(Episode VIII) (Act 2)

“And if we’re on that same street from before…” Jackie turned around, pointing back, and let her arm drop due to what she saw.

It was the warehouse, where they hid in during… That mess. Abandoned, turning pale, with a large entrance where a garage door or shutter would’ve been. Was there?

“Man,” Maddie had her hands on her hips. “We had the street flipping up, now this—maybe Jackson should get hit by something so we can keep the trends going?”

Tracy simply looked towards Maddie, uttering this one line.

“Shut up, Maddie.”

She just saluted, mockingly.

“If anyone’s tired, then fine, go rest up in there. Me?” Jackie still raw in her tone. “I’m gone. The best I can do is walk you people to it. After that, I’m going to keep moving. You don’t ever have to worry about my whining ever again.”

“Nononono, please—” Tracy tried to grab her hand, only for Jackie to cross her arms. “Just—maybe more… We-we’ll catch up?”

“Sure,” Jackie began to walk again, towards the warehouse.

They backtracked to the warehouse, back to familiar ground…

Only for the most surreal thing they’ve encountered so far, was just standing there.

It was twitching, wrapped up withing black, trembling cords that moved like snakes—coming out of it’s damaged yet working orifices.

And the strange thing was? It… He was on the billboard.

“WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS THE DAVENOID HERE?!” Maddie screamed in shock. And mostly horror.

Aiko couldn’t help to stare… At something that’s both so uncanny yet utterly stupid at the same time.

From what she remembered of the billboard, the “Davenoid’s” lightbulb of a head was cracked open, with its new innards spilled out of the shattered “exit wound”, even disheveling its comb-over hairstyle. Its face, where the screw was, still maintained its smile… The thing is, the jaw was unhinged, so the wires were holding it unto its head. Its eyes, a worn down saffron mirroring pressure gauges, had its needles snapped and constantly bulged forward due to the wires surging.

He used to have limbs—that were simple, stereotypical robot arms, and a 50’s schoolboy’s uniform… But they were replaced. Coursing, writhing, pulsing wires that came together and spilled over every inch and corner of the warehouse. Like a moldy, tendril of worms.

“What is it—what do we do—is this a Shift thing--?!” Jackie tried to ask all at once.

“Well—kinda,” Maddie answered. “It was just some stupid ass mascot that we had, it was ditched when the Shift stuff came—but now there’s weird shit around him!”

“Doesn’t it have motion sensors for eyes?!” Tracy bellowed in fear.

“The eyes seem to be broken along with the rest of it…” Aiko spoke up.

“Oh! Right!” Tracy now exclaiming in hope, tainted with still fear. “M-maybe we can walk away from this—avoid a problem this time!”

“Sa-sal-SALUTATIONS THERE—LADIES AND—L-LADIES!”

“why do i speak so fucking soooon?” Tracy whimpered.

The voice was scratchy, with the added effect of whatever voice device it has being out of tune, on its last leg. It mirrored a toy that played it’s catchphrase way too much, now droning and deep.

“W-we-wel—Welcome!” the Davenoid turned its head and gestured its swarming “hand” at them. “It’s always g-go-good to meet new people! Unfrou—Unfortunately, I’m not m-my-myself at the moment!”

It formed a finger, wagging it on first inspection. But it was more that it was twitching so badly, just raising a finger seemed hard.

“…No shit,” River made her voice low, with a German-ish accent. Must be one of those western references Aiko doesn’t get, but the others don’t really react as much either…

“W-wh-whoa! Aren’t you a potty mouth!” It started to twitch again, before letting its head and arm dangle. “But for your and everyone else present information; I-I-I am currently fashioning a self-repair in the efforts to s-sh-show that The Island of Davenport is a land of innovation, one step closer to scaling the Depravity Paramount and achieving Technological Absolution!”

“Yeah girls, he even programmed his mascot to slurp up his own dick—” Maddie quipped. “Marvel the innovation!”

“I will not be pr-p-providing any of my Davenoid Wisdom ™ or Davenoid Critical Thinking and Problem Solving ™ until I am c-complete. T-th-then, it’s off to the repair shop for me!”

“…What do you mean by ‘complete’, Davenoid?” River asked, tense.

“I will not be pr-p-providing any of my Davenoid Wisdom ™ or Davenoid Critical Thinking and Problem Solving ™ until I am c-complete.”

“We got that, what do you mean by it?” Jackie joined in, clearly on edge if River is.

“Until I am c-complete.”

“What is ‘complete’?!”

The worse part in all of this was the lack of expression, or the lack of change in it. They were pleading with something that essentially mocked them. The only thing behind the metal face, the smiling robot with the underbite, were the wires that slid out of its dead eye.

And without warning, the tendrils that were already in the ground sped up, boring further as the endless stream of black and silver turned into a blurring mess with dust and clots danced in air.

“Fuck—Wait-!” Maddie exclaimed. “Doesn’t Shifts affect technology real bad--?!”

The Davenoid’s body—or the shell—peaked backwards, as if it was pulling up the wires that burst from the ground. Within the tendril’s collective maws, all manner of technology—from phones, TV, ATMs, and even other electoral wire, and the tendrils grew thicker and bigger as a result.

“I was hoping that it was a harmless example of it, but yeah--!” River shouted. “Whatever it’s doing—it’s trying to find something to merge with!”

Now it jerked to it’s left, forming a web that was in constant motion. The tendrils linked up in ways that shouldn’t be possible, bonded together like tangled wires yet formed these hexagonal shapes that were tied into by points—repeating over and over again. Anything close to these webs were steadily shredded, as it crushing the random rock and debris despite being above the ground it’s drilled.

“WE’RE IN DAVENPORT--HE COULD BECOME THE ISLAND--!” Maddie screamed.

“Wha—WHAT?!” Tracy shrieked. “OOOOOOOH SHIAA--!” She pointed and shook just as much as the Davenoid.

They all looked up, towards one of it’s webs, as a TV set flicked and showed them the true extent of this horror.

Through the grainy image, they saw the monolithic buildings shake and rock, just like the Davenoid.

Even to Aiko, she knew what this meant. She cursed herself for knowing what this could mean and her mouth moved for her.

“It’s… Starting to move the buildings already…”

“It’s going to use Shiftication to move the buildings and try to drag them here…” Jackie reasoned further. “The damage of that…”

The Davenoid lurched forward, “As soon as my body is able—c-complete—I will assist you all!”