Chapter 8: A Light By Day, A Shadow Resides (Concerned Third Party)

It’s maybe half an hour before you return to the garage, and Kobayashi looks…

Well, he looks the same as ever, honestly. At least he’s not smoking.

“So, how’s our princess doing?” Kobayashi asks, apparently discarding any attempt at foisting paperwork upon you again, judging by the pen in his hand. (Well, that is supposed to be his job…) “We’re due to be clearing out soon. And hell, I don’t wanna spend much more time on this side of the bay than I have to.”

“She’s fine,” you say. (If Kobayashi is suspicious of what you did, he certainly knows better than to show it. Not that it was anything shameless, besides two women being in love…) “I think she feels the same way.”

“I am in your care,” Ariel replies from over your shoulder, bowing to Kobayashi. “Give me a moment to say goodbye to Himeko, and we will return to HQ.”

“That’s fine. We’ll need a bit anyway, looks like a Sub-Arena AC has broken down.” Kobayashi peeks over onto a TV screen displaying a broadcast, showing a heavyweight, nearly-scrap AC in a…striking color scheme of white and pink smoking in the middle of the battlefield. “Jesus, I’m surprised that thing can even walk. If that were an MT, pretty likely the pilot would be dead by now. No way maintenance didn’t catch that.”

It doesn’t really shock you, though.

Human lives have become grist for the mill of the Arena. Sponsorship money, prize money, have increased. Fame has increased. And blood gets people in the seats. You’ve been documenting injuries and mechanical failures in the Sub-Arena of Ravens and MT pilots that you’re pretty sure have been deliberately engineered; you’re not too far from providing Kobayashi the information.

Somehow you doubt anything will come of it, but you’re tired of seeing Ravens suffer for the sake of Delacroix’s ambitions.

Kobayashi sighs, crushes his cigarette in the well-worn ashtray, and heads back to his team near Lilith.

Your eyes peek around to the security cameras. Checking each field of view...one's got a broken light, so that's broken...so calculate for blind spots...

Ah. Perfect. There's a corner no one will be able to see, even if they wanted to. (And no way Kobayashi's team would interrupt their 'princess', either.)

Taking Ariel by the hands, you lead her into the darkness in the garage, and lean forward to kiss her on the lips again. Just a little contact, like before, but your heart flutters, and you watch as Ariel flutters her lashes, letting them come closed as you make contact, curling her hands tight into yours...

You stay like that, for a brief moment.

And then you pull away, smiling toward your Ariel.

"...Himeko. My operator," she whispers, sighing out, quivering, her heart all aflutter..."I wish we could spend more time together."

"I do, too," you say. "Maybe not the best time to confess, without being able to express our feelings more thoroughly..."

"I can wait. I've waited this long, to hear it. I started to wonder if it would ever happen...if I'd done something wrong."

"No, never," you whisper. "I was just waiting this long, because I thought it'd be wrong? I mean, I have power over you, but..."

But.

Maybe that's...

somehow right.

that it's somehow fitting, that you have power over this girl, and that because you do - it's your duty to protect and guide her.

"You have taught me to find my own answer, Himeko. You have taught me what it is to 'want' things. I have done this because of 'want'." Your Ariel wraps her black-wrapped arms around you, her soft chest pressing against your body. "I will protect you, Himeko, my operator. Like you protect me."

"Thank you..." you whisper.

"It's time for you to go now." Ariel pecks your cheek. Aah, she really has changed so much..."Please say hello to Uriel for me."

...

Oh.

Right.

Well, this is slightly awkward...

You know Uriel doesn't have a problem with your interest in women, but how are you supposed to tell her you're now dating her sister?

---

“…what is this place?” you ask, as you approach a vast, block-like building, Mother leading you toward the place where she has said the secret of her plan resides.

“The decline of human civilization.”

The edifice before you stands nearly empty, as though it was abandoned long ago. Even on the surface, where land is at a premium, there are places no one wants to go.

