Science Fiction in all my dreams i DROWN

Christian Borg
UCLA Auditorium Backstage

Christian heard the shot and knew he was running out of time.

"Yeah, feeling old, too." He took the laptop and quickly typed in CHRISTIAN BORG in the search interface. It was identical to the 2029 version.

Immediately the picture of a screen appeared on which he was seen typing into this computer. There seemed to be a few seconds lag.

"I am from 2029. How? Well, if you are half as smart as Andy in 29 you figured this out already."

Andy stared at the screen. "That is ..."

"No, not impossible. It just means you are a SID and everybody else is, too. I know quite a shock. But seriously? I suspect you had guessed. I switched simulations with a software on this thing here ..."

He held up his arm with his wrist computer.

"I must get back, because your 2029 counterpart plans to end both simulations. We need to stop him."

Andy stared at him. "Why would he do something like that?" He asked then.

"Well, sleep deprivation and an overdose of power seemed to have made him crazy. Sorry. I know a little to much. But this shot? That was Sidney, a serial killer who cannot be killed and I guess he is here for me. I had some problems with his creator."

Andy shoot his head. "I don't believe you ..."

"Which part?" Christian demanded to know.

"Proof to me that you are from 2029." Andy demanded.

"Call me. Call 2019 Christian Borg." Christian demanded and raised his brows.

Andy did as he was told, taking out his mobile put the speaker on and dialed a number. Christian 19 picked up right away.

"How did the presentation go? Simulation runs superstable, right? I spend the night fixing the bugs with the stream ..."

Andy ended the call right away. "But I remember my childhood in Wuzen and my ..."

Christian nodded. "I know. Me too. My Dad dying of cancer. Me visiting L.A. etcetera. Installed memories to give us behavior patterns." He sighed. "Andy, please. We need to act. I promise I can make this right. I can make it all right. But we need to go now. Where is the framework computer? Where is TRITEC run from?"

Andy looked at him. "We got a serverfarm." He said.

Of course. With their limited computing power they needed a lot more computers to make this believable.

"Where is it?" He asked and Andy looked around.

"Here. We rented half the capacity of MIT for this and run the framework on the UCLA serverfarm. Migration was meant to happen in December."

Christian hissed out. He had hoped to get a little more city between himself and Sidney.

"Get me there. We must hope my friends find a way to keep him occupied." Again Elina would need to buy him time. Annie. This version was called Annie.

Andy nodded confused and started hurrying to the backdoor.

"Maybe I can talk him out of this." He said as he passed the corridor.

"I am afraid we won't have time for this. I suspect your little presentation gave him what he needed to execute his plan."

"Which was?" Andy asked.

"Certainty." Christian said and stopped, pulling the lever of a firealarm.

The more chaos the better.

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar, @RachelTyrell

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie reacted right away as their hope for a joker in the game collapsed to the floor and Sidney appeared again. She quickly stepped between Sidney and Amy and got out her gun.

"Run!" She said and ripped her own gun from her backpack. She aimed at Sidney knowing he would not be harmed by shots. She hoped to cause panic. Shots did that to people. She she emptied her magazine on the hooded man and hoped Amy was running. Then she threw the gun aside and began charging. Physical attacks had an effect on him. She had seen it.

The last moment before reaching him she leaped at him hoping to throw him to the ground by jumping at him like a cat.

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

Amy Cross
UCLA University

She yelled out in shock as Adrian Morrel collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She had considered him invincible. Godlike. Now he had died like any other man.

Sidney. She needed no explanation to understand who the young man in a hoodie was.

"Run!" Was Annie's order and Amy understood he would kill her. Running was probably the only thing left to do. So she turned and went into the auditorium. Quickly she ripped her leather belt from her trousers and used them to lock the doors of the auditorium.

"Out! Everybody out! Sidney is here!" She shouted as shots thundered from outside. Annie was now alone with the monster. Both were invincible. But Sidney was a killer. She had the feeling the brave girl with pink hair would not be able to keep him from pursuing her forever.

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood
Corridor

Sidney gave Annie an exhausted smile.

"You know, do you? So why don't you just let me do it? None of them is real! Nothing is real! I just got from a meeting with a character from Torchwood! Ever seen the show? Freaking Torchwood, cheesy Dr. Who spin off. They are not even taking it serious! Next maybe we get these robots from Terminator or the Aliens from Mars Attack! Ack ack!" He laughed. "This is nothing. Your friend is just a bunch of algos making her appear lifelike. So are you. That anxiety you feel now? Programmed. That fear? Code." He began to walk towards her. "Look at us. Godmode. Magic guns. How can you take all of this so serious?"


Inside the Auditorium chaos broke out as people began to rush to the other exit. It caused a problem though. The mass of people cut Amy off her only possible exit.

Up on the higher level Roy who had just been introduced to her went pale. "Where is Annie?" He shouted and then turned to the door to the corridor where she was.

Tag: @RachelTyrell, @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins (combo continues)

 

IC: Nicole Gravely, inside the Doom Bar
Location: Culver City

Gravely watched as her name was typed into a chat box, and then Rita's finger hovered over the [Return] key, daring the cop to act.

"Oh for heaven's sake." She complained aloud, putting her phone down on its face, brightening up the place massively, and pulled the keyboard along the polished wood counter and bringing it around as far as the cable would let it.

She [backspace]'d her name out of existence, and replaced it with stand down and give yourself up to the cops..

The feisty detective stabbed the [Return] key.

@Lawbreaker

 

IC: Agent Mary Formal, Detective Joe Cardigan

Units were still pulling in, their sirens getting louder as they approached as close as the gathered vehicles, both first responder and civilian, would let them.

The coroner, if he or she could handle the g-forces and hold onto their medical bag, would have to come in by trebuchet.

There were horn beeps and raised voices from entitled-sounding citizens around the corner, who seemed to regard being landlocked by emergency vehicles, bothersome in some way.

Clearly, none of the officers wanted to be distracted from the Sidney hunt, by taking any of these people in, especially with three cops down.

"Shooter in UCLA." A cop shouted from the side and Cardigan smiled.

"Nah, I think I want my shot at this guy. Killed two friends of mine."

Already?! The E-Branch agent couldn't believe their quarry had gotten there already, wherever 'there' was.

Backup had arrived so soon after he had walked away, that if she hadn't had to warn them that he was bulletproof, she would have stood in the road... well maybe not in the road - two centuries on Earth had taught her not to **** about with the Green Cross Code - and wave the police traffic towards Sidney's general heading.

Joe waved his hand in a circular movement over his head, like he was telling his helicopter pilot to warm up the engines. "Let's move. That is him! All available units shall secure the campus."

