“Marco Northern, your partner for this training session will be…” the General looked down a list of names on his checkboard. He checked one off. “Lithuania Starr. You two will be going up next. Please arm yourselves.”
They were in the Foggistani Air Force Training Grounds, in the Action Simulation Field. The entire class of fifty was there. What were the odds, Marco thought, of landing the simulation with Lithuania? They hadn’t spoken since the incident at the cafeteria, when he had goulash splashed all over his shirt while checking out Lithuania’s rack. She had seemed overly loud at the time—a little too used to getting all the attention, and ever-so-slightly uninclined towards being attracted to the male sex. She had, however, blushed when he caught her staring at him, which was confusing enough. Maybe she wasn’t a dyke after all.
Marco turned to look at her when the General called her name, just to see if she reacted in any particular way. She didn’t. She just nodded at the General, and moved over to the steel armor case to suit up, without so much as a glance at Marco. At any rate, Marco thought, she seemed more subdued than at the cafeteria. He walked over to the case to suit up with her.
“So…” he said, pulling a five-pound titanium chest guard from the case, “The course is looking pretty tough today… Looks like we’re really going to have to watch each other’s backs.”
Lithuania pulled the seldom-used female chest guard from the case, with its chromed breast cups and narrower waist. “Should I be worried?” she said.
“Errr—of course not.”
“Good,” Lithuania nodded, running her arms through the chest guard’s armholes. “Strap me up, will you?” she said, turning around. She seemed awfully sure of herself. Rather taken aback, Marco clicked the metallic straps on Lithuania’s back into place. “Thank you,” she said.
Lithuania snatched her weapon of choice: the XT-100 Quickcharge Laser Pistol. For a laser weapon, it charged quite quickly, was light, and shot quickly enough for a pistol. She examined her pistol and equipment a little more thoroughly than usual. She couldn’t reveal any sign of interest whatsoever. She had to stay in control. If Marco caught even the slightest whiff of her interest in him, he’d land on dominant ground. She had to get him interested, without seeming interested herself. She had to be in control. But not in too much control. Guys didn’t like that. She had to keep him curious. She had to—
“Northern. Starr. You two are up.”
Lithuania snapped back into reality. Her equipment was all set. She turned to look at Marco. He was already standing behind the starting line, the GT-500 RapidFire Rifle in hand. So that would be the arrangement: he’d plow through the virtual masses from afar, while she took out those who came too close or attacked from behind. The GT-500 was a smart pick—the perfect partner for the XT-100. Lithuania wondered whether Marco had picked it on purpose.
Marco gripped his rifle with both hands as Lithuania approached the starting line. He noticed she was carrying the GT-500. He hated that pistol; it charged quickly, but was not nearly as fast as a RapidFire. He liked the heft of his rifle—its rapid bursts of fire. Marco had never teamed up with someone who used an XT-100. He wondered whether Lithuania had picked it to match his GT-500. Considering how uninterested she looked, probably not. It was just a coincidence. Still, this would be interesting.
“Soldiers on the ready!” shouted the General, stepping away from Marco, Lithuania and the starting line, whistle at the ready.
“I assume you understand the strategy, based on our weapon choices?” said Lithuania.
Marco nodded. “You’ve got my back.”
“Countdown ready!” yelled the General. The lights in the massive, metallic Action Simulation Field dimmed. The place was really just an enormous enclosed metallic football field, which adopted the terrain of a predetermined training ground, with virtual enemies, weapons and monsters included.
Marco felt the thrill of excitement coming on. He loved these training sessions. And the excitement was only heightened by his training alongside Lithuania. They’d get to try out their innate chemistry. They hadn’t yet had much verbal communication, but hey. Maybe they clicked on the field.
“GO!”
The room darkened. When the lights returned, they were just a dim blue glow. Marco and Lithuania were inside some sort of abandoned factory, in a long corridor with walls of peeling paint and an almost overwhelming stench of urine. All was silent, except for the drip drip of a leaky pipe somewhere.
“This is a strange scenario,” said Lithuania. “I was expecting something more…”
“Out in the open?” said Marco, suddenly uncomfortable with his weapon choice.
“Yeah.”
They walked slowly down the tunnel, side by side, arms at the ready. “You never quite know what they’re going to try to teach us next,” Marco said.
“Monsters!” Lithuania yelled.
The light at the end of the corridor was suddenly blocked by the shadow of a dozen enormous, indistinguishable black figures.
Together, Lithuania and Marco opened fire. They dodged flying maces. They slaughtered eight-foot digital beasts. They climbed up rusty pipes, deactivated the fictional bomb, rescued the make-believe hostage, and found the flag.
That day, together, they broke the speed record that had been held in the Action Simulation Field for over thirty years.
