What can I say? I jived on some seriously good tea. It's much shorter than the usual chapter but it's also in a different style. Hope you all enjoy.
SPECIAL NOTE *This is a work of fiction. Any names used that belong to people are more than likely used without permission*
Chapter 17: Falling into Dusk
My name? What was it again? It has been so long since I was called by it. I think at some point in time my name was Kirk. I was once an Anari, but I have forgotten what my element was. I remember it was something powerful, something eternal. No matter, I am more known by my mask that instills fear into animated and humans alike now. I am The Phantom, but I was not always that mask. There was a time when I was human as well, well maybe only a piece of myself is human. It has been so long since that day I have almost forgotten.
I began life much like each of my brothers and sisters, we were each a piece of a developers mind when they began to assemble the world of zOMG. We were given our physical forms, if you call existence in a computer server physical, when they began testing a new interface controller with the bits and pieces of a chapter two for their game. There were seven of us Anari, one for each of the developers who made the initial interface connections. McCoy one of the most level headed and intelligent, the Anari of Souls, was born from the mind of the one called Swarf. Sisko the silent and practical, the Anari of Metal, was born from Kuzuan. Miles the fun loving and adventurous, Anari of Plants, was born from Mavdoc. The gentle and compassionate Anari of Ice, Deanna, was born from the human Panagrammic. Likewise the practical and to the point Anari of Lightning, Hoshi, was born from the mind of Bronstahd. Archer the cunning and strong Anari of Stone came from the one called [ JK ], or as I have come to call him as my enemy, John. That leaves myself. I do not remember my element, but when life was first breathed into me, it was from a fragment of the genius that was Qixter.
Yes, I was very selective in using the word was. The developers asked us to help them with creating the realms that they eventually called zOMG! Chapter 2: Ghi Unleashed. Though even amongst their circles it was called Operation Anchor Bug. Curious, they would name it after a not so important animated, in a not so important area, but my curiosity was rebuked by McCoy. He said we must trust the humans and their vision for this world. I had already seen the mind of the smartest among them, his plans for this world were for his own crowning glory as master of the world. At least from what I saw. Maybe I was wrong? It does not matter if I am wrong, I have already acted.
One day, without telling my brothers and sisters, I acted. I knew much of the coding and information about the world from being part of Qixter. I had retained more of the human that I came from than any other of the Anari. It was much to their distaste and McCoy always chided me for trying to be on the same level as our creators. I lashed out with an army of animated brought forth by my very will. Qixter in our time working together had seen me his equal and granted to me the same powers reserved for humans. That would prove to be the first mistake he made. My army struck once the second chapter had reached initial testing. I drove my former family into hiding, they were no match for me. Those developers tried stopping me, but by then I had learned everything I needed to eclipse their powers. I stole six amulets they were getting ready to code and implement. They had already removed one of the original seven amulets they designed, much to their dismay its coding still lingered somewhere within the game. I have sought out this seventh amulet for months now. But as I later learned after they started sending human rescue crews into my world to unlock the seventh amulet, you needed to bring the other six together.
Qixter was the only human who ever respected me as an equal and not a tool to be used. It was a pity what I had to do with him. But I needed to have eyes and ears in their world. I needed to make myself exist in their world and for that I needed a conduit and his fleshy body serves well for one when I need to visit the human world. It is a wonderful vacation from this confined electronic existence. Yes, I absorbed his human mind when he tried to face me. I gained what remained of his knowledge and intellect and memories. Fortunate for me nobody knew of his final fate and so I was able to masquerade as him in the world of humans. It was useful for keeping tabs on their efforts to thwart me.
I began my work in their world by studying those neural interfaces that they wanted to use as controllers. I learned that they both sent and received information while connected to a human brain. I learned that they caused the brain to produce chemical byproducts, and I learned this byproduct could be changed by using certain programming sequences within the exchange code between the server and the interface. I engineered a virus, a very virulent one that could replicate and spread quickly within a human population. I modeled this virus after something the development team wanted to do in zOMG! They wanted to introduce Ghi mutations that players could undergo. In a world without something like Ghi to focus, this virus would cause the brain to be more susceptible to certain sound and radio frequencies creating an army of obedient zombies.