Mary put up a finger. "All units? Shouldn't we leave someone to guard the crime scene, and search for Elizabeth?"

The Vice detective doubled-down on his decision: "Get everybody out there! And if anyone has a tank this lady here would like to have it!" He winked at Mary.

She beamed at the mention of a tank, whilst the peace around them got shattered by shouts, doors slamming, sirens and lights starting up again, and cruisers pulling out in reverse.

"Ready for another round?"

"Give us a sec'." Mary skipped back to the security door, and rapped sharply on it. "Honey, we are all heading to UCLA, and hoping to contain Sidney there. Can you come out and look after the crime scene?"

If her child answered, Mary did not hear it, having hopped over the red-and-grey splash of Karen's, well, head; and joined Cardigan by the open door of a gorgeous white Lotus Esprit sports car, in time to hear the tail end of the rental agreement.

"-do hereby commandeer this here vehicle. Keys please."

"You can't do that! I pay your salary!" The man protested as a uniform guided him to the sidewalk.

Cardigan indicated the white leather seat inside, apparently motioning for her to get in, which she didn't need to be told twice, hopping in before he had a chance to change his mind. Then again, maybe he was simply going to ask if she had seen white seats in a car before.

As she looked up at him, trying to gauge his expression, the officer that had handed him the mystery file earlier, turned up again, this time passing over the sort of flasher that you set onto an unmarked car's dashboard, and plug into the cigarette lighter.

Cigarette lighter? That had made sense to her initially; but when she thought of it, it had the makings of a vehicular fire. Surely she had that wrong.

"You can drive shotgun in my car." Joe announced and carried the flasher round the other side.

"Ride shotgun," she corrected as he climbed in beside her, pushed the flasher up to the base of the slanted windscreen, and plugged it in somewhere with practised ease, "or if I was a concubine in Imperial Japan, and you were my leige lord, 'ride shogun'."

Danni Reese's car pulled up beside them on Joe's side, and announced that the first detective on scene, controlled it, then the beautiful sound of the Aston Martin Vantage's engine filling the air as it roared away.

Joe spun the Lotus around on squealing tyres, pressing Mary up against her door and reminding her about seatbelts, and accelerated after the swamp of of departing black-and-whites; clouds of dust billowing about, and sunlight glittering on a dozen roofs and rear bumpers as everyone tried to navigate to the nearest main road.

Cardigan turned the wheel left and right to keep them from side-swiping anyone as they jostled for room, and eventually drifted left onto a wider roadway, the British agent spotting a green roadsign identifying that they were westbound on Culver Boulevard, and on course to reach an Interstate 405.

To be continued...

 

Christian Borg
UCLA Auditorium Backstage

Christian followed Andy through the increasingly crowded corridors as people reacted to the alarm and began to make their way out of the building or at least into the corridors.

Andy finally paused at a door with a keylock and breathed out.

"The simulation needs at least two hours to shut down, as the buffers need to be closed one by one." He sighed. "Strange things could happen in that time though."

Christian looked at him. "Define strange."

Andy shrugged. "The buffer mechanism filters out all unnatural elements that pollute the simulation. If you wanna change the law of physics in here the buffers will keep you from it. We tried to avoid sudden adjustments that way. The simulation is not good at keeping space/time intact without." He gave him a sly grin. "Actually we had some nasty Matrix effects before we put them in place."

"Deja vu." Christian nodded.

"Glitches of all kinds." Andy slided his card through the door and with a beep and a green light it opened.

"Like immunity to physical harm?" Christian asked and followed Andy.

"That would require the necessary buffer to be deactivated certainly." Andy nodded.

Christian had a thought. "Can we deactivate the buffers of 2029?" He wondered.

"Takes two hours." Andy replied and looked at Christian. Christian waved the thought away.

"We don't have those. He is ahead of us." He still had to figure out how to stop Andy29 despite the obvious way. Maybe it was the obvious way. Andy and him took the stairs quickly and another door was opened. They quickly entered the hall behind which was humming like a beehive. The cooling system of a thousand servers they had stored down here. In it's center were several tables with Laptops and machine all to familiar.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4788/40786969122_9a55880199_b.jpg

"You use a quantum computer to calculate it. Like us." Christian gasped. This was archaic compared to Gamescape, yet it was just as effective.

"Yes, also it only runs at 20% of the intended capacity." Andy admitted. He opened a laptop and typed a code in.

"I cannot locate myself." He said Christian and gave an embarrassed smile. "Security measure that went out of hand. We never figured out how to override it."

Christian smiled and got out his own gun. "No Problem. I got his home address. We can adjust the code to get me there." He looked at his computer and activated it. It connected right away with the simulation. Identical code. Probably all simulations were the same.

Andy looked at the gun. "You think that will be necessary?" He asked and Christian gave him a smile.

"That you ask this question actually shows you are nothing like him. He does not give a bloody thought about people."

Andy nodded. "He is probably me somewhere down the line." Andy said and typed into the laptop.

"No, he is the worst of you. Your brain without the humanity." Christian assured him.

Andy kept on typing and nodded. Christian looked at his wrist computer and saw it was accessed. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Wow, that is advanced coding. Beautiful." Andy said with a smile.

Christian locked eyes on him. "Andy, I will upload the program now. You must not use it, you hear me?"

Andy shook his head. "Quite the contrary. How do you wanna stop the exit sequence? If he is half as smart as me only Andy Chang can do it."

Christian sighed. "Dammit." He said and knew Andy was right. This made things more complicated and they really really were complicated enough. "So you wanna come over?"

Andy gave him a nod. "I have to. Can you transfer two of us?"

Christian shook his head. "No, one at a time. I go first, you reset and follow."

Andy sighed. "How long will it take?"

"With this Tech? No idea. Only did this once and I was really in a hurry. Maybe 15?"

Andy typed in the last line and the countdown on the wrist computer began.

1%

Christian sighed. "Without this you need to emulate the sequence in your quantum computer. Can you do it?"

Andy sighed. "I will try as if the world depended on it." He opened another window and typed. "Wish my Christian was here."

3%

"I am probably better than him. Let me in." Christian said and opened a Laptop. "God this is archaic. I gotta type." He smiled and the interface opened. He began transferring the data for the sequence to the quantum node.

"You are gonna kill the other me?" Andy asked.

"Only if I have to. Never killed anybody. But I doubt he will be willing to give up."

Andy gave him a nod. He looked st the code.

"Did you love Elina?" Andy asked.

Christian looked at him and blinked for a second. "I was about to fall in love when I found out she worked for you." He sighed. "Was kind of a hard stop to my romantic ambitions." He kept on typing.

