《A Little God in my Hands (Final Draft)》 1 | MESSIAH
A row of levitating coffins wound its way down into the folds of ancient, graffiti-steeped buildings. Accompanied by holographic memorabilia, the procession rivalled the neon sphere sizzling on the horizon past the smog.
Beneath steel quills that once were kaput stairs, wretched wires that summoned holograms, and smashed sliding doors was a dune of Coloradoan debris and sand hosting a protean crowd outside of the cemetery. The cemetery was divinely pristine; it could have been a 21st century asset that spawned from the past. The inhabitants of the desolate city made sure it was a respite in No Man''s Land.
The crowd of mostly teenagers and children swayed from carousal to ululation when the row of caskets descended from the inky sky. A young man''s carousal halted when he poured the remaining moonshine he had onto the potholed concrete in requiem, almost smearing Joaquim''s kaleidoscopic red dress. Joaquim disliked the color red; however it was his older brother''s favorite color and thus his brother''s old clothes were used to make the dress that covered him from head to toe. His worldly body was that of a girl''s according to the reality he was loaded into.
While thinking of him, Joaquim bumped into his older brother after dodging another sandy splash. The fermented air wafted around the peripheral sidewalk of the cemetery, hosting whiffs of perfume, cologne, and alcohol.
"There''s my sister," Gabriel Wami whispered triumphantly. His swaying red jacket could have been taken right out of an Akira poster. The genetically-modified fireflies in his brown knapsack ignited their bioluminescence, heralding the incoming dusk from the last glints from the neon semicircle. Gabe turned himself to face his little brother, the fireflies behind him lending his silhouette a golden halo.
White humans and araks often could not deduce that Joaquim was related to Gabe. It was the only time they did not consider two black people to be related for some wild reason. It was so obvious; their faces gave it away. Sure, Gabriel was light skin while Joaquim was far from it, but they both had the same full cheeks and vivid eyes.
"Where did you go?" Joaquim asked, turning himself as well. He could not quite face Gabe; the summoned holographic Alkrezian mask covered Joaquim''s face. It was designed to require as minimal resources as possible, and it did not obstruct his vision at all. The digital distorts within the loglo temporarily cut the waxing moon and two crosses adorning Joaquim''s neon mask.
"I was trying to shoo away the talking animal," Gabe replied, searching between the mournful trudges surrounding Joaquim. "According to the Aulasy... we are supposed to delete them."
"The beagle doesn''t talk," Joaquim lied. Luckily, his older brother was bad at spotting a liar. "The beagle''s just clever."
The canine must have tugged Joaquim by his ankles how he was suddenly pulled downwards.
You need to be more slick, Joaquim thought while meeting the gaze of high sentience from the beagle on the sand. The sentient gaze that once upon a time only humans and araks had. However, the dog''s despondent appearance signified his true status in No Man''s Land. It was as if his bones could slice through his thin skin at any moment as his joints had more florid skin than fur. The outline of the beagle''s skull jutted further when he opened his jaw in hunger, casting morbid shadows as he was resisting the urge to speak.
Don''t say anything. Please.
Joaquim dug into the patched hoodie pocket on his dress, remembering briefly the last time Gabe wore the hoodie when it was not cut in half. It was many years ago. However, with the backdrop of chewing and a ripping paper bag, Joaquim''s stowed samosa was no longer in the pocket.
Joaquim followed the noises to find... Farouq.
"Thanks for dinner," Farouq muffled through the masticated samosa.
Joaquim could imagine the hunger vanishing from Farouq''s gaze, however he had healed gashes instead of functional eyes. The duper''s delight on his lips were brighter than the neon circle that drowned underneath the metropolitan horizon. The drone Visard that served as Farouq''s eyes buzzed gently above the funeral march going down the dune.
"Why are you angry? What''s wrong?" Gabe asked as Joaquim grabbed Farouq''s beige kameez by the collar.Stolen story; please report.
"That wasn''t yours asshole!" Joaquim yelled, grabbing Farouq''s collar with his second hand.
"Do you really wanna to start a fight when Prophet Ameen is almost here?" Farouq asked with a grin. "You better let me go faggot."
