Save State Hero -Ch18- (Patreon)

Edmund found himself staring up at the ceiling.

“Oz?” Edmund said.

“Yes, Edmund?”

“I just did a load on a Save-state. You told me about information loss, reality, blah blah blah, try not to fuck up the world.

“I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t fuck it up, but I… I’m still going to have to reload when I need to reload. I need to know though… was there any information loss?” Edmund asked.

“Checking.”

Edmund rolled out of bed padded over to his desk.

Dog was snoring loudly in the corner of the room.

Laid out on his back, spread out in a strange way, the cat was blissfully unconscious to the world. He was a grey-and-white tabby that was fully engrossed in being the lord of the home at all times.

Flipping open his laptop Edmund clacked the enter button, waited, then unlocked it when the prompt came up. He stuck his thumb to the scanner for the identity check.

“Welcome, Legionnaire Edmund,” Tribune offered from his computer’s speakers. It was the standard boot-up sounds. Each laptop was specifically issued to each user.

Felix was very paranoid about security.

Opening up the communication side of his laptop he went straight into his inbox and pulled up Andrea. He put in a quick request for communication blocking equipment. Or more accurately, radio jamming hardware.

As powerful as possible to make sure the enemy can’t radio the strike teams presence as they moved in. To insure a proper and perfect surprise attack.

He closed the communication by pointing out that it wasn’t as if their own technology would be limited by such devices. That he was certain Tribune and their communication network was well beyond the limitations of said jammers.

“There was no information loss, Edmund,” Oz reported suddenly. “I did note the load and and cross checked it against what I was personally expecting. The size and scope of reality didn’t change.”

“Oh. Huh. You made it sound like there’d be a loss,” Edmund grumped out as he began moving stock around quickly. He’d had a few moments in the day to check what was going on and he’d found he could make a hefty chunk of money with a single short on a stock.

“There can be, but there isn’t always. Sometimes there’s far more loss than expected as well,” Oz explained.

“Err… what’s the biggest loss I’ve caused?” Edmund asked, not really wanting to know, but feeling that he should.

“Edmund caused a planet to cease to exist,” Oz answered.

“A… a planet? What? What the fuck?” Edmund blurted out, pausing in his crusade to make money on wall-street.

“Yes. A planet ceased to exist that should still exist,” confirmed Oz.

“Was… was it a… populated planet? Could it have sustained life down the road?” Edmund probed.

“No.”

Edmund hesitated, then shook his head. He was glad to hear he hadn’t inadvertently poofed a planet filled with people out of existence.

“If that’s the biggest loss, it can’t be that bad,” muttered Edmund.

“Yes. That is the largest loss of mass. Would Edmund care for other measurements? Such as loss of life, space, or specific material?” Oz offered helpfully.

Closing his eyes, Edmund didn’t want to ask the question but he knew he should.

“How many people have ceased to exist?” he got out with a brittle voice.

“Fifty-six people have ceased to exist due to Edmund’s actions. Most of those ceased to exist while Edmund was attempting to corner his monetary gains and make a week ‘perfect’ to see if he could do it.

“It is inadvisable to reload for small gains and if a reload must be done, it is best to be as close to the original time as possible.”

“That’s… yeah… yeah. I’ll keep that in mind,” Edmund muttered.

He’d already avoided reloading repeatedly if only because he didn’t personally like it. Didn’t like the idea of trying to live everything perfectly and absolutely abuse the hell out of his power.

He’d considered it extensively. Tried it for a short time.

Only to realize it’d removed him from his own life. That he’d no longer viewed anything as being worth while and only something to “fix” or “change”.

It’d removed him from the living entirely.

In a very similar way to how he felt about pursuing Romina he felt about his life in general. He was more than willing to use his powers to make money, benefit friends and family, and himself to some degree.

Except he didn’t want it to be the crutch that it could easily be.

A ping from his computer broke him free of his thoughts.

It was a message from Andrea.

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

That’s a great idea! It doesn’t matter at all if we jam everything since our equipment can’t be jammed! Jam everything, everyone, all the time!

I really hadn’t even considered it because I’m still stuck with the idea that it’d jam our own communications. Tee-hee.

After the text of the message came a flood of emojis of various cat-girls and smiley faces. The fact that this world had a fascination with “non-human humanoid’s” wasn’t lost on Andrea.

She and Romina were planning on abusing that fact.

Apparently “Streamer Andrea” was going to become a normal thing. Edmund wasn’t sure how that’d work out with Romina but he imagined they’d already figured out someway for it to be fair to both of them.

“Alright… I guess that’s that. Now we just go back through the event again and see if we can’t get it right,” muttered Edmund. “It really just came down to the moment Romina went to go fight. That was when it all went out the window.

“Oh… I should message Dorothy. Let her know I don’t need her at all for this. I’m sure she’ll be disappointed but better than risking her or wasting her time.

