Chapter 2. Signal

Halankuo ran behind the back of the house, where Kyotyoryon jumped. But the spirit of metal was no longer there.

"Where has she gone?" thought Halankuo. "She couldn't have gone far." 

The girl summoned a virtual screen and entered the program in which she created the character. A window opened in front of Halankuo with a map of the town and a red dot that was slowly moving towards the forest.

"It's good that 'Mausoleum of Nature" can determine the location of the character," Halankuo thought. "Even though Yenekit is a small town, even in it you might not find the creature if it gets lost."

Halankuo ran along the gray cobblestones across the block and stopped at the nearest building. Suddenly she realized that she was standing barefoot on the paving stones, and that she was wearing only an apron and a helmet with a shield.

"This is not the first time I go out into the street wearing what I wear at home," the girl thought. "It's good that most of my clothes are in inventory." 

Halankuo swiped her finger through the air and brought up her interface, then pressed the button with the T-shirt on it. A new screen appeared on top of the old screen – with icon buttons in the form of different items of clothing. Halankuo chose buttons featuring shorts, boots and a T-shirt.

Black shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of boots appeared in the air in front of the girl. Halankuo touched the T-shirt with her finger, and it moved onto her, and the apron and helmet disappeared. Then the same thing happened with shorts and boots.

Kyotyoryon reached the end of the town. Behind the path paved with gray-red stones, a coniferous forest with tall cone-shaped trees began.

"These pillars are somehow strange," the character thought. "They are made of a different material than my metal. And there are a lot of these pillars. I need to cut them."

Kyotyoryon entered the forest and found herself surrounded by thick tree trunks, the crown of which began somewhere high.

The spirit of metal wanted to climb a tree, but some force forced her to go deep into the forest. Soon Kyotyoryon found herself in a small forest glade. Among the sparse grassy vegetation lay the bodies of several people who slowly disappeared. In the middle of the glade, a black and white penguin was sitting on a huge stump. Protruding from the top of his large head were two metal sticks with transparent balls at the ends.

"These things on his head are made of my metal," Kyotyoryon thought. "You have to touch them."

The spirit of metal ran towards the creature on the stump. The penguin looked at her with large black eyes without pupils. The balls on the tops of the sticks turned yellow.

Kyotyoryon approached the creature and touched one of its sticks with her hand. The balls turned red. An electric discharge appeared between the sticks, which soon struck the character. Lightning flashed through the body of the metal spirit. Kyotyoryon began to writhe, let go of the creature's wand, and then fell to the ground. This saved her from further electric shocks.

The bodies of people completely disappeared. Halankuo came to the glade and immediately noticed the body of her character, which was lying near a stump. A wrench appeared in the girl's hand.

"This creature is not like the animal that lives in our world," Halankuo thought. "What if this is a character that was created in the "Mausoleum of Nature"?"

Halankuo pointed the wrench at Kyotyoryon's body and moved it closer to her, but then something strange happened – the metal spirit's body hung in the air and then headed towards the penguin.

"Give me back my character!" Halankuo shouted.

"Taikuron will find his other half," a voice sounded in Halankuo's head, similar to the voice of a robot bird.

The girl noticed that the penguin did not move its beak. He also had no legs.

"He speaks to me through thoughts," Halankuo guessed. "Who is he?"

The body of the metal spirit landed near the tree stump. Halankuo could no longer control him with the key.

"Taikuron will take you and find out where his other half is," the voice said a second time.

Halankuo felt her body no longer obey her. The wrench fell from her hand. Halankuo tried to move at least a finger, but her hands hung motionless. The girl's body rose above the glade and headed towards the penguin.

 Suddenly Taikuron looked to the side. His attention was drawn to a man wearing a black helmet and black leather clothing. Halankuo's body fell to the ground. The girl felt that she could move again as before.

An electric discharge appeared between the sticks on Taikuron's head, which began to increase in size, after which it transformed into linear lightning and was directed towards the man in the helmet.

A large rectangular-oval shield appeared in the man's hand. Lightning hit there and disappeared.

The shield was covered in a blue energy aura. Then a translucent energy copy of it separated from this aura and quickly flew towards Taikuron. The penguin continued to sit on the stump and did not even try to dodge. He simply looked at what was coming towards him.

A copy of the shield hit Taikuron and knocked him off the stump, and then returned to its original place – in the aura.

A blue energy aura completely surrounded the man wearing the helmet. But the battle was over. Taikuron leaned out from under the stump, and then rose into the air and flew into the forest.

Halankuo stood up and looked around. The wrench rose from the ground and moved into her hand. Kyotyoryon was still lying unconscious near the stump. Halankuo walked up with her back to her and pointed the key at the man in the helmet.

"Who are you?" the girl asked. "What are you doing here?"

