The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 15, 2398

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Rothko Ladhiffe wasn’t born evil. He wouldn’t even call himself that now. Maybe he fell off the right path a little bit, but he can get back on if someone would just give him a chance. These people have not done that for him. They trapped him in that glass tchotchke thing, and when he finally got out, he found himself in somebody else’s body. He didn’t ask to be here, and he doesn’t deserve to be locked up in this cell. They don’t even let him out for yard time, what kind of prison is this place?

The door opens. One of the strangers walks in—not a guard who works here, but someone in charge. “Hello, how are you doing today?” he asks.

“I’m not great,” Rothko replies.

The man nods. “It’s a little dark in here. Would you like a flashlight or two?”

Asshole. “I’m not crazy. I’ve transformed flashlights into powerful tools before. I can do it again. I just need the right model.”

“Oh, Mister Ladhiffe, I know all about your chosen one powers, believe me.”

“Who are you?”

“You know me, Rothy. We’ve whispered to each other, through the vents.”

Rothko thinks about it, trying to remember. “Belinder?”

“Close enough.”

“You were a little girl.”

“Not anymore.”

“You went back to your old body? How did you find it? Can you find mine?”

Belinder rolls his eyes. “This isn’t my real body. I stole it from someone else.”

“Oh.” Rothko frowns. “So you can’t help me.”

“I didn’t say that. Like I was saying, you’re a chosen one, which makes you special beyond special. Your mind has the power, not your body. The reason these flashlights aren’t working for you is because you’re in the wrong reality. There’s something here suppressing your power.”

“Can that be fixed?”

“Yes.” He takes a syringe out of his pocket. “With this.”

Rothko gulps. “Is it gonna hurt?”

“A little, I guess. It’s a needle, man, man up.”

“What exactly does it do?”

“It’s a concentrated elixir of temporal energy, which will activate your powers, and allow you to break out of here.”

“Why don’t you just hold the door open for me?”

“I can’t blow my cover. Everyone still thinks Ramses is in charge of this body. I need you to wait for about a week. Hide the syringe in the casing of one of your flashlights, and then take it with you, so they never find it.”

“Then where do I go?”

“Find shelter, I know how resourceful you are; surviving on your own on Durus.”

“I wasn’t alone,” Rothko explains.

“I know, but you kinda were, weren’t you? You couldn’t truly trust anyone.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Because I’m giving you the temporal energy.”

“How do I know that that’s what this stuff is? Maybe it’s poison.”

“I’m not breaking you out to help me. I’m just doing it to help you. So inject it ,or don’t, I don’t really care. But wait until next week.”

“Okay.”

Belinder gets up to leave.

“Wait, what if I need to contact you on the outside? I don’t have any money, or anything.”

“I’ll find you, don’t you worry about that.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Rothko smiles softly as he watches the friendly man who used to be a little girl, who used to be a different man, leave his cell. Once he’s alone, he hides himself under the covers and twirls the syringe around in his fingers. He admires it, and gives it a little taste...just plastic. It’s what’s inside that counts. How long did he say to wait? A week? He pulls the covers off his face, and looks around the cell. There’s no calendar on the wall. How the hell is he meant to know when it’s been a week? It could be any minute now. It could be right now. It probably is. He removes the cap of the needle with his needle, and spits it out. He’s always wanted to do that.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of injecting it into his neck. It hurts so good, he wishes he could get more of it. Even without the powers it’s going to give him, he would love it as long as it always felt like this. Energy is right, it surges all over his body like a PG-13 orgasm. He shakes and trembles to make sure that it reaches every corner of his veins. He gets out of bed, and starts to dance around, knocking over some of the flashlights that he has set up. They call these things Rothko Torches, and apparently it doesn’t matter what kind they are. He can transform them all, he just needs to figure out how. He first clears a space in the middle of the cell by moving the flashlights a little closer together. Then he just spins around, letting the light warm his skin, and trying to send energy back down into the beams. The first time he did this, he had no idea what he was doing; it just happened. Now he’s doing it on purpose. Now he really wants it.

He’s starting to think that nothing is going to change when suddenly it does. The flashlights begin to shake. It’s not enough to knock them over, but they feel like they’re about to explode. Afraid of what might happen, and without any other choice, Rothko dives under the bed, taking some of the flashlights with him. He doesn’t want to throw them back, so he desperately switches them off. Seconds later, there’s an explosion. Concrete particulates and dust start flying all around, so he tucks his head in, and shuts his eyes. He’s not sure what’s happening, but not nothin’, that’s for sure.

