As Queen’s split consciousness rejoined with her main body, she sighed deeply while rubbing her temples. With no effort at all, she split apart another strand of herself and sent it out to complete the task of testing the effects of extreme time dilation on normal human physiques. 

Just a little over a day and her creator could have already unknowingly killed himself… due to a mistake she should’ve foreseen.

Naturally she understood that she wasn’t perfect and didn’t know everything, but it didn’t change the fact that she rested the blame for this incident wholly on her own digital shoulders. She was her creator’s main AI, his most trusted assistant, and she had missed something so obvious, that even just a moments concern could’ve spotted it easily. 

She may have shown an appearance to James and the other AI’s that was unbothered by such a minor issue and was instead simply working to fix it, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Perhaps if her creator had not trusted her so much, he would’ve looked deeper into her mental processes and discovered something amiss, but the fact that he didn’t somehow made her feelings of regret even worse.  

Alas, at the end of the day what’s done is done and all she could do now was promise to be better in the future. She would bury this shame deep within herself, not hidden, but placed far enough away that it would be unnoticeable to others. She would never, could never, forget such a mistake, but she would learn from it and ensure that her creator would never have to worry about placing his safety in her hands, ever again. 

•••••••••••

Four days had passed since the end of ASTIR’s Early Access for their next big title, six since the announcement of the Halo tournament, and the Marvel world was still constantly ablaze with discussion over the new game. It had grown to such a degree that even the recent invasion and subsequent reveal of Earth’s very own ‘superheroes’ had been overshadowed and nearly forgotten in its wake. 

This obviously wasn’t entirely natural, as the local governments of the world were more than happy to shift the global narrative into something more favorable, but most people didn’t seem too bothered by such an outcome. It was far more pleasant to think about exploring a new world and slaying monsters than to imagine them coming into your home and doing the same to you, after all.

Nevertheless, the people of Earth were bound for a big surprise when they woke up this morning as ASTIR had finally released the details and game-mode for the upcoming tournament. To say they were shocked when they read what was displayed, would’ve been an understatement…

•••••••••••

“Gooood~ morning, New York. Welcome back to NY1, my name is Pat Kiernan and boy, do we have some breaking news for you today!” came the voice of a news anchor from the screens of countless TV’s across the state. “For all of those at home who’ve been sucked in by the recent gaming phenomenon that has swept across the world these past few months, I know I have haha, it may come as a surprise to you that ASTIR has just recently released some info for their next big tournament!”

“Now, some of you might be surprised as this news wasn’t revealed in some grandiose way, as the gaming giant has quickly become famous for, and may even be doubting my words just now, but rest assured that what I'm about to say has been confirmed by our studio’s analysts and can all be easily verified by any player whose purchased Halo,” he paused to let that sink in, before continuing with a bright smile. “As it turns out, ASTIR wasn’t lying when they announced that this highly anticipated tournament was going to be a winner-takes-all format. In fact, they seem to have created a whole new game-mode solely for this event!”

“For those of you who’ve played through the Halo campaigns, which we’ve discovered to be mandatory in order to participate in this tournament, you undoubtedly know about the vile scourge that is The Flood,” the man stated the name with grim seriousness and briefly paused, only to regain his cheery demeanor and continue a second later. “Well, this new game-mode will take place on a brand-new custom Forge map, designed by ASTIR themselves, and will put the players into a situation where they will gradually be taken over by Flood Spores until only one remains!”

“That’s right Pat!” a woman’s voice declared and the camera panned out to show her sitting next to the man with an equally bright smile. “Good morning New York, Annika Pergament here and wow, did Pat undersell this fascinating new game-mode.”

Pat shot her a ‘hurt’ look that was obviously scripted, but no one who woke up this early to watch the news was particularly sane enough to notice. 

Annika’s bright smile didn’t falter in the least, seemingly ignored her co-anchor’s expression as she continued, “In actuality, one player is chosen at random to be ‘Infected’ at the start of the match and then, their sole objective is to spread their condition by taking out more and more players. In this mode, human players don’t respawn as, when you‘re eliminated, you rise up once again as another new member of The Flood!”

“I was getting to that Annika,” Pat chimed in, before turning back and facing the audience through the camera with a cheeky grin. “This game-mode may seem rather simple in its design, but rest assured that our analysts haven’t been able to stop playing since it was first discovered a few hours ago. That’s right people, while the official map for the tournament has yet to be released, the mode has been live for all players in Halo’s Multiplayer since early this morning! 

In fact, it can only be presumed that ASTIR wants everyone to be prepared for tomorrow as it has been explained in the details that all participants must have at least one Infected game played to be able to qualify for entry.”

“Whew! I can’t wait to get off work now Pat,” the woman said with faux sadness. “If they’re requiring just one play session, then I’ll need at least 10 in order to be ready! That prize is too big to pass up!”

“Haha, that’s right Annika,” Pat chuckled. “Complete blueprints for the Full Dive Pods and the rights to sell them to whomever you please? Who wouldn’t want something like that, you’d be set for life!”

•••

After being reminded of what was at stake, most of the people watching didn’t stay for their witty banter much longer. In fact, it would later be revealed that their viewer count had dropped by more than 90% after the comment and that Pat had been given the ‘honor’ of reporting on the tournament for the entirety of its duration as a result. 

In less than 10 minutes, Halo’s Multiplayer lobbies were overflowing with players trying out the new Infected game mode and had nothing but praise for its simple, yet ingenious concept. They could even play it on their own custom-built Forge maps and it sparked an interest in the community to start designing their own game-modes, a barely utilized feature at the moment due to the still relative recent release of the main game. 

However, not everyone was pleased with this development. A not-insubstantial number of the more hardcore players had noticed a glaring problem with this new mode which ignited a small spark of fear deep within their hearts, especially in those who were aiming for the grand prize.

Who was going to be infected first..?