The man took off his helmet. His head was covered with brown hair that almost completely covered his ears and forehead.

"Don't attack me, please," the man said. "I'm Yueret, an ordinary guy from an abandoned village. I was walking along the road from the station to the town, and this creature attacked me. I was just defending myself."

"I wanted to defeat him myself," Halankuo frowned. "This creature attacked my character".

Then Halankuo noticed that she had said too much. She didn't want to tell anyone that she had created a character and brought it into the real world, because she was afraid that someone would be interested in it. The girl was very modest and was afraid of attention.

"Who was attacked?" Yueret asked.

"It doesn't matter," Halankuo replied. "Go where you were going. I do not want to distract you".

"You remind me of someone. But I don't remember who exactly".

Halankuo looked at Yueret's face. It seemed familiar to the girl, but she could not remember where she had seen it.

"I don't remember you," Halankuo said. "Perhaps you have confused me with someone."

"Perhaps," Yueret replied. "Sorry".

Yueret turned away and was about to go, but he was stopped by the ringing of metal that rang out in the glade. Halankuo turned around and saw Kyotyoryon next to her. The spirit of metal hovered over the glade in a different form - without legs, with an egg-shaped helmet instead of a head and metal blades instead of hands.

"Why did Kyotyoryon take on her battle form?" Halankuo thought in fear. "What's wrong with her?"

The girl pointed the wrench at the spirit of metal, but did not have time to take control of it. Kyotyoryon flew to attack Yueret. The guy managed to cover himself with a shield and was able to deflect the blow of the blade. An energy copy separated from the shield and threw Kyotyoryon to the opposite edge of the glade.

The spirit of metal stopped, but did not fall. She was still floating in the air.

"There are some strange creatures in this place," Yueret thought. "Perhaps I shouldn't have decided to go in search of my robot for shopping at the store."

Halankuo pointed the wrench at Kyotyoryon and stopped her. Yueret slowly moved towards the road and disappeared behind the trees.

The girl called up the interface, entered the program and pressed one of the buttons. The character's body was covered with a white light aura and soon turned into a glowing silhouette. A few moments later, Kyotyoryon sat in the glade in almost human form.

Halankuo exited the interface along with the program and approached the character.

"Why did you attack that person?" Halankuo asked.

"I don't know," Kyotyoryon answered. "I didn't want to do this, but it seemed to me that it was necessary. Something forced me".

"Let's go home. That strange creature may still be out there somewhere".

At that moment, Taikuron was hovering above the forest at a bird's eye view and watching what was happening in the glade.

Halankuo took Kyotyoryon's hand and walked along the road to the town. The spirit of metal looked at the trees that grew in the forest. There was no expression of any emotion on her face. The spirit of metal simply looked at everything she saw.

"What it is?" Kyotyoryon pointed to the nearest tree. "The pillars are made of a material that is not similar to my metal. Sticks made of the same material stick out from the pillars. There are needles sticking out of the sticks".

"This is a tree," Halankuo explained. "It consists of wooden material. And the needles are antennas, thanks to which the tree lives".

"Lives?" asked Kyotyoryon. "So if you destroy the antennas, the tree will not be able to live?"

The spirit of metal released a blade from the bracelet on her hand, and then used it to cut off several needles from a tree branch.

"No need to cut the tree!" Halankuo shouted. "It's not that easy to kill him".

"I understood," Kyotyoryon said. "I will become stronger, and then I will kill the tree."

"She doesn't understand simple things," Halankuo thought. "It seems I was wrong when I thought she could think like a human."

Halankuo called up the interface, entered the "Mausoleum of Nature" and pressed the button above the character image. Kyotyoryon's body began to glow, and then blink, and soon disappeared.

Halankuo returned to the town, but immediately noticed that there were no people there at all. The streets, lined with stone and wooden houses with several floors and narrow red roofs, seemed quiet and cozy.

"Probably there are no people because it's morning," Halankuo thought. "This happens often in Yenekit."

Halankuo remembered what she saw in the glade – the bodies of people who lay on the ground and disappeared. Then she did not attach any importance to this, as she was busy saving her character. But now the girl felt terrified.

"This is how the bodies of those who are already dead disappear," Halankuo thought. "Perhaps the town's inhabitants are dead?" No, it's too weird."

The girl approached her house. There were no people there either. The town was so quiet that the cries of birds in the forest could be heard.

"Maybe my parents disappeared like that too," Halankuo thought. "We need to tell Tuot. Something strange is happening in the town."

Halankuo returned home and found Tuot in her room. The dinosaur was sitting on the floor and playing a game on a virtual screen.

"Tuot, I need to tell you something," Halankuo said.

"Don't bother me, I'm playing," the dinosaur answered.

"This is serious. People have disappeared in the town".

"It's a joke?"