Joaquim''s wrathful fists were about to do a lot more than just hold onto a collar, however he did not have a death wish. The boy with a hologram mask and quilted dress did have a penchant to be self-sacrificing, but he certainly did not have a death wish. He did not want to disappoint the man he came on a pilgrimage for.
Indeed, the brothers did not come for the dead, as they did not know any of the teenagers or children in the coffins. They came for the glowing man behind the last levitating coffin above the dune and buildings.
Prophet Ameen.
The man''s skin gleamed as if the sky was bare. It was a delicate brown; as delicate as sand on a freshly terraformed beach. With his youthful face, totemic jaw, and imposing presence, his appearance placed him anywhere in between his early twenties and early hundreds. Once the refurbished caskets and Prophet Ameen arrived above the crowd, Joaquim peered into the messiah''s sepia eyes. They were so alluring that they reminded Joaquim of Jupiter''s atmosphere, a planet he dreamed all his life to see up close. The levitating man''s irises had the illusion of stretching for miles past the prophet''s skull rather than stopping at his eye sockets. Someone deep within the crowd was yelling.
Please don''t go! I beg you!
The floating coffins descended past a ransacked bodega, turning the block to levitate across the cemetery gate with Prophet Ameen.
"Lil'' Morti, are you awake?" Prophet Ameen asked.
Prophet Ameen was talking to a robot sitting atop the circular cemetery gate, and he levitated a little higher to Lil Morti''s level. The bot resembled a copper toddler with its stature and skinny limbs. His large googly eyes sparked and he nodded. He opened his scalp and threw in his solar-paneled hat, and he pushed down the tiny windmills on his shoulders into his body. He skated down the steel fence, causing the scalpels, forceps, clamps, and saws to rustle in his torso. A make-up kit fell out of the broken clear lid on his torso, but he picked it up right away. The bot lifted his cartoonish head to meet the gaze of a man dragging a reluctant wife beneath the coffins and Prophet Ameen.
"Please don''t go! I beg you!"
With enough force into her sliding sneakers, she stopped him temporarily. He rattled her pull at first, but then he took a few more deliberate steps before a calculated halt. Her eyes widened, she lost her hold of him, and she plummeted into the grieving crowd''s arms. The man then marched beneath Prophet Ameen.
"Do not minister this funeral you false prophet!" the man yelled beneath him.
Before he and Joaquim were aware that he was no longer in the air, Prophet Ameen''s bare feet touched the concrete by the yelling man.
"Do I hear blasphemy?" Prophet Ameen asked gently.
The man''s mouth gaped at Prophet Ameen''s supernatural swiftness, but he regathered some composure by flaring his teeth away from his celestial gaze.
"Young man, I do believe in second chances," Prophet Ameen murmured. "I''ll give you one more chance to stop this nonsense before I arrange your meeting with God. I suggest choosing to stay among the living for a bit longer. Judging by your rib cage I can see through your ripped shirt, you could use my charity."
"You are no prophet. Give my sister back. She is in the third coffin," the man demanded.
Prophet Ameen smiled. "The Lord once said you shall know them by their fruits. I have brought back humans from the dead, cured man-made plagues, and made Babylon''s descendants take refuge in flying cities. The miracles I have performed should be more than convincing."
Joaquim thought about the beagle dog. Now that Prophet Ameen was here, the beagle needed to leave immediately. After squinting towards the left into the horizon, Joaquim found the beagle running into the folds of the desert exhausting her residual muscle. There was a time Joaquim would do his best to denounce talking animals as encouraged in the Aulasy, but he had a soft spot for them. Some of them were born that way. The man that confronted Prophet Ameen was quiet the whole time, going back and forth between a shaky step back and leaning forward.
"I don''t want my sister to be part of this funeral," the man reiterated. "You are just a supersoldier to me."
"I guess you have made your choice," Prophet Ameen said. "I would have given you the coffin if you repented."
The man''s body from the neck downwards flickered. Joaquim stopped blinking, and he saw the body reappearing less and less. The body stopped returning after a final hallow flicker, leaving behind a floating head with a severed spine sticking out. Blood and spinal fluid dripped onto the concrete, the puddle it created raising grains of gravel to the surface. A radiant sphere appeared above Prophet Ameen, and the decapitated head flew inside it.
