The Player Blackout

by Lucas Flint

  A message appeared in the Team Winter chat:

  Cyclone: Boss! Where are you? Are you okay? We saw someone grab you and I tried to climb up the ladder to help you, but then the hatch closed and I fell. I’m okay if you’re curious—just fell on my head—but now Dillo is trying to force open the hatch and he’s not having any luck.

  Me: Omega Burst is here. He’s working for DK and forced the hatch closed. No time to talk. I’ll try to survive as long as I can until you guys figure out how to open the hatch.

  “Talking to your Teammates?” said Omega Burst. He chuckled. “I hope you are because that is the best way to find out just how screwed you are.”

  Omega Burst aimed his cannons at me suddenly. His cannons began sparking with suppressed energy and he fired them in a huge, deafening blast of blazing orange energy that hurtled through the air toward me.

  Startled, I just managed to jump out of the way at the last second. Even so, the Dazed debuff meant that my Dodge was less than perfect and I ended up stumbling onto the ground as Omega Burst’s energy attack blew apart the wall behind me. Panting from exertion, I fired an Ice Beam at Omega Burst, but the Villain dodged it with ease and fired another energy attack me.

  This time, I wasn’t fast enough to dodge. The energy blast struck me in the chest and slammed me into the wall, briefly stunning me as a battle notification popped up:

  Hit by [Villain Omega Burst]’s Energy Shot! -15 Health!

  What the heck? That meant I had only 10 Health left!

  “Surprised?” said Omega Burst as he lowered his cannons. “You shouldn’t be. My Energy Cannons were specifically designed to take my Energy and transform it into a dangerous weapon. It draws directly upon my own Energy to unleash devastating blasts.”

  Panting, I said with a grin, “Then I guess that means if you run out of Energy, then you can’t use them anymore. Right?”

  “Right,” said Omega Burst, “but I don’t need Energy to kill you.”

  Omega Burst rushed toward me. He slammed me into the wall and pinned me there by my throat. He immediately began squeezing my throat and a new notification appeared before me:

  Debuff added: Choking. Lose 1 HP/1 second.

  My eyes widened in horror. That meant that in less than ten seconds, I would die. No way I could let myself go down that easily.

  I grabbed Omega Burst’s arm, earning a chuckle from the Villain, who said, “Don’t bother, Hero. You aren’t anywhere near strong enough to stop me from choking you out. But I guess you Heroes have to try something, don’t you?”

  I was unable to reply to Omega Burst’s taunt, but I didn’t need to. I activated Freezing Touch and a thick sheet of ice began to appear around Omega Burst’s arm. It started with his forearm, but quickly went up the rest of his arm up to his shoulder until Omega Burst cried out in pain and let go of my throat. Omega Burst staggered backward, clutching his now-frozen arm, as I leaped to the side, putting some distance between me and Omega Burst.

  Yet another notification popped up in my view when that happened:

  [Villain Omega Burst]’s Right Arm has been Frozen! -5% Agility and -100% Dexterity. -1 HP/3 seconds. Duration: 5 minutes.

  Debuff lifted: Dazed. You are no longer Dazed.

  Whoa. I hadn’t realized just how powerful Freezing Touch could be and it was nice to see that Dazed no longer affected me. Of course, I had the suspicion that the debuff only applied to his right arm, but that was okay. It seemed to distract him for the moment, so I popped open a Health Drink and downed it in one gulp, instantly bringing my Health back up to full.

  Tossing the drink bottle aside, I fired an Ice Beam at Omega Burst. The Ice Beam struck him directly in the chest, sending him staggering backward from the blow. I then rushed over to Omega Burst and threw a punch at his chest, but Omega Burst raised his frozen arm and my fist smashed into his frozen arm cannon, shattering it into a million pieces.

  But that hardly seemed to bother Omega Burst, who slammed his other fist into my face. The blow took off a good chunk of my HP and sent me staggering backward from the blow, but I recovered quickly and put some distance between us while Omega Burst looked at his Frozen arm in displeasure.

  “You ruined one of my Energy Cannons,” said Omega Burst, glaring at me. “Do you even know how much it cost to get this made?”

