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Description
“Wake up, sleepyhead! We’ve got a mission to do, and we’re burnin’ daylight!”
As I rolled over, about to get up, a hard object hit me square in the forehead. “What was that?” I mumbled as I got up. I opened my eyes and saw Penelope standing above me, grinning.
“Breakfast! C’mon, let’s go!” She seemed extremely excited: she paced the floor as I picked the breakfast bar she had thrown at my head off of the ground. I watched her circle the room as I slowly chewed the old cereal bar.
“Are you always this… this much of a morning person?” I asked between bites.
“Don’t like waking up early in the morning, do you? Well, good old Ben Franklin would like a word with you.” She stopped pacing and leaned over, stretching to her feet. “I guess I’m usually not this energetic in the morning,” she said as she got back up, reaching towards the ceiling, “It’s just that I’m really nervous about our little errand today.”
“And what would that be?” I finally got out after a moment of swallowing the stale food.
“A rescue mission!” she said with glee. “There are a lot more Children still trapped in the Labs, and we’re going to need their help when we get our visit from the Evil Eye!”
I groaned and rolled back into bed. For the past few days, Commander Reed had been getting Anemonae, Manfred and I ready to fight alongside the members of the Shelter against the Eye, and I was completely exhausted. Today, though, she had some business to take care of, so I had been expecting a little bit of rest. The last thing I wanted to do was run to the laboratory again and drag some more robot kids back with me.
“As fun as that sounds, Penelope,” I said, “I think I’d rather get some sleep.”
“Not gonna happen, Weiss.” Penelope smiled and pointed to her electronic eye. “Scans indicate you’ve gotten the optimal amount of rest for one night already.” She mocked a lifeless robotic voice jokingly. “Any further sleep will result in excess feelings of fatigue. Now get up!” Her voice returning to normal, she pulled my sheet off of me and yanked me to my feet by the collar of my shirt.
We stood uncomfortably close for just a moment. “So, tell me,” I asked as I stepped away from her, “Why should I go along and risk my head by going to the Materas Laboratories with you?”
“I’ll be your best friend,” she sang. I looked at her incredulously, and she laughed. “Not good enough for you? Shoot. Well, how’s this? It’ll give you a day away from Manfred.
“What?” I was interested now. “Why?”
Penelope laughed again. “Ah, I thought you might like that. Well, Manfred’s gonna be busy today. They’re trying to get Father out of him so they can get some info, and let’s just say it might take a while. Actually, I think it’s just going to be the two of us, now that I think about it. Our strategists are picking Anemonae’s brain about ways to beat the Evil Eye, so she can’t come with us.”
“Well, in that case, I’m not sure if it’s such a great-“
“Nonsense! Come on, let’s get out of here!” Before I could get a word in edgewise, Penelope took my hand and dragged me out of the room, gave me a gas mask, and led me back to the city.
She gave me a rebreather before we left, a small device that let me breathe in the smog of the area outside of the City. It was rather ingenious: it fit over my face and converted the carbon dioxide I breathed out into pure breathable oxygen. It was much more effective than a gas mask, and only needed a carbon filter change every forty-eight hours of use. Since we didn’t have to bolt from the door, I got a good look at the outside: it was a complete ruin. There were even fewer plants than in the Dark Realm, and a sickly yellow haze hung over everything. I could see that the City enclosed within the walls and glass was only a small fraction of what once was a much larger metropolitan area. Around the city center was an entirely destroyed city. Nothing familiar remained, only a few heaps of concrete and metal were scattered around the landscape. It made me sad, and Penelope could tell.
“Hey, chin up, Weiss,” she said as she patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll get you home, I promise.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
Penelope was able to change the password on the door, since we had more time than before. After we got through, we took the tram back to the Labs. The Worms were absent from their posts at the front door, presumably because they were preparing to attack the Shelter.
“Funny,” Penelope said. “they usually don’t leave their posts this much before an attack.” She scratched her head for a moment. “We should try to be done here pretty quick so we can get back soon, okay?”
I nodded, and we hurried into the Labs. We systematically began to search for Penelope’s friends, searching each room in a precise pattern that she laid out. We were looking for a boy and girl roughly our age, and an older girl, the boy’s sister. Their names were Adam, Samantha, and Heather, respectively.  We looked around, but we couldn’t find them right away. As we got deeper and deeper into the laboratories, Penelope got increasingly concerned. She began to shout their names into each room we searched, and she broke into a run between them.
After searching the laboratories for several hours, there was one room left: Edaniel Materas’s personal office, which doubled as the control room for the MAY OS. Penelope knocked on the door.
“Adam? Sam? Heather? Are you in there, guys?” She was terribly worked up and on the brink of tears. When we heard no response, she unlocked the door to the office with a hidden keypad on its jamb.
“Welcome back, Doctor,” said a voice from inside the office as the door slid open. It was cold and emotionless, but I could almost swear that it sounded like May’s. I opened my mouth to say something about it, but I couldn’t get anything out. Penelope screamed before I could.
She fell to her knees, sobbing. I couldn’t tell what the matter was. I ran over to the crying girl and crouched beside her.
“Penelope, what’s wrong? What is it?” She didn’t reply, instead she pointed into the room. Even this caused her to break into more tears.  I looked into the office and recoiled, gasping at the sight.
Three bodies lay on the floor, each covered in a thin veneer of blood. I recognized them from the brief descriptions Penelope had given me as the three we were looking for. The boy and his sister were in each other’s arms, while the other girl was lying by the side of the room, away from them. There was a bullet hole in each of their heads, precisely above the bridge of the nose. They hadn’t been dead for long: aside from the obvious, their bodies were in perfect condition, and there was no smell apart from the salty tang of blood.
“Oh, God, Penelope… I’m sorry.”
She continued to cry. “We got here too late,” she managed to stammer through her tears. “If we’d just gotten here an hour ago, they probably wouldn’t…” She moaned, and buried her head in between her legs.
“Penelope,” I said, remembering something Anemonae had told me after we lost May, “Don’t blame yourself. It won’t make you feel any better, and if you dwell on it, it can hurt you much more than their deaths alone…”
She didn’t say a thing at first, but after a few tense minutes, she lifted her head. “Maybe you’re right.” She sniffed and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “In… in any case, we’ve got… a secondary… objective here.”
“What’s that?”
“I… didn’t mention it, because I didn’t want to think about this possibility…” She fell on her back and stared at the tiles of the ceiling. “MAY generates a… report for every single action she takes. We need to know why… this happened.” She waved into the room listlessly. “Weiss… can you do something for me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
She looked at me, and her striking blue eyes brightened just a bit. “Thanks. I… can’t go in there. My friends… I need you to access the terminal on Father’s desk and get the report… can you do that?”
I nodded. “Sure.” I went into the room, carefully avoiding the bodies on the ground. I sat on the surprisingly luxurious chair and turned on the computer. Penelope sat up and talked to me across the room, guiding me to the report by telling me file locations and passwords. It was fairly easy, as this terminal had the highest priority out of all of the ones on the network… or so Penelope said. Truth be told, I was fairly confused by the whole process, but we made it within ten minutes. This is the report we were looking for.