When the dust settles, Rothko crawls out from under the bed. The flashlights have been destroyed. If the blast itself didn’t burn them out, the falling debris finished them off. He looks up at a clear blue sky; his way to freedom. One of the guards forces his way into the room, and points a gun at him. Rothko takes out one of the surviving flashlights—which should officially be called Rothko Torches now—and sends a photon blast into the man’s chest. He smiles proudly, having not really used one of these things very much before. They were stolen from him shortly after they were created. The guard is out cold, but there will be more. He gathers the surviving torches from the floor, and ties them up in his sheet, also tying it around his neck. He keeps two of them out, so he can use them like Iron Man’s rocket hands. He flies out of the building, whoopin’ and hollerin’ like he’s riding a bomb in a cowboy hat. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t know how to aim these things. He loses control rather quickly, and starts to plummet to his death, dropping all of the flashlights on the way. He wakes up in a parking lot.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 14, 2398

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Ramses is back in his own body. That’s the first thing Mateo wanted done when they returned to Kansas City from their nearly three week-long ordeal into the bulkverse, and between the realities. They didn’t switch bodies, though. Ramses took his place where he belongs, but Erlendr was left in the Insulator of Life. He’ll be trapped there until he can be delivered to his fate in the afterlife simulation, where Past!Leona murders him with a zeroblade. Now no one is in Leona Reaver’s body. It’s destined to return to its native reality as well, so it can die for real—fortunately without the consciousness that once inhabited it, however. They have to figure out how they’re going to make that happen, just to be safe. They don’t want a doomed substrate floating around that someone might end up in without a chance to escape before fate intervenes, and destroys it forever.

Trina’s body is currently not being used either. Its original consciousness found itself in a new home in the main sequence, and lived a complete life from then on, choosing not to undergo any significant life extension treatments or enhancements. So that’s done, and will likely not be undone. Unlike Reaver’s body, Trina’s isn’t destined for anything. If they wanted to, they would be able to keep it indefinitely, but they’re not going to do that, because it’s unnecessary and macabre. Maybe if they were discussing an adult substrate, it would be one thing, but they don’t want to leave themselves open to the option of transferring someone into the body of a child. That’s just creepy. They might regret not having the alternative later, but they will burn that bridge when they come to it. Trina deserves to be put to rest in all her forms. They’re on their way to a memorial service, one that her brothers, Carlin and Moray can attend, since they could not be present for the first one.

In this region in the main sequence, normal people are not allowed to dig the graves for their family and friends. It’s a liability issue that requires paid employees to take part in the work. For religious reasons, the law can’t really stop it from being a thing, so that’s what they’ve chosen to do. They’ve selected a non-denominational cemetery, since Trina wasn’t old enough to come to her own decision about what faith she would follow. This is a sacred space where any interreligious squabbles people might have with one another are put aside. Everyone has the right to bid farewell to their loved ones. Carlin and Moray are young, but they’re both old enough to wield a shovel. They’re mainly responsible for the digging, but Mateo and Ramses are helping as well.

Now the youngest, little Moray has grown tired of the work, and they’re not even halfway through. He climbs out of the grave, embarrassed and ashamed. “It’s okay.” Heath has shown up without anyone realizing. “I got you.” He gently takes the shovel from the boy, and hops in to continue the digging.

“Thank you for coming,” Marie says to him.

“I’m not here for you.”

That’s when they notice that he did not come alone. Vearden and Arcadia are here too, arms locked together. Are they together, together? “We’re here for you, even though we don’t know you very well,” Vearden says.

“Have you two been living in the condo the whole time?” Kivi questions.

“Yeah, it’s an unfilmed updated reboot of Three’s Company,” Arcadia jokes softly.

Marie doesn’t know what to think of all this.

“We assumed that you ran off to a far corner of the Earth,” Leona tells them. “We never thought to look this close.”

“That’s what we were planning to do,” Arcadia says. “Starting at the Bran safehouse seemed like the most logical first step.”

“We didn’t know that someone would be coming back to it, especially not so soon,” Vearden adds. “We talked, and agreed to share the space as outcasts.”

“No one cast anyone out,” Marie argues.

“Let’s not fight today,” Heath requests.

Marie looks at her bare wrist. “Well, I’m free tomorrow, and everyday after that.”

“I’ll come back when I’m ready. Today is just about Trina and the McIvers.”

“How did you even find out about the service?” Mateo asks.

Heath can’t help but glance over at Angela, not sure if she wants to keep their link secret or not. They all look over at her. “Someone had to maintain contact. It’s a safety thing. Rule Number Thirteen, never get separated from the people you love. Please don’t ask me to pick sides.”

“Thank you,” Marie says to her alternate self, taking her by the hand affectionately. They smile mildly at each other.

Heath takes note of the tender moment, and then gets back to work.

Twenty minutes later, the job is done. The gravediggers move off to shower at the facilities, returning with the formal clothes they had brought. Heath didn’t have any extra clothes, because he didn’t come knowing that he would help, so the sexton provided him with a spare set of ceremonial robes to keep the dirt and grime covered. Leona was never officialized as a ship captain. She was chosen by the crew at a time when a leader was needed, and accepted by all who have joined the group since. The state would not usually acknowledge such a distinction, but it made an exception after a conversation with a certain U.S. senator. She performs the ceremony in this capacity, so the whole memorial can be kept in the family.

All three siblings speak to their relationship with Trina, but no one else speaks, because they did not know her well enough for that to be appropriate. At the end of the ritual, each attendee tosses a handful of dirt over Trina’s casket. To make up for having to quit earlier, Moray insists on finishing the burial all by himself, determined to stick to it no matter how long it takes. While the others return to the Lofts for the reception, Mateo hangs back so he can drive Moray home later. He gets it done quickly, then Mateo waits for him to take another shower. The reception is nice, and bigger than they thought it was going to be. Heath, Vearden, and Arcadia came with a bunch of food of their own. It’s considered a celebration, but a rather subdued one. They don’t drink and laugh and tell stories, or dance. They mostly listen to the siblings who knew her best, particularly Alyssa, who is able to relate stories she heard during Trina’s final moments. At the end of the day, the outcasts go back to the condo, and everyone else retires to their apartments.

