[hr][center][b][u][h3][???? ??th, ???? – 01:51am – Terminal Asylum, Low Orbit, ?-?][/h3][/u][/b][/center][hr] [center][A ZombiesAndHyenas / XianaEvermor collaboration][/center] Eyes fluttered open to black. She stirred; the super-natural softness of her Tinker-made sheets crumpled gently against her newly reconstituted skin. Eva's hair spilled around her like straight platinum curtains, and the perfectly temperature-controlled air gently caressed her. Hard Reset. The clock ticked over 01:51. [b][color=#ab6879]"Good morning, Director. [Sensitivity Preferences] have been re-enabled,"[/color][/b] greeted Monarch. The lights in her quarters slowly illuminated dim, and Eva rose out of her bed, dragging the sheet with her to shield her body. The Director shuddered. Even though her body was in perfect physical condition, her insides still sizzled at the phantom burns of her encounter with the Alien. Every time she blinked, she could still see its eye peering at her through the voidlight. [b][color=#FA649B]"Status,"[/color][/b] she whispered hoarsely. [b][color=#ab6879]"One thousand. Four-hundred. Twenty-three years have passed since the initiation of the Director's project. As predicted, the creature has spread to consume the entirety of our planet. It has not yet spread beyond our solar system by any observable means within our current scope. "Once all life was subsumed, subject A-Zero stagnated as predicted, though has yet to die out. It appears to be in a self-perpetuating cycle of birthing new life which it then consumes to sustain itself. There does not appear to be any specific form or function to the life-forms it creates."[/color][/b] She took a moment to process this information as she strode back out into the observation dome. The cacophony from the surface was muted to faint discordant songs by the facility's noise filtration. She stood next to the pile of empty leather she was previously wearing as a handful of [b]Enchanter's[/b] drones scrubbed diligently at the bloodstains she left behind. The petrified branches of Yggdrasil were now stretching into the stratosphere, its twisted, blasted branches held up in a vain attempt to shield itself from the pale intensity of the star A-Zero had summoned to destroy it... The star pummeled the continent below with intense radiation, vaporizing any living matter that came too close before it had a chance to develop any resistances. A beacon and monument to the failed [i]apotheosis[/i] of Kiran Kingsley left curiously untouched by time... same as the other monoliths of their failed attempts to stem the spread of A-Zero. "Look upon your failures," it mocked. Eva scowled out of the observation dome. [b][color=#FA649B]"Can it see us?"[/color][/b] [b][color=#ab6879]"Unknown. The creature appears to be aware of your presence, but has not attempted to breach [i]The Divide[/i]. Suggests A-Zero cannot cross the dimensional threshold."[/color][/b] This single utterance, from a being that was no more biological than it was astral, was evidentially paying some form of past karma. In the distance, that singular unwavering eye blinked once. Immense power focused itself, weaving a collection of [SPELLWORK] into the air, before it came to a full stop. Thoughts, alien in their make, raced through multiple choices. Took multiple paths, and consolidated on just [i]one[/i] of many that could achieve the wanted goal. The eye blinked again, and for a moment, the 'sun' vanished. Once again, that weave of spell work bloomed to life, casting faintly visible lines of ... Something? Light? Onto the very sky itself. The sun reasserted itself, back to 'normal' in its existence. The Director stiffened, her eyes darting up towards the 'Sun.' 'A-Zero' turned its eye to-and-fro, casting its' sight in all directions before settling for l̸̙̇o̸͈̊̕ó̸̺̈k̸̗̾͘i̴̖̣̾ń̸̦͝g̷̢̮̿̃ ̸̬̀̊d̷̳̔͒ͅi̵̻̾̃ŕ̴̤͜ḛ̴̝̈́͝c̸̰͔̄̉t̸̝̻̿͑l̴̨̙̈́̈y̵̠̕̚ ̸̲͖̐a̶͔͐t̷̝͠͝ ̸̱͊h̶̩̐́e̴͓̒̇r̷͚̎͗.