“This was once a library, before the Fall,” Mother says, opening a lock on the door and stepping inside. “Much of its archives were tainted by contamination, but Father made use of it in his reestablishment of human occupation of the region.”

“Libraries…there aren’t many left, are there. Not since Kisaragi arrived.”

You know the story well. The war against the Resistance, a little over ten years ago, was won through Father courting assistance from outside corporations. Since then, Father has retreated more and more deeply into the Successor Pyramid, and the Kisaragi corporation has filled the gap. Public services have become corporate perks. Even for people on the surface, it seems hope is in short supply…

“It’s just as you say, Himeko. This place was abandoned during the Resistance conflict, claimed by Resistance forces, and since then has laid fallow.” Along the atrium you walk, looking at the remnants of fortifications and graffiti, sunlight streaming through the skylight. “Because it had no use to Kisaragi, it was eventually sold off for redevelopment. I used a shell company to purchase it, which promptly declared bankruptcy. Thus, in a manner of speaking, this property is in legal purgatory. It doesn’t exist.”

Mother unlocks another door, a heavy thing that leads to a staircase far downward, which you follow carefully, looking at the dilapidated structures beneath, suffering from water damage and scars of age. Signs of recent repair suggest you and Mother aren’t the only ones to have arrived here lately, though for what purpose Mother plans to use this place…

You’re uncertain.

“Most of the City’s infrastructure was used as-is by Father. There simply weren’t enough resources to replace it. This includes the wiring for telecommunications networks. This wiring runs from the heart of the City all the way out to the Migrant territories…and through the valley.”

“The Abyss Watchers can’t be happy about that.” You know that if they had their way, the whole valley would be bombed. Under the belief that an AGI is -

No.

No way.

As you approach a place where countless wiring and optical fibres have been pulled out and connected to a workstation, a high-resolution black and white monitor displaying what appears to be data assembled of random characters in the middle of other displays…

And Mother stops. The click of her heels go silent.

“Himeko. Do you know what this is?”

“It looks like the kind of data I’d pull from lines in the Underground,” you say, staring into the flow. “But there’s too much here. There’s no way I’d be able to interpret it all. Mother, you can’t be saying…”

No. It’d be impossible. It’s just noise you had to filter out to grab the data you needed, that even fills security cameras and other disconnected elements you tapped into. There can’t be any real information here, any patterns.

But…

But even looking now, you can start to see one, now that you’re looking for it.

Now you can see that there’s a ghost in the machine.

And it could well be what had been feared since the City’s foundation…

“Himeko, I would like to introduce you to our secret weapon. The foundation upon which I will build a new Line Ark. That which slumbers within Mountain View, far below the Abyss Watchers’ prying eyes, what had always been feared yet never proven…

“The Complex.”

...

...and so it is that you're sitting at that same workstation, with several new monitors added, the finest in Kisaragi technology - high-resolution black and white displays helping you monitor your operation, the Complex's data in the centre, as you adjust your headset and listen to what's happening on the other end...

Oh.

Gunshots.

Predictable.

"...it's you. You're him. You're the man in the jacket," you hear through your headset, a feminine voice over the firing, somewhere in an abandoned factory you've pinned a blueprint of up behind the workstations. "That vigilante...you're real?"

"Well, I wouldn't trust every rumor you hear, you know? I'm no hero, really. For now, just think of me as a concerned third party."

...and as you hear more gunshots, this time louder and closer to Elias D. Metea's headset, you can't help but imagine how much more business a surgeon is going to get replacing those kneecaps he shot, wincing sympathetically.

Just another day as part of Line Ark.

Through your access to the information in the Complex, you gain information on violent incidents and threats that will happen in the City. Through ten thousand eyes, a million ears, all connected to the Complex, you are capable of sending out an agent to performed armed interventions to try and protect the vulnerable who are threatened by Father, Red Rum, Delacroix, or anyone else's vengeful ambitions. And this is a task only you can do - even Mother, with all her vast capability, needed what she calls your 'genius' to try and take all this noise, in nothing but tiny characters on this high-resolution display, and turn it into something that you can actually use.

