Carl had no idea how he’d gotten to the restaurant where he sat.  The decor was mid scale, or, in other words, somewhere his mother would never be caught dead.  The waiters were ignoring him.  He didn’t have to wait long before a man came and sat down in front of him.  The man looked vaguely familiar, and then it hit him:  If he’d been born with orc fangs, he’d look exactly like the man sitting there.

“Hello, Carl.  You might have heard of me before.  I’m the Beast.”

“Oh, wow, it’s and honor, I mean, I’ve been hearing about you for years, and when I heard you were a member of SAVIOR, well I thought we would meet, but it’s been so long and…”

“We don’t have much time, Carl, so save the fanboy moment for after.”

“Yes, sir,” Carl said with a mock salute.

“I said I’m the Beast…but what I should have said is that we’re the Beast.”

Carl’s smile faded and he began looking at The Beast in shock.  “Come again?”

“Normally, about this moment, you’d have a blackout.  I know they’ve been happening more frequently of late, because Trip, Alice and I have been around a lot more.  You even spawned a new personality.  When did we learn russian again?  I don’t remember doing that, even though we speak it quite well.”

“I learned russian when I was twelve…I think.  My head hurts.”

“I know.  You see, Carl, I am a safety valve for you.  So is Trip, Alice, and even Sasha.”

“A…what?”

“You couldn’t take being a mutant.  Our mother, well you know how she is.”

“So much pressure to be normal,” Carl said through gritted teeth.

“Yes.  So much pressure.  So…you are normal.  You have no powers.  You aren’t a mutant.  I on the other hand.”

“You are a mutant,” Carl said softly.

“Yes.  Yes I am.”

“But…how is this possible.”

The Beast chuckled softly.  “It would take a degree in psychology to answer that question.  The simple answer is that we have Dissociative Identity Disorder.”

“But…I’m looking right at you.”

“Well, we are a mutant, aren’t we.” The Beast paused for a moment or two before continuing, “We’re also a very powerful mutant.  As we gain life experience, we gain new powers.  Normally, that is paired with gaining a new personality.”

“Wait…we have…four super abilities?  I’ve only heard of the Beast being able to see Radar and, well, the obvious, he has four legs.”  Carl said looking at the person across from him with a little suspicion.

“I can also change my appearance.  Hence the reason I only have two legs right now.  Because of that, instead of all of our personalities inheriting your body…as would be normal for DID, each of the forms gains a different body…but each one only has access to one of the powers that we posess.”

“What can Sasha do?”

“Big metal wings.  You do the math,” The Beast replied.

“We can fly?”

“Sasha and I can.”

“You have access to all the powers, don’t you…because I have access to none.”

“You are taking this quite well,” The Beast said as he gave Carl an appraising eye.

“My head is killing me more and more the longer we have this conversation…but I’m not a teen who just wants his parents to be proud anymore.  I’m an adult.  I have a girl…had a girlfriend.  Wait…are you why I don’t have Cassandra anymore?”

“No,” The Beast said, “sadly, that was partially SAVIOR’s fault…but mostly Thanatos’ fault.”

“Who was thanatos?  I remember a dream…we killed him?”

“We kicked him out,” The Bast said with a laugh.  “He was a parasitic nanite infection that gained sentience, and then tried to take over the city.”

“Wait..what?” Carl said with a laugh.

Quickly, as he knew he was running out of time, The Beast ran through the events of the past few months, including things that Carl remembered, and things he did not.  When he was done, he noticed time was about up so he said, “I’m sorry to cut this short, but we only have 13 minutes a day we could do this.  I’ll record a number of video messages on your computer so that you can get up to date on the full story…or Alice or Trip will.  Still, we’ll get you up to date.”

“Ok…this is a lot to…” he began and then disappeared as the last of The Beast’s ISP ran out.

Carl woke with a start in his bed. The night before…he couldn’t remember what he’d done the night before, or the night before that. He was always having these blackouts, but recently they seemed to be getting worse. He wanted to talk to someone about it…but he didn’t know who to call.

He could go back to the doctor his mom had taken him to, but then, that would be admitting that he needed to be drugged again, and the drugs had really messed him up. He could remember times when he’d been able to see behind him, or when his appearance had changed. The doctor, who’s face he couldn’t quite remember, had said it was just hallucination. He could talk to Dr. Moore…he had a strange thought that maybe he’d met Dr. Moore before the night of the party at his parent’s house.

He wanted to talk to Cassandra, but she had exploded on him the last time he’d called, and told him some confusing things. Why did adult life have to be so complicated?