  “Probably more money than I’ve ever seen in my life,” I said, “but don’t worry. I’ll break the other one, too, so you’ll have some symmetry going.”

  Omega Burst did not seem to care much for my sense of humor. He just growled deeply and then raised his hands, which began sparking and crackling with black electricity as a new notification popped into view:

  [Villain Omega Burst] is charging Black Lightning Storm!

  Crud. That was the attack Omega Burst had used to kill me and my friends the first time. And I doubted I would be able to survive it again, especially in such a small area. I needed to stop Omega Burst or at least interrupt him before he could pull off his AOE attack.

  Desperate, I raised my hands and slammed them on the floor while activating Freezing Touch at the same time. Ice suddenly spread out from my hands toward Omega Burst, who was now laughing maniacally as the black lightning around his fists grew stronger and stronger. The ice went under his feet, but it didn’t stop there. It soon froze his feet to the ground and began moving up his legs, rapidly reaching his waist and then his chest.

  By the time Omega Burst realized what was happening, the ice was already up to his neck. He let out one last cry of anger before the ice went over his face, covering it in an instant. The black electricity stopped charging around his fists and this notification appeared in my vision:

  [Villain Omega Burst] is Frozen! -100% Agility and Evasion. Duration: 10 seconds.

  Ten seconds? It must be because Omega Burst was so powerful. Already I could see cracks forming in the ice, which meant I had to act now.

  With a yell, I rushed over to Omega Burst and punched him in the stomach as hard as I could, using my Super Strength to raise the power of my punch as high as possible.

  My fist slammed into Omega Burst’s stomach, and for a second, nothing happened. But then cracks began to spread out rapidly from his stomach until his entire body was a cracked statue of ice.

  Then, without warning, Omega Burst’s body collapsed into a pile of frozen meat chunks. I thought I heard Omega Burst scream at the last second, but I was unsure if that was just my imagination or if it had indeed been his last cry of anguish before his demise.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  In any case, as soon as Omega Burst collapsed into pieces, several new notifications popped up one after another into my vision:

  You defeated [Villain Omega Burst]! +2,000 EXP! You are now Level 13! +8 Stat Points and +4 Power Points!

  You defeated an Infamous Villain! +10 to Fame! Reach 100 Fame to take your Fame to the next level!

  I couldn’t help but smile when I read those notifications. I hadn’t realized that defeating Omega Burst would give me so much experience, although it was a lot less than I was expecting. Still, I got some Stat Points and Power Points, which was what I really needed if I was going to defeat Dark Kosmos. Level 13 wasn’t that much better than Level 11, but leveling up was always a good thing, so I had nothing to complain about.

  As soon as I closed the notifications, however, the hatch covering the manhole exploded open. It flew into the air and crashed to the floor a few feet away from me, making me start, even though I was completely unharmed by the blast.

  “Boss!” said Cy, his head popping over the edge of the escape hatch. “Boss, don’t worry! We’re here to save—”

  Cy abruptly stopped speaking when he saw the pile of frozen flesh on the floor that had once been Omega Burst. “What’s that? Looks disgusting.”

  “That’s Omega Burst,” I said, gesturing at the frozen flesh. “Or was Omega Burst, I should say. It’s not anymore.”

  Cy gasped. “Oh! That explains the experi
ence I got just now. I’m Level Seven now, which is really nice. I thought I just got it because the universe likes me.”

  “You mean you didn’t see the notification that informed you that I killed Omega Burst?” I asked in disbelief.

  Cy’s eyes went unfocused for a second and then he said, “Oh, yeah! I see it now. I was just so busy trying to open the hatch that I didn’t pay attention to my notifications. Silly me.”

  I sighed. “Sometimes, Cy, I wonder how you get out of bed in the morning without hurting yourself.”

  “One leg at a time,” Cy replied, apparently without sensing my sarcasm. He looked down the open hatch and shouted, “Hey, guys! Winter killed Omega Burst. It’s okay to come up now.”

