by Eddie Patin
"What the fuck, Riley?!" Jason exclaimed, more surprised than angry.
Riley dramatically spun his blaster around on his trigger finger then blindly deposited it back into its holster as if he'd done the move a thousand times.
"We don't want to ever risk opening up a rift to that world, Jason," he said. "If you broke the surface, it would destroy whatever universe we were standing in. It'd kill us too."
Jason stared at Riley's deadpan gaze for a moment then sighed, turning back to the other two focus keys. Pulling up his OCS again, he scanned the third one; the clear acrylic pendant with white stuff inside.
Universe 772, Cloudworld.
"Cloudworld?" Jason said to himself, looking at the readout. He looked at Riley. "Hey, I think I recognize this one. I tried to open a rift to it back in the garage, but it was outside compatibility."
"Holy shet!" Riley exclaimed with a grin. "Cloudworld? What did Jason 113 have a focus key to Cloudworld here for?" he asked, looking over to Gliath with a boyish smile. The soldier looked at Jason again. "Well shet, man—we've gotta go there!"
"What's Cloudworld?" Jason asked, dropping the OCS back to his side and rubbing his hands together. He blew hot breath into the space between his fingers.
Riley smirked. "Let's go! I'll show you! Let's go home first and drop off this scorpion meat. It's a great place—let's go!"
"Okay, okay!" Jason replied with a laugh. He couldn't help smiling. Riley seemed so excited. Planeswalking was so bizarre.
Putting the Spare Air into his coat pocket and the two focus keys in another, Jason carefully wrapped the healing potion back up into the cloth, considered the little package for a moment, then handed it to Riley.
The soldier took it with a warm smile. "Really?"
"Sure," Jason replied. "Now, I can't cast Identify or anything, so I don't know what it is for sure, but if it is a healing potion, you should have it. You used one of yours to save me back on Maze World."
Riley smirked. "What's Identify?"
"Uh..." Jason started, then stopped, feeling like a dork. He was referring to a DnD spell. It was fiction. "Nothing. I mean I don't know what it is for sure."
"Oh. Well, this looks just like my others. It's probably from the same manufacturer. Thanks, Jason," Riley said, tucking the wrapped potion into the same pouch on his belt where he used to keep the other two.
With that, Jason returned the empty box to the wall and used the 'home' focus key around his neck, opening a rift in the middle of the shed back to his garage on u934. They stepped through and shook all of the frost off of them.
Jason 1241 was still playing video games. Riley and Gliath put the scorpion meat into the freezer, leaving one hunk in the fridge to thaw out. Jason 934—following while pulling layers off—was surprised when he looked into his fridge. It was only a few days ago when the fridge and freezer were both packed to bursting with fresh and bloody minotaur meat. Now, it seemed that that meat was half-gone already. Gliath must sure eat a lot, Jason thought. It must be the price of having a seven-foot-tall panther warrior shapeshifter being part the team.
Riley told Jason a quick story about how they obtained the giant scorpion meat as they put away all of their cold weather clothes. The tale involved going to a desert world to kill a Lamia.
"Do you know what a Lamia is, Jason?"
"Uh..." He thought back to DnD. "Is it an evil magical desert monster that looked like a half-woman, half-lion kind of like a centaur except with a body like a lion instead of a horse? Do they cast spells and control things?"
"This one controlled some huge fruking scorpions the size of your broken-up vehicle out on the driveway." Riley smirked and shook his head. "Shet, Jason. You continue to impress me in random ways. Here I was thinking you were clueless when we found you. And you know what centaurs are, too?"
Jason shrugged with a smile.
They rifted to Cloudworld. Jason 1241—once again—didn't want to come along.
As the three Reality Rifters stood in front of the blazing whirlwind of orange fire and sputtering sparks, Jason looked out over a vista of fluffy snow with a forest of strange, pink-trunked trees with similar fluffy white snow for their skimpy canopies. Jason 113's focus key opened a rift leading to a large, open white field full of thick and rolling chunks of snowy powder. Jason actually wasn't sure if it was snow or something more like billowy cotton. He then noticed that the sky was more cyan than blue. There was something really strange-looking about the whole place.
"Shouldn't we bring our coats?" Jason shouted above the roar of the portal.
"Nope," Riley said with a smirk. "Why?"
"All that snow!"
The soldier put a gloved hand on Jason's shoulder and smiled. "That, Jason, is not snow. Come on!"