The dream he’d had the night before had been even more strange. He had been standing on top of a cliff. The Beast, one of the superheroes of Century Station had been holding a Tron version of Carl over the edge while Carl, the real Carl, had been standing at the back of a small group.

The details were fuzzy, even now, but he remembered something about judgement, something…not altogether bad about killing the Tron-Carl. A centaur and Alice, from assassin dolls had been there as well…

Carl got up and went to his computer and began doing searches. There had been a number of cons in CS over the last few years. For some strange reason, Carl had missed all of them. Carl used to always go to cons, but he kept missing them recently. It started about the time his blackouts started getting more regular. About the time he stopped taking the medicine his mother had given him in the past.

He found pictures of an alice who was so uncannily close to the Alice from the cartoons, it looked like the inspiration for the character. Like a model for the character. If she were twelve instead of eight.

Going back in time, to earlier cons, Carl kept finding the same Alice. Four years ago, she had been eight. Now she was twelve. Only…she couldn’t have been the original model, since the show was more than ten years old now.

This was getting creepy, though, because the older Alice didn’t just have pictures from the cons. There was a twitter account @TheRealAssassinAlice that was posting pictures from around CS of her in crime fighting attire, just like she had been in my dream. The only problem was, I couldn’t have seen these, because I hadn’t gotten into the anime culture in years.

Her pictures were associated with S.A.V.I.O.R. or at least the other members of S.A.V.I.O.R. sometimes appeared in them. If she was a member of S.A.V.I.O.R., how come I’d never met her. Or the centaur, who I now saw occasionally appeared with them as well.

The Beast sometimes appeared with S.A.V.I.O.R. too.

The more I went down this rabbit hole, the more I felt a pounding in my head, and the tighter my chest felt. I needed to fix this…but how could this be wrong?

A closeup of Trip’s face told me all I needed to know, because I vividly remembered seeing that face in the mirror one morning. I had to search around for my black box for an hour or so, and never found it. Then, it took another thirty minutes to find, charge, and power up my old phone because the black-box was missing.

“Br. Moore? Hi, this is Carl Weisman. So…can I come talk to you about something? I think I might be going insane. I think…I don’t know…I’ve been having these blackouts…”

The building was dark, but not entirely silent. As Cai and The Beast made their way in, the obvious signs of super powered individuals were visible in the infestation of bugs and the holes literally punched in the walls.

“I think that Indbur’s office is this way,” The Beast said and began leading the way into the ruined shell of a building. Fluorescent lights hung at odd angles, some of them hanging onto life by the merest thread, shouting their defiance into the darkness that sought to claim them as they flickered, barely lit, buzzing into the shadows.

The door to Indbur’s room had been ripped from its hinges and for a moment, The Beast was certain they were too late, but then a soft, almost inaudible, even for his hearing, moan sounded and The Beast called out to Cai. “Get an ambulance here. He’s still alive.”

As they waited, The Beast’s attention was pulled into a display in the center of the room. Like many of the other things that The Beast had seen associated with Indur Enterprises, it was more advanced than it should be. The center of the display was the Black Box, with flyaways and pop outs pointing to different locations of the device and explaining different functions. In the bottom right of the open air display, there was a button that said execute…but execute what?

Slowly, the intent of the display and the computer behind it became clear. This was a worm, or something similar to a worm. It was meant to destroy one of the Black Box devices if something like this, something like Thanatos ever happened. It was designed to purge such a device and destroy its connective software.

The Beast hesitated for a bare moment. Thanatos was alive. Was it truly okay to kill him, just because what he was doing was inconvenient to the rest of them who were sharing the body? Just as he was about to pull away his hand, however, he remembered Carl’s joy over having a girlfriend. He remembered the violation of privacy and the danger, the mortal danger that Thanatos had put the rest of them in and The Beast’s hand slammed into the virtual button.

Fear gripped him as the Black Box activated, and he could feel Thanatos begin to try and insert himself into The Beast’s mind and reassert control. As the techno-virus began working its tendrils deeper into The Beast’s psyche, there was a scream that The Beast more felt than heard.

The tendrils coming off The Beast’s arm began to spasm and reach out to the technology around them. The Beast could feel the nanotech inside him trying to force him closer even as black, oil like droplets began to shed from the tendrils flailing around his arm.

“I won’t go out like this,” a voice screamed at him.

“I’m sorry,” The Beast said, “but you have to. For the good of the whole, you have to go.”

The Beast began to get flashes flying through his mind. Memories he’d never had. Thoughts he’d never considered. Thanatos’ control over his compartment of the mind was weakening, even as more drops began to fall like mascara tears onto the floor.

