A trio of the Black Orbs burst from the earth and Wendy responded with an extraordinarily swift kick that somehow managed to catch all three of them; causing them to buckle under the force and sending them flying off the path and into the vegetation where they flopped around like fish out of water before slowly burying down again. The alleged Secretary had torn through the creatures like a whirlwind, barely slowing down no matter how many of the mines shot out from the ground. Unfortunately he as the new Warden was doing nowhere as well, and while he had a certain level of physical fitness the Black Orbs were really absurdly heavy for their speed. After his first punch against the thing connected and he nearly sprained his wrist he was forced to play more cautiously. The spear tongues that came out of their mouths were dangerous but they only appeared when they were completely still and so he adapted a tactic of continuous erratic movement while standing behind Wendy.

The crashing behind them grew louder as they ran and in the distance he saw a few brightly coloured trees topple over every time he turned his head to look backwards; against his best judgement. The hissing intensified until it felt like their very bones were vibrating as they staggered on ahead the Secretary carving a path for the Warden leaving a trail of broken roses behind them like two lost children leaving a home; although neither of them at the moment had any thought of turning back.

“We’re almost there, Sir,” Wendy stated turning back for a moment and he saw in perfect detail how her eyes widened before she reached back to grab and yanked him down with inhuman strength. Unable to resist in the slightest he went down and onto the hard path feeling a sharp pain in his knees. His knee pain was forgotten as a large object went soaring over his head and he chanced a look back.

Emerging from the greenery a massive collection of purple vines was moulded into the form of snakes. They curled around each other into a ball the size of a bus where they writhed rhythmically before spasming into a thousand violent motions. Hundreds of those vines poked out of the snake-ball displaying a single yellow eye each that focused on them with all the malevolence of a hungry animal and as they hissed they revealed that they possessed teeth like a bear-trap. Slowly as if it was stalking its prey it started wriggling forward, using the combined bodies of thousands of snake-vines latching onto the ground to drag its massive bulk.

“Aaaarghh,” suddenly Wendy screamed in pain despite the distance from the snake-vines and he looked over to see her clutching her head in agony. Instinctively he got to his feet and moved towards her noticing that the pain seemed to lessen as he did so. A hunch had him move in front of her blocking out the vision between the snake-vines and his Secretary and he got immediate confirmation as she straightened up and the pain on her dace subsided.

“Are you okay,” he said only for her to turn around and grab his arms before dragging him onto her body, holding him in a piggy-back position before he could react. The position stung his pride but being in her proximity apparently reduced her pain and he would survive the humiliation much easier than he would survive the snake-vines.

“I’m sorry,” Wendy said sounding both embarrassed and determined as she slung him over her shoulders before she took off like a bullet and the Warden realised just how much he had apparently slowed her down. Carrying him she moved like lightning, no longer bothering to strike down the Black Orbs she weaved between them dodging and taking a path that avoided their tongues by mere inches. A second later after they passed them the Black Orbs were crushed by the pit of snake-vines that accelerated chasing after the pair with cruel determination.

“As loathe as I am to disrupt your movement,” he said looking back at the mass of vines that were dragging themselves along widening the path. Occasionally bits of the mass would tear off and re-join or be eaten by the rest of the ball. “Mind telling me what you’re doing.”

“The beast attacked me mentally, Sir,” Wendy said and he noticed that her voice didn’t sound the slightest out of breath even as she moved at an all-out sprint while carrying him and dodging creatures. “It looks like you are immune, probably due to your status as the Warden, so I used you to block their line of sight.”

“Fair enough,” he stated understanding. It was a bit humiliating to be carried like a child but it would be pointless and stupid to get angry at the woman who was currently saving his life. “Do you have any idea what other benefits the Warden gets?”

“None, Sir,” she said and had to immediately swerve to avoid a tongue that left a tear on her clothing. He took the near miss as a sign to shut up. He hadn’t felt any difference before and after he became the Warden. How was it that he suddenly gained immunity to mind-altering attacks? Or did humans just have them naturally and his species didn’t know because there were no mind-altering attacks on his home planet. Did the badge have anything to do with it? He still felt the somewhat cool presence in his pocket, a soothing protective cold. Was this something that the badge did to him?

He wanted to examine the badge more closely but unfortunately both of his hands were engaged on hanging on for dear life. He needed some way of defending himself in future, but in order to do that he would have to endure this for the moment. He had already determined to take it up with Choir.

“We’re here,” Wendy whispered as a large metal gate appeared in front of the pair surrounded by walls of grey stone. The trees had receded slightly and there was evidence that there was once a clearing there where now there was not. With one swift motion she placed the warden down on the ground besides her before rattling the iron gates. “Locked,” she said before turning to face the snake-ball again. She screamed but stayed standing. “I’ll hold them off, Sir,” she said as her body shook and he was startled to see the whites of her eyes turn a bloody red.

“Let me see,” he said fishing the badge out of his pocket that seemed to serve as identification. As soon as he held it up towards the gazebo a blue light appeared from the gate and then immediately scanned the badge. Agonizing seconds passed before a ‘ping’ that announced the identification had worked hit his ears and he immediately turned his eyes to a small screen that slid out from the grey stone.

Warden Identification Accepted

Garden systems are currently inactive- Would you like to reactivate Garden systems.

[Yes] [No]

He immediately clicked yes.

[Warning: Power requirements inadequate for complete activation]

Partial activation advised. Would you like to reactivate individual Systems

[Yes] [No]

He clicked yes again quickly refusing to turn back as the sounds of combat raged behind him. The fact that he was still alive was telling him that Wendy hadn’t lost yet and he wasn’t going to waste the time she bought him.