Report 523-A
TO DR. MATERAS-
On today, January 29, 2153, I performed Policy 36, otherwise known as Automatic Execution Orders. The Children involved were Heather and Adam Rothchild, as well as Samantha [last_name NULL VALUE].
DETAILS:
As you know (see reports 522-A through F), Child Penelope Materas escaped from the laboratories recently, to the bandit outpost known as City Limit Shelter.* I have used this as an opportunity to enact Policy 5 (any and all threats must be removed) on the shelter in question. The Children involved in today’s action were planning on assisting Penelope as well as the bandits she has escaped to. As this could impede the effectiveness of today’s planned Policy 5 action, the Children regrettably had to be excecuted. I would have performed the action on Penelope, however, her Compliance Assurance Device has been modified or removed, and is no longer responding. Please look into this problem if possible.

*Policy 5 will be enacted Today at 3:00 PM. 8 Worms will be deployed to City Limit Shelter. Little difficulty, if any, is expected.

As I finished reading the report, I glanced at Penelope. She was still crying, but she stared at me, rubbing away her tears.
“Weiss,” she said quietly, “We have to go. The shelter’s in danger.”
“Are you okay?” I asked. “I mean, we can wait here for a while, if you need some time to-“
“No.” She carefully got up and waved me over. “They… they died because of me.” She started towards the exit, and I ran after her.
“Penelope,” I pleaded, “I told you already, don’t think of it-“
“It’s not that, Weiss. Adam, Heather, and Samantha… maybe we couldn’t save them, but the people at the Shelter are still alive.” She paused, and looked back at the office. “They died trying to help us… let’s not let it be in vain, okay?” She smiled weakly and kept walking. Her eyes were hopeful through her tears, and she gripped my wrist as she led me out of the laboratories and back to the edge of the city.

