“So what now?” Rei asked as she wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands.
Thinking for a moment, I sat down and after a bit, I offered, “I think we should find this girl that recruited you. She might be able to provide some answers. And hopefully, in the process, we may find a way to return me to my human male self.” as a reply.
In front of me, Rei sniffed, nodded and developed a thoughtful look on her face. Turning her full attention to me after a couple seconds, she stated, “I think I know a way out of this town and into another world of the realms of Imagination. But, after that, it’s all up in the air, as I don’t know where she might be. Only where I last saw her.”
Standing, feeling this was our best course of action, I nodded toward the door and said, “Lead the way.”
A look like she was about to say something crossed Rei’s face and for a moment, I thought she said something about Blue Diamond. But, deciding she was just gathering her thoughts, I put it out of my mind and followed her across the room. As she stepped out into the hallway, I took one final look at the room, sure that I wouldn’t be seeing it ever again before following her out into the hall.
Using my magick, I shut the door behind me and turned toward Rei, who was already moving down the hallway. Following suit, I felt that since we would be travelling together I should say something, but found myself at a loss as to what I should say. Instead, I found myself thinking about my current form, how I was a Unicorn filly, “No, mare,” I thought in correction, feeling this term was more closer to what I had become, and how I might have to spend the rest of my life as such. Mentally shuddering, unaware I had actually done so physically, I hoped that I could regain my human male form, vowing that if I did, I would never dress up in girl’s clothes ever again.
Next to me, Rei continued to walk in silence, but when I shuddered, she asked, “Is everything all right?” bringing me out of my thoughts.
Smiling and nodding, I told her, “Yeah. I’m just a little worried I am going to be stuck like this for the rest of my natural life,” deciding to keep as close to the truth as I could, seeing as dodging the truth hadn’t worked out so well in the past for either of us.
“Being female isn’t so bad,” Rei commented and than added, “Though, I have no real basis of comparison as I have never been male.”
Realising that that we’d had reached the lobby already, I paused to look about before replying, “It is not just the idea of being female. It’s the thought of being trapped in the body of a pony, a Unicorn mare to be more specific, for the rest of my life that is also bothering me.”
A smile played across her face and bending slightly to hug me, the other girl told me, “I think you make a pretty Unicorn. And the way your mane and tail is stylised is really cute.” and standing, she waited a moment to see if I would say or do anything.
When all I could do was mutter a nearly silent thank you, Rei resumed walking across the lobby and following her, we both stepped outside the hotel. Blinking in the sunlight, I nearly screamed when something a couple feet to my left exploded, while next to me Rei did exactly that. As we both began peering about, trying to see what had blown up and what had caused the explosion, a metallic voice belted out, “Elevate your appendages or I’ll be forced to use the lateral cranial impact enhancer against you!”
Gazing in the direction of the voice, I had just enough time to see something that looked like a robot from a nineteen fifties black and movie before Rei began pushing against my rump, screaming, “RUN! IT’S A GRID MONITOR!”
Her hysterics nearly overwhelming me, I caught a glimpse of the robot levelling something in our direction before I forced my hooves to move. Racing down the street, I took a corner in such a manner I almost crashed, but adjusting, I quickly regained my footing and galloping down the street, I soon forgot about Rei, wanting only to get away from the robot, “Grid Monitor,” I reminded myself, as more bits of the street and surrounding building exploded.
Not sure where I was going, I eventually ducked into an alley and skidding to a halt, realising that I had lost both Rei and the robot, I wondered what I should do, sure that at any moment the Grid Monitor would appear. My breath escaping through my nostrils in great gasping bouts, I slowly trotted back to the edge of the alley and peered hesitantly out.
A movement caught my attention and fearing it was the Grid Monitor, I backpedalled, tripped over my own hooves, turned, righted myself and headed back into the alley, looking for either a place to hide or another exit. As I did this, I also glanced back the way I’d come every so often and when a familiar figure passed the opening of the alley, I stopped, turned and cantered back the way I came and peering back out into the street, I spotted Rei, who was steathily trying to move down the street, ducking into doorways and behind and beneath objects when she came to them.
Gritting my teeth, hoping the robot wasn’t anywhere close by, I hissed out, “Rei,” and quickly looked about, noted the empty street and then glanced back toward the other girl.
When I finally had her attention, I flicked my head toward the alley a couple times before returning to alley myself. Shortly afterward, Rei joined me and hugging me, which I returned the gesture, feeling comforted by it, I listened as she stated, “I lost you shortly after we lost the hotel and for a moment, I thought the Grid Monitor had gotten you.”