  Cy leaped out of the hatch and landed safely on the floor. A few minutes later and soon every member of Team Winter stood in the escape room. We stood a few feet away from the frozen chunks of flesh that had once been Omega Burst, each of us trying to avoid looking at it, save Hop, who for some reason was staring at Omega Burst’s remains with a curious expression on her face.

  “So you froze Omega Burst and then punched him?” asked Dillo. His face was almost as green as his armor when he said that.

  “Yep,” I said. I spread my hands wide. “And then he fell apart. I thought he was going to explode, but I guess I didn’t hit him hard enough to do that.”

  Dillo put a hand over his mouth. “Urgh. I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Personally, I’m just glad you managed to figure out such a creative way to beat him,” said Funky, scratching the top of Lennox’s head. “I was worried when I read your message in the chat room about Omega Burst, seeing as you’re pretty low-leveled, but it looks like I didn’t need to worry about you. Goes to show you that you don’t need to be Superman to beat enemies.”

  “I agree, but there’s something I don’t understand,” said Recover, who seemed to be viewing one of her menus based on her somewhat distant expression. “If Winter defeated Omega Burst, shouldn’t we also get experience, seeing as we are all on the same Team?”

  “Not necessarily,” said Funky, shaking his head. “Experience is only divided among Teammates when everyone participates in a fight. If only one member of a Team participates, then only that guy gets experience.”

  “What? Really?” said Recover, putting her hands on her hips. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Same here,” I said, “but don’t worry. I have a feeling we’ll have plenty of time to get experience the closer we get to Dark Kosmos.”

  “Oh,” said Recover, glancing up at the ceiling. “That’s right. Aren’t we in Dark Kosmos’ Hideout now?”

  “Yes,” said Funky as he spread his index finger and thumb apart like he was zooming in on an image we couldn’t see. “I had a map of the Hall of Justice before Dark Kosmos took over, so I can see the layout of this place quite well. It looks like we’re in the basement level. I suspect Dark Kosmos is at the top of the building. Seems like exactly the place a Villain like him would make his main base of operations.”

  “How tall is the Hall of Justice?” I asked.

  “Fifty floors,” Funky replied without missing a beat. “It’s one of the tallest buildings in Adventure City, second only to the Reynolds Building, which is sixty stories. It’s the single biggest Villain Hideout in the city, though.”

  “Did you just say fifty floors?” asked Cy. He kept glancing at Omega Burst’s remains as if he was unsure whether he should stare or not.

  “Yep,” said Funky, nodding. “Why?”

  “’Cause that means we’re gonna have to do a lot of walking,” said Cy. He rubbed his thighs. “I knew skipping leg day would come back to bite me in the butt one day. I knew it.”

  “We’re not going to have to actually walk, are we?” asked Recover. “I don’t mind walking, but fifty floors … and there are probably a bunch of bad guys on each floor that we’ll have to fight. I’m not much of a gamer, but even I know that most Villain dungeons are usually crawling with baddies protecting the boss.”

  “Not necessarily,” said Funky. “Have any of you visited the Hall of Justice before?”

  Recover, Dillo, and I shook our heads. Cy, on the other hand, was now complimenting Brawn on his huge thighs, which were apparently a sign that he hadn’t skipped leg day. Brawn looked rather uncomfortable when Cy pointed that out.

  “Right,” said Funky, scratching Lennox’s chin. “The Hall of Justice is a bit different from normal buildings. While it does have stairs and elevators for emergency purposes, there are also Teleportation Pads to allow people to travel from floor to floor in a more convenient fashion. These Pads are normally only reserved for members of Justice United, but it’s possible that Dark Kosmos’ takeover has changed that.”

  “If I were Dark Kosmos, I would disable the use of the Teleportation Pads or restrict their use to me and my allies,” said Dillo. We looked at him in surprise. “What? I’m just saying that’s what I’d do. It’s the smart thing to do.”

  “Well, we won’t know one way or another until we find one of the pads and test them out,” said Funky. He nodded at the closed metal door at the other end of the room. “That means heading through that door and reaching the upper floors.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” asked Cy as he bounced from foot to foot. “Let’s go!”

