---
We all wrapped up in cozy warm clothing and set off into the billowing snow. The wind was much harsher outside the city limits. Luckily I had a shield several meters in all directions so we were walking through the snow with the swirling flakes outside our safe bubble.
Like a reverse snow globe.
It was quite pretty actually. My friends were running around and looking at the scenery in delight and even Hectorgon seemed to be enjoying himself in this romp through the mountains. Alseph was still gagged and floating beside me. His running commentary on how we were all going to pay once the Federation finds out was getting old. At least come up with something NEW.
"So where is this farm thing supposed to be?" Pyronica asks while melting a path through the snow. It certainly made it easier for Teeth and Hectorgon to waddle along behind her. Kryptos just rode on Xanthar's back.
Ammy was still held in my arms. I had refused to let go of him. He seemed more or less resigned to my over-protective fussing for what would be the next month or so. None of my other friends commented on it, knowing that after the scare I just had there would be no way I was letting the Amorphous Shape leave my side or sight.
"Well I've got a map to the location I stole off their system...but navigation isn't really my thing." Hectorgon says sheepishly as he holds out a printed map. Everyone gathered around to glance at it.
"Is that a mountain?" Teeth wonders.
"No that's clearly meant to represent a river." Pyronica squints at the page.
"Isn't there a legend or something?" Kryptos asks as he tries to figure out if we were even looking at it right side up.
The group turns to me and I roll my eye. "Alright, let me see that." Hectorgon passes me the page and I grew another arm to hold the map up to my eye. Well it was certainly difficult to read. Whoever designed this map clearly didn't want anyone finding out how it was to be understood. Surprisingly smart of the Federation to hide their information in such a way.
Or they're just shit at drawing maps.
"Well it says that the location is in a valley? Either way, it's somewhere underground. There's a dip downward here, there's no scale to show how FAR down it goes."
With me in the lead with the map, our merry band of adventurers continued our journey. An hour into our trek Teeth complained he was tired and hungry. We took a quick lunch break. I introduced them to S'mores. I was even nice enough to let Alseph have one.
He loudly proclaimed I was trying poison him so I just shoved it in his mouth to shut him up. Ungrateful little...
The others quickly got into it. Pyronica would just melt the marshmallows with her hands while Hectorgon carefully and meticulously heated his marshmallows over the fire I made.
It was surprisingly nostalgic. Reminded me of when one of my friends built a campfire in my backyard and we roasted marshmallows. She found out that both my other friend's little sister and mine had never tried S'mores before and felt that such an injustice must be rectified.
So we spent the evening setting things on fire.
It was great.
I fed Ammy by sliding the graham cracker treat into one of his 'stomach' blocks. He grumbled about how he wasn't a baby. "You'll always be MY baby..." I coo'ed as I snuggled him. He had the gall to roll his eyes at me. Alseph was coughing up his S'more and I merely flicked my hand to make the pieces fly back up to his mouth. No wasting food.
I tried modifying my eye mouth be an eye AND a mouth at the same time. It was a pretty freaky sensation. Being able to see the food as I munched on it was weird. Pyronica just stares into my mouth.
"How deep does that go? You and Kryptos are both FLAT!"
The compass and I glanced at each other. I shrugged. Hell if I know. Pyronica and Teeth lean closer to me. "I always wondered about that..." She says as she peers into my mouth. I just open my mouth wider and lean back a little, my eye still staring up at her.
"Can I..." She reaches out a hand for permission to inspect more closely. I shrug. "Sure I guess?" I yelp as she shoves her whole arm into my mouth and wiggled around inside me. I drop Ammy in shock. "W-what the HELL?!?"
"It's pretty roomy in here..." Pyronica comments mildly, seeing no problem with her entire arm being buried up to her shoulder inside me. I make confused sounds and wave my arms around. "Ronica!!! What?!"
"Sorry, I just wanted to know how deep this is....it's pretty cool. I don't feel a bottom...though I can feel your sides..." She brushes her hand against the walls of my throat and I writhe at the feeling. "Guweh! Uuuuggh!"
"U-um...are you sure that's...safe?" Teeth asks hesitantly as he watches Pyronica stick her tongue out in concentration as she tries to probe deeper. "I mean...Bill ate a planet once right? So...it's gotta be pretty big in there?"
Alseph makes a whimpering sound at the reminder. I'm surprised people still remember that. It's been CENTURIES! More than that even! Now that I've gotten over my surprise I was embarrassed to find out that my insides were apparently quite sensitive.
Also, the only reason my stomach hadn't devoured Pyronica's arm was because I was trying very hard not to acknowledge her as 'Food'. The weird feeling of her wiggling inside me was pretty distracting though. "Uwuh..." I moaned as her claw scratched lightly at my inner walls.
"It's...actually quite soft in here. Warm, and...not wet at all..." Pyronica observes in fascination.
"You're insane! Just....putting your arm right in there!" Kryptos frets but his curiosity had him leaning closer. "So...where does his saliva come from? Does Bill have any organs?"
I whined as my insides were thoroughly explored. This felt so....weird! Like....it didn't hurt or anything...but..."Uuuunnnngh..." It kinda tickled, in an itchy way.
