Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

“You have been sent to an alternate dimension, my Host.”

I blinked a few times, making sure that I heard her right. “That’s it? I mean, I thought it would be a lot worse. Let’s just get out of here quickly before something goes wrong.”

I could almost hear Noe sigh when she responded. “I wish it was that easy, dear Walter. The Trash Matrix wouldn’t done what it did if we could escape so easily. You may try if you wish, my Host.”

I frowned again and shifted into my Secondary Form.

Luck Charges: 900/1557

“What’s with the use of Charges?” I asked.

“To ensure that we are not overlooked, shifting into such a form on Earth has consequences, my Host, especially when we have been sent here by the Origin Matrix.”

“Right,” I muttered. Let’s test this out quickly before something goes wrong.

It had become second nature for me to create holes in reality at this point, so I lifted my feelers and tried again. True to Noe’s words, escape wasn’t as easy as that. Normally, I’d feel a slight resistance when I was making those wormholes, but this time it was like I was trying to cut through concrete with my bare hands. Nothing worked.

“Alright, that didn’t work,” I muttered before shifting back. “What’s going on, Noe?”

“I am unsure of the specifics, but the distortion that we felt earlier is even worse here. My best guess is that we have been warped in an alternate reality or timeline, or perhaps both.”

Thinking for a second, I checked the date on the phone beside my side and saw, if my memories were not wrong, that I was sent two days before the start of the Trials. So I was sent back in time as well as space and sent back as Ashwin to boot.

“Alright, so we’re sent to some parallel Earth in the body of someone else. There doesn’t seem to be any danger here, at least not that I can tell, but there’s no way that the Trash Matrix wouldn’t try to fuck me over here. What’s the catch, Noe?”

“I apologize, my Host, I forgot just how much of your memories are still missing. Allow me to explain.”

I sat back on the bed and nodded.

“The reason the Origin Matrix has sent you here in the form of another individual is because it had hoped to limit your abilities. Had I not been with you, you would have only had the powers of a normal human.”

“And you’re preventing that from happening?”

I felt the joy in Noe’s tone. “It is why I was created, my Host. I am here to ensure that nothing in the Multiverse can ever tamper with your form. As long as I exist, your form will be immutable.”

I nodded slowly. “Alright, so assuming that it didn’t know that you could do that, there must be other reasons for it to send me here, or is it just hoping to keep me in an alternate dimension forever?”

“I wish it were that easy, my Host, but being sent back in time and space assuming the identity of another individual means that you are at risk of assimilation. For all intent and purposes, you are Ashwin, and if you stay stay as Ashwin for too long, then your sense of self could erode in time. Although I can ensure that your form stays the same, I cannot say the same about your sense of self, at least when you are constrained in that human shell.”

“Ah…” I muttered, “That’s uh, that’s not good. How long do we have then?”

“That I cannot say for certain, my Host. I can stave off the worst of the issues here, at least for the short term, but we must make it a priority to escape as soon as possible.”

“And how do we do that if I can’t rip a hole through reality? I don’t exactly have a lot of other abilities at my disposal, and as far as I can tell, I can’t wake up anytime soon either.”

“Have you not considered how the Trash Matrix was able to trap us in this situation, my Host?”

I thought for a moment and realized that I was so focused on survival that I hadn’t considered that. It was true, if Origin had the ability to send me back in time, then it’d have done that at the start, which meant that it either didn’t have the ability to do so prior or that it took advantage of an opportunity that it didn’t have before. I don’t believe that the Trash Matrix could have improved so much in the span of a few months, so my bet was on the latter.

“It’s the damn fragile dimension we were on, isn’t it?” I muttered, “I knew something was wrong with it.”

“Correct again, my Host, it took advantage of the weakened space to send us here, but that also means that it was not powerful enough to do so without outside assistance,” Noe replied, “Now that we are in the middle of the anomaly, I have detected another of my Shards.” Now Noe’s voice went icy, and I inadvertently shuddered. “The Origin Matrix has stolen a piece of myself, and it is using it to harm my Host.”

“Hey, uh, we’ll get it back, no worries, Noe.”

“I do not worry,” she said, the spite still spilling from her normally calm voice. “And we will ensure that the Trash Matrix knows of its hubris.”

“Any idea which one it stole?”

“The Reality Shard,” she said plainly. “It used my abilities to artificially create a dimension and hid it from the greater Central Collective, then used the distortions that we caused to send us here. Why it chose to do so behind the backs of its masters is a mystery, but I have some guesses.”

Yeah, it wasn’t hard to imagine a few explanations myself about why it’s acting by itself. The stupid thing’s trying to free itself from the grasp of Central, and while I detest the Overseer’s organization and wanted nothing more than its destruction, it was obvious having the Trash Matrix break free from its cooperate confines would be the worst-case scenario. However, what was more concerning was that the Trash Matrix was growing. It was mainly a bothersome nuisance that was relegated to bickering and calling me names, and aside from the second Trial, it was simply existing in the background. However, I was growing concerned that this nonintervention wouldn’t last long.

