Morning crept on me, one agonized step at a time. I shoved the covers off my head and rubbed my eyes. Last night had been rough. Thoughts about my current situation kept bouncing around my mind like ping-pong balls in a washing machine. Ghosts that slept a few doors down, lingering memories as shadows that crawled up the walls…the usual.

I went to the bathroom and smacked water on my face until the sleepiness faded. Had to stay sharp today. I had an important objective to accomplish.

New Mission Acquired:

Your sister, Emily, wants to treat you to ice-cream in order you cheer you up. No harm in accepting, right?

Rewards: $10 NF

Quit it. I snapped at ALICE.

I don’t see the problem. ALICE said, innocently, Spending time with your family is important, yes?

Do you even have relatives?

Why, yes I do! Who doesn’t?

I shook my head and didn’t reply. Not enough energy. Did this household serve coffee? I could’ve devoured an espresso or two.

Wait, are you spotting me the ice-cream money?

If you somehow have a problem with that, please communicate with the IEHAR developers.

“Morning, Kyle!” Emily bounded down out of her room and into the bathroom with me. She landed right in time before I bit enough caustic sentence at ALICE. “Ready for today?”

“Morning, Emily. I’m ready.” I said, as I reached for my toothbrush. “Don’t worry about it.”

In the mirror, I saw a small frown pop up, before Emily quickly forced her mouth back into a neutral position. Nothing I hadn’t anticipated before. The gargle and following spit left my mouth with more force than usual.

Breakfast occurred. Breakfast finished. A newsman spoke of warm temperatures and a lack of clouds in the sky .I picked through the wardrobe until I found a shirt and pair of shorts that didn’t clash too bad. Emily chose a pleated skirt with a neon-green top. She smirked at me at the door, hands on her hips.

“Well? How do I look?”

I examined her outfit. It reminded me of metropolis lights. Bright, vivid, flashing fabric, almost enough to illuminate a dance floor by themselves. No clue what teens in this world considered fashionable, but I thought it was decent. I told her as much.

“Knew it.” Emily made for the handle with a wider smirk and a bounce in her step. I then promised myself that if anyone dared to look at her funny, I would hunt them down and bash their head in the same way I did to IO-HMN-016.

“Be careful, you two! Don’t forget to wear sunblock!”

“Yes, Mom!” Emily called back. “We don’t need it,” She then whispered to me. “The ice-cream place is only ten minutes from here.”

Screw that. Who knows assfuckery lurks in the sun here? Maybe I’ll be turned into goo the moment I step out.

The elevator whisked us down the ground floor. Sunlight streamed through the double doors, the scene of a busy weekend street straight ahead. I took a deep breath as the doors slid open and walked out with an alternate, younger version of my estranged sister.

The air smelled of filter residue and minty aftertaste. An orchestra of passing cars, humming machines and fast-paced footsteps settled upon me at the edge of the pavement. I lifted the dead kid’s phone and watched as the notifications—advertisements, connections to the city network and governmental warnings—rolled in upon the glossy holo-screen. My neck turned eastward and saw towers of chrome and steel pierce a clear blue sky. Behind them, the walls of the city stood firm, with soldiers and operators on its surrounding battlements.

“This way, Kyle.” Emily pointed down the street. I followed.

Goodbye Melbourne. Hello Bearbrass. Once again, hello new world.

Our destination was a mall at Bearbrass’s north. The technology level of this alternate timeline was roughly equal to my original one, anomalous tech notwithstanding. Thank god. If I had to deal with medieval natives like in those cheesy pop-action flicks, I’d have gone even more nuts. The train zipped us down to the appropriate station in at the end of the city loop. I had jolted, thinking we’d gone straight down a regional line, until I glanced at a nearby map and realized the city loop consisted of five stations, instead of Melbourne’s four.

Ever had a dream the same as reality, except a single aspect was wrong and you were the only one who noticed? Exploring Bearbrass was like that. RMIT was across the bridge near the river docks, rather than nestled up north. The land where Melbourne Library stood had been levelled in an attack and now hosted a gigantic, obsidian-black memorial stone. Streets cut off short, bent in odd directions or extended past my imprinted perception. I grabbed a map of the city the first chance I got.

Obtained Bearbrass City Map! +12 EXP!

Then, there was the security. Melbourne had been well guarded in my timeline, but Bearbrass’s intelligence division must be swallowing paranoia pills with their daily chow. Patrols stomped up and down the roads. Surveillance cameras up high pin-pricked the back of my neck with their stares. Plain clothes police stalked the crowds—you can spot them by seeking out guys a little more alert than the rest. A billboard congratulated the city on the tenth anniversary of the Australia-IEHAR alliance in a shower of virtual confetti and the image of an IEHAR operator and a Bearbrass policeman shaking hands.

We found ourselves stopped at the destination station by a policeman in body armor. His pals were carrying rifles that could’ve gave my old gunsale contacts a run for their money (no pun intended).

