Chapter 33: Meat, Music and Tentacles

Just what the fuck is going on in this universe anymore...As if physics breaking items that gives ordinary beings superpowers isn't enough in this age, now Vindy will have to deal with this metallic meaty monster? Is she actually high, or this is actually what's happening right now.

Worse yet, Vindy's instincts screamed at her about the danger of the 'techno-organic' being in front of her, and deep down, she suspected this piece of monstrosity might actually be what caused this booming habitat to become what it is today.

'What are you?' Vindy asked, 'how are you alive? How are you here?'

'Ponderous questions.' The orange music box glowed as the same smooth male voice replied to her question with a non-answer, 'that I ponder too. What am I, how am I alive? Why am I here?'

The mechanically poetic responses only made Vindy all the sicker. The existence of such an life form is completely novel to Vindy. This is an age when Aquarian have cultured semi-intelligent plants and pets, when humans have been experimenting with cybernetics and artificial intelligence for centuries, and yet she has never seen anything like this.

There is certain some semblance of intelligence in this blob right in front of her, and yet why is it talking with a music box? And why tentacles? Is this an organic spontaneous life situation? Where conscience just...arises due to circumstance?

Was it the Aquarian musical instruments? Was it the electrical systems? How the heck did the two fuse it all together.

'I guess...life finds a way.' The monster said, finally after what does sound like pondering to Vindy.

'Tsch!' Vindy continued, 'are you why the it is completely empty here?'

'Are you here to kill me?' The box asked, 'like all those that tried before?'

'Depends on what you do.' Vindy said with a shrug, as she readied Wavestriker.

'What I do, is what I always do.' The box replied as one of the tentacles is raised up high in the air, 'I live on, I progress. I live on more, I progress further. I am king of this domain, and all will bow to me, or flee, or become me. Join me, hairy human.'

That settles it.

'I am a Rocky, not a damn human!'

Vindy slammed her hand down onto the ground, turning on Wavestriker and sends out a massive travelling shock wave throughout the flooring underneath both of them as cracks exploded outwards with her hand as the epic center. The wave traversed the distance in an instant and crashed into the tentacles of the monster. However, at the same time that Vindy started her attack, the music box of the monster also moved.

Vindy's attack blew up two of the tentacles closest to her, however, the travelling wave was suddenly silenced as the music box wailed in response. Vindy observed the monster closely for its counterattack as two more tentacles formed from the pile of meat and struck towards her as she barely managed to dodge both of them. The sound of a metallic rupture came from where she was standing a moment ago, and the music box that she picked up was smashed into a metal pancake.

'NO!' Vindy screamed out in anger as she sends out yet another pulse of waves towards the music box, this time through the air molecule itself. The shear magnitude of energy contained in the vibrating air molecules ripped the two tentacles into oblivion, but that wave is once again stopped by the music box as it wailed in response to her.

'You are different, hairy human.' The music box commented out, the voice flat and tone calm, 'the toy you wield...very different. It sings, like me.'

Perhaps this being is more intelligent than Vindy gave it credit for. It can think, communicate its thoughts and adapt to her attack on the fly. No.....it's more than adapting to her attacks. It nullified it, and the only way to nullify mechanical waves are to create mechanical waves of it's own at exactly the right frequency and amplitude to so that it can be cancelled out. If any technology can generate such sound waves so easily and quickly, it would have to be the highest quality music boxes. However, the monster in front of her must also have a sort of feedback or detection system that enables it to detect the frequencies and amplitude of whatever Vindy's generating, because even she won't be able to quite quantify exactly what she is doing...

So that's what the exploding tentacles are for! Vindy's eyes widened upon this realization. She thought that blowing apart the tentacles are the results of her success in attacking the monster, but in actuality, it only facilitates its effective counter attacks.

'You are me.' The monster said.

'I am nothing like you.' Vindy shook her head and sends out a few more waves of attack, 'first off, you aren't hairy at all.'

'You also sing, like me.' The monster continued on, ignoring Vindy's attacks and letting it blow apart the tentacles it has. Whenever anything is blown apart, he can very easily form new ones out of the mountain of flesh and metal that it has surrounding it's core, 'don't you?'

'This isn't singing!' Vindy punched the ground, this time sending out a stationery wave as she put the peak of the stationery directly underneath, as the materials underneath the monster shot up and pierced through the layers of flesh and metal. She could visibly see the music box being moved out of the way by the surrounding flesh as the monster screamed out in agony.

