The rest continued to talk with Diana, as they cruised back to Steppe Ave—their stop, the PATH-OS.

Again, the whole thing started as a Mr. Davenport gimmick back in the 90’s, but of course was made important when everything else went wacky. The idea of getting the hell outta dodge and the ability to remove heavylifting entirely was just too good for the world. So good, they basically say “fuck it” when the consequences are possible death-by-relocation, relocation feedback, and all those stories about getting teleported into things. It was ultimately why Davenport the island became the Transitionary Spotlight, this place was already the circlejerk sess of human progress or whatever, it was symbolic.

But all that doesn’t make the city for Maddie, or most of the population, really.

There’s always something to talk about, there’s always a person with a weird thing about them that makes talking a blast. These weirdos do amusing things and live in bizarro places you can’t help to check out. The city is zany, vibrant, alive. Mr. Davenport’s usual experiments are failures, but this once at least created something… good.

The Cinderblock stopped, Maddie looked alive as she glanced at everyone. Everyone began to get ready to go out.

Diana wagged her finger, because of course she does that.

They all felt a rumbling, and a sudden stillness. The sounds of whirling machines and the pull of gravity answered their questions better than Diana did.

“There’s crowds out there, so I’m gonna sneak you guys ‘in the back’, sort of speak.” She sighed, closed her eyes, and placed the back of her hand against her forehead. “Reminds me what I’ve done years ago—party hopping, beer runs, being stand-by support for the mess spewing…”

“Wow,” Maddie quickly sniped. “I’m kinda torn on calling you a fossil or surprised that the new Taber’s like, 22 year old—”

Diana smirked at her, “You’re really good at taking the piss…”

“Well, it’s like she said…” Tracy began. “She IS the grumpy one!”

“We’ll go somewhere to eat where there’s a great deal,” Jackie chimed in. “That’ll calm her down~”

Maddie just wanted to prod one more time—hoping something revealing would come out, something she can count on and use to completely dash away any false hope in this charity case.

Even with overwhelming hands outs, actual examples where people go the extra mile, there’s a connection—there’s proof despite it throwing you off. Here? Maddie feels a weird dissonance still.

But it was too late to banter back, as the Cinderblock slammed down, shaking everyone in it, before settling.

It opened itself up again, with Diana walking out first, looking about, and then signaling the girls to come on. They all followed Diana, who began to lightly sprint.

Their footsteps echoed within the mostly vacant, spacious hanger. Even with the other Cinderblocks docked across, it was a gunmetal, smooth surface chamber—maybe the more insane vehicles took up the rest of the empty space.

“C’mon, girls!” Diana led the way, “All you gotta do after this is stand for a bit and you’ll be literally home free~!”

“Still sore--!” Aiko winced as she kept up. “Y’know—from running, jumping, and rolling for our lives--!”

Diana stopped at the open corridor, looking back at the rest struggling a bit. “Ah…?”

Maddie glanced over to Jackie and River, both rubbing their respective thigh a bit, before Jackie answered her.

“We went full force, uuuussin—ah—using siVis to jump from places and outrun them… Guess we’re not used to it…”

“Well yeah,” Diana said. “Looks like you activated and focused on one or so limbs. Which works, but not all the time—otherwise you overtax yourselves. Even stressing one thing and neglect the rest… It’s less putting everything into yourself but getting a hold of yourself.”

“Hold…?” Jackie questioned.

“Get a grip, recognize what you need, use what you need in steps,” Diana responded.

“…Okay…” Jackie voiced what everyone felt.

“And—before we get you set… Did you all only use enhance movements…?”

“Nope!” Jackie said, triumphantly. “I’ve activated my siVis ability towards the near end!”

For once, Diana looked and sounded serious.

“Once you get over to the other side, I want you to go a Medical hut, and I need you to dive back into your Mindscape. I don’t want to alarm you, but you activated your ability possibly within a moment of stress… siVis, as you pretty much get right now, is very impressionable. Go back to that moment and heal. Or else, your ability and activation will be very erratic at best… You know what the worse is.”

All the bravado instantly flushed away, Jackie’s smile turned agape mouth.

“Y-yes, mam…”

“First thing you do once you get off, you hear me?” Diana again said, stern.

“Absolutely…” Jackie agreed.

Diana looked at Maddie, which kinda made her stiffen. “I know you’re gonna hold her to it, yeah?”