Marco asked Lithuania out for a beer, to celebrate.
Latvia nodded enthusiastically. It was the morning after she rescued Peter, and she couldn’t have been more excited about her newly discovered ability.
“But I didn’t think—”
“The three of you have only scratched the surface of your powers…” Timoteo said, as he entered the living room of the Lokton bed and breakfast. “You’ll grow into them in time. Just remember you’re space, time, and infinity. There’s a lot that goes into that. Now, we have to get moving. Where are Isa and Winfry?”
“Moving where?” said Lithuania.
“That’s the thing,” began Estonia, “I feel like no one really knows what to do next. The three of us are together, but now what?”
“Where are Isa and Winfry?” Timoteo repeated. Winfry came in through the front door, rubbing his hands, alone. He looked windswept. “Decided to go for a walk?” Timoteo asked dryly. Winfry nodded, blowing his hands. “Isa with you?” Winfry shook his head and walked straight past them, into the kitchen.
“What’s up with him?” mouthed Estonia to Lithuania. Lithuania shrugged.
“Timoteo,” said Latvia, “How do Isa and Winfry fit into all this? Do you know what we’re supposed to do next?”
“What do you think we should do next?”
Lithuania looked to the ground and bit her lip. She knew what she wanted to do next… She just didn’t know if it was possible.
“Well we can’t exactly go back to the Antioch Complex… not with those dark hooded AssMachenstani whatevers chasing us and tracking our magic.”
“But what about our jobs?” said Estonia. “Won’t people be wondering where we are? Won’t they notice we’re missing? Won’t Foggistan get suspicious? We should just go back, contact Jagesic and let him know we’re being chased by AssMachenstan. Maybe they can give us protection, and we can let them know what we think is going on here, and—”
“But we don’t exactly know what is going on here,” said Latvia. “About the only thing we’ve done is find Lithuania and—well, we have discovered AssMachenstan is behind all this… but—”
“Marco…” mumbled Lithuania. Everyone fell silent. “We’re still missing Marco.” A few seconds of silence went by before Timoteo spoke up.
“Returning to Antioch is out of the question. The Black Emissaries will snatch you up as soon as they can. You can consider your old lives just about gone by now.” Estonia felt a stone plunge into her stomach. Being the career-minded older sister who had never been quite interested in magic to begin with, this flatly delivered bit of news from Timoteo hit her like an icy slap to the face. As for Latvia, she felt an odd hybrid of thrill and terror. Of freedom and helplessness. Like she had suddenly stepped into an adventure she both willingly and reluctantly accepted.
Lithuania felt nothing.
“As for informing Jagesic,” continued Timoteo, “I am sure he is already onto quite a series of discoveries himself. I know why you’d be eager to speak to him, but the truth is, we don’t yet know nearly enough to merit our return. And as strange as it sounds, I think you’re safer here in LusciousLocks than anywhere else at the time.”
“How is that possible?” asked Estonia.
“The Black Emissaries will be unable to track you through LusciousLocks. The same thing that’s jamming communications and making psychic powers go haywire is, if I’m not mistaken, also affecting the Emissaries’ ability to track you. Considering they haven’t fallen upon us yet, I’d say they have no idea you three are here. And if they do, then they don’t know how to find you. On another note, the heightened magical density of LusciousLocks could, for all we know, offer an optimal training ground for you to develop your powers.”
“So what do you propose?” said Lithuania, growing irritable.
“AssMachenstan has settled somewhere in LusciousLocks. We need to find out exactly where, if we are to be of any use to Jagesic once we return to him. It would also be smart of us to explore this magical connection thing—from earth to creature. Discover why LusciousLocks is so particularly magical, and discover how AssMachenstan plans to harness this magic.”
“That sounds complicated,” said Lithuania. “We should go for Marco first.”
“I fail to see how Marco will be of any utility to us now,” Timoteo said flatly. “He is neither magical nor in any way written into your destinies as far as I know.”
Lithuania rose, flushing. “I don’t know how you presume to know everything you say you know—I don’t even know why I trust you, when everything you’ve told us so far could either be a lie or some part of your own devious little plan—”
“Lithuania, he saved your life,” interrupted Latvia.
“And for all we know he could have saved me because it somehow fits into AssMachenstan’s plan!”
“Lithuania!” Latvia said, stunned. She was too grateful for Timoteo’s assistance in rescuing Peter for her to think suspiciously of him now.
“It’s OK,” said Timoteo. “You’re the suspicious one. In the end, it’ll prove to your benefit. But I must honestly say that I think going out of our way to save someone who, in the grand scheme of things means nothing, is a waste of time.”
“He doesn’t mean nothing,” Lithuania snapped.
