Matuscarantos

  I woke up pissed off. I was also in the dark, in more ways than the extremely obvious ck of light. I couldn't remember why I was so upset, but I was ready to fucking kill some motherfuckers, with my teeth if need be. This feeling of rage was mixed with a deep burning pain of loss and betrayal. Something terrible had happen. And I couldn't recall a damned thing.

  Exploring my own thoughts, I could vaguely pull up fragments of memories of what I thought was my early life. Blurry faces that I was sure were my family. A fluffy ball of fur that grew into a fur monster of massive appetites. A smattering of other people and events. But I was completely missing anything recent. Only a vast sense of loss and rage, and nothing that could reasonably expin it.

  How did I know that? I wasn't completely sure myself, but I had a very strong impression that someone had done this to me. I wanted to find out who they were and rip them to pieces. I pushed that anger down, it wouldn't help right now. There would be time ter to to bance the scales, now I needed to take stock.

  I forced myself to pay attention to my environment. I couldn't see but I could feel grass under me, it smelt minty. If I wasn't so conflicted, I knew I would find it comforting. I heard water nearby, and could smell it. It also carried something else... "mana" a voice in my head whispered.

  That word summoned a cascade of thoughts and feelings. I couldn't sort all of it, but I knew that I had this mana and could use it. Yes, I could feel it inside me coiling like a serpent. It felt like fresh green pnts growing and savage hunting and storms scouring the nd. I liked it. It felt proper. The mana belonged to me and I to it.

  I couldn't see but nothing was stopping my sense of touch, so I explored with my hands. Huh, I was naked, but something was wrong with my body. What I was touching didn't match any of my admittedly unreliable memories. My limbs seemed longer, but my frame more narrow. I was really shocked when I got to my face. Very sharp chin and cheekbones, more gaunt features. My ears had points, long ones. My tongue felt that my teeth were sharper and my canines were now true fangs. I remember being human, what the fuck was this? Well, these fangs might come in handy to tear somebody's throat out. The certainty that this wasn't right set in for a moment, and I felt a wave of disorientation pass over me.

  As my left arm brushed against my face I felt something strange had happened to my arm as well. Huh, it felt like a branch or a vine was coiled around my forearm and dug into my flesh at my elbow and wrist. For a moment, the branch was gravely concerning, but another instinct from within seemed to accept the bizarre growth.

  My hands started feeling the area around me just in case there happened to be some clothes close by. No luck. I slowly got up. I didn't seem to have any injuries, nor any problem with my bance.

  Orienting by the sounds of the water flowing proved easy. I took light measured steps towards it, I didn't want to fall into a river or otherwise run afoul of unseen obstacles. It took some time to gingerly stalk towards the source of the water in the dark. Close to two thousand steps. Which highlighted that my hearing was sharper than I thought it should be. My frickin' huge ears were good for something, after all.

  Part of me thought I had to be outside, the presence of grass and water seemed to agree. Yet the more primal part of me knew this somehow wasn't true. No stars or moon, no random breezes, no animals sounds or scents. Something was fishy and it wasn't the water.

  No, when my foot found the edge of the water, the smell of mana was overwhelming. Clean pure water infused with mana, lots of this marvelous fluid judging by the sound. A few minutes of investigation with my hands and feet led to an even more interesting discovery. It wasn't a stream, nor a spring as I had suspected, it was a circle, a moat surrounding something in the center. I could sense vast quantities of mana there.

  I wasn't sure that I wanted to wade through the water naked, just to figure out what was there. Taking the time to drink my fill, a process that steadied my emotions, I pondered what to do next. I'd thought that the water might lead me somewhere I could get information, but that was a bust. Finding myself pying with the mana unconsciously was interesting. I was shaping the energies both in me and in the environment. The shapes meant something, even if I didn't quite recall what that could be. This was instinctive, it had to be from long habit and/or training. Ingrained deep beyond the reach of my waking mind. I tried to dredge up anything useful about mana in my noggin but drew another bnk.

  Wait, was that light in the distance? Faint blue light far above my head and quite a ways away from here. Its sheen was growing slightly stronger ever second. An artificial dawn perhaps? I waited in stillness, to see if the light grew stronger still.

