Edmund's eyes fluttered open. He was lying, face-up, atop his sleeping bag and drenched in sweat. As far as he could tell, he hadn't dreamt that night. Still in his supine posture, he heard Merrion gently snoring atop his bed, a rhythmic exhalation and inhalation which, for some reason, put his mind at ease. He relaxed, letting out a soft sigh of relief.
Edmund (thinking): At least nothing has happened
The only illumination in the room came from the glow of the Agnes's axial plasma tube, set to the minimal lighting setting, which cast penumbral outlines from the faint light being intercepted by the objects in the apartment. With Edmund's eyes already adapted to the dark by the hours of sleep, the minimal amount of light was sufficient for him to see indoors.
A sudden brightness appeared on the dark ceiling, projected from the table nearby. Edmund pulled himself off his sleeping bag, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead, and reached to check. His eyes squinted as he saw the source of the sudden illumination; his communicator, which Edmund had placed on the table before falling asleep.
Edmund checked the time. 0354. He had only been asleep for about five hours, just two hours short of his usual amount. With a quick gesture, he dimmed the lighting of his communicator's projection to the night-mode setting, rendering the fluorescent blue tinge into an incandescent orange-yellow, then checked to see who had decided to contact him at this ungodly hour.
There was a message, timestamped as having been sent just a minute prior. The bulk of the message consisted of a jumbled mass of random-looking digits and characters, which confused Edmund greatly. However, all worries that this was some-kind of modern junk messaging scam was immediately dispelled with a look at the ending salutation.
< Edmund's normally grim expression cracked into a thin sliver of a smile. Edmund (thinking): Omar, you goddamn son of a bitch. But what was Omar trying to tell him? Perhaps Jeyga, wise in the ways of technology, or Zora, with her depth of knowledge, could elucidate out the true meaning contained within this message. Either way, right now this message, while a clue from Omar, was worthless to Edmund. Edmund checked that his 0600 alarm was set, and then lay back down atop his sleeping bag, setting down his communicator right by his head this time. Within moments, Edmund had drifted back into slumber. --- Edmund and Merrion sat across one another at the table. Each of them was slurping down a small bowl of noodles, which Edmund had quickly prepared from the remaining unused ingredients from the dinner the night before. Both their communicators were placed atop the table, and while Edmund's one was currently off, Merrion's communicator was active, its screen brightly displaying the current time: 0635. The room was filled with the soft drone of the dryer, removing the last bits of moisture from Merrion's clothes, which had been cleaned earlier by the washing machine that sat next to it in its alcove within the toilet. Edmund raised his head slightly and gazed at Merrion, her focus fully directed to her breakfast and communicator. Edmund (thinking): Wonder how she's holding up…with her friend missing and all. Just as he was about to broach the subject, he thought the better of it and altered course. Edmund: "Sleep well?" Merrion: "I guess. Do you always wake up this early?" Merrion yawned deeply. She rubbed the crusty stuff out from around her eyes, blinking rapidly, before taking another mouthful of the noodles. Edmund: "Figured we might as well. Remember, it's not like they can keep the news hidden forever. Eventually someone's gonna find out and then they'll be wanting answers." Merrion: "That's a good point. Want to discuss today's plan of action?" Edmund: "Good idea. Speaking of which, last night I received a message from someone. I suspect that it was Omar who sent it to me. Here, take a look." Edmund passed his communicator over to Merrion, who poured over the message content briefly. Merrion: "Feels like its encrypted. Also, from 'Brother O'? Are the two of you…related?" Edmund: "It's a long story, I'll tell you someday. Anyway, I suspected as much, so I forwarded the message to Jeyga already. Hopefully, we'll get something back from him later." --- Merrion nodded. She was going to suggest the same thing, but as expected Edmund was one step ahead. She swiped through her received messages, clearing out more spam and simply ignoring religious outreach messages. As she thought hard about the events of the previous day, she suddenly realized that there was an avenue that she could suggest