The sounds of pursuit grew fainter behind us. Numbers on the doors no longer made sense, gradually becoming incomprehensible gibberish that sorta resembled text, reminding me of the early machine learning experiments at understanding text.

Another blast from the Decimator. Another door, this one covered in blue, fractal-shaped moss.

The hallway beyond this one sagged inward, the walls buckling as if under tremendous pressure. Pipes had burst from the ceiling, spewing black fluid that seemed to be frozen in the air as liquid bubbles overgrown in the same blue mold.

"Almost there," Kristi said.

The final corridor stretched ahead, so warped and decayed it hardly resembled a structure at all. The doors hung crooked, some half-melted into their frame, others gaping into unnerving darkness.

The lights ended as we flew deeper, the Nemesis' frontal beams igniting brighter to reveal more and more bizarre architecture of fucked up things fused into things.

Silver text suddenly wove itself from the air, floating in my eyes.

[Welcome back home, Mr. Foster. Your bathtub awaits. The hot water's running, and we've scheduled you for another drowning at your earliest convenience.]

"The fuck?" I asked.

[Although, it's rather hard to kill you, nowadays, ain't it? You can blame me for this exciting development. So, you're welcome. Have _1 Experience Point for being a good boy and finding your way back home. Welcome back to Earth number_[System Error]. Enjoy your stay and don't forget to like and subscribe to the local flora and fauna, otherwise you might find yourself being digested for all eternity by their grabby tentacles and claws!]

My stomach lurched at the extra-snarky and absurd Systemfall message.

Kristi aimed the Decimator and fired one last time. The blast tore through the concrete-wood-rubber patchwork door door, then through a rotting wall.

We burst into open air, the Nemesis shooting out of a half-rotting building, into a world I never thought I'd see again.

Kristi pulled up.

A post-apocalyptic, dead city sprawled all around and below, gray fog rolling across the street. Buildings were scattered all around in various states of decay, many overtaken by bizarre, unnatural growths of trees shaped from random things like cars or mailboxes or street lamps.

The streets lay empty. The sky above hung low, covered in a gray shawl.

My world. The Earth devoured by Systemfall. The place where I died in a bathtub, courtesy of the cartel and woke up as an undying version of me.

"We made it," I breathed and regretted it immediately. The air tasted stale, dead and wrong.

Kristi sniffed and the glider growled beneath us, accelerating. Dead, fallen skyscrapers flew by.

I leaned back into her, my heart pounding.

What if Calvin died? What if the Nemesis runs out of power? Would we end up trapped in this horrid, dead world? At least I had my pack by my side. I tried to mentally assure myself.

Kristi brought the Nemesis down on the corroded remnants of a highway exit. The asphalt had buckled and cracked, forming ridges and valleys where unnatural plant-forms bloomed made from parking tickets, Cola bottle caps and dollar bills. We touched down in a relatively clear patch, the glider's landing gear scraping against broken concrete.

"Slayer," Kristi commented. "Bleh. This place is even more fucked than I remember. Unbind, drop, disconnect Lawsuit!"

Her clawed hands flashed silver.

"Think that worked?" I asked.

"Better have," she muttered. "I absolutely do not want to be dragged to Eureka's court. That was… possibly even more terrifying than the damned Lynx or the infinite highway."

"Let's find Calvin," I suggested. "If he's still around. Can you smell where the Mini-Mart is?"

"No," Kristi sighed. "I'm running out of mana. Going to snap apart in a…"

The colors faded from her eyes as she heaved, wobbling.

"Ugh," Candace groaned as she climbed out of Kristi's backpack. "Too much raptor-ness. My paws taste like scales."

"Never doin' that again," Adelle muttered, stretching her orange-furred limbs, emerging after the fox.

Kristi slumped forward, rubbing her temples.

"Thanks for flying us," Nessy climbed out of the bag last, hugging the raptor girl. "You're da best, Kristi."

"You're welcome," the raptor grumbled, accepting the hug and pets.

We gathered our bearings. The dragons inside our bags made chirping noises, disturbed by the dimensional transit.

"Poor babies want to go home," Nessy commented, reaching into her bag and offering the dragon flock inside pets.

From a nearby alley came a soft, mechanical skittering. Dozens of small objects rolled into view, moving with freaky coordination.

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Computer mice. Dozens of them, their balls rolling independently, propelling them across the ground. They had sprouted tiny legs made of wire and keyboard keys, clicking softly as they moved. Small red lights blinked where their buttons should be, giving the impression of electronic eyes.

"That's some fucked up sheeet," Adelle commented, perking up. "Can I smash 'em?"

"I'd rather you didn't," Candace commented. "This place might take experience away from you if you kill the wrong thing or infect you with mice-ness. The rewards System here smells fake as fuck. I suspect that it gave Alec Nessy not because it was a logically sensible reward, but because the local entropy-chewed-on System thought that it would be hilarious."

"Blah," the cheetah deflated slightly.

The mechanical mice paused, their red lights blinking as they regarded us. Then, as if responding to some unheard signal, they scurried in formation toward a nearby department store.

A dozen mannequins suddenly emerged from the gray fog. Each had a computer monitor duct-taped to its head, flickering screens facing outward displaying static. Their plastic bodies moved with uncanny twitches as if they were puppetered by an invisible sky spider.

Kristi tensed beside me, lifting the Decimator. "I don't like this."

I touched her arm, pointing to the mannequins' chests. Yellow sticky notes covered them, each bearing simple sketches of eyes, ears, or mouths.

"Hold your fire," I said. "These are Calvin's."

As if on cue, the nearest monitor flickered, the fuzzy grain resolving into a slightly pixelated image of an orange-bearded face.

