(Episode XIII) (End (1/2))

Tabby popped out of the grounded building, to witness the blunt massacre with both visions.

On one side—her normal gaze—she just saw soldiers flung into the skies or instantly pushed backwards at blinding speeds. Sickening cracks as armor instantly spilt upon impact, or the perspective humbling crunch when the others slid so hard, that they gathered asphalt that slowed down or outright stopped their movement.

The other—the small spider drone that perfectly illustrates this insanity, captured the method to this utter madness.

Reflex—it was a creature of reflex. As the Enforcers rushed forward with netting coming out of their gantlets, the N’atural Monster practically twitched and managed to use it’s arms swing wide against the crowd, flinging them into the air—to the side—down to the ground. It was the embodiment of an arm with a red, noticeable sore that’s the target of others hitting it over and over. The response isn’t rage, or berserking frenzy—it was pure reaction. It crushed the onslaught, but drifted to the right. It picked two Enforcers up, chucked them away and spasmed. Nobody knew what it would do next, most of all itself.

The inconsistencies is what outright killed these people instantly, or was the very thing that saved their lives.

Tabby glanced away from the carnage, only to see the process of Burrowing.

The fallen troops slowly crumpled into themselves, into the “coffin”-like structure. Their bodies collapsing into the life support system that gave them the hunchback look, until they became a monolith of white. Then, the Shiftication takes them, the streets taking them under at an irregular pace.

But it was made clear as day which bodies didn’t move at all.

She tried looking up, maybe at a frantic speed she herself didn’t realize she was capable of. But due to the officers being flung into the air, the Diamond-lite fliers that held more reinforcements had the horrible choice to either bob and weave, or try to position themselves in saving the human projectiles.

This is a plan. This was strategy.

They have the tools, but they know that they will instantly break. They have to curb the chaos, but is subjected to it every step of the way.

It was a single shot for a hopeless draw.

Tabby felt her chest cave in from the inside. Her vision blurred and refused to focus. Every bead of sweat forming was uncomfortably felt against her shivering skin, and it was a very cold night. The only way she could’ve moved in that moment, and it was due to shaking.

What was she doing here? Why was she here?

Why even do this, when what she’s made so far was just as of a mess as she is?

This was nothing but an ongoing train wreck, and the repair was not only piece by piece, but as it’s crashing.

There’s no fixing here.

There’s no fixing in anything in this terrible, terrible life.

To think she thought she got it. All she had to do was share the information and guide others in being who they truly wanna be. To show in the face of fucking everything, it’s you who…

She closed her eyes, and let the tears the gather seep out.

It’s you who rages against the dying of the light.

Wiping her eyes, she quickly dashed towards one of the buildings that still stood tall. One of the few buildings that stood erect, refusing the Shiftication process. She found the latter behind it, and started to climb up in haste as she felt the incident grow worse by the sheer vibration that rattled her bones, and became frequent.

She turned on the other side of her ORACLE, switching to broadcast.

“I—I’m here live,” Tabby began and had to swallow a mouth of air before talking again. “I have clearance and have accepted the job of keeping you all informed during this N’atural Incident—I’m climbing a non-Shifted building to get a better look at things—”

She heaved herself to reach the top of the building, walking forward across the flat roof.

“The things you will see or elect to see will be violence on a completely different level, uncut footage that truly gives you a taste of what’s happening now.”

She reached the edge, and looked down at the what-is-now-floor.

“I’m giving you all a chance to look away, to just listen to this… But I don’t think we can do that anymore. This, the incident caused by a recently inducted Trend—who was just a teen celebrity, a young lady, faster than what the Trends of old and the pains we’re still dealing with that… This is a moment in our lives, people. The true stress test: will we rest or will we snap?”

She slowly rose her head. Held a button on the lost Lens’ side until a blue blinking light came on, wiring the footage live.

“Let’s see…”

The N’atural Monster proceeded to bang against the raised nets of the Enforcers, them spreading their arms causing the nets to tot to a point of becoming makeshift shielding, glowing with cyan netting. The monster’s arms were flailing, versus bashing against the ring of people that surrounded it. But things weren’t looking good, because of the sheer force of the retaliation, it was clear that the Enforcers legs were smashed in, only being held together by the exo suit that was starting to show wear and tear.

The Lens was forced to look up, thus causing Tabby to dart to the side.

