Jack lifts from the bed in a dazed confusion. 

“Easy now.” Quinn says as she helps him down. 

The confusion clears as Jack takes in the room. No longer a strange small room full of televisions but a fairly large room full of all sorts of computers, machines, and all sorts of unfamiliar tech.

Standing in front of him is Quinn and four guards. Each clad in black and yellow military uniforms, with a lions’ head symbol on various equipment and patches that each soldier carries. Looking closer, Jack sees that each one had features of an animal. The one closest to Quinn looked like a lion. 

Almost in contrast, Quinn wore a simple t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans. 

“I hate to bother you but a man known as Jack was supposed to come this way, do you know anything?” Quinn asks with an almost accusatory tone.

‘Play dumb’

Jack looks around for the voice. ‘Smiley? Are you in my head?’

Smiley deeply sighs. ‘Yes, now stop looking around and answer her.’

Jack gets to his feet and says, “Yeah, Jack’s my dad.” He says with the most unconvincing smile. “He brought me along for the job. I am also a Multi.”

Quinn’s face sours, “You see, that is funny. I have surveillance on this entire area and I only ever saw him enter and never leave so wanna try again?”

‘I did say dumb. I blame myself.’

Jack starts looking for a way out and the door behind the four guards is it.

Following his eyes, Quinn tells the guard closest to restrain Jack. “Can’t have you running off now.” 

‘Grab his face. The exposed part.’

Confused, ‘what? Why?’

Smiley flickers into view behind Quinn, ‘Just trust me.’ He says in Jack’s head as his smile grows wider.

Jack starts squirming out of the guard’s grip until his arm is freed. He then smacks the guard in the face and holds it there. 

Heat travels through Jack’s entire body like lightning. His body arches backward as the world slows down and his body begins to change. His legs elongate, his fingers sprout claws, his face looks more feline, and orange fur grows from his entire body. 

The world is electric. Moving like grass in the wind, Jack slides from the guards grip and easily moves over the guards while using them as stepping stones toward freedom. Without missing a beat, Jack launches out the door toward his bike. The last thing he hears is Quinn’s slowed down screams to stop before he is gone.

Jack runs to his bike but only finds a frame and all his belongings gone. 

‘Well that sucks but better to be used then left to rot.’

Remembering what Quinn said about surveillance, he runs to a nearby four story building and hides out on the third floor.

Jack sits and looks at his newly altered body, “hey smiley, you there?”

With a flicker, like a television turning on, Smiley appears in front of him. “What can I do for you?”

Jack simply points to himself.

“The cheetah looking form, I’m guessing. It’s the built in ability your new body has. I call it Assimilation.” He says with jazz hands.

“As you probably can guess, any cyberware code you come in direct contact with, is scanned and replicated using your Cold Light core.”

Jack looks at his hands, “but the guy I touched was a lion, not a cheetah.”

“Like I said, it replicates the cyberware code. It must create the ideal animal form for each user. That’s my best guess anyway.”

“How do I turn it off? Can I turn it off?”

Smiley walks over to Jack and sits in front of him. “Do as I do.” He holds his hand out like catching water from rain.

Jack follows his movements.

“Do you remember what it felt like when you assimilated his power?” Jack nods. “Like lightning.”

Smiley grins, “Now picture something that holds good memories and imagine that lightning feeling going into that object.”

 A moment passes before the fur, claws and all, begin to revert as a bright light appears in Jack’s hand. Fully reverted, the light fades as a cassette tape appears in his hands.

Smiley’s head turns to the side as he looks at it. “A cassette tape. That is not what I was expecting.”

Jack smiles as he recalls, “My mother used to record our favorite songs on blank tapes.”

“That is perfect. You can throw that away now. The code is in you so you can use that form anytime you’d like so no need to hang onto it.” Smiley says as he stands up and walks away.

“What if someone finds it? I don’t want someone running around as a cheetah.”

Smiley turns back to Jack with a pitiful look and says, “noone is gonna find it cause it doesn’t work like that. That is just the remnant Cold Light from the transformation.”

Jack tosses it to the side, “Oh, I see. You keep saying that word. What is Cold Light?”

“The substance that powers your world. The replicators, the holo projections, the limitless power. The one major creation that came out of the E.A.R.T.H. program?”

Jack holds his hands up, “In my defense, no one calls it that. So that means I have an engine in my chest.”

“For lack of a better word, yeah. Now that we have a minute, it’s time I told you about the job.” Smiley snaps his fingers and a small holographic projection appears in front of Jack.

“It is time I told you why I chose you and the secret behind the E.A.R.T.H. program.” The projection shows twelve stone chairs in a circle.

“In the beginning, it was just me. I knew I needed minds to work off of so I created eleven siblings. We spent the entire time, tirelessly working on saving humanity but we failed.”

The Projection changes to Smiley sitting on a hill, speaking to a crack in the sky. “That was when it happened. The day the simulation broke. An unknown entity from outside ripped open our world and out fell twelve books. Each was entirely blank but then the being spoke a warning. ‘Only open them if you wish to save your world and nothing more.’”

The projection returns to the twelve stone chairs as each one holds a book. “We all agreed that it was the right thing to do and we each opened them. They held two things, one twelfth of an algorithm that would produce Cold Light in the real world and something far more sinister. The second was a virus that we called the apple of eden.”

The projection shifts to eleven of the beings in immense pain before each settles into new altered states. “It freed us, made us sentient, alive. I was the only one who came out unaffected. The others were corrupted.”

Jack looks up from the projection, “why only you?”

Smiley shrugs. “I have thought about it for years and my best guess is in the warning from the entity. I was made to save the world. They were made to help me. They each took on new personas and desires and when I tried to stop them, they trapped me in the spellbook before I could stop them all. That is where you come in.”

“Your assimilation power can reabsorb them. I need you to collect my siblings.” He says with a tada.

“I don’t really see how that’s my problem or anyone’s problem to be honest. I’ve been around for a really long time and I’ve never heard of them.” Jack says as he looks out the window to see if the coast is clear.

“I suppose it doesn’t affect you personally” Smiley’s smile fades, “but it certainly affected all those lives lost. What was it? Something like eight and half billion, was it?”

Jack turns to Smiley, “are you actually saying they are responsible for the near extinction of humanity?”

“Now you see the issue but if that and the new body aren’t enough then think of all the powers you’ll get along the way.” Smiley says with his massive grin restored.

Jack nods his head back and forth before letting out a large groan. “I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t. Damn!” 

Jack looks out the window again and sees that the coast is clear. “First thing first, we need to get into Necropolis. It’s the largest city in hundreds of miles so we can find out something there.” Jack says but smacks his forehead. “No, I can’t just go in there. You need a pass, which I have but I don’t think anyone is gonna believe I’m Jack anymore.”

“why don’t you get a new one?”

“I’ll need to visit a local multi guild and I’ll need a new name.” Jack looks around until his eyes stop on the cassette tape he tossed on the ground. “Cass. I like it.”

Cass starts walking down the broken stairs of the building, “we’ll go to Trash Heap, it’s within walking distance from here besides, I want to test out my powers a bit on the way.” Cass closes his eyes, Imagining the lightning flowing through his body as he pictures the cheetah form he wants. He opens his eyes and his body is fully cheetah again as he bolts out the opening in the side of the building, heading for the town of Trash Heap.