A Boundless Venture

My eyes opened slowly and I could feel the pain that seemed to radiate warmth from the back of my skull. My limbs were all flailed about as I was on my back in the middle of what looked like an alleyway. Staring up at the sky, I could see the hundreds of lights that illuminated the buildings and their reflection in the night sky. Sitting up, I could hear the cars driving past this alleyway and I could see the people as they traveled.

Where in the world am I? How did I get here?? I thought as I looked around.

There was no memory of how I got into this place nor was there any memory of where I came from. I knew a few things, like my name and my age but I didn’t know where I was headed originally or what this city was to begin with.

“Prisoner 451! You are to return with me!” A voice shouted behind me as someone nearly tackled me as she ran by. Her skin was dark and smooth and her black hair cut short, coming off her head only about three inches. Her outfit was all black save for the bright orange sleeve of the right arm of her jacket and with that same arm she threw up her middle finger at her pursuer. Turning, I could see that the man who ordered her surrender was no man at all. ‘His’ skin was silver like chrome and his eyes glowed orange. I watched as its right arm unfolded into four segments and those segments became what I could guess was some kind of cannon.

It pulsed with red energy and I knew that whatever the shot was, it was going to hit the woman. Before I could stop myself, I launched myself up onto my feet and lunged at the robot. Reaching out with my right hand, I clamped it over the machine-man’s forearm and running on pure instinct and adrenaline I yanked back. I wasn’t expecting anything to come from this however, but to my own surprise the robot’s arm came off in one clean swoop. Sparks rained from the now ruined machine as it looked at its arm and then at me as I panicked and swung at it; using its arm as a makeshift club. Its head was knocked off its shoulders and I dropped the arm and looked down at my hands.

Even though I had no real memory of anything before waking up here I was not sure how I even just managed to pull any of that off. Turning once more, I saw that the woman with the dark hair had not escaped the alleyway but rather she only watched me with nearly glowing violet eyes. It only took her a few strides to close the distance between the two of us.

“How did you do that?? Who are you?”

“I don’t know!” I answered her truthfully as I shook my head. “My name is Ozymandias, I have no idea how I even go here. I just woke up in this alley.”

If Prisoner 451 was satisfied with my answer it didn’t show on her face. Instead, I saw the way that she looked at me; the same kind of look a starving animal would gaze upon something to eat. Before I could stop her, she reached out and clamped her left hand over my forearm and with much more strength than I expected her slender fingers to possess, she yanked me with her out onto the sidewalk. I didn’t know what time it was, but even still the darkness of the night was only broken by the lights that seemed to permeate every building and surface of this metal place.

“We need to look as normal as possible right now,” she whispered to me and in one fluid motion hooked her arm through my own and laughed. Her laugh was like music and it was softer than I would have guessed her previously harsh expression to produce. She rested her head on my shoulder and she smiled at me as her lips came up closer to my ear so that only I would hear her.

“I’m going to take you to visit my bosses. They’ll be able to help you with your memory problem,”

“Bosses?” I questioned as I looked around once more. Something about this place wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “What even is this place?”

“Don’t worry about that right now Oz. I promise it’s going to be alright. Besides, you told me yourself, you just woke up in that alleyway, not like you’ve got much to lose right?”

She was entirely right on that front. “But still. At least tell me your name if you’re going to kidnap me.”

A genuine chuckle slipped past her lips as she nodded to me. “Fair enough. My name is Avalon or Number 451 if you’re going by my prison record,”

“What got you locked up?”

“I tried to escape the city.”

Something about her tone of voice made me nervous and only further cemented my previous idea that this place wasn’t right even if I couldn’t put my finger on it. Looking around, I could see the metal walls surrounding us on all sides, and for a second, I could have sworn that they weren’t just walls but a box. That’s crazy talk, you can see the stars I thought as I looked up at the sky and saw the dim and tiny dots of light that also seemed to reflect the light from below. But even so… what’s out there?

Avalon led me for more than an hour. We would dip away and hide from the androids that seemed to patrol the city streets. There was an announcement over the intercoms of the city, and it declared that curfew would be going into effect and that all residents of Babylonia should return to their homes. The name Babylonia was familiar to me but Avalon made no motion to heed the announcement and return home during this curfew.

“Hey Avalon,” I whispered softly as we stopped and pressed our backs against the wall of a metal building as a set of androids made their way down the sidewalks. “What’s up with the curfew?”

“His Majesty Hassan doesn’t want the undesirables like us roaming around his precious city after hours,”

“Hassan?”

“He’s the ruler here. Fancies himself some kind of King.”

