Alex had stopped singing.

  He’d always dreamed of seeing a working airport. From videos he’d watched online, there’d been shops and bars, massive planes built from metal without magic, and people bustling and kissing each other goodbye before flying to far away places in a grand game of worldwide logistics. But with the monsters in the sky and little want for non-magical flight, they were a relic of the past.

  Now that he was in one, running and weaving as fast as he could manage, he decided he hated airports, and his hatred was quickly extending to people too. Even though he knew from [Investigate], these people were not people.

  [Past Passenger]s, all of them, he’d gleaned from his Skill.

  But they look normal! And none are attacking me.

  “Excuse me! Trying to make a delivery, here.” He barked at a wall of people that had seemingly popped out of nowhere. Again.

  Multiple crowded lines of people all turned towards him as one at his call. Of course no one moved to give him a path. The lines forming around the gate that would see no passengers on their flight only seemed to crowd further.

  Where the hell are they all COMING from?

  Alex shivered and tried to shut out all the noise. No one told him how loud airports were, with constant unintelligible announcements and conversation tidbits no sane human could parse together. None of the strange passengers attacked him outright, but there was something seriously wrong with all of them, even for monsters. They yapped constantly and were incessantly pulling paper in and out of pockets to check them. They certainly didn’t act like any people he knew.

  Must be something about airports.

  Their eyes were glazed over and they shuffled about in hordes in every direction, dragging far too many tattered bags and always seeming to need to get in his way. Any direction he went another group with blank faces was right there in his personal space. He’d caught a dozen wet coughs in the back of the head and had already dodged as many open-mouthed sneezes. Children ran around unchecked by parents, their faces only peeling away from dead iPads to lick every available surface, including his elbow. Why did it smell like stale air and feet? And how was he supposed to get to his destination if no one moved for anyone?

  He felt trapped despite how far he’d gotten. Moving quickly was impossible. It’d taken his fastest feet and constant lateral movement with a fair bit of spins to get where he was. Still, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get out of there. It was all so overwhelming.

  People crowded in around him, and he stumbled back subconsciously. Looking around for Brody, Alex still couldn’t find him. He then searched the faded gate signs. For a building with only straight shot halls and plenty of arrows to tell you where to go, it was way far too easy to get turned around.

  Remembering the direction the GoCoin had pointed him towards, he sighed loudly. It’d taken most of his essence to [Phantom Step] his way out of the claustrophobic crowds to flip it. The only available air had been right next to the washrooms and the saddest food stand selling wraps he’d ever seen. Why the floor was so wet he didn’t want to know, and whoever would pay that amount of money for soggy food was plain stupid. Two hundred Credits just for a warm bottle of water?

  This whole airport thing had to have been a giant practical joke.

  “Course he’s got to be at Gate G. Probably right at the last gate too.” Alex shook his head and prepped his jog. “I’m in F, so this should be the last one. But where the hell is Brody? I couldn’t ever run faster than him for this long.”

  He was trying to give his clone some autonomy on this delivery. It’d be easy to port Brody next to him, as he could just use the summon part of [Illusory Copy]. Alex hadn’t understood exactly what Brody had wanted when he’d asked the clone in hope to fulfill one part of his quest with the Heroic Hawk Core, but he guessed the gist.

  I’m going to help get you what you want, dude.

  Brody seemed frustrated, and Alex had been there. What better way was there to smooth over a young guy’s frustration that to make him feel important? So this time, unless there was grave danger, he wanted Brody run the airport gates without just being there to help.

  Everyone liked autonomy, and while the airport was annoying, it wasn’t like the suitcases were alive and hungry. The people sucked, but a cough isn’t a knife to the neck, and rudeness isn’t deadly.

  A shambling, far too fast group bumped him from behind, and another dry cough with flecks of food sprinkled the back of his neck.

  “Line,” a sweating pudge of a man moaned right in his ear, making him jump forward. “There is a line. Are you Zone 2? This line is for Zone 2 only.”

  Alex turned slowly while wiping the goober from his neck. He’d finally had enough.

  “No! I’m not in ZONE 2!” He yelled into the ghostly man’s face. “There are no planes. You’re all stumbling around and getting in the way. Why are you being so weird? Why are you acting like fucking CRAZY PEOPLE!?”

  Everything and everyone silenced as his voice echoed off the glass and concrete of the gate. Suddenly, they weren’t shambling about and getting in the way at all. They were all staring at him.