“And while I’m at it… Oz, could you explain something to me?”

“I will do what I can Edmund. I am limited in my responses as some information is not something I can disseminate at any level, or to anyone, as my existence would then be jeopardized,” Oz warned.

“One of my Save-states turned gold. You said I can’t access gold. Shouldn’t I get a new Save-state then?” Edmund asked.

“A gold border Save-state,” Oz said after a four-second pause. “As you have now created one yourself, you may now access gold border Save-states. Please note that you cannot make a new Save-state over the top of it.

“If you move to a point before that Save-state, there is a high-likliehood there will be extreme information loss. I cannot qualify how bad it would be without it happening, but I can postulate that Edmund would not be able to live with the results.”

Oh… oh shit.

Okay.

That… means… I really don’t want to go to time periods before the golden Save-state. It’s more like a fated event now?

Something that shouldn’t be touched?

“And red Save-states?” Edmund asked instead.

“Fragile. Likely to cause information loss, but not guaranteed to do so. It is inadvisable, but not impermissible,” Oz explained.

“Blue being just… normal every day Save-states.”

“Blue is a Save-state. An every day Save-state wouldn’t be accessible due to limitations in the scope of reality, though they do exist,” Oz offered.

Edmund raised his eyebrows at that.

He felt like there was more to a blue Save-state than he’d originally thought then.

“Can only certain people create a blue Save-state?”

Oz didn’t answer.

In other words… yes. Only certain people can have a blue one.

That means everyone has their own. Doesn’t it?

How interesting.

“Can I access the non-blue, red, or gold Save-states from the tunnel?”

“Of course.”

“Alright. Can I access Save-states anywhere else?”

“Edmund does not have the ability to access Save-states directly.”

But you didn’t say that it isn’t impossible, just that I can’t.

That means someone, or something, can.

So much to learn.

***

“I’m surprised you’re saying yes to fooling around on a camera with me,” Edmund said much more smoothly this time. “You agreed to that way faster than going on a date.

“Though uh, for the camera, did you want to use a phone or set up one of your tripod things. I feel like the phone would be weird but doable.”

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

“Stupid idiot,” she finally said with a laugh. “You’re so… so… infurating! But I’m… I’m glad we’re back to where we were. Maybe even better than we were.

“And I’m not answering your last question. Never.”

“Never? I guess we’ll just have to try both. And I’m glad, too,” Edmund said. “Really glad. It kinda sucked there for a bit but I really didn’t want you to see me as a friend. I wanted more.”

“I got that part,” Romina agreed with a chuckle.

Edmund then heard the expected gunfire that would herald Andrea sending Romina out.

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

“Oh, yeah, okay. On my way,” Romina replied, pulling her gun up and looking around. She didn’t seem as panicked as she had the last time.

It was surprising to see whatever he’d done different today had shifted her own feelings to the situation. It only proved to him once again how he felt about reloading was correct.

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

“Ha. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe I’ll go in for it first before you do, though,” answered Romina as she turned and started moving toward where everyone else was gathering up.

Shit… not even half as nervous as she’d been last time.

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

“Well that was cute. Kind of sexy, too,” Iren teased, her mouth flexing in a wide smile. “Think she’ll be willing to let a Dragon play on her turf? I could probably talk a Dryad into joining, as well.”

“She won’t. Even if you’re as convincing as you could be,” Edmund stated and then readied himself.

“What? Really?” asked Iren sounding floored.

“She did resist Andrea, Faith, and Goldie all pushing at her to go for Felix,” Ellie offered. “I honestly wouldn’t doubt that Romina has more mental fortitude than we think she does.

“That and Edmund has said he only wants to be in a relationship with one person, Iren. You shouldn’t push him like that. Give him space and let him make his own choices.”

“Ellie is over-riding her Dryad nature and instincts to be a better Ellie for the sake of Edmund. This variable is unexpected and outside of normal values,” Oz said matter of factly. “A curious note. Further attention will be needed to verify if this is a permanent or temporary change.”

Edmund decided he’d just wait to see what happened next. With any luck this would be over without an enemy presence bearing down on them.

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

Errr, wait… we didn’t get shelled or whatever? Iren didn’t have to cover me?

This is definitely a different outcome. A much better one!

Just as it did last time, a golden fog rolled in over them. Flooding the area completely.

“We’re pulling out,” an Andrea stated on the coms. “Using the other forces as bait. We’re going to flank and stick’em. Everyone out of the building. Get a buddy, stay with them.”

“I’m going to go find Romina,” Edmund said to Ellie and Iren. They were close enough that he could see them through the golden haze.

“We’ll go with you. Andrea put us with you to make sure you’d be alright,” Iren declared. Her tail came up and wrapped around his waist and tightened there. “Well, put me with you to make sure you’d be alright. Ellie is here because… well, so I can watch over her here.”

“I’m sorry, I know I’m a klutz,” apologized Ellie.