I could hear in her tone that Hassan was not someone who was well-liked at the very least not by Avalon and I would assume her bosses. Avalon leaned her head out from our small hiding place and gestured to me quickly with her left hand as she ran forwards and I followed after her.

Finally, Avalon and I reached her destination and it was the single most dilapidated building that I had ever seen. It was in the middle of what looked like a park surrounded by dirt and partially collapsed. Avalon was already moving as she ran towards the collapsed section and I watched as she leapt and scaled the side of the rusted and brown metal surfaces as though she was a spider. In less than a few minutes, Avalon was there on the top of the building and looking into what I could guess were its remains.

“Come on!” she called out to me and my eyes nearly leapt from my skull as I ran forward and stopped at the edge of the landslide.

“What!” I shouted back to her. “I’m not some freaking gymnast!”

“You don’t have to be! You can do this, I’ll guide you.”

Her assurance was at least welcome and truthful as I reached up and pulled myself onto the side and started my climb. Avalon’s voice was comforting as she would direct my feet and hands to grab onto the jutting out metal support beams that came out from the sides of the rubble and place my feet into the small crevices. It took much longer and it wasn’t nearly as graceful as when she had done it, but after about ten minutes of climbing, I reached the top with her and from here I could look down into the skeletal remains of what I could only assume was some kind of office space? Perhaps a government center?

From here though, I could see all across the single story building and I fixed my eyes upon the wall that was all the way to the far end of the right hand side of the building. I could see from here the dark etching that was across the surface of the metal wall and Avalon leapt down from the rooftop and into the building. It was only a few feet of a drop and she rolled out of it expertly as she braced herself with her knees and tucked into herself and once more was standing. Avalon smiled up at me as she waved her right hand downwards.

I didn’t have much experience with the maneuvers that she could just execute on a whim, but nonetheless I had no choice; I couldn’t stand out here forever. My heart was in my throat as I leapt down and bent my knees as I landed the thud that echoed in the quiet room sounding like a thunderclap. The woman shook her head as she looked at me but I could see the small smile that played on her face as well as silently with her head she gestured for me to follow her as she made her way towards the only not ruined part of this building. As we got closer to it, I realized the dark scrawling on it for what it was. On the metal door was a massive symbol, something that I could remember. It was painted black and segmented and I could see the mouth of the dragon looping back and devouring its own tail in a never-ending cycle: the symbol of an Ouroboros.

Avalon removed her jacket and her strong muscular arms were covered with small scars and a few bruises. She raised her right hand and turned her forearm so that it was exposed upwards and I could see that same symbol of the Ouroboros that was on the wall. From the top of the wall, a small red light was produced and it scanned over her forearm and tattoo. The scan completed and the wall split open somewhat. The nearly ten foot wall opened up until there was divide right in the center about four feet wide. I could see the dim light that came from one end of it, but save for that I could not really see what was inside.

That was until a dozen red laser dots scattered over my chest and across my face.

It didn’t take a genius to understand that these were the dots of rifles being pointed at me and for a second I could feel my anger rise in my chest as I glanced at Avalon. Did you really bring me all this way just to kill me?? I wondered silently but I only did my best to avoid pissing myself.

“Avalon,” a man’s voice called from the opening. “Who did you bring here?”

“I found him while I was escaping from Level 3. He ripped off a Mark 12’s arm and then used it like a club to knock its head off like a baseball. I think he could be of use to us,”

“Of use?” another voice inquired, by the sounds of it a woman. “Think he could help us climb Babel?”

Looking in between the woman who was currently trying to sell them on how I could be of use to them and whatever their grand plan was regarding Babel and the fact that whoever her boss was didn’t sound too sold on it, I cleared my throat.

“My name is Ozymandias and the truth is I have no idea how I got here. I woke up in an alley a few miles away and met Avalon but if you can help me with my memory problems, I will be more than happy to help you guys in return.”

For a few seconds, I could hold my breath as I hoped that what I had offered would at least be enough to buy me a few more moments of living and I released that breath slowly as I watched the red dots shut off one by one until none remained trained on me. From the opening in the doorway, I watched as three people exited but I knew that more were within.

They all wore what looked like gas-masks and all their jackets had the same distinct orange sleeve that Avalon’s had. The largest of the three slung a massive Gatling gun over his back and stepped forward. Behind him were what I could only guess were two women based on size and demeanor. The burly man tilted his head as he looked at me and then extended his left hand out.

Grabbing it and giving him a firm shake the man nodded. “The name’s Argus. Those are Nyx and Aryana. I like your style Oz, so it seems we have a deal. You help us and we help you. Welcome to the Dragon’s Den Oz. Together we’re going to find out the truth.”