That night, Ramses gets out of bed, and sneaks out of the building. He takes one of the cars, and drives back to the cemetery. He digs up Trina’s grave, steals the body, and then fills it back up exactly as it was, so that no one will notice. He takes Trina’s corpse to their building, and leaves her in a secret refrigerated room in the basement that he never told anyone about, in case he needed to store hazardous materials. When he wakes up the next morning, he has forgotten all about it.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 13, 2398

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Rescue is a strong word. The two people who Alyssa brought through the barrier between Kansas City and the rest of the Fourth Quadrant didn’t need to be rescued. There is nothing inherently problematic about living in the bubble. They did want to take that bubble down, though, so they sent two scientists to start tackling the issue from another angle. They had been studying the dimensional barrier for centuries, but always from within, so this was an opportunity to gain some insight that they couldn’t pass up. They might never get another. They will live on the ambassadorial ship that Great Britain sent there for communication, and stay until the job is complete, if that should ever happen. The team, meanwhile, has teleported to Stonehenge in the hope of finding a way back to their friends in the Third Rail.

Erlendr Preston has remained quiet. He hasn’t caused trouble, or tried to get in their heads. He’s just watching and waiting. The opportunity to free himself from their grasp is coming, and he has to be patient. He doesn’t even smirk as he watches these little ants struggle to figure out what’s going on here, and how they can get back to where they want.

“These four portals are the ones that didn’t work,” Mateo says, pointing them out. “My hypothesis is that they would lead to the other realities, if they were unlocked. How we might go about unlocking the, I wouldn’t know. If the Traversa bracelet doesn’t work, then I really don’t know. Maybe they need more power?”

“Go ahead and try,” Leona says to Alyssa.

“Not alone,” Alyssa replies. “You come with me. I don’t want to be over there alone if it works, but I can’t find a way back, and I don’t want you to be the one left alone with Erlendr.”

“That’s fair.” Leona takes Alyssa’s hand, and they attempt to walk through. They just end up on the other side of the rocks. They step back and forth a few times, but don’t get anywhere. Either these are just rocks or they don’t have the secret ingredient. They do the same for the other three mystery openings, but those don’t work either. “Mateo, are you getting the sense that they should work? Like with your hands?”

Mateo looks over at their audience. Of course, a team of scientists, military officers, and other experts have been stationed at this location since its power was first discovered, and have been trying to unlock its secrets the whole time. It hasn’t worked for anybody but Mateo with his unreliable temporal energy reserves. “I’m not getting the sense that they work, no. The other seven, on the other hand, are in perfect working condition. So is that.” He points up to the sky. In the Third Rail, the once-portal on Easter Island has solidified. Down here, it looks like there’s nothing special there. It appears to have disappeared, except it hasn’t. Mateo’s hands feel a draw towards it.

Leona narrows her eyes, and steps through the portal to Muskoka. Just before she disappears, they see her tilt her head funny. When she returns, she’s holding her hand several centimeters from her ear. “Yeah, that’s Huntsville, Ontario all right.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My earpiece,” Leona says. “It was squealing from feedback. Did yours do that?”

“Yeah, when we came through the barrier,” Alyssa confirms. “You didn’t expect that to happen?”

“I suppose it makes some sense. You were making a call from somewhere, and then you were suddenly at a different, distant somewhere. That’s bound to mess with the signal.” Leona keeps the earpiece at a safe distance as she tries to step through one of the mystery openings. She shakes her head. “Nothing. No feedback.”

Alyssa tries the same with another as she’s still the one wearing the bracelet, but doesn’t hear any squealing either, though she does when she steps through to El-Sheikh Zayed on her own.

Leona thinks on it a moment. “I watched a movie once where a man was running with a case of vials containing a deadly plague. The detective shot him dead, only to discover there to be seven vials in eight slots. What ensued was a pursuit of any lead that the investigators could find to figure out where the eighth vial was, and do you know where they found it?”

“Umm...in his stomach at the morgue, like a drug mule,” Mateo guesses.

She laughs. “No. Nowhere. The vial didn’t exist. There were seven total, but the case came with eight slots. They couldn’t find a case with seven. We’ve been assuming that all the openings should be portals. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they never were.”

“That’s fair,” Mateo decides. “What can we do then? How do we get back?”

“Well, you’re feeling something up there, aren’t ya?”

“I’m feeling like I don’t have wings,” Mateo returns.

Leona puts on her diplomacy face, and walks over to the research team. She spends a lot of time with them, no doubt negotiating for an aircraft of some kind, or maybe a crane capable of reaching that sky portal. Finally, she waves them over. Mateo takes Erlendr by the arm, and ushers him to the helicopter that he predicted. Knowing what these people are going to do next is almost too easy. He sits patiently in the craft as the pilot begins the preflight check, and teaches Leona what she needs to know to navigate it up and down. The Brits are probably never gonna get it back. At least the Matics are smart enough to recognize this. If Erlendr were in need of it, though, he wouldn’t have told the military that. He would have let the pilot take him home, and then just let her be trapped on the other side. He wouldn’t care about her. He doesn’t.

