MEHR Interlude 4 Snippet 4 (Patreon)

 That logo... seeing it made Adam's mind go back to the Durendal's  hangar, where the ruin of Elsa' craft lay. Then, to that fragment in  time where the immense Reaper warforms were being destroyed in dark  space.   

Before Adam could fully process the implications, the 108's AR display dropped another bombshell: 

Luciferase 451 detected. 

Adam double-checked the files he had downloaded – apparently Luciferase  451 was potent battery fluid for Gen-5 Androids and above, and with Elsa  being 'Gen-6', she was apparently compatible with the stuff. If  Luciferase 108 had a 25 percent chance of resurrecting her, perhaps 451  had better odds? 

“Wonder where it's landing?” wondered Garrus out loud, as the meteor merged with the sunlight. 

“Same place we're headed, looks like,” replied Adam. 

They looked down the hill, and saw Ramsus petting a few wild horses, of all things. 

“Found us some transportation,” he said, as they approached. “Don't worry, they'll be quite docile as long as I'm close.” 

“You can control these?” asked Garrus. 

“Of course,” Ramsus replied. “Why wouldn't I? They're real enough.” 

“More animal and animal?” quipped Adam. 

“Doesn't need to be,” replied Ramsus. “Hannibal... no, even Teg has a psychic signature.” 

“But they're machines,” protested Garrus. 

“So are we,” replied Ramsus. “We're just more complicated.” 

[h+]​

It was almost noon, and the sun's light was obscured by a sheet of grey clouds. 

“Looks like I jinxed it,” said Garrus, half-jokingly. He was the first  to notice the fissures in time and space that skewed the light just so, splitting  it into chromatic aberrations. The fractures were subtle, at first...  but as they approached the location of the Chrono Break, they became far  more difficult to ignore.  

“They're not hazardous yet,” Conrad reassured him. “When they do, I'll let you know ahead of time.” 

“I just hope the horses don't panic,” said Garrus, a little nervous.  Riding animals just didn't seem right to him, and without a saddle he  was running the risk of falling and breaking his neck.  Adam, of course,  seemed fine riding his horse. “You've done this before,” he said. 

“Once,” replied Adam. “I took Megan on a date at a horse ranch.” 

“Who?” 

“Ex-girlfriend, from before I got put on ice.” 

“That reminds me, isn't the cache were you slept around here?” 

“Technically, it's in Ontario. Tecumseh, to be exact.” 

Conrad got nervous, and Ramsus picked up on it, smiling evilly. “Wonder  if there's a version of you in this timeline, sleeping the apocalypse  away?” The psionic wondered aloud.  

“Who knows?” said Adam with a shrug. “I'm not even sure Sarif even existed in this world.” 

Keeping their horses to a canter, they came across — of all things — a  pristine highway, made of concrete. “Huh,” said Adam, as he dismounted.  He knelt, removed his gauntlet, and took advantage of the new sensors in  his fingertips to feel the asphalt: It felt a little too smooth.  Peering closer at it, the material reflected back a lot of colored  noise, like the JPEG artifacts you'd get out of a digital camera. 

His smart vision highlighted the patches of dark asphalt, where the  cracks in the road should have been filled... but there were no cracks,  not really. It was all cosmetic. 

“Found anything?” asked Garrus.  

“I don't know,” replied Adam. 

[h+]​

“Symeon to 6O,” the veteran android transmitted.  

“6O to Symeon, hi!” 

“We've lost sight of the drop pod on our scopes. It was a kilometer  away from the target zone, and it winked out. Can you confirm?” 

“Let me check... huh.” 

“What is it?” 

“It's not on our scopes either. Hold on, we're going to triple-check this... Pods don't vanish into thin air. Stand by.” 

“Standing by.” 

[h+]​

The gas station, and everything inside of it, was white.  

The counter was white, the fridges were white, the shelves, the snacks, the beer cans, everything  was white. They hadn't even been painted that way, for everything was  made of the same stuff. At a glance, Adam couldn't tell if it was  ceramic, or plastic, or metal...  but at the touch he realized that it  was definitely programmable. 

He picked up an imitation of a protein bar, and through that touch, he  commanded the object to transform into a can of beer. He even altered  its colour with a thought, even its texture. His control over it wasn't  fine enough to make it into a real beer, sadly.  

“What the hell is all this...” he muttered, tossing the can away. It  landed as plain cube. Through a stray fragment of reality, he had a  glimpse of what the place should be like, alive with colour and the  occasional activity of a traveler looking to pay for fuel or a snack. 

He rejoined his traveling companions outside. 

[h+]​

“6O to Recon Team, come in.” 

“Symeon here, what is it?” 

“Pod's back on our sensors! It's a bit off course, but it should arrive.” 

