Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 61

Noticing Discrepancies

(Misha Tulley)

To say that people reacted differently since the since Misha and the others left for the concert would be an understatement.

While it had only been two and a half days, the actual impact on society was far more than expected. Even out in far away places like Jackson West Virginia.

If Misha had to use one word to describe the change in people she noticed, it would have to be war.

To be more exact, the phrase she would use would be war readiness.

As everyone held a slightly more alert posture.

Well everyone aside from Rodger and Alishia who by all means seemed to be normal, well as normal as two murderous sociopaths could be.

No, in this case the difference was in the way everyone automatically had out their phones while walking about the school.

And this wasn’t the same lack of attention that one would expect with the odd time draining devices, at least that is how Misha saw the invention of phones being.

No, in this case, the difference was the phones seemed to serve as a way to make people more aware of their surroundings. As everyone was moving and flashing their phones about, along with the white light at the back that served to show that most had the camera feature enabled in some way.

“Oh, man. I need to find someone new to scan. I’ve been stuck at level three forever.” A boy who Misha believed to be part of the Freshman class stated.

“Same,” the friend he was standing next to stated with a sort of exasperated voice.

“The only problem is that we don’t really get experience unless we tag and mark new people.” The first boy began.

“Yeah, or you can get more experience by slowly tracking and noting the location of one of those who popped as a monster.” The second person stated.

“Yeah, but that experience gets halved if more than one person tracks them at the same time.”

“It does?”

“Yeah, I was able to get all types of experience by following that Amoni girl through town yesterday. But today when I tried, I noticed the experience was so much lower.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“Duh, isn’t it obvious, this is the way to scan all the new people before anyone else does. Hey, look there’s that other girl from the basketball team.”

“Oh, I’ve got her too.” The second boy said as they both held up their phones and began scanning Misha.

Misha for her part tried to just keep walking, even though she could feel the slightly advanced traces of what had to be Psycher scanning activity against her.

While Misha had not been one of the developers of the ship board program, nor known who invented the program for the fleet. As a Maintainer, it was her job to fix and therefore test when the ship’s scanning systems went offline or were otherwise damaged. This meant that she was well used to the feel of the intrusive beams of energy.

Now, these beams generated from the phones light source were not as powerful as the scanners utilized on her ship, Misha could still feel the odd tingle that would cause radiological damage to a body, over time.

“Ahh, inconclusive.”

“Same.”

“Let’s try again?” The first boy stated.

“No, we got enough experience to level up. Let’s leave her.” The second boy said.

“Yeah, even if we scan her again, we wouldn’t be awarded any more experience.”

With that the two went back to their perch and again just began scanning everyone that came into or through the school’s front doors.

It would have been fine if that was the only case of this, but it seemed that most of the school were also playing or at least aware of this new phone feature.

As she walked she saw everyone had out their phones, and rather than being at a slight angle towards the ground, as would be indicative of texting or reading the screen at a comfortable holding level. Everyone had their phones up, lights on and were scanning each other.

“Oh this is so cool.” One girl posed.

“Yeah, I wish I was a hidden werewolf.” A second girl stated with a slight pout to her lips.

“Yeah, did you hear that Ryder is a vampire?”

“The computer nerd?”

“Yeah, the same. Also, almost all of the basketball players and most football players are werewolves.”

“Ahh, that is so cool!”

Hearing this, Misha’s ears felt like they were burning.

“Oh wait, the new girl, she is hella bright.” The first girl in the clique began speaking as she pointed her phone directly at Misha.

Misha for her part, now thanks to her one understanding of the pulse being sent to her, and her now inherent Psycher control over electricity just let the pulse pass through her. That was the thing, so long as the pulse kept going or was disrupted in some way, it would not be able to send back a reply.

“Wait, she just disappeared from my phone.”

“No, she is right there.”

“I know, but look, see.” The girl said turning her phone to apparently show the image of Misha, or at least that is what Misha assumed, based on the reaction.

Regardless of the situation, Misha decided it was best just to head to class, and try to give herself time to think everything.

Right now, everything seemed to be thrown off by this new application that everyone was using.

Getting to her class, Misha noted that Amoni was also here, though she seemed to be trying to hide herself behind a book.

“Look there she is,” one girl said, peeking in and flashing a burst of light into the room.

For a second, Misha thought it was directed at her, but then soon found that it was directed at Amoni. Who even behind her stack of books seemed to have a reaction to the beam.

This was noticeable as Misha noted a slight sheen of ripples moving around her skin. Not much, almost enough to make it look like she had sweat that was being refracted by the application.

“There we go, I just got level two!” The girl who flashed Amoni said.

“See I told you, all you have to do is constantly tag them once an hour and you get full points for tracking.” The second girl stated.

Hearing this, Misha paused and then turned to Amoni.

“You okay?” Misha asked.

“Yeah, just getting tired of this new stalker app game that everyone is playing.” Amoni noted.

“What game app?” Misha asked.

Pausing Amoni looked at Misha like she was crazy, but then just shook her head. “Yeah, figures you wouldn’t know about the hottest new game sweeping the nation.”

With that Amoni reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, which she then opened to show a new app called Surreal.

“Apparently this game helps identify people who are different, and will scan you, save you and your biometrics to a data base, where you will constantly be seen and able to be tracked.” Amoni said.

“That sounds…” Misha began, but was quickly cut off.

“Invasive? I know. The only problem is that everyone can play, and there is a weekly process where the person who gets the highest level for a week can earn a thousand dollars, so of course everyone here is playing.” Amoni stated.

Hearing the financial compensation portion of the application, Misha could understand the appeal.

“Isn’t that illegal? As in close to borderline stalking?” Misha asked, trying to understand how an application like that could not be considered a stalking program. Particularly if it seemed to encourage people to track and locate individuals.

