The foreclosure of reality was a silent affair.
There were no explosions, no screaming civilians, no dramatic musical swells. There was just the steady, creeping whiteness. It started at the city limits of New Seattle and moved inward, consuming streetlights, mailboxes, and coffee shops. One moment, a building was there; the next, it was simply... un-rendered. Deleted from the disk to free up space.
"It's moving faster than I calculated," Elara-Zero said, her eyes scanning the horizon from the dashboard of the Generic Getaway Van. "The Auditors are deleting the outer sectors at a rate of three blocks per minute. We have less than an hour before the Space Needle gets scrubbed."
Elara Vance gripped the steering wheel. Her knuckles were white. She wasn't wearing her tactical vest anymore—it had been dissolved by an Auditor's touch in the previous skirmish. She was wearing a hoodie she found in the back seat, stained with motor oil.
"We need a route," Elara said. "The main roads are blocked by Red Tape."
She meant it literally. Massive, glowing rolls of red police tape hovered across the intersections, solid as steel walls.
"Take the monorail track," Jen suggested from the passenger seat. She was clutching the ÅSSEMBLER instruction manual as if it contained the secrets of the universe. "The trains are shut down. It's a straight shot to the Needle."
"Driving a van on a monorail track?" Aldren Vance whispered from the back seat. "That is... ill-advised."
"We're pirates now, Aldren," Elara said, swerving the van up a service ramp. "Pirates don't care about rail safety."
The van hit the tracks with a bone-rattling thud. Sparks flew as the tires screeched against the metal rails.
"My spine," Li Wusheng groaned. He was curled up next to Ignis, his grey, paralyzed arm cradled against his chest. "I miss my monk constitution. Being mortal is very... jarring."
Ignis didn't answer. The dragon-man was pale, his breathing shallow. Vex was holding a bag of frozen peas (stolen from a gas station) against his chest wound.
"Hang in there, big guy," Vex whispered, her usual sultry tone replaced by genuine fear. "We're going to get you some high-altitude air. You love that stuff."
"Kebabs..." Ignis mumbled. "Do pirates... eat... kebabs?"
"Exclusive diet," Elara promised. "Nothing but meat on sticks."
She floored the gas. The van roared toward the city center, speeding above the dissolving streets. Below them, the white void was eating a park. The trees didn't fall; they just blinked out of existence.
"There!" Rex Chord pointed.
Ahead of them, the Space Needle pierced the grey sky. It was a mess of a building—half 1960s retro-futurism, half crystalline Wizard Tower. The 5G antenna on top pulsed with a weak, purple light.
But surrounding the base of the tower was a blockade.
The Repo-Men.
Dozens of the grey-suited Auditors stood in a perfect circle around the Needle. They weren't moving. They were simply waiting.
"They know," Elara-Zero said. "They know it's the anchor point."
"We can't fight them," Aldren said, his voice trembling. "I have no bats. Li has no punch. Ignis has no fire. We are just... people in a van."
"We don't need to fight them," Elara said. She looked at Jen. "Jen, how heavy is this van?"
"About two tons," Jen estimated. "Why?"
"And how sturdy is the glass on the Space Needle's observation deck?"
Jen's eyes went wide. "Elara, no. That is a historic landmark."
"It's a foreclosure asset," Elara corrected. "Hold on!"
Elara didn't slow down. She accelerated.
The van screamed along the monorail track. The track ended at the station platform, about fifty feet away from the Needle's saucer.
"We're not going to make the jump," Elara-Zero calculated. "Physics says no."
"Then we cheat," Elara yelled. "Rex! The suspension!"
Rex Chord grabbed his guitar pick (formerly the keys). He jammed it into the CD player.
"I'm playing the 'Low Rider' track!" Rex shouted.
Hydraulics—which the van definitely didn't have five seconds ago—suddenly engaged. The van bounced.
BOUNCE.
It hit the end of the ramp. It launched into the air.
For a second, they were weightless. Below them, the Auditors looked up in unison, their sunglasses reflecting the flying rust-bucket.
"Gravity!" Li screamed. "It is undefeated!"
