"Here's your house," Camilo declared.
Only after he spoke Iker noticed that Camilo walked ahead. Iker did not reply right away. Generally, from latent memories, Iker had a sense for when Camilo would get uncomfortable with not speaking for a long time, but it did not happen at all. Iker guessed that a handful of minutes passed by, however time itself did not feel like how it had felt in more robust realities.
"... how come I can't remember this place?" Iker asked.
The most remarkable thing about the two story home was that a fallen power line almost went through the second floor, and the exposed floor had been refurbished into an LED-lit grand balcony befitting of a teenage lair. Now more overland than vertical, the wooden pole had nailed-in planks to function like a ladder.
"Iker," Camilo replied after his own pause. "I poured gasoline everywhere. You can set it all on fire."
"... what?" Iker murmured.
"Another version of me wrote down everything we have to do in a past timeline... I think," Camilo explained. "We are facing Ember Comsa, the strongest esper ever... across space and time. Ember's been toying with our memories I think."
"From your point of view... we have been facing Omni this whole time?" Iker asked.
"Was... was that Ember's supersoldier moniker? Omni?" Camilo asked back. "Anyways,...we don't have much time... but I could not bring myself to do this."
Camilo pulled out the note he did not apparently remember writing and flashed it to Iker.
- Pour gasoline over the house. Pour most of it in the basement.
- Burn the house down, making sure the Prunus Tantalum does not remain functional.
"We have to deal with the other celebrity esper in one platoon first though."
Iker starred ahead at his apparent home. "You're talking about Pager aren't you?"
RESETS: 4
Panic set in at first for a spawning twenty-four-year-old Iker, and it did not subside until he could feel his own body still being present back in Pueblo. This very visceral experience was functioning like an actual memory. For real this time. However, it was still unsettling to experience a past memory that happened as an adult while still being a teenager. Disembodying even.
Is my mind... four-dimensional now?
The outline of the private office Iker sat in loaded. Office decor did not change much throughout the middle of the twenty-first century and the early part of the twenty-second century, so this place could be anywhere across that time period. Without knowing why, Iker had knowledge that four resets had occurred. How far back did the resets take place in his life, if at all? Upon Alice and Iker boarding that plane in the original timeline? Upon birth? Upon the mutation of human intelligence? Upon the birth of the universe? In a distant reality and time altogether? Perhaps even a reality where the laws of physics made stars and planets not a thing?
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Perhaps... dates are not relevant to what I am now.
In an awkward and easy to knock over spot was Pager's snake plant with every leaf pointing sunward. To no surprise now that Iker was coming to terms with this cosmic game he was in, he had no idea of Pager's real name. His bare desk with only a hologram screen and keyboard had no name plaque. Not even one composed of light.
The door behind Iker clicked open. At first he wanted to stare forward and wait for Pager to take a seat, but his immediate reaction was to glance behind his seat, catching a glimpse of his jet black hair and then staring into his pale blue eyes.
"How's Pube-lo today?" a late-twenties Pager asked.
"Common," Camilo commanded. "I know you grew up here but..."
Camilo raised Iker's left hand and shoved as many matchboxes as he could into his palm. Before pulling both of his hands away, Camilo locked eyes with Iker for a moment. "Do... do you want me to help you?"
"I know you don't remember what happened before... all of this... but do you know why your past self wanted you to rush this?" Iker asked.
Camilo's glance shifted to the potholed street, then back to the house. "He's going to get here either way... but Prophet Ameen is going to use your dad's tree to get here. All we need to do for your future platoon is slow him down here and now."
"Do you remember killing me you prick?" Pager asked almost rhetorically.
"No," Iker replied.
"You're lying," Pager said.
"Nope. Load those memories for me won't you?" Iker asked.
Pager laughed under his breath. "Nice try."
Pager walked through the sunlight coming in from the window, coming close to knocking over his plant. He sat across from Iker behind his desk.
"You're one of the smart ones, so you know what my motivation is within this memory don't you?" Pager asked.
"... you might wanna rephrase that if you want me to not kill you again in whatever timeline I do it in," Iker threatened.
"I just complimented you. For the first time through the many resets we fought against each other," Pager said with a faint smile, failing to hide his contempt.
"I disagree," Iker said with a shrug. "Oh, and did you mean I am smart for being gay, or smart for being half Puerto Rican?"
Pager no longer tried to veil his contemptuous smile. While they stared at each other, his finger tapping went along with the footsteps of a Memoryfeed coworker walking by the door.
"What is it you want?" Pager asked. "Perhaps you can give me my life for what you want. I'll leave one platoon forever either way, you don't need to make that request. No matter what I do... I can't join my mind to the mind that fights you at some point in the future... from my perspective of the future. I am pretty much destined to be killed while you, the you remembering this right now, is connected to the mind that eventually kills me. You can choose to keep me alive. That is all I want. I'll stop helping Ember, I promise."
"I want things to make sense again," Iker proclaimed. "I understand my future self is fighting for me and my future allies to continue existing... and the fight for our existence is causing time and space to no longer be uniform. And I apparently join Ember's army at some point, which I am still trying to wrap my head around that. Well.. reality is busted. Dreams, the virtual, and the real are all blending together."
Pager smiled more genuinely this time. "I can help you. You know the fundamental reality we are in right? Hypostasis?"
Iker broke his own glare and glanced out of the window. "We are inside a novel. If what Ameen, Ember, and my dad want is to ultimately meet the author... perhaps you can help me get to him first."
Pager stood up to observe Denver outside of the window too. While waiting for a response, Iker caught a hologram eyeliner ad whizzing across the main intersection.
"I know from your perspective Monica is on your side now. Do you know why I am bringing her up?" Pager asked.
Iker did not respond.
"She's not a mere jaunter. You know that right?" Pager asked.
"All jaunters have been know through move through space... to other locations. Monica was the first jaunter to be able to jaunt outside of that," Iker replied.
"If you were to imagine a universe in your head... well, you can jaunt anywhere in it because it's your imagination," Pager added. "Monica ended up with the jaunting powers of the author. That's why your father wants her."