Asphodel – The Sixth Age – Third Year – Twenty-Fifth Sun

“When’s he coming?” Tony asked nervously. He was pacing around the room for the last half hour as they waited for Adam. Mary had worked with Tony on more than one occasion and was used to his jittery nature. Cassius on the other hand, had just started working with Tony in the last few months. Tony’s uneasiness frustrated Cassius beyond belief. Mary chuckled at that. When Mary met Tony, he was actually much worse. She was proud of all the progress he’s made since they’d started working together.

“Okay, you need to chill out,” Cassius said stepping in front of him. “You’re making me tense.” Cassius pointed to Tony’s desk behind the temporary station that Mary had set up. “Sit.” Tony looked at him for a moment and then meekly walked over to his desk and sat down with a sigh.

“Leave him be,” Mary said typing away on her console. She was finishing up with the initial preparations to get Adam trained. Contact had been made with Titan, Elysian, THRF, and Tartarus. All of the security protocols now met her specifications. Most of it was to account for the power that Adam displayed a few days earlier after he transformed. Electricity worked to subdue him, but none of the new facilities they’d be working in had a reactor that matched their current one, and in the end that wasn’t enough. All of the facility’s power supplies had been overhauled to be one thousand percent more effective than they currently were. It should be enough to keep the Wrathic under control for the foreseeable future.

With Cassius seemingly content for the time being, Tony looked down at his forearm to the faint blue menu beacon that was glowing just beneath the inside of his wrist.

"Why do you keep your MB lit for others to see?” Cassius asked upon seeing Tony looking at it.

“I don’t spend much time in the field. No point in turning it off.”

Cassius shook his head. “Idiot,”

Tony ignored him and tapped the menu beacon. A holographic interface appeared. At five feet tall and four feet wide, his menu was larger than most. The interface was projected a foot in front of him and the icons and text were made larger to allow him to look through it without using his glasses.

“Go figure,” Cassius scoffed as he paced back to where Tony was sitting. “Not only is it huge, but you still have the damn external view on so everyone can see what you’re doing. Noob.”

Tony pulled up his skill menu. “Didn’t anyone tell you Cassius? Everything I do is tailor made to piss you off.” Mary chuckled at the comment.

Tony and Cassius didn’t get a long too well. Tony was intelligent, driven and complete nerd; all perfect qualities for a Technomancer. He spent most of his time behind an interface, hacking code or doing research. While Cassius was a Technomancer as well, he took a more aggressive approach to the class. Cassius spent most of his time in the field with Soldiers, leveling up his combat skills and fiddling with battlefield technology. They both had their strong points, but Cassius looked down on Tony for his less violent approach to the game. Cassius scoffed and walked away.

“Only a few hundred more XP Mary.” Tony said.

“Good to hear,” she said without looking up. “Should come in handy.”

“What that Tony? Climbing up the cypher skill tree again?” Cassius asked.

“Actually, it’s a combat perk, Stone Cold.”

“Well you look at you. Now all you need is to learn how to use weapon and you’ll be all set to shoot some turtles for more XP. Should be up to taking out a few Noob warriors in like ten years or so.”

“Bite me Cass.” Tony fired back. “Do you even remember how to open your menu beacon?” Normally Tony wouldn’t be so brazen with his shit talk, but Mary noticed him getting bolder in the last few months. She liked to think that it had something to do with her watching over him since they starting working with Cassius.

Cassius rotated in place, his anger fixated on Tony.

“Both of you need to relax,” Mary offered in between typing. Her hand-selected crew was mostly assembled, save for a few members that were still working on passing off their current projects to co-workers. The original crew assigned to each of the four facilities was dismissed. Mary didn’t trust any of them to follow her instructions as need be, and even less when it came to reporting back to the council without her approval. The last thing she wanted was for Andion to have reason to extinguish the program without proper information. Not only would that likely destroy any relationship that she had built with Adam, but it would also almost surely end in his death. People fear what they don’t understand.

“Relax?” Cassius asked with a scoff. “This is all your fault!”

“Finding a living Wrathic?” Mary asked. “I’ll take credit for that.”

Cassius wasn’t amused. “No, wedging this team between a massive fire-breathing rock and a hard council. You blackmailed the council into giving us access to three top-of-the-line facilities, utilized over eight billion credits to overhaul their systems and hardware, and we’re working with a Shifter of unknowable power that could, in all probability, lose control and kill us all. Or hell, could do it on purpose if he decides that we can’t be trusted.”

“Don’t forget about Tartarus,” Tony chimed in.

“Yes! Tartarus! Thank you!” Cassius ignored their previous spat to prove his point.

“What about Tartarus?” Mary asked, egging Cassius on.

