47. You are what you eat.

 
The clanging of gongs and the roar of hand-cranked claxons filled the night as the four companions trudged back to the old library in Rubble.
“Well, that was a fail break,” Marius mused. Jaden looked at him sideways for his lousy pun.
“Do you think we should go and help?” Fureva-Yung said, getting the first smile out of the group since before the attempted rescue of Trask, Fureva-Yung’s friend and Sion.
“We know where he is and how to get there. Anything to do before we leave tomorrow?” Jaden asked.
“I do not like leaving these people here without help,” Fureva-Yung finally replied after a moment’s thought.
“None of us does Furry, but it's not why we’re here,” Marius replied, “Trask needs our help, too.”
Nox, who had said nothing since teleporting out of Redboot, now spoke up.
“We have to go back to the bar. Trask was working on some there, one floor down from the cellar. That’s why the rope, and that’s why the owner was protecting him.”
“Really? First I heard of it?” Jaden queried, but she knew Nox’s moods and could see the girl was shutting down.
“Easy. You can teleport us straight to the cellar in the morning.” Marius clapped his hands, glad the group had a direction for the next day.
 
Fureva-Yung had been asleep for some hours when she awoke freezing.
“Shut the airlock!” She barked and then realised she was lying on a pallet on a hard stone floor in the hideout of the Patchwork Dream. They had returned from the failed mission and gone to sleep in preparation for the morning’s exploration of the bar’s cellar. She shivered and sat up, looking around. Nothing to see…except…up in the corner, the sparkling of ice crystals. One of the shadow creatures had been past, or more likely, was standing behind her, making the air around her cold. Even now, the room was losing its chill, and frost was disappearing on the wall. Noting that the frosted wall had a room behind it, Fureva-Yung sprung up and raced around the quiet catacombs.
Here! A glimpse of a shadow disappearing into another wall. Beyond it, only dirt and rock. She could see a clear line of frost this time, going along the floor and into the wall.
 
“What was that noise? I heard shouting,” It was Trilly, stumbling from a cot in her workshop.
Fureva-Yung thought that someone with better people skills and more deductive reasoning might be appropriate. She closed her six eyes and let Yung take the back seat as Fureva stepped forward.
“Ah, Trilly, I’m glad you came.”
“I heard shouting…what have you got there?” She noticed the line of frost leading to the wall, “Is that frost?”
“Yes, do you by any chance have something to mark this with?” Fureva asked, and to her surprise, Trilly handed her a piece of chalk.
 
Fureva drew in an arrow along the disappearing line of frost pointing to the wall.
“Do people often comment on unusual cold spots in the catacombs?” She asked, handing back the chalk.
“Ocassionally. Once, a random patch of cold threw off my experiments. Why? Do you think your ghost visions are involved?”
“Yes, I do. I have been seeing them ever since I ate your tasty bugs.”
“Ah, yes, I was worried about that. I was thinking along the more regular variety of hallucinations, not ones with physical effects,” She gestured to the vanished frost mark.
“I was feeding those bugs you ate an unusual fungus with high energy levels. I’d hoped it could act as a mutagen, maybe spur on some interesting mutations.”
“Fungus? Do you think you could show me where you found that fungus?”
Trilly yawned, “Sure, tomorrow, though, okay?”
“Sure. It doesn’t happen to lie in that direction, does it?” Fureva pointed down the line of the arrow and into the wall.
“Ah… no.”
“No, they seem to travel in all sorts of directions.” Fureva furrowed her brows in frustration. “It would be beneficial to mark out those cold spots, you know, on a chart of the catacombs.”
“Yes, I’m sure it would be, but I’m going back to bed.”
“Yes, me as well. You may go.” Fureva said casually. Trilly looked a little shocked to be spoken to in that way but said nothing.
The new visitors were strange.
 
First thing in the morning, Fureva-Yung was waiting outside Trilly’s lab.
“Ah! Oh!” The half-awake Trilly stumbled bleary-eyed into the towering bulk of Fureva-Yung, “Oh, yes. Coffee. Need coffee.” She wandered off in the direction of breakfast.
“Are you ready to go to the cellar?” Nox asked, drawn to her friend by Trilly’s exclamations.
“I was visited last night by a cold thing. Trilly has offered to show me something that could be related.”
“Oh?” Nox said, now curious to learn more about Fureva-Yung’s latest discovery.
“You know, if you were friendlier, those shadow bunnies of yours might warm up to you,” Marius said, walking past on his way to breakfast.
Nox stuck out her tongue at his retreating back and walked side by side with Fureva-Yung.
“I can’t help thinking they would make a great ally,” Furvea-yung admitted.
 
