The Player Blackout

by Lucas Flint

  Cyclone: Sure thing, boss! :)

  Luckily, Cy wasted no time in raising his hands and unleashing a powerful blast of wind at Atmosfear and Giggles. This time, even Giggles managed to remain standing, but the winds were so powerful that neither Atmosfear nor Giggles were able to move. They raised their hands over their heads as they struggled to make progress against the winds, but they were barely able to take even one step forward due to the strength of Cy’s Gust.

  That was when I struck. I raised my hands and unleashed Ice Beam, but I didn’t aim it at Atmosfear or Giggles. Instead, I focused on spreading the Ice Beam into a thinner, more spread out attack and felt a click in the back of my mind as a realization dawned on me. But I didn’t focus on the realization. I just focused on pouring as much ice into the winds as I possibly could.

  At first, the wind merely blew the ice around ineffectually, but as I poured more and more cold energy into Gust, the winds themselves began to change. They became colder and louder, covering Atmosfear and Giggles in snow and ice. Giggles began to shiver, no doubt due to his light robes failing to provide him with warmth, while Atmosfear merely scowled deeper, though I could tell even he was starting to get cold.

  Yet I didn’t stop. I only took a second to drink Energy Drinks to refill my rapidly-depleting Energy bar, but didn’t stop until Gust had turned into a full-on miniature blizzard, focused entirely around Atmosfear and Giggles. Soon, the two Villains were lost in a thick cloud of snow as howling wind echoed off the walls of the lobby, making it impossible to see even their nametags.

  Then, without warning, the winds stopped and I cut off my Ice Beam at the same time. I glanced at Cy and saw that his arms had fallen to his sides, an exhausted look on his face as he looked over at me with an apologetic expression on his face.

  “Sorry, boss,” said Cy. He shrugged. “Ran out of Energy.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. I tossed him an Energy Drink. “Drink this.”

  Without waiting to see what Cy drink the Energy Drink, I looked at the snowstorm, which was beginning to dissipate now that it was no longer being fed a constant stream of ice and wind. As it died down, I saw Atmosfear and Giggles still standing, and for a moment, I feared that my plan had failed and that we had wasted all of our Energy for nothing.

  But that was when I noticed the two Villains stood as still as statues … because they were completely frozen from head to toe.

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  The two Villains were frozen in the positions they had been in when Cy and I hit them with our combined attack. Atmosfear was scowling, his eyes burning with hatred and confusion, while Giggles was leaning back like he had nearly fallen over before he got frozen. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said that they were very realistic ice sculptures.

  But any illusions I might have had about the two Villains were dissipated as soon as I got several new notifications:

  Debuff added: Frozen. [Villain Atmosfear] and [Sidekick Giggles] Agility and Evasion -100%. Duration: 5 minutes.

  New Combination Power unlocked: Blizzard [Level 1]. Summon a storm of ice and snow with a 50% chance of inflicting Freeze on enemies! Energy cost: All. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

  Congratulations! You unlocked your first Combination Power with Sidekick Cyclone. Combination Powers are a unique subset of Powers available only when a player combines one of their Powers with one of their Sidekick’s Powers, creating a new and much more powerful Power than either of you could get on your own. Each Combination Power is completely unique to the player and their Sidekick and the only way to discover them all is to experiment and practice as much as possible. Combination Powers can only be leveled up by players, not Sidekicks. Check out the new ‘Combo Powers’ section in your menu to see which Combination Powers you have and what their effects are.

  “Whoa,” I said as I read the notification. “Cy, did you know about this?”

  “What?” said Cy. “You mean Combination Powers? Yeah, I know about ‘em. Why?”

  “Because I didn’t,” I said as I stroked my chin. I looked at Cy. “Why didn’t you tell me about them? They seem like they could be really useful.”

  Cy scratched the back of his head. “Uh, because you didn’t ask?”

  I silently groaned, knowing I should have expected that answer from Cy, but then I started and said, “Wait, the others—”

  “We’re fine,” said a familiar voice nearby. “No need to worry about us.”

