***

The visage of Eli Davenport flickered into view, the augmented capture showing that he walked forward to the Extant podium. A.R. has usually been a cyan but detailed enough to convey exactly what one was looking at. But for special events like these, especially now, the pixels have been cranked to high-end levels, perfectly capturing the color, texture—everything about the person to the point one could count the pours.

“There are no words to express the level of cruel and unusual ultra-violence that has occurred today,” he began, evening his tone. “So let us start with a moment of silence and reflection, for the fallen, for the victims, and for our shattered hopes and dreams for normalcy, peace… Humanity.”

And as he bowed his head over the podium, it brought attention to his already infamous, white shaved mullet, and the fact that his appropriate black suit has rainbow labels.

Not even for the mourning of hundreds, he couldn’t tone himself down.

Jackie just watched, making no comments, just gripping her arm. But out of the sight of the others, who were before her sitting or standing, looking up towards the massive A.R. construct being broadcasted in the air.

They were further in the back, away from the crowds being bunched together. Finding a pillar to lounge around in, and the reasoning was pretty obvious. It made Jackie sink further into shame.

Mr. Davenport rose his head, and made a deep sigh. It was hard to figure out if it was theatrics or if he’s so over the top, it was something he did naturally.

Both troubling thoughts, for the recent leader of this new direction for humanity.

“In this already heavy moment of tension, tragedy…I have to issue full disclosure. We, Extant, know what happened here today.”

Jackie’s eyes widened, just in time for people’s murmurings, soft gasps, and stirring panic. Before she returned to the glances of the others, her sight darted around to see Enforcers step forward in the crowds. If she didn’t know it, it was like this was the start of a purge or mass arrest.

This was the nature of their world now, to just assume that things can and will get worse.

The Leader of Extant’s jaw tightened visibly, before he explained himself, along with the only force to combat Noumena activity, admitting to being flawed at the worst possible time.

“We have not betrayed you, nor your trust. I assure you… The most disturbing, silent aspect of the Shift Noumena—it isn’t Terminsys Cities violating our physics and turning our dwindling land moot… It isn’t the Nulgarrt, creatures who shouldn’t exist in the first place endangering our limited resources. It isn’t even the poster child, the Transitional Shifts themselves—who warp and allows all of this to happen in the first place…”

The man grabbed his forehead in frustration.

“It’s the damn aftermath. The things that pile up, the cause and effect we barely grasp, and the things build and building… And we have no idea where they are or when they’ll be complete. Our reality is changing, we’re being whittled away by these after-effects, never mind never being able to scale or stop the main Noumena forces. It’s something we try to tell you… But it’s near impossible without risking you all to be afraid of your own skins. It’s not the Shifts and what they do. It’s what comes after.”

Jackie visibly winced, she couldn’t stop herself in time. It was just too raw, close to the nerve. It was the reason why she and the girls are here in the first place, the Shift they were trying to chase turned away from them at the last moment. How they got their powers, was because the universe tried to correct itself, and in that, they were swept away into a place they never should’ve been.

“Now, to actually explain to you what we’ve meant…” Mr. Davenport pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping his forehead rapidly. Sweat seemed to be pouring out more once he started doing it.

“I’ve spent time telling you all that to explain that our research and findings often collect and study these off-shoot happenings for a while now. The reason why do not disclose these findings to the general public is that we simply do not know if these things pose a credible threat or not. It’s morale. It’s not giving into hysteria. And normally, we either neutralize or determine that the discoveries are passive enough to not warrant to sound the alarms. However…”

He pointed his finger upwards, so much that he paused mid-wipe of his forehead. “And a big however this one is…”

“I do—We do keep tabs on things that concern us: troubling signs that do not transition into either of the previously mentioned categories of pacification. And what happened today was unfortunately on top of the list.”

The man turned his palms upwards, letting go of the cloth in the other hand in the process.

A recreation of the void that was opened hours before presented itself within Davenport’s hands, in a standard A.R. construction.

“I can’t really phrase this in a way that sounds professional, flowery, or make sense…” Mr. Davenport admitted in quiet resignation. “But the universe’s boundaries have been being pushed for well over a decade or so. Reality is at the point of literally falling apart, and we do not know what’s on the other side.”

Jackie saw mouths being covered from afar. Shaking heads of disbelief, “what does that even mean?!” rang out into the air. The confusion in the air wasn’t just palpable, it had layers of texture to it. The air around felt calmy, hazy. Jackie herself could not stop shuddering.

“So, in the interest of fairness, I will not be explaining our data to you all tonight,” Davenport paused after, fully aware that there will be a flustered reaction to that from the audience. “I’ve recruited a very lovely and familiar face to do it for us.”

“Please don’t use Taber right now—” Jackie reacted, not realizing she didn’t make it into a whisper. So trapped up in brewing cringe, she didn’t notice Maddie and Aiko whipping their hands toward her, before giving up.

Mr. Davenport backed away slightly from the podium and faced to his right.

