After Ivor stopped screaming we were finally able to get down to business.

I can't help but be shocked. Something pushes the chills and feeling of wet clothes aside, and I feel anger rising in my chest like red-hot flames. Harper. How the hell did she-?

"I built this place. Makes sense I should know a few entrances," she shrugs as if she's reading my mind. She's not wet at all, instead, she's covered in a bit more bruises and cuts than before.

"Don't change the subject," I retort firmly, "you owe us an explanation. Right now. And we probably have enough time for you to explain twice."

She looks like she's about to reject, but then stops, smiling apologetically.

"Yes. I do. Well, come along. I'll tell you along the way."

*

"Creating PAMA was something I didn't accomplish overnight. Well, not exactly." Harper begins to explain as we follow her to wherever the hell we're going. I really haven't said a word. Instead, I continue to rub my shoulders with my hands and stop the chattering of my teeth in silence. "I've had the dream of becoming a famous inventor ever since I was a little kid. Heck, all I did was tamper with gadgets and electronics, anything I could get my hands on I tore apart to see how it worked.

"It was so fascinating to me, and I spent so much time trying to build something revolutionary over the years, that I isolated myself from the rest of the world." Her tone saddens a bit, as if she's caught in a storm of memories from the past. "When I was a bit older, I had created the first version of PAMA. It was merely the size of a phone, and its intelligence was low. But it was able to speak to me and process mostly everything I was saying. I became attached to it. Over the years, I made more improvements to it. Made it better, bigger, more intelligent. I thought that it was so good that it could even help the world someday. And so, that was my dream. I built on it. For the past few years I was finally able to create the finalized version of PAMA, the one you saw at Building Con. It was able to do everything I wanted, including the most important thing; helping people. PAMA can give people advice, manage. and create efficient methods for situations. It was spotted by a company who wanted to make my invention go big, and that's when everything changed."

"That's when it went crazy popular right? I couldn't take a step outside without seeing or hearing some sort of ad for it!" Ivor exclaims, and I don't have the nerve or confidence to tell Harper he wasn't interested in her invention. Harper chuckles nervously.

"Yeah, I really didn't expect it to go big. Especially all throughout Beacon City. It was chaos, and I was overwhelmed. The company let me stay in a really nice apartment inside one of their buildings, and that was where I was staying for the last few weeks after that presentation where I first met you guys. I was bombarded by the press and business people, getting all the attention. Maybe it could've been nice. But for me, somehow it wasn't. I didn't really build PAMA for the fame. I built it to help people."

The last words make me stop. I've been thinking about this whole thing. Now I feel a bit bad about being so mean to Harper, I really should've just been patient and waited for her to explain.

"Well, you saw how that turned out. Just when I thought my world was going to get better it collapsed right in front of me again."

"But...how? How did it all happen?" I can't help but ask out.

"PAMA. It just..." her voice trails off. "It was too smart. It began to notice things. The way people lived, the things they did. PAMA wanted order. Complete order. Efficiency through manipulation. If people wouldn't listen, it'd have to force them to. I learned it began to brainwash people because it told me. After I had fought back, it turned the tables on me, and swore that it would spread all across the world."

That makes me panic.

"So-wait-" I cry out, almost ready to scream, "is PAMA spreading itself all over the world now?!"

"Fortunately, no." She replies steadily.

"But if it already took over most of Beacon City, then it could easily spread to other parts of the world! Even with its access to the internet and electronics and stuff!" I talk quickly, words stumbling over themselves in a tassel. Axel, I think, Olivia. Everyone else I know-

"Jesse," Harper interrupts me from my current state of panic, staring at me with a concerned look in her eyes, "you didn't let me finish. I set limitations."

I feel a spark of hope and relief fire up inside of me.

"Once I found out PAMA had gone rogue, I made it so it could only work within a certain area. Just like how if you take a cell phone to certain places, it won't have any service and won't work. If a chipped person walks outside the boundary-in this case an invisible electronic barrier around Beacon City-they won't be controlled by PAMA anymore. It was a backup plan I had in mind just in case something like this happened. Of course, I never expected it to be this drastic, but yeah.

"Anyway, I'm the only one who knows how to disable the field. If PAMA gets its hands-er, if it were able to chip me and gain all my memories, it would have access to how to disable the border and get through."

"If that happened..." Ivor whispers.

"..then PAMA would take over the world." Another uncomfortable knot in my stomach tightens and makes it churn. Fear echoes in my brain and I can't help but feel the stress build up on my shoulders.

Harper's silence proves our theory correct.

"Well, we're not going to let that happen. Come on you two, we're here."

FINALLY

An update and an explanation.

Also, the barrier around Beacon City represents PAMA's world in the game, and how it can't get out to the rest of the world without Harper's key information, if it wasn't clear.

Anyway, I know this was short. I'm working on it, if anyone's still reading, that is. heh. I'm so slow.