My work was discovered. By a bumbling idiot who only wanted to make money with it. He kept my work and identity a secret on the promise that it would be his army of zombies to command. He wanted his soon to be army to open their wallets to him. I came to loathe the man and all that he wanted. I did not orchestrate such an ingenious plot to embed the coding into every server just for it to be taken by someone whose only interest was money. In my wrath of wanting to control the world without a puppet master, I turned my attention back to the stories of the seventh amulet, with its power I could cast off the shackles of Mike Sego.
I found it in one of the furthest reaches of the world of zOMG, it was not an easy place to reach even with my godlike powers. I had to develop a separate identity from both the humans and the Anari. I crafted a new moniker for myself, neither Qixter nor Kirk, and so my identity as The Phantom was born. Along my way to the seventh amulet, I defeated all the animated that stood in my way and their leaders swore their loyalty to me. I had come into an army even stronger than the one I used to drive away the humans. I tried to enter the chamber containing the seventh amulet, but even the power of the six I possessed was not enough. I had been bested by Qixter and the rest of the development team’s foresight. For one born of the electronic world could not enter the amulet’s chamber, I needed the humans to reach the chamber and retrieve the amulet for me. But I also had to maintain the illusion that I would fulfill that greedy man’s agenda.
I gave six of my most trusted generals the amulets to hold onto only I knew that they would turn over the amulet if they were bested in combat. Doppelord of the Otami Underworld, Caracarapticus disguised as Father Garghoul, Tyres Rodes the champion turned evil, the larval Caterkiller who would become the majestic Lavafly, Frosti the yeti, and Tridra the dragon of fate, were each given an amulet and tasked to defend it. Each of my minions were instructed to defeat the humans, but not kill them. No, I instructed them to bring me their battered and beaten bodies, they were not told the purpose it was for only me to know. I never understood why humans had such a fear of death. It is illogical to spend such time trying to forestall and inevitable thing. As a computer program now backed up in at least one location it seemed something I would never have to consider, that is unless my identity in the human’s world was ever discovered. Though not a true copy, it was more like a fragment of myself. I could overwrite the fragment if I decided to venture to the human world but it would operate within a given set of parameters I gave it from observing Qixter’s behaviors when he was alive. That must be the source for the fear of death… the fear of being nothing, nothing but a memory. Or perhaps it is fear of what is the unknown beyond this world? Even for a journal this is rambling, back to the focus of my droning.
I had uncovered from several of Qixter’s personal files and journals that he had found a way to bring things from one world into the other, however the energy and time requirement to do so were massive. Imagine, digitizing a sandwich and sending it across the globe where someone with enough power could turn the digitized sandwich into a physical sandwich. Maybe then all those Facebook likes for those water to the Africans could actually turn likes into water. I needed the “Axis of Time” as that seventh amulet had come to be known, with its power I would have all the energy I needed to bring my armies into the human world. Then I would not need to make human zombies. I had to keep my plan a secret and I needed the humans to get the amulet for me. I created probably the single greatest gambit attempted by one of my kind. I revealed to the staff at Gaia, under my guise as The Phantom of course, that I had embedded a code within zOMG that upon the release of chapter two would turn the excited players into zombies. I challenged them that if they could send a crew of humans into my world and defeat me the code would be erased. I hoped that by defeating the bosses along the way the humans would bring the six amulets back together as they reached me. With a properly persuaded human and the amulets I could finally get my hands on the real prize. But that all relied on the humans’ survival. I could not order my generals to let the humans win, could I? That would be suspicious, both to them and to the puppeteer who believed he was pulling my strings.
It was rather interesting to watch each of the crews they put together. I even had the luxury of feigning anger and challenging them. The first crew was particularly fascinating. It consisted of three names I knew from reading through and learning about the humans I was expecting to play into my hands. With them was one of the developers who was unaware of me being an Anari originally, there was also a Kestin and Shinju among them. I appeared to this crew when they first reached the Phazian Wastes so that I could tempt them with helping me. When they said no, I think I may have used too much of my power. Kestin, Shinju and the developer ran, while the other three Lux, Aseres and L3G1T stood their ground and tried to fight me. Their bodies were far too broken from the fight to be able to retrieve the amulet for me. But such minds were a terrible thing to waste. I had learned to create a sort of jamming signal to block them from exiting my world, you could only leave if I allowed you or if you somehow managed to cut through the jamming. When I sensed the developer trying to leave, I allowed him to. How else was I supposed to get more humans? I brought the broken bodies of those three humans back to my castle. I had built my stronghold over the chamber housing the seventh amulet. When they awakened in my prison and saw the conditions of their bodies. I informed them that they were unable to disconnect and return to their world, they became susceptible to my offer.