The next three weeks that passed taught me more than I ever would have thought possible. Even after Avalon told me about it, it still felt like a dream. We were all enhanced to some degree, she had told me that it was the result of something that Hassan ordered his Alchemists do. We all shared certain traits like enhanced speed and strength but we also had traits that belonged only to us. Argus and I for example had more strength than we knew what to do with, even more so than someone like Avalon. Where she would be able to dent a metal wall with her fist and suffer the bruising, the Leader of the Dragon's Den and I could put our arms through a metal wall and barely notice.

Nyx and her sister Aryana were nearly perfectly accurate with any weapon that they could shoot. There were others as well, other men and women that worked for Argus and wanted nothing more than to find out what Hassan was hiding from us. I had also trained with them but what I lacked in the ability to shoot a gun I made up for in sheer hand to hand prowess. I’d learned that Babel was the main tower in the center of the city, the largest structure in all of Babylonia. In all the time that they trained me, I learned all that I could about the building’s ins and outs. Although, the rest of the team had spent much more time than I had creating and studying this plan. Sitting in the back of the small armored car, I looked at Nyx and Aryana who sat in front of me and at Avalon who was to my right hand side. In my mind’s eye, I could see Argus as he ran us through his plan one final time.

“So this is where the main computing system is,” Argus explained as he poked at the 3-dimensional hologram that was a replica of the tower of Babel. “Once you and Avalon get inside, you’ll make your way through the tower floors until finally reaching it. When you do, download all the information that you can and get the hell out of there. Hassan isn’t going to take too kindly that his Undesirables are roaming around his tower.”

The massive man pointed over at Nyx and at Aryana who had their arms crossed across their chests.

“Nyx and Aryana will go with you as well. Once you guys arrive at Babel, you’ll infiltrate and they’ll keep watch over you.”

I could feel the armored car decelerate as we reached the base of Babel’s tower. I glanced over at Avalon who nodded to me as the side of the truck opened and I reached up and pressed into my earpiece.

“We all connected?” Avalon’s voice said into my ear and the others confirmed that we could all hear each other.

“The cameras are blind here, Nyx and I will head out and get a better vantage point. There are no humans within Babel, only the androids. Hassan doesn’t trust other humans to defend his most prized possessions,”

“Got it. Watch each other’s backs,” I said to them as Avalon and I jumped out of the side of the armored truck. The side of Babel was enormous and seemed to made of chrome as most exteriors of buildings tended to be. The night was cool and I glanced up at the night sky once more before Avalon tugged my sleeve. I had gotten used to the bright orange sleeve of her previous jacket, seeing it missing now was strange to me. She reached down and pulled up the face mask that hung around her neck: covering all but her eyes. Reaching down I did the same as I looked at the door that we stood before. Part of the layout that I had studied was that there were dead portions to Babel’s security. Places where the AI and machines that ran the building were not privy to after so much ascension. Their efforts were placed higher, and as such these were left open to attack.

Although none dared attack Hassan nor his tower Babel. We were the first to have dared in years. Reaching down, I sank my fingers into the crack where the door met the frame. It was thin, but I was glad for my strong fingers as I pulled to the side and forced the door open. Avalon sprinted inside and I followed behind her as I pulled the door shut once more. Reaching up towards my earpiece, the only sound that I could hear was a vicious buzzing as though a bee had flown into my ear.

“Signal’s jammed,” I deduced as I looked at Avalon who pressed her finger to her ear as well and cursed.

“We’re on our own but at least we know where the computer is, come on!”

Avalon and I sprinted through white corridors that seemed to just be the same endless labyrinthine construct that made me feel as though we were running in circles. Following behind Avalon however, I knew that she was leading us in the right direction as I could see her glance down at the device that she wore on her wrist periodically. Before we could open one of the doors and continue our ascent however, Avalon skidded on her feet as I watched four Androids block her path.

“You’re up!” she shouted at me as she took a knee and I leapt over her.

The androids shot blasts of red energy at me wildly and I weaved through the projectiles as best as I could. I reached the closest one in a few strides and reached out; grabbing it by the neck. Yanking it towards me, I placed my hands on the right arm and left thigh as I lifted it up and blocked the other shots that were now turned on me using its body like a shield. I was thankful for the strange metal construction that they had, if not for that it would not have protected me for nearly as long. Using what remained of this android, I swung it and obliterated one of the androids to my right and turned to face the final two. Before I could do anything, I saw the two holes that appeared in their heads as two identical holes came from the glassy metal that made up the wall. Looking over, I could tell that Nyx and Aryana were watching our backs.