The van arced downward. It missed the landing pad. It was heading straight for the glass windows of the observation deck.
CRASH.
Glass shattered. Metal groaned. The van plowed through the window, sliding across the carpeted floor of the observation deck, knocking over a gift shop display of snow globes.
It came to a halt against the central elevator shaft. Smoke hissed from the hood.
"We're alive," Aldren whispered, checking his limbs. "And I believe I have whiplash."
"Out!" Elara kicked the door open. "We have maybe five minutes before they take the stairs."
They tumbled out of the van. The observation deck was a wreck of glass and souvenirs.
"Zero, get to the console!" Elara ordered. "Hack the antenna!"
Elara-Zero ran to the maintenance panel. She ripped the cover off. Her fingers—usually capable of interfacing directly with code—were just flesh and bone now. She had to use a screwdriver.
"It's manual," Elara-Zero cursed, twisting screws. "I have to physically re-wire the transmitter to broadcast a 'Null Signal'. It will mask our reality signature from the Publisher's scan."
"How long?"
"Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen if I strip the screws."
"They're coming up," Vex warned. She was looking down the elevator shaft through the glass floor.
The Auditors weren't taking the elevator. They were walking up the outside of the tower. They walked vertically up the glass, defying gravity with the casual indifference of admin privileges.
"We need a barricade," Elara said. She looked at the wrecked gift shop. "Jen! You're the manager. Manage this mess!"
Jen grabbed a rack of 'Seattle' hoodies. "Block the windows! Use the snow globes as caltrops!"
"Aldren, Li, Rex," Elara turned to her powerless heavy hitters. "We hold the line. Use whatever you can find."
Aldren picked up a heavy glass paperweight shaped like the Space Needle. "I shall wield this... souvenir. It is tacky, but dense."
Li picked up a mop bucket from the janitor's cart. "I have the high ground," Li noted, guarding the window breach.
"Elara," Elara-Zero shouted from the panel. "I can re-wire the signal, but I don't have enough power! The grid has been cut! I need a surge to jump-start the Reality Jammer!"
"The van battery?" Elara asked.
"Dead," Zero said. "I need high voltage. Industrial levels."
Elara looked around. The power was out. The lights were dead.
Then, she looked at the van. Specifically, at the back, where the Industrial Espresso Machine (Jen's "Potion Catapult") was bolted to the floor.
"The Espresso Machine," Elara said. "It runs on a nuclear thermal core, doesn't it?"
"It runs on 'Managerial Rage'," Jen corrected. "But yes, it generates massive heat."
"Hook it up," Elara commanded.
"But we need fuel!" Jen said. "We're out of coffee beans!"
Elara looked at her team. They were out of magic. Out of ammo. Out of beans.
But they weren't out of ideas.
"The Instruction Manual," Elara said, pointing to the book Jen was holding. "The ÅSSEMBLER manual. It's thick. It's dense."
"You want to burn the sacred text?" Jen gasped.
"Burn it," Elara said. "Ignis!"
The dragon was lying on a pile of hoodies, pale and shivering. He opened one eye.
"Ignis," Elara knelt beside him. "I know you're hurt. But I need one spark. Just one."
Ignis looked at the manual Jen was stuffing into the espresso machine's boiler. He looked at the Auditors climbing the glass outside.
"For... the kebabs," Ignis wheezed.
He reached into his pocket. He didn't pull out a lighter. He pulled out a single, chocolate-covered gold coin.
He bit the foil. A tiny spark of static electricity snapped.
He breathed on it. Not fire. Just breath. But he poured every ounce of his remaining dragon soul into that breath.
The static spark caught the paper wrapper. It flared.
Jen shoved the burning wrapper into the boiler.
The ÅSSEMBLER manual caught fire. The "Managerial Rage" core detected the heat.
WHIRRRRR.
The machine shuddered. Steam pressure began to build.
"It's working!" Elara-Zero shouted, connecting the machine's power cable to the antenna input. "Pressure rising! 50%!"
CRASH.
An Auditor smashed through the window.
He stepped onto the glass shards. He didn't look at them. He looked at the machine.
