P3: Chapter Six

M3Dussa

While walking M3Dussa had taken to holding a knife in each hand, and spinning them. He thought this did two things for him: one, it made him completely ready for anything; two it looked cool. BeAutyBrokEn didn’t think it looked cool, or so she said several times. “You’re going drop one, then you’ll have to bend over to pick it up and you’ll look foolish.” so far he hadn't, which made him a little cocky

“Um, Beauty?” he stopped spinning his knives and asked.

She turned to him quickly, “Whats wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing. I just wanted to ask a question.” he laughed nervously.

She turned towards him, “Is that all, you don’t need to ask permission to ask a question. Go ahead and ask.”

“Okay, uh I was wondering if when we catch this Tbag I could do the Tokening?”

“Is that all?” she bit off angrily, “I don’t care who Tokens the Tbag, do what you want.” with that she turned and took two steps back the way they had just come.

Before she could take a third step there was a heavy “thwack.” An arrow seemed to grow out of BeAutyBrokEn’s back, she dropped without a sound. M3Dussa spun and saw a little baby, with wings and a bow and arrow, floating about four feet above the ground. “I shot her in the heart I wonder if she’ll fall in love with the next principle she sees. With you here, that probably won't be you. Ooo you look made, I’m a little you wouldn’t hurt a little baby.” the baby cooed.

But M3Dussa would, and his right arm was moving before the baby had finished speaking. The knife made its mark, and the hit the ground in a puff of dust and feathers. 1 kill +1 xp. >Lvl +1 xp. Seeing this M3Dussa hustled off to the baby laying on a pile of feathers. Wanting to find BeAutyBrokEn as quickly as he could, hoping that she was no longer mad at him, M3Dussa emptied the baby’s wallet, found the Token then retrieved his own and brought them together. After the light show that harled a Tokening M3Dussa rose and began making his way back to Ral’ya.

He hadn't gone far when he heard his name being called. At first, he couldn’t tell who it was, as they got closer he recognized the Penny cop lady. He spun his knives while she approached when she did arrive she was too out of breath to say anything other than gasp out “Thank you.”

M3Dussa waited a few minutes for her to catch her breath before asking, “Penny, did you just call my name?”

“Yes,” 1¢op gasped. “I recognized your movements. where is Beauty, I thought she would be with you?”

“She was killed by the Tbag we were looking for,” M3Dussa said.

“Oh no, not Tokened I hope.”

“No no, I Tokened him,” M3Dussa said, pride slipping into his voice. “Were you looking for us?”

“I was. I recently had the craziest experience, because of it I have an uncomfortable favor to ask, I thought of you guys.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not totally sure. You know those purple berry bushes?”

“Yeah, they’re everywhere, maybe the most consistent thing I’ve seen in AntruA.”

“Right, well I saw one covered in butterflies.”

“Butterflies? You mean like the insect?”

“Exactly! Big colorful wings and all, it looked like the bush was on fire.”

“But I haven’t seen any living thing here, other than the principles.”

“Me neither. That wasn't the strangest thing. They spoke to me. Not like individuals, but with one voice. They or it, I don’t know said its name was EDZ and that it was programmed by another program or something to be the dungeon master of AntruA.”

“Wait, what?”

“I know it staggered me too. The butterflies told me that there is a program named ZED it created another program named EDZ. EDZ created and oversees AntruA. EDZ spoke directly to me through a burning bush of butterflies,”

“Okay, I think I’m with you. What did this EDZ say to you?”

“It told of a way to get the IP address of any principle.”

“What!? Really?! How?”

“I can create a skill that when I hit a principle I see it’s IP. to do that I need to be Tokened.”

“Tokened, why?”

“It’s much faster, we can create skills at creation, level two, and level five. I’m something like forty-five experience away from level five. Forty-five experience will take a lot of time, if I start a new principle I can create the skill immediately. Actually, that was the reason I was looking for you.”

“To Token you?”

“Yeah, why not? But really, when I met you both, I could see that Beauty had already Tokened, and you both talked about Tokening the Tbag. So I felt that there would be a good chance that you would do it. Will you?”

“It seems wrong, but I can’t think of a reason not to. So sure.”

“Oh great, thank you so much. There are a few other principles I could ask, but I really don’t want to take the time to get to or find them. I want to get this over with so I can get on to finding my husband and bringing him home.”

“Okay then. One last time, are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” 1¢op said. M3Dussa shrugged then stepped forward and stabbed her in the chest. She looked down at the hilt sticking out of her chest then collapsed to the ground.