“Oh my God!” Penelope screamed as we crested a hill, revealing yet another terrifying sight just beyond the wall. A plum of smoke rose from the location of the shelter. She broke into a run towards the wall, and I chased after her. We reached the door, and Penelope began to type into the keypad.
“Weiss!” she shouted over the din from beyond the wall. “Cover me! Make sure nothing attacks from behind or-“
An explosion rocked the wall, blowing out the door and knocking Penelope back into me. We hit the ground, hard, and I blacked out for a minute. As I came to and the dust cleared, I took in the ruined scene. Penelope lay on top of me, unconscious. I carefully pushed her aside and looked at what was left of the wall. It had collapsed, and the body of a Worm was buried under its rubble. The Smog had begun to seep into the city, so I put on my rebreather and went back to the girl.
“Hey, Penelope!” I took her by the shoulders and tried to shake her awake. “Come on, we have to help them, right? Get up!”
She rubbed her face and groaned. “Oh, Weiss… what happened?
“Are you alright?” I asked as I offered my hand to help her up.
“I’ll live,” she muttered as she took it and I lifted her to her feet. “Sorry about slamming into you like that.”
“It’s okay,” I said, my voice muffled through the rebreather. “Better me than the concrete, right?”
She laughed. “Okay, I guess I owe you one for that. “ She gestured to the newly formed mound of rubble in front of us. “You think we can get over that? From up there we would have a nice spot to give those worms a bit of a surprise, you know…”
“Wait… how do you know there’s still a fight going on? That smoke…”
“Weiss, let me tell you something about Black Worms. They aren’t too well known for slamming themselves into walls. I think we’ve got some fight left in us, yeah.” Before I could say anything more, she had started off towards the pile of rock. I caught up with her.
“Hey, wait a minute!” I shouted as we clambered up the rocks. “How are we going to do anything? We didn’t bring any weapons!”
Penelope just grinned at me. Her hair had fallen loose from the explosion, and was flying in the wind. It gave her an incredibly intense look as she climbed the last rock and stood atop the pile of rubble, looking down on the battle below. She laughed.
“Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to let us leave without any weapons?” I caught up to her again, and looked at the scene below. What we feared was true: the Shelter was destroyed. However, its inhabitants had escaped and were fighting the worms from hastily-dug trenches by the ruins. We saw Anemonae and Manfred fighting with their unique styles, and the Shelter-dwellers operated giant cannons that looked like they were thrown together with scrap metal and duct tape. Scrap metal was their ammo, too: giant balls of it that were carefully loaded in and then fired with explosive charges inside the cannons. When they did hit the worms, it seemed like they did a considerable amount of damage, but they often failed and were terribly inaccurate.
“Penelope,” I said, catching my breath, “This doesn’t look too good.” There were a pair of Worms dead: the one that had hit the wall and another that they’d killed before. Three Worms which were still alive were closing in on the Shelter, and ammo for the cannons seemed to be running thin.
“No, it doesn’t,” said Penelope. She grabbed the small radio that was in her pocket and it squawked as she turned it on. “This is Penny,” she said into it. “Load the cannons with as much ammo as you can, but don’t fire. Wait for my signal. You’ll know it when you see it.” She turned to me and smiled.
“Shall we turn the tables?” she asked with glee. She focused her attention on the battlefield. Picking a target, she lifted her mechanical arm towards one of the Worms.
“Penelope, what are you doing?” I asked. I had no idea that the arm had any function apart from any normal one.
“Just watch,” she said confidently. There was a tense pause, on the wall and the battlefield, and then a flash of red light emerged from Penelope’s hand. A bright beam of energy flew towards the capsule on the Worm’s back, which exploded and killed the Worm. As it fell, the cannons fired at the two that were left. Miraculously, they were both effective, and were able to finish off the Worms.
There were cheers from the ground, and Penelope jumped up and down, ecstatic.
“We did it!” she cried, scanning the horizon. “They’re gone!” She quickly climbed down the other side of the wall, and ran to the remains of the Shelter as she hit the ground. I followed after her at  a bit of a more relaxed pace.
The Shelter-dwellers swarmed Penelope as she approached them, congratulating her and celebrating our victory. I sat on a slab of rock and relaxed for a moment, watching them from a distance. Anemonae and Manfred joined me. There was a predictably goofy grin on Manfred’s face.
“Hey there,” Anemonae said as she sat next to me. “You two showed up just in time. I heard you were on a rescue mission. How’d that go?”
I sighed. “We were trying to rescue some of the Children from the Materas Labs, but… they were dead before we could get to them.”
“Oh no,” she gasped. “That’s terrible!”
I nodded. “Don’t mention it to Penelope.” I gestured towards the crowd of people a few yards away. “It really hurt her when she found out, and I-“
“Don’t want her to feel bad?” Manfred asked mockingly, getting right up in my face. “Baww, Weiss, you’re such a good friend.”
“Shut it,” I said as I pushed him aside. I looked around the field, counting the bodies of the Worms. There were only five.
“Did you kill any Worms before we got here?” I asked.
“No,” Anemonae said. “We just got those first two, and if you hadn’t shown up-“
“Damn,” I swore, interrupting her. “That can’t be right. The report said there were eight Worms!”
“What report?” Anemonae protested. “Weiss, where are you…” I had run off to the others.
“Penelope!” I shouted as I pushed my way through the ecstatic crowd. I found her talking to Commander Reed.
“What is it?” she asked with a smile on her face.
“The report!” I cried, gasping for breath. “There are supposed to be three Worms left! We have to get everyone back-“
My voice was drowned out by a terrible crash. The three remaining worms had burst out of the ground, seemingly propelled into the air. The crowd around us panicked and scattered in all different directions as the Worms crashed back into the ground. Some went to the trenches, while others tried to get back within the city walls. The strange part was that once they had hit the ground, the Worms didn’t move. They seemed to be dead, but that didn’t stop the people from running. The others and I tried to calm them down, but it was no use. Our small army of shelter-dwellers had been completely disbanded.
Things went downhill incredibly fast after that. Around the perimeter of the battlefield, we began to see barely visible tendrils of black gather around the panicking people. They got more and more dense, until one woman noticed them and screamed. At that instant, the swirling black substance burst out of the ground in the form of hundreds of hands which covered every inch of ground around the battlefield. They swarmed the people, grasping and clawing at them. Anemonae gasped, freezing for a second, and then she jumped into action.
Taking charge, she first ran to the people who were unharmed and closest to us. She led those who would listen to us so that we could protect them. Manfred and I held off the hands in a small circle around us. They were very flimsy and easily destroyed, but there were very many of them, and it was tiring to try to destroy them all. After we had reorganized a small group who could defend themselves, led by Commander Reed, Penelope, Manfred, and I set out under Anemonae’s command to tend to the wounded.
Cutting down the hands as we went, we tried to reach the ones who were on the ground, We freed them, and Anemonae healed the lucky few who were still alive. Sadly, the vicious clawing of the hands hand mortally wounded most of the people who had scattered and were unable to defend themselves. Their deaths seemed to personally hurt Penelope, and we had to try to keep her spirits up as we ran from victim to victim.
It was painfully apparent that things weren’t going well. The small group at the center, by what was left of the Shelter, was gradually getting smaller as the hands struck them down. Although Anemonae was amazing at healing the injured, we had no way to get them to safety, so they usually ended up getting cut down by the hands. Things looked like they couldn’t get any worse… but that’s when we saw it.
My first good look at the Evil Eye came as it appeared on a cliff overlooking the Shelter. It was as black as pitch, with the only color coming from the many eyes scattered haphazardly around its body. It stood like a man; that is to say, it stood on two legs. The way it carried itself, though, was strange. It had a strange, staggered gait, almost like a disturbing limp. The thing seemed to absorb light: darkness surrounded it, covering everything for yards around it. The Evil Eye was the source of the black hands, and they surrounded it, frantically clawing at every bit of grass or rock that was within range.
It stood on the edge of the cliff, surveying the battle below. It stood still for a long moment, almost pensively. Finally, a voice rang out. It seemed to come from the Eye, but it also painfully rang inside my head, like a deranged thought that you can’t control, like utter madness.

