>> Little Miss Sunshine

  Granite screams and metal snaps as the walls are torn away by things from mad, drugged, dreams and evil fairytales. Foxes, and, fawns. Naiads and dryads. Fairies and dwaries, and things you can't name. All roaring and screaming and pouring from every broken hole and hollow.

  Ripping out great, heavy, chunks of masonry with tiny golden fingers.

  Shattering our still-burning flare.

  Forcing us back. Forcing us down.

  Forcing us under the table, as slabs of ceiling turn to headsman's axes that shatter against the floor. The rest simply.... removed by some vadt, mechanical, force disguised as thousands of fey litrle hands.

  The sheer, freaking, NOISE of three entire walls being utterly removed smacks my GMO ears like bricks

  Numbing me. Shaking me.

  It's pure Shock And Awe.

  The utter force of it pressing down upon us with the weight of some laughing god.

  Breaking minds with its power.

  Breaking reality itself as our world is eaten away by creatures of colour and darkness that burn through the gaps of our fingers. Unveiling a vast portal to some world of pretend that does not, and cannot, exist.

  And from it, unrolls a tongue of ruby red cartoon carpet. A thing of gentle curves and twists and winding ways that Impacts the floor like a mortar shell. Rupturing it into bits and dust that rattle off the faceplate of my helmet.

  A single, pretty, foot descends from it. Fluttering with ribbons and glittering lights.

  And there she is.

  That 'Friend From School' you pray you'll never see again.

  That 'Friend' that puts cold ice up your back with every little smile.

  That 'Friend' who never seems to die.

  The original leader of our team.

  She descends upon us with gentle, delicate, butterfly wings fluttering against her back. A fairy princess in a pretty pink gown - all done up in sequins, and bows with fanciful knots. With her hair in just the most beautiful braids.

  Flitting, so fancifully, as she reaches out to trail us with glitter from her glittery make-believe wand.

  Ending it all with a bratty little batt of her lashes. And a smile, so bright - like we're All Good Pals - as her cheery little voice rips right through my brain. Cutting it in half with a rancid, childish, phrase we all dread and remember.

  “Oooh! Lookie-lookie-loo! I found all of yooou!!!!!” The Fairy Princess cheers, as her court toot horns and trumpets. "Hello everybuddy! Gosh! Our Lovely Stepmummy is going to be EVER soooooo Happy that I've found yooooou!!!"

  “No….” I whisper, clambering from under the cracked table. "No! You’re bloody dead….!"

  Dead and gone. Dead and devoured by the things in the dark.

  But the tiny little girl twists her tiny little head, like a doll that came alive.

  Fixing me with such a warm smirk.

  "Oh? Am I?" She scoffs, with pretty hands on narrow hips. "Well! That's a berry nasty-mean thing to say to your Bestest BESTEST ever Friend in the whole wide world!!" She giggles with genuine glee that soon turns acidic and insane. "Especially after you MURDERED ME!"

  My mind skids to a stop. Utterly derailed.

  Exactly as she intended.

  "Murdered.....? What!? No, we-" I jolt out as Demon's teeth flash sharp and bloodied in the undulating light. A light that twists reality. That twists what happened. That remakes our world. Transforming fallen stones to moss and toadstools. Chairs into hillocks, and tables into mossy bowers.

  Killers to victims. Victims to monsters.

  "Oh yes!" The Fairy Princess insinuates, quite cheerfully, as something very broken gleams at me from deep inside her thick-lashed eyes. "Or did you want to Play Pretend?"

  "Pretend.....!??" I whisper, choking on the word. But then my mind catches up to memory. To the moment. To the threat above me, and I snarl with bloodied rage.

  "Mate! Don't-" Zip yells.

  "You're lyin' piece of bloody work!" I hiss in the face of unknown threat and whirling illusion. Ignoring the broken room around me.

  "Why thank you, kindly." The mad girl curtsies as I prowl beneath her. Finding no fault in the luminescent image. No glitch to see through. No hint of the true threat beyond. "And, you know..... I'll even forgive you. Isn't that nice of me? I forgive you. Even though you're all liars who pretend you aren't murderers! Even though you KILLED ME!!"

  "Y'think this is bloody School??" I snap my tail out, shifting my weight. Using the moment of distraction to build a picture, painted in touch, of the hidden masonry scattering the floor. "That you're some bloody Teacher? Rewriting Reality?"

  Her smile is dazzling, and bright, and quite unhinged.

  "Oh, Spookie. Didn't you hear?" She says as the glittering star of her wand twitches suddenly toward my implant. "I Graduated."

  I twist away from her, and it skims past my eye. "Don't you-!" I scream, hand almost snapping to the single remaining flare on my belt.

  No. I can't.

  If I just shut off her illusions, 'playtime' stops. Which means we gotta counter-strike, attack, knock out her illusions, and counter her big 'surprise' all at once.

