Save State Hero -Ch17- (Patreon)

“Edmund?” asked Andrea.

“Building directly across. I feel like they’ll ignore it. Assume it’s cleared and fine since it was the last time someone checked it,” he said, glad that he was finally back to the starting point. “That’d be what I’d do but… I’m not a military commander or a soldier.”

Going through the entire walk here he was doing his best to not become impatient. He had to act as if he hadn’t gone through all of this already, otherwise it would literally change the world around him.

Then he’d have to do it all over again.

Edmund looked to find the Andrea that’d spoken this time.

He spotted someone in “Centurion” armor next to Felix in his Legate armor.

This person had to be Andrea given that it was an officer’s armor and she was clearly commanding the situation.

Romina and Edmund both had Centurion helmets as well, though they were both told to leave them behind so that there’d be no confusion.

“We’ll take the building directly across. Make sure you’re not visible, stay out of sight,” Andrea stated and then everyone began moving.

Creeping into the indicated building and hiding themselves away throughout.

Edmund took a small corner office that had a smashed window in it that led out to what he was sure was an alley beside the building. There was at least a six foot drop to the ground but that was nothing in his armor.

There was no window that looked out onto the capitol building, but that was perfectly fine. If he wanted to peek out, doing it through a window wasn’t a good idea.

Ellie and Iren had followed him once again. This time they posted up in a small pair of cubicles that were outside the office Edmund had gone into.

Romina had hesitated for a brief moment before following him into the office. Her helmeted head had clearly moved in the direction of the two other women for a second.

“Dragon and a Dryad, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah. They’re obvious. Dorothy is, too. Wasn’t interested in any of them,” Edmund said, jumping straight to the chase of this conversation. He could always wind it back later and be more flirty. “Was only interested in one woman.”

“Sheesh, give a girl a breath, Edmund,” muttered Romina, coming over to peek out the window. “You could have at least let me poke at it a little. Now I just feel stupid.”

“If you’re looking for a poke I’m sure I can help you out with that, Mina,” Edmund said, stressing a pet name he’d avoided. “And no, not going to give you a breath. I gave you a breath the first time around. Nearly lost my chance with you.

“Eddy friend is long dead and buried. Edmund the prospective boyfriend is here now.”

“I-you-yeah, I get it. You can ease up just a little. I said yes, okay? We’ll… we’ll go out and see how we do,” she said and then sighed.

“It’ll be fine. Even if you become a shitty ex-girlfriend I promise to at least be your friend,” Edmund offered, jumping to the next part of the conversation.

The fact that he knew what to say left him feeling guilty. He didn’t want to use his knowledge to subvert and bend Romina into the shape he wished.

I’m just… just trying to move quickly. That’s all.

I can reload it later and play it straight.

Play it true.

I’m a solid actor at this point.

People wouldn’t even realize it when I’ve done something as it would look perfectly normal.

“I… really? You promise? I’m kinda crazy,” Romina warned.

“Yeah, yeah. And they tell you to not stick your dick in crazy. I’ll have to check in with Felix for tips and before you get huffy, no, I’m not assuming anything of our first date,” Edmund stated. “Though… maybe our third. You get a bit touchy-feely when you drink and I’m betting third date you’ll want to hit a bar.”

“You know what. Fine. Fine! I won’t even-this-this… mm! Mmmm! I’ll get even,” growled Romina who punched him in the shoulder.

“I look forward to seeing the footage later. Wanna try a different type of streaming with me?” Edmund asked, taking the hit with a chuckle. It hadn’t had anything behind it at all. His mouth was once again running off ahead before his brain could even facilitate a proper roadblock to stop it. “I bet your power would work so long as a camera is watching.”

There was a shocked squeak from Romina, her body going rigid.

He imagined she was glaring at him through her helmet.

“Just a thought. You should say yes. I’d be your biggest fan? Give you a big tip? I’d really fill up your invoice? I’d really load up your pockets if you stimulate my growth?”

Oh fuck shut up, shut up, shut up!

Romina choked, coughed, then started laughing. Her head slowly tipped back until she was clearly looking up at the ceiling above them.