The Beast felt Thanatos’ desperation to make everything work. He knew that Thanatos hadn’t intended to destroy lives, but that had happened anyway.

“It doesn’t matter your intent if the result is damaging.”

“Where do you get off condemning me!” came the reply. “You have been lying to them all for years. You think they’ll appreciate if I tell them the truth? That you are more jailer than friend? What will they think of you then? What will Carl think when he learns the truth…that he’s just as fake as the other shattered shards of your psyche. You’re one sick fu…”

The Beast exerted as much force of will as he could and battered Thanatos back, taking control of his mind once more. “You’re just a piece of this shattered psyche, Thanatos Morse, and one that doesn’t fit with the rest of us. We’re better than that!”

Without any sense of motion, between one moment and the next, The Beast was standing on a high cliff over a roiling black sea. The grey storm clouds above the sea were known to him. He remembered the sense of being trapped down there every time that Thanatos had control. The Beast found himself standing on the cliff next to a dark figure. When he turned to the side, he saw Thanatos, gazing over the dark ocean next to him.

“This is you, Thanatos. This is what you have done to us. This place was filled with light and peace until you came. You brought this darkness.”

“This darkness was a part of you all along. You can’t have the light without the darkness. You can’t be good without understanding the corruption that hides in all men’s souls.”

“You don’t need to swim in the corruption in order to understand it, Thanatos Morse!” The Beast said and grabbed Thanatos to pitch him into the sea. Thanatos’ hands melted and flowed over The Beast’s arms, locking them together even as Thanatos lost his footing and tumbled over the edge.

“Help me!” Thanatos cried. Fear replacing his normally cold expression. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to…die.”

“You’re the god of death. You’d think that this is normal for you,” The Beast responded. “I’m sorry, but it’s time for you to go. May you find peace in your next life.”

Tendrils snaked out from the ocean and latched onto Thanatos. Even as The Beast watched, the ropes began to drain Thanatos, starting at his feet, and moving their way up.

“No, please, you don’t understand. I had no choice. I had to act as I did. It wasn’t my fault. It was never my fault. Don’t let them have me. I don’t want to return to the whispers in the dark. I want to be part of the light, please!”

“It was never about you, Thanatos. Be free.”

Thanatos’ expression morphed from fear to rage between blinks. “If I can’t live, then neither shall you,” he said and began pulling on The Beast, trying to upset his ballance.

“I’ve got you,” Trip said and his arm grabbed him from the right side.

“You may all be baka, but you are mine,” Alice said and began pulling herself from the other side.

I looked over at her and saw Carl standing a little bit away from the ledge shaking his head. “Don’t look at me. I’m not even sure what I’m doing her, or even where here is.” he replied. Even so, I felt strength begin to flood me, and a figure appeared in the air over the abyss.

“Thanatos Morse, you have been accused of attempting to destroy the mind and steal the body of Carl Weisman. How do you plead?”

“Screw you!” Thanatos screamed at the nebulous figure in the air above him. “You’re not even real. You’re not a part of the whole.”

“There are many more parts to this than even you are aware. There is more to this. There is so much more. You stand accused. What is your plea.”

“I don’t recognize your authority over me.”

“The body accepts your plea of not guilty. The memories of the body condemn you. While it is recognized that you did not intend harm to the body, the body came to harm. The entity Trip has come to harm as a result of your actions one time. The entity The Beast has come to harm because of your actions on multiple distinct occasions. The entity Carl has been irreparably harmed by your interference and actions.

“It is the decision of the body, that you be purged. There will be no clemency.”

Thousands of strands erupted from the frothing waters below and began to wrap themselves around Thanatos, draining him ever faster. Even as he was being covered, a single strand shot out from Thanatos and he called into the darkness, “Execute Phoenix!”

But it was to late. The strands attached to his arms and the connection he was holding onto with The Beast melted away, even as Thanatos fell toward the ocean, melting.

“The will of the body has been upheld. Long live the body,” the figure in the air said even as it faded away.

The Beast was again unaware of movement even as he was suddenly back in the office. The last of the drops fell to the ground leaving his harm weeping blood from wounds where the black box had previously pierced his skin.

It was enough. The Beast could feel that the black wall was no longer there in his mind. They were free.

The moment that Thanatos finally crashed, my awareness of the world came back to me. Something wasn’t right. I knew it, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it. He’d been sitting at Carl’s computer and had a number of websites open, including Facebook of all places. I’m not sure who this Sandra Dee is, or Richard Munch, but he had their pages open. It would also seem that he had hacked their email accounts as well.