"Oh. It's kind of...heating up in here? Ow!" She hisses in pain as she quickly pulls her hand out, the tips of her fingers were burnt. Which was saying a lot considering her own fire doesn't harm her. I coughed out a bit of fire. "Ugh, that...was unpleasant..."
"Sorry, did I hurt you?" Pyronica asks worriedly.
"I should be the one saying that. I burnt you? Is your hand alright?" I panted out more fire and stuck my tongue in the snow. "Bleh." There was steam and flames spewing from my mouth now.
"Eh, I did this to myself. Seriously Bill, how deep is your stomach?"
"Is this why he eats so much?" Ammy wonders.
"I am very much disturbed by what has just occurred here." Hectorgon speaks up.
"Do you think we could lower a camera down into Bill's mouth to see what's in there?" Kryptos wonders. I give him an unimpressed look.
"I feel like a camera wouldn't survive long enough to film anything noteworthy." I spit out a stream of flame. Ugh. New thing to learn about myself, having my insides stimulated makes me produce fire. I notice Alseph attempting to wiggle away like an inchworm while I was distracted and levitated him back to us. Didn't think it would be THAT easy now did ya?
Xanthar came over and sat on Alseph to keep him from escaping again. I laugh and blink my mouth back into an eye. "Well, that was an experience I never want to repeat."
As we finished eating and continue on our way I had the realization that we were quite lucky Pyronica only got a little burnt. It could have easily been much worse. I could have accidentally started digesting her arm for one thing. I could heal her afterward but that would still have been awful. "Ronica, you're not allowed to stick any of your appendages inside me ever again."
Hectorgon makes a choking noise. We look over at him but he's blushing hard and looking away. "What's wrong with him?" Ammy asks and I shrug. Hectorgon stares at us as we start hiking through the snow again. "D-did none of you realize how that sounded...?"
"What? Am I missing something?" Kryptos asks.
Hectorgon makes some distressed sounds. "You don't get it? He said...oh never mind..." He sighs and hops along blushing and looking embarrassed.
The rest of us look at each other and shrug. For some reason Alseph was blushing too. Huh. Weird.
---
Our journey through the snow was peaceful aside from a few fights with some local wildlife that thought we would be great food. Of course, with two fire-types in our party we dealt with the ice-mooses (meese?) easily enough. They looked like transparent (I could see all their muscles and organs, it was wicked cool) grey moose but with crystalline antlers, hooves and jagged sharp teeth. These things were carnivorous.
Kryptos actually attempted a maniacal laugh when he managed to paralyze one with some electric shocks. It was a cute attempt but not very intimidating. We didn't kill them, just made it clear we were not an easy meal and sent them running with hoots and cheers.
Teeth wanted to keep one as a pet but Pyronica shot down the idea. As they started their usual bickering, dragging me into it as each side tried to convince me they were right, Hectorgon just stared at us in awe. "You're quite...close." He says at last. "From what I've read about you I thought you guys were just Bill's henchmen. The Federation seems to think so at least."
I frown. "They're my Friends. I've clearly stated that many times."
"I know, but I guess...I didn't really realize you guys were so...casual with each other." Hectorgon rubs his chin. "I realized you really care about them when Amorphous Shape was shot but..."
Alseph sneers. "There's no way a monster can truly care for others! Cipher is just using you all! Help me escape and I can have the Federation reward you handsomely."
"Is this guy seriously attempting to convince us to mutiny while Bill is RIGHT HERE listening to it?" Kryptos gasps. "I knew he was dumb but this is just..."
I drop Alseph unceremoniously into the snow. Taking the end of his rope, I hand it to Xanthar. "Well. I think this calls for some discipline. Xan-Xan, be a dear and drag him along behind us for the next few miles."
Xanthar's 'amusement' was strong as he pulled Alseph along the ground. We all heard him loudly protesting his treatment as he hit against rocks and got snow/dirt in his face. Kryptos giggled.
"By the way. How far are we? We seem to have been journeying for quite a while. Wouldn't it be faster if we simply teleported or flew there?" Ammy asks while I shift him in my arms to a more comfortable position.
"Well it's more fun this way." I grin. "A good hike through the mountains is great exercise."
"But you don't exercise at all Bill." Teeth points out. They all looked at how I was floating above the ground. I sigh and lowered myself so I could...WALK.
"There. Happy?"
I can hear them stifle their laughter. Kryptos sheepishly lands to walk with his own two feet as well. Ammy looks down and states the obvious. "I do not have legs."
"Neither does Hec." The Polysphere looks surprised at the nickname before smiling shyly. "Well my people don't tend to have feet. We just hop."
"I have never tried this...hop you speak of. Is it difficult?" Ammy asks as he flexes his blocks to see if he could mimic the red being's movements. We spent the next mile teaching Ammy to 'hop'.
We stopped to eat lunch and then dinner after a few more hours.
---
"Are we there yet?" Teeth groans. He drags his legs through the snow. "I'm tired..."
