Just remembering this next part pisses me off to no end. There have been very loops, or groups of loops, that have made me so mad.

Loop 13 Year 1 Day 1

Son of a bitch! What just happened!? How the fuck did that bullet curve!? Was it a power user? The bots should have taken care of all the humans and irregulars! Damnit!

Even though I am furious, there is nothing I can do about it. I am already out of that loop. The guy didn’t even show his face! Did he really have to be that careful when he was going to kill someone from a big distance?

I play the loop like the last one. This time only fixing minor things. These things will help me in the long run though.

Loop 13 Year 1 Day 32

After only a month, I have the entire factory built. I have a small factory creating the robots for me. It only takes about two weeks to build the factory, with construction workers working 24/7. The factory can produce a robot every 12 hours. I have dozens.

Loop 13 Year 1 Day 63

I have the five chips planted in my body today. Reprogramming AI took several days of non-stop coding. Thankfully I don’t need to go through the tedious task of trial and error. It is like I have the answer book right in front of me.

With the chips implanted a decade before the last loop, AI and I have a lot of leeway in how we approach this loop. It turns out she doesn’t remember me dying. The coding she had me memorize was cut off 3/25ths of a second before she could finish inputting everything.

The chips in my eyes have a bit of a special upgrade this time. They can zoom in as far as distant galaxies. They also have the ability to see bacteria on an object. Not bad for something the size of an eyeball. Ok so I had to increase the size from a thumbnail to an eyeball, don’t ask how I implanted them.

Instead of the various cameras, I place these supercomputer Nano-chips around the town. The only thing stopping me from flooding this place with them, is that they each cost about a half a million dollars. While that sounds like a lot, it’s really not.

Normal super computers cost about 100-250 million just to make. Not to mention the massive 6-7 million for energy. My supercomputers have miniature versions of the APG factories put in. That way they even support their own energy consumption. It takes a hell of a lot though. About a split atom a week for each chip. If the chips were to ever break… Let’s not think about that.

Loop 13 Year 1 Day 183

Chelsea, her closest friends, her family, the family of her friends, even my dad, sister and her kids; they are all here with me in the vault. I make sure they hear that they can come any time. But if I don’t know somebody, they are not allowed in my vault. It doesn’t matter what the situation is.

Loop 13 Year 1 Day 365

We are all huddled in the vault as the bombs drop. I turn away two people from entering.

Loop 13 Year 4 Day 12

AI and I are best friends. She knows everything about me I would be willing to share to someone that might judge me. I know everything about her that she can’t hide from me. We understand each other more than any other two thinking beings.

Once a week we do research together. It is a bonding experience. She is doing the research at all times, but sometimes doesn’t know what the best line of development would be for something. That’s generally where I come in at.

AI is so good at what she does, that I have her in charge of all things robotic. She is in control of what they do, and how many get produced. During the first loop she was even in charge of what information to hack into. She could easily break the governments firewalls at that point. It was actually fun watching her steal all of their protected archives.

I tell her to focus on finding other ways to use the APG. It feels like there are more things that can be done with it. If it can stop matter from moving and escaping a certain area, then what else is it capable of?

Loop 13 Year 12 Day 365

I am on a routine patrol. I go on one of these every month. Chelsea is obviously here with me. Everyone gets to leave the vault once a month, under the protection of about a dozen robots obviously. Even the kids can leave as long as their parents agree and go with them.

The town is scoured clean every day. Nothing like what happened last loop has happened since then.

We are walking past the school that Chelsea and I had fun times in during the last loop.

We are heading back. As we are, AI points something out to me. I get a bad feeling. She points out the same location she had exactly one loop ago. The lenses suddenly go wild as they bring a dark figure into full view for me. Just as my view settles on the person, he fires.

The bullet is followed by a large gust of wind, its trajectory changes to swerve towards me. One eye concentrates on the bullet while the other eye views the man. He gets up and gives a salute to me even as the bullet is approaching. He has time for this due to the extremely far distance he is. Over a mile.

Unfortunately for him, I just smile at him.

One of the best uses for APG was discovered about three years ago.

Loop 13 Year 9 Day 300

AI and I were doing various tests on the APG, as we did almost every time we did research together. The amount of information we got about why the stuff works was very small. The number of uses we found out about did increase a bit.

We found that by increasing the amount of U-235, the specific type of uranium we used, we put in the APG, we could slightly alter its properties. Although putting too much or too little resulted in the atomic blasts. The blasts were all contained within larger APG chambers though. The more we tested this, the more interesting results we found. The biggest thing we found, was adding exactly 8.36 * (10^3) molecules of Uranium to [8.36 * (10^24)] – [8.36 * (10^3)] molecules of the special liquid that would become the APG. Basically the Uranium plus the liquid would equal exactly one cup of APG.

