On. Off. On! Off! Hehehe. The world flickered in and out. The blue haze popping into existence and then quickly disappearing. At least it appeared that way for me.

"You having fun there, Kid?" Emit said.

Of course I am! I looked over to him and turned my vision back on.

"AH!" I yelled. The intense 'light' produced by Emit burned me. It was like staring into the sun. Especially with how it radiated outward, easily over shadowing anything else. I quickly turned my vision off, leaving me with spots floating in my vision. Ugh.

"Quit being weird." Lyra said, still walking close to me. The other two still were ahead. I must have really bothered Ariel.

"Where's that worry you've been showing?" I asked her.

"Can't show concern everytime you freak out. What do I look like? Your mother?" Lyra said.

"I sure hope not. You know how she is." I said.

Lyra grabbed me, her arms wrapping tight around my body.

"Oh my precious boy! Sweetums you're safe and sound! Are you okay? Have you eaten enough? Have you stopped drawing those naughty pictures?" Lyra said in a nauseatingly familiar motherly tone.

I pushed her off of me. "It bothers me how well you can do that. And I don't draw dirty pictures! It's for anatomy practice only!"

"Uh huh…" Lyra said. Her face grew still for a couple of moments.

"It's been a awhile since we've talked about home. You… miss it at all, Feathers?" Lyra said a ting of caution lingering at the edge of her voice.

"Nah." I replied bluntly.

"Even your brothers?"

"...A little for them I guess." I said. An uneasiness began rising up from my stomach. The same kind that always does when I think about home.

"Why are you asking anyway?" I asked.

Lyra shrugged. "Thought maybe we could visit sometime. It's been awhile."

I had no response to that, so we just left it there. As a distraction from the uncomfortable topic. I continued my messing around with my new mana sense.

On! Off! On! Off!

"You're gonna give yourself acute manafolithic poisoning if you keep that up." Emit said.

The heck is that? As if answering my question though, my body started to feel… off. A lightheaded feeling came over me. I felt like I was about to vomit, the world minorly spinned and it felt like I was going to fall over. Thankfully it quickly went away as fast as it came.

"That was it. When you push your body more than it's used to using Mana, you'll start to build up more of it in your body than you're used to. It's like when you get too much carbon dioxide in your bloodstream after running. You'll start to feel light headed, dizzy and could even kill yourself if you strain yourself too hard! Not to mention the long term side effects."

Yikes. Maybe I should cool it with the playing around. Do I even want to know what the long term side effects are?

"Cancer, calcification of the liver, anemia…" Emit rattled on. Okay okay okay, I get it. Very bad.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much though. That's only in extreme cases. Plus as you practice you'll get more used to it. Also just like running!" Emit said cheerfully.

If that's the case though, doesn't that mean I won't get quite used to it when I can't live to see tomorrow?

"Yeah. But that's besides the point. You seem determined to get me out of your body today so this whole magic thing will be moot anyway."

Aw man. Can't I keep that part? Damn it.

We continued on. Lyra had gone ahead of me while I was talking to Emit, now chatting with her friends about something. Looking around, we reached a familiar area. Broken statues littered the ground. I think up ahead is the area I fell in.

"You fell before?" Emit said.

Well yeah, I wasn't paying attention but it wasn't really my fault. Lyra was droning on about something at the time.

"Okay but-"

Human this, Human that. I swear she was like a walking encyclopedia of only Human facts. All that space for info in her head and she occupies it with that! Not to mention-

"Kid!" Emit yelled, flying in front of my face. What?

Refocusing, I noticed there was a gaping hole in front me. The same one I previously fell in and currently started to fall in. My next step caught no ground and I found myself tipping downwards.

I flapped my wings in an attempt to restabilize myself but to no avail.

I let out a yelp as I tumbled into the abyss.

Everything hurt. I can't believe I managed to fall in here again. I'm once again thankful for the fact that I have wings. I'd more than likely have broken something otherwise.

"FEAAATHEEERRRSSS! ARE YOU OKAY?" I heard Lyra shout from above me. I looked up to see her staring at me. The other two were also looking down. I don't think they even bothered to check the last time though.