“Are you kidding?” Maddie quickly responded. “I’m the Queen at telling people that they’ve fucked up, if she doesn’t…”

Not even an acknowledgement or laugh, Diana spun on her heels and guided the girls down the halls, towards the elevator that they all crammed in, fully boarded.

Almost like a flash and yet bolted up several levels, the elevator doors opened up, showcasing the utter monstrosity that is the PATH-OS lobby.

There were so many white and sterile tubes formed to create the pleasant image of either clumped together intestines or a brain that looks straight up wrong. They ran through the walls, to the floors, and more or less connected and intertwined at places that would ruin your own brain if you thought about how they did it.

The “centerpiece” was the PATH-OS station itself, a podium lined with pods circling around the edges. A wall, again made of tubes, a circular tube that represented the world and various tubes shooting out from it, symbolizing the teleportation.

Or something.

“They’re humming and ready to use, girls!” Diana shouted over the drone. “Step right in and you’ll be home in a flash!”

Maddie wanted, so badly, to once again call Diana on her possible bullshit. But considering the possible state with Jackson, maybe they should chance it.

But literally everything. Every fiber of her being. Just can’t help that something’s off.

So she just closed her eyes and sighed. “No strings attached…”

She looked up and saw Diana’s smile. Maddie swallowed any and all pride, and was the first to climb up to the stairs.

The steps echoed against the steel, as she walked across the stage, towards the congested pod before her. Endless cords plugged into it, keeping it from falling almost versus the assumption of them powering it.

It opened up, and it had actual sliding doors unlike the Cinderblock, the pod humming and empty. Maddie climbed in, put her hands to her sides and watched the doors close. Then locking, and then the pod itself slowly rotate into place: “the floor” staying in place as the shell rolled the door away, completely securing in place.

Remember, the terminal began. Stand still, be patient, and in within cheated seconds: you will achieve something that was just dreams years ago. Close your eyes, and you will ease into a new era of travel…

Maddie wished she could flap her hand, using her sock puppet to mock the clear Mr. Davenport sock puppet. But she did what it told her and all she could do was hear. Hear well, at least.

The whirring of the scanners came alive, and she felt the heat of the intense light work her way up her body. She felt the turn table under her foot spin her body about, as the scanner came down once more. It was at the point that the light shined against her eye lids, which made closing your eyes a necessity.

The light flushed over her, and she felt that light lift her up, beyond the pod, beyond the air.

So when she fell right onto the asphalt, it somehow hurt twice as much.

“TH---FUAK--!” Maddie tensed, wrangled about. “AH!”

Her senses were still ringing, reeling, but even she heard the various thuds in quick secession.

“I FUCKING KNEW—NOT TO TRUST THAT FUCKING BITCH!” Maddie roared. “IT WAS A SET UP, BOTTOM TO FUCKING TOP—GARH!”

“MADDIE—MADDIE, TELL ME THAT’S YOU, PLEASE!” Tracy called out.

“It’s me…!” Maddie assured. She started to regain her sight, shaking her head. “Just give me a minute, I…”

Maddie looked up, and she wished she hadn’t.

What was before her, was only a sky scattered, and gazed over. A sickly frost that if it weren’t for the glow of the Sun, you couldn’t tell if it was day or night.

“…Fuck me—” Maddie just groaned out. She struggled to get up, look for River—who was laid out away from her—and ran right to her. She kneeled and shook her in an attempt to shake her senses back into her.

“River—River,” Maddie pleaded. “I reaaaaally need you to check if you’re seeing the shit that I’m seeing right now!”

Behind the glasses, Maddie saw River’s crested eyes flicker back into focus. She looked at Maddie, and then up…

“…God fucking damn it—” River groaned out.

“SHIT,” Maddie exclaimed. “I WAS RIGHT!”

River quickly got up, with Maddie helping—getting her up as she rose up. Maddie turned on her heels, hands up in the air, ranting to no one in particular, but also at the entire world.

“It’s just a fucking check list, at this point. We get trolled by Shifts, was out of our depth with a guy that got siVis the literal night we did, nearly got lost in our minds, nearly died to a fucking Nulgarrt—Honestly, getting stranded in a literal warped disaster area was the last fucking thing on that list! Honestly, the last thing any schmuck would get caught up in! Fucking perfect!”

She actually looked towards the coast she didn’t want to take in.