  Now that the light was brighter something about the blue light called to me. I felt my mind reach out to it.

  [ Pylon #01 coming online... ]

  [ No connections found... ]

  [ Standby... ]

  What was that? Something about that line, "no connections found" deeply disturbed me. There was supposed to be more... more what?

  There was supposed to be a system of Pylons and... and what? What am I missing?

  A memory of a grim voice saying, "Breathe" and then something about counting. Feelings of awe and terror accompanied that voice.

  Who?

  If there were people around me, where did they go? Why am I alone?

  "I'll take good care of your people." another sinister voice whispered through my broken mind. Pure hatred fred through me.

  Something, someONE took my people from me! A deep growl welled up from my gut. That Someone must pay.

  let it flow over me, that anger and pain. Once I started to get blindingly pissed, I buried it. Not to put it out, or ignore it. No, I was going to stoke these fires, so that when I got my chance I could incinerate the asshole that wronged me. Wronged my people.

  But here and now it did me no good to be consumed by my own rage.

  The light was quite bright now. I could clearly make out a well of some kind in front of me. So familiar yet I still had no idea what it was. It seemed to be glowing now, a silvery light. The well needed light to glow like the moon.

  Moon... Well.

  It was a Moon Well! I had no clue what that meant but I was absolutely certain that was the name of this type of well. Maybe, I could find more things to unlock memories, however limited.

  I could finally see that was standing in a vast field of purple grass. That felt right. That grass was important to me.

  I looked past the Moon Well towards the light, now bzing a merry blue, far too bright to look at directly.

  There were buildings, now, were they there before? One was very tall, maybe fifty stories. It had words on the side MB: Treeside. The style of the building seemed off to me. Like it was too big, too futuristic. Yes, something was stirring in my memory about a broken future.

  Further out and further above me, there were walls and a ceiling I could just barely make out now, surrounding everything. This huge field of purple grass and the massive building I could see along with the smaller ones next to it, were contain by an even rger structure. That seemed impossible to me, though I didn't know why. At least now, I had a clear goal. Get to those buildings and explore them.

  Answers could be there.

  'Pce one foot in front of the other, repeat... ' A song came to mind, though I couldn't remember where it was from. My own brain was an alien pce full of hidden treasures, and probably vast amounts of garbage. Time would tell which this song was.

  Now that I could see, I did feel more confident moving forward as quickly as I could. My new longer legs ate up the distance to the buildings rapidly, as a walk turned to a jog, and then I was running. Something in that simple act brought me unimaginable joy. While I currently had no basis for comparison, some deeper pce in my mind noted that I was very fast.

  The field of soft grass ended and lots of solid concrete began, I didn't enjoy how that felt on my bare feet.

  Soon, I was standing in front of the giant building, marveling at it's size. A truly massive edifice of concrete, and what I was certain was steel. MB: Treeside was amazing and intimidating. A series of shallow steps lead up to an entryway. I was sorely temped to enter right away, but I figured I should look at the other buildings first to see if there was one more likely to have the information I needed. To my left, the Treeside ended up brushing against the wall that surrounded this enclosed world. To my right, there was a road and another low ying building of some kind. I went right.

  The roadway was a four ne affair, marked out in a way that felt very wrong, even if I couldn't say why just yet. The new building was maybe two to three stories tall. Covering as much area as Treeside. Large dark gss windows covered the side facing the road and several doors were half way to the next block. I moved closer, looking up at the sign that read Value Tree. I suspected a theme was forming. Yet, no where did I see any trees. Nor could I determine what this building was for, from its exterior.

  I let out a sigh. Oh that felt good. It was like a pressure release. 'Deep controlled breaths... ' Another one of those elusive thoughts.

  As I approached the Value Tree, I could see a somewhat blurry reflection of myself in the windows. That wasn't me...

  For one thing, I was purple. Why the fuck was I purple? No, don't panic, breathe. I'd figured out something was different about me, earlier.

  Maybe it was the light? I mean blue light might do some odd things to my color perception, right? Or cast my skin in odd tones? Of course, that didn't expin the extra long well muscled limbs, or the ridiculously oversized ears coming to very sharp points. I was some kind of Elf?