The Diamonds, four or five, came in and dropped down more Enforcers, possibly hundreds to aid the now twenty that are struggling to keep to the mission.

“These people are outgunned by the nature of this thing,” Tabby narrated. “Outgunned, flawed, and they’re still trying to attempt this.”

N’atural then stiffened, mid-motion, just to see this happen.

And in a bout of pure frustration, she expanded her arms and twisted clockwise and counterclockwise to become a whirlwind of flesh and sporadic force. So fast and twitching, the arms constantly shifted in angles.

The soldiers were either steamrolled into the ground due to the breaking of legs, or being flung at high speeds, crashing into the streets and some even acting as cannon balls to the incoming troops, launching them into the air.

Tabby audibly gasped, covering her mouth as her hands shook. The ensuing shouts of horror were drowned out, as the monster shrieked in pain, standing alone.

The droning of the Diamonds above, soaring overhead, caused her to look up, seeing them flying in formation, circling the monster as it too looked up.

The hatches opened, and each of the five dropped one or two objects from them.

“T-“ Tabby had to keep the dryness from taking hold, and the lump down. “The Dizzy Bombs are being deployed, pure force within a container that’s the usual last resort for Trends. If Irma and Cassie couldn’t take these, then—”

The dim, crystal white rectangles instantly hit the street, and there was a blinding light that followed.

The explosion was so potent, the screams of the monster was muffled under it.

It instantly cleared up, leaving no damage around her…

But N’atural was clearly thrashed—not physically, but mentally.

It was on it’s knees, trying desperately to shake it’s head, but every movement was taking away any vitality that she had, and was slowly falling into the clutches of unconsciousness.

But it couldn’t. It was like, whatever this thing was, it is driven by this unending alertness to the point of bodily pain. It writhed, fighting back, despite it hurting as it shrieked in bursts of agony as the Dizziness was taking hold.

Tabby shook her head, and looked onto the other side.

Enforcers were still marching towards it, now keeping distance to see the results of the Dizzy Bombs, and being outfitted with their last resort just in case. What looked like a slim, mostly basalt hue suitcase was the Multi-Action Rifles that needed through clearance to use.

But she couldn’t help but to glance around that. Caskets literally sinking into the ground. People with ruined legs trying to move away while the very few bodies couldn’t move anymore.

One particular scene. An Enforcer was looking at a downed one in what seems like shock for nearly a minute. They didn’t move, didn’t budge as others came along to shout, yell, motioned for them to move. The others left, knowing that the Enforcer didn’t care about if they survived or not anymore.

But something caused them to snap their head to the left, and suddenly they screamed at the others.

Tabby immediately turned her head to see the N’atural Monster reeling back and begun charging at the building she’s on.

There was realty nothing to it, what to do in that moment for her.

“She’s going for the building I’m on,” Tabby bluntly stated, almost deattached, as she started to run to the side, and leapt in the air.

She could still hear the crunch—the impact of it all. Behind Tabby, the building exploding due to N’atural crashing into it.

All she was concerned about despite the many things whizzing in her head at high speeds, was looking down.

There was a dumpster, open, filled with things but enough to break falls at least. The girl could only curl up as much as she could in the few seconds before landing.

Hitting her side, she landed into the garbage, the blunt force still enough to cause harm as well as landing on bits that cut and gashed into her.

The pain was unbearable, her barely reeling. But she still could see the raining debris coming for her still.

She glanced back, which felt like minutes due to the downed speed of her brain since it rattled side to side once she made landfall. She saw the lid, reached for one of the inverted indents from the design, and pulled it down with her good arm.

While it wasn’t the shield she was hoping for, she felt the cascade assault other side, piling on until it stopped.

Tabby could only breathe. Part of her needed to, to fully grasp that she’s so banged up that she couldn’t feel anything on her left side, and the fact that she wanted to let the viewers know that she was still alive.

Right then. Back to work.

She bucked, and it didn’t happen the first time. But she pushed with all of her might, and opened the dumpster with all of her might—entering a world of clouded dust.

She coughed, coughed out a response. “Still alive—if anyone can hear… Still alive… “ And then she groaned as she rose up and tumbled out of the dumpster.

