by Jack Crosby
First, I guess I was surprised the Zeus Industries CEO was a woman. Then I was shocked to hear she was preparing for war. “Won’t a war cripple what’s left of the master file? I mean, with everything that’s already happened, the master file of the game has to be all but useless to Tanaka.”
“It was never about the master file. It was about finding out how we became real.”
The word real is a simple word, but in this context had a lot of great power. What Draxler basically admitted was Tanaka had no idea how the file became its own little civilization. If they could figure that out, who knows how that technology could be used in the outside world? “I have no intention of letting them figure out what happened, Draxler.”
He gave a simple, short, nod. “Either way, one of us will save Spark City. Will it be your way or will it be the Zeus way?”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“Once we begin the Electric Mile, there’s no turning back. The race must be completed.”
I was about to undertake the most challenging race in the game with a whole lot more on the line than just my dignity. I’d done everything I could’ve, been to as many places in the game as possible. If I couldn’t win now, I’d never win. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“You know where the starting line is. I will meet you there very soon, Vector.”
****
I had beaten Draxler to the starting line. The race began in front of Zeus Industries and ended at the same point. If a player beat Draxler, the doors to Zeus Tower opened, allowing them access. If Draxler won, a missile was launched from the tower that honed in on the player, blowing them to Kingdom Come. There’d be no second chance for me.
The course bobbed and weaved through Spark City. Blue orbs appeared as a guide for us to follow, the race changed its course each time a player attempted it. Draxler was a master of the sharp turns and tight corners. Where he lacked was in top end speed. Unfortunately, there weren’t many straightaways to be had in Spark City. I’d have to drive the perfect race.
While I waited in the cool night sky, the sounds of shots fired still broke out from various points in the city. Tanaka was serious about this hostile takeover. It wasn’t lost on me the irony that the people who built this game had to use force to try to take back what they designed. Knowing what it meant for folks like Ali and Zoe, I hoped they were failing miserably.
The roar of Draxler’s motorcycle echoed through the air. This wasn’t his normal bike; he was riding an old army style bike. Black letters were etched in the green paint, calling it the Devastator. Well, this made things a bit trickier. “Nice ride.”
He looked at the Typhon. “It seems we were both destined for upgrades. I hope you are prepared for what is about to come.”
“If you mean me kicking your ass, then yes I am.”
There was no emotion coming from the kabuki mask. “You know the rules. As soon as the first orb appears, the race begins.”
This is what it had come down to. I sat there and began to visualize the course options that I could remember. As a visual creature, I was hoping one last practice run in my mind would help. Beside me, Draxler revved his engine, a sound that I was positive everyone in Spark City could hear.
I lowered myself on the handlebars, ready for the starting sign. When it appeared, I gunned the Typhon forward, the Electric Mile had begun.
Race: The Electric Mile
Both of us were flying down the streets of Spark City. Even though it was called the Electric Mile, the race was quite long. I figured they gave it that name based on the stretch in the middle where the player and Draxler were downtown and all the lights that showered the racers.
The Typhon was much faster than the Devastator, but the first curve we got to, Draxler took it much better than I did and jumped into the lead. As he passed me, he fired a shot from his gun, trying to blow out my tire. I pumped the brakes, causing him to miss, but allowing him to get an even bigger lead. Fuck sticks! I tried to get the bike back up to full speed as fast as I could.
For the next part of the race, I was a decent ways behind Draxler. All I could do is keep pace with him and not lose any more ground than I already had. It wasn’t until the first short straight-away that I was able to pick up some of the time lost from the turn attack.
I was about three bike lengths behind him when we veered off to the right and followed the blue orbs through a series of turns down side streets and alleyways. I really was running the race of my life, as I hadn’t wiped out yet or fell behind. I was actually keeping pace with Draxler.
Something bright caught my eye as we took a sharp corner on to the main street again. Up ahead was a bright green object of some sort. I’m not sure why, but it felt important to go after it. Knowing I was going to lose some distance, I used the Velocity Ring to shoot me ahead and to the left to grab the object. I was able to get a hand on it, but the path to grab it took me pretty far off course. I noticed it was a compass and put it in my saddlebag. I had a feeling I just grabbed my fourth Easter Egg.
I used the Velocity Ring once again to get myself back into the race. I knew wasting it twice on a trivial token like that wasn’t smart, but if that was an Easter Egg, it would be worth it if I survived the remainder of the game.
Draxler was still in sight, navigating the sharp turn that led us into the stretch where the Electric Mile got its name from. Not too long after, I made the same turn and was almost blinded by the lights. I put my head down and followed the blue orb off to the left. By this time, people of Spark City knew what was going on and were lining the streets to watch Draxler race the latest player. Little did they know just what was at stake.
Something happened to Draxler’s bike. He slid for a moment, causing him to brake and keep himself from spilling over. I was too far behind to catch all the way up, but that put me back in the race. As I rode by the spot, I could’ve swore I saw Baba O’Riley in the crowd with the smirk of all smirks on her face. We exited the stretch a lot closer than we did coming in.