  Alex’s stomach tumbled as he looked back at thousands of cold-faced passengers. He’d faced off against terrifying monsters and Bosses, run through brutal Dungeons, and escaped horrors in the night. But something in the way they glared at him gave him great concern.

  “I’m…uh…I’m…” He backed up, only to bump into Mr. Cough.

  He looked around for a get away, his stomach spiralling. Finally, he spotted it. A bright shop with a weird name that seemed to have a lot of locations in the airport.

  THE LAST DUTY FREE

  “I’m uh…I’m going to get some free duty.”

  Someone sneezed purposefully in his direction. The mucus landed with a squelch on the floor, dissipating back to non-existence a moment later. Nor did he stick around to feel the faux spit mist.

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  He was already gone, sprinting towards a wall of small, coloured glass bottles.

  The Link-poison cloud made of discounted perfume tried to make him collapse. Thick, cloying chemicals attacked his nostrils, trying to overwhelm his senses, burst into his being, and tear the links that made him real apart.

  Disgusting. That’s way too much cologne.

  Bursting through the cloud, he peeled through candy aisles that called to his soul. Eat me, they yelled unheard. Eat me and eat me, until you burst your stomach from within. Then we’ll melt you away into a puddle of atoms.

  He just kept running through the overbright store. Finally, it felt like he could really move.

  Pristine bottles of cheap booze were next. Buy us, drink us up, and never stop. You know it’s better to be dulled, and we’re so cheap. Everyone says you’re such a good time with a couple drinks in you. Of course you need the bottle of coffee tequila. People love to drink that!

  Completely unaware of their attacks, Alex actually grinned big and put on his [Blazing Hot] flames. After being stuck for what felt like ages his legs ached to run.

  Cigarettes begged to be huffed. They liked to creep up. Never a problem in the immediate, and most people know some ninety-year-old who lives off them. Then bam, your lungs collapse, and they’re never inflating again. Smoke one from Pearson airport, and you’ll never kick the habit.

  Purses meant for the open or secret lovers of passing travellers twisted their beauty. Buy me. Buy me, buy me, buy me! That special someone will love me. And with no tax and a generic store name, you can just tell your wife you lost the expensive bottle along the way. You don’t need to ever tell her you bought your mistress a Prada.

  None of it touched him. Rebuked by his Buff that made him immune to Link attacks, thanks to Nina, Alex hummed along and threw fire behind him, tearing through the shop, not wise to the crooked magics reaching out and trying to latch him with a putrid link for good.

  [Phantom Step]ping just for fashion over the gigantic line waiting to buy their demise, Alex cleared Gate F, and low and behold, Gate G was more sparsely packed. And wouldn’t you know it, turns out, the endless shopping only continued.

  Easy running, but what a cheesy name.

  THE LAST LAST DUTY FREE SHOP.

  Alex leapt toward the shop, hollering as he spotted his destination at the end of the hall. From his run, he knew the last gate by number. His customer must be there.

  GATES 50-95

  He did look over his shoulder at the crowd behind him. Their normal state, which wasn’t normal at all, was back.

  “Come on Brody, keep up,” Alex joked, happy his clone was likely taking the long way to enjoy his time. “It’s not that hard to be on time in an airport.”

  Brody couldn’t scream.

  He’d tried to call for Alex. [No-matter Step]ped to get away. Used [Elegy’s Exit] only to get clotheslined by luggage that must have been filled with concrete. His Skills weren’t working right, and he felt like he was about to slip away. But not to the unspace.

  Something was wrong with this place. It twisted him about in ways he couldn’t comprehend. He felt bloated, tired, caffeinated, hungry, and like he had to pee the world’s worst pee, all while aware that a giant boot of unseen doom hovered above and waited to stomp him like a bug. He was battered and bruised, essence on the cusp of drained, and he was starting to be sure this was where he’d die.

  “Excuse me!” Someone shouted as they rammed him from behind.

  He fell to the floor and skinned his knee as the crowd of monsters streamed around him. They were monsters, plain and simple. They only looked like people.

  Someone walking past wiped their hands together to clean themselves of chip crumbs, sending specks of fried potato onto his neck.

  “AHHHHHHHH!” Brody yelled as the flecks began to melt his flesh.

  Shooting up, he rubbed viciously at his skin to rid himself of the pain. His palms scraped it away, bleeding as if he’d shoved them into a bucket of shattered glass. Looking and searching for a way through, he pressed himself against the hall, bleeding and dripping onto the tiled floor.