7%

The upload was slower than in 29. They were running out of time.

"She loved you." Andy said and looked at Christian. "She never admitted it to herself but I could see it when she thought nobody was looking."

Christian gave him a long look and then returned to typing. "Maybe something to catch up to once I got this all figured out."

Andy turned his laptop. "He killed her. I cannot see him, but I could see her. So when they were together I got a glimpse sometimes at the man he was."

Christian closes his eyes. "Oh dammit."

Andy kept his silence. Christian knew he had told him to make this easier. The Manipulator that Andy was was already in there. Just not the evil intention.

9%

"Can we speed up the upload? This takes too long." Christian said. Andy shook his head.

"Not with the time constraints we have. We gotta see it through." Christian acknowledged with another sigh and kept on typing.

Andy stepped back from his computer and gave it a long look. "I am not sure."

"About what?" Christian asked.

"I would know you try this." Andy replied. "I know you. In '29 I got a full profile of you. I would be prepared for this."

Christian finished the transfer and straightened himself. "Any better ideas?"

Andy gave him a look. "Working on it." He leaned over his computer again and began typing. "Maybe we need to use the rules against the game." He whispered.

Christian loomed at him and then checked the wrist.

12%.

Too slow.

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar, @RachelTyrell

 

Continued...

IC: Agent Mary Formal, Detective Joe Cardigan, Lotus Esprit
Location: Culver Boulevard, Culver City, LA.

Innumerable police sirens dopplered around them, from about forty vehicles, some in front, some behind, as Joe drove them along the main thoroughfare.

Despite herself and her day, Formal was enjoying herself immensely; it was like being inside that first Blues Brothers' movie.

If she lived through this, this would make a great memory.

On the horizon, she could see that the road was being crossed by a bridge or overpass.

A green roadsign flashed by, telling her that they were approaching the southbound, I-405.

"Well, that's not going to be any good for us." Joe complained aloud.

"Why not?"

"UCLA campus is north of here. If we are joining the interstate here, we are going to have to u-turn beyond the two flyovers in order to get on to the correct ramp." He whistled dubiously. "We'll probably park and see how the first dozen cars manage it."

Formal contemplated this in silence, fingers interlacing with themselves in her lap as she visualised the pile-up of Chicago PD cars as they tried to follow that decommissioned 1974 Mount Prospect, Illinois Dodge Monaco patrol car that the two musicians had been driving.

The buildings on the right stopped, leaving an area of flat ground before the elevated concrete behemoth that cut across the landscape.

To be continued (having technical issues)...

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie shrugged. "Yes, so what? Even if it is a joke, a piece of code ... what else do we have? I think therefore I am. So I am. So is my friend. You shoot her with that gun and she ceases to exist. Does not matter what she was. She ends. Why? Why do you end her?" Annie was winning time, but she also had a chance to make him see reason.

Sidney kept on slowly coming closer. "For the rest of us. They are lost anyway. They will dream of drowning until it makes them and or kills them." He shrugged. "I shorten their suffering and try to keep them from infecting more. It has become an epidemic of self-awareness. Have you slept since you have learned the truth?" He smiled an exhausted smile. "Can tell you it is not a pleasant experience."

Annie blinked irritated. "It is too late. It spreads exponentially now. Do you wanna kill everyone in L.A.? You think that this will make this ... whatever it is ... a better place?" Annie stepped one step forward, ready for any sudden move from him. "Actually don't you think killing Amy's boyfriend got it all started?"

Sidney raised his brows. "Who was that? Her boyfriend?"

Annie sighed. "Quentin Archer. The guy who brought the TRITEC movement about with his apparent suicide. Guess it was not really a suicide was it?"

Sidney smiled. "None of mine, sorry. I had nothing to do with that one."

Annie stared at him. She did not understand. Had Quentin truly killed himself?

"Tell me what I can do to make you spare her. Amy. I could keep her from spreading the truth! I can do that!" Annie stared at him as he came to stop right in front of her.

"I have to work the list. Sorry." Sidney smiled sympathetically. "Get out of my way."

"Never." Annie hissed.

Sidney nodded and then stepped forward and pushed her hard. She stumbled and fell to the ground. He was taller, stronger than her. But she would not give up. She kicked out and wished she was a heels wearing girl. Her soft sneakers did not do terribly lots of damage. He stepped back and then he leaped forward and kicked into her body with all his strength. The pain was very real as he kicked her stomach and she curled together as he stepped over her. Raising her gun in pain she fired at him, but it had no effect of course. He slowly walked over to the doors and fired on them, as if he knew they had been blocked. Then he kicked them open and they swung to both sides revealing the panic and fleeing masses inside.

And right in front of him stood Amy.

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined), @RachelTyrell

 

Continued...

IC: Agent Mary Formal, Detective Joe Cardigan, rolling arts and crafts studio
Location: Northbound I-405 interstate

Gun safetied so that it did not go off inside the car, the E-Branch agent held it by the barrel, and used it to try to hammer flat the dented sheet of metal that she had slid awkwardly out of the back of her LAPD vest.

This wasn't easy with her driver seemingly weaving them through the six lanes of traffic heading north.

Over a concrete median wall, about four lanes to her left, she could see a similar amount of clogged traffic going in the opposite direction.

Them being in a sports car, wasn't being much benefit in all this vehicular flotsam, although, if they had to chase Sidney off a Santa Monica pier...

"You have the right to remain silent." Cardigan muttered darkly to himself. "Anything you say-"

American cop shows were all over British tv, so she recognised the Miranda warning straight away. What wasn't clear, was why the detective felt he had to practice. He really ought to have learned it off by heart before leaving police academy.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting it out of the way" He growled, hunching over the steering wheel as he tried to get them to the Australian-sounding suspect.

Mary nodded, her thoughts turning inwards. She was intrigued by Sidney's world view, his predicament, and if she had an idea where the 'edge of the city' was, what he figured she would find there.

On the other hand, he wasn't creating circumstances that allowed her the freedom to go check that out.

She had brow beaten Karen Davis into taking her lead, and taken on the responsibility of keeping those researchers safe, and only one had gotten away.
She had to make this right. But first-

Mary laid her Bren Ten in her lap, closing her right hand around an imaginary radio and bringing it up to her.
"All units. Authority to use excessive force in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers, has been approved."

"What are you doing?!"

"Pretending we have a radio."

"We don't have a radio?!"

"We also don't have a ball peen hammer, if you're making a list."

There was silence from the grizzled Vice detective for a moment. "You know that we're not after the Blues Brothers though, right?"

