Soul Searching

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   <default>Soul Searching</default>
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</image> <label>Posted On</label> <label>Author</label> <label>Music Theme</label> <group collapse="open"> <header>Order</header> <label>Previous Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Previous Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Story</label> <label>Next Suggested Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Manuscript</label> <label>Chronologically Previous Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Story</label> <label>Chronologically Next Manuscript</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>Series</header> <label>Series</label> <label>Previous</label> <label>Next</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Manuscript</header> <label>Type of Story</label> <label>Canon Status</label> </group> <group collapse="open"> <header>About the Story</header> <label>Date</label> <label>Location(s)</label> <label>Characters</label> </group> </infobox> by talmid.

1

When ten thousand citizens across the Crux System were surveyed to describe, in a single word, how they felt about the Nexus Force’s return to the transdimensional frontier, the majority responded with terror or other derivatives of fear, for with renewed transdimensional operatives came renewed confrontation with the Maelstrom Dimensions.

Their incursions were pointed, their targets specific, their motions precise. The first casualties were the so-called sojourners, travelers from other dimensions stranded locally nearly three years ago when their ability to traverse Unverse was lost. The next targets were the local counterparts of both the original targets and any other persons of interest to the Maelstrom Dimensions.

At first, the victims shared an obvious trait, that being the criticality of their roles in decisively resisting the Maelstrom Dimensions during the last war. Such specificity made the First Darkitect’s direct motives clear. He would not tolerate these characters stopping him again. From this, his indirect motives were deducible as well. He would be invading again, hence society’s terror.

Necessarily, the Nexus Force responded. Those of the aforementioned targeted groups who so far survived the attacks or were not yet attacked were relocated to defensible positions, as much as they could be called defended, in that they were under constant manned guard. Those who could assist in improving defenses were tasked as such, and with the nature of the situation, it so happened those two groups overlapped.

…

Torture.

That singular word reflected Tiberius Talmid’s general sentiment about working for the Nexus Force. Locking him up was bad enough, be it in a correctional facility for society’s protection or in the Nimbus Station Sentinel Command Base for his own protection, it didn’t matter. Both took him away from the work he was supposed to be doing, which certainly wasn’t brainstorming transdimensional defenses, in his own opinion.

What had happened to his nephew rested heavily on Tiberius’s mind. Not the part about Aiden’s death at the hands of the Song Stealer, tragic as was, but the part about his return to life, truly fascinating in its means. The tests of the young man resoundingly confirmed what he’d suspected occurred, given the symptoms observed. A merging of Creative Sparks!

The more Tiberius considered it, the more it made sense to him that it could be the key to solving the problem of Project WCWJST.

Tiberius pressed the buzzer on his work desk to page his handlers. It wasn’t them he wanted to speak to, of course, but his nephew. Aiden needed to hear his breakthrough. He pressed the buzzer again. “Pick up, bastards,” the man muttered.

“They won’t,” the intruder laughed behind him. “Any last words?”

Tiberius bristled at the sudden, recognizable chill in the room, that of Maelstrom. “Thank you for letting me know,” he managed, before shutting his eyes and sighing, as he knew it was too late for him. Then he cursed himself, for not thinking to make his words a hint for Aiden, unless-

The man did not finish the thought.

2

Under an overcast sky on a dreary world, alongside an unswept and weather-beaten road, stood a man called Sky. Also known as Agent Sky, despite looking rather shabby himself, he stood pondering a most peculiar of coincidences, one of proximity in this case. Different perspectives may see nothing or everything, little or a lot between the numbers 55 and 56, such as fractions or decimals. Agent Sky’s chosen profession was not mathematics, however; his title rather suggested more secret agency things. But surely anyone else could also see the mighty improbability that two very separate organizational entities just so happened to base themselves in two very neighboring locations.

Clicking his tongue, Agent Sky aimed into the alleyway to the entrance of number 56 Unemployed Road. Consumed by his passing thoughts, he was almost hit by a passing car, not that it deterred him. Funny, that was the only car he’d seen all day. Inside the alley he passed dumpsters, crates, boarded up windows, and rusted-shut doors of long-abandoned institutions until he reached the one labelled Laundromat, a misnomer for its current institution which also began with an L. Another coincidence? Likely.

He raised his hand to a rusty doorbell, and after seeing its snipped wires meandered instead to give the door a good old fashioned knock. His knock could be heard resounding into a hollow space on the other side. He knocked again with purpose. Occupants, if any, were sure to have heard him. There were occupants, he was sure, as he trusted his source of this address.

In short time, a lock clicked and a door cracked open, the one behind him. Nice deflection, thought Agent Sky as he turned to face a young brunette standing in that doorway, noting the combination of her Sentinel Knight armor and a blue-painted Wormholer aimed in his general direction. Despite the weapon, she wasn’t in a combat stance and wore no other combat gear, making her appear less threatening to him. When she didn’t immediately speak, he figured he should break the silence.

“Who are you?” they both said at the same time.

“Sorry,” they both apologized.

“I’m Agent Sky!” he exclaimed. After an extra second’s silence, when she seemed sure to not respond, he continued, “I’m here to talk to Sir Talmid.”

The girl cocked her head. “Aiden?”

“I can think of no other here at this time,” Agent Sky answered.

“Did you say your name was Sky?” the girl asked.

“Agent Sky,” Agent Sky sighed.

“Oh,” a look like recognition crossed her face. “I know your name. You can come in.” She stepped back to give him room to enter, but he didn’t immediately.

“I hope I give you no intentions to use that,” he pointed with his eyes to the Wormholer. She traced his aim to the chain gun in her hands before dropping the barrel quickly. Despite its blue paint job, it was still a Paradox weapon, which carried implications to him.