"Hah! Weak!" Pyronica taunts him as she hides her own wobbling steps. Feeling sorry for them, I levitate everyone and just carry them. "Well we're getting close, should be there by tomorrow. As a treat for making it this far, I'll let each one of you pick out a restaurant to go to after we're done here. Not all at once of course, we'll start with Teeth and the next day we'll go with Ronica and so on."
They cheer before slumping, exhausted. It's been a long day and the sun was already going down. Normally this would be when we set up camp because walking through dark snow was dangerous but I was glowing brightly and keeping a lookout for danger. "Can I go to sleep?" Teeth whines. I laugh fondly. "Sure, I'll wake you all when we get there."
I feel them all settle into sleep. I carefully let go of Ammy to enclose him and the others in protective bubbles. Xanthar was already dreaming about meeting a fluffy muffin-like creature and was chasing her happily through a field of butter-flies. Kryptos was dreaming about becoming a rich billionaire and returning home to lord his new wealth and status over his family. Ammy's dreams were always just endlessly growing fractal patterns flashing through a multitude of colors beyond the visible human spectrum.
Teeth was dreaming of his colony turning into Mouths like him until they were a chattering mass of Mouths, screaming and screaming. I nudged his dream into more pleasant territories.
Pyronica was dreaming of a dark cave. Its edges seemed to flicker, as if they weren't real. She's exploring it quietly. There was something important in here. Something precious that she needs to find.
Hectorgon wasn't dreaming quite yet, hovering between the waking world and sleep. He wasn't able to trust me enough to simply sleep in the hold of my powers like my friends do. I've found that my friends subconsciously relaxed when they felt my power surrounding them. Kryptos was still on the fence but he was warming up to it.
Alseph wasn't sleeping at all.
I glanced at him as I continued walking through the snow while everyone floated in a protective bubble. "Aren't you going to rest too?"
"As if I would DARE to sleep around you!" He sneers. I dump him in a snowbank in irritation before lifting him back up, sputtering and coughing. "You know, for a prisoner you're quite mouthy. More than Teeth even." I giggle quietly to myself.
Alseph frowns at me. "Why are you even keeping me alive? This torture is unbearable."
"You think THIS is torture? Well I shudder to think what you thought me ripping off and eating your arms was supposed to be." I mutter. Part of me felt really gross for doing that. "Like ick! That was...awful..."
"Your sick mind games won't work on me!"
"Whatever man. It's gonna be hours before the sun rises again so if you want to stay up all night, be my guest." I turn to glance at the map again. It would have been easy to just teleport there by this point. We were close enough.
But I like snow. I wanted an excuse to spend more time here with my friends. Walking and chatting was fun. It was peaceful. It was also a good excuse to show Hectorgon more sides of both me and my friends. It helps us get to know him as well.
If I wanted Hectorgon to join us I wanted this to be a group decision. I felt this was a better way of getting to know him before he moves in. Kryptos and the others never really got a chance to get to know me before I pulled them into my sphere of influence. I would prefer if new roommates were a group decision as opposed to me just throwing my will around and getting my way because no one can oppose my decisions.
Pyronica might make a show of defying me and questioning me to feel like she has a say but I know she would just go along with my choices regardless. When it comes down to it, she cannot TRULY go against me and she knows this. I go out of my way to give my friends levity and freedom of choice but at the end of the day, my word is law.
That makes me depressed. I like getting my way but I don't like that the reason for it is because my friends are afraid of going against me. They may not acknowledge this feeling, might not even realize they are doing so but I can tell. There is a Fear of me buried deep down inside them. Not of ME but of what I could DO.
I'm powerful, dangerous and unstable. They have a firm understanding of the threat I pose if I were ever to lose myself. The way I raged against Alseph only served as another reminder of how easy it would be to tip me over the edge and trigger my violence.
I tremble lightly.
My destructive urges have never gone away. I go about my life with the constant intrusive thoughts of violence and bloodshed. I look at a random person on the street and have the thought and urge to rip them in half 'just because'. I discard that thought before going back to what I was doing. I can be cooking and have a thought of ' It would be so easy to stab someone's eyes out with this knife.'
I would be talking to a client and think 'Wouldn't it be fun if I took off his head and kept him alive through it?' Or 'If I squished his children into a pie, would he eat it?' and it always disturbs me how easily these thoughts come to me. I know they must be from my darker half. The writhing mass of chaos that formed the core of my existence. It is CONSTANTLY sending me these urges. Every moment I'm not focusing on what I'm doing will have my thoughts sliding into darker territories.
I'm used to it. I've been living like this for billions of years now. But just because it's 'normal' for me to have these thoughts constantly doesn't mean I don't get annoyed at them. It's tiring to get these urges all the time. It's tiring to have to tell myself over and over "No. Bad Jan. You can't do that!" And having my other half respond "Why can't I? It would be fun~"
"No Bill. It would not be fun and this is why..."
These were the sorts of internal conversations I have with myself. Every day. Every few minutes in fact. When I get upset it becomes more difficult to resist these thoughts, to rationalize that those thoughts are NOT what I WANT to do. This is another reason why I think I need a proper therapist.