Erlendr turns out to be right, as per usual. Simply by having the Traversa Bracelet on her wrist, Alysa gets them through that sky portal, and over to Easter Island on Third Rail. What she doesn’t notice right away is that the bracelet falls apart, and off of her wrist. This is no surprise to him. Leona and Mateo talk a lot when they think that no one can hear them. They were particularly chatty while they were waiting for Alyssa to say goodbye to her sister. They were concerned that she wouldn’t be able to cross back over. Apparently, they didn’t come to this concern on their own. A friend of theirs from space did. Kestral thought that using the bracelet to transport their entire ship could destroy it, and she was probably right since this is just a regular helicopter. Ramses may be able to fix or reverse engineer it, though, so he gathers every hair he can find. He can use them as leverage. Again, he just needs to find the right opportunity.

When Leona lands to regroup, that’s when they discover the bracelet to be missing. There is no known way to return to the Fourth Quadrant, which from Erlendr’s perspective, is either a good thing, or a whatever thing. Having planned for this, everyone gets out to prepare to teleport. This bird can’t make it all the way to the mainland, so they’re just going to donate it to the Rapa Nui people. Erlendr would have instead crashed it in the ocean just for fun, but he’s not the one in charge...not yet.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 12, 2398

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Kivi enters the lab to find Ramses at his desk, listlessly scraping the blade of a pocket knife back and forth along the back of his hand as if trying to sharpen it. He doesn’t stop when she approaches, he’s just staring at the screensaver on his computer. Half a container of fruit is teetering on the edge. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“What? How?” He doesn’t look at her. He’s following the pattern on the screen.

She uses her eyes to indicate the knife, but has to say it out loud, “the blade.”

“Oh, it’s incredibly dull. It’s just self-soothing behavior.”

“Mateo and Leona are gonna be fine. They checked in with us, they’ll be back through the portal later.”

“I know, but it’s my fault they’re there.”

“We didn’t get much information,” Kivi begins, “but it sounds like they would not have been able to get through the bubble without going on that detour first. Sounds to me like it was fate.”

“I don’t believe in fate. You can’t once you’ve been through what we have. We’ve seen the people in charge of reality. They’re just men. Some are even children.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that they’re going to be okay. They’re even bringing back Erlendr, a.k.a. your real body. You’re gonna be back to your old self.”

Ramses just nods.

“Talk to me, Ram.”

“What are we doing here? What are we trying to accomplish?”

“I dunno, what were you working on?”

“Before we found out where Mateo and Leona had gone off to? I was trying to track their location.”

“Is there anything else that needs to be done?”

“That’s my point. We’ve been so focused on getting ourselves back to the main sequence, and reuniting with temporal energy, that we haven’t asked ourselves why. Why bother? Trina was born in this reality. Then she went to another, and had a full life. She lived, she died, and by all accounts, she was happy. The Matics have gotten themselves away from the powers that be. Now that that’s all over, any mess we get ourselves into is our own fault. The harder we push, the harder time pushes back. So let’s give up. Let’s just...be. Sounds easier.”

Kivi sighs. “You can’t do that, Ramses. You have to get out of this reality.”

“Why? What does it matter?”

She sighs again, harder this time. She’s wondered whether she should say anything about this since she first came into existence, and now she may have no choice. Like he said, they were focused on escaping, maybe they would never have to know, but if he’s doubting that objective... “I am the Third Rail Kivi. I can exist in this reality, and this reality alone. I can feel the day that I die, because it is the same day that this reality collapses. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I know that it’s coming up. And I’m afraid that if you’re still here when that happens, you’ll die too.”

Only now does Ramses look away from his computer, and into Kivi’s eyes, which he studies. He’s not trying to see if she’s lying, but gauging how sure she is, in case she may be wrong about her assumptions. “Okay, then. I better get back to work.”

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 11, 2398

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It wasn’t one last conversation. Old!Trina may have been holding onto life so she could see her sister one last time, but in the meantime, her body reacted appropriately to the treatment she received, and recovered a little. She’s still on her way out of this world, but it’s bought her a little more time with her family. Mateo, Leona, and Erlendr are still on the outside of the bubble on the Kansas City Metropolitan Island of The Fourth Quadrant. “Wait, Trina’s family is from the main sequence,” Mateo realizes.

“Yeah, but they all came to the Fourth Quadrant together.”

Mateo glares at Erlendr. “Don’t go anywhere, buddy.” He takes Leona by the shoulders, and transports them to the part of the border where they first landed. They walked all the way to the Smithville Lake Park without remembering that he was capable of doing this. They’re losing their touch. “What happens if she dies here? Will she go to the afterlife simulation?”

“No, she won’t. As far as we were able to tell, you have to be from the main sequence, and in the main sequence. People from other realities lack the physiology for mind uploading. Trina wouldn’t go there either way since she’s from the Third Rail.”

“But she’s not anymore,” Mateo reasons. “She’s using a new body.”

Leona smacks herself in the forehead. “Of course. Clones are created using a native prebiotic protein solution. Her brain would have developed with all the necessary components.”