Edmund tuned them out and went looking for the entry point Romina would have to use to come through the building. He’d figured this’d be the best point to wait for her.

“Mina? I’m at at the front door,” Edmund called through the com system.

“I-you… okay,” came back the response from Romina.

Ten seconds later and she came in by herself.

“Sure as fuck weren’t leaving without you. Not letting you out of my sight. Have to make sure you get back safe and sound. Not after I got you to agree to a date,” Edmund said and then started moving off again.

Romina made a noise that somewhere between a squeak, giggle, and a cough. She kept pace with him and was moving through the golden fog on his left.

They were further behind the rest of the group than he wanted based on what he could see on the map provided by Tribune, but they weren’t too far back either.

Ellie was on Iren’s right who was on Edmund’s right.

Running the exact same route as they did last time, Edmund felt very nervous.

Extremely so.

To the point that he’d looked over his shoulder several times to see if there was anything there looming in the gold fog. Expecting to find something huge right behind him and ready to punt him into the next country.

Which of course if there was, he couldn’t actually see it. It’d just appear, boot him into next year, and that’d be it.

Yet nothing happened.

Running on through the gold cloud there was no interference from anyone or anything. Whatever had caught up to them in the previous iteration had been entirely due to a radio signal getting through.

“I feel like my boobs are slamming around in my chest plate,” complained Ellie.

“Having average boobs is great for running you dairy cow,” Iren mocked with a laugh.

“Sports bra. Need a good one with the right fit,” Romina suggested.

“Oooh, that’s a good idea. And shut up Iren. It’s not like I get to pick what I look like,” grumbled Ellie.

Suddenly and without warning, the golden cloud that was encompassing them vanished. It fell away like cotton being set to light.

A rainbow of colorful fire running along it and burning it to nothing at all. Revealing nothing more than a very normal blue sky above and some distant clouds on the horizon.

“Fantastic. I was getting a bit claustrophobic,” Ellie said with obvious relief in her voice.

Ahead of them, Edmund watched as Felix got picked up and carried to the top of a building. A number of other Dragons did the same for others.

Picking them up and carrying them to the top and situating them there.

“I’m supposed to carry you up,” Iren said as if getting a relayed order sent to her.

“No. We’ll break off to the side over there. We can put up a small position there and hunker down. Wait for an opportunity to engage or just spot,” Edmund countered. He really didn’t want to be with Felix at the moment.

If something went wrong, he’d want to be able to objectively view it from here. If he was up there, he’d be caught in it and there’d be no possibility for him to do anything else.

“Good idea,” Ellie chimed in quickly. “We can relay positions to Andrea and be a spotter team. I like it.”

“You just like it cause your aim is so bad,” growled Iren.

“I know… I’m not made for combat. I’m just-”

“A princess,” Iren finished for Ellie when her words fell away.

“Yes. I’m a princess. Exactly. I’d rather be cooking, cleaning, sewing. Being a home-maker. This is all far too much for me,” Ellie continued as they moved.

They were heading for what looked to have once been some type of small enclosure. Edmund couldn’t begin to guess at the usage but it’d be more than suitable for their needs.

“I get that,” Romina added. “I get that… a lot. I’m really starting to rethink being in a combat role. The hazard pay isn’t enough for this. Way not enough.”

“You’re both cowards,” Iren accused.

“Not everyone is made in the same way. Leave off, Iren,” hissed Edmund a second before he entered the building.

Glancing around with his weapon raised he found it to be as empty as he hoped. Or at least, empty of the living.

There was a corpse face down near the back wall. They were dressed out in a uniform he didn’t recognize, but they didn’t have a weapon around them either.

The way the blood splatter was splashed across the wall made it look like they’d been shot in the back of the head.

Executed, to be precise.

Edmund moved into the corner and then got down to one knee. The side facing the enemy was open though it’d been partially bordered up.

“Ellie, start radioing up what we see from here. Romina, with me. We’ve got the tech for this. Iren, rear guard,” Edmund ordered. He wasn’t an officer or anything akin to that, but Andrea had drilled him on the basics long enough that he felt like he could do alright at this.

Ahead, he could see the UN troops in their positions and what was happening clearly this time.

They were completely pinned down.

He could see two supers in the middle. Both of them were women and they looked like they were in charge.

At the back of his mind he felt recognition of them but he couldn’t place it. A vague sense of knowing them from somewhere.

One even looked like they were wearing Legion armor, and the other appeared to be attempting to build some type of shield to defend the troops around them.

With how different everything was going, Edmund had no idea how this would all turn out.

Then the woman who was trying to put up a shield was clearly hit by something that broke through whatever she was doing.

A round passing through her leg completely.

All of reality screaming in a synchronized voice as it all began to flash blue and purple in alternating spirals that shot up into the sky.

It was like the world was ending.

Then the world literally ripped itself apart with Edmund getting a front row seat.