One by one, the humans in the crowd bowed down to Prophet Ameen. Joaquim threaded through bystanders, holding Gabe''s hand as he strode towards Prophet Ameen.
This was Joaquim''s chance. He never changed his appearance to reflect what he felt inside, that was a sin after all, but Prophet Ameen could exorcize those thoughts out of him. Prophet Ameen was omnipotent.
Is he? Joaquim asked himself. He immediately regretted it; doubting his holy prowess was a sin too. And it was almost as if Prophet Ameen could read his mind, because after Joaquim checked on Gabe one more time to make sure he was coming with him, Prophet Ameen was already observing Joaquim.
All three of them were now within arm''s length.
"I have been waiting for you two, Naomi and Gabriel," Prophet Ameen said. 2 | FLUX
A week had passed since the funerals.
What remained of the city around the mosque the three boys ventured to was more erosion, yellow grass, and wild weeds rather than concrete and cyber metal. It was as if judgment came upon the blasted blocks and only left sacred structures intact. Well, that was until the Byza gang desecrated the beige mosque itself, now adjoined to the urban sprawl rather than defying it. To Joaquim, the Byzan graffiti scratches were a welcome change from the symbols and slurs A Big Satan Under Your Pinky Toe fans were fond of.
"They''re either dumb or ballsy," Farouq whispered just a little louder than Visard''s buzzing above. The sky lit the boys and the scenery quite brightly even though the atmosphere was blacker than ever. Today the smog was too dense for the midday neon circle to crack through.
"I am betting on dumb," Gabe replied.
"Why are we here today?" Joaquim interrupted. "Aren''t we supposed to come tomorrow?"
"Time is relative," Farouq mouthed.
"Shut up. You don''t even know what that means," Joaquim said.
"You got told to come here right?" Gabe interrupted, glancing in Farouq''s direction. The three of them were around two hundred meters away from the desecrated mosque. "Shouldn''t we be hiding? They can see us from here."
Farouq scoffed. "I don''t give a fuck. I got flux too. And so do you."
"What are your powers anyway?" Joaquim asked Farouq.
"What? Are you planning to jump me for eating your samosa?"
"No."
"I am an esper," Farouq finally answered.
"You didn''t answer my question," Gabe fussed.
"What do you think?" Farouq blurted out. "Why am I going to answer something so obvious?"
"If he''s here this early then he got told to come here," Joaquim answered. "Did Prophet Ameen know that Byza would already be here?"
"I guess so. You two have eyes don''t you?" Farouq said.
Sparks and smoke crackled above the corrupted concrete underneath the boys. They all strode away with quiet gasps until the crunching of bark scared them into hopping away from wherever the sound came from. They turned their heads to the direction of the crunch, and it came from a tree that did not forego its own growth despite the remnant of a skyscraper piercing atop its soiled roots. Indeed, the tree''s roots kept growing upwards to the heavens, and it gallantly circumnavigated the mass of steel, the shattered highrise windows, and the debris underneath. The roots wrapped around the mass and converged into a triumphant trunk at the crest.
The barky crunch returned even though it was coming from behind the skyscraper chunk at first. The crunching proceeded to the front of the chunk, activating the roots to slither like lightning bolts or glitching neurons. While the invisible sun helped manifest a rampaging boar''s shadow behind the mass of metal and concrete, what appeared to be stabilizing roots at first were actually the foundation of a deer''s antlers spawning on the frame of the highrise window.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Joaquim remembered that there were random sparks on the ground earlier, and he turned his head back to find a smoky silhouette of robes and bare feet. Farouq and Gabe were already observing the peculiarity until gunshots echoed across the polluted air. The boys dropped into a crouch, either rolling or crawling behind whatever frames remained from shops and buildings to protect themselves.
However, it seemed that they had nothing to worry about.
Opposing the Byzan gunners from the mosque stood Prophet Ameen where the smoke once hovered. After a clang and spark from a bullet missing Visard grazed a defunct streetlight, the gunfire immediately ended. Gooseflesh formed on Joaquim''s skin after the sudden silence.
