CHAPTER 29 - SQUIRREL ATTACK

Current Time

"Everyone get back on the stoop, this is about to get serious" Echo warned, the attendees springing up the steps, fearful as the wrathful cries of squirrels melted the quietude of the commons. "Alright nerds," a squirrel in an officer's uniform sitting atop a police car called out on a speaker, "come out with your hands up, your acorns are ours now, just give up and no one will get hurt". Thousands arrived like a hidden army from among the elms. "As if!" Felicia, shaking a fist hollered, then realizing the fact that the furry swarm could probably nibble her apart quickly hid behind Priya for safety. "This university's acorns are being held for scientific purposes only my friends, so I would recommend you not step a foot closer" the patron informed them. The one on the car shrugged away diplomacy and leapt down, leading to a full-scale charge that boggled their senses. "Don't worry, there's a good way to slow them down" Priya stated, weaving inscriptions brimming with elegant local hyperactivity. "Gah! What's going on" Alexa bellowed, triggering her friend to turn to her with a barely visible smirk. Foundations shifted, the university … elevating … until the army stood at what was essentially the base of a mountain. To makes things more intolerable, a bright orange hemisphere censored their path forward, fizzing with energy. "Look familiar? This anechoic plateau should keep the university safe for at least an hour until they manage to find a way inside. That's all I'll need to get this done. Researchers, get as many of the patients cured as you can in the time we have, then lock yourselves in the safe-room, you'll be useless in a fight and none of you are going to get hurt if I can help it. Alexa, come this way" she waved, summoning her inside and towards an opposite direction down the corridor. "Echo, where are we going, we can't keep them out forever with just that barrier?" the soldier questioned as she looked out the window to a squirrel construction crew knocking a wrecking ball against the shield. "Just a few more buildings over and we will be there soon. Please don't laugh or tell me I'm a nerd when you see it" Priya asked politely, steeling herself for what was about to happen. She sighed, letting go of all fear. "Don't put that expectation on me! I've been bored out of my mind guarding this silo and the university while you and everyone else has been out there kicking ass and taking names. Where's my names?" Alexa complained. "It's only because I trusted you with the most important stuff, but don't get cocky. just a few more flights" she implored, wondering whether the soldier, even after all she had placed on her shoulders was ready for this. "I have been disappointed before" she thought, so perhaps such a close confidant was not the person she thought she was. A yard from the laboratory door the fog bearing the of masquerade of concealment lifted. "Swordcarrier, I have been meaning to show this to everyone, but with everything going on, I haven't had the chance" Priya said, leading her through the unusually clean workplace to the other end, where a passage led into an empty room, it's white walls barren on all four sides. "Are you saying what i'm thinking … is this where?" the warrior stuttered, unable to form a coherent structure. "Yes, this is the chamber, or at least it was before I had it dismantled. The idea was to use it for medical use to heal certain conditions, and even cure the disorder you've been hearing so much about from the other scientists. Of course, after what happened it was too dangerous for normal use" she admitted remorsefully, thinking of all the planning and work that went into the venture. "Look … I know this meant a lot to you, but you're not a failure, Priya. Even today, it still hasn't settled in people's minds that it was you giving us direction all this time. And I've seen a few old movies in my day, and let me tell you, the mad scientist's lab always blows up and causes something to go awry" her friend added, seeing the weight of responsibility masking emotion from her friend's face. "I see … this has to be the next step, I can re-manifest the SOTA from here" the scientist stated. Alexa offering a gasp at the bold proposal. "Got you, that will deal with the turbulence and Telenon's power will be broken. Just … step back and give yourself a minute. This could drain most of your magic" Alexa warned. "So maybe we should take another lap of the lab together before I try " she agreed, sensing the squirrels getting closer to finding a way through the barrier. Alexa followed her to a corner where there hung from the wall a bathroom-mirror, somewhat out of place in the lab-room. Approaching it, the researcher felt her breathe receding in slow motion. Currents of Inhalation and Exhalation interwove … true energy, until a key of memory unlocked inside of her. Thrown into reverie, her eyelids shut, and with keen awakening found herself laying against a lazy-boy chair in her own apartment, the very same she had stolen from the pharmacy. Ahead sat a coffee-table and an entertainment stand with a squat television box situated inside. Peppered with dust, an old VCR Tape rested on the table, a paper note "Watch Me" stuck on. "Taking the bait" Priya thought as she picked up the tape and pressed it into the slot. "Better get comfortable" she thought again returning to the hug of the lazy boy. "From my travels I have watched people ceaselessly, being a shadow in the room, studying them from afar. I saw those that followed different paths in the pursuit of knowledge. Stalking is never an easy task, but it was worth it to see your people set foot on the farthest reaches of the solar system, to see them enter new dimensions and brave the perilous monoliths of emotion in the dynamism of fresh, prevalent dream, and Nonlinear Aestheticism. What a dazzling species. But you … Priya … are the one that never needed confirmation, evidence to support the hypothesis" Dramatic confessed, then removing his presence, the screen returned to fizzling static. "This was not too long ago, something of a daily chore" Priya detected as the image played a snippet of her day in the lab. Tucked in a white lab-coat the researcher stood in front of the same mirror and just peered into it, feeling the pressure of her reflection as its light tantalized photoreceptors. "I am here" came the words spoken without sound. Priya looked through the television and saw herself mouth those words. Such had been a daily ritual since the day she became alone. "Oh my … I did this time and time again. It's like each day is a data point" she realized, cupping a hand over her mouth. With an easy motion the memory slid back into its original place in the timeline of her life. "Priya … You are doing well as an agent of my conspiracy. Perhaps you have realized by now that most of your essential memories are still in my safekeeping. It was important to the task at hand. At each stage, you will find what I have hidden" Dramatic informed her. Knowledge stained her consciousness with a blend of emotions, until shaken back into the present by an external force. Alexa watched tears fall from her friends face and with ignorance could not distinguish the abundance of what was contained within, like a layman looking at a droplet from a pipette, not understanding the civilization of molecules jittering about to the melody of physics. "Used to … look at this thing every day because I was so alone … I had to know I wasn't a ghost or something " she sobbed as her companion pressed hard battle-armor against her chest. "I've had to fight all sorts of stuff, but never that" Swordcarrier consoled, steadying her. "Maybe I am just like a mirror … never able to touch the other side, always divided by whoever I try to connect to and drawn farther away" the scientist wondered, thinking back on all the relationship she had tried to nurture. "A mirror is a weapon. It is a sword that can split reality in two, but Priya, you are more than that … you are my best friend" Alexa established. "Even if you become my worst enemy, and I have to fight you to the death, this moment will always mean something to me" the loner promised, taking off her lab-coat and folding it on the countertop. "Oh shux, you figured out the plan" she replied, extruding the spines of the cactus armor before retracting them again in threatening display. "Alexa, you are my friend … in real life ... yeah, I think I'm ready" Priya sighed. She touched the surface once more thinking, "thank you mirror, I am one person", then left behind the certainty of the room and passed the threshold back into the emptiness of the chamber. "Better be quick, this place gives me the willies" the soldier thought as inscriptions layered over each other forming a door for privacy. For ten minutes she heard the faint rumble of strained philosophy that expressed itself such as a snowfall from an arctic mountaintop. Vapors poked their way out of the spaces between the inscriptions until the doorway cracked and Priya stumbled out, leaning against a countertop with her raven hair drenched, unfurled against the surface, "I failed … not enough power".