“Well, that's good, I guess. On our way.” 

“Be advised that we've been getting strange reports from the  Recreation Team. Their timestamps are... wonky, and there have been  unsubstantiated reports of Gaian units in the Copied City.” 

“Someone's idea of a joke, right?”  

“I don't know... but, seeing as you're the closest ones...” 

“...Get in, get out, see if GAIA and her insane bitch of a daughter is back. Got it.” 

“Thank you, 6O out.” 

Symeon really hoped that they'd find Michaëlle soon. If the red-eyes were coming back... then they'd need her to kill Yonah again. 

[h+]​

The city, and everything inside of it, from the roads, to the buildings, including the trees... was white. 

White, and utterly silent in the gloom of the evening, save for the  clacking of the horses as they trotted. Garrus looked up and around in  awe at the uniform majesty of the tall buildings, while Ramsus found it  deeply unsettling. It didn't help that the place was  deserted.  

“We're almost where we need to be!” said Conrad cheerfully. “We're almost home!” 

They dismounted, intending to let the horses go. Conrad reasoned that  with the time fractures growing larger and more frequent, it would not  do to ride easily scared wild animals. Adam took his burden from his  horse, and then he saw something that made his eyes go wide beneath his  shades.  

It was the Sarif building. 

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He checked his surroundings – they were  definitely on Bagley and 2nd, as it was after the rush of real estate  development after Sarif had jump started Detroit's economy, turning it  into America's mechanical augmentation capital... only, completely  devoid of colour.   

LUCIFERASE 451 DETECTED flashed in his AR display again, just before a  burning streak flashed across the sky, a sonic boom following close  behind. 

It landed several kilometers away, with oddly muffled crash. All Adam  could think of was the bounty inside, the promise of undoing Elsa's  death. 

He handed the body over to Teg. 

“I'll be right back,” he said. “Stay here!” 

“Adam, wait!” Conrad pleaded, but the cyborg had already Zero Shifted away. “There's no time!” 

[h+]​

He was there in minutes. The pod had left a small crater in the middle  of the street, but it was mostly intact, its logo and the motto “Pour la  gloire de l'humanité” still visible in spite of the damage. 

What kind of genocidal killer robots have “glory to mankind” as a motto, Conrad? thought Adam ruefully. He owed the kid his life, but the constant lying... 

Getting it to open had been... more difficult than anticipated,  involving a trip to cyberpace that had felt like an insane game of  Asteroids, but ultimately its security had been breached, and as the  elaborate panels slid open, Adam's face became aglow with the light of a  hundred vials of the Luciferase 451. 

Smiling, he picked three vials up, and because old habits die hard, he  gladly picked up the weapon inside as well, some kind of large bore  medium length shotgun. He checked its power cell, found it empty and,  without thinking, took a fourth vial and inserted it into the gun,  reloading it. 

He heard someone move, and instantly aimed his new weapon in their  direction. He caught glimpse of a blur of motion, someone was had just  ducked and rolled behind cover to hide. It was a familiar move. 

Sensing danger, the 108 deployed the helmet, covering Adam's head. 

“Hello?” he called out, as he entered the storefront, ruined by the pod's crash. “Who's there?” 

He heard nervous breathing, and activated his smart vision. There was a  cyborg hiding behind the counter. A rock was in his hand, an improvised  weapon that would do him no good. Adam approached carefully, gun trained  on the cyborg, as he came around. 

He had a good look at him, now. He was dirty, emaciated, and hadn't  showered or shaved in months... but there was no mistaking it. 

It was Adam Jensen. 

Another Adam Jensen. “Do... do you have a candy bar on you?” 

He looked so pitiable. His skin clung to his ribs, there was no meat there. 

“I... I'm so hungry,” he choked back tears, dropping the rock. “You have no idea... you have no idea.” 

“What... what the fuck? What the...” 

“Don't move,” said a voice behind him. It was familiar, but it was  missing something... “Drop the gun,” she ordered, and he felt the hum of  a high-frequency sword next to his neck. Hey obeyed, and without  prompting, raised his hand in surrender. 

“Turn around,” the woman ordered, and Adam came face to face with P51  Michaëlle. Her hair was brown, her eyes were covered with a blindfold,  and the dimple on her chin was gone... but it was unmistakably Elsa,  clad in a uniform that was equal parts french maid, SS soldier, and US  navy pilot. 

His head started to spin with a mixture of vertigo and déjà vu, as a  crawling sensation tingled over the back of his brain... but it wasn't  Aleph, this time, it was himself,  reminding him of something important,  a piece of himself, locked away. 

The sight of the city, the taste of the cooked moose, the smell of the air, the sound of the birds...  

You sensed all these things before.

You were here before.

With her.

[h+] 

End of Part 3 

TO BE CONTINUED​