for them to investigate along. Merrion: "Yesterday, the supervisor in the cargo terminal said that the delivery, which had to be the body, arrived from the 9th Sector. Should we apply for clearance to travel there to investigate the crime scene directly?" Edmund: "Hmm, we could do that. We can request clearance later from Zora, she'll have the necessary connections to make the application go through at lightspeed. Anything else?" Before Merrion could even open her mouth to reply, Edmund's communicator suddenly started ringing with an incoming call. A quick hand gesture later, and a familiar husky tone was coming over the speaker. Zora: "Good morning." Edmund: "Speak of the devil, and she'll appear herself." There was a smirk painted on his face that only Merrion could see but everyone could hear. Zora: "I hope you're not referring to me, Edmund." Edmund: "I would never refer to Merrion as a devil, so who else could it be?" Zora: "Very funny. Well, since you're obviously already awake, I assume Merrion is, too?" Merrion: "Yes, ma'am." Zora: "Good. Just wanted to let the both of you know that we managed to get access to the Mahoney's security footage for the cargo terminal, and after a long night of analysis, we've found something. At the provided location of the reported incident, both the one where the cargo handlers were attacked and when you, Edmund, were attacked by the construct, we found this." Two separate images manifested in the communicator's projection. One was obviously footage from when Edmund had tried to rescue the thug from the intelligent construct, and the other showed the supervisor and his team in an all-out brawl with the thugs. Zora: "If you'll direct your attention to the footage of the old incident however, you'll see that there's this distortion by the cargo frames. At one point, the frames suddenly skip, and the cryocasket shifts in its position, ever so slightly." Merrion: "The thugs were just there as a distraction…" Zora: "Indeed. I suspect that during this timepoint, the cryocasket was replaced with the empty duplicate that eventually made its way to the morgue." Merrion: "They have access to electronic interference?" Zora: "It appears so. That, or perhaps the operation of the visual interference ability of the construct may have interfered with the security recordings. Given this anomalous construct, we can't rule out that possibility, not until we know its full capabilities." Edmund: "This…isn't a job that the Void Mambas could have done alone, not anymore. We're dealing with something serious here, and I don't think they're responsible." Zora: "Oh? Why is that?" Zora asked, in a quizzical tone of voice. Edmund: "Earlier, I believe Omar sent me an encoded message. Knowing him, it probably contains useful information. I've already sent it to Jeyga for analysis." Zora: "Send it to me as well." Edmund: "Already done. By the way, we would like to request clearance to travel to the 9th sector and investigate the crime scene directly." Zora: "I'll see what I can do about that. Anything else for me, Detectives?" Edmund: "Nope." Merrion: "No, ma'am." Zora: "Good. When I have more information, I'll contact you two again. Zora, out." The call ended abruptly with a harsh click. Edmund stood up, bowls in hand, and made for the kitchen along the corridor. He looked at his and Merrion's armoured jacket and vest hanging there, with their non-lethal armaments secured within. Their guns were safely stored in their holsters, which were secured away within Edmund's cabinet, deeper in the room. Edmund washed up the dishes in the sink, hearing Merrion enter the toilet behind him. The remainder of yesterday's rubbish sat in a bag sitting in the sink, and it was beginning to emit a faintly foul odour which threatened to slowly fill up and stain Edmund's apartment. The centralized garbage collection point was outside in the common corridor, next to the lifts in the apartment, and Edmund would need to throw the trash away if he wanted to come back to a pleasant-smelling apartment later tonight. With the trash bagged and secured, Edmund made for his apartment door, trash in hand, to dispose of the waste. As he approached the front door, he heard Merrion step out from the toilet in the corridor behind him. Edmund fiddled with the information panel next to the front door, which was connected to a security camera facing right outside. There was a peephole in the door too, but Edmund usually kept it taped over to prevent door-to-door solicitors from knowing if anyone was at home by the presence or absence of light through the peephole glass. He relied on the discreet operation of the security camera, which did not give any indication that it was active or inactive, to inform him if there was anyone in the hallway. The screen displayed the usual sight: an empty hallway. None of the neighbours were walking through. Peace and quiet, just the way Edmund liked it. He toggled the controls to unlock the front door's auto lock. Mere seconds after doing so, the door receded into the wall to reveal four large and burly men standing before the entrance to Edmund's apartment --- Edmund: "Huh?" Burly Men: "Huh?" Edmund blinked. