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THE NEWCOMER
Path A1A4 by Jay
[Path A1A4. Finish your food and request ending the Construct.]
The tall figure looms above Cyberreyn, a silhouette in the warm sun. "My name is N---"
"Yeah, whatever. Leave me alone."
"But--"
"Can't you see I'm trying to relax?" Cyberreyn says, irritated. "I wanna relax, enjoy my primavera, maybe read a book." Then she realizes that the cellphone is still activated in her hand. "Hey, Flick, can you get rid of this guy? He's annoying me."
"S-Sure," Flicker answers, somewhat awkwardly. "J-Just a sec."
More than a second passes as the figure stands silently beside her. Maybe a minute passes. The hovering seagulls and drifting sailboats seem to sooth her disquieted soul. But finally, the silhouette disappears from her side.
"Dammit, Flicker, what took you so long?" she spits out. "Who was that bozo?"
"Oh, sorry 'bout that," Flicker replies, "he's one of my greatest-- Uhhh!" Then sudden silence.
"Flick?" No answer. "Hello? Flicker? Are you there?"
Moments later, the rippling ocean, the hanging seagulls, even the warm breeze stops in mid-motion.
"Hey!" calls Cyberreyn, "What's going on?"
With the weapon in his hand, the stranger takes a greasy rag and wipes off the dark-red fluid on the heavy pipe, the splattered streaks on the display screens, and the spots that flew back into his face.
Once-bright eyes still open, Flicker leans forward against the operator keyboard, his crushed skull trailing blood down the side of his face, down his beard, and onto the steel-grated deck.
The stranger draws towards the newcomer lying back in her chair, yet plugged into the Construct. He whispers, "Prepare to lose your mind."
Just as he reaches for the spike connector at the back of Cyberreyn's head, First Officer Hitchhiker walks in from one of the hallways. "Hey, Flick, did you want to--" Hitch stops dead in his tracks at the sight before him. "FLICK! Who are--"
"STOP!" the stranger warns with the pipe in hand, the other behind the chair. "Or the girl dies!"
Hitch can do nothing... yet.
After hearing the piercing shouts of Hitch -- and an unfamiliar voice -- Second Officer Sky quickly and quietly makes her way from the rear hallway to the Operator Station area..
Brushing the blond hair from her green eyes, she can barely hear Hitch's voice -- saying, "What do you want?" -- as she creeps closer to the area...
Step by step on the metal deck, her torn black boots hardly making a sound behind the stranger's back as his attention is occupied by Hitch's classic stalling -- saying, "Come on, you don't wanna do that" -- she inches closer...
"I've had enough of this!" the oily stranger spits.
"No, you haven't, you f*ckin' bastard!" Hitch replies.
Slowly, the stranger replies, "What?"
"Because the sky is gonna fall on you."
"What? What are you talking--"
At that moment, Sky leaps onto the stranger's back, ripping his arm away from Cyberreyn's chair.
"Aaahh!" the stranger yells, spinning one way then the other, trying to fling the tightening weight upon his head. As solid fists slam into his right ear, he swings the weapon wildly behind himself.
Suddenly, a lucky swing -- Uhhhh! -- bashes into Sky's ribs, throwing her off him, and landing her onto the floor.
Taking the heavy weapon in both hands, he utters, "Bitch!" and begins an overhead swing onto her.
But just as he begins his swing, the pipe stops. "Huh?" he says, looking behind him.
A great big dark-skinned hand is grabbing the end of the pipe. Then with all the anger in his voice, Hitch repeats, "I said, 'You f*ckin' bastard!'" And the first officer punches the greasy stranger into violent unconsciousness.
Cyberreyn's blue-gray eyes open immediately as she regains her real-world breathing. She sees the familiar metallic arteries and veins of the Operator Station above her.
"Thanks, Flicker," she sighs, "That construct was getting--" She sees Kan-chiang and Sky above her. "Hey, where's Flicker?"
The captain and second officer look at one another, before the captain finally speaks. "Flicker is dead."
When Cyberreyn follows behind Kan-chiang and Sky, she notes how Sky is rubbing the side of her ribcage. As she enters the Infirmary behind them, she immediately notices it -- the image shocks her solidly yet silently -- the image of the farthest bed shrouded from head-to-foot with an old gray blanket.
But in the nearest bed, she sees a man, unconscious or maybe sleeping, with no blanket at all.
"Who is--" she starts, but as she approaches the man's face, she begins to recognize. "Wait," she says softly, "Isn't that Belly?"
"What?" Sky utters, somewhat loudly. "You know this guy? Not only did he kill Flicker, he just tried to kill you as well!"
"Really? But..." she hesitates, confused, and looks away. "But before I was unplugged, I saw him around campus... He was a professor." Again, she looks briefly at his face. "I never met him, but some of my friends took his classes... He's Professor Belial, but students called him 'Belly' for his belly-laugh."
Kan-chiang maintains a look of concern, as Sky speaks again. "Are you sure? Are you really sure that it's him?"
Cyberreyn pauses, stares once more at the unconscious face, then finally answers, "I'm sure."
Choose Path A1A4A for the captain to return Belial and Flicker's body to Zion.
Choose Path A1A4B for the captain to interrogate Belial in one of the empty quarters.
Choose Path A1A4C for the captain to interrogate Belial in the Construct.
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