Golden X Spirit V3

Christine sat up in bed, staring off into space as she had done many times before. For her, this cycle of jolting awake from nightmares in the middle of the night had become routine. While the exact nature of these nightmares varied, they all ended the same way: everyone she loved dead, and her utterly helpless to do anything about it.

These days, it seemed as if those dreams were inching closer and closer to becoming a reality.

“Christine?” Emilia asked. “Is everything okay?”

The sound of Emilia’s voice snapped Christine out of her trance. She had almost completely forgotten where she was; in Emilia’s house, spending the first of two nights she had left with her before returning to work.

“I’m... I’m fine.” Christine mumbled. “Didn’t mean to wake you up. You can go back to sleep.”

“Christine.” Emilia’s usually gentle tone was more firm than usual. “This is something that keeps happening. You always say you’re fine, but you’re obviously not. If it’s something that you don’t want to talk about, that’s fine, but I wish you’d just say that instead of lying to me.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just...” Christine sighed. “I don’t want you to worry about me.”

“Not being told what’s going on is what’s worrying me!”

“...Fair.” Christine hung her head. “I know this probably sounds stupid, but I keep having these nightmares that always end in the people I care about being killed in front of me.” She paused. “...Including you.”

“Oh, Christine...” Emilia sat up and hugged her. “That’s not stupid, that’s just human. Seeing that is gonna be disturbing whether it’s in a dream or not. Just try to remember that that’s never going to happen for real, okay?”

“But it already is.” Christine unconsciously clenched the sheets. “Ever since this nonsense with Oberon OS started, I’ve just kept failing and failing to keep the people around me safe. I couldn’t keep Teresa safe from Crow or the OS, I couldn’t keep Anne safe from Messias, I couldn’t even keep *you* safe from the Triumvirate in your own home! I know I can’t save everyone, but... it’s beginning to feel like I can’t save *anyone*.”

“What about all the regular people you keep safe just by doing your job?” Emilia asked. “I know what’s been happening lately has been... *demoralizing*, but look at everything you *do* accomplish! I mean for God’s sake, Christine, you’ve been *cut in half*, I don’t think anyone can say you’re not giving it your all out there!”

“Compared to what we’ve been fighting, my “all” might as well be nothing.” Christine muttered.

“Well... that’s another part of being human.” Emilia said. “Everyone has limits, even you.”

“I know that, but I can’t help feeling frustrated about it.” Christine replied.

“Hmm...” Emilia paused in thought for a moment. “Y’know, I could probably whip you up a new DNA Key with a more powerful transformation.”

“Powerful enough to defeat someone like Messias?” Christine asked.

“Um...” Emilia blinked. “...Good question.”

“Look, I appreciate it, but this isn’t your problem.” Christine said. “The last thing I want to do is saddle you with my personal baggage, okay?”

“...Okay.” Emilia sighed.

The two of them kissed and then laid back down, pulling the sheets back over them. While Christine ended up going to sleep surprisingly quickly, it was Emilia’s turn to stare silently into space for a while, blankly looking up at the ceiling as she silently reviewed memories of creating the Transformation Lock system, back when it was an exciting new invention with infinite possibilities.

“...Sure.” She mumbled quietly to herself. “It's not my problem...”

The next morning arrived.

Teresa laid in bed staring up at the ceiling. Ideally she'd have been up by now, seeing as it was already 11 AM and all, but she wasn't meeting Anne at Liberty Park until noon and the CrossTrix could get her dressed and to the park in under ten minutes, so she had a difficult time convincing herself that the effort it would take to break out of her depression stupor was worth it.

Then there was a knock on her door.

"Hey, sleepyhead, you alive in there?" Dana's voice sounded from behind the closed door. "Seriously, *are you alive?*"

Teresa immediately sprang out of bed, a reflex from a trigger response formed by years of being screamed at whenever she accidentally slept in, even on weekends. Of course, an adrenaline-driven reflex is not always the smoothest of motions, and this sudden uncoordinated movement ended with Teresa tripping on her own feet and falling face-first on the floor. Concerned by the noise, Dana slammed open the door, making Teresa freeze before she could even try to get up.

"What was that-" Dana started to ask before spotting Teresa splayed out on the floor next to her bed. "...What the hell are you doing?"

"F-falling out of bed..." Teresa mumbled as she slowly got to her feet, still a bit dizzy from her head smacking into the ground.

"Let me guess, face-first?"

"Y-yeah, but how did-"

"Your nose." Dana pointed at it.

Teresa put a hand up just underneath her nose and pulled it back to reveal a not-insignificant amount of blood.

"Lean forward a bit, tilt your head down, and pinch the soft part of your nose just underneath the bridge; I'll go grab some tissues for the bleeding." Dana advised, then walked out of the room.

Teresa complied with these instructions, though having the reminder about them was unnecessary; nosebleeds were a common part of her childhood thanks to Dana slapping her across the face as a first line of discipline, and while they occurred less and less frequently as Teresa grew up and got bigger, the steps for treating one were essentially burned into her brain at this point.

Dana returned with several tissues that she handed to Teresa, who used them to soak up the blood coming out of her nose. It was fortunately a fairly small bleed, and it came to a stop within a couple of minutes.

"Why weren't you up already?" Dana asked as Teresa threw the bloody tissues in her trash bin. "You were probably in a fog from staying in bed for too long."

That second part wasn't strictly untrue, but the implication that being in a fog was what made her trip bugged Teresa a little.

"I-... I-I mean, I-" Teresa's instinctual response was to try coming up with a lie that would sufficiently please her mother, but remembering the conversation they had had yesterday, she bolstered her resolution to try being upfront about these things, and took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. "...I couldn't make myself get out of bed."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dana scowled. "What, were you paralyzed or something?"

"K-kinda." Teresa said. "N-not physically, but psychologically... I-I just didn't have enough willpower to get my muscles to move."

Teresa braced herself for Dana to scream at her about just being lazy and making up some sort of fake problem to blame it on, maybe even slapping her again. She winced as Dana's arm started to move; convinced her mother was going in for a hit, she froze up again as Dana reached out-

-And patted her head?

"...I get that." Dana rustled her hair a bit. "Just... be a bit more careful, okay?"

Dana turned around and started to leave the room as Teresa just stood there in shock.

"W-wait, what-" Teresa stammered out. "Wh-what was that?"

"What do you mean?" Dana stopped in the middle of the doorway and turned back to look at her.

"A-aren't you going to yell at me? H-hit me? T-tell me that I- I'm useless, a-and selfish and lazy?" Teresa asked, genuinely bewildered.

"Do you want me to?" Dana replied flatly.

"N-no, i-it's just..." Teresa was having difficulty finding the right words amidst how confused she was. "Y-you're never nice to me! O-or understanding! Did- did something happen?"

"What *hasn't* happened, Teresa?" Dana crossed her arms with a frustrated sigh. "Seventeen years of going on months-long business trips and every time I come back my daughter is perfectly fine, but this time I come back and *what* do I find out happened to you? You were picked out by an Omnitrix, you were kidnapped and tortured by some deranged psychopath, you somehow made enemies out of one of the richest men in the world and some sort of alien mafia gang, and you had your body stolen by some evil... robot... data... AI... *thing!*" She threw her hands up and gave Teresa a look that was somehow both stern and utterly baffled at the same time. "I know you think I hate you, but you look me in the eye and tell me *any* mother wouldn't be concerned by that!"

"...So I... wait..." Teresa paused as she tried to process what her mother was saying. "A-are... are you saying that if I *hadn't* gone through all that... y-you'd still be using me as your punching bag?"

"Okay, "punching bag" is a little overdramatic, don't you think?"

Teresa couldn't help but stare at her in disbelief.

"Look around you, mom!" Teresa gestured at her general surroundings. "Look at my room! What do you see?!"

"What kind of question is that?" Dana rolled her eyes. "A desk, a bed, a lamp, a closet..." She paused. "Actually, now that you mention it, it *is* weirdly empty in here. Was it like this before I left this last time? I don't think it was like this before I left."

"It was *exactly* the same before you left!" Teresa said. "It's been the exact same for years!"

"Well, that can't be right." Dana put her hand up to her chin. "Don't you have any hobbies?"

"...*No!*" Teresa exclaimed frustratedly. "E-every time I've tried getting into a hobby, y-you just said it was stupid and would be a waste of time!"

"Oh, right, I did do that." Dana snapped her fingers. "See, when you were a kid, I didn't make nearly as much money as I do now. I didn't want to make you worry over the fact that we were poor at that age, so I tried to make it seem like you weren't missing out on much when we couldn't afford something."

"Wha- that's so counterproductive!" Teresa said. "Why not just *tell* me we couldn't afford it?!"

"Because you always over-empathize with other people's problems." Dana said. "Even when you were little, if I so much as got a scratch on me, you'd practically go through all five stages of grief worrying about me until it healed. I was worried that if you found out how bad things really were financially, you'd do something drastic like starve yourself to save us money on food."

"But why keep it up my *entire life?*"

"By the time I could realistically afford to help you with a hobby, you were just turning 13, and I know from personal experience that there's nothing teenagers like more than rebelling, so I figured the best way to inspire you to get a hobby was to keep saying "no" to it."

"That- that doesn't make any sense!" Teresa said. "I've never been rebellious in my life! You *hit* me whenever I "stepped out of line"! Why would I ever try going against you?!"

"It's what helped me narrow down my own interests." Dana replied. "My parents *actually* didn't want me to have hobbies, so whenever I got interested in something, I'd make *sure* it was something I liked enough to make the beatings worth it. I figured I'd help you do the same thing."

"You..." Teresa drew back a bit. "Mom, that- that's not how it works! That's not how *any* of this works!"

"Well, hindsight is 20/20." Dana grunted.