With a broad grin, Riley dove through the portal, bounding into the white fluff of the field. Gliath dashed in right behind him. Neither of them had bothered to bring their rifles. Jason turned back to the inner garage door for a moment, contemplating trying to convince the other Jason to come along, then shrugged and stepped through himself.
As soon as Jason crossed the membrane of the rift, emerging into a strange cyan sky with warm sunlight on his face, the man felt the oddest sensation wash over him. The sky was clear and weird—staring at it was almost like looking at the painted scene of a cartoon! Jason suddenly felt a tremendous amount of stress lift off of his shoulders and the middle of his back as if dissipating into the pleasant air. When he looked ahead to see Riley and Gliath bounding away, Jason's heart was flooded with glee like he hadn't felt in years and every fiber of his being suddenly surged with a desire to run off after them!
Jason ran after his friends, feeling light on his feet. Following the inspiration taking flight in his soul, he decided to jump. When he hit the white, fluffy ground after, he very easily bounced, launching himself up into the air again.
"Ha!" he shouted, hopping again and again. The ground was bouncy—tremendously so!
Riley—thirty yards or so ahead of Jason—spun in midair and turned to face him, hitting the ground and bouncing up as if on an extremely-springy trampoline. "Come on, Jason! Whoo!"
Jason couldn't help it. His face broke into a broad grin and he laughed. He bounced after Riley and Gliath, laughing all the while. He laughed so hard that he started to cry, feeling better than he could remember feeling in a long, long time.
He felt amazing! The sun felt so warm and happy and the air was fresh and sweet. The ground wasn't snow at all—it was more like ... clouds!
"Cloudworld!" Jason shouted between laughs. "It's clouds!"
"Isn't it great?!" Riley called back from up ahead. Both of them were bounding around between the tall, skinny pink trees full of cloud-stuff. "Come on!"
Jason followed his friends. When he caught up, the three of them bounced around, laughing and playing like goddamned children. Well—Gliath didn't laugh or smile, but he stuck by Riley's side and bounced along with him, his long, black tail waving up and down with every bound. It was funny as hell—ridiculous—and made Jason laugh with glee.
They bounced around for a while, feeling great and happy. Riley showed Jason around the place. He showed him some of the cute, little creatures living there that had adorable eyes and button noses and made cute little whistling sounds as they wandered around on the cloud-like surface.
"This is wonderful, Riley!" Jason exclaimed, feeling totally goober but not caring.
"Yeah, right?!" the soldier replied with a grin. "Jason, I have an idea. We still have some time to kill before Athelos has your jacket ready, right?"
"Yeah, man!"
"Tomorrow, let's go home—to my home. Ebonexus. Fort Firebrook. I'll introduce you to my dad!"
"Okay, Riley!" Jason replied, smiling so broadly that he thought he might cry. He liked Riley. They'd had a rough time on Maze World, sure, but Jason knew—especially back when he thought he'd lost him after the soldier was almost killed by the alpha minotaur—that Riley was shaping up
to be a good friend. Jason smiled at Gliath too. Gliath was awesome. He felt so goddamned happy with where his life was going. "I love you guys!"
He immediately felt like a huge dork.
Riley threw his head back and laughed, then smirked and elbowed Gliath.
"Yeah, you're okay, too, Jason 934," he replied. "Hey—in case you haven't figured it out yet, this universe has a pretty strong euphoric effect on our anatomies!" He laughed.
"I can feel it!" Jason replied with a grin.
"Of course you can! Come on now; let's play some more, then cook up some of that scorpion!"
"Alright!" Jason exclaimed. He decided then and there that there was something special about this world—something super useful. He paused his bouncing for a moment and put the Cloudworld focus key and its paracord loop around his neck to rest next to his 'home' focus key. "Wait up!" he called. Then Jason 934 bounded after his new friends, chasing them across the cloud-covered landscape.
Chapter 5
"Okay, so tell me about your implants again," Jason said, leaning back in his armchair. He took a sip of Nova Cola, reveling in its strange flavor. The soda from universe 309 was weird yet unreasonably tasty. It was no wonder that Jason 113 was apparently crazy about it. The best way Jason 934 could think of it, flavor-wise, was like an odd but very refreshing mixture of normal cola and some sort of citrus flavor—like Mountain Dew perhaps—but with hints of lemon and ... cucumber? It was the strangest damned soda flavor Jason had ever tasted before, but when it was cold right out of the fridge, it was downright amazing. "Oh my God—this is so good!"