"Asset Modification detected," the Auditor droned. "Revoking permit."
"Revoke this!" Aldren shouted.
He threw the souvenir paperweight. It hit the Auditor in the face.
THUNK.
The Auditor didn't flinch. He adjusted his sunglasses. He stepped forward.
"Aldren, move!" Li yelled.
Li charged. He didn't have the Iron Palm. He had a mop bucket.
He jammed the bucket onto the Auditor's head.
"Blindness status applied!" Li shouted (optimistically).
The Auditor ripped the bucket off. He grabbed Li by the throat.
"Li!" Vex screamed. She flew (glided, really) at the Auditor, scratching at his eyes with her nails.
The Auditor swatted her away like a fly. He threw Li across the room. Li hit the souvenir rack and didn't get up.
"Power at 80%!" Elara-Zero yelled. "Hold them back!"
Two more Auditors climbed through the window.
Elara grabbed the only weapon she had left. A shard of glass from the van's windshield.
"You want the story?" Elara yelled, standing between the Auditors and the machine. "Come and take it!"
She fought. She fought like a cornered animal. She slashed at their suits, kicked their shins, threw snow globes.
But they were inevitable. They were the Institution. They barely slowed down.
The Lead Auditor grabbed Elara's arm. He twisted.
Elara dropped the glass shard. She fell to her knees.
"Foreclosure complete," the Auditor stated. He reached for the machine's power cord.
"NO!" Jen screamed.
Jen grabbed the steam wand of the espresso machine. She aimed it at the Auditor.
"I AM THE MANAGER!" Jen shrieked. "AND THIS CUSTOMER IS RUDE!"
She pulled the lever.
A jet of super-heated steam exploded into the Auditor's face.
It wasn't magic. It was physics. 200-degree steam burns everyone, even cosmic bureaucrats.
"Error!" the Auditor recoiled, covering his face. "Thermal damage! Suit compromised!"
"100%!" Elara-Zero slammed her hand onto the Enter key. "Jammer active!"
HUMMMMM.
The 5G antenna on top of the Space Needle pulsed.
A wave of "Null Energy"—pure, unwritten narrative potential—exploded outward. It washed over the tower, the Auditors, and the city below.
The Auditors froze. Their sunglasses flickered.
[SIGNAL LOST.][TARGET LOCATION: UNKNOWN.][SEARCHING...]
"We're invisible!" Zero shouted. "Initiate the cut!"
She pulled a second lever—a large, rusted brake lever from the monorail that she had wired into the mainframe.
[ANCHOR: SEVERED.]
The world lurched.
It felt like an elevator dropping ten floors at once.
Outside the window, the white void of the erasure stopped. The grey sky of Seattle vanished.
It was replaced by purple. deep, swirling, starless purple.
The Void Ocean.
New Seattle groaned as it tore itself free from the multiverse grid. The streets cracked, but held together by the "Spaghetti Code" of Mr. Henderson's resistance. The city floated, an island of concrete and magic drifting into the unknown.
The Auditors looked around. Their connection to The Publisher was cut.
"Jurisdiction error," the Lead Auditor said, his voice glitching. "Out of... bounds."
They faded. Without the Publisher's signal to sustain them, they simply de-rezzed, turning into grey dust on the carpet.
Elara pulled herself up. She looked out the window.
They were floating in an endless sea of violet static. Giant shapes—ideas that never became stories—swam in the distance.
"We did it," Elara whispered. "We stole the city."
"We are pirates," Aldren said, straightening his tie, though his hands were shaking. "Space Pirates."
"Void Pirates," Li corrected, limping over. His arm was still grey, but he was smiling.
Ignis groaned from the pile of hoodies. "Did we... did we get the kebabs?"
"We got the whole kebab shop, buddy," Elara said, tears stinging her eyes.
She looked at Elara-Zero. The other Elara was slumped against the console, exhausted.
"What now?" Zero asked. "We're off the map. No script. No ending."
Elara looked at the Void. It was terrifying. It was empty.
And it was free.
"Now?" Elara smiled. "Now we see what's out there."