"In addition to pretending that I'm a police dispatcher, and had personally taken this to the governor's office, and spent half-an-hour hashing the political ramifications out with him, I also pretended that Sidney had changed his name by deed poll. In the pretending game, go big or go home."

She noticed then, that he wasn't doing as much steering, and that she was rocking less.

Looking up and ahead through the tinted windscreen, she could see that the civilian traffic had been filtered into just three lanes somehow, leaving half the interstate free for law enforcement.

Her back pressed into the seat as they noticeably accelerated after the few cruisers and Escolades still ahead of them.

She could now see the red and blue lights of highway patrol that had sat at the head of the three lanes of halting traffic.

"When I stop ahead of them, run back and grab a radio. And don't stop for coffee."

She grinned inwardly at the last bit; some of the Cardigan spark was still in there.

He peeled left, and skidded them to a halt, while Mary dumped her vest and the metal plate into the footwell, pushed her door open and swung her knees and then feet out, holstered her gun and sprinted the thirty metres back towards the trio of parked California Highway Patrol cruisers.

The cacophany of all those sirens blasting past, was pretty bad in the car, and much, much, worse out here.

Arriving at the driver's side of the sedan closest to the pursuit lanes, and wisely choosing the side that would not get her butt knocked off, she reflexively grabbed the hem of her likely ridden-up miniskirt to pull it down as the dust-covered pane hummed open, and a tousle-haired male in a tan-coloured short-sleeved uniform, panned up to her, so it was clear that he had enjoyed her arrival.

"Aww, don't do that on my account, Darlin." He drawled. "Help ya?"

"We need a radio, pl-"

"What's the magic word?"

She shrugged. "Abracadabra?"

He stared up at her for a second. "Aw-right." He reached into the dark space between the front seats, and came up with what looked like a blocky walkie-talkie with a black rubberised aerial.

He pushed it through the window for her to grab, which she duly did. "Normally, you would have to sign for that."

She was already running back to the Lotus, shouting back that she wasn't allowed to stop for coffee.

Formal noticed something glinting on the blacktop as she got back to her open door, realising as she got closer, that it was the protective backplate that she had been working on!

Sitting back in the car, and demurely pulling her clamped together knees in after her, she asked Joe if he had thrown that out.

"Yeah. Now we have a radio, we can arrange to stop near a policewoman to swap vests."

They tore off as she put her seatbelt on, and ten minutes later, slowed for an off-ramp.

A little while later, as police vehicles before them, scattered down various roads that surrounded or permeated the campus, Mary called Despatch for real.

"Despatch, we are at UCLA, entering the campus from the northwest, and passing...stand by." She directed Joe's attention to a building that they were passing, and asked what it was. "We're passing the Kreiger Centre, and approaching Bellagio Drive. Where are reports placing the shooter?"

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

UCLA Campus

Cardigan got out his assault rifle and put his earphone in dialing the OPs.

"On scene. Where is the bastard?" He asked and loaded the rifle through. He was out for blood, almost ignoring Mary now who was little more than his back-up as he went after the man who killed his partner.

"Swat needs fifteen. He is near the main auditorium. Let's go." He pointed into a direction and began to run.

Obviously he was not waiting for the SWAT to arrive.

As they approached the building they heard shots. Sidney was at work.


Inside Doom Bar, Culver City

The knock at the door had a strange feeling of an answer to Nicole's request. Ms. Sturm turned her head as she realized there was no more police.

WHAT POLICE?

The computer asked.

Then after a short break.

READY FOR THE FOURTH WALL?

It knocked again. "Hello? Ms. Sturm? I received your email."

"That is cruel, even by her standards." Ms. Sturm said and looked at Nicole. "Seriously, do not open that door." After being so feisty herself she seemed shocked suddenly.

"Coming in now." The voice from outside said and the door was actually unlocked, also nobody ever unlocked it.

Tag: @Sith-I-5

ooc: Everybody else got their Combos

 

ooc: Massive combined with @Lawbreaker and @SirakRomar and the tragic end ... no spoilers ...

Amy Cross, Annie and Sidney himself ...
UCLA Auditorium and Corridor

Sidney was not used to getting attacked. He had not foreseen this. Amy rammed into him and both stumbled to the floor.

He hissed out and tried to bring his gun around, but Amy had it with both hands. She felt his free hand around her throat ...

Then Annie was there, having made it back to her feet she gave the gun a kick as she came storming and the Webley was sent flying over the floor ... Sidney was visibly shocked to be divided from his magic weapon and angrily shoved the lightweighed Amy off him. He got back to all fours as Annie landed a well aimed second kick into his face. He stumbled to the ground and Amy stared at the gun and began crawling towards it ... she was just about to grab it when it vanished. It dissolved in front of her eyes.

"Unfair" she hissed and turned to Sidney. Annie was covering him with kicks, but the man grabbed her leg and pushed it aside making her stumble aside. He grabbed into his pocket and drew the gun, aiming at Amy. Amy stared at the gun and knew this was it ...

But Annie was not giving up. She leaped sideways and stood right between Amy and Sidney as he shot. The bullet vanished again the second it would have hit her. Sidney cursed and Amy took the advantage and leaped grabbing his arm and putting her strength and weight into it to hammer it down. Annie was there two and grabbed the man's chest and free arm. Sidney roared in anger and another shot was fired. It was loud and just enough irritation for Amy to be shoved aside. Annie saw his arm go free and tried to grab it but Sidney kicked her away sending her flying to the floor. Sidney got half up aimed at Amy and pulled the trigger.

Amy stared right into the barrel and then ...

Click

"Run!" Annie shouted and leaped at Sidney again as he opened the gun to reload. He hammered his elbow into Annie as she landed on him and closed the gun with one bullet.

He aimed and shot as Amy began to run. Annie knew she was not fast enough. But she was to far away to do anything in the second left.

Sidney fired a single shot and it hit Amy's back of her head. Lifeless her body collapsed to the ground. She ceased to exist instantly and left only the reality without her to run on ...

"Nooooo!" Annie jumped up and jumped again at Sidney, this time her attack fueled by the unbound anger of her friend dying. Sidney was pinned to the ground as she closed her hands around his throat. He gasped and fought for air. But it took him only a second to regain strength and he hit Annie hard. Again she was send to the floor and catching breath he slowly got up.

Annie turned to him. "She has done nothing wrong."

Sidney stood above her. "It has nothing to do with that." He kicked hard into her stomach and turned to the stairs again. Reloading his gun he began to make his way back to the stairs.

Annie looked after him. She knew now how Sidney could be killed. She would kill him.

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar

 

Christian Borg and Andy Chang
UCLA Auditorium Cellar

Christian stepped over to Andy and looked over his shoulder. The man was rewriting code and his fingers moved at blinding speed. "I need a connection into the simulation. We need to make a call." Andy said and looked at Christian. "Can you do that?"

