H.O.M.E. 22

by Fin

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James sat with Sammy on the roof of the converted Exo Club as protests continued to rage throughout the ethernight.

The meeting had accomplished little for either side. The Council remained in favor of using the ancient human technology to try and escape The Core. While many others believed its use was fit for only Idiots themselves, hellbent on their own destruction. When these rulers next announced the day of the first interdimensional trial, another wave of demonstrations swept through the streets.

Sitting with their legs dangling over the side of the building, James and Sammy watched the alien marchers below. Their numbers could be seen filling the avenues throughout the circular metropolis.

"I've never quite seen Outer Ring City like this," said the blonde lad in awe as he stared at the thousands of bizarre creatures filling the streets.

"It's not always the night before Armageddon," answered his brown haired boyfriend as he too gawked at the mob lining the thoroughfare from end to end.

"What if it works though you know?" said Sammy absent mindedly. "Don't you ever want to leave here? Don't you ever want to show me where we come from?"

"What if it doesn't work though?" questioned James in return. "What if it does to us what it did to them in return?"

His boyfriend had no answer to that. Instead the lad continued to watch the hypnotizing multicolored crowd below as it slowly made its way toward the city center.

"There's no way they will be able to bring down a spire. Even with that many of them," said the boy, shaking his head. "It's connected to the ring itself."

"But you think you can?" asked the other lad, his eyebrows raised nervously. It was key to their plan.

Sammy nodded.

"You should feel the way it is. Deeper below. How it's connected to this place," explained the boy while staring at his hand in disbelief. "And I thought Fever was only useful to make me hot."

James was also having a tough time believing in their stroke of luck. The mechanical microswarm had served The Idiots in many ways. Altering the human's biology slightly, not only did the tiny metal robots extend the life of its hosts, it also granted the use of their technology as some sort of state self identification method.

It was why the clones had been used by The Council to construct the spires in the first place. And it was what the boys' own cadre was banking on to bring one of them down. The rulers of Outer Ring City were not the only ones with Sams. And if it meant saving the city from annihilation, then the small force of saved clones assembled under Franklin's banner would have to act again.

"They would have killed me you know," said James as he too stared at the blood pumping invisibly inside his veins. "Had they not recognized me as one of their own citizens.Â Kyrce himself was always too afraid to try it on himself, the coward."

"They didn't attack your brother either?" asked the blonde.

James smiled sadly.

"That's the story. It certainly granted The Council the technology they wanted though. Even allowed them to drug their citizens to create their order."

The occassional clone could still be seen amongst the marchers below. But between the advent of SlimStims and the news that the boys were replicas of The Idiots themselves, the use of Sams as a stimulant had taken a nose dive throughout the city.

But it had already been too late to prevent their official unoffical use. The Council had already filled its city with ghostly clone workers of this world's former inhabitants. And they now had been used to rebuild sections of the once Stellar Engine.

"It's weird to think that some of my brother is sort of in me," said James returning his gaze to rest on his boyfriend. "You know, I wasn't always attracted... to men."

"What were you attracted to then?" questioned the boy mischievously as he stretched his toned muscles in front of his best friend. "What could there be other than men?"

"It doesn't matter," James laughed to himself thoughtfully. "There's none of them here now. And instead a whole lot of you, boy."

The soldier winked at his brother lover as they enjoyed the warm ethernight air. Sammy moved closer to to rest his back against his boyfriend's chest. The lights of the protestors could be seen snaking all the way down to one of the spires in the distance. It was an eerie calm before the storm that was about to arrive tomorrow.

"Do you think we'll ever find him? The real Sam I mean?" questioned the boy as he cuddled up to his brother.

"You are a real Sam, Sammy," responded the lieutenant resolutely as he wrapped his arms around the lad.

"You know what I mean James."

"I do. And the truth is... I don't know Sammy. Maybe one day."

The two boys just continued to sit there holding each other long into the night, watching the demonstrations amass below. The future was about to arrive in the morning. And The Core would never be the same again.