Alex was sure that his father was human. At least, he thought his father was human. However, if that was indeed the case, then how were those symbols inside of him?

  “The first thing I’ve discovered is that those symbols aren’t only around your core. They’re also inside of your brain. More specifically, they’re wrapped around the prefrontal cortex, which is where all of your long-term memories are stored.”

  A moment of silence passed between them. Alex was, well, it wouldn’t have been a lie to say that he was shocked, but that would’ve been understating his feelings.

  “Are you telling me that my long-term memories have been tampered with?”

  Gabrielle’s long, silver hair swayed as she shook her head. “No. It’s more like your long-term memories have been sealed. I don’t know what all of those symbols stand for, but I’ve come to the conclusion that they function as a sort of seal to lock away your memories. I suspect that the symbols around your core are also a seal that locks away your angelisian traits. There seems to be some degradation around the seal on your core, which explains why you can use your aura.”

  Alex needed a minute to comprehend what she was saying. It wasn’t that he didn’t get it, but more that what she was telling him was just so unbelievable that he couldn’t believe it. He wanted to believe her. Gabrielle wasn’t a liar. He was just having trouble wrapping his head around this new knowledge.

  “Why would someone do this? Who could do this?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know,” Gabrielle said, and this time, the grave expression on her face seemed to fit her perfectly. “But whoever did it was most definitely an angelisian, or someone who has incredible knowledge of our language. I suspect we’ll learn more if we break the seal on your memory.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “Maybe…” Gabrielle sounded reluctant. “I’d need to study the seals more in depth, and then I would need to create a program that could decipher and unseal it. If Ariel was here, she could unseal it for us. Maybe I should ask her to come over and help us.”

  Ariel was one of Gabrielle’s two younger sisters. Alex didn’t know anything about them beyond what she had told him. He thought about her suggestion, recalling the conversation they had the other day about how he might be an angelisian, but then shook his head.

  “I’d rather we not trouble other people with this. Besides, I trust that you can do something about these seals. I believe in you.”

  “Alex…”

  Gulping as he saw the joy radiating from her eyes, Alex found himself slowly leaning over. It might have been due to the heat of the moment, or maybe it was her words, but Alex wanted to kiss Gabrielle right then.

  Too bad he wouldn’t get the chance.

  A loud sizzling filled the air, and he and Gabrielle leapt from the seat, jumping back just as a superheated beam of sand slammed into the bench. Alex stared blankly as the bench was eroded and burnt to ashes in seconds. That attack was just like the one that Al-lāt had used!

  Several objects appeared from within the foliage. They looked nothing like the puppets that Alex had faced before. While those other ones had been bipedal, these looked more like giant spheres. Each one was about the size of his head. Round and gleaming in the light, they all had a glowing red photoreceptor located above a small hole that no doubt fired those condensed sand beams. There were four of these robots in total.

  “I apologize for breaking up this touching moment,” a voice said from all of the robots. “However, I’d like to see if you’re really as powerful as Al-lāt says you are, Alexander S. Ryker. Please don’t disappoint me.”

  12

  After taking a moment to admire the erotically erotic scene of eroticism, Nicolas decided that it was time to end this perverse scenario.

  Unfortunately, catching all the Alexes and Gabrielles was a lot harder than it sounded.

  “Over there! Got you—waaa!”

  “Hold on you—my panties!”

  “Hey, don’t run away from—why is it so breezy? Iyahn! Who stole my boxers!”

  The Alex and Gabrielle copies were slippery foes. They utilized a strange form of perverted teamwork to thwart him and Jessica at every turn, stealing their undies, undoing their clothes, and just making fools of them and everyone they ran into. What’s more, because there were so many of them, they had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

  “Don’t think I’ll give up so easily! Orya—gya!”

  “Kya! How did Gabrielle take my bra off without me even noticing?! Wait! Never mind that! How is it that my clothes are still perfectly pristine yet my bra is missing?!”