  Cy and I looked over to see Funky walking over to us, with Lennox sitting securely on his shoulders. Dillo, Brawn, Recover, and Hop were also walking toward us. Although Funky, Dillo, and Brawn all had scrapes and dents on their armor, they looked surprisingly uninjured from their respective battles, which surprised me until I realized that Recover and Hop’s hands were glowing. Most likely, they had Healed all three of them already, which was kind of surprising, but I guess Recover and Hop were pretty fast Healers.

  I looked around my Teammates to see the bodies of Atmosfear’s other Teammates all lying on the floor. They all looked dead. In fact, as I looked at the bodies, I got a couple of new notifications:

  All remaining Team Atmosfear Teammates have been defeated! Accumulated experience from Team Battles are distributed at the end of the Battle.

  Number of players remaining on each Team: Team Atmosfear 1/6, Team Winter 4/4.

  “Did you guys kill the rest of Atmosfear’s Teammates already?” I asked in surprise.

  “Sure,” said Funky as my Teammates stopped in front of me. “After you froze Atmosfear, Team Atmosfear’s Morale dropped through the floor, which made it easier to beat them. It helps that our Morale got boosted.”

  “Morale?” I said. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a Team mechanic,” Funky explained. “Morale boosts can affect how well a Team operates in battle. The higher your Morale, the more likely your Teammates are to listen to your orders and fight on. High enough Morale can even create temporary Stat boosts for all Teammates. You can find out more under the Teams tab in your menu.”

  I made a mental note to do just that after we got some peace and quiet. For now, I was just glad to see all of my Teammates were alive and well. I had worried that one or more of them might get killed, but it looked like I didn’t need to worry about it after all.

  “Those guys sure were easy to beat,” said Dillo as he scraped some dirt off his armor. “’Course, the drop in Morale didn’t help, but even before then, they weren’t as hard as I thought they would be.”

  “They’re probably more used to ambushing single, low-leveled players than fighting other Teams,” said Recover, glancing at the Villains’ corpses with distaste. “You saw how they treated that girl in Brawn’s video. It’s not a surprise they weren’t prepared to deal with a whole Team of players working together.”

  I nodded and glanced at my notifications again. “But I don’t understand. We defeated Team Atmosfear, so where’s the experience and rewards?”

  “Team Battles don’t end until all Teammates on both Teams are defeated,” said Funky. “My notifications say that one of Team Atmosfear’s guys is still alive.”

  “What?” I said. I looked at my notifications again and saw that Funky was correct. “There’s a survivor? Who—?”

  I was interrupted by a loud crack sound behind me. Turning around, I saw cracks forming in the ice that encased Atmosfear and Giggles. At first, the cracks were so fine that it was easy to miss them if you weren’t paying attention, but soon the cracks spread and grew in size and width.

  “Has it been five minutes already?” asked Cy in shock.

  I glanced at the clock on my menu and shook my head. “No, it hasn’t. Somehow, he’s—”

  I was once again interrupted, this time by the ice shattering around Atmosfear entirely. Chunks of ice went flying toward us, forcing us to raise our arms in front of our faces in order to avoid getting pelted in the face by the ice chunks. When the ice stopped flying, we lowered our arms to see what happen
ed.

  Atmosfear stood exactly where I had frozen him, but he was no longer Frozen anymore. He was breathing in and out hard, bits of ice clinging to his shoulders and costume, but otherwise unharmed. The exposed parts of his skin were blue and his body radiated cold air.

  His eyes, however, glowed with red hot hatred. His glare was so strong that our Sidekicks all collectively stepped backward, but even we players had a difficult time standing underneath his glare.

  “Nice … try …” Atmosfear breathed. His breath was visible when he spoke. “Freezing me and Giggles … didn’t see that coming at all, to be honest. Perhaps you’re smarter than you look, donut.”

  I raised my fists. Although I was confident that my Team and I could defeat Atmosfear if we all worked together, I still knew better than to lower my guard around him. “Nah. My Dad’s smart, but I’m just a normal cop. It’s just that you crooks are dumb.”

