Lost Heaven

Part 1

Gerry meets up with his friends at the transport station. Danny, a falcon boy, Chase the mouse, the cat Tan (who brings Lydia with him), the fox Mynxs, the coyote Monday, and the wolf Lee.

Gerry claps and looks over his friends and laughs as he sees them enter the station, "Aren't we a sorry looking lot." He walks around hugging everyone one by one. He hands out transport passes, "I picked these up as I was waiting."

Mynxs looks around, "It has been a long time since I was at a transport station. Really there isn't much point in leaving the capital."

Tan looks over Lydia, "do you have Mayflower?" Lydia holds up her toy squirrel. Tan pats Lydia's head, "good girl." Lydia brings the toy up and makes Tan kiss it. Tan purrs.

Danny holds out his wings, "Gerry, what are we doing?"

Gerry bounces around happily, "We are going to see my old home. Get something to eat, have some fun. It is going to be a jolly old time." Gerry thrust his head off to one side, pointing at the entry gate to their platform, "Come one, we are on shuttle number seven." He runs off ahead of the group.

The group of students gets onto the transport. It is a half-day trip clear to the other side of the continent. Most people on a journey like this log into realities, play on one of the lower floors. Simpler games. On a transport, network connections tend to be less stable, and there is very little room to run around and play complicated programs. Chat boards, facetime, and consul style games work fine.

Gerry watches his friends as one by one; they all plug-in. His expression slowly turns to disgust as he is lost in thought for a time. A hand reaches back, he feels the back of his head. A burning pain pulls at the base of his brainstem.

A Midian sits to one side of him. She is not a pretty one either; long spines grow out of her skin, her nose is tipped upwards, on her face, only her eyes and mouth have managed to avoid being consumed by her quills, half her neck is lined with silver-white needles and her coat is thick, it makes a metallic chiming as she leans forward. When she speaks, she speaks in a hiss. "aren't you joining your friends?"

Gerry looks over. The appearance of a Midian is shocking, but it is well known that they are largely harmless. Midian's have poisons skin, and their quills can be deadly, but they are not carnivores. Most go out of their way to have their quills cut off, and their face sculpted to be more palatable. It seems this one has not.

Gerry replies once he has gained his focus back. "Shortly. Maybe." He retorts, "you?"

The girl shakes her head. "No, I have been banned from the lower floors. I can go to Reality's 1 and 7 nowhere else."

Gerry looks confused, "I don't think I have ever met anyone that has been ban hammered that hard."

The Midian holds out an arm, she shakes her quills, and the smell of burning copper starts to gather around her. She pokes Gerry and gives him an electric shock. Gerry jumps. "I have a mutation, I am bio-electric. My plugging-in makes Realities unstable."

Gerry laughs, "Now, that is a lot of fun."

The girl explains, "makes a lot of things challenging not being able to enter 4/5th of programs. That is why I am on my way to EE. They are not so deeply dependent on the grid. There is still a need for laborers there. Maybe someone like me can get real work."

Gerry speaks up, "I was born in EE." He turns in his chair to look at her, fascinated by the women, "what is your name?"

She grins, she notices his captivation "Whisper." She wiggles in her set, happy that someone is paying attention to her. The quills of the monster lift and drop, making a shimmering sound. A growl and she slides over, Whisper reaches around and offers Gerry a hug. Gerry holds still; he doesn't want to get skewered.

Whisper sits back down, she licks her fangs, then forces herself to calm. She looks around the transport at all the people plugged-in. "You know, from the outside, this looks so strange. All these people lost in a fully synthetic world. When there is a real-world so close by."

Gerry wants to reach out and pet the Midian. He stops himself short. Aside from her stomach, chest, and legs there is no safe place to touch her, and touching any of those places could send the wrong signal. Gerry pulls out his phone. "Maybe you want to get together sometime?" he offers her his contact info.

***

The transport stops after some time. The group starts to get off. The lot stop in the doorway as they are exiting. Gerry holds an arm out to hold everyone back. Slowly he looks around. "Quick, someone tell me what time it is."

Danny points to a clock hanging over the door. "That reads 4:45p.m."

Mynxs takes in the sights of the transport station. "Oh, that is eerie."

Lee asks, "What is?"

Monday notices what Mynxs and Gerry did "This room is a mirror image of the one we just left."

Gerry orders, "Everyone look at your GPS." Everyone does. "We just spent four hours on a transport and apparently traveled 800 miles. I want to make sure we are in the right place."

Mynxs as she is looking at her computer, explains, "according to the landmark spinner we are standing under, this town was called Santa Cross before the great war, and was amongst the first ten city-states to declare sovereignty."

Chase holds his computer into the air and turns around, watching the single tracer. "Connection in this station is not any better than on the transport."

