Aliapanacea

  “Huh, I guess you were right about the sed perspective making things more clear. What the actual fuck is going ohere?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s nothing good. We should probably get a nearby samurai to go check it out…”

  “... Ugh. Longboard is the only one nearby… Maybe we should send another droo check again first?”

  versatioween two family employees in Fort Dals, after two drones arrive to check the distress call from New Houston, finding a ghost town.***

  I quietly sit, my tail coiled up beh me, passively listening to the edy show currently pying out of my little Orca.

  “Fifteen hundred hours is more than enough for produg a processor facility!”

  [“Bah! You barely get anything of aheti ‘just fifteen hundred hours! I’ve spent forty on a single yout before!”]

  “That’s beyond my point! The question still stands, how does aesthetics even matter when it es to hardware!?”

  I five minutes of the AI bickering, it had somehow devolved into this, and I was living for it. They had gone from the inal topic to this after Achys had brought up the ‘sorry’ state of Nyvi’s rig, which apparently is an ongoing argument they are having. I am more than prepared to sit here for the eime I was told to take a breather, but then;

  [“There’s a pce for us… Somewhere, there’s a pce for us…”]

  Emme begins to sing again, her voice quiet, almost haunting in its tohe AI quickly shut up, leaving the invisible stage open for the girl to thrive.

  [“Pead quiet… and open air… Wait for us, somewhere…”]

  As Emmelyn begins the verse, her voice begins to waver and a chill runs down my spine.

  [“There's a time for us, someday a time for us… Ha.”] The shocked chuckle catches me a bit off guard, but then it clicks, that this must be the song that she was talking about earlier. The one from her story, the ohat knocked off her mask to let her feel, yet left her open and vulnerable for someoo take advantage of her.

  It’s a little bittersweet.

  [“Time together with time to spare… Time to learn, time to care.”]

  As Emme goes quiet, so does the world. A singur, silent moment of ption in a world that has been nothing but chaotic for the st few hours. It’s nice, holy, and I y eyes to revel in it all.

  And then, a deafening cacophony of metal scraping against metal, ripping until it breaks into two, has me jolt up just in time to see a nightmare.

  An utterly gigantitithesis obliterated the stairlock Emmelyn was in; I don’t wait for a single instant before I uncoil and shoot towards it. As I get closer, I grimace as I noti intense aroma, ohat reminds me of roses, but this one is putrid, discertingly so. The mohat may have just killed my friend begins to circle beh the mess, but seemingly, it ot tell if it actually succeeded in its job.

  Thankfully, it didn’t, as I find Emme hurt but alive. Her state also makes my heart drop, as her body below her neck is essentially ruined, bent and fttened aated, to the point I am afraid the slightest touch might send her soul to the afterlife. Well, if os, still on the fence about that one…

  Wait, not the time for this!

  ‘Nyvi what do I-’

  Quick! You o move her before the Twenty Three-A finds her, I’ll discuss with Achys about our options!

  Pulling my cloak around my shoulders, I bite my lower lip then swim as hard as I , grabbing Emme’s ravaged, naked form and hugging it close to my chest as I attempt to make as much distance (and to not see things I really shouldn’t) as I from the monster below. Annoyingly, it seems to notice, as it begins to follow us in a rather menag way, but with the lead that I mao get, we seem to be safe, at least for as long as I keep this up.

  Prism, we’re discussing our options for keeping her alive in dited time, but I o ask you a question.

  ‘What?’

  How much are you willing to give up to save her? How much would you sacrifice for this single girl you met just a few hours previous?

  Taken a bit aback, I gnce down at the deathly pale girl crumpled in my arms, that question boung around in my mind, splitting into about a thousand different variations, eae desperately needing an answer in just a few moments.

  Who is Emmelyn Seras?

  A beautiful woman with great ambition, w towards a goal many would shy away from. A natural performer, instinctively putting on acts to make difficult situations easier. A radiant bea, shining hope upon me and everyone else in these dreary depths. A heroic samurai, fighting to save humanity from the greatest threat we will ever know.

  ...

  No.

  I don’t think that’s the right question.

  How about…

  Who is Emme?

  A jolly, enthusiastic friend who is willing to make a fool of themself if it makes me ugh just a bit. A hardy survivor, who has lived through much, just to end up here, likely at her lowest. A lonely, traumatized girl, who despite her problems, aspires to help others and make the world better than it was the previous day.

  Someone who I want to be closer with.

  Someone I don’t want to suffer anymore.

  Someone I desperately do not want to lose.

  …

  I guess that is my answer, hm? I discard the rest of the questions, si’d be poio look at them any longer.

  I sigh, then put on a small smile as I look at Emme’s face.

  ‘Figures, I guess. Anything, Nyvi.’

  Pardon?

  ‘I’m willing to sacrifiything, if it means this girl live.’