“Oh, of course not! Sorry,” she said again, shaking her head and letting the weapon tap the floor. “I’m just scatterbrained, that’s all. We all are. A lot has happened, so much has gone on. Transdimensional travel, the looming threat of dimensional war, Rogues...” She looked back to him. “You were part of it.”

Agent Sky regarded her evenly. “You weren’t.”

“Not on the surface,” she said with a shrug and extended her hand, which he took and shook firmly. “I’m Bridget. I’m still kinda new to Leek Works, but you must be too, since you didn’t just come in through the secret entrance.” She stepped back and waved for him to follow.

“There’s a secret entrance?” Agent Sky repeated, closing the wooden door behind him. She led him through the building’s unlit main section, past booths and a counter, as it was formerly a diner, and into the backroom, where inside one of the disabled coolers a hatch in the metal floor yawned open to reveal a laddered tunnel.

“Exits and entrances, there’s actually a few of them,” Bridget told him.

Agent Sky stared into the dark opening. “Are you sure it’s wise to tell me all about your base’s securities?”

“It hardly matters anymore,” Bridget said, beginning down the ladder. “Really, you’re lucky you showed up just now, instead of yesterday.”

“Why’s that?” Agent Sky called after the girl.

Her brunette head popped back up into the room. “Been under a rock lately?” she asked ironically. “Nimbus Station has been evacuated for weeks. We’re here to bring everyone back.”

3

“If this works, we can finally go back home,” grunted the blond haired fellow.

“And get back to business,” grunted his dark-haired friend.

“I’m with blondie on this one,” their red-haired compatriot squeaked. “Where’s a Figdroid when you need one?”

“Stop!” Luke exclaimed. “Now, lower!”

“Wait, no, a little farther,” Aiden protested.

“Letting go!” Mara announced.

“No, I said further, no, Mara, no!”

The three jumped backward as the hefty device they’d been carrying slammed into the floor with an anticlimactic thud. Its base was cuboid shaped, of a metallic cast material, and atop it was a smooth prism of glass-like construction, with an opacity much closer to frosted glass than window glass. There was no apparent damage from the short fall, yet.

“Well,” Luke smirked, “that wasn’t too bad.”

“The thing better still work,” Aiden scowled, scrambling for a large power cord coming out of the wall and dragging it toward the device. “You’re kidding me! The socket’s wrong.”

Mara wiped her forehead. “There’s an adapter eerk.”

“Eerk?” Luke repeated.

“I, I, R, C.” Mara spelled out.

“If you’re just gonna stand around you could at least stand guard,” Aiden huffed.

“We’re not just gonna stand around,” Luke said while Mara said, “We’re not just gonna stand guard. We’re checking the truck, homie.”

 “And leaving me here?” Aiden squawked.

“You could come with us,” Luke suggested.

“And leave this here,” Aiden said, “this very important and experimental piece of Nexus Force tech that is potentially the means to our continued free existence?”

Mara nodded devilishly while Luke shook his head. “In that case, guard it,” the man said, turning on his heel to follow the lady as she danced up the stairs. “We’ll be right back.”

With a sigh, Aiden unholstered a gun and centered himself in Leek Works’s basement. He’d already been the target of one assassination attempt, so being alone still irked, but at the same time that was already a month ago and they hadn’t come for him since. The hits per capita had been single for the others as well. Some had been offed, some hadn’t, some were unaccounted for.

That included presumed targets, who were known persons of import – in both meanings of the word – but had gone missing, for various durations of time. The man called the Janitor, the one from the so-called Janitor Dimension, came to mind, although he’d been missing since the end of the last war. Also coming to mind was the young lady called Kate, who an outpost on Jirdia reported missing just within the last month.

An interesting thing about them, aside from their importance to First Darky, was what happened when attempts to transdimensionally maneuver to them were attempted. What actually happened was nothing. Nothing happened. The same thing happened with a few other persons as well. Charles Bradfordson, of the Future Dimension, for instance. Rowana Talmid, of the Future Dimension, as well.

 At least for the latter, Aiden knew she didn’t want to be found, and figured some sort of localized transdimensional block had been instated to impede such measures. He had some experience with that at Macabross. For the others, there wasn’t enough information to conclude if they personally desired their inaccessibility, or others desired it for them… or against them.

At least it proved that transdimensional blocks were possible, which was the key to restoring security to the universe and ending the Maelstrom Dimension’s personalized attacks once and for all.

“We’re back,” Mara sang. “And you have a visitor.”

After the red-haired woman, who tossed the socket adapter Aiden’s way, came Bridget and a scruffy looking guy, probably leaving Luke to guard the primary level.

“Stop being negligent, Mara,” Aiden chastised while plugging the adapter into the device’s port and then plugging the other end of the adapter into the power cable, which in turn, on the other side of the wall, was plugged into the output port of an Imaginite converter harnessing the power of several tons of blue Imaginite.

“Voila,” he said as the device began to hum, and did a double take when he recognized Agent Sky. “How’d he get here?!”

“I let him in,” Bridget said.

“I meant how’d he get passed the checkpoints,” Aiden clarified.

Bridget shook her head. “Apparently there’s no more checkpoints.”

“Been under a rock too, eh?” Agent Sky said. “Although personally I was wondering that myself, as well. I still recall what the Nexus Force tried doing to me the last time I showed up here. But that didn’t stop me from trying again.”

“The madman!” Mara crowed.

“He’s here for you,” Bridget relayed to Aiden as Agent Sky stepped forward.

“I bring a message,” the man began, “from your daughter.”