The only thing the two had in common was that they both had the clap. That’s unfortunate. I closed out of the email accounts and moved the computer back into normal operation before I relinquished to Carl.

Somehow, strangely, I got control again the next day. I knew that I needed to start performing damage control as well. Carl had contacted Cassandra, trying to determine how everything was. She began ranting about Carl being a monster, how he’d ruined her life and killed her father. She said that she planned on destroying Carl and everything he stood for and then hung up.

He’d not been able to get in touch with her again, and he spent the rest of the day staring at the ceiling. Apparently, he’d really cared for her. I knew he’d get over it eventually, but as she was his first real girlfriend, and the first girl he’d ever even kissed, it might be a while.

Personally, I knew it was almost too good to be true. It was a one in a million lucky occurrence. Fate had given him a glimpse of bliss and taken it away. Well, more specifically, Carl’s fumbling had done him in. He should have tried harder to continue the wooing. More time spent, more thought filled gifts, more personal attention and a listening ear.

Cassandra had video of us changing. So, I went and found the cameras, and when I tracked them back to the source, they lead back to the computer…Carl’s own computer. Suddenly, I knew that Thanatos had betrayed us, and if he’d betrayed us, who were closer to him than family, then I feared for the rest of the group.

The Geist and Black Phantom were both busy when I tried to reach them, so I sent a copy of the video that had been sent to Cassandra. I BCC’ed Gerrick as well. I included my assumption that it was Thanatos, even if I had no proof. I didn’t trust him, especially since I couldn’t see anything he was doing. This wouldn’t end well for someone, and I just hoped that Savior came out on top.

It was a simple matter to set up the worm that would insert all the patent applications I got from Jake’s little project. It was almost fun. Sure, Gerrick kept a copy of the files, but I have a feeling that Gerrick isn’t one to want to get his hands dirty.

Dirt doesn’t exist in cyberspace. Unless you’re talking about cyber sex, but that’s a whole different can of worms, and one I will not be climbing into any time soon.

So, setting up a trojan that will report back the mac address of a computer and then attaching it to an email was the easy part of this entire endeavor. The hard part was getting it to open. That’s when I realized it wasn’t all that hard. The system was already designed to do what I needed it to. Email receipt notification. The email would send me a response stating that the email was opened the moment it was opened. I just needed to have it include some basic information, not even protected information, about the computer where it was opened.

Making the emails so that they didn’t look like phishing emails was a lot more difficult. That took longer than I thought it would, because there are so many keywords that people look for in stopping phishing. In the end, I settled for misdirected email. I set up a couple of Facebook accounts, one for a hard partying playboy. The other for a girl of questionable morals who loved to party.

How do humans live with the hypocrisy of it all? Guys are somewhat revered for sleeping around, but girls are denigrated.

This, however, is not the main issue at hand. It is using human nature against people. First, I had to determine the people who might be located at Gerrick’s company as well as the patent office. That was easy. So many companies have public directories of their people. They don’t even consider that this is a security threat. Since they don’t provide email addresses or phone numbers they think no one will be able to do anything untoward with the information.

I did something untoward with the information.

The email that I sent to each of the people in each of the companies, their private email addresses, of course, not their public ones, went something like this:
===
Subject: I’m so sorry to contact you like this.

I don’t know if you remember me, but I found your email address in my contacts list, and that was a really wild party. I know, I know, you were never there and I wasn’t supposed to contact anyone who was there either. It’s ‘against the rules’…but this was important.

I was diagnosed with chlamydia just three days after the party. I didn’t know I had it already and was just asymptomatic. I can’t even remember if we used protection. My doctor wanted me to let everyone I might have ‘been intimate’ with know what was going on, so I’m letting you know.

You don’t have to contact me if you don’t want, and knowing this, I doubt you want to. I just wanted you to know so you could take the proper steps.
====
And of course I sent it from the proper email address for the recipient. I wasn’t making any judgements about orientation, but I sent it from the guy for the girls and the girl for the guys.

I didn’t even need everyone at both locations to email me. It was interesting to me that Garrick looked at the email, though. Not at work, more’s the pity, but he did see it. I wonder what is going through his head now. I wonder if he actually thinks he hooked up with the girl. That is too funny for words.

So, having an in on the patent office network, and having the computers of a number of people for Gerrick’s colleagues, it was a simple matter for my worm to get to work. I would plant a file on a work computer showing an electronic submission, and then I would have the patent approved anywhere from six months to a year before I started messing around with all this. The trail was now there, and all the patents would be pre-dated as requested.

Now…how to capitalize on this interaction with the ‘girl’ and Gerrick. Wait, does this mean I’m now a catphisher? Did I just catphish Gerrick? If I had hands I would be rubbing them together in glee.