“We have to get her back there.”

“How?” Leona questions. “We don’t even know how to do it ourselves.”

Mateo searches for answers in the waves crashing into the wall of the island. “They surely have stasis technology here. She could be placed in a pod until we can break these dimensional barriers down.”

“She has rejected level three life extension practices and above. Stasis is level four or five, depending on efficiency.”

“We have to try to convince her. Alyssa has to try.”

“You’re right. They have the right to know their options regardless.” She taps on her earpiece to explain to Alyssa how and why Trina may never need to die. Her family will go to the simulation whether she chooses to or not, and if they want to join her in a hypothetical heaven, they would basically be committing suicide. They spend a lot of time on this discussion. Leona talks to Alyssa, and then directly to Trina. Mateo tries to talk to her about it too, relating his experiences with the simulation. They talk to the doctor, and Trina’s family. After all of that, they end up in the same place as before. Trina is going to die here, and leave her fate up to God. She, her husband, and her kids came to the bubble with no plans to return, and no way to try, so they will remain, and hope for the best too once their time comes.

Having done their due diligence, the Matics return to Erlendr without saying a word to him about any of it. There they wait until Trina passes soon after nightfall. They hold a funeral service the next day. It’s not like there’s anyone who has to travel to it, or rather, there’s no one who can. Carlin and Moray are behind too many obstacles. Alyssa doesn’t cross back through the barrier until Sunday, but she’s not alone. She was able to support the mass of two people for rescue from the bubble.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 10, 2398

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It actually was helpful when Erlendr told Alyssa that she would be forty-two kilometers from the center of the island. Relatively speaking, that’s not too far from where the Capitol is, and if she has to walk the entire way, it’s going to take her a long time. That’s what she did all day yesterday. She snacked on the rations on the way, and only stopped to pee. She kept in contact with Leona and Mateo through her earpiece, which is working flawlessly. Everything is reportedly going fine on their end. They didn’t stay where they were, instead deciding to walk along the barrier, all the way up to a campground around where Smithville Lake should be. Part of it made it within the radius of the bubble, but most of it was not duplicated, and is just ocean. They walked through plenty of grass to get there, but that wasn’t the point. There is a non-zero chance that bodies of water serve as loopholes to the barrier, so they’re going to try today when the sun gets higher.

Alyssa found an abandoned house to stay in for the night. It wasn’t a difficult task as they are all over the place. These buildings are ancient by today’s standards. Most people live near the center now, in superstructures that are far more efficient, and environmentally friendly. This is a closed ecosystem with no resources available for import, so protecting what little they have is important. They have let the wild reclaim these areas for the most part. She hasn’t even seen a single soul since she crossed the threshold. Until now. She’s passing through an empty parking lot, distracted by the eerie sight of the towering rides at the amusement park that the residents don’t waste their energy on anymore. The bridge is only five kilometers away. She hears a noise, but doesn’t realize what it might be until it comes into a view. It’s a horse-drawn wagon. It looks new, not like it was found and recycled, but built for use in the modern day. The back is filled with some kind of grain, and only one man is on it.

She’s sick of walking, and if all he’s doing is going across the river then that will at least give her a break. Now, she could probably sneak onto the wagon, and hitch a ride without him noticing, but what happens the next time she has to sneeze, or accidentally bumps against the walls? He looks like a nice enough person, perhaps he can be trusted. She runs over to some trees before dropping her invisibility illusion, and then comes out, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Let’s see, how might a farmer in another reality talk? Anything like her people would? “Morning, friend! I was hopin’ to trouble you for a ride into town!”

“What are ya doin’ all the way out here, Miss?” he asks, stopping his horse.

“I was on an urban hike,” she says, turning her shoulders a little to show her daypack. “I went a little farther than I was originally plannin’. Now I’m straight tired.”

“Where exactly you headed?”

Leona comes in through the earpiece, “don’t tell him you’re going to the Capitol. There’s a residence near it called the Parkview Megablock. Say you live there.”

“I live in the Parkview Megablock,” she goes on.

“I’m not goin’ that far West. “I’m distributing wheat at the Blue Valley Market.”

“That’s a big area. No way to know exactly where the market is. Tell him that’s fine, and to just drop you off at twelfth.”

“If you could just drop me off at twelfth street, I would much appreciate it.”

He waits to respond, hopefully weighing his options, and not picturing her with her clothes off. “Hop on in.” He scoots over on the bench to give her room. “Name’s Buck on account of the fact that I’m the last resident of Buckner, Missouri.”

“Umm...Jessie. Jessie James.”

He nods, but might still realize she’s lying. If he does, he’s not saying anything. They make the occasional remark to each other on the way, but mostly sit in silence. She enjoys watching the horse’s head go up and down as it trudges along the road. It reminds her of home. It seems to take them longer than she would have thought, but she’s not all that familiar with Kansas City, especially not in this reality. Now she sees that there’s a reason Leona called it a megablock. She finds them surrounded by tall structures, much wider than a skyscraper. Each one looks like it covers the distance of several blocks. Through the earpiece, she explains that they’re self-sustainable and carfree, and can accommodate tens of thousands of people. Some of them have storefronts on the ground floor on the outside, but others are gated up. That’s all just a generalization of what a megablock is; the Fourth Quadrant version of Kansas City has their own socio-political framework that she doesn’t know too well.