Tan looks at Lydia as she tugs at his coat; she looks up and sniffs the air; she points at her nose then off to one side. Tan agrees, "I smell it too."

Gerry waves the group on as he starts to walk. "well, let's get this show on the road." He takes them to the streets.

Once outside, it starts to become clear what it means to be outside the city. There are no robots around cleaning the streets. Trash litters the road, garbage is stacked high in receptacles. There are vulgar phrases scribbled on the walls in paint.

Lydia pushes her way past Tan and steps up to Gerry; she flails her arms and meows, she jumps and points, making frantic motions. Gerry squints and holds his hands out to slow her down. He explains, "you are mumbling!"

Mynxs asks, "Is she having a manic episode?"

Tan watches and shakes his head. "No, she wants Gerry to look at something..."

Lydia hisses, she holds a hand overhead and draws her claws. She takes a slash, and Gerry jumps backward, falling over. Lydia crouches down, walking up to Gerry, her eyes narrow, her mouth open, her claws out, she drools like a wild animal as she brings her hand up again, ready to take another slash with her claws.

Lee sidesteps between Lydia and Gerry; Tan jumps over and grips Lydia from behind to hold her still. "Lydia, what is going on?"

Danny speaks up, "Everyone, I just got an alert on my band. We are outside the respawn zone."

Lee turns his head as he looks down at Gerry; he takes Gerry by the arm and stands him up. "We are outside the respawn zone?" Lee thinks, "There are only about a dozen places on earth that are outside the respawn zone."

Gerry holds out his arms in a shrug. "no big deal, it isn't like there are rape mobs and roaming bands of murders around every corner. And even if there were, we could just hide behind the giant wolf and sociopathic cat."

Mynxs nods with a shrug. "Suddenly, I wish dad and Hanukah were with us."

Monday folds her arms. "Please, no one die."

Danny looks down the road. "I now understand why the roads are a mess. The Type-R's aren't permitted out here. No Type-R, No respawns."

Monday adds, "No sanitation. union job, I would guess."

Lee comments, "It isn't that there are no R-types. It is that they are on restriction, the need to be programmed not to interact with people. They are permitted only to do appointed tasks. Once a week, they come through town in mass to do a deep clean. At least that was what it was like when I was little."

Mynxs looks up, "I find it hard to believe you were ever little."

Danny points out, "Has anyone else noticed a strange scent?" Most of the party nod, Gerry being the one that doesn't. "anyone have any idea what that is?"

Mynxs taste the air "Smells like artisan cooking to me." Mynxs explains, "My dad likes to cook. He like fish, noodle, mixed greens..."

Gerry claps and points, "How did I forget about that." He points across the way. "' the Mermaid.' That old lady that did 'Central Americana' style cooking."

Lee tips his head downward. "Gerry, what did Brooke do to you?"

Gerry starts to run up the street, he shouts, "come on, I want you guys to see this."

Danny looks to the group, "Is Gerry being stranger than usual?"

Chase throws his arms out in a shrug. The party follows Gerry's lead.

Part 2

Mynxs points over her shoulder as they step into a small diner, "Did anyone else see that 40-foot-tall skull at the end of the block?"

A bald, bearded man shouts to cut her off. "What is that thing?!" he points at the fox.

Mynxs sidesteps and places a hand on the blade at her hip. The bald man stomps forward. "IS that a Type-T synthetic?" he waves angrily. "Synthetics aren't welcome in here!"

Lee, Tan, Monday, Lydia step forward, hiding Mynxs from sight as several of the diner's patrons start to move in aggressively.

Danny asks, "Do you want me to dart Chase?"

Chase nods, "Dart."

Danny runs off.

Mynxs asks, "What does dart mean?"

Chase explains, "Dart is Danny's nickname. He is the best sprinter around. No one has every outran Danny as far as I know."

Gerry adds, "We tell him to dart any time we need him to go find someone or something."

The diner brakes out into an all-out brawl; nothing more than the idea that Mynxs might be a robot is enough to inspire violence that would not be tolerated elsewhere.

Six on six, this time, it is not a game, this time, no Sentinel is watching over them to make sure no one is hurt.

A bar stool is picked up and swung like a hammer at Lee. Lee holds an arm out to block the attack. Lee steps forward and throws out a gut-punch in counter, then a cross-punch push the assailant away.

Tan is grabbed by a thug; he is thrown across the bar, caught off his guard, distracted watching Lee fight. Lydia jumps in to protect Tan. She grabs the man that attacked Tan by the chest with her back claws and one arm, her other paw slashes him across the face, then her fangs find his ear traying it off.

A man armed with a steak knife dashes at Monday, Chase cuts him off. Chase is small and has a low center of gravity; it is easy for him to grip someone by the hip and throw them at a table.