Rise.

Black fire rose from the ground in a circle around the Eye, slowly expanding. The fire dissolved all organic matter it touched: plants instantly turned to black dust when they came into contact with it. It affected people in the exact same way. We frantically looked at Anemonae, hoping her experience would help us.
She looked around the battlefield, horrified. There was nowhere to run, and she knew it. “Oh, gods,” she muttered. “No, not like this…”
“What do we do?” Manfred pleaded.
“I don’t know!” cried Anemonae.
The Evil Eye walked behind the ring of fire, straight towards us. Noticing this, Penelope steeled herself.
“You,” she said under her breath. “You killed them… my friends… my family…”
I stood in front of her. “What are you doing, Penelope!? We have to get out of here!” She pushed me aside.
“No, Weiss. That won’t do any good.” She lifted her mechanical arm up, and its joints began to glow with a bright orange light. “I have to fight it.” She stared at the Eye, fierce determination on her face.
“You can’t fight it,” Anemonae said wearily. “Not by yourself, not with us, not now. You’ll just be killed, just like the rest of them!”
There was no response from Penelope. A small ball so bright it was impossible to look straight at had formed at her palm. She squinted as it grew gradually larger, giving off more heat and light. Almost as if in mocking response, the Evil Eye did the same, an orb of black fire forming around its twisted hand.
Almost everything was covered in the black fire now. There was just a little circle of empty space around us, slowly closing in on us. I was sure it could kill us if it wanted to, but it almost seemed like it was playing with us. It was almost as if it enjoyed the fear we were feeling and our sorrow for our fallen comrades.
The ball of energy at Penelope’s palm had grown to the size of her head. It was, in fact, a tiny star, pulsating with heat and light. The rest of us watched, amazed, as she struggled to aim it at the Evil Eye. Such an act seemed foolish. From what we had heard from Anemonae, the Eye was nearly indestructible, yet here Penelope stood, trying to harm it. She let out a scream as the star was launched from her hand, throwing her backwards. I caught her, barely stopping her from flying into the deadly fire.
The Evil Eye launched its attack at the same time, with a chilling laugh. The two energies flew at each other and finally slammed together with an incredible explosion. It blew some of the fire out, yet it kept expanding. As the smoke cleared, we saw three things. The first was that a seemingly very unstable portal had opened where the collision had occurred. The second was that there was now a rapidly shrinking path to the portal, with walls of flame flanking either side. Finally, the Evil Eye had not been affected in the least by the explosion.
There was only one thing to do. Anemonae, Manfred and I got up and started to bolt towards the portal, but I stopped when I noticed that Penelope hadn’t moved. She still stood in the same spot, disappointed but resolute. I ran to her, grabbing her hand.
“Come on, we don’t have much time!” I pulled her towards the portal.
“N-no… I have to fight…” Penelope put up little resistance: she was exhausted from the attack.
We finally made it to the portal. It was hard to see what was on the other side, but Anemonae and Manfred had already gone through. I forced a smile at the dazed Penelope. “Come on, let’s get out of this place.” I tried to sound as calm as I could, but I was scared as hell with the Evil Eye just a few yards away and the fire rapidly closing in on us.
Penelope nodded. “Uh-huh… yeah. Let’s go.”

We passed through the portal just as the fire enveloped everything in sight.