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl for him upon witnessing that unexpected sight. The four men also blinked, caught by surprise as well. All four of them were wearing unassuming outfits; clothing that neither concealed nor drew attention to its wearer. However, the hardened features of all four indicated that they were not to be trifled with, with each of them having a scar of some kind on various portions of their faces. The four men stood in a diamond formation, with each vertex occupied by one of them. The front-most man was standing right before the door, clutching a tool of some kind in his right hand. In the barest instant that Edmund had to survey the situation, he realized the dangerous look in the eyes of these men, and his body reacted instantly. Edmund threw the bag of garbage into the front-most man's face, obscuring his vision. With both his hands now free, Edmund braced himself, pressing his arms outwards against the walls of the corridor and pivoting back on his left foot, before raising his right foot and driving his heel straight into the chest of the front-most man with a mighty grunt. The immense and unexpected force sent the intruder stumbling backwards into the three men behind him, who clattered to the ground in the outer corridor like glass bottles. Burly Men: "Fu-" The expletive was cut short as Edmund slammed his palm into the front door's autolock, engaging the panic mode setting. Immediately, the door slammed shut, sealing Edmund's apartment away from the would-be intruders. Apartment security would be notified by the activation of Edmund's panic mode, but it would be a few minutes before they would arrive. From behind the door, Edmund could make out some faint grunts, followed by a harsh noise coming from the door. Merrion: "Who the hell are they?" Merrion asked, having ducked into the toilet for cover immediately upon hearing Edmund's grunt. She looked up at Edmund, who immediately tossed Merrion her armoured jacket and threw on his own armoured vest over his still-sweat drenched t-shirt. Edmund: "Ready the non-lethal weapons. We can't afford to fire live ammo in here." Merrion: "Enemies?! How many?" Edmund: "Four of them. One has a handheld of some kind." Merrion nodded and took cover in the main room with her electroshock baton and stun-gun in each hand, hiding just around the corner. Edmund drew out his own weapons, just as he heard the noises stop. There was a click, and the door slid open, revealing the four thugs who immediately rushed into the room! Edmund gritted his teeth and immediately let loose at the first intruder; the same one who he had so graciously coated in garbage earlier, with a half-arc of his electroshock baton gripped tightly in his right hand. The intruder dodged the attack gracefully with a nasty glare in his eyes, swerving his head out of the path of the baton but straight into the stun gun concealed in the palm of Edmund's left hand. With a sickening arcing sound, the man convulsed, dropping to the floor with a wet and bass thump; drool pouring from his open mouth and a burn mark on his right chin from where the stun gun had impacted. Edmund turned his attention to the remaining three but could barely react as the three intruders immediately rushed in at once! Wildly swinging would no longer work with this many perps, Edmund realized, and he leapt back to put some room between him and the intruders. Two of the intruders leapt over their fallen comrade at Edmund, one grabbing at Edmund's arms and the other at Edmund's legs. The combined weight of the two men grappling at him sent Edmund stumbling backwards, crashing through the table in the center of the room with a loud crunch. The last intruder utilized his comrades' distraction efforts and went straight for the inside of the room, where he was intercepted by Merrion. Armed with her baton and stun gun, she fought back, but each strike of hers was parried or dodged by this unnaturally quick and dexterous intruder. One by one, the intruder sent Merrion's weapons flying with disarming strikes to her arms, before