Amidst what could barely be called a gunfight, Prophet Ameen was perfectly still as if he was giving a sermon inside the mosque. What Joaquim mistook for subsonic fire was actually the flying heads of the Byzan gang members. Wooden boards that hid the illicit activities within the mosque''s windows turned to magnolia branches hitting the dead grass, letting the dark shadows of flying heads overflow through all available openings.
Subduing his underlings with an immediate death, it seemed their Byzan boss finally decided to confront Prophet Ameen. Channeled flux poured through his pores and bender-worn suit as he kicked open the mosque doors. When Joaquim turned his head back to Prophet Ameen, he already approached the boss within a flux jump''s distance. Joaquim, Gabe and Farouq ran after Prophet Ameen across the yellow weeds and cracked concrete.
The stupor in the Byzan boss''s step became more pronounced as he focused more flux across his body, flooding out the sounds of hooves hitting pavement. "Does that ability you just used not work on flux users?"
The stupor had yet to reach his voice, and he was hugging a fluxtrode machine within his arms. It resembled a defibrillator that was made with jet black metal and neon blinkers.
He must have used it to awaken his abilities, Joaquim thought.
"You have made it even more obvious that you are new to this," Prophet Ameen said.
The Byzan boss smirked, his lips and skin more parched than the yellow grass beneath him. "I did not expect you to be boastful. I thought you would have just killed me as fast as the others."
"When I criticize your sophomoric debut to a flux fight, let me assure you that your opinion of me is of no concern," Prophet Ameen said. "This is solely about your foolish question. Have your foes ever tried to ask how your aim is so accurate when you fired at them? And were you foolish enough to answer the question with helpful advice?"
"So no helpful advice then?" the Byzan boss joked, his words juxtaposing his forced smile and sweat beading on his forehead. Other than Visard''s buzzing getting a little louder when Farouq examined it, it became eerily quiet again with Prophet Ameen''s nonresponse. The boss''s body below the neck flickered to nonexistence for a snap second until he forced a step forward.
Releasing a battle cry and all the flux he could at once, the Byzan boss flux jumped towards Prophet Ameen. Amidst smashed terrestrial cars on the parking lot of the mosque, the silhouettes of a boar and deer veered in between the two humans. Due to not being able to react due to the momentum he already picked up in midair, the Byzan boss tripped over the boar that oinked in frustration at him and he fell into his demise onto the deer''s antlers.
The crunch of bone and flesh after his second reactive and fleeting scream was incomparable to the mystical crunching of the tree earlier. Joaquim could not deduce if it was due to meeting his end so suddenly, but the Byzan''s boss final scream could have echoed through multiple dimensions.
With the clopping getting quieter with distance, the freshly impaled corpse lubricated the deer''s antlers, the blood aiding the body slide up and down while she carried it behind the mosque.
Even though Joaquim and Gabe winced the whole time at the Byzan''s boss utter humiliation...
Farouq laughed. 3 | DEVOTION "Why''s your head always in the clouds?" Although it was now behind the brothers, Joaquim took another glance at the breathtaking sahn outside. Beyond the prayer hall''s entrance and past his Alkrezian neon mask was gleaming white porcelain seaming into every portico. The courtyard''s architecture was designed to capture all of the light it possibly could from the sullen sky Visard was adrift in, and the captured light gave the courtyard an ethereal aura. Clearly Prophet Ameen''s numinous prayers restored all of the vandalism caused by Byza. However, a strange monolith that broke some of the tiled porcelain floor a long time ago still remained undisturbed. "You did it again." Before he could wonder whether the stygian monolith the Alkrezian inquisitors kept a parental eye over could attract or manifest an earthplexus leyline, or if it had any relation to the strange tree from earlier, Joaquim finally brought his attention to his brother that was speaking the whole time. Joaquim only listened to what Gabe said twice. "Head in the clouds?" Joaquim asked. Gabe raised an eyebrow, or a very faint unibrow when Joaquim peered hard enough. Joaquim''s older brother pretty much finished puberty at seventeen. His mustache and soul patch were growing back already. "You never heard that phrase before?" Its meaning became clear when Joaquim realized how much boisterous yelling he tuned out from the prayer hall. Indeed, the youth flocked all the way to the mashrabiya. The