134

 

134.  The Final Generation

 

Vance Darcouver opened his eyes.

 

Before those eyes registered anything, Vance felt psynergy rushing into his body, but it wasn't his own. Covert and sinister, it slithered into his mind, preparing to dive deep within his soul.

 

"He's in." Deep within Babylon, Pan Dora watched the Albavitrean pulsate in his chair, deep within the back room of Bakersfield Babylon. Behind her, Averyl, Wendy, Winslow, and Bruce watched in silence. "Now it should only be a few more seconds until we find out his ranking."

 

Soon, Vance saw a lush green landscape peppered with hills and trees that reminded him of his youth in Turtle Creek. Still fighting the strange psynergy that attempted to overtake him, Vance flexed his own psynergy in response, only to feel an unprecedented torrent of power rush out from deep within his body. Like a tidal wave funneled through a straw, it was almost too much to bear.

 

"Jesus Christ!" Pan stared at the screen. "He's an A too!"

 

The room trembled, and its inhabitants teetered, awestruck by the monstrous power that poured out from the 18-year old's body. Gaping jaws and boggled eyes flickered from the screen to Vance, witnessing in the flesh what they had only imagined in their dreams.

 

Then, the A on the screen transformed into a silver S.

 

Pan's eyes widened. "There's a level beyond A?! This is insane!"

A hand bathed in purple flame illuminated the dim chamber as Vance reached up to the device on his head and violently ripped it off. Acute pain shot down his neck as his link with the device was severed, and he angrily tossed the machine to the ground.

 

"This thing..." He looked to Averyl. "It amplifies psynergy!"

 

"I figured as much." Averyl smirked. "But that's not all it does, yes?"

 

"There was something else." Vance sat back down in the chair and took a deep breath. "It felt like something was trying to pierce my mind. Everything happened so fast, I wasn't able to sense it very well. It must have been his psynergy, Averyl."

 

"He's connected to them," Averyl's blood red lips hissed. "Every single one."

 

"How does it work, though? It didn't feel like I was thrown into another dimension."

 

"Virtual reality," Bruce ventured. "Mixed with psynergy, I guess."

 

"Bruce..." Averyl murmured. "Do you know what Grayson Lee's true ability is?"

 

"No," Bruce replied with a defensive hastiness. "I just figured he always had his reasons for never telling us. Security, you know."

 

"He can influence people, sometimes to the point of pure hypnosis, we know that much." Averyl traced a long fingernail across his mouth. "But I expect his true ability goes deeper than that. People aren't the only thing he can influence. And if he were to amplify such an ability through a network of minds like this..."

 

Vance's mind lit up with images of his father's glassed over eyes, lethargic nature, and all the frustration Vance had felt over why his father had apparently done nothing to find out what happened to his own wife.

 

"He wants to control people." Vance returned his gaze to the Greymatter on the floor. "But he doesn't want an army. He wants to use them for something else...something worse."

 

"Hey," Birdo called out to the group. "Are you people talking about Grayson Lee, the Vice-President of the Zexaron Corporation?"

 

Vance's head shot up. "You know him?!"

 

"No," Pan answered. "But he's a legend around here. Supposedly he's the guy who developed the Greymatter, back when Bakersfield was where the main Zexaron HQ."

"What?" Vance leaned in. "You mean he isn't here anymore?"

 

"Last month, Zexaron opened up a larger headquarters in Houston, Texas, just around the time Edward Darcouver rose up to become the new President. After McCarthy passed away."

 

"How do you people know all this stuff?" Winslow asked.

 

"It's common knowledge these days," Pan answered. "Zexaron's put themselves on the map now with the Greymatter. It's a humanitarian device approved by the FDA, meant to assist the have-nots and those who were born with great difficulties in their life. It's meant to balance the playing field for everyone...and the thing's only priced a dollar, so millions of people have already bought them."