"I'm good! I just gotta go into the elevators and I'll be fine. Watch out for giant rats!" I yelled back.

Lyra tilted her head in confusion before giving me a thumbs up. "I'll try to see if there's another way to get to you as well!"

They all left my sight after that. I got up and brushed myself off. Time to get out of here I suppose. Let's go into the creepy dark corridor again.

"Can't you just fly up?" Emit asked.

"No? Fallen can't fly. Hence the name." I said, now walking down the halls.

"You can't fly? Excuse me? If a bee can defy all known laws of aviation I'm sure a catbird Griffon like you can muster up some air power." Emit said. The light he gives off really helps. I wish I had him around the first time.

I shrugged in response to Emit. "I don't know what to tell you. The wings are mostly for show. You're a God, go talk to Kath about it if you have an issue. She's the one who made us unable to fly."

"Who?" Emit asked

I stopped in my tracks. "You know? The creator Goddess of the three races? The Fallen, Hidden and Confined? Not to mention the one who supposedly took away features of ourselves as a divine punishment."

Emit paused for a moment. His light dimming as he let out a long hum. "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell. You sure she's even real?"

"Wow. If I were more religious I'd be offended." I said.

"Can't believe there's more of you things out there though. Walking talking griffons is already weird enough. Next you're gonna tell me there's dragons or mermaids. It's like I'm living in a fantasy world now." Emit said, ignoring my statement.

Is it really that strange? I think it's stranger he doesn't know his fellow God. I mean, she is the biggest one out of all of them. Then again, Emit doesn't seem like the type to get out much, considering I never even heard of him till this all started.

"What can I say? I like my Tower, it's nice and comfy. Y'know when I'm not being killed in it." Emit said.

Uh huh. I continued down the path. Even though I could see better this time around thanks to Emit, it was somehow creepier walking into a slightly lit hallway rather than a completely dark one.

Thankfully, I made it to the door. There was a little button on the side of it. I pressed it and it flew open with a whoosh. Still such a neat thing for something as simple as a door.

Same room as last time. The object I messed around before had gone back to a faint blue light.

"Oh hey! That's the main data center!" Emit said, flying over towards the object. "You found not just a lab, but the central one! Good job falling in that pit, Kid!"

Thanks? So this is the main area we were looking for?

"Yes! Not only that but what's even better is that this computer here should tell us the last place an I.D card with access should be!" Emit said. Oh. Well that makes things a lot easier then.

I walked over to the screen. The same layer of buttons covered in runs laid before me. I should just press one, right? With a click, the lights in the room flashed on.

“Welcome Doctor, It has been five days since you’ve last logged on.” A voice rang out. Several boxes appeared on the screen.

“Emit can you read this? Cause I sure can’t.” I asked.

“Voice controls activated. User ‘Huh’ Detected. Would you like to continue where you’ve left off?” The voice said to me again. An image of… me of all things appeared on the screen. But I looked different. For one a dumb expression was on my face. Ugh don’t look Emit! My bow also wasn’t there, and I wasn’t bandaged up in areas like I am now.

“Oh hey, there’s that charming photo of you. Aren’t you just adorable? Making funny faces for the camera. I had quite a laugh at this before I exploded!” Emit said.

Before? I peered again at the ‘photo’ of me. Now that I think about it, isn’t this the same image of me that appeared when I first came here? How is that even possible? And how in the world did Emit see it?

“Oh that’s an easy question Kid. This is a quantum computer. Arguably the peak of technology before humanity was wiped out honestly. It’s storage capabilities are so advanced with it’s closed quantum states that any information this thing stores on it’s network can even survive alterations to time and space!”

…What?

Emit shook in the air. “Must I dumb everything down? My time magic can’t affect this thing. It’s one of the few non-divine objects that can retain its identity even if we go back two days ago. That includes your funny picture stored on here.”

“Don’t mock me. I was surprised at the time okay? I had just fallen down a hole for the first time then came across this weird thing. Then my face appeared! Anyone would be shocked” I said.

“Would you like to continue where you left off?” The voice rang again. Right, back on task.

“Uh yes?” I replied.