“Here we go.” Buck stops the wagon.

Here she sees some real skyscrapers. “Thanks, I’ll walk home from here.”

“If you really wanna go to Parkview, it’s about a mile that way. He points back the way they came.”

“We passed it?” she questions as she’s getting out of the wagon.

“If you lived there, you’d a’ noticed. You’re trying to go to the Capitol, though.”

“I’m sorry?”

Buck taps at his ear. “Superhearing implant. I can hear your associate on your comms. It’s okay, I know you were trying to be safe. I am too. You’re obviously on some kind of operation, which is why I lied about who I am, and where I’m from. I suspect you’re from pretty far away, or else you’d know that Buckner is on this side of the river.”

“I just don’t know who to trust.”

He nods, and engages his horse, who starts to walk away slowly. “Like I said, I understand. You don’t gotta worry about me. I don’t know nothin’.” He rolls away.

She watches him go for a minute. “Which building is it?”

“Tallest one that isn’t incredibly tall. It’s a normal skyscraper, like what you’re used to,” Leona explains.

Alyssa steps into an alleyway for cover, then reëmerges invisible. She walks right into the building, slipping through unnoticed as someone else is coming out. She walks over to the elevators, and tries to go to the top floor, but the button won’t light up, presumably because it requires an access card. It just defaults to the thirty-ninth floor. She tries to press the other buttons, but the thirty-ninth button blinks every time, and then stays on. It’s the only one she’s allowed to go to. At least it’s relatively close. “What’s on this floor?” she whispers as she waits for the ride to end.

“I don’t know,” Leona replies. “I didn’t know anyone would have superhearing implants either, so we better go radio silent. You’re gonna have to improvise, okay? That might mean revealing yourself. Can you handle this?”

She’s determined to get her sister back. “Yes.”

“Click your tongue five times to signal you need help.”

The doors open, letting Alyssa out to a hallway. There is a door to her left, and one to her right. Then all the way down at the end is another door. The first two don’t open, so she keeps going. Nervous, she turns the knob, and enters the room. An old woman is lying in a hospital bed, and a man in a lab coat is nearby, monitoring the medical equipment.

“Hello?” the old woman asks, staring at the ceiling, and not moving. “Is somebody there?”

The doctor looks over. “The door opened on its own, Señora Rendón. I don’t see anyone, it must have been a draft.”

Alyssa quietly steps over to the bed, and takes a look at the patient’s chart. Trina Rendón. “Trina?”

“Hello?” the woman asks again.

“Who’s there?” The doctor gets in a defensive position.

Alyssa drops the illusion, and comes into view. “Alyssa McIver. My sister’s name is Trina.”

“Aly,” the patient says with joy in her voice. “You’ve come to see me off.”

“What is the meaning of this?”

The doctor sighs. “Miss McIver, this is your sister. She’s older now, but it’s her.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let’s talk in the hallway.” The doctor leads her back out. “I don’t have the whole story, I’m just here to treat her pain. From what I’ve heard, your sister, Trina came to the main world sharing a body with someone else. They used technology to separate them, and give her a new body. It was, I think, modeled on what Trina looked like before. Umm...I don’t know what she did with her life, but she lived it. She came to us two years ago—somehow found a way into the bubble—and I’ve been in charge of her medical needs ever since.”

Alyssa looks at the door. “Is this hospice?”

“I’m a hospice doctor, yes.”

“So she’s dying.”

“Yes.”

“But you can fix her.”

He hesitates a moment. “Señora Rendón has refused life extension treatment beyond Level II.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“On a scale between zero and five, the second level allows for generalized scientific medication, but not targeted medication, death-inhibiting therapies, or indefinite life extension technologies. She has let us keep her alive, but only to a point.”

That can’t be the end of the story. There has to be a way to undo this. “You can reverse aging, right? Or someone can. Your world has all sorts of technology.”

“Technically, yes, but I wouldn’t recommend it. She has experienced all those years. She’s not a child anymore,” he explains. “I’m sure it’s hard for you to wrap your head around this, but she has been able to tell us stories. She grew up, and she met someone, and they had children. They’re here, if you’d like to meet them, but you should speak with Trina first. She can explain it better, and she doesn’t have much time. I think she knew you were coming, and she was waiting.”

“You’ll regret it if you don’t go,” Leona warns.

Alyssa wants to, but she can’t convince her legs to move. Sensing this, the doctor physically helps her through, so the two McIver sisters can have one last conversation.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 9, 2398

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The four of them start to test the bubble, knowing that there is no way in. As they pound on the surface, rippling colors emanate from the center—looking like an oil puddle rainbow—and fade away. “Do you see anybody?” Alyssa asks, placing her face against it, hoping to get a better look. She cups her hands over her eyes to block out the light, but it doesn’t change the image.

“What does that look like to you?” Leona asks.

“A cemetery,” Mateo says what everyone is thinking.