 

Millions of people. Instantly, Vance envisioned an Earth filled with psynergy users: armies colliding with one another, volcanic eruptions of psynergy rupturing the planet, insane, uncontrolled destruction.

 

Without a further thought, Vance charged up a violet orb of destruction and aimed it toward the device.

 

"Stop!"

 

Pan leapt cross the room, not at Vance, but in front of his blazing hand. He managed to restrain himself, but kept the lethal blast charged inches from the human's face. Heat from the potent energy made Pan's makeup slowly drip down.

 

"Get out of my way."

 

"You can't stop us," Pan said adamantly. "This is what I...what all of us have been waiting for!"

 

"You have no idea what this really is," Vance answered coldly. "Using this will bring death to not only yourself, but tons of innocent people."

 

"And what makes you think I care about that?!" Pan snarled, standing in defiance before the metapsynergy. "I'll probably be dead in a few years anyway. I'm going to use this power and send out a big fuck you to the rotten world. The Greymatter is a gift to us from the God of all freaks. Just like Jesus, he's giving us a chance at getting revenge on the devils who rule this world."

 

Vance shuddered. "What God?"

 

"Grayson Lee," Pan replied, tearing up. "The architect of this glorious creation."

With a violent elbow, Vance shoved Pan out of the way and fired a jagged blast of psynergy at the Greymatter. It frizzled and cracked, and he could see green licks of energy arc in and out as the machine fried. Pan screeched, then quickly prepared a counterattack.

 

"Why are you doing this?!" Birdo shouted, just as Vance tore into the A/V terminal. "We didn't do anything to you!"

 

"Grayson Lee is using you all." Smoke wafted up behind him as the Albavitrean turned around. "He killed my mother, and countless other people. If I let any more power fall into his hands, he's going to end up destroying everything."

 

"Then more power to him! Why do you want to save Earth anyway?!" Pan shouted, then released a tiny blast of shocking fuschia psynergy.

 

Vance dissipated it easily, but was still shocked by what the Earthling was capable of. "It's not about Earth. It's about the universe."

 

"You don't know how it feels!" Pan screamed. "You don't know how it feels to receive a death sentence for absolutely no reason! My body is decaying! As if I wasn't enough of an outcast. I have no life left to live anymore, and now you're taking away the one thing–"

 

"Wait." Birdo reached out and restrained his leader. "I finally remembered where I heard the name Vance before!"

 

The rising tension in the small room was momentarily dispersed as all eyes converged on the ogrish man.

 

"President Darcouver had a son," Birdo explained. "He was married to Victoria Darcouver, the original Vice-President of Zexaron, and they had a son named Vance, who went missing earlier this year. He talked about it in a press conference."

 

Pan calmed down a bit. "This is starting to make more sense now. What is this, then? Some elaborate plot by your father to oust Grayson?"

 

"He just said Grayson killed his mother." Birdo put the pieces together. "Maybe Grayson killed Victoria and took over her position?"

 

"Probably with good reason," Pan spat. "Maybe she feared the new technology, just like her son."

 

Before Pan had even noticed that he moved, Vance's hand extended out from a portal and curled itself around the Queen of Babylon's neck. "Don't you ever talk about my mother again."

Pan looked back at him with horrified eyes, struggling to breathe as he choked her.

 

After a moment, Vance let go and turned to the rest of the group. "We've wasted enough time here. Let's head to Zexaron."

 

"The one here, or in Texas?" Winslow sighed.

 

"Vance, just tell me one thing before you go," Birdo called out. "What is psynergy? Where is all this leading?"

 

"To the Space-Time Continuum," Vance answered, eyes aglow. "The end of this universe. To God. That's where Grayson wants to go."

 

Visibly frightened, Birdo stammered a bit as he went on."Y-you might want to know this... There 's a new version of the Greymatter supposedly coming out soon. Only psynergy users levels C and above are going to be authorized to use it, though. It's something like a chip. I'm not exactly sure, but they said it's something that can be permanently implanted into the brain, so that you don't even need to use a headset anymore."