"No unfortunately. The town is very quiet and there is no one. And in the forest I saw a penguin with antennas on its head".

Tuot minimized the virtual screen and looked at Halankuo. His lower jaw hung open and twitched several times.

"What's happened?" Halankuo asked. "You look scared".

"I have a bad memory, but I remember that day well," Tuot answered. "That was the day your parents disappeared. I went into the forest and saw a penguin with antennas on its head near the river. It spoke to me using thoughts."

Halankuo sat down on the bed next to the dinosaur and bowed her head.

"I remember something like that too," said the girl. "Eight years ago, in the village where we lived, almost all the people disappeared, including my parents. I never thought that this would happen again".

"Halankuo is probably sad now," Tuot thought. "So I won't talk to her today."

Tuot left the room. Halankuo did not notice this immediately. When the girl recovered from the memories, her pet was no longer in the room.

Halankuo began to worry. Tuot remained the only close being to her after her parents passed away.

"Has he really left home?" the girl thought. "He certainly has a small brain, but he's not so stupid as to leave home now."

Halankuo entered the dinosaur's room.

"Tuot must be here somewhere," the girl thought. "He couldn't go anywhere. He is very cowardly."

Halankuo looked under the bed and found only a pillow with a picture of a girl with cat ears wearing only a blue apron.

"There is nothing else in this room," Halankuo thought. "He couldn't hide under the virtual posters." 

Halankuo walked around the entire apartment, but Tuot was nowhere to be found. The girl sat down on the floor in the corridor and called up the interface.

"Something serious has happened," the girl thought. "We need to write to Tuot."

Halankuo clicked on the horned elephant icon. Several chats have opened. The girl chose one of them and began typing.

After sending the message, Halankuo remembered her character and entered the "Mausoleum of Nature". The Kyotyoryon model stood motionless in the character window, like a character in an online game.

"I'll get you out of there," Halankuo thought. "Be patient a little. Everything will end, and I will definitely free you."

... Tuot found himself in the city center, in the city square. In front of him stood a tall stone column with the head of a three-horned dinosaur. Along the edges of the square there were four-story stone buildings with red roofs and small windows.

"How did I end up here?" the dinosaur thought. "I just wanted to go to the kitchen or living room to wait for Halankuo to stop being sad." I didn't want to go outside."

The dinosaur looked around. There was not a single creature around. It was quiet.

"We must go back," Tuot thought. "If Halankuo notices that I'm not at home, he'll worry." Then I'll have to go even longer without talking to her."

The square was the intersection of four streets that crossed the city from beginning to end. The dinosaur walked along one of them and noticed a girl with red hair that covered most of her face near a wooden building.

"At least one living human remains in this city," Tuot thought joyfully. "But her hair is an unnatural color. Maybe this is not a human? "

The girl raised her head. Her hair fell back a little and revealed her face. Tuot noticed eyes that looked at one point, did not blink and sparkled in the sun. Then he noticed her costume - her torso was wrapped in a piece of white translucent fabric from the middle of her chest to the middle of her thighs, and screws connected her knees and elbows.

"This is definitely not a human," Tuot guessed. "This is a battle doll. I saw them in the game."

"What are you doing here, chicken?" the doll asked.

"I'm not a chicken," Tuot answered. "You're confusing me with someone".

"It's dangerous here. The signal source is somewhere nearby.

"What is the signal?"

"This is a virtual signal. If a being senses a signal, it may obey it and go to its source".

"Did I really end up here because of the signal?" Tuot thought in fear.

"Did people in the city disappear because of the signal?" Tuot asked.

"Yes," answered the doll. "Get out of here. Otherwise you will be erased like these people".

Tuot turned and looked at the square. Near the column, a penguin with antennas on its head hovered in the air.

The dinosaur recognized him immediately. It was the same creature that he saw when Halankuo's parents disappeared.

An electric discharge "ran" between Taikuron's antennas. A purple aura surrounded the doll's body. Her head bowed and her hands hung as if lifeless.

Tuot was scared, but he could not run away. Something held him in place. The dinosaur realized that it was obeying the signal that the doll was talking about.

The doll's body rose to the height of the second floor and moved slightly forward – to the edge of the square. Taikuron released lightning from the clot that formed between his antennas. The doll's body flew to the side and dodged the attack. Lightning struck the edge of the building and broke off a piece of the wall.

The sound of a falling stone scared Tuot greatly. Fear indicators reached a high level and exceeded the level of signal. Tuot was able to move and ran along the street away from the square.

The doll opened its eyes and looked at Taikuron with purple pupils. The penguin's body began to move backwards towards the nearest building, but soon stopped. Taikuron turned his head to the side and looked at the doll.

The two creatures' gazes met. Their bodies stopped moving, but then scattered in opposite directions.