But you needed a partner. Someone with the skills to intervene.

And so Mother recruited this man. Elias. With his striking leather coat, lined with patches of corporations and Migrant forces from across the North Frontier, they've taken to calling the mysterious vigilante who's appeared in the City in the past two years 'the man in the jacket'.

How...creative.

"Why are they chasing me? What have I done?" the woman asks, as you hear more shots being fired - they're probably taking cover.

"You've been trying to track down what happened to your roommate, right?" you hear from Elias, his breath ragged from trying to escape the gunfire. "I've got a friend looking into it. Ugh. Hey, Shadow, can you hear me?"

"I've been listening this whole time," you mutter. That man...he's not bad, but he does have a tendency to be overdramatic. "The woman's roommate was an actress with Delacroix Video Classics. One of the leads on a film called 'Raven Nights'." You reach for one of your notebooks, checking your intelligence so far. "Uriel found evidence of a coverup of negligence on set. Possibly deliberate. If she tried to gather information to pin it Angelina Delacroix..."

(You keep hearing that fucking name today, and you're rather tired of it.)

"Then she'd probably try to cover her tracks. And anyone responsible. If someone's been looking into it..." You hear another gunshot from Elias, and you can just faintly make out a scream of pain as another kneecap is shot.

'Non-lethal'...what a joke.

"The good news is," Elias says, speaking again to today's victim of the week, "if we shoot enough of them, she'll probably decide to write off the loss. Guys like this don't come cheap. I think one's already got a replacement kneecap."

You sigh, audibly. You swear this man thinks he's in an action movie, and he's the star...

"Can you make the egress? We've got a recovery team waiting for you. We'll follow up on the investigation and keep the target under protection." Line Ark isn't just the two of you - there's a support team helping the operation. But Elias is a Raven, and much as you hate to admit it...

He can do better than a whole team of marksmen, most of the time.

"We're pinned down. Not too much longer until we take a few bullets. Listen, Shadow, can you get us an exit route?"

...you look toward the blueprints.

Finding an exit there isn't a problem. It's finding one that isn't risking Elias or the target. And for that...

You'll need the Complex.

At the very least, you can trust Elias to get the job done, if you can get that information.

But for whatever reason...when staring into this flow of information, you can feel the will within it. And interpret it. You can see what's being communicated, and what it intends to communicate to you.

The Complex is tied into all the networks of the City. All that technology, for all they said they abandoned the Fall, is based upon what came before. Cameras, microphones, computers, all tied within the Complex under Mountain View, as it does what it was designed for, dutifully, long after it was sealed deep within the Earth.

But...

This information can overwhelm you.

Fill you with visions, or ideas not your own. From the past, or predictions. Security footage long forgotten. Memories of the wars that came before. Papers from far-distant archives. It tries to tell you what you need, not what you want.

It's because of the Complex that you're able to perform these interventions, but...

When it's a risky operation like this, you don't have the time to protect your mind from the swirling maelstrom of the information in the Complex.

You'll just have to make do.

You follow the flow of information.

Your black-gloved hand trails along the surface of the glass, tracking the characters, trying to interpret it. To let the Complex communicate to you.

You can find the building. Elias' position. The target, and the enemy hostiles...

Delicate.

Something delicate. A plugsuit. A voice. A drifter, a Migrant, never able to answer the call of the soul. The Goddess. The Order.

No, no, focus.

All this imagery, you can feel it, you remember your old Coordinator's words, about how people don't always know what they want. Do you know what you want? That dream, is that the future you're working toward? Or will Mother wrap that delicate voice around her fingers, like she does with you?

Your head pounds.

You try to focus on the building. On the fight. Just another no-man. Say you need another. Say you need another.

Everyone sees, but only Mother knows.

"Shadow! I need it now!"

...that's it.

Orders. 'Bring her alive'.

Oh, Delacroix. You just opened up a loophole. You can't help but smile to yourself as you dive in...

You are reading story A Shadow Resides: Armored Core at novel35.com

"Elisa," you whisper. "Send her first. They're under orders to bring her in alive - and they're terrible shots."

