Rooftop Ruminations

My head swims as I struggle back to my feet, gingerly covering my completely blinded eye. I shift my feet, getting some balance back after the sudden loss of my depth perception and stumble into a narrow alley, away from the curious crowd of onlookers that had started to gather around me. Shit, The Voice had said that my eye was fixed and it was working perfectly fine earlier, so what gives?

Leaning against a red brick wall, I feel the affected eye with my finger, gently prodding it. No bleeding, no gory wounds reopening. For all intents and purposes, the eye is fine. I just can't see out of it. More worryingly though, is a low humming noise in my head, similar to what I feel when Gallant contests my control over his body. This time however, the sensation is coupled with a compulsion to do something, to take action urgently. But to what end, I have no idea.

My heart sinks as I recall the psychic attack Celeste's freak show subjected me to. The feeling was the same, a compulsion combined with the overwhelming urge to obey. Except this time, the commands don't seem to be coming from a nearby source. Instead its like an invisible wave is passing over me like a tide going in and out, drenching me with psychic energy both ways. The magnitude of the attack is several times greater than what Celeste could muster in our last encounter.

This is bad, and that's putting it lightly. I never had expected Celeste to grow in power so quickly. If I can feel the effects of the psychic attack now, does that mean my new armor is already ineffective? Time for an experiment.

Heading deeper into the darkness of the alley, I mentally command the artificial core to activate with my fingers tightly crossed. To my surprise, the core comes online without issue and the quiet nagging in the back of my head is cut off immediately. So the armor still works then. Good, that's one problem I don't have to worry about. Unfortunately, my eye remains blind and I am no closer to figuring out the cause.

Can't do anything on street level now, Celeste's tripwires have hemmed me into a single neighborhood. Since the core still works, might as well get to a vantage point so that I can work out some strategy. Standing squarely in front of the red brick wall, I tense and pump my legs upwards, grabbing at a window ledge and proceeding to parkour my way towards the building's roof. I feared that the core would abruptly shut down halfway through a jump, but it was all for nothing. My enhanced strength and reflexes carry the day easily and I vault over the building's edge with a flourish, landing securely on both feet.

Core's functioning fine. I shouldn't have any problems if it comes to a fight. I shut off the powers and immediately the strange compulsion returns as if it had never stopped. Clicking my tongue in irritation, I pace about on the roof restlessly, attempting to work out this mystery before me. Its not as if I could just ask The Voice what is going on. As long as I remain topside, we would be cut off from each other. At least until Alley brings the Pit back online.

The upside is that if this attack is similar to what I experienced at the Kingdom of Love, no matter how strong it is, I should be effectively immune. My soul simply cannot understand the directives it is being bombarded with. The whole affair would be an object lesson in irritation, but I should really be in no danger. At least that's what I hope. But how is all this connected to my blinded eye? My eye getting knocked out at the same time is surely no coincidence.

Looking up, I see the metaphysical red thread sprawl across the sky, glowing with quiet menace. The glow drenches the entire City, leaving no place on the surface untouched. Turning to the door of the roof access staircase, I take a moment to break the lock with my powers and take cover in the stairwell before turning off the core again. No dice, I still get that unpleasant sensation in my head. The glow from the red thread must act like radiation, being inside a building would not protect you from it.

Well, that's not quite true. The sarcophagus is safe enough from Celeste's influence, but it is also buried underground and shielded with a layer of nuke proof armor. The ultimate final refuge. The sarcophagus certainly lives up to its name, but that does me no good now. If The Voice is right, waiting things out underground would be playing straight into Fate's hands. I need to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on up here.

Heading back out onto the roof, I muse that its probably a good thing I am the only one who can see the red thread. Otherwise, there would probably be a citywide panic about alien invasion or something like that. Thanks to red getting everywhere, the whole place looks like a set for a Z rate made for TV flick. Showdown At New Mars. Starring Tensei "the Stud" von Amsterg. Screening on demand at Channel 421.

Putting those stray thoughts aside, I being surveying the area now that I have a bird's eye view of the streets. And what I see causes the black spot of irritation residing in the back of my head to grow even further. Parkouring across the rooftops would get me past the tripwires that have hemmed me in, but Celeste had also set up tripwires not just in this neighborhood, but from what I can see, throughout the entire District. Every single major intersection has been wrapped up in screens made out of red thread. I can see the junction that connects the District to the highway has a cat's cradle worth of the stuff tied all over it. I also see a nearby mag rail station festooned with Fate's party surprise.

All this confirms one thing, avoiding the red thread by itself is not difficult. It just requires me to do two things. Don't use a car. Don't take mass transit. Shit. Celeste has been really smart about using her power, limiting my movement so heavily. The other way is to just brave the red threads, driving into them and hoping for the best. Though somehow I think that's not a particularly smart thing to be doing. Anyway, I am really getting ahead of myself here. I still haven't figured out where I am supposed to be going.

This is the first time I have been thrown into a mission with no leads or concrete objective, just a nebulous 'stop whatever Celeste is planning'. But where is Celeste? How can I find her? Things are so much more difficult without The Voice doing the background work. Still, I can think of a few areas to investigate based on what I know.

First, is of course Celeste's base, the Kingdom of Love. Its the most obvious choice, its her place of residence for one. Its also the choice least likely to yield any dividends, having already been raided. So scratch that one of the list. I should still go take a look of time permits, but the Kingdom would be low on the list of priorities.