̸͎͑̕ The pupil contracted, becoming little more than a pinprick in a massive sea of orange-purple-silver-[BLOOD]. And like a bomb, a shockwave rippled across the world. Another psychic scream that punched through the 'dimensional barrier'. Infiltrated the space that was/was not in A-Zero's 'vision'. Sundered all that had thought, ripped the surface of the world below into shrapnel. Then, as swiftly as it came, the world settled again. The eye blinked, and waited. Eyes jolt open to black. She stirred. Her body was restored to perfect physical condition, but she was still addled by the feeling of having her persona psychically disintegrated what felt like not a moment ago. [b][color=#ab6879]"Hypothesis updated: A-Zero is most assuredly aware of you, Director,"[/color][/b] Monarch noted clinically. Another Hard Reset. The clock ticked over 01:51. [b][color=#FA649B]"Is the [i]Tower[/i] still functional?"[/color][/b] She croaked, pressing her palms into her eyes. [b][color=#ab6879]"Indeed."[/color][/b] [b][color=#FA649B]"Center-mass, please,"[/color][/b] she instructed. At first, nothing... then, several seconds later, a spear of fire and alloy arced over the horizon from where Texas used to stand at some fraction of the speed of light, showering the Earth in the first true-light it had seen in an age, leaving a chasm of molten glass in its wake. The lance of death and fire flew, and flew, in silence and with the conception of deicide, it flew. And struck. The observation dome darkened against the flash, and the facility's noise filtration reduced the cataclysm to a distant peal of thunder. Waves of force rippled over [i]The Divide[/i], shaking bones that were not, warping flesh that was not, and spilling blood that had never been. Pain, fleeting and eternal, flashed through the flesh. The thing in the space that was not real and yet was had fought back. Interesting. A new variable. One that was nothing and meant nothing, after all... [b][i]One could not kill the divine with a gun.[/i][/b] Reality bled, and with a whisper, the planet fell into chaos once more. The barrier was no obstacle, the force and focus brought to bear was enough to kill God. And it had. So, what was one mortal thing? N̷͇̬͕̟̪̞͋̚ ̷̗̭͇͈̻̗̓̀́͂o̴̘̹͇͕͙̲̊͛̐̒̽ ̸̧̰͍̖̥̿͗͜t̸͍̯͈̦͉͕̃͛̏͑͗ ̷̲̺̱͍͠h̵̯͚͛̿͝ ̴̲̎̃i̷̞͑͠ ̵̛̟̣̯̏̑́͗ͅͅn̷͚̖͚̬̉͌̇͌͆̕ ̵̛̘̮̳͉͇͇̃͊́͝ģ̵̬̣̿͋̂͘͜͠.̸̫̼̯̗͉͑͋̄͝ Another psychic attack. The Director shielded herself fruitlessly as her consciousness was ejected into the void. Hard Reset. The clock ticked over 01:51. [b][color=#FA649B]"SCHEIßE!"[/color][/b] The Director jolted awake. Her eyes darted to the Conduit Emitter in the adjacent chamber, and she strongly considered making a naked dash to escape into the Exospace from the death revolving door. [b][color=#ab6879]"Ammunition depleted,"[/color][/b] informed Monarch. [b][color=#ab6879]"Shall I target the creature with another weapon?"[/color][/b] [b][color=#FA649B]"NO!"[/color][/b] She shrieked, trying to come up with a plan in her scant moments of consciousness before her next death. The world had stopped moving, in the time that The Director 'slept.' On the horizon, that singular gaze of malice stared at her. Its pupil contracted once more, before exploding outward. It swallowed all the color, leaving nothing but a pure-black disk. The intelligence behind the eye thought, and thought, and- Another wave rushed out from it, warbling and undulating like the distorted call of some psychic siren. Weaker? Stronger? Something about this 'scream' was different. As if it were trying to mimic a song, give her an earworm, make it stick... The intelligence over-estimated what she could handle. Hard Reset. The clock ticked over 01:51. [b][color=#FA649B]"Activate the Conduit!!"[/color][/b] The Director shrieked as she bolted upright. Her body flickered out of the bed with the signature [i]thud[/i] of displaced air as she reappeared in front an unremarkable wooden door framed in the center of a Dais at the southern edge of the facility. She hurled the door open, slamming it dramatically against the frame to reveal... the back of the facility. [b][color=#ab6879]"The Conduit will be available in fifteen seconds..."[/color][/b] [b][color=#FA649B]"...Scheiße."[/color][/b]