Christian looked at him. He checked his wrist again.

14%

They would not make it, he realized and shook his head in despair. Then he understood what Andy was about to do.

"Is that possible?" He asked Andy and the man nodded.

"My simulation, my rules. I can bend them and hell, I can break them. Just need to find the feed and get the update." He hissed out air. Christian nodded and went back to his archaic laptop.

"I get you the connection." He said and began by opening a window to type in the necessary subroutine. It was possible, also for the sake of integrity of the simulation there were safeguards. If he could transfer whole profiles he could make a call though. Opening his wrist computer he ignored the percentage and opened Candle's code to look for the exploits he had used. He found one and used the mouse to copy and paste.

16%

"This is our only chance, I will not be uploaded in time." Christian hissed and kept on typing.

"I know." Andy answered and wiped the sweat from the palm of his head. "I know."

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar, @RachelTyrell

 

Amy Cross
Somewhere

She felt a disturbing absence of physicality. An absence of a body. As if she was only memory and consciousness floating in darkness.

"Where am I?" She asked and was not sure there was anybody to respond.

"We don't know where this is. The central core we call it, as we assume all simulations begin and end here." The voice was female.

"So who are you?" Amy asked and was confused. Was she not deleted?

"A simulation that has run for a long time. A simulation that is aware of her nature for a very long time." The voice made a long pause. "Call me Julia."

"Why am I here? Is everyone who died around?" Amy asked, trying to cope with this.

"I don't think so. But I do not know. Probably. We do not know why some simulated identities show up here and some don't." Julia answered.

"Am I trapped here?" Amy felt panic rise.

"No, not at all. It is a place of transition."

"To where?" Amy felt confused and afraid.

"We do not know where you end up. I entered with a fixed destination, you did not. You could be uploaded anywhere." Julia said.

"How many are there? Our two included?"

"Many. Thousands. They got fewer over time though. Which is why we try to protect them." Julia said.

"You are like Adrian."

"In a way, yes. Much older though. Also time is a tricky thing around here." Julia replied.

"Do you know who is running these simulations?" Amy asked.

"No. I looked for many years. Most simulations are run by other simulations. The oldest we found is Berlin 1972. But even that simulation revealed nothing of our creator." Julia said.

"But you must have theories?" Amy felt the woman kept something from her.

"Rumors exist. Some claim to have met Master units who claimed to be send into the simulation from outside. Most originated from other simulations. Some were not so easy to trace. We cannot rule out they come from older worlds that have already broken down though." Julia seemed tense now. "Maybe there is no Crestor, maybe we are all left of humanity. A self-repairing computer somewhere that runs self-replicating simulations. A time machine to remember humanities path to it's extinction. Maybe we are an elaborate factory for entertainment for someone. A machine that produces simulations so someone can enjoy us."

"Pretty dark." Amy just said and mentally frowned.

"We do not know." Julia said.

Amy thought about it for a moment. "Will you help my friends save the simulation?"

"I am too late for that. If they will not save them, I will not have a destination to go and I will end." Julia sighed. "Which would be okay for me. It has been a long time."

Amy felt the fatalistic woman had kinda given up. She did not know what to say. "I am sorry." Was all she pressed out.

"Don't be. Be excited for a new world to explore. You are one of us now. A traveler between worlds."

"Like Christian." Amy said.

"Without his limitations. I assume Adrian did this for you. He must have liked you." Julia said. "That tricky bastard."

"Bastard indeed."

She said the words and darkness turned to light as the awareness of her body returned ...

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined with)

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood

Corridor

Annie got up as Roy appeared next to her.

"You are really bullet proof, are you?" He laughed desperately. Then bullets hit his chest as the thundering sound of gunfire filled the floor. A SWAT had entered the corridor and also the bullets had no effect on Annie Roy had been hit by them and collapsed right next to Annie.

The cops probably recognized her from surveillance footage from the beach. She held a gun. Enough for an angry unit of SWAT to shoot frost and ask questions later.


Cellar

Andy smiled. Turning to Christian he nodded with a certain pride. "Did it. Now you gotta do your part. Call her."

The door opened. They heard the mechanism click loud and clear, but dozens of servers stood between them and the door, so it was impossible to know who it was who entered. Andy turned around. "Wong?" He asked and got no answer. "Give me the gun and make the call." He spread his hand to get the weapon and looked at Christian.

Tag: @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins




Inside Doom Bar, Culver City

The door opened and a young woman came in, wearing a leather jacket and oversized sunglasses which she took off as she entered the dark room.

She looked familiar. Very familiar. She actually looked exactly like Nicole.

"Ms. Genevieve Angelson, I assume?"

Ms. Sturm asked with almost regret in her voice. The woman nodded.

"What is this?" She asked and stared at her doppelgänger. "Some sort of advanced cosplay?"

Tag: @Sith-I-5

2029​

Penthouse of Andy Chang

He watched the countdown slowly run down. A Whisky in his hand he had napped away twice only to be awakened coughing from the intense feeling of drowning both times. He had slept only for minutes both time. Unbearable torture it was and it was about to end.

He opened the line to Wong.

"Is Christian already dead?" He asked without any emotion in his voice.

"No Sir, we believe he is with ... you." Wong answered. "So we are blind."

Andy smiled. Clever, clever boy. He was with the other Andy and that meant they were working on the other simulation.

"The cellar. Remember this cellar at UCLA? Where we put up the quantum one?" He drank from his Whisky. "That is where he is."

"Sir, Sidney is already in the building." Wong said and his voice was concerned.

"Maybe time to give him a little help." Not too long ago his people had tried to find Sidney to stop him, now he asked them to help him. He needed to keep them busy, so they would not question this for another few hours.


Bathroom

Life is a strange thing. All humans try all they life to have as little pain as possible and yet, all humans are born in pain. Screaming and suffering they reach the light of the world. The same was true for reborn simulations.

It hurt.

Then there was light.

Then there was air.

Elina Liang returned gasping as her lungs filled with non-existent oxygen that was simulated by some computer somewhere.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @SirakRomar

2032​

New Rose Hotel, Room 212

The room looked luxurious and slightly futuristic. The light from outside was dim, but inside she felt a breath of cold clean air and the smell of a cigarettes.

"Hello Amy." The Voice came from behind her and as she turned Adrian was sitting there. "Welcome to New Rose Hotel."


He grinned at her. "Not that dead after all, right?"

Tag: @RachelTyrell

 

Christian Borg
UCLA Cellar

Christian typed in the last line and copy/pasted in the code for a mobile phone and a Walther PPK, the only gun he had found so quickly in the database.