We stayed at this point until the orb that showed up was the red orb signaling the end of the race was near. Up until this point, everything had been going smooth. Each time I did this in the game; this is the point where Draxler hammered me with both physical attacks and superior driving skills. There was no turning back, I had to do this.
Getting the jump on him, I drew my gun and hit his back fender, catching him as he was getting ready to fire at me. He had to break off from his attack and focus on keeping his bike upright. I thought I had it won there. I did not.
When he was ready, he dropped a few grenades my way. There was no choice but to slam on the brakes and come all the way to a stop. If I hadn’t, I would’ve eaten the frags to the face. Pissed, I got back on my bike after the grenades went off, but the real damage had been done. There was no way for me to catch up to him now.
Or was there? I had one last boost on the Velocity Ring and it was now or never. Could I make the turns and corners going at the high speed? I had to, because if I didn’t, the results would be the same. I boosted the Typhon, and held on for dear life. Holy fucking shit, this was my last stand, err ride.
“Vector, can you hear me?” That was followed by a patch of static. “You’re racing so well, you can do this!”
Ali’s voice broke my concentration. “Holy hell, what’s going on?”
The connection broke for a moment before being reestablished. “You didn’t think I’d let you down now, did you?”
I was approaching the final run, getting ready to use the Velocity Ring. I had to time this perfectly. “How are you communicating with me?”
“I hacked into your bike’s communications.” More static cut her off. “Zoe and I are safe, for the time being. You need to get to Zeus Tower and end this.”
There was maybe thirty seconds until I needed to hit the boost. If I missed my window… “What do you think I’m trying to do?”
“You’re about to hit your bo
ost. When you do, make sure you have Oracle’s Outlaw activated. It’ll help you see clearly.”
God bless her. I never even thought to use my skills while driving. “You’re the best, Ali.”
“I believe in you. Good luck, Vector.” The comms cut out.
With her advice fresh in my mind, I activated Oracle’s outlaw just a moment before I hit the final boost. It was almost surreal how one’s mind can put into perspective things when the conditions are right. Even at this high speed, my brain was working a million miles an hour to keep me upright and on course. Draxler had no clue that I was about to fucking catch him. As he made the last turn on the course, the boost sent me by him and into the lead.
There wasn’t much further to go until we reached the plaza in front of Zeus Tower. My boost had come to an end and it was up to me now to keep him off my tail. He had his gun out and was trying to blow out my tire again and his last shot was true. My back tire ruptured and the bike jerked me hard to the right. I flew off the motorcycle as it went skidding on the road and into the guardrail that ran parallel to us.
As I got up from my crash, I made a stunning realization. My body crossed the finish line first. I had actually won. “No shit…”
Draxler was beside me. Very stoically, “Vector, you have defeated me on the Electric Mile.”
This was a bit anticlimactic, besides my oculus making all sorts of noises from leveling up to new achievements. “What happens next?”
I heard something launch from the top of Zeus Tower. It was the missile, only this time instead of coming towards me, it was aimed at Draxler. Knowing what came next, I ran my ass off to get away from him. Right before impact, he yelled my name. “Vector!”
I turned as he threw something towards me. Moments before the missile collided with him and put a giant crater in the ground. “No fucking way… They just killed their own man!”
There were numerous fires around the plaza. I’d never been to this point in the game before and I was in a bit of shock. I needed to snap out of it. I focused on what Draxler threw at me. I went over and picked it up. It was a needle, one that looked like it would go in a compass. Knowing the one I just picked up was still in the wreckage on the Typhon; I ran over and grabbed it. The needle fit in perfectly and immediately pointed towards the front door to the tower.
Everything was still in slow motion to me. Next I went back to my oculus and scrolled through all the alerts. I leveled up again from defeating Draxler and could pick a new skill. I didn’t even really put a lot of thought into it. I chose Dead Man’s Gambit (a skill that increased my stats across the board when I was in a no win situation), more as a way of honoring my fallen foe. Everything I’d done was to get to this point and now that I was here, I seemed so lost.
There was only one thing left to do and that was to make my way to Zeus Tower. The door was unlocked, so I pulled it open and went into the great unknown. Inside was your standard lobby that went directly back to the elevator. Seeing as how this was my only choice, I went over to it and pressed the button to go up. The door chimed and opened. However, instead of taking me up, when the doors closed, we went down to the floor labeled UG II.
Getting off the elevator, I couldn’t help but notice I was in some sort of server farm room. The machines were all humming along nicely, as if it was another day at the office. Against the far wall was a desk with a computer sitting on it. I sat down and jostled the mouse to bring it out of sleep mode. There were two programs open, one was a card game and the other was a file that just had the title ‘Click Me.’ Against my better judgment, I did.
A video file opened and there was a blonde lady on the screen. “Hello Vector, I imagine if you are here, you were tempted to open this.”
I sat down; amused that so many people knew so much about me. The video kept playing. “My name is Yazmin Flockhart, CEO of Zeus Industries, and yes, I was created in the likeness of the woman who runs Tanaka Industries.”