Alyssa takes a half step away, and looks at the ground under their feet. She bends down, and brushes some debris away. There’s a gravestone on this side of the bubble. The name reads INFANT DAU. They were born May 8, and died May 9, 1917. They were only hours old. It was rather common in those days. The strip of land between the bubble and the edge of the ocean is only a couple of meters wide, cut in a perfect circle, but they can see two more gravestones next to the baby for three Holts. Dau Holt. The period suggests it to be a diminutive, but maybe they’re interpreting that wrong.

Erlendr is still looking through the bubble. “Leona, do you have binoculars of some kind?”

“What does that matter?” She questions.

“We’re somewhere in the North,” he begins. “I think I know where we are, but if you could just look in that direction. He lifts his cuffed hands and points south by southwest.

He’s a dick, but he knows a lot of things that they don’t. Using the scope app on her tablet isn’t going to give him some kind of advantage to escape...probably. Leona lifts her device up, and zooms in.

“Little to the left. There.”

“Jesse James. That’s his real grave?”

“That’s what people are led to believe,” Erlendr explains. “He died in 1816, not 1882. He was killed by a time bullet.”

Leona lowers the tablet. “1816? We’ve been there before, roundabouts here.”

Erlendr nods. “The man who killed Angela Walton, and framed Theo Delaney. Someone gave him the technology, I don’t know why. He had to test it first, and this is what he chose, or someone asked him to do it.” That doesn’t quite match what they thought about any of this, but it doesn’t change anything. They’re still no closer to getting into the city limits. “This is Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri. We’re forty-two kilometers away from the center of the island, at fifty-sixth and The Paseo.”

“How does that help us?” Mateo asks.

“It’s better to know than to not.”

Leona has become distracted by something. Alyssa is running her fingers along the barrier. “Lyss, what’s that on your wrist?”

Alyssa jerks her arm closer to inspect it. “I don’t know. What is it? How did it get there? Is it going to hurt me? Is it a bomb?”

Mateo takes her arm to examine it himself. It’s the Traversa Bracelet, or something that looks very much like it. Ariadna Traversa only agreed to have one of them created, but Mateo lost it when the original copy of the AOC was destroyed in an antimatter explosion. Did Meliora save it for them? “This should be able to get us through the wall. It’s dimensional, right? It’s not glass or something.”

“Yeah,” Leona answers. “You should wear it, though. You’re the one with the superpowers.”

“No,” Erlendr says.

“What are you talking about?”

“Meliora Rutherford is one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and the next. If Alyssa is wearing the bracelet, she’s supposed to be wearing it. If you so much as attempt to take it off of her, it may be rendered useless. I think this is up to her now.”

“She’s my sister,” Alyssa furthers.

Leona shakes her head, not wanting to send their newest recruit on a solo mission this early. She’s not ready.

“Captain,” Alyssa urges, “please.”

Leona reaches into her bag, and retrieves an earpiece, which she hands to her. “This will allow signals to cross the dimensional barrier too. I wish it came with video, but at least you can stay in contact. The battery should last a hundred years, in case you need that.”

Alyssa giggles, but forces herself to turn serious. She recognizes the danger in her having to do this alone. She turns to face Mateo.

He holds her upper arms in his hands. “She’s in there. You can find her. Go to the Capitol at the One Kansas City Place building to speak with the Presidents. Tell anyone you find that Mateo sent you. But that’s only if your hat falls off.”

This confuses Alyssa for a second, but then she realizes what he’s talking about. “I don’t have the magic hat with me. I didn’t know that I was going anywhere when that phone rang to inform us of Trina’s location.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t need the actual hat.” He points to her chest suggestively. “The power is in you, and you’re in a reality now where you don’t need assistance. The bubble is full of temporal energy. They run on the stuff.”

“Who should I make myself look like?”

“No one,” he replies. “You should turn invisible.”

“Are you sure? Is that really possible?”

“You can make yourself look like anything...or nothing. All you’re doing is taking something that exists somewhere else, and putting it in front of you. It doesn’t have to be remote, though. The thing you’re superimposing could be right behind you instead.”

She takes a breath to prepare herself. Leona hands her a daypack with essentials from the emergency bag. “Captain,” she says to her respectfully. She looks over at Erlendr. “I know you’re not really Ramses, but you look exactly like him right now, so allow me to thank him for teaching me how to do this.”

Erlendr is uncomfortable. “You’re welcome.”

Alyssa throws the bag over her shoulders, and reaches out to the barrier, left hand first. She concentrates on passing through it, instead letting it hold her back. The barrier transforms into a liquid, like that one scene in The Matrix, or several scenes in The Matrix 4...or nearly any episode of Stargate. She keeps walking, holding her breath instinctively. Once she’s through, she looks back, she doesn’t see her friends, only her own reflection. She uses it to gauge her ability as she concentrates on turning herself invisible. She waves, knowing that they can see her, and in seconds, she’s gone.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: September 8, 2398

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Medavorken and Cricket are not the only people here with them. They’re accompanied by a soldier they don’t recognize, and Meliora Rutherford. She regards them like she didn’t know they would be coming, and doesn’t know how she feels about it. Leona maintains her composure as captain of this crew. “Report.”

“None of your business,” Meliora replies. “Report.”

“We were trapped on a world that serves as a junkyard for random lost objects throughout the bulk,” Mateo answers.

