| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
One lesson Mandica learned from getting into Mythodome is that she
doesn’t have to go in through the main entrance, and probably shouldn’t.
People can still see her, and might notice if she doesn’t follow procedure.
She is not wearing an official worker’s uniform, but she’s dressed in a
loose-fitting jumpsuit to make it look more like it makes sense for her to
walk down the perimeter plaza to some other door. Instead of a long, dark
stone corridor, the walls are tiled and maintained, though to be fair, the
one under Mythodome probably looked rustic for the aesthetic. She doesn’t
have to walk down this one, which is good, because it’s longer. On one side
is what looks like a chairlift, except it only goes forward. Once she climbs
into it and fastens her seatbelt, it moves automatically, and takes her a
couple of kilometers down. At the end of the line, she gets out and steps
into an elevator that was already open and waiting for her.
When the sliding doors reopen, she’s faced with a regular hinged door; metal
and painted a grayish dark green. She opens that, and finds herself on the
platform of a subway. It’s dirty, with trash all over the place, especially
down on the tracks. The passengers are an eclectic bunch. It’s scary to her.
There’s not even a glass partition preventing people from getting on the
tracks. Someone could fall right in and get hit by a train. Had she been
born on Earth when it looked more like this, and someone told her that she
could take a pill to become invincible, she probably would. The members of
her family chose a single lifetime lifespan for themselves because they
always expected to live about that long. Death is easier to avoid in the
modern day. Then again, if Mandica really ever felt that way, why is
mountain hiking her favorite activity, and why did she ever want to come to
a place as dangerous as this? She wants the thrill, and she might die young.
It just hopefully won’t be from falling onto the subway tracks.
She walks up the steps, shedding the itchy jumpsuit as she goes, and
stuffing it into her bag. She has other clothes in there, and food, because
she might be here for a while, and just like in the real world, she doesn’t
have an identity. Out there, it’s fine. She’s entitled to food. Anyone can
grab a dayfruit or operate a synthesizer without logging in. Survival is a
basic human right. But in here, for the gritty Gothamesque story to work,
they have to use money. They have to have their own microcosmic economy. And
yes, she’s heard of Gotham. She’s never been a fan of superhero movies, but
she is moderately familiar with the most common tropes. She won’t love it in
this fake city, but she’ll find Vanore, ask her to explain what the hell is
going on, and then get out.
The thing about this dome is that there may or may not be AI-generated
supervillains, but no such superheroes. If you see a villain, they could be
a visitor playing a character, but if you see a hero, they definitely are.
That’s what the prospectus says. So when a woman wearing a costume suddenly
flies through the air and crashlands right behind Mandica as she’s walking,
the latter knows that she is a player. She has to be, because it is up to
the players to defend the city by whatever means they feel are necessary,
and if that means no one comes here to do that, then the story could
devolve into misery and chaos, and that will simply be how it is. Of course,
a lot of people do enjoy superhero stories, so there are probably plenty of
them acting out their fantasies of being revered and beloved. She is
assuming that this woman wearing silver and blue spent years wishing she
could be this. Before Castlebourne, she probably did it in virtual reality.
Her character could predate this base reality simulation by centuries.
The superhero catches eyes with Mandica. She winks. “Sup, gorgeous.” It’s
then that the rock monster barrels into her. The blue hero is knocked over,
but still smiling. She designed her substrate to be as invincible as real
world physics allows. She kicks and punches the monster with a few grunts,
and some “hiya”s. The monster is slow...because it’s made of rocks, but
doesn’t seem to feel pain, and isn’t budging. Still, the hero is unfazed. It
looks like she’s working up to something. “Clear the area!” she orders.
“Go!”
The NPCs continue to scream and run away. Mandica moves back a little, to
the side of the subway steps, but doesn’t go as far back as she should. It’s
too exciting, and she’s annoyed with herself for being excited. Does
she actually like the genre, and she’s just been a pretentious asshole about
it her whole life?
The hero starts to swing on the monster like it’s a gymnastics bar. She
makes it all the way up until she’s standing on its shoulders. She crouches,
and starts poking at its eyes, which do appear to be its weak spot. It can’t
lift its thick, stony arms high enough over its head to swat her away, but
it keeps trying. “Now!” she screams.
Only then does Mandica see a guy in a purple, green, and yellow cloaky
outfit standing several meters away. There’s a sort of trident looking
symbol on his chest. He’s holding an absolutely gargantuan compensation gun,
aiming it at the blue hero and the monster. Perfectly timed, the blue hero
does an impossibly high back flip off of the monster’s shoulders. If this
were a movie, it would probably be shown in slow motion. A rippling, but
otherwise invisible, force emanates from the green guy’s gun. The monster is
blasted with it. This is what really stops him. It falls to its
approximation of knees, and rests on its fists as green guy continues to
pummel him with the sonic weapon. Meanwhile, blue girl has landed safely out
of the blast zone, and is watching it happen. After enough of the sound
waves, the rock monster completely falls apart. It doesn’t explode, the
rocks just lose adherence to each other, and crumble to the ground.
“Hey, girl. How you livin’? I’m Blue Umbra.”
“I don’t have a name,” Mandica lies poorly. She forgot to decide if she’s
going to use her real name, or come up with a secret identity. She has
absolutely no plans to become a superhero too, and clearly lacks the
requisite skills compared to these two.
Blue Umbra giggles. “Well, I can work with that. I don’t exactly go by my
Christian name.” What was Christian again? Was that the one with the
candles?
Green guy removes some kind of cartridge from his gun, lets it magnetize to
his thigh, and replaces it with a new one from his other thigh. “Locked and
loaded for round two,” he says with a certain affectation. “Who’s
this chick?”
“Wave Function, meet...a ghost,” Blue Umbra jokes.
“She didn’t run,” Wave Function points out.
“I don’t like to run,” Mandica says. Now that is not a lie.
“You should probably walk away quickly then,” Blue Umbra warns. “His wave
blasts aren’t powerful enough to take Grayrock down permanently.”
“Hey, I get it done,” Wave Function defends. “Trust me, I hear no
complaints.”
Blue Umbra rolls her eyes and starts to walk towards the recoalescing
monster.
“Castlebourne,” Mandica cries desperately.
They both stop. “We’re not supposed to talk about the outside world,” she
says.
“I have to,” Mandica explains. “I’m looking for someone.”
Blue Umbra sighs. “Hide in that building over there. We’ll talk after the
fight.”