  Truly, these copies were deadly adversaries. While Jessica’s clothing remained most unruffled, save for the fact that one of the Gabrielles had stolen her bra, Nicolas was down to just a towel—which he was currently fighting over with a horde of Alexes.

  Jessica glared at the Gabrielles surrounding her, all of which were making creepy grabbing motions with their hands. “Don’t think you can beat me just because you have numbers on your side. I’ll show you the true power behind someone whose hands have been blessed by the erotic gods!”

  The Gabrielles, as if sensing the challenge in her words, charged at Jessica, who slid her feet across the ground and prepared for combat.

  She tilted her body when one Gabrielle came in from the front. A pair of hands tried to grab her breasts, but she swatted them away with a deft flick of her wrists. Spinning around as she sensed movement behind her, Jessica grabbed another outstretched arm, planted her left foot firmly on the ground, and yanked. The Gabrielle whose arm she’d grabbed flew forward. Jessica spun around again and, using her body as a fulcrum, tossed that Gabrielle into another one, sending them both to the floor.

  The two Gabrielles clambered back to their feet and looked ready to pounce, but then they seemed to realize something. They looked down. They weren’t wearing a shirt anymore.

  Poof!

  “What the—”

  Jessica waved away the cloud of smoke that suddenly engulfed the area. When the smoke dispersed, the two Gabrielle’s were gone, and no amount of searching allowed her to locate them.

  “Nicolas!” Jessica shouted.

  “What is it? I’m kinda busy here!”

  “You need to take off their clothes! If you take off their clothes, the copies will become disrupted and disappear!”

  “What kind of stupid ass law is that?!”

  “Just do it!”

  “All right! Fine!”

  Nicolas let go of the towel that he’d been playing tug of war with. The Alexes who’d also been battling him, with nothing left to act as a counterbalance, were sent stumbling backwards. They tripped over each other, crashing to the ground in a heap of limbs. As they got back up, Nicolas rushed forward. Quicker than light speed, he stole all their clothes, which caused the copies to explode in bursts of smoke.

  Once they figured out how to defeat these copies, destroying the rest was easy. Clothes flew as Jessica and Nicolas stripped the rest of the Alex and Gabrielle copies, until, at last, with a final explosion of smoke, all of the copies were gone.

  “That took a lot more effort than I thought it would.” Nicolas grunted as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He hadn’t needed to exert himself like that in a while.

  “Agreed,” Jessica murmured. “Still, what were all those strange copies, and why were they acting so perverted?”

  “Who knows?” Nicolas shrugged.

  Studying the area, which was now clear of tourists, Jessica eventually found something that she hadn’t noticed before. She knelt down and picked the item up. It looked like the sapling to a tree or some form of flora—except it was made of metal.

  “Do you think this could be what created those copies?”

  Nicolas also knelt down and looked at what she was holding. “Maybe. That looks like it’s made from some kind of alloy. I wonder how it works.”

  “Alien technology sure is amazing.” Jessica shook her head, as though she was shocked by what a couple of metal seedlings could do.

  Nodding as he stood up, Nicolas said, “Now’s not really the time for us to be impressed. Come on, we need to find Alex and Gabrielle. I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen to them.”

  As if his words held prophetic powers, a loud explosion rocked the entire area. Plumes of fire rose into the sky several hundred meters away. It looked like the flames were coming from a park.

  “You see what I mean?” he asked, gesturing to the explosion.

  13

  Alex grimaced as a wave of heat washed over him. The sphere that had shot at him burst from within a plume of smoke and superheated sand. It fired several beams at him, which he did his best to dodge, weaving and zigzagging across the park.

  He had been separated from Gabrielle when the spheres attacked them. He didn’t know if she was okay, though he hoped she was. He had confidence. Gabrielle might not act like it most of the time, but she was strong.

  That didn’t stop him from worrying.

  “You’re pretty good at dodging,” his opponent taunted.

  “I’m also good at kicking ass,” Alex shot back. “Why don’t you come out here and see how much better I am at beating jerks like you into the ground?”