Separating myself from her grip, I glanced about, telling her, “As soon as we find a place to lay low, you are going to have to tell me what that thing is and why it’s called a Grid Monitor,” as I did so.
“Deal,” she whispered and indicating the other end of the alley, which appeared to split into a T junction, she added, “I think that if we get out of the city, we should have some breathing room. But don’t quote me on that.”
Feeling this was the best answer I was going to get, I nodded and continuing down the alley, I stopped when I reached the T-junction. Looking right and than left, I listened for the Grid Monitor, but only heard Rei as she approached from behind and whispered, “Which way do you think we should go, Reiko?”
Still looking left, I shook my head and replied, “I don’t think that way. It leads back to the hotel and that’s were I last saw, heard, the robot.”
As if to confirm this, an explosion ripped through the street I could down the alley. And as chunks of debris went flying every which way, including into the alley, I neighed, “Climb on,” and the moment I felt Rei straddle my back, I lowered my head and took off down the right junction.
It wasn’t easy to move with the girl on my back, mostly because of her weight and the fact that her feet were either dragging on the ground or her heels were digging into my side. But somehow I managed and coming out onto a street, I glanced left and right and then took the alleyway across the way. Criss-crossing across the resort town, I listened as the explosions grew fainted behind me, but didn’t let up on my wild dash until I was near collapse. Slowing to a trot, I barely registered when Rei slipped off my back.
Heaving, I stopped walking after a moment and merely stood in the street, trying to regain my breath. Next to me, Rei was looking about and I at first assumed she was trying to spot the Grid Monitor. But to my surprise, she headed for a nearby shop, telling me, “Follow me,” as she did so.
Curious as to what she was doing, I glanced up and down the street, to which Rei stated, “I think we lost the Grid Monitor for the moment,” in response to my searching as I continued to regain my breath.
Sure she knew what she was talking about, I took a few tentative steps and finding that my legs would continue to support me and I wasn’t likely to keel over from having run myself tired, I picked up my pace. As I crossed the threshold into the store, peering around at the various racks of clothes and the dusty counter as I did so, I asked, “Why are we going in here?”
Instead of answering me, Rei reached into the pack she was carrying, something I had missed and wasn’t sure when she’d picked up, but figured it must have been when we had left the hotel room. Taking out a folded piece of paper, she responded by unfolding it and telling, “If I am right, I think there might be an exit here. It is not the one we want, but it will allow us to get away from the Grid Monitor quicker,” and focusing her attention fully on what I could see was a map that consisted of red, blue and yellow lines overlaying a set of violet, orange, green and purple lines.
Confused about what she was looking at, I was just about to ask what the piece of paper was supposed to be when Rei folded it back up and placed it back in her pack. Nodding toward the counter, she said, “If I am reading the map correctly, there should be an exit over there.”
“That was a map?” I asked as I began to trot toward the counter.
Nodding, Rei replied, “Uh huh,” and hoping the counter, she began stomping on the floor, telling me, “But you have to know what you are looking at otherwise to the untrained eye, it appears as nothing more than a bunch of squiggly lines. The girl I was telling about,” she paused and reached down for something, tapped the floor a couple times and went back to her stomping.
As she did this, I moved around the counter for a better view of what she was doing. As I came around the counter, Rei continued talking, telling me, “She said the person who created it did it so the doorways between realms would remain hidden to those that are untrained.”
Wanting to ask if she had been told who created the map and why, I was immediately cut off by a nearby explosion as Rei exclaimed, “Ah ha,” reached down and pulled up on a section of the floor.
Another explosion, this one closer, and Rei hissed, “Quickly. Down the steps,” and walking closer, I saw that there was a set of steps going down.
As I started down through the trapdoor, a familiar female voice cried out, “I don’t care if you have to start destroying buildings. If this piece of garbage is correct, than they are nearby,” and pausing, I whispered, “Erin?” as Rei tried to push me forward.
“That’s my sister,” I hissed, setting my hooves down as firmly as I could, refusing to allow the other girl to move me any further.
To my surprise, Rei let up and leaning closer, she whispered, “That person may sound like your sister, but she is not your sister,” and seeing the look on my face, one of disbelief, she added, “Think about it. One, how did your sister get here? And why would she be using a Grid Monitor to locate you?”
Seeing some logic in what she was saying, I thought a moment before asking, “So if it is not my sister, than who is it?”
A shrug from Rei and as she began to once again push against my rump, she said, “I don’t know who she is. I just know who she is not and that if she catches us, the outcome will probably not be pretty.”
