Interlude II

???, ???, ???

World: ???, Designation: ???, Pocket Dimension

Cereus, Id: Administrator 002

Cereus taps a floating, see through box. He slowly reads through the report of Ex.801K.

His eyes narrow and he moves through screens, stopping on one. He taps it and enters 801K. The image in the pool shifts to black

Cereus growls, frustrated.

A hand taps him on the shoulder, he turns to look at his sister, Vey.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, peering at the pool. She pops a piece of buttery popcorn in her mouth from the carton she holds in her hand.

Cereus taps through various menus, saying, “I’m not sure. Something appears to be interfering with our connection to batch K.”

Vey curls her lip, looking at the pool. “We can’t see them?”

Cereus shakes his head. “I can’t find them. Either their bodies and their Bond was completely obliterated, or something is blocking our sight. It’s only batch K as well. We’ve lost connection with 13 so far.”

Vey makes a startled sound, and she curses silently. “Do you think it might be them?”

Cereus shakes his head, “There's no way to know. I detected no tears into the universe, no interdimensional travel to the world. Though, the world is far from here, the connection is weak. At first, that's what I thought it was, but the connections haven’t come back on.”

Vey munches on some popcorn, thinking it over.

Cereus absentmindedly reaches for some, Vey pulls it back out of his reach, making an outraged sound. “You can go get your own! This is all mine, I had to spend a good 5 minutes getting it!”

He sighs and Cereus pulls up another menu, typing in it and closing it quickly.

“What should we do?” Vey asks, glancing at a screen in front of her, she taps it a few times and swipes it away.

Cereus shakes his head, “I think I might have to go down to the world and investigate the last places the K’s went missing. See if I can figure out if they just died, or if it is something else.”

Vey hums for a second, “Are you sure you want to do that? No one will be monitoring them.”

Cereus smiles, “That’s why your here, Vey. Incase I need to do things.”

She shakes her head, “No, no, no! You can’t make me do it! It’s boring and monotonous, I’d rather revert back to my insanity instead. I might even go insane again from it.”

Cereus chuckles, but turns back to the screens, flicking through them. “You don’t got much choice. I’m going down there, and if the Boss finds out I left them unmonitored, he’d blow a gasket.”

Vey makes a defeated sound and nods reluctantly. “I’ll monitor them. But only for a week! That’s enough time for you to get there and back, it takes a day right? That should be plenty of time.”

He nods. “I’m going to go near where 801K vanished. It’s the newest disappearance and he was near 840K. If I can’t find anything, I’ll monitor 840 to see if I can find the reason they are vanishing.”

Vey says angrily, “You want to protect him, don't you?”

Cereus sighs.

“You know if you interact with him again it could screw up the data and everything else!” She says sternly.

“I don’t plan to interact with him, and that's only if I can’t find anything.” He stands up, flicking the last of the screens away.

“You better not.” She says, eating more popcorn. She puts on a grumpy expression.

Cereus flexes his hand, and with lightning speed, grabs a handful of popcorn. Shoving it in his mouth, he puts on a triumphant expression. Wiping his fingers on his pants, he says, “I don’t expect to be there for more than a day. It might just be a traveler messing around with the K batch Bonds, or it could just be that they died. Hold down the fort while I’m gone.”

He stretches, his vertebrae popping. Walking forward, he kicks up fog from the floor.

His eyes burn with amber fire, and his flesh seems to vanish, leaving behind a bleach white skeleton, then it reappears. Now he has brown hair and dark eyes, his face average. A scruffy beard on his square jaw.

Holding out his arms, he looks at Vey. “How do I look?”

She rolls her eyes, “Like an average guy. Now get going, I don’t want to spend one extra minute monitoring.”

Vey sits down in front of the pool, the fog pooling in her lap. Screens flash in front of her, as she starts sorting through them.

Cereus grins, and turns away.

His sword on his back turns his to shadows and seemingly melts, reforming around his neck as a small necklace, a sword dangling on it. His clothes shift.

The black, worn cloak he wore before turns green, and mud stains appear on it. His gray shirt turns to a loose white one, his pants turning into brown rough spun fabric.

“Now, for my cover…”

He holds out his hand, palm up. The air seems to fold together, shadows shifting. A wide brimmed hat with a large, fluffy yellow feather appears.

He situates it on his head.

With a flourish of his left hand, the air folds and shadows shift. A lute appears in it, the wood worn, but it is well taken care of.

Vey snorts, suppressing a laugh. “A bard? That's what you’re going as?”

Cereus strums his fingers over the lute, “If I had A Million Sparks! Ahahaha.”

He slings the lute over his shoulder where his sword used to be.

Cracking his neck, he holds out his hand.

Runes form in the air in front of his hand, creating a circle. They spin around his arm, the amber runes swirling slowly.

Then he pushes forward with his hand, and the runes crackle. His ears pop and a tear in the fabric of the universe opens. It’s a jagged slice, swirling lights on the other side.

The runes on his arm hover off it, attaching themselves to the tear, then they expand it, stabilizing the portal.

Taking a deep breath, he steps toward the portal. “Back into the inbetween. Never liked this place, and it looks like it’s filled to the gill today with souls. This ain’t going to be fun.”

Cereus steps into the portal, the runes flash and the portal seems to fold in on itself with a pop.