Miracle Machine

✧₊⁺

My eyes shot open and I inhaled so abruptly that I nearly choked on my saliva. There were no signs of any staff to run diagnostics or make sure I got properly disconnected from the atrium, and the world outside my room sounded hectic. 

To make matters worse, my arms and legs were restrained yet again. I looked through my visor in a panic as I summarized the last several minutes in my head. The grand opening timeline, which we had all assumed was set in stone, was a falsehood. Along with our assumption that Barnes wasn’t aware of our plans.

The Director had pulled one over on all of us, especially me, and to add fuel to my fire…

“I did kill Ueda Aki-san.”

I had always suspected foul play was involved, but to hear it from the man’s mouth without a shred of remorse… my chest bubbled up with rage like a reservoir preparing to overflow. He had to pay for what he had done here, that much was certain, but first I had to get myself out of this predicament. It was only a matter of time before the police would arrive to take me away.

“Archie…” I said. “Hey Archie, are you there?”

“I am, Jiro,” Archie answered.

“You think you could get me out of these restraints?”

“I have been trying, but it would appear that I have been blocked from taking executive action via updates in the firewall. We can consider this the Director's serious face.”

“So… I’m stuck?” I scoffed to myself.

There was no wiggling out of the cuffs, they were securely fastened, and locked with a mechanism. Someone must have come by and made sure I was locked in tight, lest I try and make my escape into the city below. However, I had no plans of doing that.

“Would it be possible for me to re-dive right from here?” I asked. “I need to get back in there as soon as possible, I have unfinished business to take care of with Director Barnes.”

“I heard what he has done, and I understand, but I would not advise doing so.” Archie warned. “For starters, all units connected to the atrium are currently shut down in the Ueda Wing, as far as I know. Hunters have received orders to vacate the premises as soon as possible, or face trespassing violations.”

Damn, what happened to a two-week notice?

“Secondly—even if it did work—if you were to dive now, your physical body would likely be removed from the atrium by law enforcement,” Archie said. “If they happened to operate against optimal resuscitation procedure, it could cause great injury to your brain, or death.”

“So what are we going to do??” I asked. “Knowing what we know about his plans, we have a duty to act. If we don’t…”

The blood of billions would be on our hands, and the world would forever be altered by our inaction. If it even managed to delay the Earth’s destruction, once word got out about the nature of Eternals, the atrocity might be the last nail in the coffin of humanity.

“Would that I could do something, anything, Jiro… But we need a miracle if we are to get out of this. For what it is worth, no matter how this may turn out, it has been a true pleasure supporting you.” Archie sounded solemn.

A miracle, huh…

“Ditto, partner.” I smiled. “You know, listening to an AI talk about something like miracles is beyond what I could have pictured myself doing going into this thing, but you just may be right…”

I closed my eyes. I did what Archie suggested, and waited for a miracle.

And waited… and waited some more.

It had been close to twenty minutes of waiting for my fate to come knocking, and I finally heard something that got my attention outside.

“In here!” A man’s voice, fairly muffled, sounded off through the automatic door to my room.

After a few seconds, I heard something repeatedly slam against the metal door, and grunting on the other side. Whoever it was sounded like they needed to get in, and in a hurry.

A battering ram? They weren’t given a keycard?

“I guess the police finally made it.” I laughed to myself. “If they don’t let me keep my microchip, it’s been a pleasure, Archie.”

…

The door flew open. I heard several pairs of footsteps, and a huge smile swept across my face as three people entered my room.

“I told you guys I was running to get my keycard, why are you trying to break the door down? It’s made of carbon steel, you know?” Yamamoto was the first to step inside, or hobble inside more-like.

“We thought the rescue would be more dramatic that way.”

Next came Kururu, shrugging as Yamamoto scolded her. She held an axe in her hand.

“I like it!”

And finally Tǒng.

“You guys… you really came to get me!” I exclaimed, dumbfounded, but feeling the relief wash over me. “I ain’t gonna lie, I was beginning to have my doubts that I would ever get out of this chair. What are you doing here?”

“Friends don't leave friends behind, silly!” Kururu shook her head, arms crossed. “We saw Yamamoto, and followed him here.”

“But I thought Barnes made all the Hunters kick rocks, and won’t y’all get in trouble for sticking around?”

“I mean, he’s already fired us. What is he gonna do, fire us again?” She scoffed. “And if I remember correctly, we had something that we were supposed to be putting a stop to. Isn’t that right?”