Again, seeing the sensibleness in what she was saying, I listened as the female I thought as my sister began to curse at something. Deciding that she wasn’t my sister, as I had never swear in such a manner, I shifted, told Rei, “Stopping pushing or I’ll go head over backside down these steps,” before stumbling down the flight of steps.
Behind me, Rei followed, pulling the door shut behind her, which sealed us into absolute darkness, as she stepped down the steps. At the bottom, I listened as she went through her pack and after a moment, she withdrew a something and with a loud “CLICK”, turned on a handheld torch. Pointing it back the way we’d just came, she scurried back up the stairs and after a moment, slid what looked to me like a bolt into a catch built into the wall.
Coming back down, she told me, “That aught to slow them down, if they find the door,” and reaching down, the girl began to feel about before exclaiming, “Got you,” and pulling on something, I watched as she collapsed the stairs into what appeared to be a pile of lumber.
As Rei picked up her torch, I glanced about and seeing that we were in a tunnel, I asked, “Were are we?” and noting the tunnel branched off in several directions, I added, “And what way do we take?”
Taking out her map and studying it, Rei told me, “We are in a tunnel system that exists, and yet doesn’t exist, beneath the resort town,” and seeing the confused look on my face, she said, “Think of if as a sort of nexus. A nexus that could either lead to another nexus, complete with either a tent or cabin in the exact centre, or could lead to several different points within the realms of Imagination,” and pointing off to our left to a branch that looked like it sloped upward, she stated, “We want this one.”
A glance back at the trapdoor and the collapsed stairs before I began walking, I asked, “So since it might take them sometime to find and get through the trapdoor…”
“If they can find it,” Rei interrupted me as put the map back into her pack and nodding in agreement, I corrected myself, “…If they find the trapdoor, do you mind telling me what exactly that robot was? Beside something called a Grid Monitor.”
A shrug from Rei, who replied with, “Since it appears we’ll have some time to ourselves, I can tell you what I know,” and shifting her pack, she took a deep breath and began.
“I know that they are called Grid Monitors and that they are part of the old technology from Blue Diamond. There, or some place similar to Blue Diamond. They are from before the wars, the Quondams and Isis and Inari tore asunder the world in the quest to spread the Truth. And there exact purpose, originally, was to police the Cyber World, both outside in the form we just saw and inside in the form of a NPC character. They were created by what some heralded as the greatest minds, ranking right up there with those who created the Cyber Worlds as the Grid Monitors were Asimov Guided Robotics, meaning they had anywhere from three to five laws they had to follow that basically protected the humans using the Cyber World. But, sometime after the wars and Isis, Inari and Quondams disappeared somebody found the Grid Monitors and began reactivating them, without the governing law subroutines in place.
Taking a deep breath, Rei finished by saying, “I’ve only had the misfortune of running into Grid Monitors twice. Once a couple months after leaving Blue Diamond, which I was lucky that the girl I’d met in the ruins still travelled with me. The other time I ran into one, I had to deal with it on my own. And only just barely escaped.”
Suddenly realising something, Rei stopped and looked off at nothing before turning to me and saying, “You know something. I never did get her name. It is almost as strange as several other things about her I’ve observed when travelling with her, including her eyes which sometimes appeared purple and other times magenta and at other times pink.”
Unsure what I should say, if anything, I instead asked, “So you don’t know who reactivated the Grid Monitors?”
“And neither did the girl I met in the ruins of Blue Diamond,” Rei replied as she began walking again. After a bit, she said, “She did have some theories, though. But nothing she could really confirm.”
Casting a glance back the way we came, I wondered if the Grid Monitor and Erin had found their way into the tunnels. As I followed alongside Rei, I decided that if they had, we would have certainly have heard something and be running by now. Worrying about the robot and its controller, I wondered what we would do if we were forced to ever confront it.
“So how did you manage to stop the two you ran into before?” I asked after we’d walked a bit further.
A shrug from the Rei who didn’t say anything at first and when I figured she wasn’t going to say anything, she suddenly said, “The first time, we met up with three other girls. I think one had a pink hair, one had violet hair and the other had on a strange uniform and her hair was black with either a single streak of purple or pink. Or was it multiple streaks? Oh well. I don’t remember exactly. What I do remember was that neone of them gave their names, and didn’t ask for mine, and between the fourof them, they figured out how to deactivate the Grid Monitor.”
“The next time I ran into a Grid Monitor, I wasn’t in their company. I didn’t, and couldn’t, deactivate that one. And, after it destroyed half a town trying to get to me, for whatever reason, I just barely managed to escape through a door into another realm. I suppose it is lucky that the thing was so hell-bent on capturing me, that it destroyed the door shortly after I went through.”
Trying to work some things out, I eventually asked, “You don’t suppose the one that we ran into in the resort town is the same one you ran into previously?”