A second assailant approaches Monday. This one, armed with a meat cleaver. Monday back hops twice to get away from his first slash; she bumps into the wall then forced to step forward to perform a double inside block- to a shoulder jam to stop the next strike. Monday reverses the shoulder pin into a gooseneck grapple. Monday drags her attacker into an advancing knee strike.

Next, a man armed with a hammer runs at Mynxs, a second armed with a spear comes from her flank. Mynxs matches an overhead swing with a rising slash to bounce the attacks off each other. Mynxs sees the other attacker coming, she sidesteps and twists, she takes a stab with her training sword under the arm of her attacker, a twist inwards and a cross-step, and pushes both men off to one side of her so she can see them coming.

Mynxs looks about, "where is Gerry?"

Chase attacker gets back to his feet, then Lee gets up as well. The fight proves to become ever more deadly. Only Lydia's assailant seems to have retreated.

Lee looks at Mynxs as the mob circles them. "Any good ideas?"

Lydia hisses and lowers her body, ready to attack again. Mynxs recommends, "We run back to the airport. Wait for the return shuttle."

Lee covers the escape Lydia tries to help, Tan makes her run away with him. Only a few feet outside the door, they are greeted by a group of Type-R synthetics and Danny. It seems the falcon predicated what they were planning and grabbed the security from the transport station.

"You are in danger," the security robot explains, "Please come with us."

Danny speaks up "where is Gerry? I don't see Gerry."

Chase asks, "didn't he follow you?"

Lee sniffs at the air. "I can smell him."

Monday nods, "As can I, you and I can go after him."

Lee shakes his head, "you stay with Mynxs and Tan; they need you more than I do right now." And with that, Lee runs off.

***

Gerry had ducked out the side door and ran off. in a panic, he could find nothing else to do. Once on his own, he walks about in a drunken fog for some time.

As Gerry is walking, he finds himself standing before an unremarkable-looking building. Old and grayed. No windows. This structure is well over a hundred years old and is showing its age. A phrase is written on the side of the building, "Mad-cat labs."

Gerry finds a door, he places a hand on it as he looks it over. His name is written on the door, as is that of Lee Gogiro; he reads it aloud "Gerry Knightly and Lee Lago Gogiro" looking at the door starts to spawn a memory, but something blocks it from coming into full focus. The writing is in paint.

Gerry shoulders the door open and falls into the main room. The building is old, falling apparat, half a decade worth of sand and ash fill the room. it is a wide-open space--lite by light coming in from holes in the walls and ceiling. There was an all-consuming fire here.

Gerry talks to himself as he looks around. Phantoms of a past life run past. Gerry struggles not to cry as he is fighting with his mind "Why can't I remember..."

He shouts at the nothing, "This was my home! Why can't I remember my home!?!" Gerry walks past a stone desk, burnt and broken, to an elevator shaft, the cabin long since shattered on the lower floors.

The air is salty, it is hard to breath; Gerry pulls up on his shirt to cover his mouth, her breaths through the fabric to try to filter out the burning vapers. Gerry is a skillful acrobat, years from professional but jumping down a twenty-foot drop and shoulder-rolling the landing then jumping back to his feet is well within his skill.

Gerry triangle jumps down the shaft. A room filled with broken robots is there to meet him. Gerry ambles he is trying to force himself to recall who he once was. "why, why was I here? Why did I go to Cherrywood?"

Burnt out husk of computer are stacked high in the next room, another elevator, this one seemingly goes only between the sub levels.

The sound of a cat meowing calls Gerry's gaze. Gerry spins about facing the sound; A tiny black cat stands in the shadows, her eyes a burning green, a red ribbon around her neck.

The cat turns to run off to one side. Gerry walks after it. The cat jumps down to the third sub-level; Gerry slides down wall chasing. A maze of doors awaits.

The cat meows to make sure Gerry is still there. She runs; she knows this place, every locked door, every pile of rocks. She leads the boy on an obstacle course.

A door lays ahead, a light is on, a number is written over the door. 62757.

Part 3

As Gerry chases the black cat, Lee chases Gerry. Lee doesn't need to follow Gerry up and over piles of rocks, and in and out the same few doors a dozen times. Lee can look ahead and see where the two are going. Lee cuts Gerry off

As Gerry runs for the door marked 62575, Lee jumps out in front of him. Lee shows his teeth and smacks the much smaller boy knocking him over. "What are you doing Gerry?"

Gerry points at the door. "What I am looking for, I think it is in there."

Lee calls out, "You disappointed me. You could have gotten hurt, you could have gotten me hurt, what do you think is down here that is worth all this?"

"The truth, who we are," Gerry explains.