...you hear Elias pause on the other end, but only for a moment.

"Go. I'll cover you," he says to the target. "Out there, downstairs, and by the time I reach you they'll all be down a leg or two."

"But they'll -"

"They want you alive! Go! They won't hit you!"

...it's a testament, at least, to your working relationship that Elias trusts you at your word.

You hear another hail of fire as the target's footsteps fall, but when Elias shoots...

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Yells of pain fill your headset, and the other fire stops.

"You're right, they were terrible shots," he quips.

"Just keep an eye on the target. I have the route. City Police will be on the scene soon, and they'll be bringing MTs. You don't want to be here when they arrive." You breathe a sigh of relief, glad someone else didn't get shot today...

Well.

No one important, at least.

---

Thankfully, the trip toward the rendezvous point is uneventful - besides a brief objection from the target to stealing a car.

But, she's alive, and more importantly - not being taken by Delacroix for torture and possible 'disposal'. That's a victory.

A small victory.

That's all you really get. Small victories. The man in the jacket appears, saves a life, and disappears into the night. The glint of white appears, stops a battle, and disappears into the sky. Just another urban legend, that manages to help a few people every now and again, but...

You're not really changing anything.

"Is this what you want?" you ask the data before you, muting your microphone. "You were designed to serve humans. Are you okay with it just being this?"

...if the Complex responds to you - and you know it can understand you - you can't find it in the flow.

"The Goddess. The ancient magic. The Adversary. Do you remember it? Have you seen my dreams? Can you protect my Ariel?"

Again, you see nothing.

...ugh, no. You're already getting a headache. If you keep trying to ask questions like this, you'll get a migraine - or worse.

It's enough that you can get this information at all, in your mind, but...

You really do wish you could just talk to it. Even if it's beyond human comprehension, is it really that hard?

"...alright. We've arrived. The recovery team can take it from here. And a damn shame it would've been to lose you."

...Elias' flirting takes you out of your reverie.

The target laughs, that kind of polite laugh that's very much 'no thank you'. "Well. I'm glad you saved me. And you're cute, for a guy. But...no offense, but you're not really my type."

"Oh." You can imagine the look on Elias' face right n- "Well, maybe the girl on the other end of my earpiece? If not for Shadow, we would never have been able to get out of there. I'm sure she'd be -"

"Please do not solicit sex on my behalf," you mutter.

"Uh, never mind," Elias says, hastily changing the subject. "Scratch that. Seriously, we're just glad you're okay. I'll have Shadow handle your new paperwork. We don't know if your friend's still alive, but...chances are pretty good she's not."

"It's fine. I'm just glad I know what happened. Now I can...well, I can move on, right? Or, try to, anyway." You hear what you think is a kiss on the cheek. "I guess there really are heroes. Or, 'concerned third parties'. Maybe this City will make it after all."

"That's our hope," Elias says. "Line Ark is back, and here to stay."

...well, that's another mission done.

You sigh, removing your headset and spinning in your chair. It is nice to be able to help people, but...you want more.

(you want, you try not to think, twin girls in pilot suits and the worship of Ravens.)

With the Complex...Mother could achieve her ambitions. Through you. You thought, at first, when you met her, that this was a good thing - you fell in love, practically at first sight, and you can almost imagine that anyone who saw her would, if she wanted it...

But you're not so sure anymore.

You love her, but...

You can't just blindly follow her.

You need to figure out what kind of world she wants, and whether she truly cares about the salvation of the City.

Whether the words she told you when she first showed you the Complex are true.

...

The Complex.

Ever since the City's foundation, the valley has been forbidden. For once, long ago, it was the home of those who worshipped machines. Those who created artificial general intelligences, and the technology that allowed them to exist. Some even say they worshipped them as gods, believing the existence of an AGI would solve all human ills, and create a paradise on Earth.

How'd that work out for them, huh?

