guess I’d say it’s because when he’s in his light form he’s more…himself.”

So solaris is bouncing back and forth between normal and Alzheimer-mimic rapid fire as he uses his power. Brief moments of lucidity between being a passenger in your own body, causing confusion, paranoia, aggression. Sounds like hell.

“We thought that acquiring an omni-class super would be the end of things, but it’s proven surprisingly frustrating,” Mom said.“Hopefully when you wake up, you’ll be able to save Franklin City. You’re so close to being Omni Class yourself.”

“…Guess I should take that nap now,” Perry said, standing and rinsing off the bowl and spoon before heading for the hallway.

“You’re gonna take the spoon with you?”

Perry glanced down at the little piece of metal in his hand. “But what if I need a shiv?”

“Perry,” The mimic said, putting her hands on her hips and speaking in such a disapproving tone that Perry reflexively tossed his new shiv in the sink.

“Fine, jeez,” Perry said, heading down the hall.

The first room on the left had a king-sized bed and two cribs at the foot. Proof Mom hadn’t updated the bunker in at least three years.

Well, I guess we’re doing this, Perry thought with a sigh, climbing up on the bed and stretching out atop the sheets, closing his eyes, eventually relaxing his soft palate, causing him to snore lightly.

A minute later:

“Perry? Are you asleep?”

“No.” Perry said, keeping his eyes closed.

“I love you baby,” Mom said. Perry felt the air shift and the mattress bend slightly as she leaned over him to place a kiss on his forehead. He’d felt it a thousand times before. “Sweet Dreams.”

Perry grabbed the foot-long piece of rebar in his chest and whipped it upward, making contact with something.

Nobody expects lung-shiv… Ow.

He opened his eyes to the sight of his mother toppled against the wall, half-unfolded into a man-eating monstrosity, part of her jaw ripped away by the steel, eye glittering with unnatural hunger.

Perry coughed and sat up as his chest began scabbing over, wracking his body with pain and itching. At least he didn’t have to worry about tetanus or infections. The bacteria couldn’t hope to compete with him.

“Come on,” Perry rasped as he ran his finger down the bar of steel, reforming it into a delicate Paradoxed rapier. “Let’s get this over with.”

As the mimic pushed herself to her feet, The walls around them began shifting organically, eyes opening to glare at him from every direction.

Well, shit. I guess we’re doing this.Still better than Solaris.

********

“Sweet ho-o-o-o-me Fra-a-a-anklin Ci-i-i-ity!,” Brendon tried to make his voice waver as he drove down the train tracks towards Chicago, but the rails were big enough that he could do a u-turn on them, and smooth as butter.

Sadly, they weren’t the tiny pre-Tide railroads he’d heard about, so he couldn’t get his voice to waver, no matter how hard he tried.

“Lame,” Brendon mused, leaning back into his seat and grabbing his weekly beer.

Generally drinking and driving were ill-advised, but there was literally no one else on the ‘road’. No one for a hundred miles in any direction, no traffic or anything, and it was just one bee-

“SHIT!” When Brendon glanced up from retrieving his beer, he spotted a massive oak splayed across the tracks, which had previously been hidden by a gentle bend in the tracks.

The tires slipped on the smooth steel and began smoking as he screeched to a halt inches away from a jutting branch that looked eager to pierce the windshield and end the unattentive driver.

Heart slamming in his chest, Brendon glanced down at the beer in his hand as the wake of acrid tire-smoke caught up to him.

With a shrug, he cracked it open and knocked it back before climbing out of the cab.

Brendon stood, inspecting the tree covering the track with one hand on his hip and one holding his beer, musing about the best way to clear the blockage.

I s’pose I could get the straps and put it in reverse, pulling the tree my direction by the far end, which would pull the tree straight and make it much easier to push off to one side, or drive around.

The treecatcher on the front of the inter-city train wouldn’t be bothered by something as small as a giant oak tree, so Brendon could probably leave it anywhere he wanted.

Although, to be polite it would probably be best if I tried to get it pushed off to the right.

While he was drinking a beer and coming up with a plan of attack, Brendon noticed a noise behind him.

He turned to look and saw no less than six scruffy-looking kids with guns pointed at him. The oldest one had a Prawn gun that would probably break his collarbone if he pulled the trigger.

Brendon took a sip of his beer.

“Give us all your stuff,” the biggest kid said.

“Okay.”

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