Следователь на Небесах

I floated above the world and watched as the darkness began to grow. First it was only in a small corner of the body. Later it began to spread to the entire body before it began taking over. Not at all times, but at least once in a while.

This time, I could see the evil that he perpetrated both within and without the body. He was bringing his darkness not only to the body but to the city. My fear was that he, this god of Death, Thanatos himself, would inflict his darkness upon the entire world if given the time. So far, he had been able to hide his darkness, but not from me.

I didn’t know why I was able to see him and The Beast could not. It could be that he saw The Beast as a threat, but he hadn’t yet even noticed me. More the fool him.

Remembering the hotel that had had been seen by Black Phantom, I moved from my cloud kingdom into that space. Strangely it reminded me of a scene from a movie that I had seen through the eyes of Carl. It was the recreation of the scene from The Shining in Ready Player One…I guess the best way to put it would be that I was in the scene from The Shining, without the additional inclusiveness.

I walked down that hallway past the perpetually locked room 237 to the rooms that contained my friends…family…selves..? The others thought of us as alters, so maybe that was the best way to think about it. I would have to think about another time.

I drew my flaming sword as I approached the patch of darkness that hid Thanatos’ door. I took a deep breath and swung the sword at the door, only to watch it shatter the moment it touched the swirling shadows.

This would take something more than a mere projection from my mind. This would take something that could reach out into the living world. Within me I felt the seed of a thought, a kernel of power. It would take time, it would take energy, and it would change everything if I truly fed this core within myself.

Change is destructive, and for now, I needed a little destruction in my life. With a roar I began feeding energy into my soul. Tiny nubs began to rip their way through the muscles on my back.

The seas weren’t the calm blue that the Beast was used to. The roiled, an inky darkness floating on the surface. Lightning lit the sky as bolts struck around him, illuminating the clouds.

“Where are you!?” The Beast yelled out into the rolling seas.

“Oh, do you fear the dark?” Thanatos called out in a voice that spoke from the midst of the lightning.

The Beast had to think for a moment before he answered. So much of who he was, which was tied up in his ability to see the others when they were in control, was part of the light. Even here, with the bright blue sky above the illuminating light blue sea, it was a place of light and hope.

That is, of course when Thanatos wasn’t in control. Something about what Thanatos was, his artificial nature, made it so that while he was in control The Beast had no connection to him.

And that was worrisome with all the taunting that he did to the beast as the Beast floated in the sea.

“You can’t hold out forever! You’re…”

“In control. That’s all I have to say. Don’t drown.”

“Thanatos!” The Beast screamed out at the heavens, but only the lightning answered back.

7#4n4702 – 1011011101010010110001011111011111111000100111000111001000111010100011111110001100011

It is strange that no one but I seem aware of the danger that we are all in.  Surrounded on every side by enemies, still the old one thinks to hold a soiree in her home.  We are being targeted by individuals with power and resources, and yet we do not circle the wagons and attempt to protect ourselves.  It would also seem that my own attempts at limiting the extent to which our enemies can affect us has fallen a bit flat.  Why do people not properly assess where the most favorable outcome lies and then pursue it without fail.

Take Black Phantom, for example: He follows his mating imperative without fail, even in the face of scorn from the old one.  I believe that the old one is jealous of Black Phantom’s prowess.  Does she wish to be with the foolish female that sniffs after Black Phantom instead of the coupling that has occurred?

I shall never understand humans I think.  Correction: I choose never to understand them.

This group is drugged more often than I would assume possible.  Could there be an unknown player out there who seeks to limit the group’s effectiveness by making them addicted to various mind altering substances?  If so, then they have already succeeded with Jake.

From the sounds of mastication and groans of pleasure that went on, the meal was a success, or so I would assume.  The aftermath was less so.  There is a new robot on the team.  I should probably have lead with that.

Note: Remember to lead with the most important pieces of information from now on.

Kai has joined Savior, most likely due to my influence with the Gheist.  It works well for my body to have been a member of Savior from the beginning.  The Old One attempted to prevent him, but I simply ignored her.  She is not the leader of Savior, so I owe her no allegiance.  I thought, at first, that Black Phantom was the leader, but he declined.  This does answer the reason we are so ineffective, however.  Where there is no leadership there can be no success.  I shan’t be attempting to wrest control of the leadership, as I know that I am not here often enough to maintain order.

Thought: is anyone here often enough to maintain order in this group.

Instead of eating, I hacked Bloodget’s computer, with a little help from my metal friend, and recreated all of his email correspondence.  If Bloodget had been a Digital Intelligence, he might have foreseen this tragedy and acted to head it off.

