Nocturn Core (Abridged)

I was at my dorm with Autumn. My roommate was a former quarterback for his high school's football team, but as he explained later, he got sick of tiring himself out on the field. He invited a girl over from Japan. She was originally from America. The girl had long, slightly curly, black hair. She was really proud of the fact that she was on a game show in Japan. Basically, competitors fought and raced each other on a variety of stages in order to prove their skill. I realized she was talking about a game show I had participated in recently. We each had a white handheld device which allowed us to connect to the game course. We synchronized for a quick practice round. Her avatar on the game show was similar to her actual appearance, but she wore a schoolgirl outfit and star pins in her hair. I took the form of Igarashi Ganta for some reason. For the first round, we appeared on a circular platform in the middle of a pool. The objective was to push the other person off the platform. When the fight began, the girl charged at me. One of her star pins flew off her head and struck me in the heart. I never knew that magic was allowed on the game show; my dad had forced me into participating, and no one told me the rules in English. Anyway, I stumbled backward, and it didn't take long for her to shove me into the water.

"Moonbeam is victorious!" the announcer screamed. I popped out of the game world for a moment, stunned.

"Wow, you're good," I commented.

"I'm one of the best," she answered without leaving the game world. I heard her voice through my console. "Shooting Star Moonbeam." I watched her standing on the platform in awe. When she smiled at me and pointed at the next stage, I reconnected.

I found myself on an obstacle course. I had to climb over a massive cube made of stone, run down a slippery slope while keeping my footing so I could jump over the pit of spikes that came right after, jump across logs sticking vertically out of the water, and finally run across a bridge before a flame on a fuse could burn it down. Moonbeam sent me a heart through the chat interface.

"Good luck!" she said. With the sound of a pistol firing, the second round began. I struggled just getting over the stone block. By the time I made it to the other side, Moonbeam was already on her way over the spike pit. I began to catch up, however. I completed the log obstacle in half her time, so we were speeding down the bridges on each side of the course at roughly the same time. She still came out ahead.

"Moonbeam wins again! She's on fire!" the announcer cried. The bridge erupted in flames behind me.

"That's enough for now," she said, disconnecting. I followed suit.

The dream jumped. Wanting to improve my skills, I helped Autumn join the game show roster. We connected to the game world and set up a system to rapidly strengthen our avatars. Basically, the avatars collected experience and leveled up like in a roleplaying game. There were porcupine monsters that shot out their spines and regenerated them in the game world. Each of the spines gave a little bit of experience. I bought thirty porcupines from a merchant and put them in a room with us. Autumn and I did our best to destroy all of the spines as they shot toward us, and we quickly gained levels. I was already level 121 when we started. By the time I reached level 139, one of the system administrators appeared and destroyed my porcupines. He accused me of cheating because it was too easy for us to level this way. Without considering anything I had to say, he took away the levels we'd gained - plus one more each. I decided this wasn't worth it and disconnected.

The dream jumped. Autumn and I were working on building some kind of giant truck for a performance downtown. It had to be ten times the size of a normal cargo truck. We connected huge steel boxes on lifts while the other people worked on the exterior. It wasn't very hard, but we had to make sure everything was aligned properly while maximizing the size of the cargo chamber. When we were satisfied with it, we had the guy controlling the lift let us out at the front of the chamber. We were done working for the day. Autumn decided to go home and take a nap, but I wanted to eat dinner before leaving, so we parted ways. I grabbed some food and sat down by myself.

Before long, my roommate and Moonbeam joined me. My roommate told stories about working in the union and his high school football days. I just sipped apple juice and kept to myself. He got up at one point to grab seconds, and Moonbeam asked something about dreams. I didn't quite catch it. My roommate came back before I could clarify what she meant. I was a little more interested at this point, and my roommate was interfering... So I put laxatives in his cake and waited patiently. He excused himself when his face paled.

"Be honest," asked Moonbeam, "did you do that to him?" We walked over to the drink machine. I couldn't decide whether I wanted more apple juice, water, or some kind of soda. I decided apple juice was probably best. "Get soda if you didn't do it!"

"Well, I'm not going to lie," I laughed. I filled up my glass with juice. I filled up a glass for Moonbeam, too, but she already had her own. We walked around to the other side of the cafeteria and found strawberries growing in a miniature garden. When Moonbeam pointed them out, I snatched one right out of the garden. It wasn't fully ready for consumption, but it was delicious nonetheless. One of the cafeteria workers got mad at me for eating the strawberries. She took us over to a giant watermelon tree. For some reason, the melon grew into slices, and it was enormous! She pulled down a watermelon slice the size of my body and asked Moonbeam if she wanted any.

