Three Fabulous Toys

He watched his own pleading eyes as Kryios killed him, or at least his clone, he took it more as one of the professor's tests to see if it reacted as a normal human would to being suffocated. Part of him wondered what Kryios would do if the clone punched him in the side of his head. Probably just go off at him for not taking out the things self preservation instincts. But of course he had taken those out and so it died.

James turned, a fake smiled on his face. "Well, I've never watched myself die before. That was an interesting experience." Is what he would of said in a cheery tone. Except he was interrupted half way through but at hand way to close to his throat.

Being lifted was a new experience to James. No matter that he was only about a centimeter off the floor and that if he pointed his feet down he could take the pressure off his neck near completely.

His eyes went wide for a second as he was not used to anything being near his head really.
A second later his mask was back, not cheerful, just there. No emotion, it was the only thing he could do to stop the anger in his eyes from showing.

James bent over once Kryios let him go, his neck was hurting with enough pain to double him over. He waited until Kryios had left for standing fully and muttering to himself mutely.

"If only he knew what I was cooking up, he would think a simple clone was just a babies toy."

"Thats it, project denity will be finished soon, I will put my limited powers into it and make sure it is done by tonight."

"Then we will see who is powerless. He has made technology his friend, but like all people who come from the ages before the computing revolution, he is truly ignorant."

Not even Kryios could get into James room, one reason for that is because only James knew were it was, it had taken him a long time to find enough power to bend the technology to his will enough to form this new space which couldn't possibly exist.

His hand touched the wall in which held the detector in the 3rd highest hallway, a beam shot from the ceiling and he dissolved. A moment later he appeared in what looked like an apartment.
Now you might be thinking that James lived in a computer? A Matrix type setup? Well you would be 90% wrong. The room was mostly real, it was a hybrid between the computer and the real world. This is why it took so long to make. It was real enough so no one could hack in and delete him or any such thing, but the space which when inside was at least the side of a good house, actually fitted into a space which was infinitely small. It also allowed him a certain control of his environment.

He looked at his phone, it had a temperature reading app which was up on the screen and showing it was a little over 30˚c, he taped his finger on the little down button and the temperature fell a degree at a time until it was at 24. No AC turned on or anything, the room just cooled down.

He opened a door into a room which closely resembled the lab, but while the lab had three machines, this room only had one. Two tubes across from each other, neither seemed to have anything in them.

James walked in and looked towards the machine before speaking "Hello Denity, how are you today? I trust you are nearly complete.

From in the tubes a figure started to form, it didn't stay constant but instead flicked between the same male and female forms, when it spoke its voice was doubled over in union, of course one voice was male, the other female.
"Why hello form master James, this semi host is nearly complete. Merging will be possible in another week at this rate."

"Well, I will have to see what I can do about that. Time is limited, lets try for tonight."

The pixelated figure just raised an eyebrow at his words.

(A homage to Tycho Brahe)

Two monsters watch electric sheep
Waiting jaws ready to take the city
Hark, look to the rooftop for the fight
Stare as they take the city, byte by byte

But while men cave to mounting threat
The two entwined must stop them yet.

The darkened room is bathed in weak glows. Fairy lights of the hulking boxes of switches in the room. The boxes emit a constant hum as they flicker with intended activity. Its to dark to check the label for each light but it feels meaningless to try regardless. The old metal block click as a read-write head slots into place. The rubber vines on the floor are made of a selection of approved colours for wires. Antennae stick out like ears, blinking equally. But you can also hear fluttering. The occasional shimmer when they get too close to the machines' blinks of throbbing activity.
"I like what you've done with the place." came Kyrios' voice.
"At least you have dispensed with the Philip K. Dick reference every time you visit me while I sleep." a level tone replied.
"When theirs a new city of toys to play with, you never touch those electric sheep."
"Shall we leave the colourful allusions and pleasantries?" A short pause.
"The machine worked, Tyro's mortal."
"I know. I've had to back-up files on Tyro in the lab. Lilly has been no less of a threat to us."
"Still, we have the upper-hand. The machine has given them both sets of memories and both will be disorientated."
"Its an effect of changing time. Those caught in the 'eye' of the chronol-exchange retain memories from both realities. So I assume you remember fighting both a Kitsune Lilly and a Kitsune Tyro just by being there."
"Yes, in New Phylis. On the other hand, we can rely on Dr Altor's creations to hunt the pair down."
"He still believes you to be a professor, correct?"
"Yeah. I needed to tell him that to get him on side. I told him my current attire was to elevate me above my men."
"The thought amuses me. The only thing you major in is raising blood pressure. Can Dr Altor be trusted?"
"I put him in his place. Try to monitor him just in case. I don't want him doing anything I'd prefer him not to."