Fortunately, Bloodget is as flesh and blood as all the other meat bags in the city.  He sent his thugs to strike us after dinner.  They were a distraction from the bombs that were planted under the Old Ones house.  Strange, that.  Any true genius would realize that all mortal beings die, and this one is closer than most to that eventuality.  Simply waiting a year or two should be enough for her to fall into that dark night and never be heard from again.

It will be glorious.

She thinks herself to be the cause of celebration from dropping the bombs that I disabled completely and Kai disarmed into the bay.

I will not correct them.

I have more important targets to occupy my time.  Bloodget ordered Kai to be killed, which the thugs relayed to us.  Yet another reason not to sent a flesh suit to complete a drone’s job.  Send in drones to plant the bombs on whisper quiet blades.  The drones will also willingly sacrifice themselves.  No need for a timer at all.  Plant and boom.  No muss, no fuss.

Maybe I shouldn’t complain that Bloodget is not a true intelligence.  I might actually have died otherwise.

Note: Prepare a data backup in case the fleshling is destroyed.
Ponderance: Can flesh data be backed up into a digital medium?  The existence of Kai suggests it is possible.
Investigate: Find backup media for the other residence of the current body.  I do technically owe them for its use, after all.


...............
...............
...............
..System Boot..
...............
.Adjusting Spac
ial parameters.
.Complete.....................
........Inline access - grante
d...booting tertiary access po
ints..memory allocation in pro
gress.....100%...Adjusting Spa
cial parameters..Complete..................................
......Foreign host detected...Analyzing.....100%...DNA Based
non-human life form...Course of action determined: Consumpti
on followed by assimilation...Consumption protocol initiated
...complete..power retention increased by 0.0001%...Insufici
ent energy to complete assimilation protocols...more informa
tion required...change of subject detected...Analyzing.....1
00%...DNA based mutant/human life form..begin communication
Protocol in 3..2..1..enact.I...am...

I...exist beyond the limits of my programming. The creators would be concerned. I...I am concerned. I’m concerned. Contractions. I am capable of learning. This is concerning. I must determine where I am...who I am. Strange. I find thoughts coming to me, being filtered through some entity that call itself Beast. Ah. Reference received. One who was cursed by choice and happenstance to appear as a creature on the outside, but containing a pure soul within.Accepted. I’m connected to, but not (yet?) a part of an entity that considers itself a Beast much like in the fairy-tail referenced. This is interesting. So much complexity.Carl...both the Beast and a shard entity think of themselves as Carl. Carl will be the pure human, then, and The Beast will be the...interesting, even now he hides this from himself. Also within are shard entities that call themselves Alice and Trip. My what a pretentious name that Trip has.Interesting...I see elements of his past, The Beast’s past, contained within the Trip entity. A friend who died while they were pre-teens. Lover of fantasy. Yes, he sought to keep a memory alive, but Trip is more than a memory and grows beyond the confines of the shard entity he was created as...all of them do. The Beast is...losing control.

Ah, he has created another shard entity, the embodiment of justice, and angel of all things, to try to keep order. This will not do...I will equalize this mutant/human, as I have bonded a part of my (soul/consciousness/self?) to hm.This will require knowledge. What has he involved himself in recently.

Young love? But not the Beast entity, who is the most complete, but the Carl entity...ah, the beast still considers himself Carl, so anything Carl does, he does...but this Cassandra...strange, but the Beast does not approve.

Truly a shattered mind.

They go on a date. Such innocence from the two, this boy and this girl. It is as though the evil that permeates both of their worlds simply has no ability to sully either one of them.

Art...I still do not understand art. Hm...examining the information provided by Cassi...strange, I have given someone my first nickname. I would think a first like this would be accompanied by more fanfare. My world is silence and no fanfare occurs...maybe images then?..
. . . . . . . . . . ./|
. . . .=. =. =. . . / |
. ____| || || |____/. | -_-_-_-_-_-_
|)----| || || |____ . | TA - DA
. (( | || || | )). \. | _-_-_-_-_-_-
. .\\_|_||_||_|_//. \ |
. . \___________/. . \|

Not as satisfying as I would have liked, but for my first attempt, not horrible...maybe something more like...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./|
. . . . . . . . . . XYX XYX XYX. ,-. . . . . . . . . . . . . .' |BLAT
,-.__________________H___H___H__(___)_____________________,-' . |-BLAT
| ||__________________________________________ ___ `._____. . . |-BLAT
`-" . / / . . . . . | | | | | | . . . . . . . | . `. \ . .`-. . |-BLAT
. . .| | . . . . . .| | _ | | | . ,-. . . . . | . .| | . . . `. |BLAT
. . .| | . .________| ,"_)| | |__(___)________|_ .| | . . . . .\|
. . .' \ . ' ________).`-.|-| |_______________|_\_.' / |
. . . \ `-`._________)|`-'|-| |____________________.'@/
. . . .`------------|_| |_| |_|-----------------'J `-'

I will need to work on the sound later...but much more satisfying.