Timoteo leaned back into an armchair, arms crossed, wearing a “suit yourself” expression. At that moment Isa stepped into the living room, squinting and rubbing her temples. “I’m sorry, have any of you seen Winfry?” she asked.
“He’s in the kitchen,” said Latvia.
Isa nodded and stepped into the kitchen.
“Timoteo,” said Lithuania, making a visible effort to pull herself together, “I can’t—I can’t go on, romping about LusciousLocks, knowing that Marco is out there, somewhere, stranded and alone.”
“Do you even know how to find him?” said Timoteo.
Lithuania pursed her lips. Putting the pieces together, she could only assume she had done something, back on the helicopter, to send Marco into another world. “You don’t know where he is, do you?” she asked Timoteo. He shook his head. “But you do know what happened to us on that helicopter, right?”
Timoteo nodded. “Of course I do. And so do you. Your jump in adrenaline activated your power. You split reality through multiple worlds, in a subconscious attempt to save yourself and Marco.”
“And I did.”
“Yes. If you really have seen him in one of your little disappearing acts, then that means he is out there, somewhere. Alive.”
“Do you know why… Why it sometimes hurts so much… to travel through worlds?” She was referring to her disappearance while fleeing the trumpeting monster, and while running down the tunnels with Felix. Those times when she had felt her body catch fire.
“Yes. You were all out of control. Didn’t you notice nothing of the sort happened when you used your power after I focused your magic? You were skipping through worlds as if you’d been doing it your entire life.”
“Yeah, but why? Why should it hurt?”
Timoteo leaned forward, hands pressed together. “If you attempt to travel right now, it will probably hurt again. It’s because you’re learning. And when you’re learning, and you travel into a parallel universe, your body associates with the closest thing to yourself it can find—meaning, it clings to your body, from another universe.”
Lithuania looked perplexed. “What?”
“Consider the Lithuania from another world as a reference point. When you travel through unfamiliar worlds, you’re searching wildly for reference points, even if you don’t know it. You’re looking for familiar ground to land into, because you haven’t quite learned how to manifest your entire body in another world. When the Lithuania from this world travels to another world, the closest point of reference is her own, parallel-world body.”
“So I possess another Lithuania?”
“No. You swap places.”
Lithuania thought for a moment. “Oh crap.” Her eyes opened wide. “I was switching places with my dead body from another universe, wasn’t I…”
Timoteo grinned grimly. “Probably. That does explain the charred chunk of body Felix saw you get replaced with when you vanished from the tunnels.”
“Gross…” Lithuania muttered. “But then that means… that the Lithuania from the world Marcos is currently in… is dead…”
“If that time you vanished from the tunnel was the time you saw him, then yes, probably.”
“OK. So give me a power boost,” said Lithuania, decidedly.
“What?”
“Give me a boost, so I can go find him without feeling all burned up again.”
Timoteo let loose a laugh of disbelief. “You can’t be serious. I’m not some sort of energizing little battery charger you know. I need to reload between boosts. And even if I did supercharge you, you wouldn’t know which world to look in! It could take you years—decades even, of world-hopping, before you could find Marco!”
“I found him accidentally, didn’t I? Without even knowing what I was doing—I saw him. So I must know where he is… somehow. Right?”
“There is a subconscious link between the two of you, no doubt. I couldn’t explain it otherwise. But what is your plan? To get charged, close your eyes and just hope? Hope you find your way to him?”
“It’s a start,” said Lithuania, defiant.
Timoteo scoffed, rose to his feet and began pacing the room. “Frankly, I thought you were more controlled than this. I thought you were less emotional—wiser.”
“Oh cut the crap. Marco is my right hand. I’m sure whatever we try to do, we’ll do it better with him around.”
“You love him.”
Lithuania was taken aback. This was the first time anyone had openly claimed such a thing. Acknowledged that anything existed between her and Marco. “I don’t love him,” Lithuania spat, confused somewhere between indignant and embarrassed.
“It’s the only reason I can think of for you not acting rationally. Marco is simply not a priority. You should recognize that. And searching for him will simply take too much time—”
“EVERYBODY DOWN!” screamed Felix, storming into the room. An instant later, all the windows of the bed and breakfast exploded, an invisible blast knocking everyone to the ground.
Felix quickly scrambled to his feet and began shooting his rifle wildly out the window. More shots could be heard coming from the second story of the bed and breakfast—probably coming from Felix’s five men.
“What—what are you shooting at!?” Timoteo screamed, hands above his head.
Another blast, Felix soared through the air, slammed into a wall, and the ceiling above them burst aflame.
Isa and Winfry scrambled out the kitchen, crawling along the floor. “What’s going on!?” Isa cried.