"Use your fingers," the worker instructed. Moonbeam took a handful and stuffed it in her mouth. She smiled at me. We continued out of the cafeteria. On the way back to my dorm building, we started free running. I was sliding down railings on my shoes, running across walls, and jumping over anything in my path until I landed in front of a red robot with a computer monitor for a head. The screen said Minahpen - Nephanim backwards. Moonbeam's excitement with our free running dwindled.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's me from another world," I explained. "Stand back." A rift opened, sucking all three of us in. We landed on a deserted street in what looked like New York City. Most of the buildings were in ruin, and the sky was gray with storm clouds. I was surprised to find my roommate standing behind the robot. "Did you do this?" I asked him.

"Who else would have?" he laughed. "This is payback for what you did to me." I didn't feel any remorse. The robot charged at me and began singing a song. The appropriate background track played throughout the dreamscape. I caught the robot's fist and leaped backward, skidding past Moonbeam. Heeding my advice, she finally took refuge on the sidewalk. I made distance between me and my other self as soon as possible and summoned Axis' gauntlets to my hands. This wasn't a job for Apheri... I wanted to punch myself into the ground.

Lyrics appeared in my field of vision. I stared at the yellow-framed bubble letters in disbelief.

"You want me to sing?" I laughed. Every word I missed made my robot opponent stronger. I sighed and swallowed to clear my throat. The words were in Japanese, so I was even less confident about singing them, but I knew I could do it. As my robot self sprinted forward again, I brought back my fist, charging up my punch with power. I released it just as my portion of the song ended and my robot self reached the limit of my range. He tumbled backward, rolling on the ground until he crashed into a rusty car parked in the road. Moonbeam cheered and applauded me.

"Way to go, Nephanim!" she shouted with her hands cupped around her mouth. I felt strangely empowered. This was my element. I didn't understand why, but I was more powerful than I ever imagined. I clenched my fists and charged after my robot self. Spears of blue light struck the street, but I was too fast for them to hit me. I leaped into the air just before I reached the car and punched the robot in his monitor just as he started to get up. The rusty car slid backward from his second impact.

I woke up halfway, and for a time, I was lying in bed while standing on the deserted street. I turned to look at Moonbeam.

"This is... a dream," I realized. I could feel my body in bed, but I hadn't left the dream yet. "Moonbeam!" I shouted. "I'll see you again!" She and I shared a smile as I fully awakened.

I saw Symphony standing in front of me. I blinked, and then there were two. I blinked again, and then there were endless clones of Symphony as far as I could see in the incomparably large room. My heart started racing. I blinked again, and it was just one Symphony again. I started to calm down.

“Complete me,” she said in her flat, high-pitched voice.

“I will as soon as I can,” I answered. She reached forward. I blinked, and she was in front of me, gripping my shirt.

“I am already complete,” she responded. I didn’t understand. “I have waited forever, and I will wait forever. Time is not a hindrance.”

“What do you mean, you’ve waited forever?”

“Forever.” She stepped forward, fusing with my body. I felt a rush of energy, and then it all vanished. I looked behind me, but Symphony wasn’t there. Chunks of metal started falling from the impossibly high ceiling above me.

I was talking to Ben about him visiting us in America and us visiting him in Australia. There was a canyon in Australia that I was particularly interested in seeing, but for some reason, he wouldn’t talk about it. We went through a list of reasons why it was a bad idea – too far away from Brisbane (either twenty-five minutes or five hours, he never specified which), food for the trip, silly things like that which are rarely the biggest factor in planning an international trip. He and another Australian guy debated how well the car would hold up on such a long drive. We were in some kind of virtual reality world. Ben had spent a lot of time converting image data to 3D models of scenic places in Australia, but he wouldn’t let us see them… I was confused, so I pressed this a bit. I finally told Ben flatly that I wanted to see the natural beauty of Australia, and I would see it with or without his help. He wouldn’t talk to me or Nicole after that. We got involved in some kind of weird mind meshing game where we turned Ben’s brain into a marble and rolled it around in our thoughts, making him rethink his decision. He eventually decided he would cooperate with us after all. As we learned, the only reason he had argued was because he thought my request to see the sights in Australia was my way of criticizing his appreciation of nature. Since it was settled, we apologized and settled our disagreement. We missed each other’s company too much to hold out alone anyway. Ben made what was supposed to be a bold statement, then – he would buy a bike in Australia and ride it proudly to show the world how much he loved natural beauty.