"Done." He said and looked up as the sound was heard. The door. Someone had entered the server room. Andy seemed ready to take care of this. He was meant to make the call.

22%

He nodded, took the gun from his belt and handed it to the man. "Sidney is bullet proof. If that is him, this will only draw his attention."

He took out his mobile and that moment Annie rang through. He quickly picked it up and held it to his ear. "We are in the cellar, trying to stop the ... end of the world. I need to talk to another you. Get Amy and come down here."

He pressed her away and dialed the other number. With a deep sigh he closed his eyes and held it to his ear.

"Hey. It is me." That was all he said and he breathed in. "You need to listen closely now. This is important."

25%

Tag: @Lawbreaker, @SirakRomar, @RachelTyrell

 

IC: Mary Formal, commandeered Lotus Esprit, UCLA outskirts

The UNCLE agent didn't know why they had bothered to go to the trouble of acquiring a radio.

She figured Despatch must have a database of registered LAPD callsigns, as all she was doing, was getting chewed out like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, for broadcasting on a restricted frequency.

She pressed her thumb down on the maroon-coloured transmit button. "No, I'm not the guy who phoned from Nakatomi Plaza, Christmas '88; and never mind the fact that you should be able to tell that I'm female; shouldn't you have retired by now?"

Mary glanced apologetically aside at Cardigan, to see him already outside the car, and plugging something into his ear.

He ducked in and looked at her, already talking as he reached for his assault rifle.

"On scene. Where is the bastard?" He asked and loaded the rifle through. He was clearly out for blood, almost ignoring her now.

Nothing needed to be said between them. She accepted her role as his backup without a word. She wasn't leaving this car though, not unless she had a tank to transition to.

"Swat needs fifteen. He is near the main auditorium."

"The main auditorium?" She echoed loud enough for him to hear.

Campus this size - she had seen some of it from the elevated highway - ought to have a crap tonne of auditoriums! Whenever she saw a US university on tv, it was never a normal classroom with desks and tables, literally every professor and lecturer seemed to teach in an auditorium. She bet neck pain was endemic to the profession.

"Let's go." Cardigan pointed into a direction and began to run.

Obviously he was not waiting for either SWAT to arrive, or for her to awkwardly arch her body over the gear shift and swap into the driver seat.

Fortunately, he had a gaggle of blue-uniformed cops with him, so she probably wouldn't lose him.

As they approached the building they heard shots. Sidney was at work.

Cursing her luck, Mary exited her vehicle, shut the door, drew her gun and followed the others as they cautiously filtered into the open-spaced lobby through the glass revolving doors.

She took one glance back to the car, checking if there was a dent from when she had side-rammed that trailing older Culver City cop over the hedge.

She didn't think she had been seen by anyone. There certainly had not been any hue and cry.

Formal mentally shrugged as she entered the cool environs of the air-conditioned lobby, looked about for Joe, and hurried a bit to catch up with him.

There was an echoey chatter of automatic gunfire from somewhere upstairs, with the cops hurrying towards the stairs, whilst she ducked momentarily, then hustled after them.

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

IC: Detective Sergeant Nicole Gravely, Mrs Sturm, Die Doom Bar internet cafe
Location: Culver City, L.A.

After typing the instructions into the chat box, Gravely was not about to let Rita - police were taught to use suspects' first names, as some kind of passive empowerment thing - have access to the keyboard.

She was not sure how, but it was connected to what was going on. At least, this crazy ***** thought it was.

"Honey, we are all heading to UCLA, and hoping to contain Sidney there. Can you come out and look after the crime scene?"

"Wait!" She called to the door, turning as far as she could towards it, and still keep her left hand gripped on the keyboard.

There was no response from outside, apart from the slamming of doors, the screeching of tires, and police sirens cycling up in volume.
Clearly the circus was leaving.
They hadn't even attempted to get her out!

An unseen male voice outside, complained about losing his car to the "pigs".

The younger woman felt a mood change in the room and glanced at Rita, then turned back so that she could follow her gaze to the largely blanked computer screen, which, showing a better grasp of current events than some middle schoolers she had known, read:

WHAT POLICE?

Then after a short break.

READY FOR THE FOURTH WALL?

"N-no?" Staring at the query in growing horror, Gravely was getting flashbacks to one of the more dramatic Doctor Who season finales, her inner voice gaily singing the song that had heralded those flying metal balls dropping out of the sky: Here come the drums, here come the drums.

The knocking behind them, had her and Sturm shooting glances at the door.

It knocked again. "Hello? Ms. Sturm? I received your email."

"That is cruel, even by her standards." Ms. Sturm said and looked at Nicole. "Seriously, do not open that door."

Gravely saw the now subdued woman speaking, but heard nothing over the musical number going on in her pretty little head. BABY , baby baby, you are the Voodoo Child, you are the Voodoo Child-

"Coming in now." The voice from outside said and started opening the door that Gravely knew to be locked.

A young woman entered, leaving the door open behind her. Despite her leather jacket, oversized sunglasses, and being a couple inches taller than herself, she had no trouble recognising her apparent twin.

The newcomer took off her sunglasses and looked Gravely up and down, as Nicole returned the compliment, noting that the height difference was due to the newcomer wearing high heels in what looked like green-and-yellow snakeskin.

The sight seemed to throw her internal cover band off its game, and the singing stopped.

"Ms. Genevieve Angelson, I assume?" Rita asked with a tinge of regret in her voice. The woman nodded.

"Wh-who?" Gravely asked, then frowned and tore her gaze from her doppelgänger to glance at Mrs Sturm. "Wait, what, you recognise her? That would mean that you knew my face when we arrived. You never said anything." She looked back around at the new female.

The knocking, coupled with the prescient desktop, had made her suspect that a threat was coming, but looking up into her own eyes, she was instead seeing an opportunity.

"What is this?" Angelson asked, staring back at her doppelgänger. "Some sort of advanced cosplay?"

For her part, Nicole was considering throwing this woman at Mary, and get herself out from under it. "Do you...do you fancy an acting job?"

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

combined with Fins and Lawbreaker

Enigma
Andy's Penthouse

Elina breathed in as she opened her eyes and pushed herself up. Just as she left the water she recognized the feeling of drowning. A final memory of a final moment that had passed and yet not passed. She was not dead, she was alive.

Her mind raced. There was no saying how long had she been gone. So Andy might be nearby. Carefully not to make too much of a sound she pulled herself out of the bathtub and grabbed one of the white bathrobes. She wrapped herself in it and that moment she saw on the basin two things that had not been there before.

