[00] The Control Room

[DA 2009]

FIVE HOURS AGO…

“Syntex operates mainly on reputation. It is my goal to revive that reputation. The last few years, our company has become another producer of the mainstream media. Our tournament, which is the cornerstone of Syntex, has devolved into ratings and cameras. I seek to bring it back to what it is, bring it back to the beginning,” Damon explained passionately. “Everything will evolve as one: the program, the tournament, and the competitors within. Observe.”

Audric initiated a new display, one that showed Sage at the very beginning of the tournament.

“We have four players left, with Dr. Roberts being one of them. Dr. Roberts is a willing player, an excellent example of how the Abyss affects the mind. In five short rounds, Dr. Roberts has gone from this…”

The girl stuttered on screen, afraid of her own shadow as the noises of invisible actions permeated the City Sector.

“…to this.”

The clip changed, showing Sage tearing up the forest in blind rage to find Belle, hunting Mal Nova with her powers of ice, and cutting her last two opponents down in brutal fashion.

“A helpless little girl abandons her own proclamation not to use her powers in favor of revenge, and cuts down three of her five opponents in the process. Sage is like a nuclear bomb with a broken trigger, the very epitome of a competitor’s potential,” Damon narrated.”

Audric set up another display, this one showing Trafford calmly walking around with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

“Alexander Trafford, one of our more special cases. He is sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll in a designer suit, the result of an experiment in ki engineering with decidedly mixed results. Fortunately for us, his capabilities are quite destructive.”

The scene changed to Trafford firing a barrage of psychokinetically charged bullets with a smirk on his face, and then centered on his manipulation of environments, showing him creating a storm of snow, an exploding minefield in the mountain, and nearly sending up the entire coliseum in smoke. Some clips of him showing emotional breakdowns interspersed with the demolition.

“His psyche is somewhat delicate as a result of emotional trauma. Almost anything will set him off, and when it happens, he puts on a pretty good light show. Mr. Trafford could typically be found on the streets, wasting his talent doing parlor tricks like juggling without using his hands. Put someone like him in the right environment, and you are guaranteed fireworks.”

The focus on Alexander vanished, replaced instead by Sophia talking cheerfully with her friends.

“Sophia Rosado, who suffered a recent and unfortunate demise. We temporarily brought her back after we cut a deal with an Earth witch,” Damon continued matter-of-factly.

The mood whiplashed back and forth between Sophia acting kindly, like building a snowman with a competitor, and then diving headfirst into a desperate battle for victory.

“Another competitor with amazing potential: filled with compassion, yet a mere touch of her hands can bring death to anyone who threatens her livelihood. Ms. Rosado helps round out the fold, a raw personality that is molded purely by environment and circumstance. She’s a competitor that when push comes to shove, when it comes down to her or the opponent, she will pick self-preservation every time. She lacks the necessary hostility to pull the trigger most of the time, but she won’t just lay down and die.”

Sophia was then replaced by Ashe, who alternately walking around by her lonesome talking to herself and hanging out with her friends in the bunkers.

“Ashelia “Ashe” Branford, average teenage human, attends school, works part-time…fairly ordinary.”

The display then prominently visualized her unusual and innovative efforts at evading her clearly superior opponents. While she had little combat ability to speak of, her ingenuity proved to be a shining trait.

“This competitor was more selected for traits other than combat ability…” Damon began.

“Yes, how did this young lady with no remarkable talent whatsoever make it all the way through this tournament?” a board member interrupted.

“Hacks, sir,” Audric answered before Dukes had a chance to feed a smooth reply. “We believe that somehow this girl cheated the system.”

Josh Drake stifled a laugh, attempting to discreetly cover his growing smile with his hand. Damon was not so amused. He craned his head slowly to glare at Audric, eyes conveying so much more than what could be expressed with words. Audric caught the venomous stare, and suddenly became overly fascinated with a panel of the wall.

“You have some great wood here. Very nice-looking craftsmanship. What is that, oak?” the technical supervisor mused.