Description
“Wake up, sleepyhead! We’ve got a mission to do, and we’re burnin’ daylight!”
As I rolled over, about to get up, a hard object hit me square in the forehead. “What was that?” I mumbled as I got up. I opened my eyes and saw Penelope standing above me, grinning.
“Breakfast! C’mon, let’s go!” She seemed extremely excited: she paced the floor as I picked the breakfast bar she had thrown at my head off of the ground. I watched her circle the room as I slowly chewed the old cereal bar.
“Are you always this… this much of a morning person?” I asked between bites.
“Don’t like waking up early in the morning, do you? Well, good old Ben Franklin would like a word with you.” She stopped pacing and leaned over, stretching to her feet. “I guess I’m usually not this energetic in the morning,” she said as she got back up, reaching towards the ceiling, “It’s just that I’m really nervous about our little errand today.”
“And what would that be?” I finally got out after a moment of swallowing the stale food.
“A rescue mission!” she said with glee. “There are a lot more Children still trapped in the Labs, and we’re going to need their help when we get our visit from the Evil Eye!”
I groaned and rolled back into bed. For the past few days, Commander Reed had been getting Anemonae, Manfred and I ready to fight alongside the members of the Shelter against the Eye, and I was completely exhausted. Today, though, she had some business to take care of, so I had been expecting a little bit of rest. The last thing I wanted to do was run to the laboratory again and drag some more robot kids back with me.
“As fun as that sounds, Penelope,” I said, “I think I’d rather get some sleep.”
“Not gonna happen, Weiss.” Penelope smiled and pointed to her electronic eye. “Scans indicate you’ve gotten the optimal amount of rest for one night already.” She mocked a lifeless robotic voice jokingly. “Any further sleep will result in excess feelings of fatigue. Now get up!” Her voice returning to normal, she pulled my sheet off of me and yanked me to my feet by the collar of my shirt.
We stood uncomfortably close for just a moment. “So, tell me,” I asked as I stepped away from her, “Why should I go along and risk my head by going to the Materas Laboratories with you?”
“I’ll be your best friend,” she sang. I looked at her incredulously, and she laughed. “Not good enough for you? Shoot. Well, how’s this? It’ll give you a day away from Manfred.
“What?” I was interested now. “Why?”
Penelope laughed again. “Ah, I thought you might like that. Well, Manfred’s gonna be busy today. They’re trying to get Father out of him so they can get some info, and let’s just say it might take a while. Actually, I think it’s just going to be the two of us, now that I think about it. Our strategists are picking Anemonae’s brain about ways to beat the Evil Eye, so she can’t come with us.”
“Well, in that case, I’m not sure if it’s such a great-“
“Nonsense! Come on, let’s get out of here!” Before I could get a word in edgewise, Penelope took my hand and dragged me out of the room, gave me a gas mask, and led me back to the city.
She gave me a rebreather before we left, a small device that let me breathe in the smog of the area outside of the City. It was rather ingenious: it fit over my face and converted the carbon dioxide I breathed out into pure breathable oxygen. It was much more effective than a gas mask, and only needed a carbon filter change every forty-eight hours of use. Since we didn’t have to bolt from the door, I got a good look at the outside: it was a complete ruin. There were even fewer plants than in the Dark Realm, and a sickly yellow haze hung over everything. I could see that the City enclosed within the walls and glass was only a small fraction of what once was a much larger metropolitan area. Around the city center was an entirely destroyed city. Nothing familiar remained, only a few heaps of concrete and metal were scattered around the landscape. It made me sad, and Penelope could tell.
“Hey, chin up, Weiss,” she said as she patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll get you home, I promise.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
Penelope was able to change the password on the door, since we had more time than before. After we got through, we took the tram back to the Labs. The Worms were absent from their posts at the front door, presumably because they were preparing to attack the Shelter.
“Funny,” Penelope said. “they usually don’t leave their posts this much before an attack.” She scratched her head for a moment. “We should try to be done here pretty quick so we can get back soon, okay?”
I nodded, and we hurried into the Labs. We systematically began to search for Penelope’s friends, searching each room in a precise pattern that she laid out. We were looking for a boy and girl roughly our age, and an older girl, the boy’s sister. Their names were Adam, Samantha, and Heather, respectively.  We looked around, but we couldn’t find them right away. As we got deeper and deeper into the laboratories, Penelope got increasingly concerned. She began to shout their names into each room we searched, and she broke into a run between them.
After searching the laboratories for several hours, there was one room left: Edaniel Materas’s personal office, which doubled as the control room for the MAY OS. Penelope knocked on the door.
“Adam? Sam? Heather? Are you in there, guys?” She was terribly worked up and on the brink of tears. When we heard no response, she unlocked the door to the office with a hidden keypad on its jamb.
“Welcome back, Doctor,” said a voice from inside the office as the door slid open. It was cold and emotionless, but I could almost swear that it sounded like May’s. I opened my mouth to say something about it, but I couldn’t get anything out. Penelope screamed before I could.
She fell to her knees, sobbing. I couldn’t tell what the matter was. I ran over to the crying girl and crouched beside her.
“Penelope, what’s wrong? What is it?” She didn’t reply, instead she pointed into the room. Even this caused her to break into more tears.  I looked into the office and recoiled, gasping at the sight.
Three bodies lay on the floor, each covered in a thin veneer of blood. I recognized them from the brief descriptions Penelope had given me as the three we were looking for. The boy and his sister were in each other’s arms, while the other girl was lying by the side of the room, away from them. There was a bullet hole in each of their heads, precisely above the bridge of the nose. They hadn’t been dead for long: aside from the obvious, their bodies were in perfect condition, and there was no smell apart from the salty tang of blood.
“Oh, God, Penelope… I’m sorry.”
She continued to cry. “We got here too late,” she managed to stammer through her tears. “If we’d just gotten here an hour ago, they probably wouldn’t…” She moaned, and buried her head in between her legs.
“Penelope,” I said, remembering something Anemonae had told me after we lost May, “Don’t blame yourself. It won’t make you feel any better, and if you dwell on it, it can hurt you much more than their deaths alone…”
She didn’t say a thing at first, but after a few tense minutes, she lifted her head. “Maybe you’re right.” She sniffed and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “In… in any case, we’ve got… a secondary… objective here.”
“What’s that?”
“I… didn’t mention it, because I didn’t want to think about this possibility…” She fell on her back and stared at the tiles of the ceiling. “MAY generates a… report for every single action she takes. We need to know why… this happened.” She waved into the room listlessly. “Weiss… can you do something for me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
She looked at me, and her striking blue eyes brightened just a bit. “Thanks. I… can’t go in there. My friends… I need you to access the terminal on Father’s desk and get the report… can you do that?”
I nodded. “Sure.” I went into the room, carefully avoiding the bodies on the ground. I sat on the surprisingly luxurious chair and turned on the computer. Penelope sat up and talked to me across the room, guiding me to the report by telling me file locations and passwords. It was fairly easy, as this terminal had the highest priority out of all of the ones on the network… or so Penelope said. Truth be told, I was fairly confused by the whole process, but we made it within ten minutes. This is the report we were looking for.