“What about Tartarus? Talk about dangerous. I can’t tell what’s worse, trying to control a Wrathic, or using a facility like that to make him more powerful. What happens if word gets out about Tartarus? You brought on a whole new crew to operate the facility. That’s more hands in the cookie jar, more chances for it to be discovered. How can you possible think this is a good idea?”

Mary finally stopped typing and calmly turned to face Cassius. “Tony, does my assistant think that he knows better than the council?”

Cassius winced at the term ‘assistant’. It wasn’t the most accurate term, but it also wasn’t a lie. Wardens within the HTG were never fully trusted by the council, given their questionable history. Originally, Cassius was first in line to lead up the search for any living Wrathics. He convinced the council that it was something that was worth investing time and money into. Before he had a chance to have them greenlight the project, Mary swooped in and presented the ring, which led to the Barron Wastes , and subsequently Adam’s discovery. She was put in charge and Cassius was left with the choice of working under her or being reassigned. It didn’t help that she brought Tony along for the ride.

"I think your assiss…” Cassius shot Tony a scowl. “I mean Cassius, is just worried about the obvious, as am I.” Upon realizing that Tony was trying to back him up, Cassius’s face softened. “We’d prefer to not to lose our characters…and you know, be hunted down and killed in the real world.”

Mary sighed. “Look, no one wants to restart their time in Asphodel, and of course, no one wants to have their decisions in here spill over into the real world. You spent years in here, months of your real life leveling up, I get it, but this is the nature of our group. It’s the nature of what we’re trying to accomplish. Something that’s never been done in the decades that Asphodel has been active. It’s dangerous. There are powerful people on the outside expecting answers, but you need to accept something…we’re going to lose characters, and those powerful people in the real world are going to do what they’ll do regardless. Deal with it, or get the hell out of my group.”

Tony and Cassius stayed quiet. “Tartarus is necessary for us to level up Adam and his Wrathic form in a controlled environment.”

“What’s Tartarus?” a quiet voiced asked from the behind them. Everyone turned around to see Adam standing in the doorway.

Mary smiled. “Tartarus is where we’re going to safely train you.”

Adam bit his lower lip and nodded, taking another step into the room. “Well,” he offered a hand out to Cassius.

“Cassius,” he responded.

“Yes, Cassius. He doesn’t really sound convinced.” Adam took another step forward.

Adam had been standing there for more than a few seconds. He had heard enough to know that while Mary was fully confident in the way everything was taking shape, her team wasn’t. Now she had to mitigate Cassius and Tony’s concerns as they were already affecting Adam’s perspective. She’d made a mental note to broach this subject with her entire team to prevent further issues. Last thing she needed was to constantly reassure everyone, Adam most of all, that this was all worth it.

“He’s cautious, and with good reason. You’re very powerful Adam, and I’m not going to lie, no matter how secure we make your discovery, it will get out. People will want to use you, people will want to harm you, and regardless of how powerful you may feel, you’re still vulnerable. But I’m confident about our arrangement and the new upgrades to the facilities that we’ll be working in.” Mary answered. She walked across the room and offered her hand to Adam. Adam met her gaze, then blinked a few times.

“And what kind of people are you?” he asked.

Mary dropped her hand, switched on the compassion but kept the optimistic smile that wanted to form at bay. “Cautious, that’s good. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t self-serving, but we don’t want to harm you and we don’t want to use you as a weapon. We’re doing ground-breaking work here in Asphodel and that comes coupled with jealously which has a tendency to create enemies. We’d prefer if one of those enemies didn’t feed you lies in order to rip us apart.”

Adam continued to stare at her. “But to answer your question,” she continued. “We want to help. Advanced MS right?”

Adam shifted uncomfortably. The question took him by surprise. “How, how did you know?”

Mary smiled softly. “I’m a Warden, Adam. Asphodel is my life. I’ve seen enough standard avatars to spot one out of a crowd. I’ve also done my research.” Asphodel was originally pitched as a health experiment. While certain aspects of Asphodel could be altered or worked around, the base pillars that held the world together were iron clad. People’s bodies in the real world were scanned and used in Asphodel as part of the registration process. Facial features were the only alterable part of the avatars. That was mostly due to providing anonymity between the two worlds for those who wanted it. Most Wrathic hunters believed the anonymity angle was a myth. It was widely accepted that Hidarian used that explanation as a means to get more people interested in Asphodel so he could gather a greater deal of information from users, and in turn, use it to explore digital consciousness.

Adam nodded and looked at the ground.

“How much time?” Mary asked.

Adam shook his head, “Unsure. The most optimistic bets give me another two years. The more dismal…” Mary gave Adam a few seconds to collect himself. The tone of the room had changed. Cassius and Tony anxiously waited for the answer, their fear of him destroying everything they built was washed away by the fact that Adam was terminally ill and only had so much time. “Months.”