Felix picked himself back up and continued shooting out the shattered windows. His men came storming down the stairs, fleeing the flames upstairs. “It’s that woman! The one with the tape!” Felix yelled. “She’s back!”
“Winfry!” Timoteo barked. “Use your librem. Quickly!”
“Latvia! Do your magic thingy!” said Estonia. “Make it stop!” As the five soldiers shot their rifles out the windows, another invisible blast sent them flying through the air. There was glass and pieces of furniture everywhere now.
“I—” Latvia stammered. “I don’t— I don’t know how!” she cried. She wasn’t supercharged. She couldn’t focus. Winfry, on the other hand, scribbled wildly into his librem.
“It’s not working!” he said. “Why isn’t it working?”
“STOP!” Timoteo yelled in sudden realization. “Don’t use magic! She’s absorbing it! Everyone, go out back. Hurry!” Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Winfry and Isa scrambled into the kitchen and down the corridor towards the bed and breakfast’s back exit, while Felix and his men had picked themselves up again and continued shooting. “Felix, stop!” Timoteo yelled. “It’s no use!”
Felix wasn’t listening.
“Felix!” Timoteo roared from the ground, yanking Felix down by the wrist with unusual strength. Just as he did so, a slicing sound cut through the air, and blood splattered in every direction.
“NO!” Felix screamed. It was as if his world slipped into slow motion as he saw each of his soldiers, throats sliced open, collapse one by one, each an instantly lifeless and bloody heap upon the floor. “NOOO!!!!” he roared, overcome.
“Felix!” Timoteo said firmly, grabbing him by the face and focusing on his eyes. “She is too powerful. This is not the time to play hero. Escape out back. NOW. Lithuania will need your help.”
Felix, for the first time in his life, felt himself losing control. “MY MEN—” he stammered.
“Felix, GO NOW.” Timoteo shoved Felix towards the kitchen door. Felix’s eyes were spinning out of their sockets, but he seemed just sane enough to pull himself together and flee.
Timoteo was alone now.
“I surrender!” he yelled, rising to the windows, hands up in the air.
There she was. The woman of the smoke dress. “You were an idiot to try to flee, Timoteo,” she barked. She extended her hand, and an invisible force pulled Timoteo’s neck straight into her grip. She held him in the air with unnatural strength, his feet dangling above the ground, tall as he was.
Marco didn’t understand what he was witnessing. The woods of LusciousLocks on fire, the resulting infernal glow in the sky unlike anything he had ever seen, and Green City roaring, “We are AssMachenstan!” Again he questioned his sanity. But this wasn’t a figment of his imagination. It was, beyond a doubt, really happening.
He brushed himself off and rose. He had nowhere to go. His communications were completely cut off. He had lost his knife. But the light cast by the flaming woods was at least a relief to the perpetual darkness he’d been living in for days. He ran, away from the woods and away from Green City. If AssMachenstan was in the city, and if there were more supernatural beings like the woman of the smoke-dress in the woods, then he wanted to be as far away from both city and woods as possible.
In the distance he saw what looked like a giant obelisk, rising black against the surrounding darkness. That was where he’d go.
He was lost, after all. And worse, it seemed the worst-case scenario had come true: AssMachenstan had begun its invasion of LusciousLocks. Though it didn’t make sense. No sense at all. There had been no advance warning. No petitions from the AssMachenstani people. It was just all-out war. Was there a reason? A motive? Of all places, why would they attack LusciousLocks? The most peaceful, most environmental and most inoffensive country of Coralende? If anything, it made more sense to attack the strong ones first: Attica, with its Foggistani colony. Or Econometric Elation, with its wealth and enormous military. But still, what would’ve made the most sense would have been an attack on the Antioch Complex, the Foggistani city and embassy within Econometric Elation.
Still, Marco was glad that that particular bit wasn’t making the most sense. An attack on the Antioch Complex would’ve meant the end of everyone living there—including the remaining Starr sisters. As for the mysterious woman in the misty black dress, who could she—
“You’re not from here.”
Marco stopped dead in his tracks. It was her.
“I thought you were dead,” he said, turning around to face her.
There she was, as threatening and beautiful as if she had never died, the glow of the flaming woods dancing behind her. “You tried to kill me.” She seemed amused.
“You were trying to kill me.”
“It’s what I do,” she said with a smile, slowly circling Marco. “And if you were connected to the Common Mind—you’d know it’s impossible to escape me.”
Marco glared at her. “Who are you?”
“I’m the last thing you’ll ever remember,” she said sweetly. Then she exhaled, as a thick black mist erupted from her mouth. She was the last thing he saw. And the last thing he heard was a trumpeting elephant.