“Thank you for coming, Ms. Marrow, for helping us tonight—”

He outstretched his hand, meeting Tabitha Morrow’s pale hand as she came into frame.

Jackie, along with everyone else, let out a much-needed sigh of relief.

The girl walked in front of the podium. The recognizable jet black and navy highlighted hair that reached her shoulders, the thin but expression face. But wrapped within a black mourning gown, her face and arms were still bandaged in places. Her expression outright grim, but clearly sad.

“Just…” she tried to begin, before shaking her head and softly hitting the table palm forward. “Iunno folks. This is pretty bad. It’s getting to a point where I have nothing to say, reporting these things… But I’m going to still try. Because I have a job to do, and you all deserve something.”

In this so-called new era of becoming deponent or cold-hearted, Tabby Morrow was a shining beacon that it was okay to feel strongly about these terrible things. That sadness meant that you clearly care and that it was natural. Jackie couldn’t think of anyone better of being a voice for people, reporting on this weirdness consistently and with pathos.

She did what Jackie always wanted to do, and Jackie had to gain siVis for.

“Bear in mind, this Noumena doesn’t have an official name yet,” Tabby got to business, skillfully orating within seconds. She thumbed to her right, where now Mr. Davenport stood. “People still give him crap for changing ‘Nulgarrt’ from Nihilo Beasts—"

The man genuinely laughed at that, possibly the most genuine Jackie’s seen of him so far.

Tabby smiled briefly, before focusing again. “Okay.”

She pointed at the small specks of debris that the void launched forward, and the A.R. construction quickly whipped about, forming into these very unique pieces. Jackie recognized them as the parts of the sky.

“These are codenamed ‘Memoria’. Think of them… As condensed pieces of space. It’s less them being secret building blocks of the universe and more… Reality buckling under this stress and being shattered as a result.”

She gestured towards the void, wincing before clutching her hurt arm briefly. “Thus, the Boundaries are created. Since… Y’know, the space around it broke apart—the Boundary is formed as a response to fill it. You make this hole in the wall, and the darkness bursts out and leaks out of the hole. If that creepy thought hasn’t made you shiver yet, then the fact that we really don’t know what’s beyond it that makes it do this kiiiiinda will…”

Tabby looked down and bit her lip in nervousness.

As she gestured, she wiped the displays in an instant. She then gestured to her side, as if she was pulling out some files from her pockets she didn’t have. With a flick of her wrist, five sheets of data spread across the air. All “confidential” tags on them.

“Extant tried to start a research and response team, of the same cloth as the Extant Enforcers—Researchers—Shapers, to combat and learn what’s beyond, years ago… Simply put, we lost those people not even weeks in.”

She turned her gaze forward. Steely, peering into the very soul of each viewer simultaneously.

“One of them was behind what happened here today. All of it.”

“The fuck?” Maddie from afar voiced.

“How…?” River commented next.

“please don’t say that ghosts are possible in this fucked up world—” Tracy pleaded softly, but Jackie could pick up.

The tall girl was just speechless. Trying to piece together things she clearly didn’t have all of yet.

“We have convincing evidence that at least one of them is not only still alive, caused this disaster to force Extant to reveal this information, and used the chaos to abduct people into this Boundary,” Tabby laid out the details, getting into it.

She found herself gripping the sides of the podium, before letting go and gesturing toward the air.

“For one, the way this Boundary came to be is wholly unnatural. This is a slow-burning noumena that build up over time, to the point that it couldn’t be ignored and had to be studied and traced back and all sorts of things that had to be learned to remotely do anything. These popping up, we only had a few more years before they do it naturally. Not only that…”

The void was zoomed into, showing haphazard structuring to the point that the grooves were too deep, too misshapen.

“This was let out, craved out,” Tabby enunciated. “From inside out.”

Then a rotating rock appeared from the tense air.

“While I won’t remotely dignify this person by recreating what they did…” Tabby began. “The fossilized corpses that appeared during the chaos have yet to be identified, but we have recovered five. This was a six-man team.”

Once again, Tabby ceased all diagrams and took a deep breath. Forcing herself, making her remember that she has to breathe.

Mr. Davenport leaned in, seemingly to ask her if she needed to take a break or needed water. Tabby rose her hand at him and shook her head, still looking forward.

“And finally… There was the oddity of what happened before the disaster. The noise that ripped through the air before the Memoria fell from the sky.”

She looked up, to see a flat line above her head. She returned her head forward.

“It was decodable. This was a message from them to his. And we have decoded this message, the final nail in the coffin… I will advise that…” Tabby tried to blink rapidly. To stop the tears from forming. “This message is meant to upset us, to target and make our current feelings worse. Turn away or relocate if this gets to you.”

She rose her hand but lowered it. A different kind of pain made her hesitate this time. Closing her eyes, inhaling and exhaling, she rose her hand and snapped.