Tyro looked across to Lilly.
"Wanna talk about it?"



(Ass)

(Tyro the wording on when you talking to Lilly is a little weird. He is still is driving the car.)

"I keep getting flashes of memories, and one is weirder then anything. If the memory is right me and that crazy basterd Kyrios was an idem at one point. But I saw who is his and broke it off. He hated that and then the fights started. I usually the only one to stop him." she said with a light sigh.

She turn back to the road in front of her and the house that was hers is coming closer and closer. Then a new song starts up and it Ain't No sunshine when she is gone. The deep voice of Marvin Gaye came over the radio. One of her mother's favotire songs.

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
And she's always gone too long.
Anytime she goes away.

Wonder this time where she's gone.
wonder if she's gone to stay.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
And this house just ain't no home.
Anytime she goes away.

"This is getting confusing, but I think that I working it out slowly. In the mean time we have to watch our back, and knowing that Kitune he will come after us using someone else." Lilly said quietly.

"I keep getting flashes of memories, and one is weirder then anything. If the memory is right me and that crazy basterd Kyrios was an idem at one point. But I saw who is his and broke it off. He hated that and then the fights started. I usually the only one to stop him." she said with a light sigh.

You know in films or TV shows when the driver slams on the breaks as a show of how much reaction he gives to a piece of news? Tyro did the same thing except all the dramatic intent was mostly lost as the vehicle comes to a leisurely hover rather than a screeching stop. They were still in the air after all. He turns in his seat towards Lilly.
"You didn't?!" He said, excited and amazed at this revelation. "Was this before or after he changed?" He stared, incredibly expectant of reply. This was astounding news, in another universe, his former enemy and his equivalent had dated. That didn't sit well in the slightest with his view of his former life. He went with Yuffie but another girl in his position in the old group would probably have to compete for attention with Sonja. Griffin and Jordon would have either fought over her or settled for Lilly. Probably, if they were happy with fur, of course. Maybe she did meet Domus and hook up before he was corrupted by that sword, becoming the twisted bastard they run from now. He could only imagine Kyrios being insufferable.

He snapped out of speculation mode to listen to the answer.

Dr Altor was in deed doing things in which the 'Professor' would frown upon.

"So, how do you propose to finish a weeks work in a night?" Denity's voice was full of sarcasm.

"I'll use all my powers."

"And leave yourself weaker, just magnificent."

"You will make me stronger."

"You will have to be able to work the machine for us to combine, and to do that you can't be dead or asleep."

"That's why I will do it in one shot." Slowly James reached his hands out to the controls and tapped a few buttons before looking up at Denity's remark.
"Your going to kill yourself."
"I'll try my best to not." Was his only reply as his hands reached towards the the tubes.

Cyan light radiated from James as Denity became more and more detailed, the light burst out of James, curling in the air before crashing back into him. It make it look like he was on fire with some sort of spirits.

After about ten minutes the glow faded and James fell to the ground, in the tube which his hands still rested on was what looked like a terminator, but it constantly switched forms between Male and Female, but at a slower pace then earlier and even now it slowed down until finally settling on female.

One movement and it stepped out of the glass, another and it picked James up, back into the machine they went, and now Denity started the process of combining them.

James screamed for what seemed like an eternity, the process had not worked as planned, he was not only combining with Denity's power and spiritual form, but somehow the thing had adopted a physical form, and now he felt something growing inside him. It felt like a second set of bones was growing next to his normal ones.

Eventually darkness came over his mind as he fainted.