Report 523-A
TO DR. MATERAS-
On today, January 29, 2153, I performed Policy 36, otherwise known as Automatic Execution Orders. The Children involved were Heather and Adam Rothchild, as well as Samantha [last_name NULL VALUE].
DETAILS:
As you know (see reports 522-A through F), Child Penelope Materas escaped from the laboratories recently, to the bandit outpost known as City Limit Shelter.* I have used this as an opportunity to enact Policy 5 (any and all threats must be removed) on the shelter in question. The Children involved in today’s action were planning on assisting Penelope as well as the bandits she has escaped to. As this could impede the effectiveness of today’s planned Policy 5 action, the Children regrettably had to be excecuted. I would have performed the action on Penelope, however, her Compliance Assurance Device has been modified or removed, and is no longer responding. Please look into this problem if possible.

*Policy 5 will be enacted Today at 3:00 PM. 8 Worms will be deployed to City Limit Shelter. Little difficulty, if any, is expected.

As I finished reading the report, I glanced at Penelope. She was still crying, but she stared at me, rubbing away her tears.
“Weiss,” she said quietly, “We have to go. The shelter’s in danger.”
“Are you okay?” I asked. “I mean, we can wait here for a while, if you need some time to-“
“No.” She carefully got up and waved me over. “They… they died because of me.” She started towards the exit, and I ran after her.
“Penelope,” I pleaded, “I told you already, don’t think of it-“
“It’s not that, Weiss. Adam, Heather, and Samantha… maybe we couldn’t save them, but the people at the Shelter are still alive.” She paused, and looked back at the office. “They died trying to help us… let’s not let it be in vain, okay?” She smiled weakly and kept walking. Her eyes were hopeful through her tears, and she gripped my wrist as she led me out of the laboratories and back to the edge of the city.