  … You are serious, aren’t you honey?

  I just nod, before I mutter:

  ‘ we not just… use the bionites on her? I was in a simir state before, they should do a simir job ri- Wait, I don’t have a token, never mind.’

  Nyvi doesn’t immediately respond, but when she does, her words are hesitant.

  Emme does have a token that she could use on them… but with her current state, the bionites don’t have enough of her own biological material to work with anymore since her viral suite ed a lot of it to keep her alive. We do have a solution to it but…

  I frown as I say, ‘Don’t beat around the bush Nyvi, my tail is getting a bit tired.’

  We disable the safeties on her viral suite, allowing it to ruhe virus will move to her brain, permaly i it, then begin to ge parts of her body to ensure her survival. This will most likely ma in a way for Emme to drain liquid biomass from living creatures, which we thankfully have more than enough to go around. Unfortunately, while the virus is desigo patch bodies together as needed for survival, it ’t do much more than that, which is where the bionites would e in.

  Regrettably again, it’s been shown in the past that the experimental bionites cause dangerous anomalies when bined with the virus, so we’d have to patch the bionites before they enter her… and that update process only be initiated while already inside of a body.

  ‘Ah. Well, if it’s just that, let’s do it.’

  Honey, while you’d only get about half the dose you did st time, this is still going to majorly ge your body, maybe permaly.

  ‘Thank you for w about me, but I made my decision, so I’m not going to sed guess myself.’

  Nyvi sighs, then after a moment, I am slightly surprised to hear Nyvi mutter,

  Well, if you’re sure, Prism. I guess this is on me for seleg people like you.

  ‘What does that mean?’

  That I’m a sucker for self-sacrifig heroes.

  I sort of go bnk at that, until Nyvi suddenly decres.

  She’s awake. Achys o get her approval first, but get ready.

  The few moments are incredibly tense, yet as I see Emme’s sapphire eyes slowly open, hazy as they are, my heart still lifts a bit to see her moving. I push myself even harder, hoping that a little more distance will make this a bit safer.

  Put your hand out, we’re mixing some Hemo-restore in as well so that you don’t run out of blood. The patch will activate a bit after it enters your bloodstream.

  As I catch the ior, I hat it’s the same as st time, then catch Emme’s eyes rapidly moving up and down.

  It’s time.

  I take a deep breath, then i myself in the chest as I hear the shattering of gss, brag for the torment I know is about to arrive. Like before, my head abruptly erupts in pain, though, not nearly as much as it did the first time. My muscles tense as I begin to inwardly panic a bit, but thankfully that only sts a moment, before I feel an intense, roiling ache throughout my eorso, which spreads to nearly my entire body before long.

  I somehow mao pull Emme in closer through all of that, hoping that maybe our proximity will make this process a bit easier. Then, I quietly gasp as the ens her mouth, revealing a set of pure white, incredibly sharp es, that she proceeds to sink into the lht side of my nebsp;

  The entire experience suddenly shifts, a tradiix of frost and fme swirling in my chest, the sensation of which causes my heart to feel as if it is going to explode. Emme’s arms suddenly arouhe girl embrag me tightly as possible, desperate tain the life she had almost lost. Slowly, a yer of pale white material grows to cover most of Emme’s body, which is quite simir in appearao a wet suit.

  inating from the bite, lightning runs a marathon throughout my body, which tinues until all my pain begins to fade- into well, a distinumb pleasure that makes my noagi throb. All of my air seems to leave me as my hands shift to hover above the bame’s head, yet, they never dare to veoo close to risk a touch.

  Then as quickly as it started, it ends.

  Emme pulls back, her ivory fangs spotless as she does, as if they hadn’t been drinking from me just moments before. The woman slowly opens her eyes, now as brilliant a blue as they should always be, then blinks a few times. Suddenly, the fidence I had in wanting to get closer to her just before this flies away, but I still mao stutter out:

  “U-Um, H-Hey there, E-Emme. I-I’m so happy you’re okay.”

  Emme blinks again, and I shiver as her eyes btantly run over my body, before they shoot back up to nd oe. She stares i the wound, her mouth agape and showing off her new fangs.

  “Holy shit, am I… A vampire now?”

  “M-Maybe? You have the fangs, a-at least. I-It’s um…” I have to actively stop myself from saying hot. “P-Pretty… U-Um, C-cool. Y-Yeah, pretty hm.”

  Oh my god, I’m an idiot.

  Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to mind, as she flushes a bit as she looks away, before shyly whispering, “S-So, umm… Thanks for saving me...”

  I feel myself get the dopiest smile before I say:

  “Y-You’re very wele, Emme.”

  I gnce down at the monster following us as I murmur, “W-we uh, probably o take care of this now though.”