The dream jumped. Ben and I were meeting up at a restaurant and hotel. We were all going to stay there together. One of the employees at the restaurant, a woman with blond hair in a sophisticated, black uniform, asked if I needed any help. I declined any assistance; I was waiting for someone, I said. I stood in the middle of the busy restaurant as waitresses zoomed back and forth between tables. I observed that the hotel was separated by a swamp-like stretch of gooey, red organic tissue. I dared not step on it. I asked the blond woman from before how I should cross it. She pointed out a narrow path made of stone that led across. All of this was clearly a reference to Althea’s swamp in the Sword of Truth series. I thanked the woman for her help as Ben appeared in the distance… He was riding a bicycle! When he approached the restaurant, he hopped off the bike. He asked me which coins he was allowed to use as payment in America.

“The American ones,” I laughed.

“The quarters, dimes, and nickels, then…?” he asked, nodding.

“The pennies, too!”

“No…” he said in sincere disbelief. “Really?!” He came into the restaurant after paying some kind of bike fee. Even inside the restaurant, he rode that bike everywhere. He nearly fell in the living swamp water as I was showing it to him. I warned him about it… At best, the water would just creep us out. I didn’t want to find out it was deadly and acidic. Anyway, we went to the winding stone trail. Naturally, Ben had to ride his bicycle over it. He nearly fell in twice; one of the stumbles put most of his weight over the edge, but Ben somehow floated to safety. I asked if he was feeling alright… He was having a lot of trouble with balance. Although he assured me he was fine, he seemed very dizzy… He started coughing and eventually vomiting bile. I invited him to sit on a bench with me and rest before we continued onward. He accepted the offer. I took photographs of the swamp.

The dream jumped. I had a false awakening in Nicole’s bed. The room looked as it did before she rearranged the furniture. I understood that this room was connected to the hotel from before. I kept hearing sounds like a squeaky bike outside. I tuned it out as I relaxed in bed. It was a bright, new morning… Nicole stirred and immediately asked about the strange, periodic bouts of squeaking. I told her I would check it out. The next time we heard it, I saw up and looked out her window. In the street was a metallic figure attached to bike wheels – one big, one small. It cycled freely down the road. I figured out what was going on instantly and ducked out of view.

“You can’t be serious…” I said, mostly to myself. “Get under the bed! Now!” I urged Nicole. She and I managed to squeeze under the bed together. It looked like it would be easy for the robots to detect us if they checked the house; the bed seemed higher up than it actually was from our low vantage point. Anyway, the moment I saw the human-like design in what otherwise could’ve been an interesting vehicle, everything came into place. I knew it was an artificially intelligent robot. The fact that I heard several on the street – but no cars, frighteningly enough – indicated that they were large in number. I suspected they had built up their forces in secret and overwhelmed our society. They hadn’t checked our room while we were sleeping, I decided, or we would be dead. Our robotic overlords had no reason to allow us to live. I explained all of this quietly to Nicole. We watched, terrified, as a robotic sentinel walked past our door on its metallic legs. They didn’t have feet – just long, narrow legs. I wished I had Apheri.

Once the coast was clear, we knew we had to get Ben. Nicole and I went to the bench outside where he stopped to rest the previous day. A fleshy cocoon surrounded it now. I gestured for Nicole to follow me in. It was empty… I didn’t want to imagine what the robots had done to him when they found him. Order is a disturbing foe… We heard the squeaking of metal joints as a robot sentinel approached the cocoon. Nicole told me to hide, but there was nowhere to hide! I prepared myself for a fight. The robot raised its arms when it saw me and opened fire. Bullets filled my body. I tackled the top-heavy machine and tumbled with it into the murky water outside. Nicole gasped, fearing the electricity would kill me as the robot’s body began to crackle. Fortunately, it didn’t. The robot turned into a small bug on my arm. I crushed it with a finger, but like a cockroach, it seemed to come back to life despite seemingly fatal injury. I crushed it again, and it took flight. It bit me, injecting nanobots into my body. I couldn’t destroy it.

“They’re immortal…” I laughed uneasily. What was I going to do? I basically resigned myself to my fate. I couldn’t fight this… I couldn’t imagine how, but the robots had conquered us overnight, and they would exterminate us without fail. I saw them marching toward us. “Go hide, Nicole.”

“What about you?”

“I have something to do… It’s our only chance.” My body was full of bullets. There was no way I would survive – but maybe I could save Nicole.

The dream jumped. I was walking around in tunnels built in a Minecraftian style. I was just above bedrock. Everywhere I looked, I saw robots mounted to the floor or ceiling. When the first one saw me, a white laser trained itself on my forehead. Intense battle music started playing. Inspired by this, I ran for my life as bullets rained on me. I turned away from the few that were shooting me and nearly fell to my knees when I saw hundreds of robots staring at me. There was no escape. They had me trapped. I ran for my life past one of the three in front of me. It shot a boomerang sword at me, cutting off my left arm. Blood spurted out.