“Oh my God!” Penelope screamed as we crested a hill, revealing yet another terrifying sight just beyond the wall. A plum of smoke rose from the location of the shelter. She broke into a run towards the wall, and I chased after her. We reached the door, and Penelope began to type into the keypad.
“Weiss!” she shouted over the din from beyond the wall. “Cover me! Make sure nothing attacks from behind or-“
An explosion rocked the wall, blowing out the door and knocking Penelope back into me. We hit the ground, hard, and I blacked out for a minute. As I came to and the dust cleared, I took in the ruined scene. Penelope lay on top of me, unconscious. I carefully pushed her aside and looked at what was left of the wall. It had collapsed, and the body of a Worm was buried under its rubble. The Smog had begun to seep into the city, so I put on my rebreather and went back to the girl.
“Hey, Penelope!” I took her by the shoulders and tried to shake her awake. “Come on, we have to help them, right? Get up!”
She rubbed her face and groaned. “Oh, Weiss… what happened?
“Are you alright?” I asked as I offered my hand to help her up.
“I’ll live,” she muttered as she took it and I lifted her to her feet. “Sorry about slamming into you like that.”
“It’s okay,” I said, my voice muffled through the rebreather. “Better me than the concrete, right?”
She laughed. “Okay, I guess I owe you one for that. “ She gestured to the newly formed mound of rubble in front of us. “You think we can get over that? From up there we would have a nice spot to give those worms a bit of a surprise, you know…”
“Wait… how do you know there’s still a fight going on? That smoke…”
“Weiss, let me tell you something about Black Worms. They aren’t too well known for slamming themselves into walls. I think we’ve got some fight left in us, yeah.” Before I could say anything more, she had started off towards the pile of rock. I caught up with her.
“Hey, wait a minute!” I shouted as we clambered up the rocks. “How are we going to do anything? We didn’t bring any weapons!”
Penelope just grinned at me. Her hair had fallen loose from the explosion, and was flying in the wind. It gave her an incredibly intense look as she climbed the last rock and stood atop the pile of rubble, looking down on the battle below. She laughed.
“Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to let us leave without any weapons?” I caught up to her again, and looked at the scene below. What we feared was true: the Shelter was destroyed. However, its inhabitants had escaped and were fighting the worms from hastily-dug trenches by the ruins. We saw Anemonae and Manfred fighting with their unique styles, and the Shelter-dwellers operated giant cannons that looked like they were thrown together with scrap metal and duct tape. Scrap metal was their ammo, too: giant balls of it that were carefully loaded in and then fired with explosive charges inside the cannons. When they did hit the worms, it seemed like they did a considerable amount of damage, but they often failed and were terribly inaccurate.
“Penelope,” I said, catching my breath, “This doesn’t look too good.” There were a pair of Worms dead: the one that had hit the wall and another that they’d killed before. Three Worms which were still alive were closing in on the Shelter, and ammo for the cannons seemed to be running thin.
“No, it doesn’t,” said Penelope. She grabbed the small radio that was in her pocket and it squawked as she turned it on. “This is Penny,” she said into it. “Load the cannons with as much ammo as you can, but don’t fire. Wait for my signal. You’ll know it when you see it.” She turned to me and smiled.
“Shall we turn the tables?” she asked with glee. She focused her attention on the battlefield. Picking a target, she lifted her mechanical arm towards one of the Worms.
“Penelope, what are you doing?” I asked. I had no idea that the arm had any function apart from any normal one.
“Just watch,” she said confidently. There was a tense pause, on the wall and the battlefield, and then a flash of red light emerged from Penelope’s hand. A bright beam of energy flew towards the capsule on the Worm’s back, which exploded and killed the Worm. As it fell, the cannons fired at the two that were left. Miraculously, they were both effective, and were able to finish off the Worms.
There were cheers from the ground, and Penelope jumped up and down, ecstatic.
“We did it!” she cried, scanning the horizon. “They’re gone!” She quickly climbed down the other side of the wall, and ran to the remains of the Shelter as she hit the ground. I followed after her at  a bit of a more relaxed pace.
The Shelter-dwellers swarmed Penelope as she approached them, congratulating her and celebrating our victory. I sat on a slab of rock and relaxed for a moment, watching them from a distance. Anemonae and Manfred joined me. There was a predictably goofy grin on Manfred’s face.
“Hey there,” Anemonae said as she sat next to me. “You two showed up just in time. I heard you were on a rescue mission. How’d that go?”
I sighed. “We were trying to rescue some of the Children from the Materas Labs, but… they were dead before we could get to them.”
“Oh no,” she gasped. “That’s terrible!”
I nodded. “Don’t mention it to Penelope.” I gestured towards the crowd of people a few yards away. “It really hurt her when she found out, and I-“
“Don’t want her to feel bad?” Manfred asked mockingly, getting right up in my face. “Baww, Weiss, you’re such a good friend.”
“Shut it,” I said as I pushed him aside. I looked around the field, counting the bodies of the Worms. There were only five.
“Did you kill any Worms before we got here?” I asked.
“No,” Anemonae said. “We just got those first two, and if you hadn’t shown up-“
“Damn,” I swore, interrupting her. “That can’t be right. The report said there were eight Worms!”
“What report?” Anemonae protested. “Weiss, where are you…” I had run off to the others.
“Penelope!” I shouted as I pushed my way through the ecstatic crowd. I found her talking to Commander Reed.
“What is it?” she asked with a smile on her face.
“The report!” I cried, gasping for breath. “There are supposed to be three Worms left! We have to get everyone back-“
My voice was drowned out by a terrible crash. The three remaining worms had burst out of the ground, seemingly propelled into the air. The crowd around us panicked and scattered in all different directions as the Worms crashed back into the ground. Some went to the trenches, while others tried to get back within the city walls. The strange part was that once they had hit the ground, the Worms didn’t move. They seemed to be dead, but that didn’t stop the people from running. The others and I tried to calm them down, but it was no use. Our small army of shelter-dwellers had been completely disbanded.
Things went downhill incredibly fast after that. Around the perimeter of the battlefield, we began to see barely visible tendrils of black gather around the panicking people. They got more and more dense, until one woman noticed them and screamed. At that instant, the swirling black substance burst out of the ground in the form of hundreds of hands which covered every inch of ground around the battlefield. They swarmed the people, grasping and clawing at them. Anemonae gasped, freezing for a second, and then she jumped into action.
Taking charge, she first ran to the people who were unharmed and closest to us. She led those who would listen to us so that we could protect them. Manfred and I held off the hands in a small circle around us. They were very flimsy and easily destroyed, but there were very many of them, and it was tiring to try to destroy them all. After we had reorganized a small group who could defend themselves, led by Commander Reed, Penelope, Manfred, and I set out under Anemonae’s command to tend to the wounded.
Cutting down the hands as we went, we tried to reach the ones who were on the ground, We freed them, and Anemonae healed the lucky few who were still alive. Sadly, the vicious clawing of the hands hand mortally wounded most of the people who had scattered and were unable to defend themselves. Their deaths seemed to personally hurt Penelope, and we had to try to keep her spirits up as we ran from victim to victim.
It was painfully apparent that things weren’t going well. The small group at the center, by what was left of the Shelter, was gradually getting smaller as the hands struck them down. Although Anemonae was amazing at healing the injured, we had no way to get them to safety, so they usually ended up getting cut down by the hands. Things looked like they couldn’t get any worse… but that’s when we saw it.
My first good look at the Evil Eye came as it appeared on a cliff overlooking the Shelter. It was as black as pitch, with the only color coming from the many eyes scattered haphazardly around its body. It stood like a man; that is to say, it stood on two legs. The way it carried itself, though, was strange. It had a strange, staggered gait, almost like a disturbing limp. The thing seemed to absorb light: darkness surrounded it, covering everything for yards around it. The Evil Eye was the source of the black hands, and they surrounded it, frantically clawing at every bit of grass or rock that was within range.
It stood on the edge of the cliff, surveying the battle below. It stood still for a long moment, almost pensively. Finally, a voice rang out. It seemed to come from the Eye, but it also painfully rang inside my head, like a deranged thought that you can’t control, like utter madness.