“Opening Quilt’s logs.” It said. Another image appeared, a long list of words I couldn’t read.

“No no, back it up. Tell it to go back.” Emit said.

“Go back.” I said

“Playing ‘Going Forward.’” The voice said. Another voice came up, the same one I heard the last time. I guess I accidentally pulled up another audiolog.

“Further testing with the material and gas it produces has proven to be strange, to say the least. Doctor Vita has made some… interesting creations using it. The rapid mutations are not only impossible by current scientific standards, but just downright bizarre.” The male voice said.

“Ugh, Voice recognition is just as bad as I remember it. Here, just press the keys I tell you to.” Emit said, flowing over the buttons.

I did as I was told. Although I couldn’t help but to listen to the voice drone on at the same time.

“What’s even stranger is the vast amount of applications one can seemingly use it for. I was mostly interested in the energy capabilities, but the biological ones are just as exceptional. For example, one of Doctor Vita’s experiments, an ordinary lizard, had become capable of shooting fire out its mouth! It’s so absurd that if I didn’t see it for myself I would have disregarded it completely.” The voice continued.

“Okay now press the escape key. It’s at the top left corner. No not the tilde! Can’t you read?” Emit said to me. We flickered through several images at this point. I started to get the idea of what some of these buttons did and how they related to the text on the screen. The little arrows highlighted different options that Emit told me to pick pressing the ‘Enter’ key.

“Going forward, more testing will need to be done. Especially in regards to people. Could you imagine being able to do the same as that lizard? The idea of producing flames from one’s mouth, or even more fantastical, one’s hands is such a magical idea. Still, I mustn get ahead of myself. The deadliness of the gas is still quite apparent. Even the gas masks we wear on the daily today to survive the outside pollution can’t filter it out. We have to figure out how to use it without dying if such a dream would be possible.” The voice concluded. The audiolog seemed to end there.

“Are you done spacing out? You’re barely listening to me at all!” Emit said.

“Well maybe if you were a bit more patient with me we wouldn’t have this problem.” I said.

Emit huffed, how he did so without lungs is beyond me. “We’re almost done. The I.D list is right there. Just select it then hit enter.”

Okay okay whatever. I pressed the key, and a new screen appeared. It showed more text that I had no idea what it said. Note to self, ask Lyra about how to read human text. This is starting to become a problem.

“Lets see... “ Emit said, floating closer to the screen. “Ah ha! Right there I.D Lists. Hit Enter! Wait no, this is the janitorial list. Whoops. Hit backspace, Kid.”

Which one was that again? Uh… I pressed a button.

“Delete all information in the folder?” The computer rang out. A loud sound also rang out with a bright red screen. I jumped, accidentally pressing another button. “Deleting information…”

“No no no! I said backspace!” Emit yelled.

“I’m sorry!” I said, panicking.

“Due to the clearance level of the information, it will be deleted in approximately 48 hours. Please insert an I.D card if you wish to undo this action.” The voice said.

“Are you kidding me? Why would they even let you do that?” Emit said.

Emit flew around. “What to do what to do… We’re so screwed Kid.”

“Um, how exactly? The info is still there. Can we still access it?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, we can see it just fine and dandy. Except we don’t have all the time in the world anymore. If you don’t get that I.D card in two days, kiss going up that Tower goodbye! The data will be wiped and those cards will be as useless as the plastic they’re printed on.”

“Can’t we just try again? I mean this day is almost over anyway, as much as I’d like to not die I’ve more or less accepted we’re gonna have to do this again.” I said.

Emit flew up towards me. “That would be great, if you didn’t forget what I said about this system storing it’s information beyond the scope of my abilities. Even if you didn’t restart everything, that timer will still be ticking downwards.”

Oh. Oh. This really isn’t good.

Emit took a deep breath, or at least sounded like he did. Once again, how do you even do that without a body? “It’s okay, just a quick change of plans. We find that I.D card, come back here, undo your mistake and bam! No problems. Got it?”

I nodded.

“Good. Now hit backspace and let's see where this thing is.” Emit said.

Two days… I hoped it wasn't going to be too hard to get.