ruckus came from the unconverted exclusively. Well, except for Farouq of course. The only inquisitor-candidate that had the gall to be casual with Prophet Ameen. While thinking of the messiah while Farouq chatted and threaded partway within the crowd, he had arrived. Astonishingly his presence already caused the ruckus to simmer down, Joaquim did not even have to turn around to discover who entered. Within the corner of his eye he espied the appreciable silhouette of the jet black priest gown the messiah donned. He had that presence even among those that have yet to devote themselves to him. "There''s no need to be so... somber," Prophet Ameen said as he scanned the prayer hall. Either way, teenagers donning shipshape thrift clothes moved aside, creating a pathway to the minbar. Those with more traditional wear like kameezes were closer to the usual praying rows. "I know past missionaries gave reluctantly-attended sermons." "We could not come in here for weeks!" a child yelled. "I know. Farouq told me about the uninvited guests that were here," Prophet Ameen replied. Did Farouq use his esper powers to tell him... or did he use the earthplexus? Joaquim wondered. Another appreciable man came in with Prophet Ameen, someone Joaquim was sure he recognized from an earthplexus site, yet no name came to mind. He did not mask himself with the plaid-cloth masks that inquisitors were known for, but he was an inquisitor that did not need to announce his role amongst the Alkrezians and non-believers. Especially non-believers. Simultaneously his warm smile was both inviting and imposing, yet it was not as warm as the sepia irises that captured the spectral light bleeding in from the mashrabiya. "Who''s that with Prophet Ameen?" Joaquim whispered to Gabe. Unfortunately he only realized he was the only one speaking after that question left his lips.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. "Naomi!" Prophet Ameen called. "I am surprised that you are still speaking, however there is no need to be so quiet." "He was asking about Camilo," Gabe said. Joaquim noticed his brother addressed him the way he wanted to be addressed. "Ah, my inquisitor," Prophet Ameen said, glancing behind him. "I do want to touch on another topic before I introduce Camilo to everyone." The messiah stepped up to the edge of the minbar when toddlers shuffled closer while Farouq, Joaquim, and Gabe were not too far behind from them. Now that the crowd outspread across all the available space instead of gaggling into big groups, the cyan prayer rugs beneath them revealed themselves between sandals and bare feet walking away. "Why do we pray four times a day instead of five Prophet Ameen?" a child murmured. Prophet Ameen smiled at the boy. "I can answer that after my sermon." With more teenagers either taking a seat on the floor or leaning against the wall, the seeping lights from the mashrabiya reached Prophet Ameen and the inquisitor he had yet to introduce. "Wait... we have yet to eat anything," Gabe said. "We? I was first at the table," Farouq said. "Do not worry," Prophet Ameen assured Gabe before raising his voice. "Gentlemen sitting on the table, could you please stand by the side so I can take a look at the rations and water from here?" The row of teenaged boys looked at each other before walking to the side of the banquet table, and the table was cleared of both. "That tells me most of you came because you were famished and thirsty," Prophet Ameen said. "If you have no further reason to stay, please do not feel obligated to do so. If you were to devote yourselves to God, you must come here due to your own volition, not because you are coerced to do so." Joaquim briefly remembered that those that reached the age of adulthood would essentially be coerced into becoming Alkrezians. I am only fourteen so I am fine. I am starting early. Gabe... how long have you been an Alkrezian for? It was difficult to survive in No Man''s Land; the lack of nourishment made the mind such a fickle piece of flesh hardware. That must be the reason Joaquim had contradicting memories of Gabe''s conversion. "Actually, just stating it so is not good enough. I ask all of you to be frank with yourselves as the truth shall always set you free. Please raise your hand if you only came here to nourish yourselves," Prophet Ameen requested. Expecting hesitation at first, Joaquim felt silly once his red dress waved so gently from Farouq raising his hand in an instant. "I only came here for the food to be honest." The youth in the prayer hall laughed. With Farouq''s sincerity making it easier for others to be sincere, more hands shot up. Even Gabe raised his hand. "What?" Joaquim asked in shock. Gabe shrugged. "Sermons and prayers... can be boring. I still do them to be a good person... but if I were to be honest with