“You know… I probably should have said yes the first time. You’re actually funnier like this,” she muttered. “I was just scared. Scared of it all. You. Me. Everything.”

“I’m surprised you’re saying yes to fooling around on a camera,” Edmund threw out before his brain could halt him once again. “You agreed to that way faster than going on a date.”

Romina groaned and her head tipped forward, looking at him once again.

“Idiot,” she finally said with a laugh. “I’m… I’m glad we’re back to where we were. Maybe even better than we were.”

“Me, too,” Edmund said. “Really glad.”

Frustratingly, not wanting to lose the magic of this moment, he almost dropped a Save-state down over when he’d started the day. He really didn’t want to lose how this had all come about.

But… but I can make it work. I can make this work. I just… might have to try a few times. It’ll be boring, but worth it.

There was a sudden loud burst of gunfire. Followed by a few single shots, then another burst of gunfire.

Everything went quiet after that.

Only to open back up with sustained small-arms fire that sounded a lot like a machine gun.

“Romina, Faith, Team Two,” said Andrea over the com system. “Out, across, assault.”

“Oh, shit, uh… yeah, okay. On my way,” Romina replied, pulling her gun up and looking around in a bit of a panic. It was a surprising call-out and it didn’t quite make sense.

Edmund didn’t doubt Andrea knew what her business was, though. She was an incredible commander and soldier.

“We’ll talk more,” Edmund promised. “Keep your head down. Hard to try to go in for a kiss if you’re dead.”

“Really? You’re gonna throw that at me as I’m going?” asked Romina as she turned and started moving toward where everyone else was gathering up.

“I mean, you don’t seem as nervous,” Edmund offered up and then went quiet. He didn’t want to clutter the coms.

Chances were that Romina would be getting orders from Andrea now.

Ellie and Iren slowly sauntered over toward him after Romina left.

“Well that was cute,” Iren teased with a grin. “Think she’ll be willing to let a Dragon play on her turf?”

“Turf only supports one player, sorry,” Edmund stated with finality. He wasn’t going to fall into the harem trap that Felix had. That just seemed like needless work and effort.

“Hm. We’ll see. I’m sure I can be convincing,” boldly claimed Iren.

Edmund snorted at that.

He had no plans whatsoever to have more than one woman in his life.

Ever.

He really enjoyed his free time and didn’t want to give any of it up at all. Having more than one significant other in his life would certainly dig into that.

“Uh, Juno here uhm… ah… there’s… there are Supers coming,” reported Romina over the com system. “They’re shooting at us I think —”

There was a series of detonations that made everything shudder and shake. Then tremble and rock wildly back and forth.

Things were seemingly growing worse by the second.

Iren grabbed Edmund bodily and stuffed him down between a cabinet and a desk, then hunkered down over atop him. Using her body to shield his own.

Dragon bodies were incredibly sturdy. Even with armor Edmund couldn’t take the some punishment she could.

Ellie pushed in close next to him and the three of them became a cuddle puddle as parts of the building began to collapse all around them.

“They’re honing in on something!” shouted Andrea. “We tripped something, I just don’t know what. They shouldn’t be coming this way like this! It’s like they know we’re here!”

Damnit. Good thing I didn’t drop that Save-state. I’ll have to go through this again and fix this.

Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Everything grew still.

Even the gunfire had ceased.

“Uh? Is that it then? What happened?” asked Edmund.

Iren and Ellie unclenched themselves from Edmund and both stood up as well. The three of them looking to everyone else to see if they’d get new orders.

They’d been ordered to take cover and nothing more.

“Contact clear,” an Andrea said into the coms. “Hold. Reports coming in to Prime. Prepare to move.”

“Guess we’re fine?” Iren said, her hands still holding tight to Edmund.

“I guess,” Ellie said.

“We’ve got half an enemy force heading in our direction and the other half moving off toward the UN forces,” relayed an Andrea. “The positions we took out were able to relay what was going on.”

Ah… so yeah, another reload. That’s fine. We’ll just bring some type of com-jammer and stick it on Romina when she goes. She can walk it in and never even know it. It’s not like we use regular signals anyways.