  Emme’s face twists as she gres down at the monster, asking “About that, we even hurt that thing? It’s fug huge.”

  Nyvi pops up behio chime in, which Emme visibly fli. “Theoretically possible, very difficult. Yoing to have to work together to get it done.”

  Emme gres at the orca as she states, “First time for everything I guess. Achys I need a on for uer bat.”

  Okay, do you have a pn, Prism?

  ‘Not really, going to py support here I think.’

  Perhaps wise, sidering what Emme’s fighting style is like. Okay, are you ready? I’ll keep the vines off of you.

  I look up in time to catch Emme say, “As much as possible.”, to which I let her free.

  I pull my cloak down as I make a wide turn, pushing my tail hard and pulling out my harpoon from my bag so that I get into a position to strike. As the model Twenty-Three rushes at her, Emme catches what I think is a little crowbar, then absolutely sms the giant fish with it, knog it off course to the point it rams into the top of the tenth floor. I dive down, holding my harpoon out in front of me and releasing a burst of light into the monster, before I have an idea as I watch the rainbow light fade from the harpoon’s diode.

  ‘Is it possible to make this thing explode like one of the grenades?’

  It’s certainly not desigo, but if the tai on the prism inside were promised, it’d probably have a simir effect with a strong enough force applied to it.

  I smirk, theo work. I desd, then as I shift my momentum to head towards the filing alien, I whack the side of my harpoon against a stray vihe sphere visibly cracks, but thankfully it doesn’t explode or anything. Pulling my arm back as I he head, I stab it straight into the space below it’s left eye. It uh, doesn’t explode, which is a bit ing as it’s not like I turn around and try again.

  I anxiously grip the edges of my cloak as I make aurn, catg Emme diving as quick as she , big floppy flippers having grown upon her feet. Knowing I o follow my role, but without much to work with, I start to think as I make my sed approabsp;

  ‘Nyvi, you’re sure they ’t see me with the cloak on?’

  If it were any other model above twenty it probably could, but sidering the size of this one and how it was durdling around earlier, I doubt it has sehat amazing.

  ‘Well, let’s hope you’re right.’

  As Emme’s tendrils knock away a ton of vines, I slink up tht in front of the monster’s eye, then reach out and well, punch it. It certainly doesn’t like that despite it obviously doing no damage, but as it shifts around looking for what hit it, I tell it definitely ’t see me. I keep slugging it until Emme gets close enough, thereat as fast as I . To my surprise though, she sms the harpoon down into the monster’s skull, where thankfully, it does actually explode.

  I watch amused as the monster's head bursts, going into death throes as it does. I start to head back over to Emme, but then I notice that the hole in its head is regeing. I start to run through options in my head, at least until Emme hits it in the side hard enough that it breaks into the tenth floor, where to my surprise a gigantic blob of blueish green, uh, soap sits? As the fish begins to disie and I get close enough to hear her, I catch her mutter, “Situationally overpowered indeed.”

  I resist my urge to tackle her in a hug, tapping the side of my choker three times to retract my cloak. She flinches as it does, which makes me admire how well she worked with me in that fight even more, sidering she couldn’t see me.

  Then her words click, and I mutter, “Wait, you actually did buy that SOAP box thing? When?”

  Emme tilts her head as she says, “Right before I went into the stairlock, when the AI were bickering. I didn’t say anything out loud cause I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “Huh.” I float a bit closer to Emme who flips the little crowbar around in her hand a few times. “T-That thing is pretty strong, what catalog is it from?”

  Emme smirks at me, then twirls it like a baton as she decres. “Css-I Gravitational Wave Maniputors! They weigh nothing and hit hard as fuck!”

  I giggle for a few seds, then slowly go silent as the joyous emotion and adrenaline begin to fade. For a moment, we just stare at each other, and a mixed bag of emotions that had been tightly bound begins to dump itself out. I jump at Emme, hugging her aing my upon her shoulder as I let out a sob.

  “U-Um, hi there?” Emme puts her hand on the bay head. “You okay?”

  I manage a bit of a frustrated grunt through the tears, which thankfully Nyvi pops up to transte for me. “She’s happy you’re okay, but is calling you an idiot for being careless and almost dying.”

  Emme gingerly pushes my head a bit over, thes her head against mine. “I didly do it on purpose, Princess, but I get your point. Hey, for what it’s worth, I don’t think we came out of it worse then we went in.”

  Soundiremely unimpressed, Nyvi decres, “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  Popping off of her side, the SAD remora floats over, lighting up as it begins to spin around us, only for Nyvi to ominously whisper, “Oh.”

  Achys hisses, then says, [“Well, that’s not good.”]

  Frantically, Emme asks, “What? Am I dying or something?”

  Nyvi floats down, plopping onto my back as she calmly and matter of factly states:

  “No, but Prism is.”

  Aliapanacea