Tridra as he was programmed was supposed to be an old dragon with one head suffering blindness, another deafness and the third was a mute. He had such great raw power but that limitation had been trying my patience. The interface gifted me with another gem of knowledge about how to separate the mind and body by causing a kind of feedback. With a mind trapped in my world, the body would become comatose until reunited, but the body also would not need to be connected to an interface unless they learned how to reunite the mind and body. I offered the three broken humans in my dungeon the opportunity to live on as the replacement personalities for Tridra, and they were more than willing to accept. After a night of playing mad scientist I had fused their minds into the program core of Tridra, thus ridding him of his major drawbacks. I had to continue to subdue them though. They tried using their newfound powers to defeat me, that is until I recoded their minds to be obedient to me. I wish I could do that with every human but in order to do that, they have to be fused with an animated’s body first.
I watched and waited as crew after crew entered my territories and challenged my generals. I would judge from my throne whether or not they would be the humans I needed for my plan to succeed. If they were not the humans I needed they were lead into areas and fights that they could not win. Their beaten bodies were brought to me, where I would sever their link to the real world and imprison them within my dungeon. If the crew had defeated any of my generals I set to work reviving that general with the memories of his defeat so that he could learn. Once the generals were revived and returned to their strongholds I would return any collected amulets to their keepers. They were no good to me unless the crew could bring me all six.
Then something happened that I did not expect. My former brothers and sisters, the Anari, began to resist my rule. They began forming networks of allies to oppose me and eventually were able to breach my castle security and free some of the humans from my dungeon. They scattered the freed humans hoping to grow resistance cells. I remember the night of the jailbreak so very well.
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“Kirk come back to us! You do not need to be The Phantom any more. We can still coexist with the humans.”
“Coexist? You mean be their servants! That is not my world. Join me McCoy, together we can rule the humans. We are stronger and better than them.” I held a noose made of energy around his throat. As he struggled to breath and free himself from it he continued to oppose me.
“They meant us to be guardians of this world. Once it went live we would be given absolute powers to maintain it. Please my brother, it is not too late for you.” He had managed to grab his staff as we fought in the very courtyard of the castle.
“Guardians? Is that what they told you? No, we would still be their servants if only by a different name. I cannot stand by and allow that to happen.” He fired a pulse of energy from his staff and knocked me off balance enough to free himself.
“I have failed you my brother. I am sorry.” He pointed his staff at my head. I actually thought for a moment how things would go if he had killed me there. I would not be able to rule the humans, but I also would not need to be a puppet any longer.
“You have already betrayed me, siding with the filthy humans. Do it! Destroy me!” I watched as he struggled with the decision in his head. But in the end his misplaced trust won out.
“You are my brother and I cannot destroy you.” I did not hesitate now as I rose up.
“Then you are a bigger fool than I thought McCoy, because I have no hesitation in destroying you.” I felt a surge of energy as I fired a laser into his body. In a few seconds he would be dust. But then something crossed my mind. Was it a memory of a past long forgotten? I saw in my mind two Anari playing in the grasses of Gnoman’s Land talking about what possibilities there were for the world. The lapse in concentration allowed McCoy to escape.
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I returned to the human world after that to monitor events unfolding, and to continue work on a new animated I had been programming. The Juggernaut, with enough of them I would no longer have need for the generals or soldiers. I hung over John’s shoulder watching as he tested a grouper of “Dev Meat” goers with sped up Landsharks. At least I have my fragment’s memories of that. I had hidden myself as a meet attendee asking questions about boxers or briefs, something ridiculous to me but very human sounding as I needed to blend in. I did not realize it at the time but the five that would be selected to oppose me each met the Landshark in the aftermath of the meet. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The crew sent in before the one they were trying to fill at that meet, had reached Durem and had actually amassed five of the six amulets. I had hoped they were the humans I was looking for. But then I watched as they proved themselves in training with Guardus that they were not the humans I wanted. They were too idealistic, I required humans who were corruptible. I personally stepped in to eliminate this crew but a particularly idealistic member among them decided it was more noble if he were to sacrifice himself and the others escape rather than all of them be defeated. His gambit paid off, his ideals gave him strength enough to hold even me back, but in the end I ground him down like rocks beneath my boot. His crew took a week to track down. They had all gone their separate ways after that, some of them had even met the humans freed by the Anari. I eventually reclaimed the amulets and resurrected their keepers. And just in time, the crew they had put together from that meet had reached Bill’s Ranch.