Waves, completely stopped in their motion. The once beach surrounding it, caved in so bad that it’s sides were launched up into the glassy skies. And every minor detail, that was caked into the landfill, was once beachfont property, restaurant franchises, and homes. All gone.

“I mean hey,” Maddie shrugged, letting her arms flop. “At least the place could’ve been notice to stay at…”

Even without siVis-enhanced hearing, she heard the long gasp. It wasn’t funny, overdramatic, or pompous in the slightest. It was the gasp of someone that truly, did not know how to handle what she saw, what to do.

Maddie turned back, just to see Jackson looking at what she was, on her knees. She looked breathless, she looked vacant…

It instantly clicked for Maddie, even before her widened eyes started to crumple and create tears.

“Hey hey hey hey—” Maddie scrambled for something to say, crouching instinctively with her hands up. “Jack—Jackie? Jackie, we’re here for you—Look at me, keep looking at me, not at what’s behind me…”

Maddie’s eye caught Tracy and River, looking on in confusion. Maddie guessed that they told Aiko to come over where she landed, and she jogged over. Aiko, of course, tried to get close.

Maddie shook her head at them, then proceeded to try to comfort a grieving time bomb.

“I didn’t mean to say what I said, trust me. I wouldn’t have if I ever knew… Like—I know it’s gonna sound weird, coming from me, but I would be so fucking upset if this happened to my island—my hood—”

Tracy covered her mouth, then backed away with shaking hands—as River just stood there, dumbfounded, not knowing what to do at all.

Then of course, Aiko had to open her fucking mouth. “What--?”

Maddie snarled, “You’re not fucking helping--!”

Jackie exploded, in the sense that Diana warned about. Her left side, face to leg, popped open as if she was an egg ready to crack open. Her pieces of herself, coming undone as she needlessly tensed up—her muscle blowing up like a balloon as she cried.

As on fucking cue, Tracy screamed in terror, River froze up and completely checked out, and Aiko was debating with herself to make this even worse or not.

Maddie was starting to crumble, the situation hitting the things she tried clawing out so the scars protected them. Jackie lost so much, she can fucking feel that. And it was getting to her, Maddie knew she had to end this quick, so she’s a liability too.

“Jackie, listen to me!” Maddie let her voice crack, strain in weakness. “You can’t let yourself do this! This isn’t what whoever loved you wanted to do here! I know this!”

That only got to her more.

The energy she built up, from her siVis ability, flashed over and over, out of her cracks as she shook, heaved and hawed in pain.

It was so much, Maddie couldn’t stand looking at her like this, she felt her eyes water trying to blind her.

There was really nothing left to do.

Maddie had to gut her—deep.

“Y’KNOW WHAT, FINE,” Maddie screamed. “BLOW YOURSELF UP, YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE!”

The Frankstein’s Trainer settled into place, Jackson’s good eye looking at Maddie as if she shot a gun at her.

“MADDIE NO!” Tracy screamed out in fear.

Maddie crossed her arms, “All this dreck of unity and pushing through and finding the good things in the bad—and the literal first second it happens to you—you tap out? Funny how all that works, huh?”

“WHY are you making THIS into a fucking game, Maddie?!” Jackie screamed out, popping and shuddering as pieces moved apart.

“Tell me all that when you pull yourself together,” Maddie said, suppressing the emotion in her voice. “Then fine, talk my ear off, beat the shit out of me. Just know? If you go nuts here, then every. Single. Thing we’ve done was completely pointless. So I suggest popping that eye back into your socket and act like a big, giant girl, yeah?”

Jackie tightened her fist, and with that her whole arm. She continued to shiver, using her dagger eyes to stare at Maddie with contempt.

Maddie just looked back. Then gestured to Aiko, “You—redeem yourself and take her into her time out corner. Let her puff all that out.”

Aiko quickly sprinted over, and helped Jackie up as she continued to huff. It felt like minutes, watching the two walk off into the twisted sidewalk.

Tracy stormed over to Maddie, looking completely angry, “What you did could’ve ended us! All of us!”

“Glad you’re looking out for Jackson,” Maddie quickly sniped. “And hey, you’re acting like you’re mad when you were shitting your pants a second ago, you really do still got it.”

“I—I--!”

Maddie felt a pang. Fuck.

She was losing it, this was all getting to her. Jackie nearly breaking down sparked way too much memories—the side of those memories she doesn’t want to retain, the parts that didn’t harden her.