  'Fucking Elves... ' A tone of derision, contempt.

  What? Where did that come from? Also, I was pretty sure my eye weren't glowing green orbs before. Even my currently shaggy unkept hair was a light shade of green. Maybe my new eyes just saw colors differently?

  What was going on? The feeling of disorientation hit me again, and it me took longer than I'm prepared to admit to calm down.

  After all, I still had no clue what I did look like before. I just knew this wasn't it.

  Nothing I could do about it now. I hated that feeling, that powerlessness. Not being in control, it really was upsetting. Again a deep bass growl tore itself free from my throat. I had to forcefully unclench my hands. Also I now realized I had very sharp nails somewhere between a human's and actual cws. The blood oozing from my self inflicted wounds was a odd shade of purple. Darker than my skin tone.

  That was probably was the light. Wasn't blue light supposed to be bad from your eyes? Eh, well maybe it was, but it was the only light avaible right now. I'd just have to handle the consequences ter.

  Wanting to take my mind off my transformation for now, I opened the doors into the building. A bst of negative air pressure hit me gently as I walked through. It was a massive store. Groceries to my immediate left, more general goods to my immediate right. I could see furniture and appliances off in the far distance. It felt normal, but also creepy. No checkout stations. The distinct ck of people also added greatly to the eeriness.

  I looked at the food nearby, odd vegetables and fruits. Fresh and ready to be eaten, don't ask me how I knew, I just did. I was particurly drawn to the silver apples. I walked over. There was a sign. Asmurithan Apples. 2 for 10 Eddies / 2 for 1 Task Points / 4 for 1 Company Point. I reached for an apple. But a blue energy field stopped my hand.

  A mechanical voice said, "No funds avaible, please obtain funds to purchase goods." How do I do that?

  Something about Eddies seemed vaguely familiar, but I drew a bnk on Task points. Company Points though, those pissed me off. I almost struck the energy field again to vent my rising rage, but I had a feeling that open hostility in here was a very bad idea. So I backed out of the store.

  Maybe, I'd have more luck in another building.

  I followed the road down to the corner. I'd noticed something strange about the intersection for a while. No traffic lights. Now I could spot that right smack in the middle of the intersection was a pilr. It was overgrown with lovely Jasmine vines. Also there was a screen hanging about chest height, I could see a blinking prompt from the corner.

  I admit my curiosity got the better of me. Wary I step over to the screen, it read...

  Initialize Connection?

  Y/N

  For some reason that I couldn't expin that felt like a source of answers.

  The problem was that there was no keyboard. I tried an old standby of input, my voice. How I knew that, I couldn't say.

  "Yes." At this point, I wasn't surprised that my voice didn't seem to be right.

  The Branch on my left forearm squeezed hard. A new screen popped up, but this one was in my head.

  [ Connection to the Great Tree Network Reestablished ]

  [ Welcome back Ryan. ]

  A shock went down my spine. "Ryan." That was my name. MY NAME!

  A flood of memories pounded into my brain. There was pain, there might have been lots of screaming and yelling and cursing of fate. With one simple act the majority of my life had been returned to me, at least I thought so. I could still feel gaps here and there, but I knew who I had been now. Though I still didn't know why I was here. Or where here was.

  "Where am I?"

  [ The Hub, your Hub. ]

  [ The Hub is a reflection of your inner world. Here all your achievements and failures are in bare. ]

  "Doesn't look like much so far."

  [ There was a ck of memory to draw from, the realm will slowly come to reflect your new recollections. ]

  "Can I leave?"

  [ There are gates to the east and west. The western gate is for incoming and the eastern gate is for outgoing. ]

  "Where does the eastern gate let out?"

  [ Night City, specifically by the club known as The Afterlife. ]

  That was wrong. What was Nigh... more memories ripped their way free of whatever had been blocking them. All the events of the st few months rolled into me. I thought I had woken up angry. That was nothing compared to the searing, aching thing growing inside me now. They had taken everything from me.

  Why? No, it didn't matter. Why they did it was irrelevant.

  They had done it, now...

  {THEY MUST PAY!}

  The Hub shook with my wrath. I would find a way to make the Company feel my rage as well.