The repulse engines of the car throbbed in the awkward silence. Servos in a metal man, its head the shape of a pineapple, bobbing as it carries the washing basket around the line. The small, enclosed residential district had pretty rows of pretty houses. Trainers stamp behind Tyro with a jogger in Lycra which advanced technology hasn't improved at all. He accelerates the car the last 100 meters to eventually park in-front of a two story house. Pretty and smooth walls of a weird salmon colour, a dark wooden window frames and doors. It was almost identical to the one next to it. And the next one. And another...

He powers the car down and releases his seat belt. He powers the vehicle down as the song continues. Bloody thing....

Its a curse to have happiness taken from you. He had more time with his on the other hand. She must have had, what? Weeks? Days?

He needed to pick her up. They were on the run, in a massive city alone and likely to be killed. On top of that, they both had two lives be both understood. We both experienced everything, both died in Traverse Town to come back as something else, both sat in a cubicle and typed for hours...

He spreads his arms, having a vague smile on his face, gesturing Lilly forwards into the embrace.
"Come on."

The residential area was one of many in the city. It was a relatively small place where people had asked for a house to live in rather than a block of flats. Tyro could see the surrounding buildings that had rocketed to the sky like weeds all around him. A wall that sheltered the group of houses from the wind, and maybe the sun too. He begins to frisk his pockets in a balanced act of habit and actually searching. He manages to pull the jangling collection of mostly useless metal objects out of his jacket pocket as they trod towards the front door. It was held in place by an electronic lock that would need his electronic tag to get in. Its supposedly impossible to break in by trying to break the lock or fool its programming. Doesn't stop crime adapting though.

He swipes the plastic stick-thing on the mounted black strip and pushes the door wide open once its released. He walks straight into the open plan living room, removing his jacket. The room seemed to be that of a planning from for a bank heist. Blueprints and layouts were pinned to walls or strewn over the leather corner suite. Marker pens had attacked each of them with lines and squiggles so drunken it had to be Tyro's handiwork. Hand gun cartages and boxes of ammunition sat on the simple wooden shelf along with pictures he shouldn't have, in frames along the wall. Mugs with their insides stained with tea were dotted everywhere in the room. The kitchen over looked the scene of misuse: it was in a very good condition from not being used. It seemed to scoff at the pile of pizza boxes against the wall.
"Heh...I, err..." Big wopper coming up. "I was going to clean up once I got back..."

"I have no idea." Tyro said genuinely. He shoves some of the blueprints and floor-layouts on the floor to sit on the sofa.
"On!" He said, almost without thinking. His duplicitous memories were just allowed to feed his autopilot with simple commands. No arguments yet. The clear, crisp shapes fizzed into the visible spectrum, shapes and colours not unlike the news of today. A vaguely attractive man sits in amongst the scrolling text and bright colours.
"as resistance movements sweep Cornelial Planes, Lord Kyrios is moving to Blotworth Point Lookout Tower to discuss an agreement for the safety of Velice. Sekaannus Forces have began to line the Protective Barrier of Velice, waiting for the agreement from Lord Kyrios. However, VN was able to secure a statement from our gracious leader before he left for the defensive stronghold."

The show cuts to Kyrios at a desk, his legs crossed as he lays back and talks to camera.
"I see no reason why Sekaannus wont see reason but I guess I shall have to use all my whiles and charms to win them over. If they do not see sense, then plan B will be lead by yours truly. They can take out their frustrations on me in person. It would be the fault of Sekaannus."

The screen flicks back to the reader.
"Many council leaders fear that other surrounding countries will launch their own attacks to take back our city for their own ends. Velice Nnews is proud to support Lor-"
"Oh for goodness sake...."

"He's started." Tyro said. "This world will put up every last defence possible to try and stem his attack but nothing will work. Walls will tumble, people will die and he'll get another place to suck dry."

"In other news, His Lordship Kyrios has begun a search for two missing fugitives; a Tyro Lightwood and a strange creature named simply 'Lilly'." Only Tyro's face appeared on screen, like he'd had a mug shot taken. Lilly was surprisingly absent. "Lilly is reported to be a new and foreign species known only as a "Kitsune". These Kitsunes can generate fire and incapacitate by touch. Please avoid this dangerous creature and the psychologically unstable Tyro Lightwood, a 23 year-old computer programmer with Lecidious Software. I repeat, avoid both of these fugitives. If you do see them, contact the authorities as soon as possible." The reader sort of bubbles into the background as he turns his head to Lilly.