As my thoughts swirled around, I continue trudging through the snow. It was so quiet out here now that my friends were all asleep. There's still Alseph trying to stay awake. I see his eyelids drooping and he's slowly nodding off. He's stubbornly fighting against his own exhaustion. For a guy who did absolutely no walking today he was still tired.
I start quietly singing just to fill the silence.
"They have sent you a letter~to come back home to play~but to your dismay this isn't your day~for the happy fun time has begun to fade~" I sang and bounced a little to the beat playing inside my head.
"Watch as we reanimated our corpses you abandoned~we're dismantled and mishandled~but we won't be skipped and swayed~"
"This song is awful. You're awful for singing it." Alseph complains.
I roll my eye even as I switch songs.
"Early morning yesterday it finally occurred to me~just like a puzzle where I have placed every single piece~and now I don't know what to do now that I've seen what we're both moving to~is this the point in time where we both prayed and hoped we'd be~"
"I hate this one too." Alseph complains just to be a dick. I should be annoyed but it was funny how hard he was trying to ruin my fun. I grin and switch songs again.
Placing a sound dampening effect around my friends so they wouldn't be disturbed, I materialized a door in front of my path. Lifting a leg, I kicked it open while belting out "SomeBODY once told me~"
Alseph begins screaming.
---
"Disorder~disorder~disoooooor~ooorder~"
"....how many songs do you know?" Alseph moans as he slumps in the air. His eyes were closed, much too tired to keep then open.
"Kid, I'm over 100 billion years old. I can literally do this until you die of old age and still wouldn't be done with my playlist." The officer whimpers and I can feel him wanting to fall asleep just to get away from my singing. Rude. I switch songs again with a giggle.
"I am hanging in the bathroom~at the biggest party of the fall~"
"Just kill me. I'm going to go insane at this rate..."
"You wouldn't go nuts if you just go to sleep. I'll stop bothering you when you do."
"Never!!!"
"Suit yourself."
Despite Alseph's best efforts he finally succumbs to sleep a few songs later. I had gone with lullabies by that point and he slips away in the middle of Sleepytime Junction. As promised, I sound proofed him so he could sleep undisturbed as I continued walking and singing to myself.
It was going to be a long night alone with my own thoughts and voice.
---
"Hello snow drift." I greeted a large pile of snow as I walked past it.
"Hi Bill!" I say as I pitch my voice lower.
"How are you doing this fine evening?" I tip my hat to the pile, walking backward to keep it in my sights.
"Oh just the same as always." The 'snowdrift' responds.
"Well THAT'S boring. Don't you have any hobbies mister snow drift?"
"Did you just ASSUME my gender?!"
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that!"
"Sure you didn't! You asshole!"
I narrowed my eye at the pile of snow that was steadily getting farther away as I walked. "Well that's uncalled for. I made an honest mistake and I jus-"
"Fuck you asshole! I don't want to talk to you anymore!"
I scoff, insulted. "Well that makes TWO of us, ya jerk!"
The 'snowdrift' cusses me out and I flip him (sorry, HER) off as she fades from view. What a bitch.
"Oh good evening rock." I say happily as I see a large rocky mountain.
"Howdy Bill." The rock's voice was a thick southern drawl.
"And how are YOU doing this fine evening?"
"Oh it's jus' been awful! Mah wife left me ya see?"
"Oh that's terrible. What happened?"
"She's been seeing the stable boy behind mah back! Now ain't that jus' the worse ho-hickory nonsense ya ever heard?!"
I nod in sympathy. "Truly awful. To be betrayed in such a way."
"She broke mah heart is what she did! Ground it up jus' like the grains in our windmills! Why I reckon I might never love again!" The mountain cries.
"Don't give up hope! Even if your wife was a traitorous jerk doesn't mean you should never trust again! You can always find love again! You're a great rock. Solid, firm and unyielding! I'm sure there are plenty of stones that'd appreciate you."
"Why that's the nicest dang thing anyone's ever said ta me. You're a great guy Bill."
"Yes well, I try..." I mumble as I rub my bricks in embarrassment. "You know it's just...if your wife couldn't see your good points, that's HER problem, not yours. You're a great guy Rock."
"Aw shucks ma'am, you're a real sweetie pie yourself."
I blush and flutter my eyelashes. "R-really?"
"Yeah, in fact, would yah do me this honor of accompanin' me ta breakfast? I've been told I cook a mean scrambled eggs and bacon sizzle."
"Oh my! We've just met Rock~" I giggle and wave my arm at the mountain.
"Is that a no?"
"Well...it'll depend on just how good your bacon is~" I waggle my eye teasingly at the mountain.
"Would ya like a...taste test?" The mountain flirts back. I giggle stupidly with my hands pressed to the sides of my face.
"Bill, what are you doing?"
"AAAAAAAAHHH!" I jump and swing my gaze up to see Pyronica staring at me with a mildly disturbed expression on her half asleep face.
"N-n-nothing! You're still dreaming!" I scream before flicking my fingers. I watch as her eye rolls up and she collapses back asleep.
There's silence for a bit aside from my heavy, panicked breathing.