  “Ha-ha-ha! I like your wit, but wit won’t save you here!”

  Three spheres flitted around him, launching beams of superheated sand. Alex dodged. He leapt back, swerved to the left, and then feigned a right step before tucking into a forward roll. Heat blasted over him, slamming into his back like a ferocious storm, but he was wearing his angelisian crisis suit… which still wasn’t fully calibrated because of the seal on his core. Heat resistant and incredibly durable, the suit protected him against the molten temperature, though he still groaned as it hit his back. The suit didn’t protect him from blunt force trauma.

  Skipping to his feet, he found two of the three spheres in his field of vision, darting toward him in flitting patterns that obscured their movements. They fired periodic blasts of sand beams. Like massive flaming projectiles, they soared unerringly toward him.

  Alex swerved around one projectile, which hit the ground seconds later and sent dirt clods crashing into his back. Wincing as one heated clod of dirt slammed into his unprotected head, Alex flew forward, hitting the ground face first.

  Blood filled his nose. It dripped down his face, touched his lips. The taste of iron made him gag.

  He scrambled to his feet. Three more projectiles screamed at him. Alex sidestepped left, then right, avoiding the first two beams. The third one, which came in from below, he couldn’t dodge. It slammed into his chest, a massive force of heat that he could feel even through the crisis suit, and while his suit protected him from the heat, it didn’t protect him from the force that he was hit with. Screaming, Alex flew backwards, the wind whipping by him at speeds that caused cuts to appear on his cheeks.

  His back protested when he slammed into a tree.

  Three spheres appeared before him. They hovered in the air. Emitting from their speakers with a crackle of static came the taunting voice: “Ha ha ha ha! Is this all you have? From what Al-lāt told us, I had assumed you would be a lot stronger.”

  Al-lāt?

  Hadn’t that been the name of Gabrielle’s suitor? It was the Jāhilīyahn.

  “I see,” Alex mumbled, glaring at the spheres, which hovered around him, darting to and fro to present more confusing targets. “You’re a Jāhilīyahn, aren’t you?”

  “So, you finally figured out what I am, eh?” the voice said. “That’s right. I am a Jāhilīyahn. To be more specific, I am the second prince of the Jāhilīyahn royal family.”

  This guy is awfully talkative.

  “Is this revenge, then? Do you want to kill me for defeating your older brother?”

  “Of course not. I honestly don’t care about that. I was just curious about how strong you are. From the way Al-lāt described you, I was under the impression that you were some kind of monster. You seem more like a harmless saskatchiann rodent to me.”

  Alex didn’t know what a saskatchiann rodent was, but he knew an insult when he heard one. “So says the cowardly jerk who’s hiding like a rat!”

  The voice laughed some more. “There’s that wit again. How fun! I’ve always heard that humans become sarcastic when they’re about to die.” Alex could hear a grin in the Jāhilīyahn’s voice. “Let’s see how true that rumor is.”

  14

  Heat seared her skin. Molten sand turned sakura trees to bubbling lumps of plasma. Gabrielle wove in and out of the attacks, using her supernatural speed and reflexes to dodge.

  She wished she had worn her crisis suit. Unlike Alex, who made it a habit to wear his suit all the time, Gabrielle had taken a love to wearing human clothes. Now she needed to be careful. Her body might have been stronger than most species in the galaxy, save for perhaps Daemons, but she’d still get hurt if those projectiles hit her.

  Fortunately, dodging these attacks was easy. She only had to worry about one sphere. Whoever was controlling it also used very basic attack patterns. This person seemed to favor rhomboidal movements, linear and square-shaped. She guessed that, whoever was attacking her, they were more focused on the battle with Alex than her. These patterns were clearly pre-programmed.

  Hmm, I need to destroy this thing so I can go and help Alex, but I can’t do too much damage to the surroundings.

  This was a problem. She had a lot of inventions that she could use to beat this simple puppet, but she and Alex had gotten into trouble for wrecking stuff until now. Gabrielle didn’t want Alex getting into any more trouble. That meant she needed to be careful.