"A-and what, i-is that why you have such a problem with me being a lesbian too?" Teresa threw her hands out to the side. "You were just being homophobic to... I-I don't know, help make me *gayer* or something?!"

"What? No, don't be stupid, that's completely different." Dana said. "A woman can't have a kid with another woman. It's common sense."

"What if I don't *want* a kid?" Teresa countered. "A-and, I mean, even if I *did* want one, adoption exists! What's wrong with love for the sake of love?!"

"Look, Teresa, if everyone who *wanted* to marry a woman *did* marry a woman, there wouldn't even be any straight couples left to adopt *from*."

Teresa had to stop speaking for a moment just to put together an *attempt* to unpack that statement.

"...Mom..." She eventually spoke. "*What are you talking about?*"

"Well, everyone's more attracted to women than to men." Dana said as if it should have been perfectly obvious. "Yes, we're attracted to both, but women are just more physically attractive in general. I understand *why* you're a lesbian, but it is incredibly irresponsible."

She had literally just gotten up five minutes ago, but Teresa already felt like she needed to go back to bed.

"...I'm going to the park early." Teresa mumbled, quickly powerwalking past her mom. "I-I really need some fresh air."

"You are *not* going out with your pajamas on!" Dana yelled at her. "You're going to a public park, not Walmart!"

"The CrossTrix can change my outfits on the fly, Mom," Teresa paused to say before going down the stairs. "I'll be in normal clothes by the time I get there."

"The CrossTrix can *what?*"

By the time she finished asking the question, Teresa had already flown down the stairs and could be heard leaving the house a few seconds later. After silently processing what had just happened for a moment, Dana sighed and looked upward.

"She might look more like me, but in personality she takes after you to a tee." She said quietly. "I just hope it doesn't get her killed."

“I’m sorry, you want to *what?*”

Occurring at approximately the same time, Emilia was paying a visit to Lucius Raivent’s office with a proposal that he was uncharacteristically flabbergasted by.

“I want to have the EvoLocks and their DNA Keys pulled off the market.” Emilia repeated.

“You can’t be serious.” Lucius scowled. “Even putting aside how much of a money sink that would be for my company, these locks are your life’s work. What happened to that idealistic “these locks will change the world!” attitude?”

“Reality happened, Lucius.” Emilia replied firmly. “Just look around you! For every story about someone using Evolvyrns to help people, there’s three more about someone using them to *hurt* people! Heck, if I hadn’t created them, Oberon OS’s plan would’ve failed, the Triumvirate wouldn’t be selling bootleg versions of them to random crooks, and Joshua Messias wouldn’t basically have god powers!”

“And Christine Eldridge’s life would be a lot easier, right?” Lucius raised an eyebrow.

Emilia froze. Lucius sighed and began tapping a pen he was holding on the table.

“You know, even if I weren’t able to read your vices, your real motivations here would still be utterly transparent.” Lucius tsked. “I don’t doubt you have baggage regarding the issues you’ve listed, but those have been problems for a while. Given how obsessive you are with your work, there’s only one thing that could realistically drive you to demand such a drastic measure.”

“Does the motivation really matter here?” Emilia asked impatiently. “The locks ended up changing the world, sure, but they changed it for the worse! They’re a failure!”

Lucius stopped tapping his pen.

“*I don't invest in failures*."

"Huh?" Emilia blinked.

"There's quite a bit of irony in you telling *me* to "look around" when all *you* seem to be seeing are the issues posed inside your own personal bubble." Lucius said. "You may have created the EvoLocks, but my company is the one overseeing their use. Have you even *once* bothered looking at our quarterly reviews?"

"Well, no, but-"

"The use of Evolvyrns has increased efficiency and quality of life tenfold in every field they're deployed in." Lucius stated pointedly. "Leviathan has turned formerly desolate wastelands into habitable zones. Atmosbore has been used to extract ores from the earth without the environmental damage cause by standard mining. Smog has nearly eliminated air pollution as a threat to public safety. BioHazard has made antibiotic-resistant bacteria a concern of the past. Your inventions have succeeded in improving society exactly as you intended them to, so declaring them a "failure" is frankly ignorant at best and downright foolish at worst."

He paused for a moment and sighed.

"You had a dream and you accomplished it." He tsked. "Most people would be satisfied with that."

"How am I supposed to be satisfied with a dream that keeps hurting innocent people?" Emilia asked.

"How should I know?" Lucius responded. "I'm a businessman. If you need advice on finances and hard statistics, then I can help, but for something like this... well, you're the inventor here." He pointed at her with his pen. ""Necessity is the mother of invention", correct? If there's an problem you think needs to be addressed, then create something to address it. If you created the Evolvyrns, then surely you can create something to keep them in check."

"Something to keep them in check..." Emilia repeated, muttering to herself. "...I think I might just know how to do that."

Teresa arrived in Liberty Park (having been swapped into her ordinary clothes en-route as predicted above) and hopped off the Cross Bullet to find Anne already there, curled up and fast asleep underneath their usual meeting tree.

"Anne?" Teresa knelt down and gently shook her as the Cross Bullet returned to the CrossTrix.

Anne slowly opened her eyes and yawned, pushing herself up into a sitting position with her back place firmly against the tree trunk.

"Teresa?" Anne tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "You got here early."

"W-well, yeah, but what about you?" Teresa asked. "You got here so early that you had time to fall asleep!"

"Actually, I, uh..." Anne started. "...I slept here all night."

"What?!" Teresa exclaimed. "Wh-what happened? Are you okay? I-I made sure I saw you unlock your door before I left last night! D-did the door jam, o-or-"

"Calm down, Teresa, nothing happened to me." Anne assured her. "The door didn't jam or anything, I just... couldn't open it."

"...So it jammed." The CrossTrix beeped.

"No, I mean I..." Anne paused a moment and sighed as she collected her thoughts. "...After what happened there earlier that day... I couldn't bring myself to go back in."

"You mean..." Teresa sat down next to her. "When your mom..."

"Yeah." Anne took a deep, shaky breath. "She and I didn't see eye-to-eye on everything, but I always at least thought that she wanted what's best for me. But then she just..."

She had to stop talking for a moment to avoid crying, feeling more and more choked up as she spoke.

"I...I'm mad at her, but... I'm also mad at myself for being mad at her." Tears welled up in her eyes. "Messias abused her too, a-and she- she doesn't have any powers, she can't transform, she doesn't know how to fight, so e-even if she *did* try to stop him, i-it wouldn't have worked, and he'd probably just kill her, s-so why-" Anne involuntarily interrupted herself with a sob. "Why do I feel *so angry?*"

That was a question beyond Teresa's ability to answer, so she simply responded by pulling her distressed girlfriend into a tight, comforting hug as she broke down crying.

"Your logic and your emotions won't always arrive at the same conclusion." CROSS said. "Negative feelings exist as warning signals from your brain that prompt you to act when something's wrong. Sure, when you logic out the situation, your mom really didn't have any choice but to step aside, but when you look at it from an instinctual perspective, all your lizard brain can really deduce is that someone you trust betrayed you, and if you trust them again, they might betray you again, so it flips on the anger switch to deter you from trying to reconnect."

"But I *want* to reconnect with her!" Anne sobbed. "She's my *mom!*"

Teresa opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She wanted to say something supportive, something useful, but wanting to reconnect with your mom was a completely foreign concept to her. As hard as she had tried for the first seventeen years of her life, she had never been able to connect with her own mom in the first place, let alone *re*connect. Their problems were on completely different sides of the same spectrum.

"Welp, I'm out of advice." The CrossTrix dial displayed a simple shrugging animation. "Maybe if I had my memories of being human myself I could help more; then again, my human self apparently decided becoming an omnicidal eldritch energy god was a good idea, so... probably not the first guy I'd turn to, not gonna lie."

"Yeah, family shit's hard." A man leaning against the other side of the tree tsked, having somehow appeared without them noticing. "But hey, at least you ain't the Raivent kid."

Teresa's blood ran cold.

That voice.

She knew that voice.

But there was no way.

He was dead.

*Both* of him were dead.

So how could he possibly-

Teresa's thought process stopped entirely as the man stepped out from around the tree to reveal his face.

"Been a while, eh, kid?" Malincious Crow took a moment to crack his neck. "Can't imagine you're any happier about this reunion than I am."

Emilia made her way to a less-populated section of downtown that was home to a small, relatively underground club. While it didn't open up to the public until 10 PM, she knew the DJ there liked to get everything set up way earlier than necessary and spend the extra time experimenting with different remixes and light patterns.

She opened the front door of the club and stepped inside, spotting the DJ plugging in speakers on the stage across the dance floor.

"Yo, Eva!" Emilia called over to her.

"Wha-" Eva turned around and grinned as she spotted Emilia. "Yo, Emilia, what's up?!"

Eva hopped off the stage and sprinted her way over.

"You ain't been to club in *ages!*" Eva said. "Heavy Metal Mondays just don't hit the same without you here tearing it up! Didja get yourself wrapped up in a new project again?"

"I've just had a lot of stuff on my plate over the past few months." Emilia said. "But speaking of projects, I'm actually here because I need your help finishing one."

"What, seriously?" Eva chuckled. "Come on, the only project you've ever needed my electric expertise for was-" She paused. "Wait, wait, wait, are you actually-"

Emilia nodded.

"Um..." Eva's expression fell a bit. "...Look, I know I was the one who said you should go for it in the first place, but once we figured out the implications of actually using the thing, you were *really* adamant about *not* finishing it. What changed? Did something happen?"

"A *lot* of things have happened." Emilia replied solemnly. "The situation's escalated too much for me to be picky about what I will and won't make."