Adam raised his head, eyes red, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I’m sure you’re aware of the most popular myth surrounding Wrathic lore?” Mary asked. Adam’s lower lip jittered back and forth as he tried to hold his emotions in. He nodded to Mary’s question. “I’m sure you’re also aware that it may just be a myth?”

Adam sighed and took a deep breath. He broke eye contact with Mary, glancing down to the floor, his voice no louder than a whisper. “Myth is all I have left.” Adam used the back of his hand to wipe away the tears building in his eyes. With a sniff, he looked back up and asked, “When do we get started?”

“Right now,” Mary answered. “Please, follow me.” She walked past Adam and motioned for Tony and Cassius to follow. “I take it you’ve been through a flash door already?”

“I’m a Level 3 with no affiliations, there’s a lot I haven’t done yet,” Adam followed closely behind Mary, with Cassius and then Tony trailing behind him.

“Not a problem,” she offered over her shoulder while turning a corner in the hall. “You walk through, you end up somewhere else. It’s a fast and efficient way to travel and completely painless. I read in your profile that you’re into retro gaming?”

“I am…or maybe was. Seems a little pointless after what I’ve done in here so far.”

“You’re tastes go way back don’t they? I think Skyrim was on your list?”

Adam chuckled, “Heh, yeah. I’ve gotta be honest, I’m surprised you know what that is.”

“Know from whence you came. If you know from whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.” Mary stopped in front of a door and turned around, causing Adam to jerk to a stop inches in front of her. Cassius and Tony mirrored the motion behind him. “That’s James Baldwin, an author from well before Skyrim. You’re not the only one who’s into retro stuff.” Mary winked. Adam blushed and looked at his feet.

"Fast travel,” Mary said turning back to the door. She placed her wrist near the edge and it slid open. “Think of the flash doors as fast travel. No point in running all over Asphodel when you can just mess with the code a bit and make life a little easier.” Mary stepped aside, allowing Adam to enter the room first. It was small compared to the concrete interrogation room they had him in last time. There was a metal, rectangular frame in the center of the room, shaped like a large door. Varying sizes of wires protruded from the sides and top and snaked up into the ceiling above. Adam jumped as the open space inside the frame lit up white, swirling around like an ocean of foam.

Pretending that he wasn’t startled by the activation of the flash door, Adam took two nervous steps toward it. “I was under the impression that code in Asphodel was uncrackable. Hidarian created it specifically to prevent things of this nature. He originally wanted the system to act as a means of helping people to get healthier, which is why the grav chambers stimulate muscle growth based off of your actions here.”

“Know from whence you came,” Mary said from behind Adam. “Very good, you’ve done your homework.”

Adam turned around to face her, “But then how can this be possible?” All he could think of at the moment was Reggie. If the HTG had found a way to alter code within Asphodel, than maybe they could help him import Reggie. He didn’t want to give too much away too quickly though, as he still didn’t know whether or not they could be trusted.

Mary cocked her head to the side ever so slightly. “If you know…”

“There are no limitations,” he finished.

“There you go,” Mary said with a warm smile. “We can have another conversation about differences between altering external and internal code later, how about I show you Tartarus?”

Adam nodded and turned back to the flash door. Mary walked up to frame and stood off to the side. She motioned for Adam to move in front of the door and as he did, she leaned across the door frame, blocking him from entering. “Trust is earned, wouldn’t you agree?” Adam’s eye’s darted around momentarily, as he tried to figure out what the question was insinuating. He nodded.

“Good, we see eye to eye on that. There are over three billion users connected to Asphodel at any given time, and that number grows every day. Some of them want to experience violence, some want sexual gratification, some have other more,” Mary looked Adam up and down, “admirable goals in mind, but all of them retreat here for another life. Something beyond what the real world has to offer. Three. Billion. People.” Mary gave Adam time to contemplate how many users that actually was.

“The existence of Tartarus is known to only a handful within our group. I hope that you can appreciate the amount of resources I’ve acquired to develop your skills and I hope that Tartarus is just the beginning of the trust that will be built between us.”

Adam nervously licked his lips and glanced beyond Mary at the swirling doorway. “I’m not asking you to trust me right now Adam. I know how this all must look to you. I’m just asking for the chance to prove that you can trust me.”

Without looking away from the door, Adam nodded again. Mary moved her arm and stepped to the side of the frame.

“It won’t hurt,” Mary assured.

Adam took a hesitant step forward, then looked over the entire frame. After another second, he raised his hand, and inched his pointer finger to the swirling white mass before him. To Mary’s surprise, Adam skipped testing the portal with his finger and just sprang through it, disappearing into the shimmery white mass. That, more than anything else he had done since arriving, had given her hope.