The Complex was a vast structure that was built beneath the place once known as Mountain View, the impetus behind the Underground. No one knew whether an AGI truly existed beneath it, and no one wanted to be the first to find out. Even before the foundation of the AGI Task Force - the organization you now know as the 'Abyss Watchers' - the City Police patrolled the region to ensure no AGI would awaken, and to watch for any signs of its activity.

And they missed it, missed what was right under their noses.

"It's real," you whisper.

"It is. The orbital colonies have information unavailable to the Earth. It was one of the secrets I took with me when I descended from on high." You listen to Mother as you sit down before the monitor showing the information flow, and your employer leans into you, pressing her chest into your back as she whispers into your ear. "I came to the City after Rayleonard collapsed to see if I could find it. And here it was, right beneath our feet, the whole time, collating and processing every single piece of information it can find. Always watching."

"I can't imagine that kind of society," you whisper in reply. Creating beings like this and having their every move watched...

"The world was once very different, as you well know. Before the Fall. Even if we discount your faith, what we had before was incomparable. And with this technology, we can help people."

"...but even if you can find a pattern," you say, trailing fingertips over the monitor, "you can't interpret this data. There's just too much. It's barely distinguishable from noise."

"Maybe an ordinary person couldn't," Mother says, her breath tickling your ear, and making you so conscious of her presence. "But you're not an ordinary person, Himeko Okuda. How many people could survive eight years alone in the Underground, and gain enough power to disrupt plans on the surface?"

"I'm...really not that special," you mutter.

"You might believe that. But I know better. I have an eye for talent..."

Self-consciously, you feel the gaze of Mother's bodyguard Nezha over her shoulder, somewhere in the shadows.

"Look at it. See if you can find something. Something more than just a non-random presence."

You nod, and...somehow, being told that by Mother (and has that word already become one of endearment?) makes you feel like you can do it.

Like your talents can flourish beneath her.

Your eyes gaze over the stream of data, and you look. There's so much. And it goes so fast. You could almost drown in this, like a sea of information, one that threatens to overwhelm any individual. What did the world of the Complex look like, in its time?

But there's a pattern.

There's distinguishable patterns and chunks. Always shifting, always moving. You hesitate to consider how much data the Complex must be processing at any given time - if all the computers in all the City were put together, even in the ACs, they surely couldn't even hold a fraction of the information contained within that vast Complex.

But you can find something.

Find something within.

Your head pounds as you try and distinguish it.

Law. A world where everyone has their place.

Chaos. A world where everyone can be free.

Oblivion. A world with no ideals at all.

And that which opposes a paternalistic abuser which calls himself 'God'.

Processing. A mind full of questions, a current to purify, a circuit of consciousness, it's full, it's too much, your head is pounding, how can you find anything -

A word.

A single word.

'Himiko'.

One of the first of the Goddess' children...

One of the first Ravens.

Without magic like hers, you might still be naked in caves. Magic that bewitched the populace, and was feared...

"...ah..."

You pull your hand away, and close your eyes.

You didn't even notice the pain, and now your nose bleeds, Mother generously finding a handkerchief to wipe it.

"You found something," Mother says. (She doesn't sound surprised.)

"'Himiko'," you whisper, feeling like you can barely speak.

"Himiko. Queen of Yamatai-koku...who bewitched her nation with magic and sorcery. A name I'm familiar with..."

...Mother almost sounds upset, hearing it. Not with you, but...

"...are you alright?" you ask.

"I'm fine. Just bad memories, from the colonies." Mother wraps her arms around you, holding you as close as she can. "But if you can find information within the Complex, than you are all that I hoped for..."

And you find your heart, somehow, welling with pride.

Mother hoped for you...!

"We'll save the world, and this City, from the ambitions of those who claim to be powerful. You'll save the world."

The way Mother's words fill your ears, you feel happy that she's praising you...

happy that, for the first time, you feel like you truly matter to someone.

And you'll do whatever you can, to make her dream a reality.

...

...no.

Not anymore.

You're not Mother's pet anymore.

You love her, but you will not follow her blindly...

and, just like that

you feel as though a great weight has left you...

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