“No way…” I choked. It shot the sword again after it returned, taking off my head this time. The bloody head rolled as my body slumped forward. I heard Nicole commenting on how cool the weapon was. I saw her standing by the lighthouse on Sailor’s Isle (Skies of Arcadia). She practiced throwing the sword. It was nearly Apheri’s length and probably just as heavy, but it moved through the air like a phantom.

I was slowly transforming into a robotic spider. My tongue was extremely sticky and removable. For some reason, I gained the ability to scale vertical walls with ease after licking them once. I used this ability to sneak into Nicole’s house through a window. This seemed to take place about five years in the past… Nicole and Jess were much younger, and they were still friends. They were sitting together in Nicole’s room. I crawled in and hissed awkwardly. That was my form of speech. Jess wanted to kill me and flush me down the toilet, but Nicole stopped her. I probably had it coming to me for letting that cat get flushed halfway down the toilet…

“He’s kinda cute…” Nicole argued. “I wanna keep him.”

“You want to keep that?” Jess scowled. Nicole knelt in front of me and gently stroked my head.

“Let’s teach him some tricks. Come with us, okay?” She and Jess went into another room. I followed obediently. They helped me correct my robot spider speech impediment, and I regained the ability to speak normally. I informed them that I needed to be at school at 8 AM, but I wanted to see Nicole before leaving. Nicole insisted that I could ride the bus with her. We started waling around outside. When I asked her about it, she admitted her bus driver probably wouldn’t let me ride to school with her… I was sorely disappointed; before I realized I wouldn’t be able to, I was enjoying a flashback to that giddy feeling of interacting with a crush. I tried to cling to that simple happiness.

“Well, at this point, I won’t make it back home to catch my bus… I need a ride one way or another,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” she assured me, “my mom will take us.” A bunch of people came out of the garage together. Everything smelled like smoke. Nicole smiled widely at them. “Oh, you were doing that thing!” she laughed.

“What thing?” asked her dad.

“That thing!” Nicole repeated. They still pretended not to understand (if they did understand in the first place). Mike and Eric were walking together. Eric mentioned something about being good at video games.

“You know what that means…” Mike said.

“Uh… No,” Eric said, shaking his head.

“You can reach into the fabric of the universe and bend it to your will! Space and time are your playthings! And rainbows? Don’t even get me started on rainbows. Wow. Just kidding, Eric – you can’t do that stuff.” Eric seemed confused. We continued looking for Nicole’s mom. I couldn’t remember what she looked like, so every time we saw a woman, I wondered if it was her. We decided to go in the garage, but Nicole went off on her own by the time we got to the backyard. Jess started laughing at me. She challenged me to destroy a glowing, black pillar in the yard. I punched it with all of my might several times, but I couldn’t break it. I continued into the garage. It was shaped like a barn. Once I was inside, I saw that they were on a platform near the ceiling. It took me a few tries because I was starting to lose my robot spider powers (it seemed to be caused by getting my tongue dirty), but I climbed up onto the ceiling and dropped down onto the platform. Something inside my body shattered. A console attached to my robot spider body sent out an error message.

“OV/OL,” Nicole read. She and Jess puzzled over what the error message could mean until a woman came up onto the ledge. She picked me up and sighed.

“Over voltage overload,” she said, explaining the console output to the girls.

“Oh no!” Jess cried. She seemed genuinely upset. I couldn’t figure out why. “We broke him!”

“Not to worry…” the woman said. “I’ll take care of it. You two should get ready for school.”

The dream jumped. I was my normal self again. Nicole and I lay on the floor in the living room (except it was my Oma and Opa’s living room). There was trash everywhere… Spilled drinks (grape soda on white carpet, jeez), half-eaten candy… I tried picking it up while Nicole and Jess played a fighting game. Justin was at Nicole’s house, so he played, too. He explained all of the unique headgears available in the game when I started watching. Nicole was playing as an incredibly powerful wizard with refined command of electricity. Scamper walked into the room and started eating food and toys left in his reach. I didn’t want Nicole’s family to get mad at me for things my dog did, so I made him drop the toys. One looked like Eric’s Guile figurine. A bunch of people had to leave again. I saw Beckman walk by. He complimented my talent for programming, and I took it to heart. Justin joked that Beckman seemed to be into me. I told Justin that I had a history of guys falling for me.

“Like Justin,” I said. I didn’t realize I was talking to Justin…

“Justin?” he asked, bewildered.

“Tynne. Serenity.” He fell onto his back in shock. Then, he started to cry.

“Serenity never gave me a chance…” he wailed. I hugged him to calm him down. After that was settled, I went into the kitchen to organize the refrigerator. I sorted the fruits with care. Nicole’s mom finally showed up. She asked if we were ready to go. I replied in the affirmative – just as soon as I was sure the refrigerator was in order.