closing the distance and grappling her! --- The two men who had tackled Edmund to the floor immediately made for Edmund's limbs, keeping him pinned down by their sheer weight. Edmund grunted and groaned as he wriggled to no avail, feeling his legs and body grow unnaturally tired. He could feel the disgusting, sweaty touch of one of the intruders upon the skin of his legs, and it felt like the strength and stamina of his body was being drained out through that physical contact. Edmund's eyelids grew heavier with each passing second, as the sound of weapons clashing echoed out from his right. Edmund (thinking): Shit, is this how it ends? Am I just going to – Edmund heard a voice cry out. Merrion: "No, stop! Let go of me!" He couldn't see what was going on, so heavy were his eyelids, but those were cries of distress. His thoughts were so clouded by the draining effect that he couldn't place where the cries came from either, but in his soul he knew. They came from Merrion. "-protect her." A voice rang out in Edmund's head. A familiar voice. A voice that he last heard over a year ago, that through the sadness and pain he had tried to find, that renewed his vigour and energy, that belonged to a person to whom Edmund had sworn a one-sided vow. "Promise me. That you'll –" Edmund: " –protect her." Edmund mouthed those words. Adrenaline surged into his body and his eyelids flicked open. His mind was no longer clouded. His legs and body were still drained, but his mind was clear, and that was all he would need to dispatch these intruders. Edmund: "ARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!" With a mighty roar that clawed its way out from the depths of his chest, Edmund tore his left arm away from the grasp of the intruder, who was sitting atop his right arm. He drove his arm straight through the debris of the table he was lying in, through the faux-wooden surface of his apartment floor, into the metallic superstructure beneath. Sensing the contact with the durable structure, Edmund grasped his left hand, feeling the metal warp and deform in his grip. With an anchor point now assured, Edmund clenched his right fist, and unleashed an upwards right hook straight into the intruder sitting atop his arm! The unfortunate intruder was sent flying into the nearby wall, crashing into it with a sickening crunch and collapsing into a limp heap on the floor. Wasting no time, Edmund yanked his body with his left arm, twisting his torso ninety degrees to the left, and straightened his left arm, pushing his body upright and bringing his right arm into range of the remaining intruder who was keeping his legs pinned down. Edmund saw that the intruder had both their palms in contact with his thighs. Edmund (thinking): Is that a faint glow coming from his palms? He pushed away that thought and unleashed a devastating palm strike straight to the remaining intruder's torso. There was a cracking sound as the intruder was sent flying backwards, tumbling over the first intruder in the corridor and landing in another heap right before the door. In the instant when contact between the intruder's palms and Edmund's skin was broken, Edmund felt his strength begin to surge back into his body and his legs. Still anchored to the flooring, Edmund turned his head towards where he had heard Merrion's cries, and saw – --- The intruder had managed to disarm Merrion and was now closing in on her! Merrion desperately tried to parry his attacks, but her own reflexes could barely keep up with this man, almost two heads taller than her, who dodged her every strike and replied with a strike of his own. For an instant, her defence faltered, and the intruder closed in, crouching low to the ground and planting both his hands on the ground, before pivoting on one leg and swinging his other leg outstretched in an arc! The move caught Merrion off guard, and she dodged to her left, tripping and crashing over the bed. The intruder wasted no time and leapt upon the downed Merrion, quickly restraining her hands and legs. Merrion: "No! Stop! Let go of me!" Merrion screamed and writhed, but it was no use. In this position, her small size did her no good, and the larger intruder was atop her, pinning her down beneath his enormous bulk. In her wild panic, Merrion tried to grab and claw at the intruder, her clawed fingers finding purchase in a patch of exposed skin on the intruder's wrist. She gripped on with all her might, in a frantic effort to at least make this intruder suffer for what he was trying to do to her. Sandwiched between the mattress, her armoured jacket, and the enormous bulk of the intruder atop her, Merrion felt