“Identification and proof, please.” He said. His tone was robotic, obviously filtered through a modulator.

Emily knew what to do. She held out her arm. A scanner pinged the chip inside her arm, then a light flashed green. The policeman waved her past. I snuck at a glance at the people behind me in the queue. They were looking at themselves, their phones or each other, but not at the front. A sign of a citizenship living with tension and fear. I’d seen it on the streets—mothers pulling their children close, pedestrians giving the police wide berths and the subway signs requesting neighbors contact the authorities if anything suspicious occurred in their blocks.

“HAS YOUR NEIGHBOUR BEEN ACTING STRANGE RECENTLY? DID THEIR THOUGHT PROCESSES CHANGE IN THE LAST WEEK OR TWO? THEY MAY BE A VICTIM OF A COGNITIVE DISTORTION. CONTACT THE AUTHORITIES AT 114 TODAY! This announcement was a joint production with the Victorian Police and the International Effort for Humanitarian Aid and Relief…”

“Next!”

I got a look at the policeman’s mug. Yep, a face only a mother could love. I was feeling all nostalgic from some of the authoritarian hellholes I’d visited as jobs. The people here were used to it, it seemed. Guess that’s what happens when all of humanity is besieged by unkillable reality-distorting monsters. I held out my arm and waited for the scan just like my sister.

“You’re clear. Next!” The policeman barked.

“Huh. That took a while.” Emily said, when I met her at the station escalator.

“Guy was such a piece of work that I had to stare for a bit.” She guffawed at my statement. Kids and cops still mixed together like bullets and open flesh. I was too busy wondering why INTERFACE-OS hadn’t immediately triggered alarms upon scan.

It’s a human detector program, not an anomaly one. Are you implying that IEHAR would design their Beneficial Anomalies to be sloppy?

Considering you’re in it, maybe…

That is an untrue statement, Boss, as I am helpful, persistent, capable and definitely not sloppy!

Emily’s favorite ice-cream shop resided at the heart of a mall. Frosty Freshness For You! The sign read. The place was decorated in a charming, retro-aesthetic from the rear end of a hundred years ago. Piano and jazz played through surround-speakers above wide-brimmed chairs and fancy tables. Couples and families sat and enjoyed their frozen treats. The place was still a subsidiary of a corporation—Aussie Foods in this case—but what store wasn’t these days?

“Emily Licht. Order for two.” Emily said at a self-serving machine. “I ordered ahead of time.”

“Order found.” Responded the automated voice. A motherly female one. Audio editors were uncannily good these days. “Please proceed to server 4.”

“Hi, Emily.” Said the blonde girl manning the server counter. She was dressed in a uniform consisting of an apron, long-sleeved shirt and white pants. A hat embroidered with the logo of a winking ice-cream cone lay atop her head. “Oh, your brother is here today! Hi, Kyle.”

“Hi Sarah.” Emily said, giving the older girl a grin. “Glad to see you here.”

“This is a surprise. It’s not often that you hang out with your brother. This is special occasion?” Sarah said.

“He just got out of the hospital.” Emily said. “A victim of y’know…” She made a motion with her hand. A straight line, the letter ‘I’.

“Ah…” Sarah nodded her head. She gave me an apologetic smile. Were we supposed to know each other? Don’t tell my younger self tried to ask this girl out or something. “I’m sorry to hear that, Kyle. Are you okay?”

“I’ve been worse.” I said.

“That’s why we came here.” Emily added. “Just to cheer us up. Hey, give us a bit extra, will you?”

“Alright, only for you two.” Sarah said. “What’ll it be?”

“Chocolate and strawberry with vanilla sprinkles. The usual.” Emily said.

“And you, Kyle?”

“I wanna try the special.” I said. The image displayed a double waffle cone with wads of rainbow-swirly sweetness. Take the ice-cream, mix it with lager and it shouldn’t taste half-bad.

“Coming right up. Please wait a minute!”

I then realized the suspicious lack of any ice-cream tubs behind the counter. Instead, Sarah picked out several bags of powder from a rack, then dragged them over to a boxy machine behind her. She poured the contents of the bag into a slot in the machine, shut it tight and keyed a sequence on its holo-screen. The machine whirred to life. Sarah faced us again.

“Okay. It should be done in thirty seconds. Who’s paying?”

“Wait—what’s the deal with—”

“I’ll do it.” Emily said. She fished in her pocket for her cash chip. Before I could protest at either of them, she had already finished the payment.

“Damn it, Emily, you don’t have to pay for me.” I said.

“It’s only ten bucks.” Emily said. “It’s your treat, anyway. Don’t fret.”

ALICE, remind me to forward those ten dollars to my sister later.

Sure, Boss!