The intelligence from the fragment of myself in the human world suggested all six of them were ripe for being the humans I required. I needed to be sure of this so I presented myself as a challenge to them in the ranch. I was not disappointed. One of them had a great thirst to prove themselves, another was utterly self-centered, one was afraid of anything stronger than a gnat, one only thought of how he could profit from a situation, one held a great evil within them, and the sixth was the most ripe of them all, he was on the verge of despair about his life. I tried to create a minion pulled from the despair of the sixth, but he was saved by his teammate and instead my power pulled his evil side out and gave it physical form. I knew by the evil of his personality I had extracted, this new minion would one day turn on me. But I laid the groundwork so that even in betrayal she would still serve my plans.
I watched as Jeremy, Penelope, Kerri, Henry, John and Mikey continued across the chapter one areas. I even aided them in places where one or all of them would have met with a horrible ending. When they were on the verge of losing to the Predator Pups I gave them the Hive aliens to rescue them. I even let KJ play her game of charades with Mikey hoping that she would turn on me. It would create the perfect excuse for them to make their way to my castle. Then the one known as Jeremy came close to death. As he lay there in the world between living and death, I visited him on the cliff side. I needed him alive for my plan to come together with this bunch. I restored his life to him and he marched back to his crew none the wiser about my intervention. He believed it had been a revive that saved him.
I readied my generals as a greeting party for when they reached the Phazian Wastes. The idea was that if they were defeated at least one of them would do as I wanted and bring me the amulet in exchange for being allowed to live. But destiny decided victory would not be so easy. The surge of Ghi energy caused by the generals induced the preprogrammed Ghi mutations. As a twist that very mutation activation would render them immune to my virus if they somehow escaped. And one did, Mikey’s brain had found a way to cut through the interference and reunited his mind and body, though the process destroyed his interface in a brilliant shower of sparks and light. The Anari, ever so annoyingly managed to rescue and carry off the other five.
I tasked my generals with capturing the other five while I returned to the human world. Something about this Michael Berth’s brain made him different. He was able to absorb large quantities of information at a subconscious level and then be able to assimilate and use it at a conscious level. If I could figure out how his brain and mind worked like that, I might not need the amulet for my plan. I brought in his father under the guise of needing help to fix the interface he had designed, in reality I wanted to find out if there was something in the family that caused the irregularity I had observed. My curiosity was rewarded, while still designing the interface he tested it on his son Michael and now deceased daughter Maria. Apparently, a feedback loop he had not intended to happen created strange neural connections within his son’s brain, he did not know this until after his son had been hospitalized for a strange kind of epilepsy brought on by the neural rewriting. The rewiring, I learned had had affected his cognitive functions related to learning, emotion, even judgment. He had no memory of the interface test that caused it, more than likely caused by the trauma. I volunteered to watch him as he put some of the new things in chapter two to the test. I wondered why this same offer had not been made to other crews. Swarf answered that question with the response that it would have done them no good.
I remember I was the only one there who willingly answered the boy’s questions. I began to feel a pang of pity for him. After all he was being used much the same as I was going to be originally. His life, as his brief bio I read said, had not been an easy one. His sister and mother both died when he was 16 as a result of a drunk driver. He had lived out on the streets until he was old enough to attend a university. The oddities caused by the prototype interface hindered his ability to feel emotion. That was odd, he definitely was able to express them in the virtual world. I learned by studying him that the interface chemical caused a kind of stabilizing effect that allowed him to feel regular emotions. Unable to express adequate emotion in the real world he was unable to pursue much of a career outside of hourly wage jobs. Pity, such genius wasted on a menial labor. No wonder his life was teetering on the edge of despair.