“What the fuck is that?” Romina asked suddenly over the channel. “It’s a giant fucking gold cloud.”

Several seconds after Romina said it, the entirety of Edmund’s vision was a gold mist. One that felt impenetrable and not like something he could see through beyond twenty feet ahead of him.

There was a general sense of tingling across his armor, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything to him at all. Iren who was holding onto him gripped him much more firmly all of a sudden but didn’t actually say anything.

“We’re using this to make our escape,” said an Andrea. Edmund was certain whichever Andrea it was, was in charge of keeping him in line somehow. He knew they’d been assigned specific jobs, tasks, and teams they were in charge of. This Andrea seemed to be acting as an intermediary between the true command of the group, and a group that included Edmund in it’s number. “If you make contact, call it out but do your best to keep up with the group. It’s not going to be a surprise that people get lost in this… stuff.”

Moving forward quickly toward where he’d last seen Felix and the others Edmund rejoined them. He felt something wrap around his right elbow and coil tightly there.

Glancing down he found Iren’s tail had curled around him there. As if she were afraid of getting lost or separated from him.

Well… given that I have an actual over-head map layout of where I’m at and what’s around me courtesy of Tribune and she doesn’t… no surprise there.

“Let’s move it,” growled the centurion Andrea from only a few feet away. Edmund had practically ran up on her without knowing it given how dense the golden fog was.

She got up and set off at a quick trot with everyone falling in behind her.

Edmund did the same and started running along with Ellie on his left and Iren on his right.

Alright. So… I can go back and change this a little if I wanted to. This is still doable though. Still workable.

No need to reload if I don’t have to. Especially since we don’t have any losses at all.

“Edmund attempting to preserve the totality of his Save-states is admirable. While Save-state degradation is minimal, any loss at all can prove to be problematic as demonstrated with Save-states seventeen-B and Sixteen-thousand, four-hundred, and twenty-nine,” Oz noted in the strange way he often did.

Wait, Save-state degradation?

Does that mean I can… what… wear one out?

The shit?

Is it a damn carpet that I keep running over with a vacuum?

I’ll need to push at Oz later to figure out what the fuck that means.

Degradation.

Degradation? How does that even make sense!

Well… none of this makes sense anyways.

Kinda past the point of no return when it comes to “Making sense”.

“They’re on us,” reported an Andrea just moments before gunfire went up around them. Both being sent out toward someone behind them, and coming into their group.

Several rounds pinged off Edmund’s armor and something big slapped into his left shoulder. It knocked him forward several steps but didn’t punch through.

It’d definitely bruised him up considerably.

Ellie on his left was gone.

Whatever had hit him had either decimated her, or knocked her off her feet. Then lost her in the golden-fog that they were still moving in.

“What was that?” asked Iren. “Where’d-where’d Ellie go?”

Edmund only shook his head with a grim scowl on his face. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he would really have to reload this one at some point.

He’d have to get the jammer to block out coms and deploy it when they got into the office. That’d handle the alert from the attacks on the positions.

After that it was more than likely all of this wouldn’t be an issue.

That they’d likely be running through this golden haze without an issue.

A Legionnaire came tumbling into view from his left. It zipped by at high speed as if they were launched forward by an incredible force.

Edmund had barely enough time to register they were there, before they were gone. Lost in the golden fog ahead of him.

“Edmund? Where—”

Shaking his head Edmund didn’t respond to Iren. He just kept running on. They were most certainly being chased and by something big or freakishly strong.

Ahead Edmund could suddenly see a building and the broken body of a Legionnaire against the wall. Then he saw the camera on their shoulder.

Romina had been broken in half. Her helmeted head was resting on her own rear end. Her hands were pushing down against the ground as if she were trying to right herself. To get to her feet.

For whatever reason, her coms were blessedly silent.

The last thing he wanted to hear was her dying.

Moving past Romina Edmund hesitated when her helmet turned partly toward him. Hesitated and then actually really looked at her.

“Mina?” he asked, Iren holding onto him still.

There was a frothy, bloody gurgle that came back to him. He couldn’t see it but he imagined that she had a great deal wrong with her insides.