“Aw man…” Tabby coughed out, trying to gather the strength to stand up again, shaking for a different reason. “Maybe there is something… About getting siVis… Kiiinda wish I didn’t ache all over now—”

She heard the use of the Dizzy Bombs again, which instantly stilled the dusty coded air and pushed it all away. Tabby was surprised, at her moment of true pain, that she’s thinking about what she read and asked about how they worked. In a weird sense? It avoids destroying the things around it yet maintains the force of what it’s capable of. It’s said that the contradiction of it’s design is why the effect is so quick, so sudden. It can’t simply exist as it is and must collapse as soon as it activates.

The dust clearing showed that N’atural’s wreckage left a very convenient ruin that Tabby could hide behind, a literal pile of building.

It was nice, she begun to fall to her knees and crawl towards it. She thought, hey—if she does pass out in the next minute or so, she could be saved. And if more terrible things happen, it acts as a guard.

So she managed to make it, laying on her belly while surveying the situation.

…

It could… It could work.

N’atural was stumbling. While dangerous and used it’s ridiculous speed to run towards other buildings to crash into, the Dizzy Bombs are having a clear effect. You could see it by the fact that the Enforcers were calmly trotting behind, gathering in greater numbers.

“A FEW MORE!” it had to be Conrad’s ancient, gravelly voice. “ANOTHER ROUND OF FORCE, AND WE WILL TASTE VICTORY!”

And so, another load scattered down from the sky and the monster tried to run away from the center of the blast.

It only pushed it to fall on it’s front, shrieking out in dismay or the closest to the concept as it forced it down. To use the Irma and Cassie incident of Las Vegas example benchmark, it only took a round where the duo Trends were incapacitated. Taken in and clearly broken out of their holds hours later, it’s still rather telling that it took three or possibly more rounds for N’atural—though, given the nature of siVis, Irma might need more than THAT and she’s closer to whatever N’atural is—just animal themed. And Tabby didn’t want to depress herself thinking about the dozen Cassie needs now.

“MEEEEEN, READY!” Conrad instructed. Tabby shook herself from trailing off.

Oh yeah, she was supposed to say all that—anyways, the Enforcers circled around the rising monster—still dazed but clearly still able to fight against whatever they were planning.

“AIIIIIIM--!”

The Enforcers jerked their respective wrists, and the suitcase became the M.A.R.s, they readied their guns and took off a black piece that was another handle for them to grip onto the bottom. They applied the black cylinder and took aim.

In this world of public outcry against kill orders—even if they’re supernatural people, and the fact said supernatural people can be triggered or grow powerful due to the trauma of being shot at, these guns being overcomplicated is the meeting ground.

What they fired at the monster was concentrated fire—in the literal sense of the term. Whatever the ammo was, it went through a process where it spun to the point of becoming an energy ball—small and yellow, striking at the beast’s hide.

It screamed… And as much as it wanted to twitch, or retaliate. It couldn’t.

The fire caused stun, as the energy dispelling across the target in arches along it’s body, slowly but surely made it stop moving. It was going to get up, and now it’s on one “knee”.

“SLUGGER FORMATION!” Conrad commanded. The circle of men quickly formed into two firing lines. “AIIIIIIIIM-!”

They twisted the muzzle, pushing it in, and they began to fire molten slags at the creature.

As they moved in, and went in a clockwise motion as they continued to fire, they created a creeping layer of thick, steaming metal. It tried to break out, but failed. Ripping a limb out of the pile, but failed due to getting pelted. Tried to shake out, but failed because of the sheer heat of the coat made the action unbearable.

As it started to harden, N’atural could only scream in the most terrible fashion. To the point it felt tangible to all that surrounded it.

“STAND-BY!” Conrad shouted. The Enforcers resumed the two line stance, weapons still held high.

So, by that logic, the Lens turned over to the sight of Professor Diana Blake running with Extant Researchers backing her.

She had a ring device in her hands, which should be a Minder. The Researchers on the other hand, was bring the Null Void machine, A.R. large screen-lite net that kept pulsing forward, four pincers that were keeping it’s shape on the corners.

As the group got to the scene, the Lens focused back on everything. Diana approached the screaming monster that towered over her in her harden prison.

“I don’t think…” Diana tried to aim and try to latch on something with a moving, wailing head. “There’s nothing there anymore, but whatever, being through.”

She jumped and the ring latched on, the Minder instantly setting itself up as the monster screamed for the final time, before stopping.