  I could use Mr. Vacuum, but I don’t know if the quantum black hole would like sucking all that molten sand up…

  Quantum black holes weren’t real black holes. They didn’t have the infinite space of a black hole, but a limited amount of space set within a dimension of Gabrielle’s own creation. It technically wasn’t even a black hole at all. She’d only added black hole to its name because it sounded cool.

  As she continued to dodge, Gabrielle swiped her index finger through the air, and summoned her invention to this plane of existence.

  It looked nothing like a vacuum. Sporting a one-meter long barrel, multiple exhaust ports protruding from that barrel, and several light, silvery blue veins that glowed with repressed energy, the object in her grip looked more like a massive angelisian blaster rifle. Of course, she had modeled it from the original Angelisian Disruptor Cannon, which she had made for the Angelisian Army, so it only made sense that there would be similarities.

  Wearing a large smile, Gabrielle activated her machine by pulling the trigger.

  “Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum! I choose you!”

  Thrum!

  Mr. Vacuum activated with a powerful growl. Then, as if gravity had suddenly changed within a limited space, everything in front of Mr. Vacuum was ripped from the ground and sucked toward the massive barrel. Dirt, grass, bushes, trees, nothing escaped from Mr. Vacuum’s powerful sucking ability.

  This included the sphere, which Gabrielle now realized was a Jāhilīyahn R3-type puppet. It tried to resist at first, but there was no resisting this incredible force, and the puppet was quickly sucked into the barrel along with everything else in front of her.

  “Yay! Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum test one, successful!” Gabrielle cheered. “Now to turn it off.”

  She let go of the trigger. Nothing happened. Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum continued to suck up everything in sight.

  “Huh? Why won’t Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum turn off?”

  Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum, still sucking up everything in sight, began to spark.

  “Well,” Gabrielle started, “that can’t be good.”

  Mr. Long-Nosed Vacuum exploded in a massive plume of fire, sparks, and smoke. Nothing happened to Gabrielle, who activated her aura for the second it took to create a shield. She released her power before anything else could happen. Frowning as she looked at the remains of her creation, Gabrielle could do nothing but slump her shoulders.

  “Mou… and I was so sure this one would be a success,” Gabrielle mumbled to herself. “I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”

  15

  Alex was distracted by the explosion—a rookie mistake. Pain exploded in his side as he was hit point blank by a super-hot projectile. The heat was nothing. His suit took care of it. However, getting hit by a projectile the size of his head at point blank hurt. Alex screamed as the force threw him off his feet. He could practically hear the sound of his ribs snapping.

  D-damn it…

  Scrambling to his feet, Alex barely twisted away from another projectile that almost turned his head into an oozing puddle of goop. He grimaced. Because he’d been on the defensive for this whole fight, Alex had been unable to use his powers, which took time to activate. It still wasn’t something he could just do on a whim.

  This is not good. I can’t keep track of all three of these at the same time.

  The biggest problem was that he couldn’t divide his attention between all three of the spheres. It was different than fighting in a massive brawl. Brawls were chaotic and featured an every man for himself mentality; these spheres worked as a team to keep him from fighting back.

  Fortunately, Alex had now memorized the flight patterns that this Jāhilīyahn used.

  It was obvious when he thought about it. Splitting one’s attention between four spheres, one of which was involved in another battle with Gabrielle, must have been difficult. That meant their puppets’ movements were being limited to basic pre-programed patterns.

  I need to reduce their numbers.

  Two spheres came at him from the front, which meant one was behind him. Straining his ears, Alex heard a sharp whiz! that alerted him to the sphere’s movements. He calculated its angle based on the sound, its height from the ground, and which degree it was relative to him. Then he positioned himself properly.

  All three spheres fired at him. Alex ducked. He covered his head with his hands, flinching as two detonations rang out in his ears. Fire and alloy rained down on him. He bit his tongue when several sharp shards impaled him in the back. The angelisian crisis suit didn’t account for piercing damage either. Warm blood dripped down his skin.

 

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