What else is there? Thinking back, Celeste does have a modus operandi of sorts. Weak in direct combat, she works through proxies. Meaning that there would always be someone who would be in contact with her, out of necessity for her plans more than anything else. Celeste has been hanging around the Hero and the Heroines in order to manipulate them against The Voice. I doubt she is in contact with the Hero after I retrieved him, but she might still be lurking around his other friends. Plenty of ifs and assumptions, but better than flying blind in this investigation.

Sighing in consternation, I take a seat on the edge of the roof, letting my legs dangle freely. Both avenues of investigation I had come up with are pretty weak. Once again, I miss The Voice's presence in the background. It may be an arrogant, high handed dick, but it certainly knew what it was doing. As I keep considering the matter at hand, I realize that there is a more direct way of getting results, but at a much higher risk to myself.

St Clair and Nicholas. Fate's plan would now revolve around those two beating the Hero and Brocon in the duel. Dealing with St Clair and Nicholas would handle Fate nicely, no matter what Celeste has been planning in the background. There's also the advantage that St Clair's location is not exactly a secret. Its the giant yacht anchored just off The City. I had even seen it a few times when I was bumming around the coastal highway. There is one big disadvantage with this approach though. St Clair's powerful. The Voice had warned me that the Loli was one of the strongest mages alive with all the advantages of a vampire to boot. Fighting St Clair on her home ground would get super ugly at light speed.

Placing both palms on my head and lacing the fingers together into a makeshift pillow, I lie down on the roof, my eyes constantly tracing the red threads drawn across the sky. Tracking Celeste using the red thread would be possible, at least in theory. The problem is that the tapestry she had woven was simply to vast for me to map to its originating point. I needed to narrow down her location first before performing the trace. Sucking my breath in and folding my legs more comfortably, I grumble inwards at the scope of the challenge. Groping about in the dark sure is fun.

And there was a final option available. One not really related to my quest, but something I would do well to keep in mind regardless. The Voice had been my primary source of information about this world. Now that The Voice is blinded to what is going on in The City, I could start getting the low down. The real, actual, unedited low down on what is going on. The Voice has been careful enough to spoon feed me with curated factoids, but I have long been aware that the account provided to me has not been the entire truth of the matter. Now would be the best time to set this state of affairs right.

Unfortunately, looking into The Voice meant investigating the secret truth of this world. Its not something I can do by just walking into a library. I could read the VN and watch the anime that's been floating around, but that stuff's been tainted by Fate's influence. It would be equally unhelpful and biased as listening solely to The Voice's version of events. I needed an unbiased source to consult with. And I have one just in mind.

Hobo Beard. Enemy to both The Voice and Fate. The man himself being dead presents a problem though. If I can't consult with the man, I will have to do the next best thing, check out his body of work. Again, I have a number of choices here.

The obvious choice would be to check out Ascension Tower, the last place Hobo Beard was active at. Too bad that place has been burned to a husk thanks to Tensei's rampage. That leaves option number two. The lab Siobahn had set up for Hobo Beard, the place where Chance and I fought our first duel. Another wreck, but Chance only torched the front area of the lab before The Voice dropped the roof down on her. There might be something left. Maybe. Possibly.

I had already taken the warning of my dream to heart, so the least I can do is perform some due diligence on The Voice. But time keeps pressing forward. My sidetrack would eat up valuable time that I would otherwise be using to foil Celeste. I have a sinking feeling in my gut that this course of action would cost me somehow, but it is a price that must be paid.

As I keep tossing about ideas in my head, a helicopter buzzes overhead and hovers in place directly over me, the insignia of ORPO painted on its side.The roar of jets interrupt my thoughts as several ORPO mecha rocket upwards from the base of the building and land heavily on the roof, surrounding me. The mecha close ranks, forming a wall of steel and level their axes at me, ready for action.

"Bit much for someone taking a nap isn't it?" I ask with an eyebrow raised. The axes remain pointed at me, but the mecha don't move to attack. A tense silence develops, broken only by the whir of the mechas' servos and the thumping of the helicopter's blades.

"Daffyd Gallant." an amplified voice booms from the helicopter, "You are under arrest under suspicion of committing terroristic acts and murder. Surrender."

"Hey screw you Commander." I snap giving the helicopter the finger, "I thought we were friends and everything." No response from Hernandez of course, there's no way he could hear my protests all the way up there in the sky.

Should I fight? ORPO flatfoots can't actually hurt me. No, scratch that, they could dog pile me with troopers and mecha until my body explodes from the stress. If Hernandez is willing to drown me in the blood of his men, that's not something I can overcome even with the artificial core. Odds are, ORPO being staffed by mundanes has fallen under Celeste's influence. Confirming my suspicions is the sight of another flock of mecha rocketing towards the roof where I am.

I am putting money down that fighting now results in a bad end. But is surrender any better? Not really I suppose, but it would buy me some time at least. And if it comes down to it, I can always attempt to battle my way out. The odds might be equally bad, but an opening to turn things around might reveal itself in the meantime.

No good choices, so I'll have to go with the least crappy one. I get up to my feet and dust my clothes off before turning to the ORPO mecha surrounding me, their pilots wound up as tight as springs. I raise my hands with what I hope is a comforting smile.

"Take me to your leader."