Cerberus

"Cerberus" (1x14) is the fourteenth episode of Memory=Null, in which reunions are had, allies are gathered, and emotions are shared.

Synopsis
Closing the door on the screaming mass of people, Thicc turns to the New Life members and asks them what they see outside. Professor Elem looks outside and freaks out as she sees a giant creature with teeth and tentacles. Thicc tries to calm them down, saying that he has met one of these before, though it was significantly smaller. He decides to stick to the original plan, and asks them to continue leading him to their Siren friend. They head outside and begin making their way through the crowd. On the way, they see a well dressed, important looking person being escorted by armed guards through the crowd. Thicc’s phone chimes, receiving four days worth of goose facts, and a four day old message in the Fang’s of Tarot group chat. The message is from Shade and says “The Machine is down. Execute objectives immediately if available. We are at war. Authorization Code: Havoc.” Another message then appears, dated “now”, from Hellhound saying “Copy that- going loud.” As Thicc begins to respond, he hears a grun making a very loud sound, followed by a massive psychic wave which knocks everyone around him to the ground. Turning around, he sees a deep-blue skinned grun, covered in tattoos, with a large scar down the front of his face, and a mechanical face mask with smoke pouring out of it. The grun begins sprinting full speed at the guards as they are recovering from the psychic wave, while Thicc sends a message saying “This is Machine, back on line. On Mon. Have possible eyes on Hellhound. Don’t ask- it’s been a day.” Thicc stands by and watches as Hellhound psychically punches the four guards, sending one of them flying into a wall, flinging two off into the distance, and smashing the fourth into the ground. As the man they were guarding scrambles backward, Hellhound slowly approaches and says, “You have been judged by the Fangs of Tarot, and you will now pay for your crimes.” He takes several steps forward, leaps into the air, and smashes down at the man, leaving a cloud of red mist behind. Thicc waits a moment and then gives him a round of applause as the surrounding crowd runs as far away as possible. Hellhound turns and looks at him- for a moment, his eyes are solid red before they fade back to normal. Thicc identifies himself as The Machine, and the two discuss what little information they each have, while Hellhound puffs on a cigar. As they both turn to go find the Siren (without the Professor’s help, as she and her friends have run off), they are contacted by the weaver. Standing before them is an attractive, adult female with cracked, black eyes and floating hair. Thicc introduces himself as a friend of Herbert, and the weaver introduces herself as Idal. She says that she is here to pick up Thicc, though it is clear she is not happy about it and does not like Thicc. She points them towards the space docks, and then disappears. Thicc stops back inside the Order of the New Life and leaves a message for them, then he and Hellhound make their way to Idal. On their way, they discuss various things, including what various targets of the Fang’s of Tarot had been targeted for, and what it’s like being mechanical. They reach the docks, take an elevator up, and board Idal. Her interior is very similar to Adus’, though Idal’s lighting is blue, not yellow. A few splemurs run by and grab the cigar out of Hellhound’s mouth as they make their way to the bridge. There they see a disturbing sight- unlike on Adus, all the sirens manning the stations have grown into their stations and are in a catatonic state, now being part of the ship. The ship then begins to depart from Mon to head to Gunnison 4. Thicc and Idal have another chat, during which Idal reveals that there are many more weavers around, but that they have been much more reclusive, busy trying to fix the mess that Thicc made. Her disdain for him is clear. However, Adus thinks that Thicc is necessary to defeat the Vox, and the rest of the weavers are deferring to him for now. With their chat finished, Idal disappears, and Thicc and Hellhound are shown to their rooms by a splemur, where they proceed to talk and drink. Later, Hellhound begins to read The Moon’s Forbidden Love, while Thicc wanders around the ship. About six hours later, a splemur summons Thicc to the bridge, where Hellhound is waiting. A few minutes later, they drop out of hyperspace a distance from Gunnison 4. Hellhound messages the group saying that they are now in the sector, and Shade and Animal respond that they are together and are waiting for them. Adus eventually projects in and tells Thicc that everyone is fine. He hasn’t told them yet that Thicc is still alive, since he wasn’t sure if he would come back or not. Idal and Adus eventually meet up, and Thicc and Hellhound transfer over to Adus. As Adus begins to head back to the station, they