Prebenknownst to Iker, he had woken up from a coma.

  Directly above Iker were blinding hospital lights, and in between blinks he could observe the artefacts of his character sheet fading under his eyelids. This was indeed the Hospital of Usher, however his loading memories were not yet cohesive. He glanced over to his left arm, and it had been replaced by a prosthetic arm made of Prunus Tantalum and metal. Fortunately the exterior of the wood was painted to look like regular bark. All of this information cut down a large amount of possible timelines and resets.

  When his eyesight became more intelligible Iker rose from his hospital bed to look through the window a meter away from him. It was nighttime but his headlights were left on. He pulled out the IV inside his right arm and applied pressure on the wound while getting up on his feet. Upon reaching the window sill and glancing down into the streets lit up by holographic advertisements he knew which city he spawned in.

  This was the flying city of Fornia.

  "Iker."

  All of them being at the age of fourteen, Bastian and Fatima walked into the dorm.

  "Do you know about the time sh–“

  "Yea, you were supposed to prevent Camilo from getting his shapeshifting powers. Why did you use unstable mode again on the ship?" Bastian asked.

  "... you woke up just now didn't you? Your memories of what happened in the one platoon spaceship..." Fatima murmured.

  "Yea," Iker said. "I met my future self... but apparently we don't share the same worldline anymore. I guess we are two separate beings now."

  "You met Iggy?" Bastian asked, inciting immediate nods from Iker.

  "That means the mods failed to send your current consciousness to that fight in the spaceship. Do you have any memory of that?" Fatima asked.

  "I remember fighting Pegasus and Wexil with Uzi on the arak spaceship–"

  "Shit," Bastian interrupted.

  "What?" Iker asked.

  "I was with you... well a version of you... on the one platoon lambda. In this reset we never got on the arak spaceship," Bastian explained.

  "This is not good," Fatima said while shaking her head. "But let's not get lost trying to figure out something we may not be able to figure out right now. Let's remember our primary objective... the reason the Alkrezians were able to enter the flying cities was because of Camilo. If we can't prevent him from becoming a shapeshifter, then let's cap–"

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  "We are already ahead of you."

  Chills spread all across Iker's body. The trio turned around to the outer and dark hospital hallway to find a stitched up Camilo wearing a hospital gown. With blood pouring down his left arm, he clearly did not apply any pressure to his IV wound. And even then he had no problem raising his bloody arm in a battle stance, as the other three proceeded to do the same.

  "It's over," Camilo murmured. "We already won."

  Howsoever he was able to force his way out of his own coma in this instance, Camilo did not hesitate to show he had acquired control over his shapeshifting much sooner too. Fatima and Bastian did not hesitate either to enter their kaya forms to rush towards the shapeshifter while flesh strings dispersed out of his body.

  Before Fatima and Bastian could land any kind of attack, Camilo became more white fur than blossoming human skin. A magically enhanced goat head and robe burst through the growing fur Camilo became under the dying lights.

  The simulation crashed, digital lines tearing through the Hospital of Usher like a cracked car shield.

  JANUARY 23, 2180

  PUEBLO, COLORADO

  Considering all the useless garbage that fell from Fornia to the outskirts of Pueblo, fourteen-year-old Iker managed to find quite a bit usable metal. After topping off his cart with piles of copper strings, he pushed it away from the trash heaps and then threw out his printed cleaning suit into the overflowing dumpsters close to the abandoned suburbs. It was smoggy as always, but the sun was somewhere keeping the town alight. From being so distracted, it was only now that Iker heard footsteps approaching from behind him.

  "Hey," Camilo greeted.

  While Iker wore a tank top and shorts to not sweat too much inside the suit he had just worn, Camilo wore a sweater and jeans to stay warm in the chilliness of the desolate suburbia.

  "What are you working on?" Camilo asked. "Another drone?"

  Upon Camilo asking those questions, something became clear. Iker was in control of this memory, or could it be called a memory anymore? Either way, he was not simply just living through this memory in a state of unconsciousness.

  The Iker that was just in the flying city of Fornia moments ago was in control of this memory now.

  "Camilo... let's quit working for Byza... for either Dominic or my so called father," Iker requested.

  Camilo furrowed his eyebrows. "That's random. Aren't you making another drone to fight on their side?"

  "No... for us," Iker said with a smile.

  "What about Bastian?" Camilo asked.

  "I'll get him to quit too“"

  "Wait," Camilo interrupted. "How the hell are we going to earn a living? Byza is all there is here... or joining the Alkrezian cult."

  "I'll figure it all out," Iker pleaded.

  Camilo frowned even further, shaking his head while he turned away from Iker. "This is not like you. This is confusing. How did you all of the sudden want to quit? You're not the type to be so random either."

  "The type?" Iker asked.

  "Yea... like who you are–"

  "I am not dumb, I know what it means–"

  "I didn't call you dumb dumbass," Camilo interrupted, turning back around to face Iker while some of the gravel below him got kicked away.

  "You're starting to sound like me," Iker said with a faint smile.

  "No shit. I spend a lot of time with you," Camilo admitted.

  "That was why I reacted to the word type like that," Iker explained. "From the way you said it."

  "Uhm... what?" Camilo asked, raising both of his open palms confused.

  "... you're thinking about what type of guy I am," Iker answered, turning away from Camilo before he blushed.

  "... is this your way of flirting?" Camilo asked while raising his eyebrow. "You were angry with me just now."

  "I don't remember why frankly," Iker said. Camilo did not need to know that it was because of spacetime shenanigans, but either way, what caused Camilo to need unstable mode in the first place was him getting shot by Dominic in multiple resets. If they could just leave the Byza syndicate, no matter how strange Iker came off while doing such, then perhaps Camilo will never become a shapeshifter.

  Camilo did take a while to respond, only doing so with a smirk at first. "You were so against having anything to do with me."

  "Why?" Iker asked.

  "You don't remember?" Camilo asked with even more confusion.

  "No... to be honest... I am just exhausted from getting all these metals for the new drones," Iker said. "My focus was just that we had to leave Byza."

  "Why?" Camilo asked.

  Iker did remember one thing. It was a horrible truth, and through the uploaded memories he could garner he understood that the past consciousness was waiting for the right time to tell this terrible thing to Camilo, but now this angel form of Iker had to tell him.

  "I guess I have to tell you now. Why I am getting us to leave Byza."

  Iker told a lie, because the real reason he wanted to leave Byza was to prevent future Camilo from becoming a shapeshifter and helping Feechi to set up portals in Ember and Fornia. However, Camilo's confusion changed to a whole new emotion. His current frown changed to one of sadness.

  "I... don't tell me please," Camilo begged. Before he had turned sideways, but now Camilo's back was facing Iker. Camilo indeed had an inkling of what Iker was trying to tell him.

  "You... you kept telling yourself it was just a nasty rumor didn't yo–"

  Without a pause, Camilo began sprinting away from Iker. The lie was that the rumor was the reason they were leaving Byza, but the rumor itself was true.

  Until nightfall, Iker had chased Camilo all around the desolate town of Pueblo, and he told an exhausted Camilo that he knew that he was a test tube human all along. Iker's father Maverick was Camilo's creator, and he was the one that sold his childhood to the sick Alkrezian priest of the town, the one Iker could not call Camilo's father at all.