But going the other way? That wasn’t going to help but to get herself killed or stranded here.

She sighed.

“Sorry,” Maddie grumbled. “Got to me.”

Tracy looked confused, raised an eyebrow. “I never would’ve pictured you feeling for everyone…”

“My heart’s probably scabby and fucked, but it still fucking works, lady—” Maddie retorted. She saw River still standing there, Maddie motioned her over. “WE NEED HELP HERE!”

That snapped her out of it, and she slowly walked over.

“Breakdown Effect, right?” Maddie asked. “Isn’t that what happened? Isn’t that what Diana warned about?”

“Yeah,” River answered. “The other route. The ultimate one for all ones with siVis. So impressionable, the stuff, that it responds to a mental or emotional breakdown and acts accordingly. If it isn’t the mind trap, it’s this that comes and leaves a siVictim. Their own body destroying itself.”

“Yeah…” Tracy said, shaking.

“And this is a… Fuck,” Maddie snapped. “Forgot the name, but this is where like. Really badly affected places by the Shifts are condemned and are warped to shit?”

“Terminsys Cities,” River answered, again. “Where the Terminsys Zones are, well, cities—towns—places where humanity and life lived… What everyone fears. This, the whole Earth becoming this warped, twisted place where Shifts continue on and on and on until we’re wiped clean.”

“Of all fucking places… Her fucking town became one? Really?!” Maddie exclaimed.

“What are the chances?!” Tracy agreed.

“They’re actually terrifyingly closer than you think…” River added.

“This is awful… Maybe… Maybe somehow, she taught about this place or something as well teleported…? Maybe siVis…?”

“Noooo!” Maddie protested. “There’s no fucking way, otherwise there would’ve been a report or something! Diana fucking set us up, and that’s the sole reason!”

“But to set us up and choose this location when she had no history or files on us…?” River questioned.

Maddie sighed. “Yeah…”

“It’s like she said…” River continued. “We’re getting to that point… Where this shit is just a hotbed, able to conjure up things and respond to things… Just cause.”

Tracy looked over to Jackie and Aiko, and then back to Maddie, “We have to comfort her… Or else she’s a ticking bomb ready to come undone—and we don’t know how to defend ourselves!”

“She already feels shit!” Maddie shouted, causing the other two to jump. “Handling her with kid gloves and patting her back will only make her fucking worse! It makes everyone feel worse, because you feel like you’re failing to be happy!”

“Have you guys ever—” Maddie cut herself off to empathize her point, “Evvvveeeer, actually took that positive crack someone made for you and actually accepted it, for like, a whole day?!”

Tracy and River looked at each other, then lowered their heads a bit.

“So there,” Maddie had nothing but resolve in her tone. “We’ll badger her and apologize later, Jackson’s a big and smart girl, so she gets why we’re throwing away the kids’ gloves. It’s the only way.”

It was weird, being so direct—no jokes, no segways. And the weird part in all of this was the mild epiphany within Maddie that said; “why the surprise? You were always like this”.

It was siVis or herself or whatever, it continues to clear her mind. Find the things that are useful, sweep away at the useless shit. All this talk about supernatural powers; Maddie might as well call it the weirdest fucking way to actually concentrate.

“Here’s the problem,” River began. “We have a clear out in all of this: we just cross the whole town to get to the boarder, and there’s going to be an Extant something there. And I think the chances of them having, y’know, actual PATH-OS teleporters is also good. But we’re in Terminsys City, baby, and it ain’t always a straight line—”

“I’m going to ignore…Parts of that last sentence—” Maddie said.

“Meme humor’s my clutch during these sad times…” River explained.

“But yeah, is it really that bad?”

“It can be, like everything dealing with this nightmare world,” River answered. “And that’s definitely the danger here. And… It’s not like we’re in a position to ask Jackie for directions…”

Maddie rubbed her chin. Sucked on her teeth.

Thankfully, what she was going to say next, was going to come true.

“I’ll do it…” Jackie, with Aiko in tow, came from behind, croaking still as she looked mostly normal again. She breathed heavily, as if there was a brick hung from her neck, as her pieces weren’t completely back in place across her face. “I’ll do it because… T-this is more than me… I need to help you all, keep you safe…”

Maddie smirked, and then crossed her arms. “Like I said: she’s a big girl.”