 

"So he really is planning to use this to enslave people." Wendy's eyes widened.

 

"It must amplify psynergy just enough to allow humans to bypass their inherent limits, then trains them using their minds until they're strong enough to use it in the real world," Averyl guessed. "Every single person using a Greymatter is unknowingly going through extreme psynergy training."

 

Bruce stared at the charred fragments of metal and wire on the ground. "This is what he was working on for so long?"

 

Vance noticed the introspective look on Bruce's face. "Well? Any thoughts?"

 

"Not until I hear from the man himself." The Tiger crossed his arms defiantly. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

 

"Give up on the Greymatter." Vance addressed the room for a final time. "We're going to destroy every last one of them."

"Vance!" Pan seethed, as the group of five began to exit Babylon. "You, nor anyone else can ever make me give up on anything! I'm only going to get stronger!" The white-haired human punched fists into the ground. "Even if it destroys this worthless body in the process!"

 

The shutter crashed down, leaving Pan Dora and Birdo alone with their broken equipment. The rest of the spectators huddled at the far wall, watching with silent trepidation.

 

Pan rose, wiping away sweat and tears. "I may be too weak to face him now...but someday..."

 

"He's incredibly strong," Birdo commented. "The same goes for all the people who were with him."

 

"There's no way Grayson could lose to a kid like that. He'll win...but he may need help. We need to let him know about this. Contact the local papers, post it on the internet, whatever you can think of," Pan quickly devised. "We have no photos, but it's a timely enough rumor to carry. We need to find a way to get in touch with Grayson."

 

"But isn't he in Houston now?"

 

"What's the name of that guy who answered our questions when we first went to the Zexaron building? The Asian guy."

 

"Oh..." Birdo scratched his head. "Grayson's business partner. Goddammit, what was his name again?"

"It started with an S..." Pan thought. "I think it was... Sa..."

 

"Sasuke," Birdo nodded finally. "Sasuke Fukunaga."

"That's it." Pan stared deep into the grey fuzz of the disconnected TV screen. "Sasuke

 

*************

 

Fukunaga will be coming to speak with us momentarily," Hijikata Toshizo said. "Sasuke is the 13^th Heir to the Fukunaga house, the family who has served as the guardians of the Three Sacred Treasures for over 1000 years."

 

As he finished the introduction, Hijikata folded his hands awkwardly over the long birchwood table that sat in the middle of the conference hall. Despite the old-fashioned paper screen windows and doors, as well as the tatami mats that lined the hall, the table itself was foreign, and its chairs were stiff and uncomfortable – yet another product of the shogun's vanity.

 

Hijikata stared down the table, awaiting a response. Seated next to him was Okita Soji, looking at Hijikata with a mischievous grin as usual. Beyond him sat Nagakura Shinpachi, with his wild red hair and white, red and black makeup decorating his face; Saito Hajime, still in the suit he wore whenever he visited the Earth factory; Takeda Kanryusai, a scholar dressed in fine silk and horn-rimmed glasses; Inoue Genzaburo, a burly, unshaven man who stunk of sake; and finally Yamazaki Susumu, Hijikata's ever-faithful scout, dark eyes locked firmly on his superior.

 

On the opposite end of the table sat the last member of the meeting: Yamanami Keisuke, the know-it-all poet who had originally helped boost the squad's sophistication and political clout so that they would be noticed by a governmental behemoth like Koga Suzunosuke. Unlike most of the other officers of the squad, Yamanami was a well-educated orator, and had not grown up in the country fighting for his life day after day. He was tall, with long, well-combed hair and a smooth, handsome face.

 

"Ah yes, Sasuke, the son of Fukunaga Gennosuke," Yamanami commented. "A name I know quite well. Gennosuke was the first man of his line to use his wealth for good purpose, investing it in a project from another dimension that aimed to create an inter-dimensional network of tunnels. He was heavily criticized by the government for this, and eventually moved his main office out of Yamato. His two sons were not raised here, and if my memory serves me well, his youngest son Tao went on to become Seneschal of the Church's Guild of Dimensional Knights."