  Atmosfear chuckled, although it sounded like it caused him pain to do it. “If I was dumb, I would have gotten arrested decades ago. No, I’ve only gotten this far because I’ve got something most people lack: Common sense.”

  With that, Atmosfear raised his fist and slammed it as hard as he could into Giggles’ frozen form. Thick cracks instantly spread across Giggles’ body before they shattered, but instead of freeing Giggles, it resulted in his body falling into pieces onto the floor and a new notification appeared in my vision:

  [Sidekick Giggles] has been killed by [Villain Atmosfear]! No experience points are awarded to you or your Teammates for friendly fire.

  “What the heck?” I said. “Why did you kill your own Sidekick?”

  Atmosfear raised his fist up to his face, a wicked, disturbing grin on his face. “Don’t worry. Ol’ Giggles is gonna just respawn in my Hideout. Trying to drag him out of here myself would have been a waste of time.”

  “You’re running?” I said. I shook my head. “No, Atmosfear. I’m not going to let you get away. Not if I can help it.”

  I ran toward Atmosfear, pulling my fist back. Although Atmosfear was no longer Frozen, he seemed weakened enough by my previous attack to be open to an attack.

  Right before my fist could slam into Atmosfear’s face, Atmosfear pulled what looked like a stopwatch out of his pocket and clicked a button on top.

  In the next instant, Atmosfear disappeared and my fist hit empty air. The momentum of my punch carried me forward a few steps and I nearly fell over before catching myself and looking around wildly for Atmosfear.

  “Atmosfear!” I shouted. “Show yourself, you monster!”

  There was no response, but I did get yet another notification that I almost immediately deleted before I read it and realized it was something important:

  [Villain Atmosfear] has fled! Because [Villain Atmosfear] was the last remaining member of Team Atmosfear, his escape results in the automatic loss of Team Atmosfear. NOTE: The escape of [Villain Atmosfear] means you do not receive EXP from [Villain Atmosfear], who was not defeated in combat.

  Team Winter wins! +3,000 EXP to all Teammates and their Sidekicks!

  You are now Level 14! +4 Stat Points and +2 Power Points!

  Congratulations! You led your Team to Victory in your first Team Battle!

  “Wow,” I said as I read through the notifications. “Looks like we got a lot of experience, more so than I expected.”

  “That’s because we fought other players,” said Funky, who I could tell was reading his own notifications. “Players give out more experience upon being defeated than NPCs, which is why PvP is pretty common in this game. It’s one of the best ways to level up, even when you divide the experience with Teammates.”

  “I see,” I said, but I wasn’t really interested in the mechanics. I just dismissed the notifications and looked down at the hunks of ice lying on the floor where Atmosfear had stood previously. “But Atmosfear still got away. He somehow teleported out of here.”

  “He used a Teleportation Watch,” said Funky, stroking his chin, “an interesting choice. It’s a fairly rare item, which makes me wonder where he could have possibly gotten it, given how he’s a new player and new players usually don’t get rare items like that.”

  “Does it matter?” I said. I kicked a chunk of Giggles’ frozen body to the side. “We may have won the Battle, but Atmosfear still got away, so he’s still free to terrorize innocent people like always.”

  I half-expected one of my Teammates to come and console me, but instead, someone slapped me in the face hard enough to knock one point of Health off my bar. Startled by the blow, I looked and saw that Recover had walked up to me and slapped me. She was looking at me with anger and confusion in her eyes, which made me wonder what she was so upset about.

  “What was that for?” I said, rubbing my cheek. “Aren’t you glad we won the Battle and survived without any casualties?”

  “I am happy about that,” said Recover, her voice cracking with emotion, “but I am not happy about the fact that you lied to us.”

  “Lied to you?” I said incredulously. “When did I lie to you?”

  Recover looked me straight in the eyes. “Project Second Life. Tell us what it is. Now. And don’t try to lie again, because we’ll know. Right, guys?”