turn around to see that Idal is completely invisible (though Thicc can see a slight shimmer). Hellhound messages Shade and Animal to meet them at the hangar, and Shade sends them a copy of the security camera footage of Thicc’s death. As everyone else is fighting the vox, Hannah is trying desperately to save Thicc. Unable to, she screams, and everyone else instantly collapses. Out of a nearby corridor several zombies start rushing towards Hannah, while a woman dressed in a black trench coat appears out of another corridor. The woman sheds the trench coat as she pulls out four guns with her two additional bionic arms and guns down the approaching zombies. They then walk over to Hannah as the video ends. Hellhound identifies the four-armed individual as Shade, which greatly impresses Thicc. As they continue towards the station, Thicc asks Adus about the difference in connections between him and Idal. Adus says that the weavers have various differing philosophies on how to work with other races, and that he has never been a big fan of the assimilation method. He also says that most of the other weavers are frustrated that they can’t do more to help with the vox, as Adus is the only one who has weapons. Adus eventually docks back at the hanger, where Tina is waiting, angrily wanting to know where Adus went, and surprised by the two strangers aboard. Thicc introduces Hellhound, and tries to convince Tina of his identity by remotely making Ortov’s Legacy wave. As final proof, Tina asks him what color her bedroom is. Thicc answers “the brightest of bright pink”, and is suddenly being viciously hugged by Tina. Elsewhere, Sank shouts out that cookies are done and brings a fresh pan of cookies over. Tina tells Thicc that Hannah is not doing well, and that she needs to know that Thicc is alive. She had to forcibly remove Hannah from the workshop where she was trying to repair Thicc. A very confused Sank tries to find out what is going on, but Tina interrupts her and tells her to bring her cookies along. They all pack up and exit the hangar, where they run into Shade. Hellhound introduces Shade to Thicc, and Shade informs them that Animal is currently busy with something, though she won’t say what. They all continue on to Hannah’s place, though when Hannah won’t answer, Tina uses her own code to get in. Shade and Hellhound head off to get a drink. Inside they find Hannah buried under a pile of blankets. Tina gently tells her that Thicc is alive, though she doesn’t really react until Thicc shouts in an appropriately Thicc way from across the room, at which point she sits upright in bed. She looks terrible, but is instantly across the room hugging Thicc. Eventually she lets him go and starts pulling out all of his stuff which she kept. After a bit of discussion, Hannah goes off to take a shower, while Tina fills Thicc in on the events after his death. Hannah’s psychic blast knocked out about a third of the station, and Shade helped to quarantine the vox. They later quarantined Devon, and discovered that he was indeed vox. They’ve been trying to find out if they can get him back, but scans show that his brain is nonexistent. Dorian had been providing parts to help fix Thicc, and Hannah hadn’t slept for three days before Tina had to stop her. Tina stops Thicc before he can tell what happened to him, and suggests that they wait until everyone is around. She then calls Dorian and tells him to get down to the Weeping Cock. Hannah comes out of the shower, and everyone heads off. Dorian, Amber, and Animal slowly filter in, and they all head into the back room. Tina introduces Dorian to Hellhound, Shade, and Animal before getting to Thicc. Dorian appears unfazed, though Amber is very surprised, as she didn’t even know he was an AI. Thicc begins to fill in what happened to him over the past four days. He also tells everyone about The Hammer and Silentium. Part way through, Dorian realizes that Artas and Ninla aren’t here, and sends for them. They then discuss what will happen to Thicc’s old body, and Dorian says that, since he technically owns his body, he is going to continue experimenting on it. Thicc then asks Dorian to get him rescanned, just in case they’ve missed everything. Artas and Ninla then walk in, and Thicc has them look at the weave to find out who he is. He quickly gets them up to speed before discussing what to do next. They decide to send out a small team to do recon, as well as have The Fang’s of Tarot interrogate some of the vox, to try and find out where the master mind is.Thicc also recommends they bring in Silentium to see if they are on the level and can help. With the meeting over, everyone starts making their way out, though Hannah grabs Thicc and asks him to stay back. Once everyone else has left, Hannah sits down with Thicc and says that she needs to tell him something, because she thinks he will understand it. After a while of trying to find the right words, she tells Thicc that she thinks she’s gay.