The machine dinged. Sarah pulled down a hatch and took out a tray. Two ice-cream cones were on it. I examined mine, bewildered at its freshness. An experimental lick confirmed its quality. This was definitely one of those stiff pre-packaged, pre-frozen cones sold in convenience stores.

But how…?

I noticed a label on the side of the machine. DA-OBJ-1023.

ALICE, that label…it’s like the fire girl’s designation.

Oh, that must be a Declassified Anomaly. Those are anomalies IEHAR distributed to the public in the past.

Isn’t that dangerous?

Declassified Anomalies—or DAs—are generally minor, low-risk anomalies that can be handled by ordinary humans. IEHAR made them freely available to placate the many furious voices in the aftermath of the Seven Days incident. To IEHAR, DAs are nothing special, but to the rest of the world they were miracle makers. Corporations snapped them up to create new products, such as this instant ice-cream machine before you.

Eating this isn’t going to make my stomach anomalous, right?

Eating ice-cream is an unhealthy lifestyle choice and should be done in moderation, anyway!

“Hey, bro, come on!” Emily said. I broke out of my thoughts. “Your ice-cream is gonna melt.”

We sat down in the mall atrium. It was an open space for shoppers to sit down and catch their breath. An arrangement of flowers and greenery formed a mini-enclosure for a host of benches and small tables. Holo-ads flickered behind the leaves.

I ate my ice-cream in silence. Emily did so. She hummed in delight at the taste at first, licking the edges of the ice-cream before chewing on the miniature chunks of fruit. This went on for a while as she soaked in the atmosphere of the mall, her legs swinging idly.

Then, seriousness crossed her face. She turned to me. I braced myself.

“Kyle…” She began. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not in any pain. Is this about my burns.”

“No, not those.” Emily said. “I’m talking about your heart!”

“What do you mean?”

“You…” She gulped. “I don’t know how to put this, but you don’t seem very happy lately.”

“It happens.” I said. “Got kidnapped and hit by an Impurity, sis. I haven’t been sleeping well because of that. Not your fault.”

“That’s natural. It’s just…” Emily groaned. “I haven’t seen you smile once since you got out of the hospital. Not like the dork at your VR games, not at Mom’s cooking, not even at this! It’s weird and it’s freaking us out!”

She glared at me. “You’re eating your ice-cream like rice! Look, you’re doing it right now!”

Indeed, I was taking large chunks out of the ice-cream. The numbness on my tongue was refreshing. “It’s not that great, honestly.” I said instead. “Sorry you had to pay for this.”

“But…that’s…” Emily groaned. She shook her head. “It sucks when you’re not having fun.” She mumbled.

“Like I said, not your fault.”

Emily took another bite out of her chocolate-strawberry. The luster had faded from it.

“Hey, are you sure it’s not us?” Emily said in a small voice. “I know I make fun of you, but it’s really hurting I’ll stop. Remember how Dad said money and time’s not an issue? If you need therapy or medcare, I can ask my friends for loan. I’ll make sure they don’t tease you either. You’d tell us if we did something wrong, right Kyle?”

I said nothing.

“Kyle?”

I killed your real brother and now I’m puppeteering around his walking corpse like a drone rigger. And you ask me if you’re being the wrong here? For an instant, I considered laughing out loud, tossing my ice-cream to the ground, grabbing Emily by the shoulders and vomiting my life story at her.

Emily, I broke your nose when you peeked under my bed. I set a bunch of goons on your boyfriend because he wore glasses and spoke with a lisp. I wrecked your chances of entering Melbourne University by setting the police on us, then had the audacity to crawl back years later begging to cash. For god’s sake, I didn’t even realise our father had died until two weeks in.

The real question is what divine force created the arrangement of shit-pieces that formed the cocktail of failure that is me. Emily, why am I allowed to sit next to you? I shouldn’t even be in the same country as you.

But that would cause Emily too much distress. So I smiled. I played the part of the caring, understanding older brother. I lied.

“Don’t worry, sis.” I said. “I’ve just been thinking about life a lot. My future, uni and what I’m gonna do with the future. Sorry if I frightened to you; it’s a lot to take in.”

“Okay…” Emily said. Not convinced, but getting there. It’ll have to do.

And so, we sat there, eating our ice-creams, until droplets splashed on my cheek. That’s weird, it was supposed to sunny weather today…

Wait. We were indoors. Why was it raining? Why was the water black and viscuous.

I turned to my sister and her face had gone white. Pools of black liquid were spreading across the floor. Panic was rising in the room, screams already breaking out. I saw a tarry hand stretch out of a pool, reach for an unfortunate passerby and slice the poor bastard’s throat. My instincts flared up and I was on my feet, ice-cream tossed aside.

ALICE, what the hell is going on?

It’s the Impurity Spawn! These are minions of powerful Impurities! Boss, prepare yourself to fight!

TRIAL #1-01: Black Nimbus

“It formed as a coming storm. The battlegrounds were coated in oily slick disaster.”

Mission updated! has become