Instead of answering right away, Rei continued to walk and after a moment, muttered, “All their ears came to a point.”
Stopping, I sputtered out, “W-w-what?”
A sheepish smile appeared on Rei’s face as she stopped and turned about when she realised I was no longer next to her. The smile still on her face, she explained, “I just remembered something. The three girls I had travelled with. All their ears came to a point. I don’t know why I suddenly remembered that fact, or why it is important.”
Shifting the conversation, she said, “It is a distinct possibility that the Grid Monitor we ran into is the same one I ran into. Though, I have no real way of telling. I suppose the only one who would know, is whomever is controlling it.”
“I bet Erin would know,” I said, a hint of worry coming into my voice as I glanced back the way we came.
From where she stood a couple feet further down the tunnel, Rei nodded and said, “Yeah. But unless need be, we shouldn’t worry about that at the moment,” and turning, she waved the arm holding the electric torch and said, “Come on, Reiko. We are almost to our destination. We should be able to loss them after a couple more doors. At least for a little while.”
Facing forward and then starting to walk again, I asked, “So what exactly is our destination?”
“Blue Diamond,” Rei stated matter-of-factly. “From there, I am hoping to retrace my steps to where me and the others parted and went out separate ways. Hopefully, we should be able to catch us up to them.”
I was just about to ask something, when far behind us, very faintly, there was a faint explosion and before I could say anything, Rei swore, then commented, “They found the trapdoor sooner that I thought they would,” and indicating what appeared to be a flat wall, she said, “We’ll just have to go through here.”
Watching as she approaching the wall, I viewed her turn left, than right. After a couple seconds, she nodded, made a motion for me to follow, then walked right a couple steps and then disappeared before I could point out that there was nothing there. Approaching the wall, I peered in the direction Rei had just vanished and uttering a sound that almost might be a neigh of surprise, I stared at the girl who was now standing a couple feet down another passage, peering at what looked to be a ladder built into the wall.
“We might need to go down a level,” she announced as she withdrew from her pack the map.
As she unfolded it and began to examine it, I trotted up to her and noticing that there was a hole in the floor, and one in the ceiling, I asking what I felt was the obvious by saying, “Ummm, how do you expect me to go down a ladder? Quadruped, remember?”
“Good point,” Rei suddenly replied and shifting the map, she muttered, “Hmmmm, we could backtrack a bit. But that might not work because of the Grid Monitor.”
After a bit of turning the map first one way and than another, she finally hissed in frustration and stated, “We either have to try the ladder or backtrack,” and folding the map, she made a motion to me that clearly said it was up to me to decide as she put the map back into her pack.
Not really liking the option of going back the way we came, I approached the ladder and peered down the hole. Not seeing the ground, which quickly dissuaded me of the idea of jumping, I asked, “And you are sure that there are no other options?”
“There are other options,” Rei replied. “It’s just, those other options take us further from were we want to go. This, and the one some ways back down the tunnel, are our best options. Especially considering what is chasing us and what a hurry we are in,” and shifting her pack, she took a couple steps back the way we came, saying, “Tell you what. Since I realise this was a bad idea, let’s go back.” as she did so.
Shaking my head, I sighed and resigned myself to the simple fact as I said, “No. We’re here and might as well give this our best,” and extending out one of my front hooves, I placed it on one of the rungs.
As I took a deep breath and told myself, “You can do this,” I placed my other front hoof on the same rung.
Shifting my hindquarters about, I tried to place myself one way and then another. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get myself into a proper position and in the end, I hooked both of my front hooves over the rung of the ladder and dragged myself forward. Hanging from the ladder, trying to get my back hooves placed on a lower rung, I barely heard Rei when she said, “Reiko. I think you are right. This isn’t going to work. We should just backtrack.”
A deep gust of breath escaped past my nostrils as I gritted my teeth and feeling one of my back hooves brushing a lower rung, I retorted, “No. I got this. We’re good.”
Shifting a bit more, steadying myself, I placed first one of my rear hooves and than another on the rung. Sure that I looked silly, the mental picture of a Unicorn hanging from a ladder coming into my mind, I forced myself to release one of my front hooves from their grasp on the rung. Attempting to scrunch my body up so that I could grab the next rung down, I shifted and suddenly feeling my rear hooves slipping, I panicked. Trying the grab the rung I had just let go off, my balance shifted and suddenly I was falling. A fleeting glimpse of Rei flooded my vision and as I screamed out, “CRAAAAAAB SPACKLE! I found myself twisting in mid-air as from above me, I could hear Rei yelling, “REIKO!”