Meliora nods. “Flipverse, yeah. Not a very pleasant brane, if I should dare to share my opinion.”

“Did you see my boyfriend there?” Cricket asks. “He’s lost.”

“Quiet, Cricket.” Meliora glares at her, then faces Mateo and Leona. “Sorry, he’s...excitable.”

Cricket glares back. “But I’m not dumb. You obviously don’t want them to know that my boyfriend is The Superintendent.”

Mateo, Leona, and Erlendr are shocked by this. Alyssa doesn’t recognize the term yet, so she doesn’t react.

“Don’t look so impressed,” Meliora warns. “He’s just a man with the ability to dream and make up stories. You can do it too.”

“Well, as far as we know,” Leona says to Cricket, “he wasn’t there.”

“Where are we?” Alyssa asks. “More importantly, can wherever we are get me back to my sister?”

“I’m afraid that’s not what I’ve been tasked to do,” Meliora replies. “I’m far too busy to take on new jobs while I’m in the middle of one.”

Leona widens her eyes, and shakes her head suggestively at her.

“We’re in my universe,” Cricket answers for her. “If we were ever separated, Tavis and I agreed to meet back here, right after the moment we first left together.” He looks around for him, but sees nothing but rocks, trees, and rushing water.

“I was to understand the Superintendent did not travel,” Mateo remembers.

“He doesn’t,” Meliora explains reluctantly, wishing this would just all be over. “This is a duplicate. He’s not even the Superintendent anymore.”

“Oh.”

“Bottom line,” Leona says, “is that we need to get to the Fourth Quadrant in September of 2398. The exact date isn’t super important.”

“That’s the rough date here,” Cricket points out.

“That’s where I was trying to go,” Mateo tells them. “I guess I just didn’t get the right universe. I don’t know what I did wrong, though, so I’m not sure I can fix it. Plus, I’m not the one who created the portal, I just found and used it. Is there a reason that it brought us here specifically, or is it random?”

“You were probably drawn to this one.” The soldier indicates Meliora. “She brought us here.”

Alyssa takes a half step forward. “If that’s true, then you can do it, you can reunite me with my sister.”

“Okay.” Meliora throws up her hands. “That’s enough about me, and the Superintendent. I’m sorry, but I cannot help you. In order for me to travel the bulk, I have to meditate for years. I literally sit in one place for several years to build up bulk energy in my body.”

“That’s not how long it took when you brought us here,” Medavorken contends.

“That was from The Stage; the same physical rules don’t apply. I can absorb it much faster while I’m there. It’s the difference between holding out your hand, and accumulating water from the air, and sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool.” There’s something she’s not telling the team. She would be able to find a way if she were clever about it. She could place herself into a time bubble, and make the meditation process faster. Even if that didn’t work as a loophole, she could place the team inside a bubble, so they didn’t have to stand around and wait for her that long. How she’s acting with them is no great surprise, though. She’s a powerful being. She calls herself a Rutherford, which is a fair claim, but a part of her will always be a Delaney, and a part of her will always be a Reaver. She plays it close to the vest, because otherwise, she could probably single-handedly solve every problem ever. She likely gets real sick of people asking her for favors.

“If you don’t help us,” Leona warns, “we’re never going to leave you alone. I mean, what else are we gonna do, hang out on this planet? It could be dangerous.”

“It’s really not,” Cricket breathes in the fresh air, and smiles proudly.

“My point is that if we’re not going anywhere...then we’re not going anywhere. I’ve always wanted to get to know my daughter better anyway.”

“I am not your daughter,” Meliora says. She’s touchy about her family tree.

“No, you’re not,” Leona agrees. “Leona Reaver is. I don’t know if you know this, but we saved her life. We never found out who extracted her from her timeline, but after they did, we got her out of her body, and into a new one. We’re not just trying to get to Trina. We’re trying to get to her. Will you help us?”

Meliora sighs. “Are you skipping time?”

“Not presently.”

“My abilities are limited here,” Meliora begins to explain. I was born with a bag of tricks. When I go to another universe, some of those tricks come with me, and some of them don’t. I was trapped in one brane for centuries once because one of the tricks that I lost was my connection to the bulk. I only got out of there when the Prototype coincidentally showed up on a mission. I’m just lucky that I didn’t lose my immortality. My point is that I’m not lying, I can’t help you, unless you have five or so years to wait.”

“Would you please reach out to someone who can help?”

“Yes,” Meliora replies. “Future!Me will help you. But I have a recommendation.”

“What would that be?”

“Get out while you can. The Fourth Quadrant...does not last forever.”

Before anyone can ask her to elaborate, Mateo’s hands begin to drift to the right on their own, forcing him to turn his body. He feels a pull towards the empty space behind them. Droplets of bulk energy roll up his fingers like beads of sweat. They cling as long as they can, but eventually let go, and become drawn into a new portal. They don’t have to walk through it, or teleport. It sucks them in like a vacuum cleaner.

Bonk! They strike an invisible wall, and fall to the ground. They’re hurt, but only superficially. They get themselves back up, and look around. In one direction is the infinite ocean, and in the other is that translucent wall. This is the edge of the Kansas City Metropolitan Island of the Fourth Quadrant, but they’re on the wrong side of it.