"Man, things must be messed way the fuck up for you to change your mind on this." Eva crossed her arms with a concerned expression. "I'd start helpin' you with it right away, but I've already got the rest of the club's hours this week on a hard schedule."

"That's fine, I'm not going to start working on it for a few days anyway." Emilia said. "I need some time to get the warehouse cleaned up, and I've got some troubleshooting to do with the CrossTrix. I just brought it up today because I didn't want to blindside you when I do start work on it."

"I still feel pretty blindsided, all things considered." Eva said. "Of all the projects you've tossed out or left half-finished, I never thought the 410 would be the one you'd want to bring back."

The Cross Bullet immediately launched from the CrossTrix, aiming straight for Crow's heart, but upon making impact, all it did was throw him back a few feet as it was deflected.

"Alright, not exactly what I was *expecting* when I put on the bulletproof vest today, but I guess it works." Crow said with a pained grunt.

Teresa slowly rose to her feet, placing herself between Crow and Anne as both the CrossTrix and her left eye began to flicker red. The device's hard-light chainsaw deployed on its own, revving itself up intermittently.

"Not again... not again..." Teresa began to mutter, starting to feel lightheaded. "I can't... not again..."

"Is that a fucking chainsa-" Crow cut himself off. "Y'know what, never mind. Listen, kid, I'm not here to start shit. I wasn't happy about having to do what I did the first time, and I ain't exactly planning on doing it twice, so put that fuckin' Texas Chainsaw Massacre Omnitrix demon or whatever the fuck it is away and we'll talk."

"Or, and here's an idea:" Teresa's eye settled on red while the CrossTrix settled back on its normal color scheme. "I *keep* the chainsaw out, and *you* start talking."

"Teresa?" Anne stood up, noticing an abrupt change in Teresa's body language. "Teresa, if this is too much for you, I can handle him with-"

"No!" Teresa snapped at her. "I am *not* going to let my girlfriend get hurt fighting one of *my* battles! And besides..." She turned her attention back to Crow and revved up the CrossTrix's chainsaw. "*He's mine*."

"Oh, you have a girlfriend now? Congrats." Crow tsked dismissively. "Side note, blondie, am I nuts or is this just..." He vaguely gestured at Teresa. "A *completely* different vibe compared to a few months ago?"

"Go to hell!" Anne snapped. That said, she knew he was right; something was definitely wrong.

"Oh, really? I'm different? I hadn't noticed." Teresa stepped forward and held the CrossTrix's chainsaw up to Crow's neck. "*I wonder whose fault that might be.*"

"Yeah, yeah, you don't particularly care for me, we get it." Crow gently pushed the arm holding the chainsaw away. "Look, I'm just here to give you a message from the Triumvirate."

"The Triumvirate?" Anne asked. "You mean that gang that makes the BootLocks?"

"The one and only." Crow paused. "Three and only? One and only. Whatever. Here's the deal: Joshua Messias is one of the Triumvirate's biggest sources of funding. That said, nobody fuckin' likes the guy, so the fact that you two are gonna be key witnesses in a trial that could get him put away for life? Not really their problem, they already stole his keys and credit card information. Now, the fact that you two could pose a threat to the organization itself? That much *is* their problem, and given that they apparently kidnapped both of you once already and know where you live... well, I'm sure you can figure it out from there."

"Newsflash: the Triumvirate isn't *our* problem." Teresa growled. "As long as you're playing messenger, tell them to take their threats and shove it. We're not cops, we're not Plumbers, we're just trying to get by. They don't screw with us, we won't screw with them, it's that simple."

"Yeah, that's what most of them seem to figure, there's just this one high-ranking scientist asshole who seems to think "Techs"- whatever those are- are an existential threat to the organization for some fuckin' reason." Crow shrugged. "Welp, glad we're all on the same page here, I am going to fuck right off because this has frankly been one of the most awkward conversations of my life, toodles."

"Hang on, one more thing." Teresa said.

"Ugh, what?" Crow scowled.

"Tell them that if they're dumb enough to attack first..." Teresa tapped the CrossTrix. "They're going to find out *exactly* what kind of power I've been holding back."

"Aww, baby's first ominously vague death threat!" Crow snarked. "A bit rough around the edges, little too much melodrama, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll get better with practice."

He pulled a beeper of some kind out of his coat pocket and pressed down on one of the buttons. A rectangular portal abruptly opened up behind him that seemed to lead to another part of the city.

"Look, I've still got someone to talk to that's both more important and more of a pain in my ass than a couple of random teenagers." Crow turned to walk through the portal, but paused halfway through to glance back at them for a moment. "Oh, and some advice from me personally: if you ever see a doppelganger of yourself running around, make sure you kill the fuckin' thing before it becomes a problem."

"What is that even supposed to mean?!" Anne snapped.

Crow ignored her and walked through the portal, which immediately closed behind him.

"He's way too cocky for quite literally being a dead man walking." Teresa growled frustratedly. "He's lucky you were here."

"He- I'm sorry, he what?" Anne gave her a confused look.

"If I were alone I'd've just transformed into the ten-way fusion and torn him limb from limb." Teresa said. "Problem is that with him I wouldn't have been able to hold myself back at all, and I do *not* want you getting caught in that thing's crossfire."

"Teresa, I have Silver Breaking Point now." Anne pointed out. "Even if I *did* get caught in the crossfire I'd be fine."

"You just got that form *yesterday*, neither of us knows how much damage it can actually tank!" Teresa turned to look at Anne, revealing that her left iris was still a solid red. "I am *not* going to put *either of us* in harm's way for no reason! I..." She started to trail off as a sudden weakness set in. "I..."

Teresa abruptly lost consciousness. Anne was able to catch her before she toppled over and tried to wake her up to no avail.

"CROSS, what's going on?" Anne looked down at the CrossTrix. "What just happened to her?"

"I wish I knew." The CrossTrix dial displayed a line of dots going across the screen, indicating that CROSS was trying to think. "The same color changing thing happened when she transformed into Nightmare while fighting Messias, so it probably has something to do with that; problem is we don't know how *that* works either."

"Wasn't Dr. Krauze going to look into it?"

"She's tried, but the programming language Oberon OS used while modifying the CrossTrix doesn't match up with any existing code." CROSS explained. "Changing around even a single variable without knowing what it does could be disastrous, so she's stuck trying to reverse-engineer the language for now."

"It's never as simple as it should be, is it?" Anne held Teresa a bit closer. "Either way, I can't think of anyone else that could help us right now."

"Agreed."

The CrossTrix shifted modes and deployed the Cross Bullet, which quickly grew to full size as it looped around to stop right next to them. The doors opened on their own, and Anne gently hoisted Teresa into a bridal carry to carry her into the train car. The CrossTrix detached from Teresa's wrist and flew into the train cabin to plug itself into the controls as Anne carefully set Teresa's unconscious body onto one of the seats and sat down next to her to keep her from falling over.

"I'll help you get better, no matter what it takes." Anne said to Teresa in a gentle but determined tone. "You're one of the few good things I have left."

Christine opened the front door of Emilia's house and stepped inside carrying a few bags of groceries. Making a mental note to remind Emilia about locking the door, she turned the corner into the kitchen and set the bags down on the counter.

"Hey, Emilia, I'm back!" She called out as she started putting food away. "I couldn't find the exact name brand tea you were looking for, so I looked into the supply chain and found out that your brand tea and the store's generic tea are actually just the same product in different packaging, so I figured getting the generic brand would be fine!"

"A lot more brands source their products from the same factories as the store brand than you realize." Malincious Crow's voice chimed in.

Christine slowly turned around to find Crow sitting lazily on the furthest couch from her in the living room. Without missing a beat, she immediately vaulted herself over the kitchen island and furniture separating her from Crow with expert form, barely giving him time to get up from the couch before she hit him with a strong uppercut and slammed him against the wall, using her left arm to pin him down by his throat.

"*Where is Emilia?!*" Christine yelled, her face twisted with rage. "***What did you do to her?!***"

Crow kneed Christine underneath the ribs, knocking the wind out of her. She had trouble maintaining her grip on Crow as she struggled to breathe, giving him a chance to duck out from under her arm and hit her with another kick to the gut, which, to his surprise, did not make her double over. He immediately backed off to the other side of the living room, keeping a close eye on Christine as she turned around to make sure he didn't run off while she was still struggling to breathe.

"Calm the fuck down, I didn't do a goddamn thing!" Crow snapped. "The door was unlocked when I got here and your girlfriend was nowhere to be found!"

"You seriously expect me to believe that?" Christine wheezed out as she started to recover.

"Well, it's the truth, so yeah." Crow said flatly. "Look, I've got no business with the good doctor; I'm here to speak to *you*."

"About what?" Christine scowled.

"The Triumvirate." Crow tsked. "They don't particularly like the idea of the GP looking into them, and they've gotten away with kidnapping in this very house before, so unless you want your other half to *actually* get hurt, they'd advise getting your team to stop looking into it for a while."

"You-" Christine lunged at him, just barely missing as he dodged to the side.

"*Me*." Crow mockingly threw up jazz hands. "Christ, you ever heard the phrase "don't kill the messenger"? It ain't like this was *my* fuckin' idea."

"You think I give a shit?!" Christine growled. "Why is it that every time something catastrophic happens in my career, it always involves *you?!*"

"If I had to guess, I'd say it's because we have conflicting lines of work and I'm better than you at doing my job." Crow said. "Speaking of which, if you can stop trying to deck me every five seconds, there's one more thing we need to talk about."

"And what would that be?" Christine's eyes narrowed.

"Up until now, the top brass has been pretty adamant about keeping the GP out of the loop," Crow said. "But now that Oberon OS is out of the picture, collaborating with them shouldn't be such a big security issue."