The group ate breakfast, Fureva-Yung munching through the last of the control group Trilly had given her the day before. She kept one last bug, a big juicy one just in case, for when they reached the fungus. Trilly, now halfway through her allotted brown drink of the morning, was more conducive to talking about her pet experiment and the fungus at the heart of it all.
 
“This way. At one time, it was part of an old sewer system, “She said, pointing the way with her coffee mug. Ahead, a crack in the wall allowed access to more passages, low tunnels of brick and stone. She stepped through the crack and continued to lead the way into darkness.
 
Fureva-Yung was on high alert for any of the shadow beasts. She saw the glimpse of two horns going around a corner or red glowing eyes following their progress from the shadows, but nothing more. What she had noticed was that there were at least two of the bipedal minotaur sort, one as short as a child and one at least as tall as an adult. There were other small creatures as well, including insectoids that scuttled through walls on multiple legs.
 
Eventually, they came to a cistern where several sewers connected. Now filled with earth and decomposing detritus, the centre was kept moist by the constant dripping of water. Iridescent mushrooms glowed bluely in the darkness.
 
Nox scanned the mushrooms and the ground around them. The others could see the air shimmer as energy passed through the air to the soil only to bounce back. Nox’s scan gave her an image and knowledge of what she focused it on. The mushrooms, for biologicals, were filled with concentrated Numenera energies. The soil, too, seemed to contain high levels of energy she’d expect to see in iotum and cyphers. It was like the whole area was covered with the dust of numenera, and the mushroom had somehow concentrated that energy. But where had this dust come from? Scanning down, she saw the remains of several animals. Some small, like birds or rabbits, at least two much larger. She started digging with her hands to reach the larger remains and understand what was happening.
 
“Okay, Fureva-Yung, start digging,” Marius said as a slow smile appeared on Fureva-Yung’s face, “You’re the better digger. I can’t claim that title.”
“Marius, you’re are too kind,” Fureva-Yung nodded and started digging with her shovel-like hands beside Nox. Not to be left out, Marius pitched in, and they were soon down deep enough to uncover large bones of a bipedal creature.
It was then that Marius felt something was wrong. His head swam momentarily before he stepped back and shook himself free of the effect. He saw Nox sway where she knelt before blinking and returning to her work. Fureva-Yung, however, blinked once, twice, and pitched head-first into the hole.
 
“It’s the dirt,” Marius said, brushing it off his hands and arms, “It’s a trap.”
Sure enough, he could feel his feet sink into the ground and could see Fureva-Yung disappearing into the hole.
“Quick! Help me pull her out!”
Between himself, Trilly and Nox, they dragged Fureva-Yung out of the hole and away from the dirt.
For her part, Fureva-Yung snored, farted and lay still.
 
Nox shivered, and Marius was suddenly made aware of a coldness to the cistern.
“You don’t think she farts ghosts out, do you?” He said as Nox scanned the area.
A creature no more than sixty centimetres tall with two small horns loped along like a monkey.
“I wonder if they’re not ghosts of the creatures that were trapped and died in the soil only to be given life by the energy collected here,” Nox mused as she spotted the bones she’d been digging towards. With her Hedge magic, she extracted a large femur, human-sized and floated it to Trilly.
“Some of the beings Fureva-Yung described are buried here. I still don’t know where the numenera is coming from.”
 
They were underground. It would make sense if it had washed down from somewhere else. Nox looked around to find the source of the dripping water she had heard when she realised she could no longer hear the regular tapping. Looking up, frost marked the ceiling in one corner. Tiny icicles had formed where the moving water was stopped in its tracks by the cold. Without a thought, she hovered to the corner, scanning the water and through the brickwork. The intense cold was already dissipating as she reached the roof. She was just reaching out once more when a sudden frigid cold washed over her.
 
From the ground, Trilly and Marius looked on as a coating of frost covered Nox before she plummeted ten metres.
“Practising your synchronised floating Nox?” Marius quipped as Nox caught herself before crashing into the dirt. As his reward, Nox touched her blue frost-rimed hand to his neck.
“You’re cold!”
“Genius,” Nox grumbled, floating back to her feet.
“Oh!” A shriek from Trilly, “Oh, that was cold! Something ran past me.”
“The same something that hit me, “ Nox nodded and looked down at the snoring Fureva-Yung. Placing her cold hand against Fureva-Yung’s warm neck did not enlist a response, neither did calling to her telepathically.
“Where are those bugs? We’ll just hold one to her nose,” Marius suggested, but the remaining bug she’d saved did nothing to wake her from her deep slumber.
“Oh well, I guess I get out my pink hair gel,” Jaden whispered into Fureva-Yung’s ear. Just watching made Nox’s ear tingle, but it did nothing to the slumbering Fureva-Yung.
 