It quickly filled the air, hitting everyone present at once. The sound was crackling, distorted, and purposefully low quality. So bad that one naturally has to pay attention, listen in further.

It was the famous song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”/”What A Wonderful World” by IZ. Undercut by the sounds of wailing that were recorded and layered on separately. As the song went softer, the screams turned into desperate wails for help, unable to form words due to the pain being inflicted.

Jackie felt her would-be-blood boiling. Seething so visibly, so deeply, that she was panting, and her pieces were trying to shudder themselves closed to no avail. She could’ve sworn, had she had veins anymore, that she would’ve burst multiple in her one eye alone.

Tabby waved her hands, ceasing the sounds, before planting her head into them. She was sobbing visibly despite trying to hide behind them, to which Mr. Davenport gently grabbed her shoulders and led her off the stage.

“Let it be known…” Mr. Davenport quickly went back to the podium. “Extant will claim any and all extra responsibility for today’s regrettable events. And we will hunt down this disgusting bastard as soon as we’re able. But it will take time. This is still a new blight to tackle. We need a day of preparation to be remotely ready, and reinforcements plus restock from all over the globe from our friends. That’s gonna take time.”

He cliched his fist. “But we will be strong. We will be together. We will overcome, and we still continue to remain. We are Extant. Thank you.”

Everything began to flicker away, pixel by pixel. And there was no air left in the tunnels.

Jackie turned on her heels, walking away with purpose.

Until she was stopped, the others forming a line blocking her path.

“Hey,” Maddie had her hands on her hips. “Y’know how you said that you wanna save it for later--?”

“I don’t want to hear it now either,” Jackie’s tone was devoid of patience.

“Too late, it’s later—”

“I don’t fucking need this right now!”

“Yes! Yes you fucking do! You fucking need to hear this good and clear, because no one fucking asked you this question and it’s how you keep getting you fucked and US fucked!”

Maddie extended her arms away from her sides in frustration that was building several times over.

“How are we remotely gonna make a difference, huh? How can we do it? Tell me that and I’ll shut up.”

Jackie felt the insides of her bones buckling and losing their integrity all at once. The question crushed her into silence.

“C’mon,” Maddie needled. “Lay it on me, the 12-step plan, despite having every single thing blowing up in our fucking face—how we just got from a meeting from our siVis life coach or whatever how we fucked up massively and can’t do anything. Tell me, how are we gonna be that Justice League we’re oh so meant to be?”

Jackie felt her fingers fall out of her fist. So scared and so reactionary, she glanced to double-check that it wasn’t literal.

“Someone’s gotta do something…” pain barely being masked within her voice.

“A-and they are!” Tracy exclaimed, shakingly. “All it’s going to take is a day, and they’ll race in, taking care of it… We’ll just—do small stuff! Help out with the healing, lift things. There’s honor in that!”

Aiko was just looking around, at each of the four around her with disapproving looks. Until looking directly at Jackie with a frown.

“As much as I advocate chancing everything—”

“Man, what a shocker,” Maddie threw in.

“—Even I know not to push severe injury…” Aiko raised her CAST-ed arm. “As long as we have these on, our already pathetic output is halved. I’m sorry, Jackie.”

River was trying to balance holding her worn, broken laptop in her arms while typing away. She looked at the screen more than Jackie.

“Plus… It’s these reactions that got us here in the first place. And you’re wanting us to go into some dimension that even the super-science people say they have no idea about. That’s what sorta happened with us when we were trying to get siVis and it ended up going wrong. We’d be back at square one, just with new paint… And this isn’t an anime where we can just—Iunno, face our fears and gain more power.”

Jackie felt tears roll down her cheeks. She rose her head back up, wiping them softly with her thumb.

“That was my line of thinking, to explain myself…” her words came out slow, slurred. “Even if they were completely different, and our experience that we can barely remember was just the universe glitching out… That’s more qualification than anyone else right now. I don’t want to find the guy. I want to find the people he stole. Just one person. Just the one. In and out. I’d be happy.”

The others paused, and looked at each other.

“I want to ask a question of my own… Have you all forgotten? Aren’t you all tired? Of living with failure? Time and time again? Didn’t you all want to do something about it? Isn’t it why you wanted siVis in the first place… To stop it from hurting… To finally gain control of our shitty lives?”

Each of them contributed to this pregnant silence. Aiko’s expression tightened and nodded softly. Tracy rubbed the back of her neck exhaustively. River somehow buried herself further into the laptop.

Maddie sighed and tried to find the words she needed to make work right now. More than ever.

“That was like… 100 fucking questions, Jackson—” Maddie stumbled this out.

Jackie sat down in the place she stood.

“I’m willing to talk about it… I’m willing to make a plan. To the letter and detail. But that’s all I ask. Just one person, that doesn’t deserve to have something like we went through happen to them. Use our fuck up for something positive for once in our lives.”

The girls looked at each other again. Having their own respective answers brewing in their minds, knowing that it’ll boil down into the same response.