"Collaborating?" Christine's brow furrowed. "Why would the Triumvirate-"

"Not them, jackass, the *actual* top brass." Crow reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what looked like a wallet, which he flipped open to reveal a CIA badge and an up-to-date ID card. "According to them, it's time you and I had a little talk."

"Give me that!" Christine snatched the badge out of Crow's hands to examine it. Immediately assuming it was a forgery, she felt a pit in her stomach form as every detail she looked over confirmed more and more that it was legitimate.

"If that look on your face is any indication, I think you've figured out it's legit." Crow grabbed the badge back from her and repocketed it.

"But... how?!" Christine's left eye twitched. "There's no way! You were kicked out of the CIA-"

"That was the cover story, yes."

"You worked for Sephtis Raivent-"

"That's the undercover work the cover story was for."

"*You went to jail for ten years-*"

"In order to monitor the network Raivent's organization was using to smuggle and distribute contraband within the prison system." Crow said impatiently. "I wasn't even staying *inside* the prison the whole time, it was a fucking *day job*."

"Was working for Oberon OS and torturing Teresa Challice a "day job" too?" Christine growled.

"Technically, yes." Crow replied. "Wasn't a fan of the idea, but when the AI took the falsified records as fact and busted me out of prison to do its dirty work for it, HQ called me up with orders to keep up the façade as long as possible and then sabotage the fucker at the last second."

"Sabotage it?"

"I got it to spill the beans on what its plan was, and the higher-ups determined that the most reliable way of stopping it was just straight-up killing Challice so it couldn't steal her body." Crow tsked. "That table I strapped her to was set up to deliver electric shocks every so often and randomly make one of them fatal. The plan was to put on a big show for the OS until Challice died, but unfortunately for *everyone*, it figured out what the table was supposed to do by looking at its programming and called *you* to the scene to "rescue" the kid so it could take advantage of the trauma caused by the incident to help break her later."

Crow gave her a slow, sarcastic round of applause.

"Made sure the kid that was supposed to die could live to experience horrific PTSD for years to come and just about doomed the universe in the process," He said. "Global Police Chief Christine Eldridge, everybody!"

"You..." Christine actively had to hold herself back from throttling him. Attacking him while he had been posing as a criminal was one thing, but beating the life out of him now that he had revealed his status as a government agent could lead to federal charges at best and the US pulling out of the Global Police program entirely at worst.

"Welp, that's everything I was ordered to fill you in on, so I'm gonna go ahead and get out of here before your weirdo mad scientist girlfriend gets home." He pulled the same remote from before out of his coat pocket. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you everything we talked about today is strictly confidential."

Christine's only response was a death glare.

"The office boys will get in contact with the GP's HQ tomorrow to explain the situation to your team in a more professional environment and set up some inter-agency collaboration." Crow ignored the glare and pressed a button on the remote to summon a portal behind him. "Let's you and I hope this is the last time we'll ever have to interact personally, hm?"

With that, Crow stepped backwards through the portal, which promptly closed and vanished into thin air. Thoughts raced through Christine's mind a million miles a minute as she attempted to analyze the full implications of what she had just learned, and the implications weren't pretty.

The fact that the CIA had been complicit in several crimes against humanity was about as unexpected as water being wet, but the fact that they were behind what happened to Teresa and that she would still have to work with them after finding out about it was testing the limits of what she could tolerate without snapping entirely. The exact thoughts running through her head at the moment would earn me a visit from the FBI for writing down here, but suffice to say that for her they all seemed pretty justified at the moment.

The trains of thought multi-track drifting through her brain were abruptly interrupted as the door to the house slammed open. Feeling rather wired for obvious reasons, Christine instinctively whipped around while reaching for a gun she didn't have, only to find a worried-looking Anne standing in the doorway, carrying an unconscious Teresa.

"Is Dr. Krauze here?" Anne asked immediately, visibly shaking a bit. "Something weird happened with the CrossTrix and Teresa won't wake up!"

"No, Emilia's not here right now." Christine quickly ran over and carefully took Teresa from Anne to transfer her over to the couch. "What happened?"

"I-I don't even know how it's possible, but that psycho Crow or whatever his name is suddenly showed up in Liberty Park!" Anne started to explain. "Teresa got in front of me and it seemed like she was going to turn into Nightmare again, but instead the CrossTrix suddenly went back to normal while her eye stayed red!"

"He went after you two?" Christine's eye began to twitch again.

"Well... kind of?" Anne said. "It was weird; he didn't want to fight us, he just told us the Triumvirate was threatening to come after us if we interfered with them, a-and then said something about doppelgangers that didn't really make sense, then just screwed off through a portal!"

"Then what happened to Teresa?"

"It seems like the Nightmare transformation process glitched out somehow," CROSS beeped from the CrossTrix as its core flew into the room. "The form itself didn't finish activating, but whatever changes it makes to her mental state in the process did. Her personality did a total 180 and she started threatening Crow with the chainsaw mode."

"Changes?" Christine looked up at him. "I thought you said Nightmare didn't *have* a consciousness, not that it *altered* her consciousness."

"That's what I thought was happening at the time, but I might've been wrong." CROSS said. "I couldn't detect any form of higher consciousness I'm familiar with when I checked its brainwaves, but it's possible it has an entirely unique type of consciousness that the CrossTrix isn't able to recognize."

"Either way, Teresa didn't go back to normal when Crow left, and she collapsed not too long afterwards." Anne interjected to finish her recounting of events. "We decided to bring her here hoping Dr. Krauze might be able to help."

"Well, I hope she can, because I've got no idea what's going on here." Christine sighed. "CROSS, can't you run a system scan or a troubleshooter or something to get more information from the CrossTrix?"

"I've tried, but all the code relating to Nightmare is from Oberon OS." CROSS said. "It programmed something in that keeps the CrossTrix's security protocols from accessing any of the data it inserted. Can't scan or troubleshoot code you can't reach."

"Even after *dying* that thing is causing problems." Christine unconsciously clenched her fists. "Isn't there *anything* we can do?"

"Not until the doc gets back and accesses the CrossTrix's systems manually." CROSS said. "Even then, she's still having trouble analyzing the code, so unless you just so happen to have some sort of decoding technology even more sophisticated than Oberon OS lying around, we're going to be waiting a while."

Christine stopped to think for a moment.

"I don't have access to anything like that *personally*..." She hmmed. "But I know someone who just *might*."

"This... isn't who I was expecting."

Anne's comment was directed at Christine, who had stepped outside for a few minutes to call in this unknown contact of hers. Just a few minutes after that, a rift in space-time had blinked into existence in the living room, out of which stepped Napoleon Eldridge.

"Oh, hey, you're Anne, right?" Napoleon pointed at her as the rift behind him sealed itself up. "Haven't seen any of you since the whole Oberon OS thing!"

"...That was like two weeks ago max." Anne pointed out.

"I'm the kinda guy that lives fast, dies hard, and remembers hazy." Napoleon stated. "Besides, it's been a busy two weeks for me, what can I say?"

"Been dealing with a lot of Plumber assignments?" Christine asked.

"Well, there's Plumber stuff, college, and..." Napoleon raised his left hand to reveal a silver ring on his ring finger. "Y'know, this."

"*You're engaged?!*" The shock almost made Christine choke on her own spit. "When did this happen?!"

"'Few days ago." Napoleon said with a grin. "We're holding off on an actual wedding until we both have our degrees, but we both got to a point where it was pretty obvious it was gonna happen someday, and neither of us are really good at beating around the bush."

"That=" Christine tried to process what he was saying. "Wait, even if you're not getting married right now, aren't you a little young to be getting engaged?!"

"I mean, it's not super *common* to get engaged at 21, but it happens." Napoleon shrugged. "How old were you when you got engaged?"

Oof.

"I'm not married, Napoleon." Christine winced a bit as she replied.

"Oh, sorry." Napoleon blinked. "I just assumed you would be 'cuz of how old you are."

"I'm only 36!" Christine protested.

"Well, yeah," Napoleon said. "Most 36-year-olds are married, aren't they?"

*OOF.*

"...Can you just take a look at the CrossTrix, please?" Christine asked wearily.

"Sure, no problem!" Napoleon gave her a thumbs-up, completely oblivious to the actual tone of their conversation.

"Man, he was *not* lying about having trouble beating around the bush." Anne commented.

"Alright then, overcomplicated coding time." Napoleon walked over to Teresa and stretched his arms out in front of him with his palms facing out and his fingers interlocked in order to crack his knuckles. "Never tried this before, so Swarm 1 Guide, could I get some help?"

A cloud of nanobots and purple energy rapidly congealed and constructed itself into a tallish robotic humanoid that stood next to Napoleon.

"What do you mean you haven't tried this before?" Anne asked him before turning her attention to Christine. "Why would you get someone who doesn't have any experience with this?"

"Being the host of this Swarm makes Napoleon Eldridge stand above all others in terms of technological ability." The Swarm 1 guide construct stated. "It is a utility fog powered by Void Energy, giving it infinite potential when merged with the correct host."

"Potential is one thing, being able to fulfill that potential is another." The CrossTrix attached itself to Teresa's arm so it could be examined. "That said, it's not like we have any better options."

"Gonna need something to access it directly..." Napoleon hmmed for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Got it!"

Swarm 1 constructed an odd device that looked a bit like a miniaturized laptop with hooks of some kind on the bottom. Napoleon set the device on top of the CrossTrix dial, with the hooks allowing it to snap into place, and flipped it open, revealing a tiny monitor and keyboard that projected hard-light holograms of a much larger monitor and keyboard. He began typing away on the keyboard, seemingly mashing random keys as green text full of technobabble appeared on the black background of the monitor. After about thirty seconds of this, he slammed his index finger onto the "Enter" key, resulting in the monitor displaying a simplified animation of a lock opening.