I nodded with a strong smirk.

“I always liked her,” Archie added approvingly.

After having my restraints released by Yamamoto and being removed from the atrium, I scanned the man up and down.

I was glad to see him still alive and kicking after our bout with Blackheart, but I couldn’t exactly say he was in one piece. His left eye was swollen shut and he was covered in dry blood, staining his lab coat, with bruises all over.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked. “Surely you didn’t wake up like this…”

“That’s funny, Nagai-san.” Yamamoto replied. “The moment I returned to the launch bay, Barnes and his armed cronies were already waiting to take over my chair, and they beat the hell out of me for my trouble. Unsurprisingly, I’ve been fired like all of you, and threatened with additional action if I try to meddle further.”

I was tempted to ask him why he was still helping us then, but the fact that he was standing in front of me was a testament to one standing on his principles. He seemed like just the sort of man Aki would respect as a colleague in her field.

“What about you?”

“The whole thing was a trap,” I admitted, sighing deeply. “From the moment I got here, Barnes has been using me to mobilize Autumn to kill Blackheart. Even before that, he’s been rotten. He had my ex-wife killed, and who knows how many others are next.”

“So he finally admitted to it, did he?” Yamamoto frowned. “Some blame belongs to me. I should have mentioned sooner that Barnes was the main account holder for Thresh, but I never expected him to actually connect himself to the atrium like that. The man likes to get his hands dirty even less than I do, and every dive comes with some risk, even for an administrator.”

“Seems to me like he’s taken control of the situation so he can ensure no one screws it up, or doublecrosses him again.” I glanced at Yamamoto. “He’s a cocky prick, but it seems like he’s careful. The question is what comes next. The Eternals are still in there, and so is Barnes, but there’s no way back into the Digiscape now…”

“I wouldn’t say that, Cowboy.” Kururu smiled widely. “We wouldn’t have come here without a plan. What do you take us for? Science man has a plan, don’t ya?”

“Uruka-san is correct. We might have a lifeline here, another way in, but we’re going to have to get moving now.” Yamamoto hobbled to the doorway. “Follow me, and try not to draw attention. The Director’s thugs are still lurking, as are the police for Nagai-san.”

“Right…”

We followed Yamamoto through the halls, against the traffic of Hunters gathering their belongings to leave and find new employment. To think that none of them knew any of the truths we had learned over the last several days, or the looming catastrophe we labored to prevent. Their ignorance was bliss that we could no longer afford.

I supposed the same could be said about the Eternals, going about their lives while we try to prepare a new place for them. I was deep in contemplation as we continued following Yamamoto.

“Hey, Cowboy.” Kururu cut in on my thoughts. “You seem out of it, what happened up there during the battle?”

“It took about everything we had, but Yamamoto and I managed to defeat Blackheart. It looked like she was ready to join our side, but Barnes had other plans...” I explained. “Wait, that’s right, what happened in the city? Did everyone make it out alright?”

“Yep. The hard part wasn’t fighting the waves of monsters, but making sure none of them got behind us.” She replied. “But—we were able to do some sweeps of the neighborhood to make sure we didn’t miss any stragglers. Everyone was A-OK, including your two buddies.”

“Yuna and Shizuka?” I asked. “You met them??”

“By chance, yeah, and Yuna-san also had a message to pass along for when I saw you.” Kururu turned to me, smiling. “She said to get your butt back to her already so she can forgive you, and that the engagement ring better be 24 carats.”

“Somehow, I don’t think she said that second part.”

But would I actually get the chance to see them both again before all is said and done?

There were no guarantees that I would, the way things were progressing. It may not be satisfying, but most of the time in life, things end up unsaid out of circumstance. At the very least, I hoped to make good on getting them safely out of there before the server shut down.

“We’re here,” Yamamoto said, stopping in front of an unassuming room with a peculiar wooden door.

It was carved surprisingly similar to the door leading to the Songbird’s room back in the Digiscape’s control tower. Yamamoto turned the knob, and stepped in, inviting us to follow him.

“In this room we’ll find the solution to our predicament.” He said.

“A library?” Kururu asked quizzically, making a note of the mountains and shelves of books that greeted us upon entering. “I didn’t know the Ueda Wing had one…”

“More specifically, a research archive. And most people don’t know it’s here.” Yamamoto grinned. “Nagai-san, wouldn't you say your ex-wife was a bookish woman?”

“Yeah, I suppose. Always reading something, even when she wasn’t working. Why?”

