The first portent of the now malfunctioning technology that had created and maintained the holographic teachers awaited Iker and his new unconscious companion at Azalea Street. From what they would encounter, a fourteen year old boy carrying a lion cub would be the most ordinary spotting in the dilapidated town of Pueblo.

  "... son, is that you?"

  The lion cub woke up and spoke exactly how a genetically-modified cub would.

  "Papá? Is this... is this really you?"

  "Yes... Dominic. Dominic is trying to kill me. That is why I am like this," Papá said. "We must leave reality. This reality is going to crumble with the laws of physics being changed. The worst is yet to come. Generative lifeforms spawning into reality will be the least of our worries. "

  "How... how is that possible? Where's Bastian? Mami?" Iker asked.

  Awaiting a response from Papá who stayed silent for some reason, Iker continued walking in the general direction of their home. This new feline body his father inhabited was remarkably unscathed, especially after the unbelievable claim that he outlived an assassination attempt from the leader of the Byza syndicate and the Don of Earth, the latter being the most envied title in the criminal underworld of Earth. The only other two titles that matched its chilling notoriousness was the Don of Mars and the Don of Proxima. All the presidents that remained in the world combined would still have the power of a serf compared to them. Their decisions, commands, and actions could be felt across the Milky Way Galaxy while government leaders clenching to their waning power were as influential as fictional characters.

  While Iker thought about how it was possible Papá survived, he realized once again that Papá stayed oddly quiet. His once sleepy feline eyes were now two ambers glimmering with sorrow as it reflected the smoggy sky above.

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  "We are the only survivors. They didn't make it."

  Iker's sneakers that had been sporadically kicking loose pebbles stopped echoing across the suburbs altogether. His sinking heart made it impossible to notice all the new bizarre people, places, and things spawning around him.

  HE'S LYING! HE'S LYING! IKER HE'S LYING TO YOU!

  The voice was hard to recognize at first until it was not. Iker almost got mad at himself for not recognizing Bastian's voice until he realized that his voice really dropped. It was what his voice was supposed to sound like as a senior student rather than a freshman. However, Iker could not tell if this was a hallucination of his.

  See, not only did not Iker not know exactly what the earthplexus was, but neither did he know what supersoldiers were truly capable of. Bastian's voice was undecipherable from an imaginary voice in Iker's head.

  However, instead of trying to deduce whether he went into madness or not, Iker should have paid attention to the face his father had as he cradled the cub in his arms. Papá no longer kept up his ruse of sorrow, displaying his intentions with his flared fangs.

  "You do not believe me do you?"

  RUN! RUN! RUUUUUUN!

  There was no need to do that now. Papá vanished. Ahead of Iker on Hollywood Drive were animals with human bodies trying to spawn. They were amalgamations of hologram, flesh and metal, but their unsettling forms was no match for the terror of the sudden earthquake that came upon the town of Pueblo. Even though the movement of the earth below threw Iker onto his back, he was still able to catch a glimpse of the actual catalyst of the world shaking around him.

  Past the stacking and glitching studio sets above the collapsed roofs of the neighborhood, what appeared to be the sun rising from the Coloradoan desert was actually a glowing mane. Any hope of reacting to the reptilian lash that ruptured from the untamed weeds nearby would be in vain by Iker, so he was grateful that an entity blocked the earthshaking attack.

  The feedback from the ghostly baby and the snake tail clashing was so powerful that upon trying to understand where his windborne body was heading, Iker's vision went completely black.