"Alright, boys," Napoleon swept his left hand over his face, resulting in his stylish angular shades being reconstructed into a regular pair of sunglasses. "*I'm in.*"

"There's no way it was that easy." Christine said.

A GUI displaying every branch of files and code in the CrossTrix suddenly appeared on the monitor.

"Would you like to revise your statement?" Swarm 1 said to Christine in a flat and robotic yet somehow incredibly condescending tone.

"Okay, how the hell does that even work?" Christine's brow furrowed.

"The host's function is to construct objects in their mind. The swarm's function is to translate those objects into physical matter." The guide stated. "If the host imagines a sword, we will construct a sword. If the host imagines changes to that sword, we will reconstruct the sword to match their current interpretation of it. If the host imagines a hacking device that functions according to his perception of hacking from pop culture, we will create a hacking device that functions according to his perception of hacking from pop culture."

The Swarm 1 guide turned its gaze to Napoleon, who was currently trying to reach the end of a directory pathway filled with folders that were filled with folders that were filled with folders and so on and so forth.

"It is a dangerous power prone to misuse, and those who use it with malicious intent will inevitably find their common sense overridden by their greed and meet a gruesome fate at their own hands," The guide continued. "But Napoleon Eldridge is simple-minded, and his heart lacks the malice found in most of your kind. His ability to overcome self-doubt and believe in his own capabilities to an extent most would consider naïve allows him to accomplish the impossible via our power."

"Hang on, that doesn't really track." Christine said. "Constructing and reconstructing things according to the user's will, sure, but Napoleon says that he never knew about any of the aliens you can reconstruct him into before transforming into them for the first time. How is something like *that* possible?"

"The Void Energy that powers us is an ethereal energy influenced by the user's will." The guide responded. "His belief in the swarm's ability to transform him into exactly the alien lifeform he needed granted us the ability to do so."

"So you're telling me that he just... *believed* hard enough to make it work?" Christine asked with a baffled expression.

"Yes." The construct told her flatly. "It is not a difficult concept."

"Okay, so, good news and bad news." Napoleon declared abruptly. "Good news is I managed to find Oberon OS's code. Bad news is I have no idea how to translate it into something legible. Guide?"

"Analyzing the unfamiliar programming language used by the OS is a simple task, but it will take time." The guide stated. "The OS was of a similar technology level to Swarm 1, so its encryption and methodology will require much more processing to bypass than code created by any organic lifeform."

"If it needs time, then it needs time." Christine said. "The fact that it's possible is what's important."

Before any further conversation could take place, a thick black smog began leaking into the house, unnaturally forcing its way in through the microscopic cracks around the front door.

"Um, I don't want to come off as paranoid, but I think we're being gassed." Anne nervously pointed at the smog.

"Oh yeah, that stuff doesn't look good for your lungs." Napoleon whistled.

He snapped his fingers, prompting Swarm 1 to construct air filtration masks around the nose and mouth of everyone present. Christine motioned for everyone else to stay back and approached the front door herself, abruptly slamming it open and charging outside with a shoulder tackle. Despite the smog obscuring her line of sight, the tackle still made impact with its intended target, knocking the source of the smog off its feet.

"What the- did you just have spare gas masks laying around the house?!" The source of the smog reabsorbed the toxic fumes it had put out so it could see, revealing it to be an Evolvyrn with a wispy light-gray body.

"Who are you?!" Christine demanded. "Why are you attacking this house?!"

"This is the house where that garish train engine took the Tech, correct?" Smog responded.

"You mean Teresa?" Christine scowled. "What do you want with her?!"

"In case the attempt to gas her was somehow too subtle for your under-evolved ape brain to understand, I'm trying to kill her." Smog replied. "You are completely inadequate as a fighter, so I recommend that you remove yourself from this situation before you become collateral damage."

"Do you have any idea who I am?!" Christine snapped. "I'm-"

"Christine Eldridge, Chief Field/Commanding Officer of the Global Police, yes, yes, I know." Smog looked thoroughly unimpressed. "I don't care what sort of meaningless rank you've been given; the fact that you lost to a version of *Malincious Crow* of all people tells me that you're little more than walking garbage."

Christine paused. How could a random Evolvyrn user know about the fight against the future version of Malincious Crow? In fact, how could they have known about any of this? How could they have tracked the Cross Bullet to Emilia's house? There were only a handful of Evolvyrns capable of even processing visual input at a speed that would allow them to see the hypersonic bullet train as it flew across the sky, and Smog certainly wasn't one of them. There was only one person she had ever encountered that had quick access to both a speed Evolvyrn and a number of unrelated Evolvyrn transformations...

"You're the Triumvirate agent that snagged Messias's body yesterday, aren't you?" Christine's eyes narrowed.

"And what of it?" Smog huffed.

"Why are you trying to kill Teresa?" Christine asked. "The Triumvirate said that they'd stay out of her way if she stayed out of theirs, didn't they?"

"Yes, the *Triumvirate* did." Smog hissed. "But I am not a common grunt that lives to blindly execute the will of the organization; I am an independently-contracted scientist without whom their current schemes would crumble entirely. I am my own individual, and the grudge I bear against the Omnitrix-wielding brats known as "Techs" drives my actions far more than my affiliation with an amateurish group of weapons dealers ever will."

"That's *it?*" Christine's face formed an odd expression that was somewhere between disgust and bewilderment. "You have a grudge against a *nickname?*"

"There's more to that "nickname" than you could possibly comprehend, you sorry excuse for a sentient lifeform." Smog growled out. "It was a moniker used by my most infuriating enemy, and if there are more Omnitrix wielders out there using it, then it is best that they are destroyed before they become another hindrance!"

"Or, and here's a crazy idea, you could just *stop doing crime!*" Christine snapped.

"Spare me." Smog's eyes narrowed. "Why should I, a member of a superior species, bow down to societal rules created by you half-evolved mongoloids?"

"If your species really is so superior to humanity, why don't you detransform and prove it?" Christine cracked her knuckles. "Surely a "superior species" wouldn't be afraid to fight a "half-evolved mongoloid"."

"Go fight a chimpanzee unarmed and tell me how that works out for you, human." Smog tsked. "Taking unnecessary risks because of my ego is what got me killed six years ago, and unlike you, I am capable of learning from my mistakes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Christine scowled.

"What do you *think* it's supposed to mean?" Smog said. "Honestly, must I spell *everything* out for you? It's like I'm talking to an infant."

Christine took advantage of Smog's monologuing to launch an abrupt punch at his head. As her fist was about to make impact, Smog's body temporarily dissipated into wisps of air, making the blow pass through him harmlessly.

"And a grumpy one at that." Smog moved off to the side and transformed into Terminal. "I suppose it's time for a live demonstration of SIDS."

Terminal sprung into action, using his heat-boosted speed to abruptly move in front of Christine and lay into her with a barrage of scalding hot punches before knocking her away with a kick to the head.

"*This* is what I meant, by the way." Terminal said as Christine hit the ground several meters away. "Just how many times have you thrown yourself against an opponent you stood no chance against and received grievous injuries from as a result? Do you want to make a martyr of yourself by dying in battle, or are you really just *that* indescribably stupid?"

Christine painfully forced herself to her feet, wincing and clutching at her chest. After that barrage, it was probably easier to count the number of bones that *weren't* broken, and the scalding heat fueling Terminal's punches had left second-degree burns everywhere they made contact. She had to transform into Enlock to heal herself, but her broken body could barely move, and as she saw Terminal winding up for the finishing blow, she knew she wasn't going to grab the SpecOps Lock in time.

"In the interest of fairness, let's say it's both." Terminal said. "I'll happily give you a heroic moron's death."

Right as Terminal began to launch one final punch aimed at tearing out Christine's heart, a wall of silver was thrown up between the two, resulting in his fist harmlessly bouncing off the atypically strong precious metal.

"Christine!" Silver Breaking Point rushed out of the house and ran over to help Christine stand. "We heard the sound of bones breaking all the way from the living room! Are you okay?!"

"I'll... live..." Christine was force to stopped talking as she suddenly coughed up a worrying amount of blood and what looked like chunks of shattered bone. "...Okay, no I won't. I need-" She paused and coughed up more blood. "I... need to... transform."

"Where's the SpecOps Lock?"

"Shorts... right... pocket."

"Don't even think about it!" Terminal snapped, zooming around the wall of silver to confront them. "You'll just be delaying the inevit-"

"*Screw off!*" Silver Breaking Point yelled, using her sword to launch a wave of shattering energy that broke Terminal's torso in half diagonally.

She reached into Christine's pocket and handed her the SpecOps Lock, along with its accompanying key, allowing her to transform into EnLock to heal her wounds.

"Isn't that the guy from yesterday?" Silver Breaking Point asked. "What's he doing here?"

"Something about needing to kill people named "Tech" for some reaso-" EnLock's eyes widened. "Look out!"

She shoved Silver Breaking Point to the side, taking a powerful burning punch to the gut that exploded right out of the other side of her abdomen, sending her stumbling backwards a bit before reverting to human.

"You know, if you hadn't shoved that fusion out of the way, their armor most likely would've been able to deflect that hit with ease." Terminal snorted. "You really are too predictable."

"You just got cut in half!" Christine snapped. "How are you-"

She cut herself off this time as she caught sight of Terminal.

More specifically, Terminal's new form.

"And now you see the true terror of a superior lifeform with an Omnitrix." Terminal laughed. "The quick-evolving mutagenic sequence injected into each Evolvyrn's DNA was an impressive innovation on Dr. Krauze's part, but in the end even she is still only human, so it took a being of *my* intelligence level to unlock its true potential."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Christine growled as she transformed back into Enlock.