“A great majority of the work we do for Project Memoria is done digitally now, but it wasn’t always that way. Back when Ueda Akito-sama founded the project, they used strictly analog records.” Yamamoto crossed his arms, scanning the room. “Your ex-wife insisted this room be set aside to preserve those paper records for future research and reference.”

“So, what’s the significance of books to what we’re looking for?”

“Aki-san was about the only person who used this space. Not even Barnes paid much attention to a bunch of old texts, making it the perfect hiding place for this.” He walked over to a particular bookshelf and pulled out a book halfway.

We gasped as the bookshelf moved aside all on its own to reveal a small room with something in it. Kururu and Tǒng exchanged an “are you seeing this?” glance.

“An atrium unit?” I wondered out loud, seeing the familiar chair in front of me.

“The very first one.” Yamamoto clarified. “A creation of her grandfather’s, Aki-san decided to refurbish it and get it connected to the network behind closed doors, a pet project of hers. It operates outside of all the other units, allowing one to enter the Digiscape, even with it locked down as tight as Barnes has it.”

“So, we’ve found our way in, how about getting the Eternals out?” Kururu asked. “That’s the part we fought Blackheart’s hordes for.”

“I covered that too.” Yamamoto pulled out his USB flash drive, holding it up between his index finger and thumb. “After getting roughed up by the Director’s men, they kicked me out of the lab so he could have privacy. I took the opportunity while they were guarding him to sneak back into Barnes‘ office and extract the prototype from his computer. I deleted it after copying it over, but I’m certain he has other versions on his laptop. In any case, the Eternal’s new home is contained right here.”

“On that little thing?”

“Don’t let the look of it for you, it’s the latest in digital storage.” Yamamoto reassured us. “Good for millions of terabytes of data, and while there aren’t many computers outside of LiveRite Labs that can host their new home, Genesis, their data will be preserved until the day when they can go back online.”

“Damn, you sure put in work, Yamamoto. I had you all wrong before.” I applauded the man’s efforts. “But how will the migration work?”

“Once we plug it into the atrium’s side console, their character data should automatically start being moved to the drive under the same subfolder for Genesis.” Yamamoto continued. “Which leaves our final objective….”

“Stopping that rotten, no-good bastard, Barnes before he can get the test data he needs for his grand opening.” I said.

“Right, and since you’re the only one with an admin key, we’ll have to ask you to be the one to go in and shut it all down.” Yamamoto said. “Are you confident you can fight him if it comes to that?”

“To be honest, no, after he picked up Blackheart’s key fragment he seemed on a whole other level.” I said, scratching my chin stubble. “If only there were some way to even the odds…”

Wait a minute… I could even the odds!

If Autumn were to lend her key fragment to help…

“看到他耳朵里冒出的蒸汽了吗？” Kururu whispered to Tǒng.

“I think I’ve got it.” I said. “I'll go see the Songbird first and get her help, and then I’ll have what I need to confront Barnes. That’s what I reckon is best, at least.”

“That could work. Not to put too much pressure on you, but the whole world is counting on you there.” Yamamoto said. “Go finish what Autumn-san and I, no, what Ueda Aki started.” 

Nope, no pressure at all… Okay, maybe a little.

I nodded my head.

“You two stand watch at the door please, I need to monitor Nagai-san in case of mechanical malfunctions.”

“Roger that!” Kururu saluted. “Knock ‘em dead, Cowboy. But not actually dead, we’re doing this so that people will live, you get it, right?”

“Yeah, I got it.” I sighed, exasperated. “Thanks for being my pals until the end, magical girl-san, Tǒng. We had some fun times together, and some not-so-fun ones, but that's the way it shakes out sometimes.”

“Why are you acting like you won’t see us again, Cowboy?” Kururu scoffed.

What ‘am’ I saying? I have a creeping sense of dread for some reason. 

“My bad, I’m a sentimental little shit, aren't I?” I chuckled. “Then I’ll definitely see you on the other side of this.”

“Bro, that’s a flag too, you—nevermind!” Kururu groaned before putting on a smile. She waved me good luck and Tǒng flashed his trademark thumbs up, following her out.

I sat down in my seat, pulling the helmet's visor over my face for what might be the last time, and Yamamoto plugged the flash drive into the side console to begin the extraction process of the Eternals.

“Are you ready?”

“Ready.”

With the fate of the world on my shoulders, I connected to the atrium and re-entered the Digiscape.