If we made enough for two cups however, it would not work. Unless the two cups of the unique APG were not in contact with each other.

Loop 13 Year 12 Day 365

As soon as the bullet starts flying towards me, AI sends a pulse of electricity to a small pouch I hide on my body always. Instantly the special APG, like it’s not already special, begins flying around me body at a high speed. When the bullet reaches exactly fifteen feet away from me, it suddenly meets suddenly meets with an unfortunate accident.

The APG in the air shoots at it like it is the last cooking knife at a battle of chefs. The bullet falls harmlessly to the ground. The APG flies back to my body, and continues to quickly circle it. I walk over and pick up the bullet, before anyone realizes what is happening.

The robots order us back into the vault. Only two more shots follow us. One aimed at me, the other aimed at Chelsea. Both are stopped. The APG’s range is 15 feet after all.

You must be wondering what this APG is, and how it can act like ninja sand.

Well this APG is very empty of most energy. It will ‘attack’ anything with a greater velocity than itself. It instantly will absorb the energy that the object has, and become slightly faster. After a while the energy goes back to the ‘minimum’ speed.

The gel is trying to attack anything faster than 0 velocity, but AI has a way around that. By using certain electromagnetic pulses, she can actually energize the dust particles in the air. The energized particles will speed up according to the frequency she uses. Thus we can control the speed of the APG.

As for the reason it flies around me, AI makes certain particles goes faster, attracting the APG even more. It is attracted to the fastest moving thing, like a moth to flame. It can attack anything within exactly 15 feet of itself. Even if it was stationary. The reason it flies in circles around me is because AI thinks it’s funny.

The APG can go slower though. If AI makes it. The slower it goes, the slower the thing it will attack can be.

Since the entire group is within 15 feet of me, none of us get hit.

Loop 13 Year 13 Day 1

Thirteen years in the same loop. Now I know why the guy was trying to kill me. It must have been my bad luck. 13 is considered an unlucky number where I live after all.

No one is allowed out anymore. With the shooting happening, I’m not sure if they will be targeted. It did seem like he was only going after me though.

The only ones that leave or enter are the robots. The robots come with a verity of sensors, so they should be able to see basically anything that can exist in this plane of existence. I could have the same sensors installed in my eyes, but that would increase the size by about 50%. They would be bigger than my eye sockets at that point!

Loop 13 Year 14 Day 1

It’s been a year since the last incident. At first the people were riled up about not being able to leave the vault, but the quieted down once they understood I was not going to let them leave.

Today is the day I am going to go exploring by myself. If nothing suspicious happens, then I will bring the others out again. The periodic trips into the surface world really helps to keep stress down. Without it they are starting to act like they did in the last loop, only worse. Worse since there are more people now.

I leave the vault in high spirits, planning my return trip for that night.

Sone of a bitch! That little fire girl is here! Now she is just older. About 13 years older. The little tramp was waiting for me right outside of the secret base! How the hell did the sensors not pick her up?

She sends a torrent of flame at me as soon as the door opens. I curse AI in my mind. How can she be so careless as to let someone just camp outside of our base!?

The fire she shoots is stopped by the APG. Not because APG seeks out fire, which it sadly doesn’t do, but because AI is making countless micro-corrections to the path of the APG. Although it won’t ‘consume’ the energy from the fire, it won’t let any come through either.

If the fire isn’t at least more powerful than a nuclear reactor, I am safe. The woman looks identical to the little girl, she is just more endowed and aged. Her eyes are dead.

She makes the fire surround me, but AI can think about a million times faster than the girl can. The APG forms almost a complete sphere around me. None of the fire makes it through. The problem with ‘orb mode’ is that it can only last a second at most. There is just not enough natural dust in the air to make move faster.

The sphere comes down, and flows back into the bag. The girl is gone. “AI! Have all the bots search for her! She was waiting here! How did she know of this place!?”

AI was silent for a few seconds. In a mechanical voice she replied. “Yes Caelus. I think the reason she wasn’t noticed was that none of the robots actually use basic video camera technology for scouting. That is why you could see her but the bots could not. I will fix that as soon as possible.”

I decide right then and there that someone is planning this. It was way too much of a coincidence that I was attacked twice on the same day in two different loops. The problem is even bigger than that though. For someone to know exactly where the exit to my hideout is, that does not bode well for me.