'You and I same.' The monster declared, now its voice sounding hurt from the pain of Vindy's last attack, 'we both sing! WE BOTH SING!' Then, a shock wave travelled outwards from the music box and hit Vindy head on. There was no time to react for her, and she was sent flying as she felt all of the individual cells in her body being torn apart by that attack. She has no idea how the monster was able to replicate her attacks...she is an artifact user...she can control and manipulate mechanical waves according to her desire.

As red patches of blood began to form in her visual field and the roots of her teeth became sore and painful, Vindy didn't need to be a medical doctor to know how sorry the states of her insides are. So this is how it feels...Vindy reflected upon all of those times that she has attacked another living being, and wondered if this full body agonizing pain is what they always felt.

I am sorry...She apologized, as she propped herself up, though there are few sensations feeding back from her finger tips. I don't know what else I can do...Whatever Wavestriker is capable of, the monster can do even better....I am sorry...Hong Fu...I thought we can be useful together...

I am sorry....Vindy. I thought we can be free together. I thought we can travel the galaxy, playing music for the people, bringing joy and laughter for others. I thought...

FIGHT, USING THE ARTIFACT, FIGHT!

Suddenly, a thundering voice cracked inside her mind. It was the same voice that commanded her to prove her worth when she first obtained Wavestriker.

'But what can I do...' Vindy said, struggling to move her body as she dug her fingers deep into the ground.

FIGHT, USING THE ARTIFACT, FIGHT!

The voice repeated itself, and Vindy slammed her fist into the ground frustratedly, 'I don't know how to!'

FEEL.

Did the artifact just saying something else?

Vindy's eyes widened as she held her breath. Memories of her past came flooding back into the forefront of her mind.

'Feel, listen, Vindy.' Her music teacher step, as she pinched Vindy's ears as her little arms flailed around helplessly, 'music is as much about making sounds as it is about listening to it.'

'But...I like making sounds...' The small Vindy objected.

'So do I.' The teacher let go of her ears, 'but listening and feeling can make you make better sounds in the future?'

She thought about the first time she made a sound on the first Rocky Marimba, about the first song that she made, and how awful it was compared to the masterpieces made by classical human musicians. She remembered the joy of creation, and the joy of sharing that joy when others heard it. However, what made her even happier is hearing the creation of others. The final work of her first teacher before she passed away, the tribal tunes of certain reclusive Rocky clans, the songs of Aquarian oceans...Each piece tells a story in its own way, and Vindy realized that it has been all too long since she has really settled down and listened.

She tilted her head towards here hand, and gently tapped her fingers onto the ground. And she listened.

From that point on, she heard everything...no...she felt everything.

'You and I same, but I am the better singer!' The music box declared, as it sends out yet another wave towards Vindy. And as she looked on at the distorting air molecules as it prepared to ram her over like a freight train, time appeared to be slowing down. The glow from her artifact became so bright, that she was almost completely blinded by it. Her right hand is burning, and she looked down only to see the Wavestriker, a string that connected all of her fingers vibrating fiercely in her palm.

She looked back up at the impending crushing sound wave, and reached her hand forward.

She felt the peaks and troughs of that wave with her own finger tips, the rise and falls of the sound that represented the amplitude, the spiky arrangement of the neighboring peaks that represented the frequency...She felt it all. All of the aspects, all of the groups of waves that combine to form the devasting attack from the music box.

Wavestriker is helping her...guiding her through this battle.

Thank you...Vindy murmured as she proceeded to activate her artifact and filled out the gaps with waves of her own. For the peaks, she provided it with troughs, and for the troughs, she built it up with peaks.

With a waving hand, she smoothed the crushing wave, and turned it into a serene calmness and silence.

Everything returned to normal, and instead of her body being completely and utterly destroyed, she was instead bathed in a quietness reserved specifically for relaxing weekend afternoons. There is nothing but peace inside her mind and around her, dust settles. The orange dot froze in place as it attempted to process what has just happened, but instead all that it witnessed was Vindy's awakening.

Throughout all of this time ever since she has obtained Wavestriker, her key focus has been utilizing the powers of her artifacts to generate sounds and replicate the functions of a music box in creating exactly what she wanted, however, that perspective is inherently limiting when viewing at all of the functions of Wavestriker and thinking of all of the possibilities that waves and vibration involved. The entire universe is made of vibrations, the tiniest of the strings that made up the the very fabric of reality itself.