"Krauze's system only allows significant changes to an Evolvyrn's base genetic code after periods of extended use." Terminal said. "My XenoTrix, on the other hand, enhances the adaptation process to such a degree that a transformation can be "refreshed" and updated with new adaptations the moment it sustains critical damage."

"In summary, it lets you adapt to counter anything that'd kill you." Enlock said. "Thanks for letting us know exactly how to avoid triggering it, jackass."

"If you think you can stop me without killing me outright, you're naïve."

"If you think I can't, you don't know how this alien works."

Enlock threw several energy locks at Terminal, only for him to effortlessly dodge each one while staying in place.

"I know perfectly well how Astrynomian abilities work, thank you very much." Terminal stated with an almost bored drawl. "Just so you're aware, their locks only work if they *hit* their target."

"A base Terminal transformation wouldn't have the speed necessary to dodge those at this range." Enlock's eyes narrowed. "Why did getting cut in half adapt you to be *faster?*"

"Being able to outspeed your opponent's attacks makes them significantly less likely to land." Terminal said. "Attacks that miss don't kill. Do you understand the principle here, or do I need to keep going?"

"***ROCKETING GIGA PUNCH!***" Napoleon's voice came from off to the side.

"What-"

Napoleon abruptly slammed into Terminal fist-first, wearing a comically oversized gauntlet with built-in rocket boosters that propelled him forward. He dispelled the gauntlet and skid to a halt on the tarmac as the force of the blow sent Terminal flying several blocks down the road.

"Speed is no match for the element of surprise!" Napoleon declared, proudly pushing up his shades.

"If you were going for surprise, why did you yell what you were doing at the top of your lungs?" Silver Breaking Point asked.

"For some reason it seems like my sneak attacks get intercepted more if I *don't* call the attack." Napoleon shrugged.

"Did you finish analyzing Oberon OS's code?" Enlock asked.

"Oh, no, that's still goin'." Napoleon said. "I'm multitasking!"

"Wait, how many different things can Swarm 1 do at once?" Silver Breaking Point asked.

"As many different things as I can focus on at once!" Napoleon declared. "...So, like, two different things, but I'll probably be able to do more with practice."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of metal repeatedly slamming against asphalt at high speed. Napoleon whirled to the side and constructed a shield in front of them just in time to block a supersonic punch from Terminal. The force of the impact left a dent in the nanometal comprising the shield and pushed Napoleon back a few feet, but the shield still held.

Napoleon punched the center of the shield, deforming and reconstructing it into a large drill attached to his arm by a gauntlet. The tip of the drill broke through the glass-like material protecting Terminal's eyes as it formed, stabbing forward just far enough to destroy his right eye.

"You know, if this form couldn't regenerate, that would've made things very inconvenient for me." Terminal grabbed the sides of the drill and shoved it backwards, allowing the nanobots comprising his body to reassume their normal configuration and undo the injury entirely.

"I knew Terminano could regenerate, but I was kinda hoping that part didn't carry over to the Evolvyrn." Napoleon pursed his lips. "Welp, if that's not gonna work, guess I gotta do the thing that always works."

""The thing that always works"?" Enlock gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh yeah, guess I haven't told you about this one yet." Napoleon shook out the drill construct, causing it to dissipate. "See, when you let Swarm 1-"

"Stop having casual conversations like I'm not even here!" Terminal snapped, winding up to throw a punch.

Silver Breaking Point swung her sword at him, creating a wave of liquid silver that solidified around him like a mold. He quickly began to break out of the metal casing, but it slowed him down just long enough for Enlock to fling several energy locks at him, trapping him in place.

"Oh, well done, you've mildly inconvenienced me," Terminal rolled his eyes. "And all it took was ganging up on me three versus one."

"Anyways, like I was saying," Napoleon continued, glossing over Terminal's comment. "When you let Swarm 1 interface with the Void Energy you've built up in your own body, it creates a feedback loop that drastically increases your power level."

"And how do you do that?" Enlock asked.

"It's kind of like a meditative thing." Napoleon said. "You need a totally clear head. First time I did it was a total accident, actually; I just got so mad my brain went empty." He laughed. "But I've got a way better handle on it now. Watch and learn!"

Napoleon abruptly burst into flames that initially burned with the bright purple hue of Void Energy before transitioning into a more traditional mix of scarlet and gold. Just as abruptly as they had appeared, the flames vanished, revealing Napoleon's fiery new appearance.

"So, fun fact, this looked totally different the first time I used it, but now that I can control it, I get to choose how it looks." Napoleon confidently swiped his thumb across the top of his nose. "Pretty nifty, right?"

"If I didn't already know you were all morons I'd be offended by how much you're ignoring my presence." Terminal said.

"Hey, I'm not ignoring ya." Napoleon assured him. "Running Void Energy through my body directly takes a lot out of me, so the fact that I'm even using BURST in the first place puts ya pretty high up on the power ranking scale."

"I don't think I can emphasize enough how little I care about your opinion of me."

"Now you just sound like Isaac." Napoleon laughed.

"...Isaac *who?*" Terminano's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, Isaac's one of my friends." Napoleon explained. "He's kinda like the leader of this three-man-band superhero team we've got goin' on. Used to go by "Tech", but I doubt you'd know-"

Terminal abruptly released high-temperature pressurized air from the exhaust pipes on his back, propelling his body forward with enough momentum to tear off the chunks of him that were still locked in place. He used the jagged edges of his broken parts as makeshift daggers, slicing furiously at Napoleon faster than the unaided eye could see.

"Okay, maybe you *do* know him." Napoleon said, leaving mirage-like afterimages behind as he deftly sidestepped each of Terminal's swings. "He *does* tend to have this effect on people."

"*Stop dodging and **fight me** like the dung-flinging ape you are!*" Terminal roared.

"Hey, not cool, man." Napoleon wagged a disapproving finger. "I'm fine with you trying to kill me and all, but the racism is going a bit too far."

"You're fine with him trying to kill you?!" Enlock exclaimed.

"Well, yeah, it's not like he's actually gonna be able to do it," Napoleon said. "But the racism is indicative of a more problematic underlying philosophy that could lead to unwarranted acts of violence against people who *can't* defend themselves in the future, and even if it *doesn't* do that directly, it still contributes to a discriminatory status quo that systematically oppresses underprivileged minority groups."

There was a brief lull in the chaos as everyone present paused and gave Napoleon a confused look.

"...What?"

"No offense, but you aren't exactly the first person I'd expect to hear a complex analysis from." Silver Breaking Point stated.

"Hey, just 'cuz I'm naïve doesn't mean I'm stupid." Napoleon huffed. "I mean I *kinda* am, but all it took was finding out my *grandma* is from Mexico for people to start calling me racial slurs in middle school. I may be generally oblivious, but I'm still race-conscious."

"You say that, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to call me "racist"?" Terminal tsked. "I don't hate any one of your races in particular; as far as I'm concerned, you're all the same dull-minded primates."

"It's the same underlying principle, jackass, you're smart enough to know what he means." Enlock folded her arms and scowled. "You're just arguing in bad faith."

"First of all-" Terminal tried to turn towards Enlock, only to discover that there were already several new energy locks keeping him in place. "...Really? While we were talking? Classless."

"You *just* tried attacking Napoleon while he was talking not even two minutes ago." Silver Breaking Point pointed out.

"That's different!" Terminal snapped.

"How?!"

"The things *I* have to say *actually matter!*"

"Alright, I wanna get Swarm 1's full processing power back to the CrossTrix thing as soon as possible, so I'm gonna try and finish this in one hit if you don't mind." Napoleon created a flaming sword construct around his right arm and began channeling all his power into it. "Blazing..."

He crouched into a stance that would allow him to put more force behind the blow.

"BURST Sword..."

Enlock's eyes widened. She moved to warn him, but she couldn't vocalize fast enough.

"***SLICING!***"

Napoleon let loose a flurry of fiery slashing attacks too fast for the eye to follow. His appearance faded back to normal as he poured all the energy from his BURST form into the attack, creating enough force to slice the nanomachines comprising Terminal's body themselves. He ended his attack with one last thrust that shot the blade clean through Terminal's torso. The sheer force of the blow created a shockwave that blew his opponent's cut-up body apart, sending small mechanical chunks raining across the battlefield. The sword construct dissipated and Napoleon stumbled backward a few steps, panting from exhaustion.

"See?" He wheezed, doing his best to give a wobbly thumbs-up. "No problem!"

As Napoleon tried to catch his breath, the pieces of Terminal's body scattered around the battlefield began to glow red and were dragged together around a single central piece floating in midair. The glow of the pieces congealed into a single humanoid mass of energy twice as large as the original Terminal, but with the same general body shape.

"Uh... that don't look right." Napoleon blinked.

"This guy modified his Omnitrix to forcefully adapt his transformations to any source of fatal damage." Enlock said.

"Oh." Napoleon looked between her and the warping energy mass in front of him. "Not gonna lie, kinda wish you'd said that sooner."

"Honestly, you wasted all that time talking, and you didn't even bother warning the strongest member of your team about the single most crucial detail for battling me?" Terminal laughed as the light around him faded to reveal his new adapted form. "I didn't think it was even possible for stupidity to be impressive, but here you are proving me wrong."

"Napoleon, Anne, get Teresa out of here *now!*" Enlock began throwing as many energy locks onto Terminal as she could manage to generate.

"What about you?!" Silver Breaking Point asked.

"Enlock has the best chances of keeping this bastard occupied without inducing any more adaptations!" Enlock pointed out. "*Go!*"

"You kidding me?" Napoleon cracked his knuckles. "I'm the one who made the guy this buff, no way I'm running off so you can clean up my mess!"

"You need to focus on helping Teresa right now!" Enlock snapped. "Taking care of scum like this my job!"

