Готовый перевод Тейлор Поттер и философский виал / Taylor Potter and the Philosophical Vial: Глава 14. Тайное Измерение

Chapter 14. Dimension of Secrets

Taylor felt very sick, but she shook herself and pulled herself together as best she could. There were practically no insects around, except for those in the pockets of her suit, but an attack wasn't on her agenda just yet.

“Again?” she repeated slowly.

"Have you brought the Hero's sword?" the robot asked.

Taylor pulled the cylinder from her pocket and silently threw it, but missed, sending the sword flying high and to the left. The mannequin silently swung its hand forward, the chain unwinding behind it with a soft grinding sound, and intercepted the cylinder.

"Do you know where we are, Taylor Potter?" the mannequin asked suddenly, still holding the cylinder in its hand.

Now he reminded Taylor of the robot general with a lightsaber from an old movie.

"No, I don't know," Taylor answered honestly.

There were caves all around, and more robots, but that was all. Taylor's power didn't reach anything familiar, though Potter didn't rule out the possibility that it simply lacked the range. The word "again" and the robotic mannequins around them hinted that they were in the cave where the philosopher's vial had been, or near it, but in any case, somewhere beneath the Sphere.

"This is the Dimension of Secret," the mannequin replied dispassionately, "and that means none of you will leave here until I want you to."

"What would it take to make you want it?" Lockhart asked unexpectedly, taking a step forward.

"Potter will give me the stolen power, Weasley will help me master the new body."

Taylor involuntarily took a step back, realizing what the robot was saying. He was going to possess her, but how? Amy might be a master of biology, but surely a robot is made of circuits and electronics?

"Of course, you can refuse," the mannequin continued in a dispassionate voice, "but then the consequences will be far more severe. I will kill you, absorb your power, and release the Endbringers straight into Wormwarts."

"Endbringers?" asked Niceguy in a casual tone.

“All nineteen of them,” the mannequin responded.

And then Taylor felt a stirring in the adjacent cave. What she thought were huge chunks of rock began to move forward. Granger thrashed in her bonds, arching her neck so hard she almost broke it, trying to look behind her, where heavy footsteps were already coming from.

Without the Hero's sword, Dumbledore is powerless, which means everyone in Wormwarts will die, and then the Endbringers will destroy the country around them.

"There is no need for such sacrifices,” Taylor stepped forward, clenching her fists.

Figures… Endbringers emerged, some almost brushing the cave ceiling with their heads. Some resembled humans, others were bizarre chimeras, and a couple looked like geometric abstractions. The only thing they had in common was a sense of power and inhumanity, heightened by the dim light and diffused floodlights in the cave. It was as if the elements came to life before Taylor, embodied in figures and awaiting orders. The robot raised its hand, and the Endbringers stopped, frozen like statues.

Taylor noticed Lisa's face. Despite her gagged mouth, Granger was miming something, grimacing as if she were actively rehearsing the part of a monkey. She even tried to mimic something with her body, but the restraints binding her to the metal chair-like object were getting in the way. Victoria, sitting to Lisa's right, seemed asleep, motionless and staring at something in the stone ahead.

Something about all this didn't add up, but Taylor was too tired, too exhausted to quickly figure it out. Her thoughts seemed to buzz and vibrate like bees, darting back and forth across her head, pausing for a second before darting off again.

“Then come closer,” said the robot, extending his hand, which consisted of sections.

Taylor glanced at Amy, who was shaking. Then, as if deciding on something, Amy lunged forward, pushing off from Victoria in a magnificent leap, ducking under the mannequin's outstretched arm, and jabbing a finger into its chest.

"You make a mistake, Weasley," the robot said dispassionately, grabbing her by the throat.

Amy wheezed and tried to tear the Hero's sword from his hand, but to no avail. The mechanical grip on her throat and the sword were irresistible, at least for Amy.

"Come here, Taylor Potter, or she dies!" the robot raised his voice slightly.

Taylor stepped forward, her throat dry. What could she do? Her brain couldn't find an answer, and all she could do was sacrifice herself.

"Free the others!" she said, taking a few steps forward.

The robot, without a word, threw Amy mercilessly onto the rocks that lined the cave floor. Blades emerged from its shoulders, cutting through the ropes around Lisa and Victoria.

"Not a word, or everyone dies!" he growled at Granger.

"There's nothing organic about me, stupid Weasley!" the mannequin addressed Amy. "Make me a new body!"

"Heh-heh," Amy tried to get up, rubbing her neck, "heh... I need material..."

The robot didn't answer, but several robots on the edge of the cave rushed up and quickly dragged several boxes, from which a barely perceptible cold emanated.

"You can use your friends if you're not satisfied with the material," the lead mannequin said dispassionately.