Rise.

Black fire rose from the ground in a circle around the Eye, slowly expanding. The fire dissolved all organic matter it touched: plants instantly turned to black dust when they came into contact with it. It affected people in the exact same way. We frantically looked at Anemonae, hoping her experience would help us.
She looked around the battlefield, horrified. There was nowhere to run, and she knew it. “Oh, gods,” she muttered. “No, not like this…”
“What do we do?” Manfred pleaded.
“I don’t know!” cried Anemonae.
The Evil Eye walked behind the ring of fire, straight towards us. Noticing this, Penelope steeled herself.
“You,” she said under her breath. “You killed them… my friends… my family…”
I stood in front of her. “What are you doing, Penelope!? We have to get out of here!” She pushed me aside.
“No, Weiss. That won’t do any good.” She lifted her mechanical arm up, and its joints began to glow with a bright orange light. “I have to fight it.” She stared at the Eye, fierce determination on her face.
“You can’t fight it,” Anemonae said wearily. “Not by yourself, not with us, not now. You’ll just be killed, just like the rest of them!”
There was no response from Penelope. A small ball so bright it was impossible to look straight at had formed at her palm. She squinted as it grew gradually larger, giving off more heat and light. Almost as if in mocking response, the Evil Eye did the same, an orb of black fire forming around its twisted hand.
Almost everything was covered in the black fire now. There was just a little circle of empty space around us, slowly closing in on us. I was sure it could kill us if it wanted to, but it almost seemed like it was playing with us. It was almost as if it enjoyed the fear we were feeling and our sorrow for our fallen comrades.
The ball of energy at Penelope’s palm had grown to the size of her head. It was, in fact, a tiny star, pulsating with heat and light. The rest of us watched, amazed, as she struggled to aim it at the Evil Eye. Such an act seemed foolish. From what we had heard from Anemonae, the Eye was nearly indestructible, yet here Penelope stood, trying to harm it. She let out a scream as the star was launched from her hand, throwing her backwards. I caught her, barely stopping her from flying into the deadly fire.
The Evil Eye launched its attack at the same time, with a chilling laugh. The two energies flew at each other and finally slammed together with an incredible explosion. It blew some of the fire out, yet it kept expanding. As the smoke cleared, we saw three things. The first was that a seemingly very unstable portal had opened where the collision had occurred. The second was that there was now a rapidly shrinking path to the portal, with walls of flame flanking either side. Finally, the Evil Eye had not been affected in the least by the explosion.
There was only one thing to do. Anemonae, Manfred and I got up and started to bolt towards the portal, but I stopped when I noticed that Penelope hadn’t moved. She still stood in the same spot, disappointed but resolute. I ran to her, grabbing her hand.
“Come on, we don’t have much time!” I pulled her towards the portal.
“N-no… I have to fight…” Penelope put up little resistance: she was exhausted from the attack.
We finally made it to the portal. It was hard to see what was on the other side, but Anemonae and Manfred had already gone through. I forced a smile at the dazed Penelope. “Come on, let’s get out of this place.” I tried to sound as calm as I could, but I was scared as hell with the Evil Eye just a few yards away and the fire rapidly closing in on us.
Penelope nodded. “Uh-huh… yeah. Let’s go.”

We passed through the portal just as the fire enveloped everything in sight.