I check the time, another 3 hours before sunrise. Well. I can probably stay quiet for that long. I'm flushed dark orange and just walk quietly trying not to combust from embarrassment. The snow hisses and melts around me.
---
"Rise and shine everyone! Who's ready for breakfast?" I cheer as my friends begin yawning and stretching. I'm stirring a large pot full of stew. Having gotten bored, I decided to hunt down an ice-moose and had spent the rest of the night preparing the food.
Stew is meant for cooking for long hours after all. The meat should be nice and tender by this point, the fat melting off and enriching the flavor of the soup. I check on it and see that the carrots and potatoes have gotten nice and soft. Perfect.
Skinning and slicing up the moose meat was quite messy and I'm glad I can just flick clean myself. If my friends had woken to see me covered in blood and viscera...well it was a good thing I can clean myself.
Alseph groans and rolls over in his sleep, his body tilting around in the air.
"Ooh~that smells really good Bill." Teeth salivates hungrily. He wiggled and I floated him down to the ground where he immediately waddles over to the pot and looks at it. "What're you making?"
"Meat and vegetable stew." I stir the pot again before scooping out a portion into a bowl for Teeth. He makes appreciative noises as he drinks.
The others gathered around and in a few minutes we were all sitting in a circle around the pot, enjoying the food. Alseph woke up at some point, having smelled the delicious food and realizing he hadn't eaten much the previous day. I can hear his stomach grumble but he stubbornly refused to eat any.
"You're gonna starve." I narrow my eye at him, bowl in one hand and spoon in the other. He refuses to look at me (or the food) curling in on himself as his stomach cried. I sigh before sprouting more hands to grab him and hold his mouth open.
"Here comes the food train! Choo! Choo!" I slowly bring the spoonful of soup and vegetables up to his mouth. Despite his protests I continue to feed him like an infant. Hectorgon is very amused by this.
"I used to do that with my daughter." He reminisced. "But in her case I was driving a helipod of food."
"You have a kid?" Teeth asks bluntly. I hide a wince. Not the most tactful Mouth.
"Had." Hectorgon says quietly.
My friends all wince. Teeth looks devastated. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
Hectorgon waves him off. "It's fine kid. You didn't know. Besides..." He takes a another bite of his food. "...it was a long time ago."
The mood was a little subdued after that. Even Alseph didn't complain as much, eating his meal quietly. Hectorgon cleared his throat. "So how close are we to the server farm?"
"Oh we're right on top of it." I remark as I wipe some soup off Alseph's chin with a napkin. His eyes go wide. "The Federation will-!" I shove another spoonful in his mouth to shut him up.
"We're here?!" Hectorgon looks around searching for the machines. He could find nothing though.
"I said we're on top of it." I correct him. I stretch out a hand to point at the sheer drop of a ravine a few yards from us. "The facility is down there. At the veeeery bottom."
Hectorgon hops over to look. "Careful not to fall in." I remark.
"My word. I can't even see the bottom." He pales and quickly hops away from the ledge.
"So I was thinking we could climb down on a rope after breakfast, or I could float you all down."
"I wanna try climbing it!" Teeth says. "You can catch us if we fall right?"
"Naturally. I won't allow any of you to fall." I assure them. Pyronica seems all for this idea. Xanthar and Ammy would have to be floated down since they weren't exactly built for climbing. Kryptos looks terrified at the idea. "I-I can just fl-float down please?"
"That is private Federation property-!" I shove another spoonful into Alseph's mouth.
"Well eat up. No sense in wasting good food."
We settle down to chat and eat. I give Alseph more food whenever he tries to protest our invasion of Federation property. Maybe I should gag him instead, he's looking pretty full. I created bathrooms for my friends to freshen up, even let Alseph have his own stall too, and thanked Ax that I don't defecate. Waste production is gross and this was one of the few things I loved about my weirdass alien biology.
It was finally time to descend into the unknown. I created a rope for anyone who wanted to climb and floated the rest of them with me.
Alseph kept wiggling and making muffled protests. I gagged him with marshmallows. If he focused more on eating them than yelling at us he'd probably make better progress. Pyronica and Teeth tried to race each other down but since they were on one rope that was pretty much a no go. They begged me for a second rope but I adamantly refused.
"If you two fall from your own competitive stupidity I'm not catching you."
Hectorgon laughs. "You guys are a riot."
"Is that a good thing?" Ammy asks me. I shrug. "It means we're fun people."
I had a bubble around us just in case anyone fell, I kept my gaze on my friends climbing down, I had glanced below me once and the world spun for a bit. Stupid vertigo. I loved high places, I loved climbing, but the instant I look down...
It wasn't as bad as it had been when I was human, now I can fly. So it was reassuring to know I won't fall. A few minutes in had Teeth trembling with exhaustion. These last two days were more exercise than he's had in years.
All of us floated the rest of the way down. I gave an impromptu lesson about ice formations. "-nd this glacier we're currently descending into is millions of years old. It's been around for so long that the ice at the bottom is pretty much solid as stone from the pressure."
"Wouldn't the heat from the machines melt it from the inside and cause structural instability?" Kryptos asks.