the life being squeezed out of her chest, the darkness approach her like warm tendrils welcoming her consciousness to oblivion. Merrion (thinking): No, not like this. Without even a chance...to…fight back… Something pulsed in Merrion, in the depths of her mind and soul, something that had slumbered for a long time, now awoken in response to her thoughts like a groggy dreamer being forced into motion after a long night's rest. The sleeper, now roused, heard Merrion's unconscious appeal: a cry from the depths of her psyche, from within the web of her mind and soul, unfiltered by the logic of common sense, the laws of society and the limits of sanity. It heard, and it answered. … There was a warmth from where Merrion had dug her nails into the intruder's flesh. She felt new strength seep into her, and slowly, she felt the grip and the movements of the intruder straddling atop her weaken. With renewed vigour and strength that she didn't know she possessed, she pushed away the mass of the intruder atop her off the edge of the bed, where he landed on the floor with a dull thump. Quickly, Merrion pulled herself out of the indentation in the mattress that the weight of the intruder had pushed her into. She looked and saw that the man's eyes had rolled up into his skull. His mouth was open and contorted into an empty scream, and his flesh looked…sunken, somehow, as if some of its moisture had been sucked out. She remembered the remaining two intruders who Edmund had been dealing with and turned her head just in time to see him send the two intruders flying with devastating blows from his fists! A feeling of overwhelming relief flooded into Merrion. They had managed to deal with the intruders! She saw Edmund, surrounded by the crumpled piles of unconscious flesh and the debris of the table, turn his gaze towards her and they briefly made eye contact. Suddenly, Merrion felt an overwhelming fatigue engulf her, and she tumbled backward, her last sight being Edmund tearing his arm out of the floor and rushing towards her – --- Merrion floated in a large empty space. She was aware of herself, but she could not feel, could not see, could not hear, could not smell, and could not taste anything. It was as if she had fallen asleep and awoken in a dream, aware of the unreality and yet unable to do anything about it; a prisoner trapped in a cage of her own making; a spider trapped in its own web. She tried to move, but there was nothing to pull on and nothing to push against. She tried to open her eyes and see, but there was no light, only void. She tried to hear, but even the ringing sound she experienced when in a completely silent room was absent. She tried to smell and taste, but even the omnipresent odours in the atmospheres of the ships were missing. She felt two other presences in this space, both adjacent and distant from her. She felt them as they struggled and writhed, entangled within this web just like her. No – a realization entered her mind without her even really thinking about it, these others were not trapped with her. They were trapped by her. One of the presences grew fainter, its strong and powerful movements growing weak and sluggish, fading into the background until it vanished without a trace from Merrion's awareness. The other remaining presence continued to writhe and struggle, only further entangling itself in the ephemeral web. Merrion heard a voice speak. --- Merrion's eyes fluttered open, and she gasped deeply, feeling the cold air rush into her lungs like an almost-drowned swimmer breaching the surface of a deep lake. Her eyes scanned about, recognizing the familiar surroundings of Edmund's apartment. She flexed her abdominals and brought herself up into an upright position, catching Edmund, who had been supporting her in his arms, off guard. Edmund: "Whoa there. You were out cold for a moment just now. Did that thug hit you? " Merrion wanted to answer Edmund, but it was as if she was trying to catch her breath after a sustained sprint. She could do no more than breathe deeply, as her focus gradually returned to her. Her limbs were tingling with pins and needles, which slowly stopped as she regained her normal breathing. Merrion: "What – what happened?" Edmund: "We were attacked, but we managed to take down the intruders. You okay, Merrion?" Merrion surveyed herself. She flexed her hands and saw streaks of partially dried blood on her fingers where her grip had found purchase in the flesh of her attacker just moments earlier. She patted herself down, trying to feel for any deeper injuries but found nothing, to her relief. Merrion: "I – I think so. How about you? You got