“You’d think so, but there is a feature that makes it so the application does not operate within residences. Meaning, that you can only track so called marked individuals while they are out in the public sectors, like schools, businesses, and so on.” Amoni stated.

Hearing that, Misha became intrigued and pulled out her own phone and decided to take a look at the application in question.

“It’s called Surreal?” Misha asked.

“Surreal, monsters among us.” Amoni stated.

“There seems to be a reset timer?” Misha asked.

“Yeah, every night at midnight local time, everyone’s data gets erased. Everything but their own level and experience points to next level. Then you are allowed to go out and find new monsters. The only problem is that there are never new monsters and that the monsters never change from day to day.” Amoni stated, a note of bitterness to her voice.

“How long has this been out?” Misha asked.

“I don’t know, at least since Saturday, but I don’t remember hearing about it before then.” Amoni replied.

“So everyday you get points for scanning yourself?” Misha asked?

“Yeah, I get the first time finders fee. Also, I just need to scan myself once an hour to get a full hour bonus of tracking experience.”

“So you also get points for ratting out your own location?”

Hearing that Amoni could only nod.

“Can I ask why you do this?”

“Simple, it’s a thousand dollars.” Amoni stated.

With that Misha could only nod her own head.

“Here, I’ll try it with you.” Amoni said, holding up her phone and from point blank range Misha was not prepared for the pulse of energy that entered her.

A pulse that once again refracted back before Misha could do anything to alter the trajectory of the pulse.

“That is odd, I got full points for a first time finders tag. Even though it says you were already scanned multiple times today.” Amoni noted.

At that Misha just raised one questioning eyebrow at the girl.

“What? It’s cool, it means that everyone that finds you and tags you, will get enough experience to level up, regardless of who finds you.” Amoni noted, as she began typing into her phone.

Seeing the typing, Misha felt a note of concern fill her, as she asked. “What are you typing?”

“Oh, just your name, age and vitals.” Amoni stated.

“You’re entering my name into a tracking database?” Misha asked.

Hearing that, Amoni paused as she let that thought sink in, before shaking her head. “No, this is just an interactive game for money.”

Before Misha could comment on how in a game that didn’t have adds, the users were the product, she had her thoughts interrupted by the teacher coming in.

“Sorry about the delay,” the teacher began, coming into class. “Oh, I see you all are playing Surreal, well go ahead get all yours scans in, then phones down for the rest of class as we have a lot to go over today.”

With that, Misha felt herself putting up a faint electromagnetic barrier around her. This wasn’t much, but it was enough to violently repel any intrusive beams that might otherwise be aimed at her.

Then while her teacher began going over the day’s lessons, Misha felt her mind wandering down a deep dark path of data storage and retention.

Using the same network infrastructure and connected readings that the Surreal system used to log, track, and mark every supernatural entity, Misha used to piggy-back her way into the same network, where she began accessing log data.

While exploring, Misha found that the network that she was now traversing was far more complex than anything she had encountered in her time here on this planet, indicating that someone with far more advanced skills and abilities had pushed the level of technology here on this planet to an alarming state forward.

Lurking in the forbidden servers, and data entry sites, Misha found indications of future plans and features that hinted at features and capabilities that spoke of a more sinister nature.

Just being here, made Misha feel simultaneously nostalgic, while also feeling apprehensive for not knowing the true goals and intentions of the creators.

Looking at the data, Misha found that as Amoni had noted, there was no change, no random algorithm that would change the status and location of those who were exposed as supernatural entities via the Surreal application and its users. Instead, all of the data was being compiled and processed to show a pattern of life that went far beyond the scope of what most would consider practical.

With a simple query, she found her name Misha Tulley, while the folder with her name had recently been updated. She found multiple files and packets related to her activities and whereabouts.

There were indications of her being in Pittsburg, then at the Hasty concert, followed by a few noted distance scans believed to be her. Followed by a few random events linking her to stopping at a gas station.

Pausing, Misha remembered the phone that the gas station attendant had out. At the time Misha didn’t think anything about the encounter, but then realized her data had been scanned and stored here. Apparently the program was able to scan and sort individuals by their aura intensity. Or that is what the program algorithm seemed to note.

Seeing the data, Misha realized that her folder and system had been flagged as a priority for whatever reason.

Regardless, Misha seeing the data, decided to alter the information.

Name: Rose Ambhurst

Then she subtly changed the relevant data being stored. Changing her height, her hair and eye color, and even her profile picture to a random stock image of the cute but forgettable girl from the phone commercials.

Data related to her aura would still be gathered, and there was not much she could do, other than change the baseline and try to hide her data while being in plain sight.

With that, she went and tried to find all of her friends.

As was expected, Darcy was the only one who had not been flagged in such a way. But Jasmine Sweet had also been tagged and was noted at going to the same convenience stores and concert as Misha. Once again Misha changed the data slightly, realizing that Jasmine would likely be scanned hundreds of times, but now that she had already been categorized, her data should end up in the same folder.

The entire process was slow and laborious.

In fact, many times Misha almost wondered if someone was there watching her, but she couldn’t find anyone despite her clear paranoia.

To no one’s surprise, Misha found files on all of her teammates, which she also altered slightly. Though making sure to ensure that the data of Rodger and Alishia was more than accurate, even going so far as to provide their related phone numbers, addresses, and biometrics.

With this new service, Misha realized that she could use this application to help track down the Warrior class soldiers that still needed to be held accountable for her grandmother’s death.

At that thought, Misha paused and looked around, suddenly realizing exactly what this place was for.

“This is to track us down and kill us all?” Misha noted.

With that, Misha decided to try to come back again tomorrow to see if her changes were still in place. Though now, she felt like her job became just a little bit easier to pull off.