“How are we going to get her back?” Marius asked out loud.
“That’s easy,” Nox replied, taking hold of Fureva-Yung’s hand and offering her free one. “How are we going to clean this dirt off?”
“If you can get her there, in my lab, there is a decontamination shower. It’s cold, but any contaminates will be washed away.”
Jaden took Nox’s hand, “I’ll go with you and help. Anyone else?”
 
“I’ll travel on my own legs if you don’t mind,” Said Trilly, who had witnessed the group’s teleport out to the prison only the night before, “I want to take a few samples here first. Soil and water, I think.”
“I’ll help with that,” Marius said, gaining a querying look from Jaden, “What? No one should walk alone here.”
 
The sleeping Fureva-Yung, Nox and Jaden disappeared with a soft pop as Marius and Trilly set to work. Out of deep pockets, Trilly extracted tubes, small plastic bags and a notebook. Marius was kept busy collecting water, soil and fungus samples, all the while keeping clear of the earth pile. When Trilly looked satisfied, they started back through the sewers, towards the crack that led back to the catacombs.
 
Then Marius’ danger senses tingled. Without a word, he grabbed Trilly and pulled her back around a corner just as something emerged from the shadows. At first, it looked like a large, bipedal being. As it stepped into the circle of Trilly’s light, a pair of long root-like structures held up a knot of vines that made up the creature’s body. Where a head should be, a rotten meat coloured red flower unfurled. Along the vines, the iridescent fungus glowed, outlining the beast in the darkness.
 
“Ah, got anything to defend yourself with?” Marius whispered to Trilly. From the depths of one of her bottomless pockets, she pulled out a cypher. The scent of rot and death washed in ahead of the creature, making Marius want to be sick. Stirring himself to action, he punched the flower, making it shudder and sending more stench into the air. Trilly covered her mouth, pinching her nose close to stop the smell. She pointed the cypher at the beast only to have the projectile go wide and miss. Pulling a rag from his bag, Marius tied it around his mouth. When the vine-like arm swung out at him, he dodged aside and threw a tainted sample of soil into its flower. He hoped a little of what had made it would do it some harm.
Nothing.
 
Trilly threw a rock. It smacked the creature in the flower, bruising a petal. The creature swung out at Marius again, missing by a mile as he dodged under the vine and gave it an uppercut. Trilly could no longer hold her breath. With a cough, she sucked in a breath and turned green. Her rock fell short of its mark. Marius did not feel well. He escaped another attack from the creature, but his next strike failed to hit. He didn’t think he could stand being near this thing any longer and contemplated running. Dodging once more, he struck out and smashed the flower to pulp. The vines lost coordination and slumped to the ground no more than a pile of green waste.
 
At the death of the creature, the stench started to clear. Still feeling less than sound, Marius and Trilly stepped through the crack in the wall and headed back to the library.
 
Fureva-Yung awoke some hours later smelling fresh of…was that… peach? She sat up, finding herself in Trilly’s lab her fur smooth and… shiny. Marius and Trilly walked in looking worse for wear as Fureva-Yung stood up and took stock.
“Marius. Do I seem shinier to you?” She asked as Marius slumped into a nearby chair and Trilly collapsed onto her cot.
“Right at this moment, everything seems shiny to me,” He winced, looking a little hungover. Fureva-Yung looked from Marius to Trilly and wondered just what had been going on.
“Trilly, have you seen anything like that thing before?”
“No. I sure won’t be heading out that way alone in the future,” Trilly replied muffled as it was by her sleeping bag, “Um, thank you for being there.”
 
 
POP!
The four of them appeared in the cellar later that afternoon. Fureva-Yung asked for silence as she listened to the sounds of the bar above. There were a few people above eating late lunches and complaining about their bosses. Below, two voices were in an animated conversation, and one of them was Alric. The one-eyed, five-legged scuttlers were the only thing to notice their arrival.
 
Nox also listened for the echo. It was closer, she knew it but didn’t know exactly where. She couldn’t believe she could be so stupid. All her fears, curious thoughts, and all her inner musing, all exposed for everyone to see. It was so embarrassing! If she could just convince the other that it had to be destroyed, then maybe they wouldn’t work out how it had come to exist at all. Fortunately, Jaden was already busy working on the lift controls.
“Someone has bypassed the tattoo security override,” She said, looking at a pile of memory cards and wiring spilling from the control panel, “Never mind, I can fix it.”
Fureva-Yung grinned. With the control panel fixed, only they could call the lift. Alric and his companion were trapped.
 
It took her very little time to return the controls to normal and call the capsule.
“But they’re going to know we’re coming,” Marius said, who opted for climbing down and catching them by surprise.
“Yes, they will know we’re coming,” Fureva-Yung agreed, cracking her knuckles and stepping into the lift.
 