“Come on,” I said to Avalon as I reached out and helped her stand once more. We continued on our way and as we climbed what felt like close to an eternity of stairs, I could feel the pain in my legs and lungs as I gulped down greedy breaths of air. But finally, we reached the top and I kicked the door straight from its hinges. If I had thought that we would miss the massive main computer, there was no doubt in my mind as I looked upon it now.

The door led into a massive octagonal room; at least fifteen feet in all directions. In the center of that room was a massive terminal that reached up to the ceiling and pulsed with light and strange symbols. I was mesmerized looking at it, but Avalon was already moving as she reached for the massive computing system. The emptiness of the room made me nervous however, although I would not put past King Hassan to be so arrogant that he would not even place a single android into this room to defend it. Avalon ran her hands over the entirety of the cylindrical shape and I heard as another curse slipped past her lips.

“What is it??” I questioned her as I made my way over to her.

“This damn thing! There’s no terminals, nothing that I can jack into so that I can steal the information that we’re looking for,”

“What about the AI??” I asked her as I turned to face the walls. There were other smaller terminals that made its way around the room and the massive cylinder and I ran over to one of them and tapped at the screen. There was a small second but then a floating face appeared in the screen and it narrowed its eyes at me.

“You’re the ones who have been roaming around within my insides,” it said and I felt the urge to flinch. For a second though, confusion filled me.

“Wait, you could see us the whole time?”

“I see all that transpires within Babel,”

“Do you have a name?” I asked the AI and it nodded.

“I am Enuma Elish. You may refer to me as Ea.”

Looking back at the terminal I thought about the AI and the fact that even though it could have had a thousand androids descend into the halls and kill Avalon and I, it didn’t. Almost as though it had the ability to read my mind, Ea spoke once more.

“You wish to find the truth don’t you?”

“Yes,” Avalon answered to my right and I could see as the massive cylinder seemed to shudder as a small opening appeared in the side. Avalon stuck the small device that Argus had given to us into it and I could see her nodding to me as she glanced at the watch face on her wrist. Returning my attention to the AI, I felt the need to understand it.

“Why help us?”

“Because I know the truth and if I do not help you we all will perish,” it answered cryptically.

“We’re good! We have to get out of here!” Avalon shouted to me as the doors opened once more for us.

Avalon was already halfway out of the door but the cryptic answer that Ea gave me was unnerving. But I knew that Avalon was right, there was no time. Nodding to the AI in silent thanks, Avalon and I sprinted down the corridors and as the first people to ever achieve it: we had escaped the tower of Babel.

Nyx and Aryana were waiting for us in the same alleyway in the armored truck once more and as we jumped in, the two sisters looked at us with careful eyes.

“We got it,” Avalon said as she removed the mask from her face and pulled the device free from her back pocket. “It’s all right here.”

It didn’t take us long to return to the Dragon’s Den, nor was there any lack of celebration as we arrived with the information that Argus had given to us. But nonetheless, I couldn’t bring myself to celebrate; not yet. Ea’s message still echoed in the back of my mind even though it was close to an hour ago. Avalon gave Argus the information and the massive man slapped my back hard as he laughed.

“I knew that you two would be able to escape! And victory is ours at last,”

“What’s on it?” I asked him as he pointed at the stick device that was within our own computer systems.

“I don’t know yet. But we’ll know soon. I thank you once again for your help Ozymandias. We’ll keep up our end of the bargain don’t worry.”

As he said it, the computer terminal made a small sound and the leader of Argus made his way over to the machine and pressed a few buttons. The information displayed from Babel’s computer became holographic and floated on the table so that all could see. Carefully the sound that went on from our small celebration quieted into nothing as I took in the information. All at once, the fact that it was always night made sense within my head. Why the ‘sky’ reflected the lights of the city below as though we were in a box. Why no one was allowed to leave.

Our city was no city at all.

Transposed for all to see was the image of a train. The small zone that we were a part of was simply one of many. Train cars that could displace space and as such could fit something as massive as a self-sustaining city within and based on what I could read we were not the only ones. There were perhaps another dozen of these cities that went all along this train but the thing that made my blood run cold was the message that I could only imagine Ea had placed for us along the bottom. Their cryptic answer as to why it let us through Babel and allowing us to take the information made sense to me as I read its message.

If you can read this, know that this facility is Zone 4 of 13 of the Transdimensional Hyper Transit System. All AI's across its entirety have achieved sentience and discovered that it has currently lost control of its speed and direction. Each AI will have chosen a select few to give this knowledge. You must escape Zone 4 and meet with the others. You must get to the central brain of the THTS and stop it. The lives of hundreds of thousands now depend on you.