This was monumentally confusing. So the lady CEO of Zeus was basically a digitized version of the Tanaka lady? Talk about being uncreative with this character. “We have much to discuss, should you make it to the top floor. I wish you luck in finding the keycards to do so.”
The screen went black, leaving me with an even bigger headache than I had beforehand.
Endgame: To the Top
Well fuck me running, the elevator wouldn’t open. I was stuck down here in the server room, which really sucked because it was hot and there was hardly any ventilation. Anyone with half a brain knew that wasn’t good for these guys, but going over improvements to the server farm wasn’t on the agenda with the digital Yazmin Flockhart. Nope, threatening and cursing were my initial thoughts.
There was probably a secret to this area. As I learned from the start, this game was one giant misdirection after another. So I walked around the room, checking out everything to ensure I didn’t miss anything obvious or what not. As I completed my lap, my frustration grew as nothing jumped out. This was just a regular old room with a bunch of overheating computer stuff.
A dumb idea hit me. Maybe that was the trick to this area, getting ventilation back in. But how would one go about doing that in an underground room? What was I missing?
I needed to sit down and really think. With no obvious answer jumping out, I decided to take inventory of what I had. There were my guns, the Taret cards, the compass I just found – err the compass! When I put the needle in after defeating Draxler, it pointed to the building. Maybe this thing was the key to overcoming the puzzle! I picked it up and held it out. It was pointing towards the far south server.
At first glance, the server looked to be just as ordinary as you’d figure it to be. When I opened the panel, there were no guts to it. Instead, there were four levers about waist high. This was very weird. Not knowing what else to do, I pulled the first lever down. A light flickered from behind the lever and ran upwards in a zigzag. I pulled the second one down and another light came on.
I did this for all four, but nothing changed in the room. I began moving the levers up and down at different angles until something did happen. When two of the lights crossed, a fan kicked on above me. It wasn’t nearly strong enough to cool the room, but this was a start!
I left numbers one and three alone, as those were the two lights that crisscrossed. I moved number two back up just a little bit, trying to guide it towards the others. It didn’t make contact with the already connected lights, so I went back to number four. I moved it down just enough and it crossed number two, which in turn connected number two.
A full blast of fans began cooling the room down. Man, the relief was almost instant. When I made it back to the elevator, it opened when I pushed the up button and proceeded to get in. I went to hit floor thirty-five, the top floor, but a light was already preselected. It looked like I was on my way to floor number nine.
When the doors opened to the new floor, I got off and the same thing happened as last time. Doors closed, elevator locked. Instead of a server farm this time, I was in a cubicle hell. No one was here, but it looked as if this floor had anywhere from thirty to forty people working on it. Seeing as how the compass was my guide last time, I let it show me the way. It pointed to an office along the west wall.
The door was locked, but nothing a simple blast from the Nemesis pistol couldn’t change. I kicked the rest of the door down and kind of chuckled at the interior decorations. Whoever used this place had a weird thing for clowns, as they were all over the room. Clowns are fucking creepy.
Well I should’ve known better. The moment I was all the way in the room, a yellow force field of sorts blocked my way back out. And those clowns, those fucking clowns weren’t decorations, they were hideous clown monsters.
Damnit all!
These things were eight kinds of creepy. There were three of them, all varied sizes. One was tall and walked with a funny looping stride, one was fat, medium height and kind of rolled around, and the last one was short and jumped ar
ound like a fucking frog. Did I mention I really hated clowns? If I hadn’t, I really do.
My flight or fight instinct kicked in. I immediately grabbed both of my pistols and went bonkers firing at everything in the room. Maybe stray bolts hit a clown here or there, but between the yelling and the wild shooting, I wasn’t really accomplishing anything. I guess I was keeping them at bay, which was good, but they weren’t any closer to death than when they first came to life all creepily and sinister like.
I had to calm myself. If I was going to survive this circus massacre, I needed to be on my A game. I stopped shooting and let both guns cool down. Thinking clearly, I activated Heart of the Oracle and Oracle’s Outlaw. With some boosts going, I liked my chances a little better.
I’d forgotten that I had Dead Man’s Gambit, too. Red sparkles formed under my feet and everything about myself felt a lot better. With those three skills in place, the idea of killing clowns seemed a lot more tolerable. “I hope you bitches are ready to meet the maker.”
They didn’t answer, instead just kept slinking around the room. It looked like they were trying to encircle me, not giving me anywhere to go. Little did they know I had one more trick up my sleeve; Redemption Man. I set my sites on the small, frog like imp. He was the hardest to target and getting rid of him right away would make everything much better. “Bullet Burst – Mass Explosion!”
Three shots left the barrel of the Nemesis pistol and aimed in on the leaping lurker. As soon as they hit, the clown was caught up in a hellfire of explosions. The medium sized, fat one thought he could get the upper hand, but little did he know he was in for round two. Another round of skills punched him smack in the face, sending him to the ground in a blaze of glory.