 
The lift doors opened onto a blank stretch of all with passageways to the left and right. It was dark except for Marius’ armoured hands and the small ball of light of Nox’s Hedge Magic. Fureva-Yung, with Jaden beside her, strolled out of the elevator as if they owned the place as Nox crept behind in Fureva-Yung’s shadow. The control panel for the lift had been tampered with on this side. For Jaden, it was a moment’s work to reestablish the systems and replace the faceplate.
 
Down a short hall, a door lay silently closed. From their tiny movements, Fureva-Yung knew that Alric and his companion were inside. With a nod from everyone, Jaden started a litany of jargon-filled poetry on the proper disarming of a security system as Fureva-Yung burst through the doors. Alric and a woman were ready with guns. Marius leapt past, dodged the laser and needle dart, disarmed Alric, and, for seconds, disarmed the woman. The guns clattered into a dark corner, where Nox snatched up both, hiding them in her bag.
 
“Give up! “ Marius barked, and Alric and his companion put up their hands. Jaden stepped across to where they had been working at the machine, and the room went dark. Marius lifted his light-gloved hands to find them dimmed. Fureva-Yung glanced at her tattoo and could barely see its glow in the room.
The light flickered.
Standing at the console of the machine was a woman. Jaden jumped back, readying her staff, when she realised the woman looked just like her. The woman started campering, dancing crazily on the spot as the head began slowly rotating around on its shoulders.
“What is this?” Marius looked around the group. Nox hid in the shadows, her worst imagining realised and standing before her.
“Huh? I wear it better,” Snorted Jaden, lashing out with her staff.
 
The echo shattered, splitting into twenty or more Jaden heads all the size of grapefruits. Nox and Marius were able to roll or dodge away from the impact, but Jaden and Fureva-Yung were hit with psychic shocks.
“Destroy them!” Nox squeaked as she saw her friend hurt by her own projections.
“I think they’re intelligent,” Marius answered and responded to their attack by clapping one between his armoured hands. It burst and disappeared into nothing.
Nox tried blasting them with a psychic burst, but they moved fast and dodged out of the way. Fureva-Yung’s chain went straight through, and Jaden failed to connect with her staff.
 
The Jaden heads began to morph, some taking the appearance of Livaanar, Temila, Marius Fureva-Yung and something vaguely Nox-looking. All were crying. A psychic attack blasted through the room. The two miscreants took the opportunity of the distraction to get away from the group.
“Do you think they’re trying to communicate?” Fureva-Yung tried sensing them with her radar, but they did not register.
“I think,” Marius said, “that only an act of true love will solve this situation.”
Jaden turned to Nox, who was rummaging in her bag, “Nox, what are these?”
Nox didn’t know what to say, ‘...my fears and desires made real?’ How could she admit that these were what was inside her head almost all the time.
“They don’t matter, just kill them!”
 
Jaden turned to the closest, a head of Marius, balling its eyes out, and reached out a hand. The head tried zipping away, but she gently brought her other hand up and caught it.
“Shhh, you don’t need to worry now. I won’t hurt you, “ Jaden said, and a wave of calm moved from Jaden to Nox on the private connection they’d always shared.
At the same time, Marius also grabbed a head. This was one of the feminine, almost Nox-looking ones.
“You’re safe with us now,” He said, and through the telepathic link, Nox could feel his acceptance.
Fureva-Yung thunder beamed one in the face, and it winked out of existence. The held ones vibrated as if nervous or scared.
Nox pulled out Alric’s laser pistol and aimed it at one of the heads. The shot missed, and the gun blew up in her hands. Why couldn’t she kill these things?
 
An arc of electricity leapt through the free heads, making Fureva-Yung’s hair stand on end. Nox dodged the attack, as Fureva-Yung just absorbed the energy with a grin. The heads held by Marius and Jaden did nothing. They looked like they were calming down. Tears dried up, and the heads smiled as relief washed over them. Slowing, first Jaden’s and then Marius’, dissolved away, fading out of existence.
 
Kaboom! Fureva-Yung Thunder beamed another head, but there were still twenty more left. They’d barely made an impact.
 
With a groan, Nox changed her tactics and reached out to connect telepathically with one nearby. Suddenly, all the remaining heads flew across the room and withdrew into Nox. Her senses blew as she was overloaded with sensation. Feelings, thoughts, and senses all forced themselves back into her along the telepathic path she’d created. She swayed on her feet, almost losing consciousness as her mind made sense of the chaos.
 
Outside, the lights turned on again. Jaden, Marius and Fureva-Yung were aware of banging and swearing from around the corner at the elevator.
“Is she going to be alright?” Marius asked Jaden and Fureva-Yung to leave to capture the trapped Alric and the woman.
“Oh yes,” Jaden replied, “It’s all part of growing up.”