Not waiting a moment longer Edmund lifted his rifle and held the trigger down with it pointed at her head.

Halfway through the magazine one of them managed to punch through the incredibly tough Legionnaire armor. Romina’s body staggering once and then going oddly stiff.

When the magazine went dry, and several other rounds had zipped through Romina’s head, Edmund changed it out for a fresh one.

He knocked the bolt forward and then ran into the building.

Be the last out of the building. Make sure nothing like this happens.

I’ll handle that in the reload.

Moving into the building Edmund found himself looking at a truly fucked situation. He couldn’t really tell what was going on since he didn’t have a good view or position for it, but it looked like the UN troops.

They were being pinned down without anyway out of the situation they were in.

Surprisingly, between Edmund and the UN troops were a number of soldiers he didn’t recognize at all.

“Guess we made it to the location,” Edmund mumbled. Trying not to think about what he did to Romina.

The idea of leaving her dying there had been too much for him.

He was going to reload the Save-state so leaving her there or putting her out of her misery didn’t mean anything. Nothing he was doing right now had any value at all.

Then why the hell do I keep acting like this?

I’m pushing much further and farther than I normally would.

Damnit.

Moving into the corner he realized Iren was gone. He had no idea when she’d left, or where she’d gone, but she wasn’t there anymore.

Edmund put his back to the corner and held his rifle in front of himself.

“Oz, you there?” asked Edmund, figuring this was as good a time as any. If he tried to push on any further in this Save-state he’d be risking his life.

“Of course, Edmund.”

“If I die, I’m dead. I won’t just… magically load a Save-state, right?”

“Yes. Death is death.”

“You mentioned Save-state degradation. What the hell is that about?”

“Each time Edmund loads a Save-state, it is forcefully pushed onto the world. There will be some loss of information each time.”

“Information. Like a hard drive going bad kind of thing or something?”

“Similar enough.”

“How much is lost each time?”

“On average it’s less than Edmund would be able to understand.”

“On average. That means there’s times I’d notice it, right?”

“That is correct.”

“What makes it larger? The loss that is,” Edmund asked, moving down into a low crouch. All around gunfire was going off continuously. He could hear a great deal of what sounded like Dragons roaring as well.

“Impact. The impact of what’s being reverted determines the amount of loss. The larger the changes, the more loss,” Oz advised. “I’ll use an example of Edmund’s own usage.”

Edmund nodded his head at that. He was having a hard time tuning out the shouting, cursing, and screaming that was now coming in over the com systems.

Things weren’t just going wrong, they were going absolutely terrible it seemed.

“When Edmund reverted a Save-state repeatedly though the time was only a minute apart in usage, Edmund created almost no loss of information,” Oz explained. “When Edmund rewound a day several times, the loss of information was equivalent to several thousand insects no longer existing, a handful of rabbits, and one very unfortunate bear.

“When their information was lost, they no longer existed. They were written out of the Save-state they would no longer have been part of the universe.

“Had Edmund reloaded the day Edmund battled the lightning super from the beginning the losses would have been far more considerable.”

I… shit.

The further I go back the worse it is.

I was treating this like a game without even knowing their were repercussions.

“But why is there loss at all? And how considerable a loss could have happened?” Edmund asked, sweeping his rifle toward the door. He could hear someone coming.

“There is a loss due to the fact that pushing back all of reality to a previous Save-state, goes beyond the boundaries of that very same reality. In going beyond where it should, when it retracts back, things are left behind. It is an unfortunate situation, however, it is not unexpected given the weight of the action taken.

“Edmund controls a power that is capable of destroying the known and unknown universe. Edmund must exercise caution.

“In regards to what losses could occur, it is unknown as the action has yet to be taken. This is not something that can be predicted and can only be evaluated after the fact.”

“What if I loaded back to this morning?”

“Unknown. A loss cannot be determined until it occurs. Only when such a thing is initiated would a loss be able to be determined.”

“If I asked you to check to see if there was a loss right after a load, would you be able to tell?”

“Yes.”

Edmund let out a slow breath, then loaded the Save-state.

He’d have to be more careful in the future. The idea of making people not exist anymore by actions he took was gut-wrenching.