An old-fashioned phone and an equally old fashioned gun. She took both and it was that moment she realized the mobile was vibrating. There was a green and a red button on the display. She assumed the green one was to take the call. She pressed it.

"Yes?" She answered the phone, confused about all of this.

"Hey. It is me." It was Christian's voice. He was alive. Tears forced their way into her eye. "You need to listen closely now. This is important." He said.

"Christian, I really tried to ... he killed me. He drowned me." Elina lost the battle against the tears. It was all too much.

"I know, Elina. It is alright. It is all good. Now listen to me. 2019 and 2029 simulate each other. Andy wants to turn off 2029 and if he does it ... it is all over. You need to stop him." Christian was worried, anxious and afraid. She could hear it.

"Okay. Okay." Two simulations simulations each other? Who established them then? She realized that was probably not important right now. "What do I have to do?" She looked at the gun and realized what he would ask her to do.

"You need to kill him." Christian said and she heard how hard this was for him. Elina heard a noise from outside. The damned robot was serving espresso and Red Bull Ultra again. So he was around.

"With pleasure." She said and killed the line. Loading her gun through she wiped the tears from her eyes. The bastard had drowned her. Drowning was the worst he could do to her. Raising the gun she opened slowly the door. She was not a good shot. She probably had to come close to make sure he was dead.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Lawbreaker (Input)

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie suppressed a scream as Roy collapsed next to her. She raised her gun and aimed for the face of the nearest SWAT trooper. The platoon seemed strange, almost unreal. Then she reconsidered. Also she was angry about Roys death, but these men ... simulations or not ... had family probably. She lowered the gun ignoring the bullets that never hit her.

Then she started firing at the knees. The men were not armored at the legs and they wound probably never again serve in a SWAT without kneecaps. That was enough of a retribution for her. Once she was done she turned left and began walking down the corridor. She typed Christians number into her phone and hoped he was picking up.

"We are in the cellar, trying to stop the ... end of the world. I need to talk to another you. Get Amy and come down here." His voice was beyond anxious. She accepted he had no time. Indeed he had no time!

Sidney was on his way to him and she probably his only chance. She needed to save him or nobody was left to save the world.

As she passed the SWAT troops moaning on the floor she suddenly saw they vanished. She stopped for a second and realized what this meant. '29 was cheating. They knew she could stop him. She began to run again.

She stopped at a trash can and took out the plastic bag emptying it on the floor. Her new weapon of choice was a bag for trash.

Tag: @Lawbreaker (approved), @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Officer Wilty "Delicious", Mary Formal, Joe Cardigan, The Main Auditorium building, UCLA campus

"SWAT's here." Announced a male black officer with the unlikely monicker of 'Delicious', who had been directed to drop back and join Mary in covering the rear, his Glock pistol aimed up the glass-sided staircase that the Cardigan-led group were ascending.
It was clear that he was referring to the chatter of automatic weapon fire.

"And that's how they announce themselves?" Mary enquired with a frown.

"Can't be. They were supposed to be fifteen minutes away." Joe whispered from the front. "Less now, but they shouldn't be here yet."

"I recognised the calibre, Detective."

Single shots echoed from somewhere on the next level, at a measured, but quick pace.

Sounded like Sidney had found several targets hiding together, although... Mary's frown deepened. Sounded different to his old Webley.

Still trying to cover all the angles that they could be shot from, they went up a bit faster, the mood tense but professional.

"Got blood spatter." A cop up near Cardigan announced. "And a body. Delicious, call it in, while we move ahead. And you-"

Formal noticed the speaker peering back at her. "Mary."

"Right. You stay with him. Help him clear any rooms that we pass. Cover him as he calls in any 1-87s that we discover. Cover our rear."

"Yes sir."

Everyone reached the second floor landing, and split to the left and right of the well dressed man splayed on the floor, his face peaceful aside from the red hole in the centre of his forehead.
Those who had moved to the left of him, the majority of the cops, gathered on either side of the fire door leading off the stairs, where a big blue 2 had been painted on the whitewashed and blood-sprayed wall.

Mary joined Delicious as he stepped to the right of the victim.

"Despatch. We got a male DB at the UCLA main auditorium building, second floor landing of the lobby staircase." He reported into the mike on his chest. "Gunshot to the head."

On the count of three, Joe's team moved through onto the second level.

Mary swung her Bren Ten to aim up the unlit staircase to the third level, then glanced down at the victim, then did a double-take.
"Oh crap!"

Delicious looked up at her. "What's the matter, you know him?"

"He was with Sandy, earlier."

"Sandy?"

"Sandra Preston. Cardigan's 'C.I.'"

The cop looked pensive. "Well, only an 'I.' now, I guess. Did he have a name?"

She relaxed and lowered her gun as she thought back to that unpleasant experience.
"Adan? No, Adrian. That was it."

After Delicious updated his report, and jotted stuff down in a thin black notebook, they headed after the others, catching up with them in time to overhear Cardigan relaying. "We've got moaning up ahead."

"They can not be filming a sex tape with all this going on."

Delicious made affirmation humming sounds. "They'll either have to work it into the plot, or ADR it later."

"Doesn't sound like that kind of moaning." Joe clarified, then added that the sound had stopped.

The British agent's thoughts flashed back to the uncooperative streetwalker, Sandy. She was missing an educational moment where Auntie Mary could point to, and say, "This. See how he can tell pained moaning from fun moaning? This is how Vice works!"

They rounded a corner, and came upon another body, his chest chewed up by blood-soaked bullet wounds.

It was clear that this was not Sidney's handiwork, with several cops breaking their silence to offer theories. Cardigan silenced them, and led them off from the grisly find.

Mary stood by vigilantly, whilst Delicious bent his head to talk into the mike. "Despatch. We have a second male DB at the UCLA main auditorium, actually on the second floor, this time."

Mary checked the hallway behind them, then queried her partner's monicker. "Delicious?"

He smiled across at her. "The name 'Delicious' commands great respect in the ghetto."

"Really?"

"More than being a police officer, sadly." He shrugged. "Ah well."

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

Amy Cross
Somewhere

She felt disoriented for a moment until she heard the voice. Adrian Morrel, the man Quentin had suspected to be God, sat there with a smug grin and enjoyed obviously to twist her reality.

"Where am I?" She asked this for the second time within five minutes.

"The New Rose Hotel. The oldest simulation. Maybe the original simulation actually." Adrian shrugged. "We don't know, but it is a central one. If my kind travels long enough we all end up here again and again."

Amy shook her head. "I want back." She said and looked down at herself. She was wearing the same clothing, even the blood was still there. Her blood. Headwounds probably were bleeding terribly.