  “Wait a second,” I said, holding up a hand. “I want to check out Omega Burst’s remains first to see if he dropped any good loot.”

  Cy immediately took a step away from Omega Burst’s frozen remains. “Okay, boss. You can do it. I don’t like touching dead stuff, even if it’s really dead and it isn’t a zombie.”

  Hop raised a hand suddenly. “Can I help? I want a closer look at his remains.”

  I found Hop’s sudden fascination with Omega Burst’s remains somewhat concerning, but just shrugged and walked to it, with Hop walking beside me. The two of us dug through the chunks of frozen flesh (which were already beginning to melt, much to my disgust), but we didn’t find much other than about 1,000 credits and ten Health and Energy Drinks, which was nice to have, but nothing game-breaking. It was a bit disappointing, honestly, because as a Boss character, I thought Omega Burst should have better items and equipment than that. Maybe Omega Burst wasn’t as good as he liked to make himself out to be.

  That was when Hop pulled something big out of the chunks and said, “Hey, what’s this?”

  It was one of Omega Burst’s Energy Cannons, the one that I hadn’t smashed apart. I quickly Scanned it and was greeted with this information:

  ENERGY CANNON [Left Arm]

  RARITY: Rare

  DURABILITY: 90/100

  ENERGY COST PER SHOT: 3

  A Synth Group product, this Energy Cannon draws directly upon a Hero or Villain’s Energy reserves to unleash it in a powerful blast that can, at full power, knock down whole buildings. Although it works best when paired with its Right Arm counterpart, Energy Cannon [Left Arm] can be used individually, although it is much weaker as a result.

  “You can have it,” said Hop, handing the Energy Cannon to me. “I don’t need it and I don’t think Dillo needs it, either. Besides, you killed the guy, which means you get first dibs on his stuff.”

  I took the Energy Cannon without hesitation and equipped it to my left arm. I tried to equip it to my right arm at first, but then I got an error message informing me that this weapon was designed for the left arm and that I needed to find or build a right arm counterpart if I wanted both. Seemed odd to me, because both Energy Cannons looked exactly alike to me, but I wasn’t complaining.

  The Energy Cannon was fairly heavy, but I was able to move my arm without too much effort. Still, it would probably make sense to add some Stat Points to my Strength later, because if I was going to use this Energy Cannon efficiently, I would need to be able to wield it like it was part of me. I found it interesting how it unfroze when I put it in my inventory and equipped it, but I guess that was probably just a quirk of the game
’s physics to make it easier for players to use weapons or something.

  I considered testing the Energy Cannon here and now, but remembering how much damage Omega Burst caused with it, I decided against it. I would have plenty of time to test it later when we ran into Dark Kosmos’ minions and, eventually, Dark Kosmos himself.

  Turning around to face the rest of the Team, I held up my Energy Cannon and said, “Okay. I’m ready to go. Let’s keep going. The final boss fight isn’t far now.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Luckily, we did not immediately run into any other enemies or traps when we left the escape room. Instead, we found ourselves going up a staircase/hallway hybrid that slowly wound upward. According to Funky, this staircase went up directly to the first floor. He claimed it was unlikely that Dark Kosmos would waste any minions on the staircase, although after I pointed out that he had set Omega Burst down there specifically to wait for us, we decided to keep our guard up. We kept our group formation the same as back in the Sewers, except for Funky walking closer to the front of the group, because his past experience in the Hall of Justice meant he would be able to guide us through it efficiently.

  Due to how slowly we moved, it gave me some time to think, so I pulled up my character sheet to distribute my SPs and PPs:

  Secret Identity: Winter

  Real Identity: Nyle Ash Maxwell

  Level: 13

  EXP: 300/3,200 (2,900 EXP to the next level)

  Available Stat Points: 8

  Available Power Points: 4

  Alignment: Hero

  Class: Fighter

  Reputation: Budding Hero

  Powers: Super Strength [Level 2], Ice Beam [Level 2. Next Level: 10 PP], Freezing Touch [Level 1], Hero Sense [Level 1]

  Skills: Scan [Level 2], Dodge [Level 1], Perception [1]