  Without communicating. Without even knowing what she's got.

  But what if.....?

  I see her eyes shift to the flare, ever so slightly, and I know it just became bait.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Which means......

  I duck to one side, and snap a glance to Zip - then upward. Flickering a gesture as she streams in on me again. Sparking like a rocket.

  Laughing, wildly, as she thinks we're in her power.

  That she has played us so totally that we've just bloody accepted it. That we're spinning our wheels, and panicking inside. Hoping a solution will come rushing in to save us.

  Rather than the reality that I now know who I'm dealing with.

  How they think. And how they fail to.

  The wand snakes the other way. A burning trail of light, streaking for my head. Seeking my implant, and therefore my brain. Left, then right. Stabbing out a staccato. Forcing me back, into a snarling crouch.

  One hand on the floor. Tail a lashing curve above me.

  "You ain't gettin' in our bloody heads again!" I scream, as the tip skims up from the floor in a rush of gold. Dodging her mayhem again and again. "You ain't controlin' us!" I leap on the table, and the girl's smile is radiant. Wild. And ever so bright.

  The wand's tip stabbing cracks in the concrete, where I stood.

  "Oh, aren't you oh-so silly! We're just playing a game!" The fey devil sings with delight from the shadow-pink heart of that cartoon supernova. Spinning a dervish that sends me tumbling over the shards and scree.

  "NO." I bellow in the voice I know used to scare her. The holo faltering, if only for an instant. "YOU AIN'T GONNA PISS ABOUT WITH OUR MEMORIES!!!" I take a long, choking, breath. "We've bloody locked you out, y'little BITCH!"

  The wand dips. Dangling, carelessly, from two fingers as she shrugs.

  "Honestly, Spookie! I muss your hair and you accuse me of brainwashing you!! You really are quite.... hmm! Mad!"

  I trade a flicker of a glance with Zip, who nods slowly. Several of his bees bleeding off into the chaos of illusions.

  Keep her talking. Got it.

  "And you're a dumb dead bitch." I hiss, skittering away on all fours. "Which means I'm talkin' to a bloody fake-ass Simulant. An AI ghost."

  "A Sim?" Princess titters, regally. "Is that what you think this is?"

  "She always was a massive fraud." Our [Sniper] lets out, in a hard burst of cold laughter, hammering Badger free of the concrete wedging him under the table. "Fake Princess. Fake face. Fake Leader." Her eyes turn nasty. "Now she's Fake Alive, too."

  "The ultimate Fake Friend." I deadpan.

  "Nailed it." Kami chuckles as the holo-fairy glowers, slamming dented metal hands together. "Shit. She only turned out a [Sniper] to fake being me."

  I meet Kami's eyes, and nod. Demon palming something into his hand.

  Princess flickers a gaze of contempt across our ragged little army, and then her nails. "Yet here I am. Realer than any of you, I'd say." She smiles suddenly, and cheekily. "Perhaps you're the not-real ones. Did you think about that?"

  "Only real thing in here is us, and whatever did this....." I snarl at the hole still sizzling in the floor. Scraping it out with the leathery tip of a toe.

  And trying very hard not to look at Zipper. To even think about him.

  His new holo-spiders are gone. His bees evaporated.

  Has Fake Princess noticed?

  She never was bloody observant. But, then again, this thing ain't her - no matter what it says. It's just really, really, good at faking.

  If we're lucky, it might be too good.

  AI Sims can be weird like that.

  It could see, and hear, and know everything we do. Know, even, what we're going to do next. But then utterly ignore it all because the real Princess wouldn't.

  That's the gamble.

  It's playing a character. A role. But can it stop?

  Only one bloody way to find out.

  Kami crashes her massive rifle down on the cracked table, and unfolds it. Slotting the massive barrel onto the base. Massive, chunky, rocket-bullets rolling down her wrists to be grabbed and slotted into the rotary magazine.

  "You're going to try and Murder me again? Aren't you?" Princess sultrs as reality is ripped apart by mad illusions. By rising hordes of centaur, and living Toys. Their heads looming high and violent above us.

  Yes. Keep looking at me. At Kami.

  "You're nothing but digital ghost. A copy." Our [Sniper] states, not even looking her way. "And it wasn't bloody murder to begin with. The real Princess would know that."

  "Oh. It was. You Murdered me, gladly. You threw me away." Something icy and unjolly enters the pink fairy's tone. Wings lilting slowly. Delicately. As if fidgeting in rage. "But now I'm all better! Now I'm quite fine! A Princess once more, and all do declare! No prettier a princess shall ever there be!"

  Kami's hands stumble. A cough of dry laughter in her throat.

  "I am pretty! Aren't I?" The Fake Fairy Princess concludes, as her eyes turn ever more coy and vicious. Her tone dipping ever more toward danger. "You can say so, you know? I shan't be mad."