"Ah!" Calvin's voice emanated from the mannequin's sticky note with the drawing of a mouth. "Would ya look at that! Alec and Nessy, back to visit me! And you brought... more animal-girl-friends with ya?"

"Yes," I smiled.

"Hi Calvin," Nessy stepped forward, tail wagging. "How have you been?"

"Decent, all things considered," Canvin replied. "Did you manage to get away from that Magnetic Lynx?"

The other monitors activated one by one, each displaying the same bearded face from slightly different angles.

"Sort of," I said. "We're… doing a Quest for her now."

"Lovely," Calvin nodded from the monitors. "See, everyone needs a bit of understanding! Come, come, follow my drones, they'll take you to my domain."

The gray fog rolled back, revealing rows of bizarre trees stretching into the distance. Each trunk twisted in freaky, odd angles, their fruit being office supplies, plastic toys, or electronic components. A patch of blue sky suddenly broke through the gray canopy above.

The Mini-Mart had changed over however long we had not seen it.

It was no longer the small, grimy convenience store I remembered. The building now stood five times larger, its walls freshly painted in bright colors featuring Calvin planting receipt trees, watering gold grass or talking to a monitor-faced female mannequin.

Gardens surrounded the shop on all sides, blooming with flowers made from coffee filters, paper clips, flash drives or other random objects.

Mannequins moved methodically between the rows, tending to the odd crops with robotic, twitchy motions.

"Welcome back to my humble domain, friends!" Calvin called, striding toward us from the direction of the store.

He still wore his tinfoil-enhanced cap, but his ginger beard had grown longer, now reaching the middle of his chest and featuring more silver. A necklace of computer mice dangled around his neck, their red sensor lights blinking. A violet cape covered in drawn eyes decorated his back.

"Calvin," I greeted him. "Good to see you surviving! You've... expanded."

"Yep," he said proudly, gesturing to his domain. "M' cultivating concepts as a concept-farmer! Quite sustainable in the long run."

"How long has it been since we last saw each other?" I asked.

Calvin scratched his beard. "Hard to say. Time is kind of wobbly here. Excessive entropy and all that. Might have been a million years." He paused, considering. "Or maybe just a few weeks. Calendar tracking became rather pointless after the third or fourth dimensional-quake."

"This place must be very difficult to maintain," Candace commented. "Especially in such an unstable Entropy-filled zone."

"Oh, absolutely," Calvin nodded with a smile. "About as fulfilling as building a sandcastle right next to the ocean waves. The tide always comes in, washes everything away. Then you start again."

"Why not relocate somewhere safer then?" I asked.

Calvin's eyes crinkled. "Fun, mostly. Attachment to my domain. Life needs purpose, even after Systemfall. Besides, each rebuild gets a bit better, more interesting. I learn something new each time everything falls apart."

He gestured toward the store. "Come on in! Got air conditioning now. Bound a temperature concept to the walls last month."

We followed him across a path paved with laptop keyboards, their keys lighting up as our feet touched them. The Mini-Mart's doors slid open automatically, releasing a cool breeze scented with coffee and cinnamon.

Inside, the store had transformed too. Gone were the cramped aisles and empty, dusty shelves. The space stretched out, cavernous and bright, filled with food, furniture, and other supplies, bigger than it looked from the outside. Sticky notes covered every surface, creating intricate murals of animated eyes, ears, and mouths that followed our movements.

"I like the improvements!" Nessy said, black and white head spinning left and right. "This place smells warm and homely."

Calvin beamed at her praise. "Thanks! Took many entropy waves to get it right." He opened his arms wide. "Hugs? Been a while since I've had visitors who weren't trying to become part of my wall fixtures."

Nessy immediately bounded forward, embracing him. I followed and Calvin pulled me into a strong hug.

"And who are these fine ladies?" Calvin asked, releasing me and turning his attention to the others.

"My pack," I said. "This is Kristi," I gestured to the raptor, who nodded stiffly. "Candace," the fox waved cheerfully. "And Adelle," the cheetah grunted in acknowledgment, looking slightly skittish.

"Wonderful. I see that you have been cultivating femme animal-archetype girlfriends!" Calvin grinned at me. "And such variety too! And yet… you are all somehow dimensionally entwined, yes? How did you find your way back to me?"

"We escaped a dungeon that was trying to sue me," Candace explained. "Ended up here by following your scent from Alec's memories."

"She successfully sued a conceptual infestation," I added, blushing slightly at Calvin's cultivating pradavarian girls comment. "Things got weird."

"Of course," Calvin laughed. "Nothing is simple anymore, is it?" He clapped his hands together. "Well, you've arrived just in time for dinner! I've cultivated some rather excellent potatoes that taste exactly like cheeseballs."

Kristi leaned close to me, her voice low. "You're sure we can trust this man? He has tinfoil on his hat."

"That's his Foresight amplifier," Nessy corrected before I could respond. "Very practical. You were me less than an hour ago, surely you remember Calvin?"

"Your memory of this place is a terrifying lucid dream," Kristi hissed. "Seeing all this 'effy shit in reality does very little to alleviate my concerns."

"Very practical indeed, lassie," Calvin echoed, tapping his foil hat proudly. "Saved my life seventeen times this week alone!"

He led us deeper into the store, past shelves stocked with canned goods and quirky artifacts. Dragons chirped from our bags, disturbed by the constant surveillance of Calvin's sticky note eyes.

"Oh! You've brought pets too!" Calvin exclaimed, peering into Nessy's bag where several tiny dragons peered back at him. "How delightful! Ah. They're location bound. They won't last longer than a few days here."

"Yes. Can you help us get back to Prad Earth?" I asked. "We sort of got... sidetracked."

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