three of them, right?" Merrion looked at Edmund. He was bruised and his legs were covered in scratches, but amazingly, appeared to be otherwise undamaged. His arms, especially, were free from any scratches or wounds whatsoever. Edmund: "Yeah, somehow. One of them made me feel weak for a bit, felt like they sapped my strength." Edmund lightly rubbed his thighs, where the intruder had grabbed. Edmund: "But I managed to take them all down in the end. Quick, let's restrain them before they come to." Merrion nodded. Edmund retrieved several lengths of rope from his cabinet, which he had normally used on his camping expeditions. Together, the two of them tied up all four of the intruders, binding their arms and legs together to make escape impossible. Once the intruders had been secured to their satisfaction, Edmund and Merrion surveyed the apartment. The entire fight had only lasted for half a minute at maximum, but in that time the apartment had turned into a scene of absolute carnage. The table at which Edmund and Merrion had eaten their dinner and breakfast just minutes before was now split in half, with the half at Edmund's left side earlier bearing an arm-sized hole through it. There was a massive indentation on the wall at the far end of the room from where the bed was, with cracks propagating out from where the intruder had impacted it earlier. Near the door, where the final intruder had been sent flying, the neatly arranged magnetic boots were now scattered across the floor. Edmund looked at where the first intruder had collapsed after Edmund dropped him with the stun gun, and he saw the small handheld device there. He bent down to inspect it. It looked like a standard issue communicator with extra machinery bolted onto it. To Edmund, this device didn't look like any kind of physical breaching device that would directly cut through locking mechanisms. Instead, it looked more like an electronic device that would subvert the circuitry and unlock doors through interference instead. This device was particularly worrying to Edmund, and he retrieved a clear plastic bag from a pocket in his armoured vest to store the evidence inside. Merrion saw what Edmund was doing and she took the chance to obtain salivary swabs from the unconscious intruders, bagging and tagging each swab with a photo of each intruder stored on her communicator, along with photographs of the wrecked apartment. Not long after they had finished photographing and logging the scene, Edmund noticed that one of the intruders had woken up. He recognized him as the first intruder, the one he had taken out with the stun gun. Tied up together with his fellow intruders, hand and feet bound, the intruder merely glared at Edmund. Edmund: "That's a bad look for you." Burly Man: "Fuck off." Edmund scrunched his face, one eye squinting at this intruder. Edmund: "What's your name? Who do you work for? Why did you try – why did you break into my house?" No reply. Edmund (thinking): Tsk, this one's a hard nut. He was half considering roughing up the perp with a few more blows. Thinking about the device he had found by this intruder's unconscious body earlier, he held it up, still sealed inside the evidence bag, in front of the perp's face. Edmund: "What's this for? Where'd you get it from?" Edmund saw the perp scrunch up his lips, realising what he was trying to do. He raised the bag just in time to intercept the glob of phlegm the perp spat, stopping it from impacting upon his face with a wet splat upon the plastic. Edmund: "Gross. Well, if you won't talk here, we'll make you talk later." Edmund grabbed the perp by the hair and yanked his head backwards, the perp grimacing in pain as strands of hair were pulled out, one by one. Edmund, bag of evidence in hand, wiped away the phlegm onto the perp's face, smearing the liquid across the perp's skin and taking some semblance of pleasure in the look of disgust upon the perp's face. Merrion, witnessing the entire scene play out, merely remained quiet, remembering how things might have been different had Edmund not fought back as savagely as he did. Burly Man: "You're almost as bad as I am." The intruder, with venom in his breath and a slight chuckle in his tone, spat those words at Edmund. Edmund was surprised to hear the intruder speak at all after that. He raised the stun gun, the contacts sparking with arcing electricity. Edmund: "If you don't answer my questions, I'll show you I'm much worse than you could ever imagine." Burly Man: "Be my gu –" The intruder could barely complete his reply before Edmund drove the stun gun back into his flesh, shocking him back into unconsciousness.