myself... I don''t always want to come." "Have you attended one of Prophet Ameen''s sermons?" "Not face to face." Most of the room did not raise their hands. Noticeably Camilo did not. However, Joaquim was the last one to raise his hand. "Huh?" Gabe asked. "There''s a part of me that..." Joaquim gulped and lowered his head. Although he did not want to meet Gabe''s gaze to finish that thought, his wariness as to whether there was anyone turning eighteen that had their hand up and his curiosity as to whether Prophet Ameen''s was displeased with all the arms raised motivated him to tilt his head back up to find... Prophet Ameen beaming. "I want to simply tell you all that this is normal," Prophet Ameen said. "Spiritual growth starts with being honest with yourself and bringing your true self, then questioning yourself as to why you do not want to deepen your relationship with our creator. Let it be known that no matter what ails you, as long as you devote your true self to the Lord will make sure to always feed you, protect you, and clothe you the same way I have done here and will do again now." Could I bring my true self to you? |name i_am_that_i_am While Prophet Ameen performed another miracle to replenish the canteens and spawn more rations, it was impossible to tell if it was the utter awe upon Joaquim or another force beyond understanding accelerating time. It was too late to deduce whether time was flying within his mind or the outside world. The sky shapeshifted. 4 | NEON BIBLE After the sermon about Memoryfeed and walking the path of virtue, everyone in the congregation converted. Either that, or the unbelievers kept their blasphemy to themselves. Either way, all of the children took a copy of the Aulasy home. The Aulasy was a bible that had contents from the true version of the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, a version of the story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, excerpts from the Parable of the Sower, Snow Crash, and much more. None of it was considered science fiction anymore. Ruminations of the tree and the monolith persisted more than any memories of the sermon. All Joaquim could think about was what Prophet Ameen said before the sermon. Bring your true self. "Say," Gabe said. "Was that obelisk at the mosque an earthplexus server?" Farouq halted. The three boys walked in a desolate street inside the abandoned city, and the pavement and crumbling blocks were cloaked in the night''s darkness. With the state of the sky there was no bare moon to lend its luminescence. There was only the lapsed starlight the smog allowed to diffuse through. This time the drone Visard was not hidden away, and it was so Farouq could observe the brothers'' reactions while he gossiped about some of the attendees. The velvet mask strapped to four propellers still swayed backwards even when Farouq stopped suddenly. "The talking racoons or possums would have taken it and tried to sell it to Byza or to a corporation that is still down here," Farouq replied. "It was broken at the top... and the pieces from it weren''t anywhere on the floor," Joaquim said. "Byza took it. Maybe," Gabe wondered. "I also heard those rocks ain''t worth much," Farouq added. "I haven''t heard anyone be able to spawn or attract a leyline with it. I actually don''t know of anyone that was able to sell those rocks either." "Do you think r0cbytes can be made from that obelisk?" Gabe asked. "Nah," Farouq replied immediately. He raised a thumb to point it at his chest. "I would be the first to know if that was possible." "Gabe," Joaquim called. The seriousness in his voice attracted both the attention of Gabe and Farouq, only the buzzing from Visard could be heard. "You know what I''m thinking don''t you?" Gabe smiled. They both turned their heads in Farouq''s direction. "Yea I do." Farouq tried to keep the same monotone expression, but he eventually caved. He laughed, throwing both of his palms behind his head, causing his beige kameez to pull up slightly. "Alright fine. I''ll stop playing stupid. I did try to use the earthplexus in the mosque. Right by that weird ass rock too." "You weren''t scared at all?" Joaquim asked. "Prophet Ameen really told us about the evils of Memoryfeed¡ª" "Of course I wasn''t," Farouq interrupted. "Who the fuck do you think I am?" "I think you''re an asshole," Gabe declared. The longest silence yet fell upon the cracked street. "Look who''s finally saying shit to my face." It was always difficult to tell whether Farouq wanted to seriously fight or playfight, but Joaquim jumped in between them either way. Farouq managed to shove Gabe before Joaquim grabbed his wrist.