Double-A rose into the sky, before disappearing.
I gritted my teeth, looking down at the fan.
A standard high powered Bladeless fan, with a loose casing.
I sighed deeply.
I could hear the sound of wet footsteps approaching, followed by groans and moans. I looked over my shoulder to see a bloody corpse rounding the corner. It locked eyes with me.
For a moment neither of us moved.
I gripped the fan as it pushed a foot back. A second later, it launched itself towards me, breaking out into a sprint.
"Of course it's a runner!"
The zombie moved like a sprinter chasing gold. I ran into the nearest building, the lobby of a hotel. The glass door shattered behind me as the sprinter broke through.
I scrambled over a tipped-over luggage cart, before kicking it towards the sprinter. The sprinter grabbed the cart and tossed it aside.
The cart slammed into the wall, breaking through.
I ran into an elevator at the end of the hall and pulled the door shut.
"P-p-please, c-choose a-a-a destination!"
BANG, BANG, BANG!
The sprinter banged on the steel door as the AI stammered in glitched speech. I jammed my finger against the digital display for the tap floor.
"Destination, top floor! H-have a nice ride!"
The elevator was maglev, and the G-forces from its lurch up shook me for a bit. I got over it quickly.
I took a few heavy breaths as I rested against the elevator wall. I closed my eyes. I needed either steel or aluminum.
Preferably aluminum.
Less heat.
Thud.
Ding!
"T-t-top floor!"
The steel doors opened to reveal a long hall. On either side were dozens of rooms, each filled with metals to strip. Or so I hoped.
I stepped out of the elevator, approaching the first room.
I tried the biometric hand scanner, but got nothing. I sighed, about to break in when I heard screeching from the stairs.
I tried to run back in the elevator, but it slammed shut.
"S-sorry, closed for maintenance. Please enjoy music from our 'vocal swing' selection as compensation."
Drums and brass instruments begin to fill the enclosed space. The screeching from the stairwell grew louder and closer.
I cursed my luck, running for the roof access ladder.
I scrambled up, gripping the cold rungs. They were slick with grime. The music–a jaunty tune–blurred through the hallway speakers. A cheerful tune about a woman's personality.
What a joke, I'm gonna get eaten alive to a song about love when I haven't even had my first kiss.
Just as I cleared the final rung, a gang of six sprinters reached the bottom. They screamed at me, preparing to climb when I suddenly reached out my hand.
"Alpha-9!"
My target was the steel rungs of the ladder.
I set the deposit point above my head.
Immediately, my cosmic dust began tearing the steel almost into a fine powder.
"Maximum output!"
That pins and needles feeling returned. But seeing the clueless look on those zombies as the ladder was ripped away? Made it all worth it.
"Delta-3!"
I slammed the hatch down, locking it.
I let out a long sigh as I looked up. A massive ball of shaved steel floated overhead. I took a few steps away, looking around the roof as my heart raced.
"Focus, Marcus," I slapped both my ears. "Ten screws and a driver. Easy peasy."
I looked back at the floating ball of steel.
"Epsilon-4."
The ball began to spin again. Steel like this had a melting point of about 1400 degrees give or take. I'll do 1500 just to be safe.
I glanced over to my right.
There was a row of massive industrial fans along the roof. And conveniently, they were on and pointed away from me.
Well, this just got a whole lot easier.
"Beta-5."
I set the sink in the air a little above the fans.
I waited for a moment, feeling the cool breeze wash over me, bringing the stench of death.
"Let's get this party started."
I gradually began raising the heat of the steel ball. The metal turned a deep, cheery red. It progressed to a blinding white. The fans were doing their job, blowing away the heat.
But I couldn't help the feeling that this was all too easy.
With the steel at peak heat, I visualized ten identical screws. I overlapped the image over the glowing ball.
Then small blobs peeled from the big one, matching the shape and size of the screws I envisioned.
I cooled them, dropping them into my hands. Ten perfect, identical screws. I pocketed them.
I turned my attention back to the steel ball and began crafting a driver. I smirked. The driver was finished easily enough. And it dropped in my hand just like the screws.
This doesn't feel right, this was too easy.
I looked down at the hatch, and up at the floating steel glob. I decided to create a steel cage around the hatch.
"Omega-1."
The cage settled in place.
I stood there for a moment, my eyes narrowed. "Nothing? Seriously?"
I looked down at the steel driver in my hand, before shrugging. "Alright… guess there's no fe–"
BOOM!
A zombie with the muscle mass of seven men ripped through the cage and sent me flying.
I crashed into the ground and rolled towards the edge of the roof. Blood oozed from my temple, running down my chin. My vision was hazed.
"Ugh…"
The massive zombie slowly marched towards me, grinning as its milky eyes narrowed.
I gritted my teeth, raising a hand. "I'll give you something to laugh about, you son of a bitch."
I raised my hand.
"Alpha-9."
This time my target wasn't steel, but the water that made up his body.
Except that the moment I sent the command, the zombie moved. He dashed to the right. The cosmic dust was still heading towards the designated area, which he wasn't in anymore.
My eyes widened.
I quickly changed the extraction location.
And again, he dashed away.
"No way…"
I tried targeting him again and again.
And every time I failed.
Until eventually he stood over me. His jagged smirk grew as my eyes stayed wide and unfocused. He raised a fist, and at that moment all I could think about was Lola.
Her smile.
The glitchy voice.
The hugs.
It was like my life flashed before my eyes.
And it was then I knew…
…I didn't want to die.
SMASH.
My head was violently ripped from my shoulders, blood oozing from my decapitated form.
I woke up, silently screaming in a field of flowers.
"Congratulations! You passed with flying colors!" Double-A bobbed in front of me.
I looked up at it, grabbing my chest as I took short, hard breaths. I sat there for a long time, my hand trembling as tears came to my eyes.
"Flying colors?" I croaked, my voice hoarse. "I died, my head was ripped clean off my shoulders. It felt so real…"
"Well of course it did! That's the point of the simulation after all!"
I swallowed, the phantom pain leaving my body.
"I couldn't extract the water from its body, I thought… I thought comic dust was power." I shook my head, "But it's useless!"
"Oh well that isn't true, you just gave it bad instructions. Cosmic dust is a very literal thing, and it takes time to get a job done. Not to mention, your environment is always dynamic."
"What does that even mean?"
"You can't take the air from someone's lungs, they'd just breathe in new air. But you know what you can control? Yourself! Get strong, use weapons, and most importantly don't panic."
I frowned.
"That's just a load of crap! What about Apollo? Huh?! Are all pilots like him? Just turn dirt into a nuke and level the battlefield? How can I compete with that?"
Double-A hummed.
"Apollo is a statistical anomaly. What he does, is by all means impossible. The manipulation of atoms should create explosions that level continents."
I blinked.
"Then?"
Apollo chirped, "You should stop comparing yourself to him. This is not to discourage you, but he is quite literally in a league of his own."
I laughed bitterly.
"Of course he is," I stood up, dusting myself off. "Get me the hell outta here."