Amy muttered something under her breath and began working her magic on the organic matter. Granger, biting her finger, twisted her head back and forth, as if trying to take everything in. Taylor glanced back one last time, noting that Victoria was still lying on the floor to the right, and Professor Niceguy winked at her. Encouragement? A hint? Taylor didn't know, but she had no choice anyway, and she took another step, stopping about four meters from the mannequin. Usually, the nearby robot guards of the Sphere looked even more terrifying, with their three-meter height and featureless white ovals where their faces should be, but now Taylor seemed to have crossed a line, lost the ability to fear. Was it the result of fatigue and exhaustion? She didn't know.

“Okay,” the mannequin raised his hand.

Taylor half expected the robot to shoot out its arm and grab her by the throat, or stick some kind of transmitter on her forehead, but it did nothing.

"Why do you need my power?" she asked. "What's so special about controlling insects?"

"Control... a-ha-ha-ha-ha," the robot suddenly began to shake, bursting into clanking laughter. "Insect control! A-ha-ha-ha!!"

Somewhere in the midst of that laughter, Taylor felt a connection being established between her and the robot, like an invisible rope or cable she can't feel but knows is there. And then, along that cable, something hot and elastic, like pulsating globs, rushed from Taylor to the mannequin, in jerks and jolts. Not physical jerks; Taylor didn't know how to put it into words, and she had no time. The connection was two-way. While the mannequin was drawing power from Taylor, Taylor was able to touch its memories and find herself absorbed by them.

Light and pain, suffering and collapse, separation from the host. Jack stood before Taylor again, grinning into his goatee, raising his knife to strike. A piece of Dark Cape, not his physical body, a fragment of his powers, fused into some kind of pseudo-mind, darted to the side and seized control of the nearest mannequin. It was an agony of struggle and suffering, every second, the energy draining, and the robot disobeying. Jack struck, but a part of Dark Cape refused to give in. It wanted to live, and managed to hide in the depths of the cave complex beneath the Sphere.

Jack didn't pursue, and the Dark One lay low, overcoming his weakness, working on himself. The mannequin was too damaged to escape on its own. The robot didn't need food or water, but it couldn't get up or get outside, so all that was left was to slowly work on itself, trying to make repairs.

“Good,” the mannequin suddenly declared in reality, “the power flows within me!”

He took a step closer, and Taylor was able to peer further into his memory, as if the depth of the mental penetration depended on her physical proximity to the robot. The darkness opened, and another robot — a mannequin — appeared in the cave. It pulled its damaged companion out, not out, but into some hidden compartment. He deposited it there, saying, "Don't go anywhere," and disappeared. The Dark One was suffering; it was powerless to influence the incoming robot; some form of artificial intelligence circulated within it, primitive yet at the same time uncontrollable by the Dark One. He threw all the dominance powers this piece of the Dark One possessed into the battle, disregarding the losses, and yet he was unable to accomplish anything. If he approached with the powers of a Tinker, the enemy felt like an organic mind, but if he resorted to the powers of a Master, then to them his enemy was a robot and a piece of electronics.

Then came the weakness, pain of submission, and the wasted energy.

"Hurry up!" the robot shouted at Amy.

Taylor managed to turn her head. A body lay before her, roughly human-shaped, as if chopped with an axe. Two more robots were supervising the work nearby, as if monitoring Weasley. Taylor's adversary revealed itself even further, and Taylor suddenly understood why it needed the body. Having split from the Dark One and gained independence, the piece had acquired consciousness and sentience, deciding to live and act independently. It was a very important piece, significant to the Dark One, and that's why it had sent the virus, that very primitive artificial intelligence, to take what was his.

The virus entered Wormwarts along with the students, spreading itself among their tablets. It then infiltrated the school's systems, subjugated several elfs, and set about its task. The Dark One Taylor encountered last year hadn't expected the fragment that had broken away from him to gain independence and hadn't accounted for this, which is precisely what led to the lion's share of events. Perhaps the incident on the train platform was the virus's own doing, thus managing to bypass the defenses. False positives, the initiation of attack protocols, and so on—Taylor felt her head spinning from trying to understand and comprehend them, for she was receiving nothing but memory packets from the robot, and it was driving her crazy. What appeared to the robot, to the fragment of the Dark One, as mere memory, drove Taylor insane, and she hastily discarded that portion of memory, attempting to sever the connection.

But instead, she only stepped deeper.

The struggle between the two Dark Ones, the damaged robot, barely able to contain its powers, and the virus created to subjugate and carry away this fragment, raged on, and eventually the virus prevailed. Having subjugated the Dark One's fragment, it attempted to leave Wormwarts, but encountered an unforeseen problem. The school's defenses had been altered after the previous year, and any active superpower conglomerates (and the Dark Cape or its fragments were precisely such) attempting to enter, or exit, would trigger an alarm and be destroyed.

The virus shifted priorities and tasks and began to act. The broken-off piece of the Dark One carried a superpower, or a combination thereof, allowing it to open a portal to the Dimension of Secrets and summon its inhabitants. The Endbringers. A superweapon created against capes and designed to destroy them. Taylor felt herself approaching her breaking point, that any moment now she would be dissolved in these memories, and she had no strength left to fight the memory flow. The connection continued to function, and the robot absorbed something from Taylor, but not her insect control power. She could still sense them, without any interference or hindrance.