"Come on, Napoleon, she knows what she's doing!" Silver Breaking Point grabbed Napoleon and started dragging him inside the house. "I know your whole gimmick is "believing in yourself", but try believing in someone else once in a while too!"

"Welp, in that case, give 'em hell!" Napoleon called out to Enlock as he was being dragged backwards. "Show this guy why you don't screw with an Eldridge!"

"You know, I've done some digging into the self-indulgent dung-slinging you apes call your "history", and irony of ironies, the name "Eldridge" is apparently meant to designate one as a "sage ruler"." Terminal tsked. "It's ironic because you're stupid, in case you're too slow to understand what the insult is."

"Yeah, no, I got it." Enlock grunted. "For supposedly being so much smarter than us, it really seems like all can you do is keep rephrasing that one insult."

"I just want to make sure the point sinks in before you die." Terminal cackled. "If you don't take your last breath feeling like an utter fool, I won't have done this correctly."

Terminal abruptly vented a massive burst of heat towards Enlock, melting down the armor on her upper body and forcing a detransformation. With Enlock gone, the locks she had been keeping active dissipated, resulting in Terminal being freed.

"You could just run, you know." Terminal said. "I'm not here for a weakling like you. I'm here for the Tech."

"Everyone and everything in that house is under my protection!" Christine snapped. "Do you really think I'm going to run away and leave them to die?!"

"Oh, please." Terminal began walking towards her. "Under *your* protection? You don't stand a chance."

"I don't care!" Christine yelled. "I'll protect those kids with my life!"

"Your life means absolutely nothing in the face of overwhelming power." Terminal began to wind up for a punch. "Die."

Terminal threw a punch at Christine. By all rights it should have made impact with her body before she could even react, turning her into a charred red mist.

But that didn't happen.

Christine, somehow, some way, had managed to block the incoming blow with a punch of her own.

"What the-" Terminal's eyes widened as their fists clashed. "You should be road paste right now! How did you block that attack?!"

"No clue." Christine grunted, still pushing against Terminal's fist with her own.

"Do not take this so lightly, human!" Terminal growled. "Who do you think you are?!"

"Just who the hell do you *think* I am?" Christine spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm Christine Eldridge, Chief Field Officer of the Global Police! I protect the public and do my best to keep the people close to me safe! If you think I'm *ever* going to give up on them..."

Something started glowing from inside Christine's fist, and it abruptly broke through Terminal's blow by completely shattering his own fist and sending him reeling backwards several feet.

"*Then you don't know a damn thing about me!*"

Breathing heavily in and out from the effort of blocking Terminal's attack, Christine opened up her clenched fist, revealing an unfamiliar golden key that looked like it was designed to fit inside the SpecOps Lock. With Terminal quickly regenerating his broken hand, she decided that there wasn't time to question it right now and shoved the key into the lock, transforming in a golden flash.

"An Antideus? Really?!" Terminal laughed. "I was actually a bit cautious when I saw that new key appear out of nowhere!"

"Well, you'll have to fill me in on the joke, because I've got no idea what this thing is or does." OpsBuster said flatly.

"It doesn't do anything!" Terminal kept laughing. "The Antideus are even weaker than humans! *Humans!* Oh, this is too good!"

"Okay, not sure why I even bothered asking for an explanation to begin with." OpsBuster tsked and shook her head. "We're in the middle of a fight, why would you give me an accurate rundown on its powers?"

"Oh, but I am!" Terminal cackled. "There's no reason to lie about the Antideus being powerless; they just straight-up *are* powerless! You would have been better off not transforming at all!"

"Don't think I'll take your word on that." OpsBuster lowered herself into a fighting stance. "How about I just test it for myself?"

"As if you'll have the chance."

Terminal launched another punch, this time aiming for OpsBuster's head. The blow connected with its intended target this time, but the results were still not what Terminal was hoping for, as instead of flying right off of her body like he was expecting, her head was simply knocked to the side a bit.

"...You were saying?" OpsBuster turned her head back towards Terminal as a golden light healed a crack that had been put in her faceplate by the punch.

"What?!" Terminal stepped back with a shocked expression. "Alright, what kind of trick is this?! Some sort of illusion ability? You can't possibly be this durable!"

Previously unnoticeable arrow-like patterns began to light up in a golden hue up and down OpsBuster's arms as steam began to vent out of her faceplate. The small golden protrusion on her "cap" abruptly grew into a full horn jutting out from her forehead.

"I'm just as clueless as you here." OpsBuster cracked her neck. "Guess you aren't as smart as you think."

Terminal growled and launched a barrage of punches at her. His movements were far too fast for her to intercept, but none of his blows actually seemed to be doing anything.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Terminal hissed as he continued to punch at her. "I'm at least as powerful now as that flame-haired brat was when he attacked me! You should be dead! *You should be dead!*"

"Well, I'm not, so figure out something else!"

OpsBuster grabbed Terminal and whirled around, tossing his heavy metal body impossibly high in the air with a spinning throw. She jumped into the air after him, but just as she closed in on him, a large portal suddenly opened up above them mid-air, sending them hurtling into the side of a cliff located in the mountains several miles away. OpsBuster jumped to her feet no worse for wear, whereas Terminal's body was covered in several noticeable dents.

"Hey, crab legs," Malincious Crow called down from his perch atop a nearby boulder. "What the *fuck* do you think you're doing?"

Emilia flicked the light switch in the main hall of an old warehouse. Practically ancient tube lights flickered to life, illuminating the specks of dust floating through the air. This place had already been old when she bought it, but leaving it essentially abandoned for over a year had done a lot for giving it a deserted aura.

She walked into an office-like room cordoned off from the rest of the building and did a double-take as she recognized a set of keys she had been looking for on one of the counters. She'd had an entirely new set of keys made to replace them not too long after she "lost" them, so now she just had two sets of the same keys, she supposed.

After making sure all of the equipment in the office area still worked, she re-entered the main hall and began walking towards its center, where laid the main thing she had come back to this building for in the first place. Sat upon a hydraulic lift, surrounded by long-unused parts, machinery, and tools, was a vehicle outwardly identical to the 411 Cross Bullet, save for the blue used in the Cross Bullet's paintjob being replaced with a vivid orange.

"The Cross Blade..." Emilia muttered to herself. She paused for a moment before letting out a wry chuckle. "Funny thing is, even after signing a literal contract with Lucius... *this* is what feels like making a deal with the devil."

Her reflection on the current situation was cut short by her cellphone suddenly ringing.

"Hello?" She answered it, pausing to listen to the frantic voice on the other end of the line. "...Hang on, Teresa's *what?*"

"Okay, seriously, what's with the portals?!" OpsBuster snapped.

"I know a guy." Crow said flatly.

"What am *I* doing?!" Terminal growled. "What are *you* doing interfering with my personal business?!"

"What are *you* doing interfering with the Triumvirate's business?" Crow scowled. "Do you have any idea how blackmail works? If you've got leverage over something, *ya don't kill off the fucking leverage!*"

"Do not presume to lecture me, you miserable ape!" Terminal hissed. "My own goals are far more important than the dung-flinging idiocy you humans consider interpersonal conflict!"

"Good Lord, you really don't get it, do ya?" Crow tsked. "I'm working directly under Sephtis's orders right now, so when I tell you to stop fucking with the plan..."

Crow pulled an unfamiliar BootLock out of his coat.

"...*That ain't a fuckin' request.*"

"How did you get that?!" Terminal's eyes widened. "I trashed that lock the moment it was finished!"

"Yeah, well, Sephtis ain't above digging through garbage, and he doesn't really appreciate it when someone working for him throws out a perfectly functional asset." Crow spun the hook of the lock around on his index finger. "And seeing as I was the person he had this made for in the first place..."

"Fine, I'll withdraw for now," Terminal scowled. "Just *don't use that lock.* I wouldn't trust a human with that ability any more than I'd trust a chimpanzee with a machine gun."

"Honestly, I'd give a chimp a machine gun just to see what happens." Crow said. "That shit sounds hilarious."

"And *this* is why you're a complete wash of a species."

"Y'know, there are only so many comments I'm willing to put up with before I stop *joking* about you being a seafood platter and just straight-up fucking eat you." Crow grunted. "I don't even like crab, I'd just be doing it to prove a point."

"Wait, is his real form seriously a crab?" OpsBuster pointed at Terminal.

"I am a *Cerebrocrustacean*, you blithering fools!" Terminal snapped. "*I am not a crab!*"

"True; *real* crabs don't do this much bitching." Crow rolled his eyes. "Now come on, we're burning daylight."

Crow pressed a button on his beeper, summoning a portal below Terminal, but too slowly for him to actually fall into before dodging.

"Okay, are you wanting to *walk* back, or-"

"Actually, after those last couple of comments, I've changed my mind," Terminal hissed. "I'm just going to go ahead and rip *both* of your heads off."

"Damn, and I thought Ms. Police Brutality over here was petty." Crow tsked, pulling a DNA key out of his pocket and plugging it into his lock. "Would you like to reconsider?"

"I'll just kill you before you get the chance to use that transformation's powers!"

Terminal tried racing off towards Crow, only to find himself lifted into the air and unable to gain traction.

"As much as I support the idea of killing Crow, letting you do so right now would make tomorrow more complicated than it needs to be." OpsBuster said as she held Terminal off the ground. "Not to mention you're the bigger threat right now anyway."

"Oh man, going out of your way to save *me* of all people?" Crow chuckled. "Credit where it's due, you gotta be fuckin' *pissed* about havin' to do this."

"*You have no idea*."

"Unhand me, you simpleton!" Terminal began thrashing around at lightning speed trying to squirm out of OpsBuster's grasp, but all of his attacks simply bounced off her toughened skin. "You will both pay for your insolence, you worms!"