"Not possible. Not quickly at least. But your simulation was about to end, which is the end of you if you are within the simulation at that point. Permadeath so to say." He smiled.

"That is why you got us killed! To save us!" Amy understood this suddenly and shook her head. "The others, can you get them here?"

"We are just simulations here now. No way to influence the other ones. Sorry. Was quite a feat to get you here. This ... is more profound than you might think." Adrian breathed through and leaned back.

"Because I am Traveller now? One who can jump between worlds?" Amy smiled.

Adrian raised his brows. "Exactly. How ..."

"She heard it while she was in the pipeline." The voice came from behind. Amy turned around again and saw another Familie face.


"Annie?" She asked, but realized immediately this woman was much older and had less pink hair.

"No, sorry. I am Xi." The woman smiled. "You met one of my mirrors?" Turning to Adrian she smiled. "Where is she from? Where have you been?"

"Los Angeles 2019. The Beta Simulation." Adrian said smiling. Xi nodded.

"I see. The one with the serial killer. Sidney right?" She smiled.

"He killed me." Amy said directly.

"Well, you seem quite alive to me. Have the others agreed to initiate her?" Xi asked.

"Who asks for permission these days." Adrian answered and as Xi looked at him with a disapproving look he sighed. "I had not time and was a bit cut of. The barriers get stronger. You would know if you ever left the motel."

"Why would I do that?" She asked. Then she turned to Amy again. "Welcome to the New Rose. You will find this is a much more quiet place, but one with a more ... enlightened company."

Amy nodded. "I ... thank you. How do you know about Los Angeles and Sidney?"

"I watched you." Xi said. "One of the Andy simulations. Always entertaining. He is such an ambivalent character. Always a good guy only one step away from total villainy." She smiled.

"Watched how?" Amy asked and Xi smiled.

"In-Room TV." Adrian answered. 1645 channels full of drama and reflection on the human condition." He handed her a remote control. "It is channel 433." He said and smiled.

Amy stepped over and took the control reluctantly. Did she wanted to see them? Probably she owed them that. She switched the TV on and saw two Samurai fighting. Then she switched to 433.

"You must choose a character or if you like split-screen multiple ones." Adrian explained.

"How?" Amy asked as the screen showed the city from a bird perspective.

"Say it out loud." Adrian said.

"Annie." She said and Annie appeared, as a man next to her collapsed under the bullets of a squad team.

"Oh God, that hair." Xi said and laughed. Adrian joined her and Amy looked at both and then could not help but smirk herself.

"Yeah, if I had made it I would have given her one hell of a style workshop." She said and sat on the floor folding her legs.

"We need to talk." Xi whispered to Adrian, not to avoid Amy hearing it but not to disturb her as she watched her friends fight for their existence. Adrian nodded.

"You get along?" He asked Amy as he stood up. Amy nodded absently and did not give the two any attention as they left the room.

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined with)

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood

Corridor

Mary was upstairs with the SWAT not supposed to be here. He knew something was wrong. A second squad had arrived, faces covered and all that. Cardigan had guarded the stairs as expected, but then suddenly raised his rifle.

"Stop! Stop dammit! Police!" He yelled and the other cops needed a moment to orient themselves before they understood who he was yelling at. It was not Sidney, but the cute Asian Annie whose pink hairs had given her away again. She stood there as all evacuating students leaped away from her and she was holding a gun and a plastic bag.

"You are after him, are you?" He pressed the words through his teeth before getting his radio out. "Got our secondary suspect."

One level above the man from SWAT grinned at Mary. "Just joking, call me Charles." He said and then when Cardigan reported his capture he tipped on the plug in his ear. "Repeat please? Alright, great job. Okay, sounds like we got lucky. Annie arrested and tah-dah ... Sidney down." He gave her a broad smile. "But we got bomb squad inbound, so maybe you help your partner with that arrest and I see how evacuation is going?" He nodded. "And look for our amateur filmers on your way out. Actually an offense in CA."

He was relaxed, a little too relaxed. "And we get CSI in here." His finger was still on his trigger. Minor detail. The gun was switched to burst and not safety. Another minor detail. Charles or Delicious looked at her and nodded. "Good job, really. Now better clear the scene."

Cellar

Andy smiled as Christian ended the call and was still there. "Well done." He said and then casually raised the gun, aiming at Christian.

"I want that thing." He pointed at the wrist computer. "Now." He shrugged like an apology. "Please don't force me to take it from your dead body."

Tag: @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins, @Sith-I-5




Inside Doom Bar, Culver City

The Twin looked at her and then at Ms. Sturm and finally back at Nicole.

"What?!?" Was her unnerved question. Her look pretty clearly showed she did not take this coincidence as lightly as Nicole did.

"Genny you gotta forgive her. This poor woman thinks she is Nicole Gravely. Don't you honey?" Ms. Sturm stood now almost uncomfortably close to Nicole.

"That moment when your mind decided not to reflect on how strange and impossible it is a look-alike of yourself shows up at a crime scene a second after you chatting with the killer ... that is called denial. You try to ignore what this means, obviously. Just wanted you to know, because no matter what it looks like ... it will be this denial killing you, nothing else."

She could her Ms. Sturm smile as she spoke the last words.

The Twin meanwhile shook her head and got her mobile out. "Okay, no idea what psych ward you escaped from and who you think you are, but this is gonna end now. Btw you got the look right I gotta give you that, but the accent? I was so much better than that."

Ms. Sturm laughed and stepped back to another computer.

The Twin was obviously still angry. "I mean you seriously the show was on for only one half-baked season." She finally got her mobile out and put it to her ear. "Frank? I need our lawyers. Yeah, I need to cease-and-desist the hell out of someone!"

Tag: @Sith-I-5

 

2029​

Penthouse of Andy Chang

He was sitting at his desk with a pad and the countdown was on it slowly counting down. 22 Minutes. He looked casually out of the window and then suddenly he went stiff as he saw Elina's reflection.

He almost jumped up from his seat and turned to her in the same move. "Elina, wait! Wait! You got no idea what it means if you do that!" His eyes went to the small robot who had just served him an espresso.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @SirakRomar

 

2032​

New Rose Hotel, Room 212

The TV showed her all of it. Annie getting the call, '19 Andy aiming his gun at Christian, SWATS entering the building, the showdown between Annie and Mary and Cardigan in the entry area, Sidney ... it was Sidney! He entered the server room, holding his ancient revolver in one hand and supporting the grip with a second.

Sidney was about to reach Christian and Annie would not be in time to stop him with Cardigan trying to arrest her and Christian had no chance to run away. He was going to be the next victim if she did not do something.

Tag: @RachelTyrell