“It’s doing something sketchy, that’s for sure,” I muttered, “That would explain why Stanton’s been so silent so far, and why he left almost no traces of his presence. I bet he found out about the Trash Matrix’s odd behaviors before any of us did. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got sent to some screwed-up dimension like I did either.”

“I believe so, my Host.”

But Stanton was the least of my worries at the moment, I still had to survive what was up ahead. I sighed again. “Alright, so what’s our best bet for escape?”

A slight pause, followed by an almost faint whisper of an answer. “I can feel the Shard nearby, tainted by the Trash Matrix’s use, but I need some time to assess the situation. For now, it is in your best interest to live as Ashwin to the best of your ability until we know more.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Live as Ashwin? Wouldn’t that just accelerate my loss of self?”

“If it is only for a few days, then it will not be an issue,” she replied, “And until we know more of the situation, it is the safest course of action. There might be other traps that the Trash Matrix put into place that will activate if it senses that you have not lost your abilities. Remember, the Trash Matrix does not know that you have all of your abilities intact, at least now for now. I can expend resources to hide your abilities further, but that is not ideal.”

“Right, so hide as Ashwin for now and let the Trash Matrix think it’s won, but won’t it suspect that I’m faking it if I pretend to be Ashwin so soon?”

Another slight chuckle. “The assimilation process takes only a matter of hours normally, my Host. It would be stranger if you did not behave like the Aspirant by then.”

“Man, that’s a lot to wrap my head around,” I muttered, “So the general game plan is to lay low for a while and wait for you to, what, scan the dimension and go from there?”

“That is the plan, my Host,” she answered, “As flawed as it is. The Origin Matrix does not have full control over my Shard, and I am willing to bet that there are faults in its design. If I can perhaps find a weakness somewhere, we can escape this predicament. The alternative method is not ideal.”

“The alternative?”

“Will be discussed if need be,” she replied, leaving no room to ask for more.

Seeing as there was nothing else to task, and Noe was quite clearly busy with whatever she was doing in the background, I spent the next few hours browsing through social media, old text messages, and saved content to find out as much as I could about the man who’s skin I inhabited. As it turned out, Ashwin was a pretty amazing individual back on Earth. Not only was he an accomplished all-around athlete, winning awards in a variety of sporting events in his youth, but he was also a professional fencer. Hell, if the texts with his coach were to be believed, he was already a part of the US national team headed to next year’s Olympics.

Hell, if that wasn’t enough, but it seemed that he was an all-around good chap. He had a box stuffed with thank you letters from various fans and charity organizations, while several handwritten replies lay scattered on the table. Some quick Googling told me that this man was well-loved by practically everyone who knew him, and his past was squicky clean. If I hadn’t known the guy to literally act as a hero in that strange dimension, I’d have suspected him of being some kind of secret serial killer. There was no way that someone so… good could exist, but here he was.

Normally, trying to impersonate someone so different than I am would have been a problem, but the only good thing about being such a public figure was that there was no shortage of footage of Ashwin. There was everything from formal interviews with local news stations and independent reporters to amateur YouTube footage from fans. All in all, aside from how the guy behaves in private with close family and loved ones, I shouldn’t have too much trouble acting as the guy. The one thing that I could say about Ashwin was that he was the poster boy for a humble man with his whole life ahead of him. Basically the opposite of myself, really.

I sighed as I closed the computer and went to get a drink. I mean, I knew that the Central Collective only took the best of the best that humanity had to offer, but this guy was probably the cream of the crop even amongst the Aspirants. It was little wonder that the Trash Matrix chose to send this guy to its little pocket dimension. Noe’s best bet about why the Trash Matrix chose to send a human there was that it might have understood the true value of this species as I had - that is, the human’s potential for unlimited growth - and was experimenting with ways to utilize this to its advantage. I could imagine an entire army of juiced-up super soldiers ready at its beck and call. That was a scary thought.

With all the resources that it had pumped into buffing up Ashwin and how strong he had gotten in the span of a few months or years, I tended to agree with Noe’s assessment. This revelation was concerning, and I didn’t believe for a second that Ashwin was the only Aspirant that the piece of trash system was working on. The Trash Matrix was adapting, and it was adapting fast. I was so preoccupied with the Overseer that I had forgotten about the actual threat. I couldn’t afford to just think of it as a minor nuisance any longer.

The phone - well, I guess it was my phone now - buzzed, breaking me out of my introspection. I wanted to ignore it, but thought better of it; I could probably get away with using a few Luck Charges but it wasn’t like I could do that for every social interaction. This was a good, and more importantly, relatively safe, way to test out what I’ve learned about Ashwin.

Right, there was no more time to prepare. Let’s get this show started. I picked up the phone.

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