Letters from the Future

The woman stared at the outside entrance of the Belsize bomb shelter. How long had it been for her? It was getting on to damn near twenty years to the day since she had last set foot in that bunker. The whole world was spinning around back to where it had left off for her. A new day, a new dawn, a new family. Brown eyes closed as the woman stepped into the secret entrance. Right where Nowhere Man had said it was. She had once been the caretaker of the old facility, a historian in her own right. Two letters to be delivered. An insurane policy according to her boss. Well, nominally her boss. The woman wanted out from underneath Nowhere Man's control. But for the next week, she was under his arm. Her debt would be paid. And she would be free to continue on with her own life, free of the oppression of responsibility. Free to guide the young on the correct true path beyond the path of strength. From here on out, she would not tell them what to do, nor would she manipulate them. And she would not allow the others to so.

Where Monolith was the voice of Strength, Kazumi was to be the voice of Responsibility and Self worth. Monolith had power. He had a metric fuck tonne of power, but Kazumi had her own advantages. Wealth, Knowledge, Willpower, and a very keen R&D department. Inside the air was warm, the smell was that of human habitation. It was not empty. Which made Kazumi very nervous. She turned on her taser glove and crept silently through the building. Two targets. Two letters. And one chance to do this right. Glitch had wanted those letters delivered, and that was that. Kazumi had no reason to forsake the future and the past now. The woman looked at the two and then sighed. One for Helen, and one for Zoey.

She slipped into the first room. Inside Helen was sleeping peacefully, quietly. Though by the looks of things, it hadn't been that way earlier. Forethought's mask sat upon the desk in the room. "Strange..." She whispered to herself. It was as it was. This had been the day that Dave had vanished. She looked at the letter addressed to Helen and Claire, and then set it where the young woman would see it. Next to the mask. As soon as it was done, she slipped out of the room and towards Zoey's. The hints of sand on the floor indicated the location as singled out by Nowhere Man. She looked at the sleeping figure. It was strange, but this woman as supposedly as a zombie. Undead, reanimated. Whatever word you wanted to use. She looked alive enough right now. Alive enough for this to work at least.

Kazumi set the letter in the woman's hand and then vanished out of the room. The letterhead, the seal, the handwriting. It had all been meticulously recreated by a forger. It would be enough to convince the two girls of it being their Uncle Dave. It was many shades better than Glitch herself would have been able to do if she addressed it truthfully. She sighed. 'Hi, it's me, Glitch! Guess what news I have!' would have been taken altogether too crazy, especially given how unstable Glitch was right now. Kazumi looked down and let out one last inaudible sigh. How short life was. Especially for the Empowered.

As she snuck into the hall, she came face to face with somebody who she wasn't expecting. Actually, two people she wasn't expecting. Glitch and Unnamed stood in front of her, ready to block her escape. It stood to reason. This was Unnamed's dimension, and Glitch rarely slept. "Chikushou..." Kazumi whispered under her breath.

"Okay, how the hell did you get in here and what are you doing?!" Unnamed said.

Glitch just stared, a makeshift weapon in one hand. The nervous twitch of the Chinese girl was a bit much. No telling what might happen next. And Kazumi was not going to let that happen. She had too many years of sorrow behind here, and it all started because of tonight. She flipped the switch on the back of the glove. "Nothing. And you won't remember it once I'm done with you." She ran forward and slammed her taser glove into Unnamed's stomach, causing the young woman to drop like a rag. The pocket dimension flickered for a moment but held. That was good. Kazumi turned to see Glitch's pipe coming at her face, with just enough time to react. By now, the techie's hair was completely blue, and had paled a little bit. "Glitch, I haven't time for you. All I can say is that your powers are killing you, so I hope you remember that much when you wake up..." She reached forward and grasped the Chinese woman's face with her glove, knocking her off her feet backwards with unusual force. "It must have been the wires in her head..." Kazumi thought. It didn't matter. Kazumi's time was up, and the sound of the pipe clattering as well as the screams had probably woken the others up.

She ran to the exit and vanished into the night, content to know she hadn't ended the universe.