Damon turned back to the council, who found no humor in the joke. “My apologies. He doesn’t get out much,” the host laughed airily. He then cleared his throat. “As I was saying, there were some competitors that were allowed because of the effect they would have on the group as a whole. It’s part of our composition theory that a diverse arrangement of personality and psychological profiles will yield stronger results in the end. And I can assure you, this girl did not cheat; she merely uses brain over brawn, which is a perfectly applicable tactic in a fighting tournament.”

Audric turned off the display, signaling the near end of the presentation.

“Dr. Roberts and Mr. Trafford represent the upper half of our competitive scale, the aggressors. Ms. Rosado and Ms. Branford represent the lower half, the ones who are merely trying to survive. I have found through very careful research that chemistry and dynamics play a very important role in full immersion of a combat environment. You cannot have a homogenized collection of beings that fight simply for the sake of fighting. Reijin, Bra, Minoshia, Bujin…just to name a few, they would come to Dante’s Abyss purely for the sake of fighting, of competition. Lust for battle! Pit them on their desires, and they will fight harder than any participant we’ve ever had before. Sage fights because we can give her the location of a man she desperately wants dead. Alex fights because he seeks an absolution he believes he’ll find here. Sophia fights because we gave her the gift of life, and as soon as she’s killed, it will be taken away. Ashe fights because she has a power that she doesn’t know how to use. Give them something they want, or take away something they need, and you will get better results than those who fight for the love of it,” Damon concluded.

“…and if we let you continue this program, how can you guarantee these results you boast?”

“Because these competitors are under contractual obligations to return in the instance of my program’s institution. Whether they realize it or not, they are being primed for continual reinsertion into the virtual reality. They will accept the tournament and its implications far more readily a second time. Once you enter the Abyss, you’re never the same again.”

“Will you be able to continue your work in Research and Development?”

“I’ve integrated the resources of my department into this project. My Research and Development team contributed several of our test products for the design of this program. As an example, we used experimental fuel cells, which cut the cost of power to run the entire system by 72 percent. They are also fully recyclable, which complies with the standards of the government’s environmental committee.”

A heart-hammering pause ensued. There was nothing left to say. Damon fell silent, and Audric looked nervously around the room. Josh finally nodded to the rest of his colleagues and delivered their consensus.

“Mr. Dukes, we find your project to be lacking to our company’s standards and therefore have compiled a list of mandatory changes we would like to see made in order to consider it a viable format of our reputable and highly profitable Dante’s Abyss tournament,” Drake stated.

A fax machine near the telephone began to print out several pages of the board’s reviews.

“We also demand that you accelerate the conclusion of this tournament, as its execution was poorly timed with the carefully planned corporate schedule of Syntex. We need to see how the final four competitors will ultimately perform, and such a performance will be indicative of the program’s overall success,” Josh concluded. “That is all. You are dismissed.”

One by one, the holograms dematerialized, some of their faces plastered with smirks as they left. Damon suddenly forgot how to breathe.

“Fuck,” Audric cursed. “How do we fix this? Damon? Damon!”

But Dukes’s eyes glazed over and he was completely unresponsive. Audric shuffled the faxed papers together and plopped them on the end of the conference table within his boss’s reach.

“You’re the man in charge here. You figure it out or we’re both screwed.”

It didn’t matter. Damon couldn’t hear anything in his daze.

-----

FOUR HOURS AGO…

Damon stared into nothingness, fingertips pressed hard against the smooth, polished surface of the conference table. The host had long since read through the stack of papers in front of him. The last few hours played on a loop in his mind, over and over again. Everything progressed so well, but how did it come to this? Up until now, very little could shake Dukes as soundly as this undertaking. He always prided himself on remaining cool, confident, composed. Now, the host felt as if all of his efforts meant nothing. He sighed, shifting his weight back on his heels and smoothing out his hair. Damon looked around, noticing that Audric had quietly slipped off during his very tense reflections. The board meeting had gone anything but as expected. Dukes walked over to a corner shelf, picking up the phone and dialing the extension for the control room.

“Took you long enough,” Audric’s voice said immediately.

“Time for a little improvisation,” Damon instructed firmly. “Send in the Eliminators. All of them.”