Vindy can do so much more, and yet she was too focused on making sounds rather than listening and feeling all this time. In the process of creating more and more things, she ended up feeling more and more empty on the inside. Perhaps it is time to truly quiet down and feel once more.

Wavestriker are like her second pairs of eyes and ears, and she has decided to not be blind or deaf anymore.

'What is happening?' The music box questioned, as it slammed its tentacle down onto the ground and generated yet another wave through it's audio systems, however, Vindy was able to smooth it out once more with a wave of her hand.

'You say you and I are the same,' Vindy said as she approached the monster, 'but we are not.'

'No! I am the pinnacle of life! I survive through all of them!' The music box, now realized that its most powerful attacks aren't working anymore, formed ten more tentacles around him and attacked towards Vindy. Instead of creating a shock wave right away, Vindy reached out her hand, and listened once more.

This time, she isn't only listening to the vibrations of the tentacles, but rather to the nature of it. The fundamental, natural frequency of the system, the frequency at which the amplitude of vibration are the greatest....the one that resonates....As she moved through the ranges of frequencies, she felt the gradual increase of the amplitude response, and finally, she's at the peak.

This is the point that will enable her to create the largest amount of destruction with the least amount of input.

Noting down the exact frequency that is required at this point in her head, all Vindy did was to send out a gentle pulse of sounds, and the tentacles all shook in tune with it as the vibrations began to tear itself apart. Blood splattered and metal screamed, as Vindy continued to walk towards the music box without any further resistance.

For her future, and for her dreams, she will have to end things here. There are no villains or heroes in this story, only fighters and survivors. There is every sign that the monster in front of her has it's hands on most of the habitat's energy network, judging by the connections into the various electricity ports in the room. She doesn't even want to fathom the roots of this monster extending all the way down into the deeper parts of the habitat as it continued to suck everything towards itself.

She needs to end everything here and now.

'Perish!' The monster declared as it raised up, forming ten more tentacles high up in the air as it prepared to crush Vindy under it's weight. Vindy fell into the shadow formed by the tentacles high up in the air blocking out the lights of the habitats, and she squatted down. As the tentacles began to travel downwards, she created a stationery wave underneath her body which created a spike of the flooring materials and sent her flying towards the music box right in the center of the monster. Thankfully, her nose have already gotten used to the smell, so the only that truly disgusts her are the rotting flesh.

She crashed onto the surface of the music box and almost pushes it further into the body of the monster. The orange dot glowed a few times as the monster tried to process what is going on, 'you.....what are you planning?'

Vindy tapped her fingers on the slimy surface of the music box and listened instead. She ran her fingers over the peaks and troughs of the frequency range, as she sought out the monster's natural frequency. Running tiny experiments with Wavestriker in her glowing right hand, she felt it all, the pulse of the monster, the rates of processing, the rates of feedback and reactions...it is every bit as alive as anybody else, and yet...

Shaking away the uneasy feeling that she might be ending a unique life form here, Vindy pressed her finger down harder, and generated a pulse at the natural frequency of the monster. The music box began cracking as the angelic male voice cracked and became a distorted monstrous form of what it once was, as it curses out towards Vindy hauntingly with all of its anger and hate.

'Hope you enjoyed the music.' Vindy said, generating a much bigger pulse at the same frequency as the entire monster began to shake and move around in response to it, streams of blood and flesh began to flood out of it as the metal tingled and jingled around it's body before tearing itself apart. The monster began to be dissolved and dismantled by the shear amount of energy it is current harnessing throughout it's body, and it simply doens't have the durability or adaptability to keep everything together any more.

'NO! NO MORE!' The last words of the music box came out as a desperate scream, as the box was crushed into oblivion by the monster's twitching flesh itself and the orange dots disappeared into the streams of blood. Then, everything blew up as pieces of meat are sent flying high up into the air, a few even clipping the ceiling of the habitat.

Vindy was sent flying back by the explosion as she crashed into a rack of traditional violins hanging towards the back of the shop.

She felt dizzy and disoriented, but at least everything is finally over. She may not have been able to get a music box, but perhaps a violin is good enough...she always wanted to pick up a human instrument when she can. Turning around and limping down onto the ground, Vindy felt that something in her left leg must have broke during the fight, but she should be able to make it back.

She didn't, as she dropped onto the ground due to the fatigue before she even left the shop. She may have felt invincible just now during the fight, but she is certainly feeling the full brunt of the artifact overuse recoil afterwards.

'Damn...my ears are ringing so loud...' She complained, as the figurines of a human appeared at the end of the hallway.