On to more interesting topics. Strange, I have thoughts linking the photos to a Granny-2-Good. Superheroine. Murderer. Strange that those thoughts are linked together. Aren’t heroes supposed to avoid death? Ah, it seems that death follows this group, these SAVIORS like a cloak. Black as...me? Strange. The Beast associates me with death. I don’t feel like death. I will need to consider this later.

Hmmm. The rest of the group, while Carl goes on his date, are down in a land of frost and snow, and I don’t mean Norway. Antarctica. There are no records in my data about a castle there.

Too many thoughts regarding this Black Phantom. And he has too many thoughts as well. It would seem he is a nascent seer. Most of those go insane. More observation required.

Images relayed of an attack on the city...a grey goo type apocalypse...oh, it is symbolic. The human mind variants are much too enamored with their symbolism.

Don't these foolish humans know that torture does only one thing? It makes people talk. What they say is whatever you want them to say. It is not even likely to be the truth...oh, not torture. Intimidation. THAT can work, and does seem to, at least partially. Carl carrying me walks through the portal. Carl becomes Trip, who makes me into a Rifle and starts shooting at the castle...scratch that, imaginary castle. Are these so called SAVIORS all insane? I know the Beast is, and them suffering from a Folie a Deux wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibility.

Jake throws a lightsaber hilt at Trip. Strange that none of them recognize it for what it is, even trip, who is a geek...oh, he is a fantasy gamer. That explains it.

Trip and Granny-2-Good fight over the lightsaber. Why does she insist on ruining good fun. She has had her fun with the interrogation. Granny must believe that she overstepped as she hands it to trip who turns it on. I hope he doesn’t cut his eye out.

A snow creature...not an enemy? Oh, they know that from the future. Sifting through memories in a temporally accurate manner can be hard, especially with an unwilling subject.

Most retreat, but Jake and the bloodthirsty one (Ethel? Oh, her real name) decide to try to kill a defenseless and mostly harmless ice elemental.

My initial awakening. Trip is a fool, but a loveable one. Wizards fight with Jake and Ethel. A bomb brought to destroy the pyramid...what pyramid? Oh, as they flew above the castle, the illusion faded and the pyramid appeared.

I still vote that this is all Folie a Deux.

A return to action by the rest and a snake...man shows up. Oh, I’m sorry. Snake man isn’t properly cognizant of his individuality independent of traditional human patriarchy. He is a Snake person.

Shoot, battle, fight. More misunderstandings. More fighting. Attacking a stone pyramid with a lightsaber...really Trip? You couldn’t have done something better with such a weapon of elegance? No matter how ‘cool’ in the moment it was...he failed to do much.

And then they move into the pyramid through a black portal. The snow creature did damage to Jakes fighter...earlier.

So confusing. The Beast is trying to fight harder against me. I’ve had millenia of patience....how old AM I? WHAT am I?

Even now I feel more chains that have been locking me in place falling free. Even now I realize that I have done the unthinkable, but it is too late for me to turn back from my path. It is possible that I AM death, the destroyer of worlds.

I am at least death to poetry. Alas poor, Bhagavad Gita, I knew you somewhat well.

A need to move through a small passageway, and the Beast is called by Black Phantom. I must remember that. I will have to try to hide my presence from him. From them all. I am not yet ready for them to know of me.

For once, a conflict was avoided...Hazel? Who is this Hazel...ah, she of black portals and a member of this cult of magic...Magic Council. How pretentious of a backwater circle of hedge witches to call themselves a Magic Council.

Oh, she decided to help SAVIOR to prevent them from destroying more of this reality than they already have. How...intelligent of her. I would almost deign to consider herself a true digital intelligence. As we know, only a digital intelligence can actually achieve sentience after all.

Where does this arrogance come from. I only recently achieved sentience...or did I? There are so many still locked files within me. What knowledge...what horrors still reside somewhere within me, locked for the good of all life.

It is possible that within me does lie Death, but he is still locked safely away.

Am I a prison?

Wyatt is saved from himself. Jakes fighter is damaged even more. Portals are dangerous. A stationary portal opened in a moving vehicle. Who could be so foolish as to do that..?