"Nah." Crow tossed a small, flat object at Terminal before transforming in a white flash.

"You-" Terminal snatched the object out of the air as it approached him, turning it around in his hands to reveal that it was an UNO reverse card. "What in the name of the unholy lump of dirt you call a planet is *this* supposed to-"

Terminal was interrupted by Crow's new transformation suddenly leaping down from his boulder and punching him in the face.

"That part's just for me."

"That power he was so worried about is just being able to punch things really hard?" OpsBuster did the rough equivalent of raising an eyebrow underneath her faceplate.

"Nah, I just did that because it felt good." Blitzkrieg cracked his knuckles before putting them together in front of him to create a ball of silver flames crackling with electricity. "*This* is what he was worried about."

OpsBuster's eyes widened and she quickly dodged out of the way as Blitzkrieg let loose a massive blast of electrified flames that swallowed Terminal whole. The attack died down after a few seconds, revealing Terminal as having reverted back to the original incarnation of his transformation.

"You little-" Terminal hissed. "Do you have any idea how unlikely it is for me to reach that level of power again?!"

"Shoulda thought about that beforehand, dipshit." Crow detransformed and pressed on his beeper, sending Terminal down through a portal that closed up right after he dropped through. "Christ, the ego on that guy."

"What the hell was that?" OpsBuster demanded.

"I don't have to tell you everything." Crow crossed his arms. "I don't have to tell you *anything*. In fact, forget you saw any of that, capreze?"

"No."

"Damn."

"Are you infuriating on purpose or do you just come by it naturally?" OpsBuster scowled.

"Depends on the situation, but that's pretty rich coming from you." Crow returned the glare.

"Just get the hell out of my sight."

"Or what, you'll turn off your bodycam?" Crow snorted.

"You work for the goddamn *CIA*." OpsBuster snapped. "All your little quips about the fact that I'm technically a police officer hold about as much weight as a wet paper bag."

"Tell you what, I'll concede that point when the CIA starts getting their own thin blue line bumper stickers and hillbilly rallies." Crow said. "Until then, you can still fuck all the way off."

"For the last goddamn time, the GP isn't an American organization!" OpsBuster yelled. "Not everything in the universe revolves around the goddamn USA!"

"Practically speaking, it kind of does." Crow pressed a button on his beeper, summoning another portal behind him. "'Later."

"*Crow!*"

Crow flipped her the bird and walked backwards into the portal with a bow, said portal disappearing immediately after. OpsBuster yelled in frustration and stomped on the ground, which was followed by her body powering down into its base form. She shook her head out as she took a moment to recover from what felt like a sudden drop down from an adrenaline high.

"I really gotta ask Emilia what this thing's deal is when she gets back." OpsBuster sighed and reverted back to human form. She quickly pulled out her cell phone. "Right now I need to make sure Teresa's okay."

Malincious Crow's hideout in the abandoned lot had been left in complete disarray after the police raid, so when he entered the outwardly dilapidated building for the first time since his death, he was surprised to find that the inside had been restored to a spotless condition. Going down into the basement, he found the main room empty save for an office chair and a small desk with a laptop on it replacing his original computer.

He opened the laptop and found that he needed to perform an eye scan using a biometric scanner disguised as a built-in webcam to log in. As soon as he did, the system unlocked to reveal an encrypted voice chat program already running.

"Agent Crow, I trust you didn't run into any trouble on the way here?" Another member of the CIA spoke on the other end of the line.

"Nope, know this area like the back of my hand." Crow glanced around the room. "Man, the cleanup crews do *not* fuck around, do they? Need to get them over to clean my carpets sometime."

"The chemicals they use to remove potential evidence are fairly corrosive, so I wouldn't recommend it." The other agent said. "More importantly, did you make contact with Christine Eldridge?"

"Yeah, her and those two kids Sephtis wanted to threaten." Crow sat down in the office chair.

"And?"

"Well, Eldridge definitely wasn't happy about the news, but the fact that she stopped trying to cave in my ribcage after I gave her the rundown indicates to me that she knows exactly what kind of position she's in." Crow said. "The office boys shouldn't get much pushback when they meet with the GP tomorrow."

"Good. What about the civilians? Do they seem like they might actually pose a threat to the Triumvirate?"

"They *could*, but I don't think they *will*." Crow replied. "The CrossTrix wielder displayed some erratic behavior, but she was pretty explicit about not wanting to get involved."

"What do you mean by "erratic behavior", exactly?"

"She started displaying an unusual amount of aggression." Crow began to explain in more technical terms. "Increased aggression isn't unusual as a defensive response after undergoing trauma, especially when directed at the *source* of the trauma, but what happened to her was more consistent with a complete shift in personality than it was an uncontrolled outburst."

"Is it possible that she developed DID as a result of your work on her?"

"DID is generally caused by severe and prolonged childhood trauma, so I doubt it." Crow said. "Her file states that she comes from an abusive background, so it wouldn't be *impossible* for her to develop it, but I have a feeling that's not what was happening."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one thing, her left eye and the CrossTrix started flashing between blue and red at the same time, and the shift in personality only happened when her eye settled on red." Crow explained. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably some sort of aftereffect from Oberon OS hijacking her body and reprogramming the matrix. If it's like any other transformation matrix, it has to alter the brain during the transformation process, so god knows what using it after it's been corrupted might do to the user's mind."

"True." The other agent replied. "We'll have a drone keep an eye on her for the time being. The last thing we need is an Omnitrix user going feral."

"That's the last thing *anyone* needs." Crow grunted.

"On that note, how are things proceeding inside the Triumvirate?" The other agent asked. "The BootLock manufacturing operation seems to have been successful in occupying the Global Police's attention, but we haven't been able to track the progress of their primary operation without you."

"Sephtis is still an overconfident jackass, but as long as he doesn't do anything stupid that gets their case handed over to the Plumbers, it should be complete within the year."

"Do you foresee Messias's arrest causing any issues?"

"He gave the organization all the tech and funding they'd need for it beforehand, so no. The whole thing was his idea in the first place and he was committing a fuckton of white-collar crime on the daily, so I'm inclined to believe he planned everything out to be possible even if he was somehow ever charged."

"In that case, we'll just keep you as Raivent's wrangler for the time being." The other agent began to wrap up the conversation. "From now on, you'll be keeping in touch with us exclusively using the laptop in front of you. Data regarding Oberon OS's breach of your previous computer was used to construct its encryption and security measures, so it's about as close to unhackable as a system can get. End communication."

The voice call disconnected and the application used for it closed on its own.

"Thank Christ this is all coming to an end soon." Crow sighed as he closed the laptop, then pulled out a flask that had been hidden in his coat pocket. "I don't think my liver could handle another few years of this shit."

"Well, we have good news and bad news."

Napoleon and Anne stood in the office space of Emilia's warehouse, with Anne and Emilia both looking rather concerned as Napoleon spoke to Christine on the phone.

"Good news is we got Teresa to Dr. Krauze and Swarm 1 finished untangling Oberon OS's wacky coding." Napoleon continued. "Bad news is, uh... Teresa's gone."

"What do you mean Teresa's gone?!" Christine yelled on the other end of the line. "Is she dead?! What happened?!"

"Oh, no, she's not dead, I mean she got and up left." Napoleon clarified.

"For the love of God, just say that then!" Christine breathed a huge sigh of relief. "So she's okay?"

"No, she still has the red eye thing going on."

"Wha- *then why isn't she still there?!*"

"Well..."

Napoleon turned his head to the left, glancing at a conspicuously Nightmare-shaped hole in the wall.

"...There's only so much you can expect from drywall."

Nightmare stumbled through the back alleys of the city, her eye flashing from red to blue and back again over and over as her staggered gait led to her accidentally knocking chunks of brick off of buildings by simply grazing them. Eventually, the CrossTrix dial began blinking and she abruptly reverted back to Teresa, who clutched at her head as her own eyes kept changing colors.

"Teresa, talk to me!" CROSS exclaimed. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"I... I don't know." Teresa's knees buckled from underneath her and she started rocking back and forth on the ground. "Nothing makes sense. I can't feel anything, but I feel everything. I'm not me. I am me, but I'm not me. The me that's not me is me. I-it sounds like nonsense, but it's the only way I can describe it. I'm me, but I'm not. It's me but it isn't. *The me that's not me is me*."

"Just try and stay calm, okay? We'll figure this out." CROSS assured her. "I'll be right here with you the whole way."

"Th-thank y-" Teresa was cut off as her entire body suddenly convulsed, experiencing a brief seizure. "I-" Her tone of voice started to change as her eyes swapped colors. "I can't die here! I mean, I'm okay with dying- What am I talking about? No I'm not! This is infuriating! Oh god, I-I didn't mean to yell like that, I'm so sorry! Wait, no, why am I apologizing? *Freaking out right now is an incredibly reasonable reaction!*"

"Teresa, I think we need to get you to a hospital." CROSS said. "Whatever Oberon OS's programming did is getting worse really fast, and if we don't get it fixed, I'm worried there could be lasting damage."

"But I-I don't know if our insurance- y'know what, screw the insurance, I want to live! O-on second thought, I really don't, but on third thought, yes I do! Launch the Cross Bullet already! B-but only if you want to, I-I don't want to pressure you into doing anything, it's fine if you don't-"

"If I didn't want to help you, I wouldn't have suggested it." CROSS launched the Cross Bullet. "We're partners, remember?"

The narrowness of the alley meant there was very little space for Teresa to board the Cross Bullet with, but she managed to shimmy her way to the train doors and enter the cabin, where she promptly collapsed onto the floor.

"Just hang in there, Teresa, everything's going to be okay," CROSS was trying to reassure himself as much as he was her as the engines on the hovertrain roared to life. "*Everything is going to be okay.*"