"Why do you think this opening is here? You can't feel it because of the bubble but this place here allows the heat to escape upward and thus keep the bottom cool."
I gaze down, mentally reminding myself that I can fly and I was in no danger of falling "There's a lot of metal down there that was placed to build the servers on top of. It keeps the machines from actually touching the ice and allows for a more careful dispersal of heat. It gets redirected here so the ice below doesn't develop issues."
We could see a large metal building now. I adjusted my bubble to bend light around us, thus achieving invisibility in case there was security down here. My paranoia proved fruitful when I spotted security cameras and laser guns slowly scanning around. Hectorgon pales as he sees the guns.
"There's no way I would have been able to get down here by myself." He says softly as our group floats right pass the guns and cameras. "We...won't be shot right?"
"So long as you all stay inside the bubble you're safe."
We make it past the security and float over a wall to find...
"Whoa!" Kryptos gasps.
The server farm stretched before us. It was huge. I saw machines going off into the distance. Hectorgon fumbled with his briefcase. I lower us to the ground and the Anglesphere pulls out his laptop. He had some tools as well which he used to open up the nearest machine and start messing with the wire inside.
"So what ARE you doing with this?" Kryptos asked eagerly.
"I'm going to deconstruct the Federation's surveillance within the server." He responds. I can tell that wasn't the whole reason. There was too much anger and pain coming off him for such a simple reason. Once more I catch a memory of a little girl.
I'm going to assume that girl was Hec's daughter. I wanted to know what happened but I didn't want to just ask him. Clearly though, something about this had to do with her. Alseph struggles harder. He makes mumbled angry noises.
We all ignore him and just watch Hectorgon type away. I got bored pretty quick and decided to bother Alseph to amuse myself. "So. How've you been doing? I'm sure you want to go home. Well, when we're done here I'll return you to your masters once I get a proper apology from them."
I leaned closer to him and blinked my eye into a mouth to grin at him with sharp teeth. "Frankly, I'm being rather merciful considering you nearly killed my friend."
He shivers.
As I terrified Alseph I hear Kryptos comment "That's a lot of files. What are you searching for?"
"..."
Seeing that he didn't trust us enough to say yet, I tell Kryptos to leave him alone. "A guy's allowed his secrets Kryptos. Don't be nosey, you don't even have a nose."
Kryptos pouts at me even as Hectorgon gives me a grateful look. With nothing much to do, my other friends are quickly bored and we ended up gathering around Alseph to bother him.
"So like, why do you even work for the Federation? Do they really pay that well?" Pyronica asks.
"Naw, officers and other foot soldiers are considered expendable. The coots in charge only need them for their numbers and loyalty. The officers like this guy are paid in food and shelter."
"So...he doesn't actually make any money?" Teeth seemed horrified by the prospect.
"Naw. He gets a roof over his head from living in the Federation dormitories and free meals from the sanctioned rations and cafeterias."
"That sounds awful. Why would you WANT to live like that? I know Bill said you were brainwashed but seriously?"
I remove his gag so he could at least respond to us if he wanted. "You mock me for my lifestyle! But you're just the same! You're nothing more than toys to the demon!" He hisses.
"Correction. They're my friends. A toy would be Liu-Dag."
"How IS he doing by the way?" Ammy wonders.
"Died of old age centuries ago. Kept attacking the triad he used to lead claiming that he was the 'real' boss. Funny thing is, everyone knew. No one cared. Hubart was just a much nicer boss to work under so all his former minions simply kicked him out. He tried for many more years before finally giving up and attempting to start his own criminal organization. Did pretty well in the crime part, not so well on the organization. Had multiple betrayals by his men when they couldn't stand him anymore..."
Pyronica stares at me incredulously. "You kept track of what he was doing?"
"Course I did. Even if he was a terrible excuse for a minion, he was still MINE. So after a few more years of losing everything, living on the streets and finally collapsing in an alleyway, he gets found by this nice lady who nurses him back to health. Cliche as it was, Liu-Dag actually ended up falling for her and settled down nicely. He had 2 kids and 7 grandchildren."
"That's...surprisingly domestic of him." Pyronica looked amazed.
"Well he got older, grew and changed." I shrugged. That's how mortal creatures were. They changed. Year after year they were always learning, evolving and changing. Unlike beings like Time Baby or the AXOLOTL. Unlike me. Sure I have changed but not all that much considering how old I was. In the past billion years I haven't grown at all as a person. I'm the same now as I was then.
Sometimes I blocked my own memories just so I can 'discover' something new and have that thrill of learning. Immortal creatures take much longer to learn stuff. It was just how things ended up. Ax hasn't changed much, the most personal growth he's had was from interacting with me. He's more casual now, less formal and distant.
It took over 40 billion years to get him to this point.
Time Baby though, hasn't grown at ALL as a person. The same selfish, self centered brat I met all those eons ago. I KNOW Time Baby is around my age, older? Younger? Doesn't matter. You'd think he would have more growth considering he's a baby but...I shake my head. No use getting mad about it. If he refuses to learn, that's HIS issue. Frankly, I should just be glad he hasn't gotten any WORSE.