  "Pretty?" Kami says, very softy, lifting her weapon at last. "You've always been an ugly, spoilt, vain, little bitch...... Inside. Outside. All over, really." She clicks it home as the very air around Princess begins to darken. Her fairies turning spiky. "But pretty? I'd never accuse you of that."

  The Fairy Princess tilts her head with a tight, angry, little 'Hmm.'

  And then she raises a slow, calm, finger, and screams "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

  "KAMI!!" I roar, and our [Sniper]'s eyes flash wide. Her body slamming to the floor as the wall behind her explodes like it was hit by a tank. Ricocheting fist-size chunks of rubble off her back and helmet.

  Burying her in dust and bits, as Badger ducks back under the table.

  The whole thing over in half an echoing instant of violence.

  And, for half that instant, I think Kami might be dead.

  Panic forcing me forward, on jittering legs, a Ind rush to Kami's side. Stealth-orbs sparking and dead on her back. Her arms splayed out like the dead grip of a metal spider.

  "Oh my." Titters the sparkly pre-queen, behind me, as a shimmering fairy executioner rips his axe free of the wall. Rotating on too small wings to stare down at us all. "Did oooo have a widdle tumble? Did ooo bang ooo's knee?"

  "Kami....." I whisper again, as if frightened to wake her. My clawed fingers plucking at the air above - never touching her actual body.

  Because they can't.

  And I falter at the actual hurt in her eyes.

  "You ok-?"

  "Shut it. Idiot. That should be long enough." She hisses. "Go."

  I nod, and then stand. Slowly. Avoiding Badger's huge scared eyes peeping out at me. His over-large hand gripping the inner struts of the table.

  My heart cracked by utterly apocalyptic Rage.

  That singular blow could have killed two of my team. One a friend. One my little brother.

  I flick a claw from Demon to them as I turn, one last time. Facing off against the poisonous Princess and her sickly-sweet court.

  "Okay-bloody-dokie." I whisper in a low, and threatening, tone.

  Princess touches a pale, silky, glove to her spitefully-bitten little lip. "Is something wrong?"

  "Yeah. You." I hiss. "But I'm gonna fix that. Now. And forever."

  And I reach for my belt. For the one weapon I know will shatter all of her illusions.

  A weapon that isn't there.

  Just as predicted.

  I widen my eyes, and hope it's convincing.

  "SPOOK! ALL OUR FLARES ARE GONE!" Kami chokes, as if on cue. Right as Demon hauls her upright. Slapping at her armour, and his.

  Panicked in their search.

  And there is Princess, above. Touching her lip, as if holding back mirth, even as her mad laughter rings.

  I touch the spot on my armour, but there's nothing at all.

  No flares. No grenades. She took the bait!

  "YOU!" Kami breathes, hauling herself upright to face the illusion.

  Which puts on a twee impression of false innocence.

  "You came all this way to Play With Me! And here I am!" Whispers that sweet voice of doom, echoing from everywhere except the girl in front of me. Her lips twitching wide - not in a smile, but something darker. Less human. "....but did you bring your Toys?"

  "YOU BLOODY THIEF! YOU ALWAYS DO THIS!" Kami staggers forward. "EVERYTHING I HAVE!" She chokes. "EVERYTHING! YOU TAKE FROM ME! MY FRIENDS! MY STUFF! MY-"

  "Reverting to type, are we?" The Fairy Princess twists her sharp lips. "Always trying to pin things on me. Your little scapegoat? One never knows who could steal from you..... Maybe it was your precious little kitty....?"

  But her visage falters as she sees the spiky smirk ripping wide across my mouth.

  "Oh yeah. We brought em alright." It gets wider. "And then you bought it."

  "Wait." She yelps. "You wanted me to-?"

  "ZIPPER! MARK TARGETS!" I scream in absolute triumph and joy. "KAMI! OPEN FIRE!" And then, with barely a breath I add. "BADGER!!! REMOTE DETONATE THE FLARES!!"

  And, you know, Princess's face is the prettiest picture of shock in all the world as Kami lifts her massive gun. A storm of static erupting above as Zipper's bees designate her hidden projectors as targets on our Augmented Reality overlay.

  Which is just as well, because military flares burn utterly, eye-scalding, bright.

  Killing our vision - but killing her cameras too.

  Darkening the world to one of scent, and sound.

  A world GMOs are all too happy to work in.

  "Always too bloody focused on ya own tricks." I chuckle, as the hidden network of projectors above die in an explosive roar. Kami firing off shot after shot with her eyes clenched shut. Focused, only, on the targets Zipper printed on her vison.

  I raise my arms, like a conductor, as I hear the gantries scream and fall.

  Princess and her entire fairy court evaporating like mist on the wind.

  Revealing the hard-lit shadow of something much, much, much worse.

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