“Okay…” Diana had her hands raised. “Okay… Looks like you’ve had a bit of a day, Desireé.”

The creature, in the first time Tabby and these people seen this thing, was completely docile. Just looking down at Diana.

“…You would’ve liked that pun if you were all there—Anyways, appealing to the small trances of whatever’s left, right…” Diana clapped at the end of the sentence. “You’ve hurt and possibly… Ended a lot of people in your rampage. I’m going to be honest. The path of rehabilitation is going to be hard for you. Maybe it doesn’t exist at all.” She looks up, straight into it’s “eyes”. “But you knew that. You’re doubling down.”

Whatever the words, the creature only rumbled in response and quaked it’s head.

“Yeah, figured. We assumed, from the report we got, that you transform via damage… And you were trying to smash into those buildings to jog something. You want to be a monster, because unlike siVis users, they die in the end. So with that in mind… We have an offer. You become a test subject. The first willing Trend to just be locked away, never to be seen or looked at again. This is all we can do for you.”

N’atural’s reaction.... Was a cooing sound. It’s head reeled back, possibly in surprise.

“If… If this ends non-violently…” Tabby managed to say, after being silent this whole time.

Diana looked at the monster. Up, and down. It took a pregnant moment for her to do something else before she put her two fingers to her ear.

“Yeah. There was a reaction to just bringing her in…” Diana possibly talking to Conrad. “… Call in the Diamonds to hook and lift her away, then? …”

Diana shook her head and a pit formed in Tabby’s chest.

“Bring the Null Void in,” the Professor arched her fingers, and the Researchers compiled.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Conrad screamed so loud that Tabby definitely heard it, different from before.

“She’s not going to take this!” Diana shouted back. “siVis users dwell in the fresh hell they’re subjected to! It isn’t gonna stick—in fact, I’m sticking to the plan! We Null Void and we mercy kill whatever’s left!”

Diana got out of the way, as the Researchers wheels in the Void, as it begins to lance out at N’atural as she screamed. She gestured to the Enforcers to move back as well, circling around the scene.

“Two swipes should do it,” Diana said bluntly. “Let’s get this over with and cry into our cereal later.”

With that, N’atural was submerged into a grey-molding green radiation.

Because that’s what the Null Rays are, a “cousin” to radiation wave lengths. It “peels” away biological access, and strips the target down to the bare essentials. Which is why it’s allowed on Nulgarrt, as their biological structure isn’t refined or settled on principle, “reverting” them back to the Stew form.

They dragged the screen across the monster as it expanded, and what was left answered what Tabby wondered about.

What was left was a pile of peeled away residue, leaving a black, shivering husk. Somehow, curled into a ball.

It reached upwards.

“Again, again! Quick!” Diana ordered.

They dragged it forward, scanning her, as the energy lances did most of the work for them.

And what was left is just a shriveled up husk.

“Alright then—” Diana begun to dash away, causing the Researchers to back off along with her. “Finish them off, boys!”

The Enforcers reconvened, standing in a circle, aiming for the former-creature that was steaming.

There was another notable pause. The soldiers were waiting for a command from their disgusted general.

But, it was what Tabby… Feels bitter to her, to say hoped for. But it proved that they survived the stress test… Still. At the cost of a girl who couldn’t at all control what she was given.

“…Aim!” Conrad roared, but reluctantly.

They twisted the muzzle again, and pressed it further down into the barrel. So much so, that it slotted itself into an empty compartment in the middle of the gun, as they locked it in place. An symphony of soft hums rang in the air together.

Laserfire, was what came out of those rifles. Beams basically cooking the husk further until they drill in.

“JESUS, IT’S TOUGH—SIR, PERMISSION TO HIKE IT?!” An Enforcer yelled out.

“Granted!” Conrad answered back.

All of them briefly stopped, only to spin the muzzle in it’s new chamber, and resumed firing, where the beams became blasts of crimson light.

The sounds of the droning lasers, and the crackling hiss as they begin to remove the black hide from N’atural… Was completely drowned out.

DIE VERWANDLUNG: BüHNE VEIR

“THERE’S NO FUCKING WAY--!” Diana screamed as the impossible continued to happen.

There was a flurry of brown, spear like spikes that repeatedly skewered the surrounding Enforcers, battering their armor and flinging them backwards.

No one was sure what the hell was happening.

But Tabby knew.

This was them failing the stress test.