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "You''re just trying to change the subject!" Joaquim yelled. That got Gabe to immediately let his guard down rather than continue. "Yea! You better tell us what you were watching!" Gabe added. "It was porn again wasn''t it?" Joaquim asked. Gabe and Joaquim chuckled, getting Farouq to try and grab Gabe again. "That''s haram!" "And you really like watching holographic haram!" Smacks across the head were thrown until Joaquim yelled again. "Seriously!" Stop! What the hell did you do on the earthplexus?" Farouq stepped back, panting slightly. "I was barely able to spawn an image with my imagination. I was able to get an earthplexus site up." "See it was porn!" Gabe yelled, getting Joaquim to burst out laughing. "I''ll kick your ass again bug freak!" Farouq yelled. "What''s going on?" The unknown voice asking the question got the playfighting to cease. Caught wrists were in the air while the boys tried to scan for the somewhat familiar voice. There were auric tugs between their newfound fear and the lighthearted mood established. "Stop touching me." "You''re the one that likes watching girls touch each other." Camilo came out of the shadows. "What are you talking about?" "Uh..." Farouq mumbled. "A chiro girl was cracking another girl in a video?" "Sure," Camilo replied nonchalantly. Gabe and Joaquim let out a synchronized laugh. "You boys are looking for an earthplexus leyline. You three already know we''re supposed to wake up early... well today." Earlier when Prophet Ameen called the three boys to the front after the sermon was over, he got Farouq and Camilo to tell the brothers their purpose. To tell them why fate brought them to the messiah. "No we''re not," Farouq lied. "Have I ever believed any of your lies?" Camilo asked him, placing both of his pants on the waist of his cargo pants. The tension from the inquisitor''s sudden appearance dissipated, and the brothers chuckled at the blind boy. "Say Camilo," Farouq said. "You never told me what your flux power was." "I can simply show you," Camilo said. Camilo''s flesh distorted, at first as if colonies of ants were crawling under his skin, and then like boiling plastic. His skin and flesh split apart without a drop of blood leaking out. His clothes split apart into strings of fabric, changed colors and materials, and sewed itself back together into Ember City''s supersoldier uniform. The uniform had a camouflage design using white, black, and gray squares, and his shoulder hub manifested and projected a hologram of two chevrons with a star. Then Camilo''s skin settled, and he morphed into a female-presenting human that appeared to be a few years older than Gabe. His chin got thinner and pointed outwards, and his eye lashes grew into the length of kitten whiskers. He had black wool-like hair in a bun, a custom for anyone in the Ember City army with long hair. Joaquim remembered to breathe. "So you''re the one sneaking us into Ember city? The city in the sky?" Gabe asked. Camilo nodded, and with a much higher voice he said, "and you will call me Dalia while I am in the city so we stay undercover." "Why would they let people from down here join their ranks?" Joaquim asked. The Aulasy foretold the downfall of the flying cities that housed descendants of Babylon. It was easy to resent the humans up there. Joaquim and Gabe would head down south from the abandoned city to scavenge through falling garbage from Fornia. Thinking about it, Joaquim just remembered most of their army was not white at all except for 1 platoon. Many were not even arak or human, while 1 platoon was always a homogenous platoon. "I think I answered my own question in my h¡ª" "Wait," Gabe interrupted. "Who''s jaunting us up there?" "Another inquisitor we are meeting in a few hours... hopefully you''ll sleep in those remaining hours," Camilo answered. "Now come back to the mos¡ª" "There''s a leyline here!" Farouq yelled, already turned away from the conversation. "Camilo, you wouldn''t mind if I spawned this right?" Farouq turned around to reveal that he conjured with his imagination... A hologram book. The Aulasy. "We already gave you a physical copy." Gabe pulled the hologram away from Farouq, presumably using his mind. "You know I allowed you to take it right Gabe?" Joaquim followed the book to find his brother''s expression changing as much as Camilo''s did. His brother''s bloodlust flooded the street and Joaquim''s nervous system. "You have no idea how long I have been waiting for the prophecies in these pages to pass." As he held the neon bible he read once upon a time as a house of leaves, the way he expressed his desire to hurt the ones above on the trip back to the mosque... he eventually yelled like Prophet Ameen did during the sermon. After spotting a masticated corpse and the mystical antelope with bloody antlers gaiting within the vicinity of the mosque, Joaquim pulled the hologram book away from Gabe using his own mind. The neon bible vanished.