Lee shouts, "Is it worth it Gerry?" Lee stomps forward "do you really want to know?"

"Yes!" Gerry cries. "I want to know who were we?"

Lee explains, "There was a reason that we left."

Gerry snorts, he sways side to side, he is sitting on the edge of panic. What is going on in Gerry's mind? Not even Gerry knows. "What is it, Lee? What is it? Why are we here? Why did we leave? What is behind the door?"

Lee questions, "Does it matter?"

Gerry rushes Lee; he takes a swing, slapping Lee across the snout. Lee is pushed off to one side. Gerry goes to spin around Lee to get behind him. The wolf throws an arm out and grips the smaller boy by the neck; Lee hoists Gerry into the air then throws him across the room.

Gerry lands on his back then cartwheels back to his feet. Gerry shouts wordlessly, filled with an unexplainable rage. Gerry sprints into Lee and shoulder-rushes Lee back a few feet. As Lee gains his footing, Gerry throws a side-kick, then jumps into a dropkick to try to knock the wolf out.

Lee staggers. Gerry runs at the open door. Lee howls, he grapples Gerry by his coat and spins him around, Lee rests his arms crossed over Gerry's chest and thrust him into a wall. With an elbow strike, Lee bounces Gerry off the wall. Lee grabs Gerry as he falls forward then forces him into the ground.

Gerry cries as he lays on the ground, "Let me go, Lee."

Lee places a hand in his pocket and stands slouched, trying to look small. "Don't you understand, Gerry? there is a reason I am mad at you."

Gerry jumps to his feet again and tries to throw a punch at Lee. The wolf catches the boy's hand, "Gerry, you need help." Lee explains.

Gerry relaxes slightly, he explains, "You don't get it. I got help. They hurt me Lee, just like they hurt Lydia."

Lee orders, "Drop it." he looks up at Gerry through lowered eyes. "We are leaving. I am taking you back to the hospital."

"No!" Gerry shouts. "I don't want to go back."

"Gerry, you are coming with me, or I promise, I will drag you home." Lee clenches a fist watching Gerry to see what he does. Gerry's eyes turn to the door, the cat sitting and watching him with interest.

Gerry readies himself again, preparing to try to push himself past the wolf.

Lee turns his eyes looking at the cat, Lee comments, "Gerry, please don't, don't make me do this."

***

A hand grips Gerry holding him still. There is a bright light shining down on him; he tries to look around. A black-coated man stands before him with shimmering white hair. A saw gripped in one hand, A bottle of a green-white florescent liquid burns alongside him.

Gerry calls out and struggles, shakes and twists, trying to get free of the table he is laying, he protests "No, no, no, I don't want to do this again. I don't want to."

Marks tightens to ropes holing Gerry, "Why do you keep making me do this?" Marks draws a line around Gerry's skull.

Gerry musters all the power he can to pull one arm free of the table. Gerry arms himself with a knife from the table alongside himself. He cuts his other hand free.

Marks folds his arms behind his back as he watches. Gerry makes his way to the door; he tries to force it open. Marks explains, "There is no place to go, Gerry." He goes on, "You need to wake up. You need to let me help you."

Gerry breaks the door down in a panic then shouts, "I don't need your help, Doctor K." the door opens to a burning office building. Flams push Gerry back. Gerry grabs himself by the sides of the head and shouts out in disbelief of what he sees.

A voice call to Gerry, the voice of himself, calls back to him from the flams. "Lee! Help me!" a wall of dust falls, blocking the door shut.

Marks Grabs Gerry from behind and sticks him with a needle filled with glowing green jelly. Gerry tries to struggle but quickly finds that his body will no longer react to his thought. Gerry falls over.

Marks explains, "This would be far less painful for you if you stopped struggling.

***

Lee shows up in the Cherrywood hospital at Chase's request. He is still gripping his head, struggling with a headache. "Chase, what is going on?"

Chase explains, "Gerry is hurt."

Lee ask, "how?"

The robot, Brooke explains, "poisoning. An unstable neuro-reactive chemical has been introduced to his bloodstream."

Lee asks, "How?"

Chase elaborates, "It looks like he did it to himself. He was coming here to pick up that medication for you and made a stop on his way to grab something for himself."

Lee inquires, "Is he going to be ok?"

Brooke expresses, "He is experiencing a condition called Mania, we are attempting to reboot his upper brain by reinstalling the memories of the last week. But they are becoming scrambled in decoding and rejected. Rightfully so I might say."

Chase asks, "Is this common?"

"It isn't rare. But I would hardly say common. Though we have seen more cases in the last year, then we were expecting."

Lee lowers his head and runs his hand across his eyes, "oh, Gerry." He turns away to hide his pain at seeing his sick friend.