Alseph was just glaring angrily as we all ignored him. "Why can't you see that this beast is a monster?! You saw what he became! Those teeth and mouths! Has he truly stolen your Souls?!"
"I don't steal Souls, that's rude, I manipulate minds and even then I don't change people's free will or personality." I say patiently. "And do you REALLY need to call me a beast? It's very hurtful. You hurt my feelings." I pout. Teeth guffaws in the background at the gobsmacked look on Alseph's face. "I hurt your feelings?!" He chokes out.
"Yes. I happen to be self conscious about my spontaneous bodily mutations." I huff. "I know it's not very pretty but I can't really do much about it. My body is effected by my emotions and all that."
Alseph sneers. "So you admit that you hide your true monstrous form beneath your cute exterior!"
"You think I'm cute~?" I blush adorably.
"W-what?! No!" Alseph cries loudly with wide eyes. My friends are trying desperately to muffle their laughter as I continue to troll the officer. "Oh my~I'm flattered but you're not my type sir~" I say bashfully. Alseph looks horrified. "No! You are a repulsive, evil monster!" He screams.
I fan myself with a hand. "I'm sure you say that to ALL women you meet, you lady killer you~" I flutter my long eyelashes at him. He's turning red and making strangled sounds.
"Um...is Bill a girl?" Teeth whispers to Pyronica who just rolls her eye at him. "Really? You haven't noticed?" She scoffs at him. Kryptos looked like he was about as ask what she meant. Ammy spoke up quietly, the lot of them whispering and believing that I couldn't hear them. "Bill is physically a hermaphrodite right? So perhaps he identifies as both male and female as well?"
"Wait. Really?!" Kryptos's mouth falls open in shock. "So he's...she's..." He flushes dark blue. "This explains so much..." He moans.
Teeth was waving his arms in confusion. "B-but he...acts like a guy most of the time? And he's never corrected us when we call him a guy?"
Pyronica huffs. "Bill is both male and female. S/He switches back and forth depending on her mood. You haven't noticed that me and Bill go shopping for pretty clothes together? The many dresses Bill owns? Or when Bill and I do each other's nails?"
Teeth makes a distressed noise. "I just thought that Bill was...really effeminate..." He's moaning in embarrassment. "Now I feel like a butt for not noticing."
"Well he doesn't really say anything about it." Pyronica shrugs. Leaning closer to the others and lowering her voice she whispers "I think Bill normally goes more for male presenting because he gets more respect that way."
The others nod in understanding. Meanwhile I've continued embarrassing poor Alseph who looked like he might combust. "Like, you shot my Friend so there's no way this would work between us anyway."
"Just kill me~" he moans.
"Naw. I'm not even mad anymore. I'm still very angry and I haven't forgiven you but I've calmed down. I ripped you apart. I've taken my 'pound of flesh' as it were. So don't you worry your furry head about it, I'm not gonna kill you."
He didn't look any happier at the good news.
"I'm done." Hectorgon says. He closes his laptop with a click and carefully eases it back into his briefcase. It's at that point that I noticed his case held more than just his laptop.
"Are those...bombs?" I asked. He stiffens before sighing. "Yeah. I was originally going to destroy the servers. But my plans changed."
"Why?" Kryptos asked, mildly worried.
"I didn't think I would have enough time to hack the system properly. I thought I would be under gunfire and Federation attack while I worked. So it was my last ditch attempt."
I catch a worrying thought from the red creature. He didn't originally plan to make it out of this alive. He came to this planet with the resolve to die and take the servers down with him.
"Who hurt you?" I let the question slip out before my brain caught up with my thoughts. Everyone looks at me in confusion. "What did the Federation do, that made you strike out against them like this?" I amended. "You don't have to say if you don't want, but there's a lot of upsetting emotions coming off you. I can taste them."
He looks at me, considering what to say. Whether or not he should even respond. He tugs at his mustache and sighs. "I broke the law first. I was the one at fault."
I absently gagged Alseph again so he wouldn't say something stupid. Hectorgon looks at the ground, collecting his thoughts. "I had a daughter. As you probably know by now, she's no longer alive."
My friends stay respectfully quiet as Hectorgon recounts us with his story. "I used to work for the Federation as a programmer. I was tasked with security, finding and fixing weak spots in their fire walls." He explained.
"I got curious about some encrypted files. One thing led to another, I ended up uncovering a lot of...unsavory secrets the Federation wanted to keep quiet." He glanced over at me. "Like all the Deals they've made with you."
My friends all gasped and stared at me. Even Alseph had gone pale. I just shrugged. "My summoning method is well known. I made sure of that. Anyone is free to summon me to make a Deal."
Alseph is shaking his head in denial. He refused to believe his superiors would EVER willingly go to ME for help. Kryptos looks mildly worried. "And you HELPED them?"
I laugh uproariously. "Help? Ahahahaha! Oh man~I wouldn't call it that. You see, the thing about greedy bastards in power is that they want to STAY in power. You won't believe all the times a council member has tried to use me to get rid of their competition." I didn't go for it of course, the only person I killed for is Time Baby, and even then it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I refuse most Deals that require me to murder someone on the summoner's behalf.