Systems currently offline

Irrigation System-5 units per hour

Fertilisation systems-2 units per hour

Connection to the Grid-3 units per hour

Lights-15 units per hour

Security-50 units per hour

‘That one,’ he thought as soon as he saw it, ignoring the high cost and jabbing his finger forward the button and watching it light up. Another [Yes] [No] option popped up and he immediately slammed his fist down on it. Instantly as he did that a loud whirring sound sounded up above causing him to look towards the light-filled ceiling. A metal box descended moving the lights to the side and with agonizing slowness the metallic box resembling a coffin opened up. The new Warden immediately chanced a look towards Wendy only to see her take a beating from the snake-ball. Thin streams of blood dripped from exposed skin where her clothes had torn under the relentless assault of the creature but a number of the snake-vines were torn in retaliation. She was having to move swiftly to prevent he mass of vines from simply lunging forward and smothering her to death and she was doing it while dodging the lunges of the individual vines; a frankly superhuman feat.

He looked up again to see the metal coffin had rotated ninety degrees and two hands of metal were opening it from the inside giving a classic horror movie image. In the next second the coffin burst open to reveal an empty space.

“What,” he said to himself only for his head to whip down in a move that was going to hurt him later as he heard a crash in front of him and saw the snake-ball crushed under the apparent steel feet of the Security. It stood four metres tall on four trunk-like legs that branched out from a foot wide spine of steel. Its arms were invisible as they moved in a blur dicing, tearing, crushing and finally burning; its violent motions leaving the snake-vines a charred and burnt mess in under two seconds. Only then did the mechanical robot focus its eyes upon the pair as it switched between Wendy and the Warden. Its head was a mess of holes in the shape of an upside down pyramid that twitched and rotated jerkily. Green light shone from the holes in patterns from lasers to torches scanning the area before it went very still and its arms narrowed down from a hundred invisible ones to four very menacing metallic appendages.

“Identify yourselves,” it commanded softly.

“He’s the Warden and I’m his secretary,” Wendy spoke up immediately not getting even a twitch in response.

“You have been identified as Warden,” the being agreed lowering its head submissively. “Confirm associate as secretary.”

“Yes, she’s my secretary Wendy,” he said. There was a growing suspicion about his secretary but he didn’t feel like she had any evil intent towards him and she had just saved his life. “Could you please direct me to the Central Server?” he asked. “I need to speak to Choir.”

“The Central Server is this way,” the robot security said stepping towards the gazebo. Its voice sounded warmer now that it had confirmed them and he wondered just how sapient these robots were in the first place. It reached out and grabbed the steel gate and slowly drew it back causing a screeching noise as the gate slowly opened.

“Oh it was just rusted shut,” Warden said to himself giving a side-line glance at Wendy.

“If I knew it was just rust then I could have opened it,” she said defensively. “I would have just had to put a bit more muscle in.”

“Correct, if the secretary known as Wendy was willing to use all her strength then she could have bypassed the door,” the robot confirmed. Surprisingly that didn’t seem to make the secretary feel better and she seemed to clamp down on her facial expressions; another tick in the suspicious column.

“How many more of those things in the Garden,” the Warden said pointing towards the ashes of the snake-ball.

“Ophidian Weeds,” the robot spoke. “There are three clusters of approximately that size, one greater and fifty-seven smaller. In addition, there are over one million individual loose Ophidian Weeds scattered throughout the garden. These numbers are currently out of date. The population of Ophidian Weeds have sharply decreased since last reporting. Current conjectures suggest that the population will continue decreasing within the next few minutes.”

“Due to more of you wiping them out?” he asked getting a confirmation from the robot. “How many of you are there anyway.”

“There are currently sixteen operational LEGA in the region name Garden,” the robot said, declaring his number and model. “As the Garden is offline I am unable to obtain information from any of the other regions.”

“Can I ask you to escort us to the Central Server,” he said as he walked into the gazebo.

“I am unable to leave the Garden,” the LEGA stated. “I am specifically designed for this specific region and without overwriting part of my BIOS I cannot leave.”

“That’s unfortunate,” the Warden said as he got his first look inside the structure they had ran desperately towards.

It looked like a nice if dusty place with artwork of alien locales dotting the walls and strange recliners made out of what looked to be wood or bone. There were a few cabinets that contained bottles and even a stuffed head of some prehistoric looking beast on the wall. It looked like an old hunting lodge that friends of his father frequented. Although in contrast to that hunting lodge the inside looked to be carved of the same grey stone.

“Aren’t gazebo’s meant to be more open,” he stated looking around.

“The walls were made of glass the last time I was here,” Wendy piped up. “I don’t know what has changed though.”

“A great deal has apparently changed with regards to the Gardens,” the LEGA stated standing outside the doorway. “I am unable to present you a full accounting of the status of Coldreach. Only Choir has that level of information access. It is highly recommended that you interact with Choir in the near future.”

“That’s why we’re heading to the Central Server,” he admitted. The second room that he looked into had a pair of magnificent stairs with a railing that had many exotic alien lifeforms carved into the wood. It was surprisingly opulent considering the rest of the prison that he had seen before. “Just to confirm we head down these stairs and then we go right, down the corridor left through the security gate and continue until the door at the end of the corridor.”

“That is correct Warden,” the robot stated.

“Great,” he replied heading towards the stairs. “Just can I ask one last question before we go?”

“You are the Warden,” the robot stated. “You have the right to ask as many questions as you would like.”

“Great,” he said. “In the event Choir and I were to oppose each other; whom would you side with?”

“I will fulfil my programming,” the robotic being said.

“And your programming is?” he asked trying to get an answer.

“I am not aware of the nature of my programming,” the machine stated. “Currently I can only calculate one sure way to discover it.”

With those last ominous words the robot swiftly disappeared just as swiftly leaving the two of them standing there at the top of a staircase that would lead them to the Artificial Intelligence Choir.