 

"Thanks for the history lesson, Yamanami," Hijikata grunted, "but you actually missed the most important point. In not so many words, Sasuke's father looked down on his own world, and used government money to fund religious terrorists."

 

Yamanami Keisuke looked back to the Vice-Commander with frustrated eyes. The position he now sat in – "General Commander" – had been given to him by Kondo Isami, their leader, but the shrewd bookworm knew that it had been proposed by Hijikata in order take Yamanami out of the direct chain of command. The name was nothing more than a special-sounding formality, reverting Yamanami into a babysitter for the bloodthirsty division captains. He and Hijikata tended to disagree on just about everything, so he didn't blame the man – he simply cursed his mistrustful paranoia.

 

"I respectfully disagree." Takeda Kanryusai fingered his glasses and sided with Yamanami. Takeda's mechanized infantry had done a great deal of damage to the southern rebels from Sacchu in his recent expedition, so the 5^th division commander sounded even more conceited than usual. "Gennosuke did us a great service. Without the Fukunaga connection and their technology, we might never have gained access to the Greymatter in the first place."

 

Yamanami glanced at Hijikata, noting how the man's hands slowly curled into fists.

 

"Even while Sasuke was off gathering capital and resources in other ventures," Yamanami added, "he kept in contact with us over the years through his assistant Grayson Lee, who eventually gave us the enhanced versions of the Greymatter that allowed us to so effectively storm the old capital and decimate the Royal Guard. You should be praising the man, Vice-Commander."

 

"They banned us from entering their main factory due to confidentiality," Hijikata replied sourly. "I don't trust him."

 

"Well, when is he coming, anyway?" Okita asked. "I'm looking forward to meeting him."

 

"He didn't give a time," Hijikata replied. "Cryptic as always. In any case, there are other matters to discuss. Kyo has been taken by the Iga clan, as I'm sure you've all heard."

 

"Oh, I do hope Harada's alright," Nagakura said, as he stroked his chin. "Without his musical accompaniment, the rest of my performances this year will be in jeopardy!"

 

"If you must blame someone, blame the traitor, Tani Sanjuro," Hijikata went on. "This is all his fault for not following through with his mission and directly lying to us about the current situation. By the time I arrived in the capital, it was far too late."

 

"Well, at least the royal line is cut off now." Okita shrugged, then smirked to Hijikata. "I just hope his estranged daughter doesn't come back to claim the throne someday."

 

Yamanami noticed the strange exchange between the two, then let out a light cough and raised his voice again. "I recommend the rest of the officers will remain to receive Fukunaga's visitation. Shogun Koga is currently out with Ito Kashitaro surveying the Open-Dimensional Market, so I believe he will not attend."

 

Along with Yamanami and Takeda, Ito Kashitaro completed the trinity of men who worked to suppress the chaotic natures of the Shinsengumi officers, Hijikata included. Unlike every other member of the squad, Ito had been appointed as a special advisor to the Shinsengumi by the shogun himself. Before Hijikata had gone to Kyo, Ito had tried to convince him to take three divisions along with him, all in order to ensure the safety of his prodigy, Todo Heisuke. Hijikata had ignored the request.

 

Yamanami was pulled from his brooding as the the large paper screen doors to the spacious hall opened, and a lone figure walked in.

 

He was short, stout and stood no more than 5'4". With a bald head and two beady eyes resting in his pudgy face, the white-robed man looked hardly threatening – if one were to completely ignore the raw, burgundy aura that quietly idled around his body.

 

"Hello gentlemen, and nice to meet you." The newcomer smiled politely as he approached the table. "I am the founder of the Zexaron Corporation, Sasuke Fukunaga, and I bring you good tidings."

Next: Pit Stop in Grey Hell