I might kill people during a Deal, but not because they asked me to. If they want someone dead they should do it themselves.
"And...did you?" Teeth looks afraid to know if I really have helped politicians murder their way to the top.
"HELL no! I'm not some attack dog they can sic on their enemies. Naw~I refuse to kill for them and they have to find another way to get that which they desire. There was one guy who asked for the ability to poison people by touching them-"
"I read his file. He was found dead a week before elections. The official story was heart attack from stress but in the files I dug up they stated he clearly had corrosion marks along his skin shaped like triangles."
"The idiot never stated he wanted to be immune to his own poison." I shrug nonchalantly.
"Well that and many other forbidden information is what got me in trouble. They...took my daughter and threatened me into silence." Hectorgon's fists clench and tremble. "They got my silence and cooperation. They told me Helegon would be unharmed so long as I do my job and keep my big mouth shut."
"She was already dead wasn't she?" I say softly. He trembled and nodded. Teeth gasps in horror. Alseph looked shocked. Hectorgon takes a few shaking breaths before continuing. "They tricked me with pre-recordings of her. When I found out the truth I just..." His voice cracked and I gave him a sympathetic pat on the angle.
"So I'm going to reveal all the secrets I found over the server. Every single person who comes through will receive these files. Destroying the server would have only been a temporary inconvenience to them, but THIS will destroy them!" He growls. I felt a stab of worry.
"If the people revolt, the Federation WILL silence them."
"Not if EVERYONE is revolting. Especially not if the sovereign rulers of multiple dimensions are in on it. I've sent off personal IG-Mails to those who've been secretly used and betrayed by the Federation. I'm sure if the king of Ignis rises up, the Federation won't be able to just kill him off like they do to civilians." Hectorgon says.
"The galaxy is going to become a war zone..." Kryptos whimpers fearfully. I wince. It's gonna be kinda difficult to bargain for Hectorgon now. Once the Federation finds out what he did, he'll be the most wanted man in the universe. Also...
"You know that if war breaks out, anyone who is killed or hurt will be indirectly your fault?" I inform him. He nods, guilt oozing from every angle. "I know."
"But you still chose to do this?"
"I want to make a Deal. Can you protect the people from harm? I'm willing to offer anything you want in return. My life, my soul, my everything." Hectorgon says firmly.
I blink in surprise, my darker half salivating at the tantalizing offer. "Anything?" I whisper hungrily. The other part of me was wondering if such a thing was even possible. How much power would such a Deal take? What would it entail? My mind raced through options. My friends watched quietly. Xanthar nudges me. 'worry' coming off him in waves.
"So. You want the people protected from the fallout of your actions and in exchange you'll give me your everything?"
He nods. That's good enough for me. I reach out my hand and he grips it firmly. The fire spreads all around me and I glow with an energy build up. Everyone is surrounded by a thick protective bubble as I continued charging up more energy. I feel their 'anxious confusion' as a high pitched whining sound started, like a laser weapon charging up.
"What are you-" Hectorgon starts to ask.
And then I exploded.
---
A willing, controlled explosion is much easier to recover from. I sigh and pull myself together. There was thunderous crashing as the entire glacier crumpled around us. Everything was shaking and if it weren't for the protective bubbles we all would have been crushed long before this. Even so I can hear Kryptos's high pitched screaming. I start lifting us up and out of the danger zone.
The destruction was immense. I could see the cracks stretching on for miles. The resulting earthquake could probably be felt back at the city. Hell, the rumbling of the collapsing structure seemed to shake the air itself. The entire glacier fell to pieces and there was a good 45 minutes before the crashing finally stopped.
Damn~ that was...surprisingly satisfying to watch.
Once I was sure everything had finished breaking, I settled us down on a stable patch of rock and ice. Hectorgon is staring at me in horror. "You...destroyed the server..."
"Oh please~that was your original plan anyway. Besides, this way the people will be protected from that stupid, rash thing you did."
"But-! My revenge?!" He gasps as he looks at the destruction all around us. I give him a pat on the angle. "Your IG-Mails still went off. The leaders of a few sovereign nations are gonna have some angry words with the Federation. The general populace though, don't involve them in this. Also, you still disabled the Federation surveillance."
I glare at the red Polysphere. "Don't involve innocent people in your revenge plot. That was quite selfish of you. I understand you did it because you're mad, upset and desperate but seriously man. I don't think your daughter would have liked that."
Hectorgon starts sobbing. He knows I'm right. His cries weren't sad though, it was relief that millions of innocents weren't going to pay for the sake of his revenge. My other friends just watched him quietly as he broke down. Even the Federation officer was being respectfully quiet.
When he finally stopped crying he looked up at me and thanked me. I just shrugged. "Seriously though, next time you won't have someone like me to fix your mistakes."
It was a nice cinematic moment. The sun shining off all the shards of ice, Hectorgon smiling gratefully and me floating proudly before him. Then Ammy ruins the moment. "Does this mean we won't have internet anymore?"
...ffffffFFFFFFFFUUUUUU-
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