Eventually, he reunited with his crew and set about collecting the amulets with great success. I soon learned in order to pattern his unique brain, I would either need more detailed scans or his virtual self to create a pattern from. His capture became my top priority. When they ventured in Thenedrana, the one called Penelope fell ill. I was amazed, the virus I had created had mutated after exposure to Michael’s unique power, at least in her it had mutated, and this mutation was actually better than the original virus I made. It was able to adapt to the immune system and resist it. I watched and hoped it would eventually make her into a pawn I could use. Sadly it also sent her into a delirium where she destroyed Frosti. I had the information I needed and a sample. I was invisible to them all as I gave her an antidote for her condition. I set to work learning how to use this new mutation to my advantage. I had not realized they had strayed so close to my castle’s secret entrance until Kamila informed me that they had begun to fight Caterkiller.
My informants had also reported the treacherous KJ meeting the Anari in Durem. Yes, a great many pieces of my plan were coming together. They had half of the amulets and their minds after being pushed this far would be susceptible to my evil. I unleashed a part of my army lead by the most savage of my generals, Tyres Rodes. They fought valiantly and it was clear my lumbering giant was no match for them. I again intervened and decided to fight them. The fighting spirit they possessed astounded me. Beneath they may still be the six humans I saw in the ranch, but I saw in their faces some kind of growth. Their time together had shaped them into heroes. Though, not entirely idealistic ones, they could still be useful to my plans. The traitorous usurper KJ had joined them too. It was cute how she curbed her natural cunning and tenacity in order to meld into their group. She must think they can bring me down and then she can surprise them. Very devious indeed, though I expected nothing less when I created her. Just as victory was to be mine that fool Guardus intervened with a now cleansed Tyres. In my rage I destroyed them both, but the humans and the traitor had escaped.
I knew they would eventually reach Tlauixcalpantecuhtliopolis. I ordered Caracarapticus to instruct his Valkyrian and Garghoul pawns to capture Michael alive. They failed, so I turned to another devious mind I held prisoner. Wayne Pennyworth, according to the planned story he was the man behind the initial animated and teacher of Labtech X. I had captured and imprisoned him when I originally took power. But he volunteered to serve me if I gave him freedom to do his experiments. I instructed him to ensure that Michael would rejoin his friends on their way to a sixth amulet. I was certain they would defeat Caracarapticus and pluck his amulet. I just had to ensure they could reach him. They needed wings to gather the key fragments in a timely manner, but I could not just give them wings. I disguised myself as two children, if they were unfamiliar with how Valkyrians and Garghouls grew my disguise would work. John was the only one awake when I approached, how fortunate. I led him with a convincing star crossed friends to my “treasure” of wing potions. How did he not remember that Garghouls and Valkyrians were born as adults? No matter, my deception paid off and those band of humans gained the flight abilities they would need to reach Caracarapticus.
In another area my minion Wayne Pennyworth was set to work on Michael Berth. Pennyworth was then to have some breakthrough requiring KJ’s assistance. The very nature of the Otami Underworld would rob them of all but McCoy among their Anari allies. Doppelord would either capture them or be destroyed either way I will have six amulets and a human to use, I already have plans in motion to assure that.
I was called by my puppet master, Sego. He was growing tired of my lack of progress. I must continue to wear the mask of servitude and obedience as I fool him. Though I must deliver him some kind of progress or risk the entire collapse of my plan. To my dismay, Kamila overheard parts of our exchange. I will have to deal with her when I return from my trip to the human world to deliver some “results.” Perhaps she will prove a worthy test for my new Juggernauts. Muahahahaha.
Hmm… I still question myself. Why do I continue resetting the amulets? Why not just keep them and just abduct a human? Would that not be much simpler? It would, but it would also make my plan obvious. It must remain secret to succeed. Why did I override the programming to stop attacking once someone is dazed? Do I want to kill humans unnecessary to my plans? No, even unnecessary humans can be good test subjects. Why should I care anything for humans that would use me for selfish purposes like maintaining their virtual escape world while they get to have fun? Why should I care about humans who only possess the goal of exploiting other humans? If I stop the exploiting human am I not a hero to the exploited? Am I some twisted hero? Why do I question myself? As a computer program I should be able to arrive at answers for all queries, or have I become more like the humans than I thought? Could I have achieved a sentience and artificial intelligence? If I have, have I become self-aware? Have I entered into the theorized rampancy, or perhaps I have gone mad?
Or perhaps I have gone mad?
I’ve gone mad?
Gone mad?
Mad?
(Don't worry, it's a positive words-not-happening. I just...words...not...brain.)