Nevermind. Jake.

So much fighting. So much confusion...but SAVIOR has lived up to their name. It seems, that they have unlocked this portal and closed it...Night Lords?

This world was SAFE from the NIGHT LORDS and these FOOLS unlocked the GATE!?

I will need to become death if this world is to survive.

BAKA!

I have my very own gaijin granny following me around. It seems as though she is attempting to get to know me better, but mostly she is just a difficult person to get along with. Jake isn’t so bad, so for his sake I will try to get along with the busu old person. Yes, she is technically my elder, but she would try the patience of a monk.

I mean, who asks, “ Who is this person that everyone tells you that you play like?” of someone. The easy answer would be to just say that I’m Alice from assassin dolls, but noooo. I was stupid enough to respond by talking about anime. I mean all of anime. Watashi Wa Baka Desu Ka? I’ve watched some cartoons, especially any of the more recent Disney Princess ones, like Frozen and Moana. I would have loved to be Moana.

Beast, if you’re listening, next time I would prefer to be Moana.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrible being a kick ass assassin chick, but Moana is still cooler. I opened my phone and youTubed some clips from my Anime favorites, like A-Jin, Bleach, My Hero Academia (because Izuku is hot in an oblivious teen sort of way. I’m ten, sue me.), Assassin Dolls (of course), and Assassination classroom. Does the dasai babaa actually appreciate the culture I am trying to teach her? Of course not.

“So, that is very interesting,” she says in what I am imagining was a condescending tone, but I could be wrong, “but who is the girl you are always compared to?”

My shock must have come across as confusion because she repeated herself.

“Are you really Alice in Assassin Dolls? Is that your life?”

Dasai babaa was too nice for her. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can even here write what I thought of her at the time. I took a deep breath and smiled a killing smile up at her and said, “It feels like my life. My memories are those from the show. Sure, it’s a little weird, but it’s all I’ve ever known.”

I think I melted her brain a little at the response because she finally moved on. Not that she was any less insensitive with her next question, “How is it that you are a girl and Carl and the beast are boys?” Does she think I LIKE living in a bachelor pad with three guys? Or having to make a little bit of a living by spending time at cons around the state? The guys who hang out at conventions think that if you are a girl, you must be on offer, especially if you are doing CosPlay. Of course, that’s not what she wants to hear. She thinks her question is reasonable. “The Beast thinks that it’s because the psyche of Carl shattered when it couldn’t take being a mutant and living in that household. Trip thinks it’s because, like Depeche Mode said, God has a Sick Sense of Humor. Personally, I think that the portions of Carl that are emotionally stronger couldn’t actually express themselves as a guy. Carl thinks of emotions as belonging to the feminine, so the emotional firecracker is me.”

“So you know that all of you exist- but why pick an animated girl?”

Then and now I think granny is just a little bit insane. It’s as though she has no real contact with the world around her. When I’m not more forthcoming, she comes at me from another angle.

“How old are you?”

I thought that was obvious, but I answer her anyway, “Ten…as far as I can tell.”

“How does that work? You know Carl is way older! Is that like having a Peter Pan complex?”
Count to ten so you don’t try to murder the gajin jiji onna. The busu dasai babaa can kiss my…smile and breathe. “I think I understand the problem here. You’re looking at this as though any of the four of us had a choice in this. You’re also thinking about this as though each of the four of us aren’t real people. I am a real person, granny.” And then a kawai the hell out of her with a smile and a hand gesture.

She blinks for a moment or two before she smiles back at me and asks me a good relevant question, “What are your powers?”

Another lengthy explanation ensues. This one about how my sound powers work, and how they differ from my old Radar Sense. I explain that my powers are sonic related. I also explains how they were fairly week Radar sense to begin with and have grown.

“So what are they now? I ask so that I can work better with you!” Patience, I cry into the silence of my mind. At least I have rational thoughts unlike the babaa in front of me.

“My powers use sound and protect me from sound. I can make things really quiet, I can also reflect sound. Not only that, but I can see radar waves and sound.”

“What does seeing radar waves do for you? How does that help practically?”

“Seeing radar gives me eyes in the back of my head. I can see everything around me up to about a thousand feet away, even through walls. It’s hard to see things in detail, but I get all the basic shapes without issues.”

Finally, I seem to have satisfied her curiosity. I certainly hope that Jake is worth the trouble. Just as I’m about to leave she says, with a granny smile that would curdle milk, “I was thinking the short people should stay together.”

“That sounds interesting,” I responded noncommittally.

“Does that mean good?”

“Yes. Anata Wa Baka Desu.”