  The monsters strolled past, spreading his dripping blood with their shoes and bags, not caring at all that they tramped and spread it like a crime scene. But where were they going?

  It was all so noisy in every way. None of it made sense. A, B, C, D, E, F, and then G. That was how letters worked, and that was how he’d guessed gates worked too. Except he’d made it to Gate D, somehow ended up back at Gate B, and now he was somehow all the way in the middle of Gate A.

  “Fuck.” He swore, right into the face of a grandma hobbling about.

  She turned with her blank eyes. Frankly, all their eyes scared him, most of all when they looked right at him. It was then that they felt most like monsters.

  The monster smiled at him, like a sweet old lady, and slipped her hand in her musty jacket pocket old ladies wore. Except this wasn’t an old woman at all.

  Out her hand came, and in it was a little caramel candy. It glinted in the airport light.

  “Looking a bit white in the face, young man,” the monster said. “Maybe some sugar? My grandson sometimes forgets to eat before a big travel day.”

  Brody felt his might fight against something unseen breaking. One moment, he just wanted to GET AWAY from this thing that played at being an old lady. The next, all he wanted was to suck on some sugar.

  His bleeding hand reached for the bon-bon.

  Alex pulled his hand away from Rufus’s head, much to the dog’s disappointment, and scratched his stomach. It still hurt badly even though he’d delivered the pizza on time.

  “Dang, I never would have figured out if the machines actually lost the war. Thanks. It was driving me crazy. And that’s the answer about why Neo can use powers in the real world? Damn.”

  Keanu opened his hands in a shrug and leaned back. He hadn’t opened the pizza. Powerful as he was and delicious as it smelt, answering the boy’s incessant questions while pressing against the other that was still in the Gates was challenging. He had to focus harder than he’d like to. The other was a mystery, but he’d unravel him. Then, this one in front of him too, no matter how long it took. He would have the mystery of his immunity and exactly where his Links went.

  Rufus growled.

  “Woah, sorry, buddy,” Alex pulled his hands up in surrender. “I’ll go back to scratching.”

  Happy as a clam, the delivery boy went back to scratching the dog. Rufus leaned his big, metal body into the boy.

  “What about Schwick? Is he really dead? We never saw the body, you know.”

  Keanu supressed a sigh. He barely, just barely contained his frustration.

  The boy’s questions brought memories bubbling back up. Memories he’d rather forget. Of what he’d had to do to get where was. Of who he’d lost along the way.

  But the little shit was immune to all his Skills. He just couldn’t touch him. He’d pressed hard, then soft, tried to claw along the fringes, and none of it worked. How in the world was he immune to all Link based Skills? What kind of hidden monster was sitting in front of him? Worse, what kind of hidden monster had caused this that he didn’t know about?

  He had to find out.

  “Oh, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to not say anything to anyone. Deal?”

  The boy tapped his chin and slurped down glug of soda that should have exploded his brain.

  Then he shot up and sprayed the powerful poison all over the floor. Immediately, it started to melt away the carpet.

  “Oh, please tell us. Please!” the boy said, staring at Keanu with big eyes and dripping toxic sludge that refused to hurt him. “Brody loves that movie! Made me put it on loop for like the whole week we had that System blizzard!”

  “Brody?” Keanu asked.

  “Yeah,” Alex nodded quickly, and Rufus began to growl again.

  It wasn’t for lack of scratching.

  “Seriously, he loves John Shwick, and Speedster, and even Bill & Billy fixing the future?”

  The boy looked over his shoulder, back into the distant crowds, before turning back to Keanu.

  “Screw it. He’s been having fun for long enough. Hold on, I’m going to pull him here.”

  Alex cast the summon part of [Illusory Copy] while Keanu pressed on Brody’s link to the unspace. Essence from the current plane ripped into the unspace, tore across the plane that connected all planes, and pinged the link on Alex’s copy.

  It took only a brief moment, but that’s all it takes sometimes.

  Out popped a bloody Brody, grasping a candy still in its wrapper.

  A moment later, Keanu Bereaves fell forward on top of the clone, and a regional System message was sent to everyone in the region of Toronto. All fifteen million people.

  [System Announcement

  The Tax Guild Stone Holder of the Region of Toronto has perished.

  The Tax Guild Stone has reverted to Unclaimed status.

  All Tax has been suspended until a new hold claims the Stone and asserts a rate.]