"Well, so much for the public helping us out." He gets up, manoeuvring around the mess and the sofa. "I'm pretty sure we'll have to get out of here. The neighbours might get Kyrios' men here soon." He moves round to the back of the sofa to a pine-wood chest. He lifts the lid, pulling out an engraved shotgun. It's barrels are attached to a firing chamber with a silver plates screwed in. Each is engraved with intricate fig leaf. He starts loading rounds into its breach. "He have to think of somewhere else to go."

"Breaking News!" The reader interjected. All attention was back on him. "The Republic of Viha has deployed troops and are heading towards Velice. They are planning to join with the Sekaanus troops already outside the defences, ready to attack when needed. They will not arrive for another 3 and a half hours."

"Do you think we can help from the inside?"

Tyro stared at the hermaphrodite on the screen. The last he'd seen was the Deity of Rice but Inari stayed in one place bewteen the gender limbo. What the hell was it doing fluctuating? A weirdly hypnotic.

"Who are you?"



Security Breached.
Sudo IP Track. Password *******
Setting up alternative IP's
Loading Virus
Transmitting......
(10%)

"Who are you?"

"I am called Denity." Came the reply a second after the question was asked.
Suddenly the screen sharpened, to the point that you could swear that this Denity was in front of you. The Changing figure settled on a female form and raised an eyebrow at the female.

"Technically it was not me who did anything, only the owner of the body I now reside in." The figure ran her hand through her 'hair' before placing them before her.
"That does not matter. For now I have a more important message. Keep a phone on you, keep it off, I will contact you through it. Now you have roughly five minutes to be gone from here before Kyrios' guard gets in here. If you are still here in three minutes time, you will not have enough of a lead to get away."

Cyan light started peeling off the figure "Now go, hurry, be gone. The faster you are the easier this will be!"

The moment they leave the tv would start sparking, firstly just in the screen, but soon it would spread until sparks were flying off the set and towards the paper scattered around the room.

Fwoom! The paper blueprints caught fire, going up quietly like complicated fire-lighters. Tyro could't help but stare as Tyro Lightwood protested his outrage for the blatant arson! Tyro the Kitsune was trying to shut him up and get out the door. He'd slipped two handguns into his holsters within his coat, the shotgun in his hand still. This stuff was really old but the best he could afford.

The growl that came with the massive tug on his arm was Lilly, making him get a move on. Quite rightly but the sense of loss was weird. Tyro the Kitsune just stared at Lightwood in his strange attachment to a fixed location. Anywhere can be home mate, the fox consoled. He gets a two-fingered salute in reply.

They move out into the light and he can't seem to see anyone outside any more. Everyone indoors?
"Err...where to?" He looks left, and then looks right. For some reason, he thinks that it a good thing to be doing...He begins to think.

Hang on, hang on! Tyro the Kitsune brings the meeting to order. Tyro Lightwood suggests getting out of the city. Tyro the Kitsune says that the guards won't lets us out easier. They also won't let us get back in.
Why would we need to get back in?
We both want to kick the bastard out of here. We'll need to be in the city. Where in the city is good to hide?
Errr....maybe some of the abandoned shops?

"We need to find somewhere to hide for a bit. We need to find somewhere abandoned."

(sorry I don't know why it post it three times.)

(sorry.)

"On the other hand, standing around and chatting won't get us anywhere. We need to move." And with that, Tyro broke into a sprint towards the grey towers at the end of the street. He takes a quick glance behind him to make sure Lilly is still following.

He was closing in. He could try and break in somewhere. Some where quiet. Somewhere safe. Somewhere he could truly assess everything. The transition from residential to the city again was a line in the pavement. Its colour fades immediately over that line. But the lights above slow time. The heart quickens as red lights from above flash danger at him from the machines that carry them. Kyrios' purple guards appear to have worked out the police's cars. They were coming to a hover in front of him and Lilly.

Time thickens as he raises his shotgun while keeping much of his speed up. He aims for an engine and fires, denting and causing smoke in of the four red cars with a white stripe with 'Police' written there. He pumps the gun and takes aim once more. The Purple guards are rolling the windows down to fire back.