  Both Funky and Dillo nodded. Although they did not seem as emotional as Recover, I could tell they were just as eager to find out more about Project Second Life and my relationship with Atmosfear as she was, if not more so.

  Seeing that I had no choice in the matter, I sighed and said, “All right. I’ll tell you what I know. I won’t lie or leave out anything. You guys are my Teammates. You deserve to know the truth. The whole truth.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  For the next ten minutes, I explained to all of my Teammates the truth about my real nature, what Project Second Life was, and how Atmosfear and I knew each other. It went by so quickly because no one interrupted me even once. Even Cy was quiet, listening raptly to my explanation as I went into detail about my past. I didn’t know how much the Sidekicks, who were NPCs, understood all the talk about mind uploading and all that, but they nonetheless listened about as well as my Teammates did.

  I monitored my Teammates’ reactions as I spoke, but it was hard to judge what they were thinking because of how still and quiet they all were. Only Recovered showed any emotion at all, while Dillo and especially Funky were stoic. It made me dread getting to the end of my story, but I had no choice but to continue telling them the truth and hope for the best.

  When I finally finished telling them my story, everyone was silent for what felt like an eternity. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

  It was Dillo who spoke first, but his tone was more confused than accusatory. “So … you’re not really human, then?”

  The question stung like a wasp, but I said, in as calm a tone as I could, “No, I’m still human. I mean, I don’t have a physical body anymore, so I can’t go back to the real world, but I still have a very human mind and remember what being in the real world was like.”

  “Guess that means Atmosfear is human, too,” said Dillo. He sounded as if I had just confirmed all his worst fears. “Man, I wish he wasn’t.”

  “Bad people like Atmosfear have always existed,” said Funky. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and he wore a thoughtful look on his face. “Evil existed before Capes Online and it will continue to exist even after the last servers shut down.”

  “But Atmosfear is different,” said Dillo. “He’s going to keep existing, regardless of whether he has a body or not, and will continue to keep inflicting suffering and terror on innocent people forever. That’s almost worse than Dark Kosmos taking control of the game.”

  “I don’t care about Atmosfear,” said Recover. She brushed tears out of her eyes and looked at me with a mixture of betrayal and confusion in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell us this? Why did you keep such a big secret from us for so long?”

  “You mean you believe me?” I said. I put a hand on my chest. “But I ha
ven’t even shown you any proof.”

  “I don’t need proof to know you’re telling the truth,” said Recover. “And anyway, Atmosfear confirmed it. The banter between you two before the Team Battle was proof enough for me. I still need to know why you never told us.”

  “Project Second Life participants are not allowed to disclose our true nature to other players in the game,” I said apologetically. “Trust me, I would have told you guys a long time ago if it wasn’t for that rule.”

  “What’s the government going to do to you now that you’ve told us?” asked Dillo uneasily. “Are they gonna delete you? Can they delete you? If you’re a real person whose mind has been uploaded to Capes Online, does that mean you can even be deleted in the first place?”

  “I have no idea,” I said with a shrug. “I was told there would be ‘consequences’ if I did this, but I don’t know what those consequences are. Nor do I really care at this point. The cat’s out of the bag. I couldn’t take back this secret even if I wanted to.”

  Dillo just looked lost and confused, while Recover looked like she was going to cry. Only Funky, as usual, remained calmed and seemingly in control. I wondered if he really was as calm as he looked or if he was just really good at hiding it. I half-wondered if he was also a Project Second Life participant before dismissing that idea immediately.

  “I imagine that if anyone is going to be punished, it would have to be Atmosfear at least,” said Funky. “It sounds like he was the one who revealed that secret first.”

  “We’ll both probably get punished,” I said with a sigh. “I mean, I don’t mind him getting punished—jerk deserves it—but I can’t say I am looking forward to whatever punishment the Department of VR has in store for us.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Dillo. “You were a small-town cop and Atmosfear was a small-town criminal. How the heck did you two get into Project Second Life? It sounds to me like something only a really rich or powerful or important person could have access to.”