The Dark One's piece resisted summoning the Endbringers; it wasted a lot of energy, and Dumbledore knew how to fight them; she'd killed the first one in Dresden, even if it meant destroying an entire city. Virus didn't care, and it wasted the Dark One's energy liberally, trying to frame Taylor and Dumbledore and, at any cost, accomplish its initial goal—bringing the Dark One outside. As a result, whatever happened in Wormwarts was happening, and the Dark One's piece was nearly destroyed due to the excessive energy expenditure.

Then Granger struck the virus, which was still trying to solve the problem with its own means, and the Dark One piece went on the attack, overpowering the remnants of the virus and subjugating it. Having gathered energy, it hid in the Secret Dimension, knowing it would soon be found, as all these virus escapades had attracted attention, and a total search of everything and everyone, including the Sphere and its guards, had begun. Having holed up in the Secret Dimension and gathered its strength, the Dark One formulated a new plan and successfully executed it, as Taylor now realized.

"Yes, now I'm full of strength and energy!" the robot proclaimed, throwing up his arms.

Taylor sensed, deep down, the memories of the original Dark Cape, of what happened that night when he came for Potter's parents. She knew what the Hero's Sword was — the power to destroy power, embodied in metal and electronics. She knew its name — Sting. She subconsciously understood what the Dark One was planning next. But she no longer had the strength to push, to touch the memories, or to influence the Dark One through the bond, and a few seconds later the robot severed the connection.

Taylor collapsed on the cave floor, sweat pouring down her face and her vision blurring. Her breathing was rapid, as if she'd just run a long distance, and her head pounded from the overload of information. Now that the connection was severed, everything she'd seen felt slightly different, as if she'd been trying to get into the Dark One's shoes, watching a glimpse of his life, like in a movie. The cold floor and the stones cutting into her body kept her conscious, but overall, Taylor wasn't a fighter, and she knew it. She also realized something in her initial picture hadn't quite added up — the robot simply didn't have enough energy; if Taylor had attacked immediately, it would have been virtually powerless to counter her, barring any power drain.

But now… now it was too late.

Taylor knew what the Dark One piece was planning: to inhabit a new, biological body, as it suited it better and allowed it to function more fully, to open a portal, and release one or more Endbringers into Wormwarts, with orders to kill Dumbledore. Without the Hero's Sword, the Headmistress would be powerless and would either die or retreat, at which point the Dark One would emerge and leave the school.

There will be one more Dark Cape in the world.

"Don't waste time," a smile flashed in the robot's voice.

A second later, Taylor realized he was addressing Amy. A new invisible connection, this time with Weasley, had subdued her, transforming her into the Dark One's puppet. Victoria, brought back to her senses by Granger's efforts, attempted to attack, but was paralyzed and frozen in mid-air.

"One more attempt like that and someone will die," the robot remarked. "I understand that it's human nature to flutter like that, but I'm not taking any chances. Got it?"

“Yes, yes,” Lisa nodded quickly.

Taylor could see from her friend's face that she was overextending herself, overusing her power, trying to find a way out, and failing. A handful of insects, a club, and rocks in a cave — none of these weapons would have harmed the robot. Taylor knew she couldn't give up, but she couldn't think of what to do. Perhaps she should attack the robot's new body? For all the advantages a biological body had for the Dark One, it also possessed an increased vulnerability to the powers... to the powers of all four girls, perhaps. If only she had realized earlier that Lisa was hinting at the robot's energy depletion!

But why now regret what was not done and what did not come true?

"Great body," the robot approved.

Taylor was surprised for a second, then realized he was capable of not only controlling but also sensing everything the puppets were feeling. Perhaps as part of his ability to use the powers of others, the powers of those he controlled. Why, with such an ability, hadn't he simply controlled Dumbledore? And then it dawned on Taylor that the robot hadn't done this before, which meant... he... did that mean he... did that mean she had this power herself? To control not just insects, but the people around her as well?

Taylor felt sick, and the cave blurred before her eyes.

"Get away!" Two robots grabbed Amy, dragging her away.

Taylor realized her "secret plan" to attack her new body had failed before it even began. Victoria was paralyzed, Amy was being held by those she was powerless against, Taylor herself was practically powerless—even forgetting the robot's power over the Endbringers still lurking in the cave!—and Lisa... well, she'd learn a few secrets, so what? Taylor had learned so much, but did it help her?

The robot froze, and the body on the floor stirred and stood up, a naked middle-aged man of athletic build.

"Let me help you," Lockhart snatched the Hero's sword from the robot's hand and stepped toward the man, as if about to hand him the sword, "and pass the greetings."

"From whom?" the man asked curiously.

"Greetings from Jack!" said Professor Niceguy, striking Dark Cape's new body squarely in the head.

*

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