Riley sat forward on the couch with his elbows on his knees. It was early Wednesday morning. Jason had skipped his walk because they were about to rift over to Ebonexus, universe 244, to check in with the soldier's father. Riley wanted to show Jason around his homeworld a little since they had some time to kill before getting his minotaur-hide jacket back from Athelos at the end of the week. Now, Riley smirked, watching Jason's extreme satisfaction with the other universe's can of pop.
The conversation had taken a seemingly random turn away from visiting family toward convincing Jason to get a few cybernetic upgrades.
At first, Jason was aghast at the idea. But when he realized that Jason 1241's rant to Gliath in the kitchen about how much life sucked was dampened and hard to hear, he considered Riley's suggestion. Jason had apparently taken some very real hearing damage in the last few weeks from all of their gunfire.
His hearing was a little more muted and Jason found himself listening to Riley's descriptions of what his advanced civilization could do. The soldier even had a friend on the cybernetics black-market who could work on an offworlder without any legal problems.
"I have a lot of augmentations," Riley said, taking a sip of water from an old, 80's style glass cup from the kitchen. Jason's mom had bought those glasses back when he was just a kid; he could never bring himself to replace them. "You can't obtain everything I have. It took time to get it all integrated and a lot of it was given to me because of my position in the Concord Guard."
"And that's like ... the military of a planetary government?"
"Yes. The planetary government. I was in the Dust Angels, so I was given more enhancements than the typical enlisted guardsmen."
"But everyone on your world has stuff in their bodies?"
"Mostly," Riley replied, scratching his beard. "Except for some exiles, really."
"So what kind of simple stuff are you thinking about for me?"
"Your eardrums for sure," Riley replied. "That's an easy one. You don't need a power source or any advanced shet, it doesn't need any upkeep, and you won't have to worry about slug guns making you deaf anymore."
"Replacing them?"
"Yeah, with a synthetic membrane. New synthetic eardrums would stretch and resist sonic or concussive force—you know, gunshots?—and they'll never need replacement. Well, unless some fruker spikes you through the ear canal or if you're attacked by brain-eating bugs or elder things. But then you'll be dead or zombified." Riley smirked.
Jason felt a chill go up his spine at that. "Okay. New eardrums. What else is easy?"
"Your eyes." Riley sat back into the couch and looked up at the ceiling and high walls. He scratched his beard. Gliath came walking in with quiet steps, eating a can of Zelda's cat food with a fork.
Jason touched his eyes as if by reflex. A cold fear bubbled through his chest.
"Uh..." he started.
"See, Gliath and I can both see in the dark. You should too. I have totally cybernetic eyes; not my natural ones anymore. My eyes can zoom, see in nearby spectrums like ultraviolet and infrared, and I've got image intensification ... eh ... what you call night vision. I also have a HUD overlaid on my field of view that I can use to identify enemies and track them, keep track of allies, help with targeting, place markers and make notes, and all sorts of other shet. It's all really handy, but it requires a bionic processor and a power source plugged into my cardiovascular system to operate. That's the best way to go. You should do that for sure."
"Bionic processor?" A lot of what Riley had just spewed out felt overwhelming. The fear in Jason's chest became an itchy nervousness. "What the hell is that?" He took another sip of Nova Cola and sighed. So good...
The soldier leaned forward again. He just couldn't sit still. "Yeah, Jason. It's like a second brain to help your normal one. Running augments like eyes like mine—my reflexes, comm, sensor array, regulating my artificial lung—all requires a lot of processing power over normal autonomic body functions. And my ears are a lot more than just synthetic eardrums, too. Hence, I have a bionic processor attached to my spine and brain to help with all of that extra computing."
That was it. There was something plugged into Riley's brain taking over a lot of cybernetic functions. That was just too much. There was no way Jason that could imagine letting a black market surgeon play around with his brain.
"Uh ... what can I do with my eyes that doesn't involve a bionic processor? And what can I do without removing my existing eyes?"
Riley shrugged and took another drink of water. "I dunno. Maybe just plug in an image intensifier? It's easy to replace your eyes though, dude. Maybe you could just do one."
Jason laughed and hid behind a sip of soda. For some reason, both of his eyes suddenly felt very soft and vulnerable. "I'll think about it. Maybe later. It would be good to see in the dark. Maybe I can have the guy add night vision to just one eye for now. You think he'd do that?"
"Sure, probably."
Standing, Jason walked to his bedroom and took some time to get his belongings together. He made sure to have a change of clothes in his backpack and some pajamas. He packed his toothbrush and other effects as well as some extra ammo. Riley told him that once they went into the big megacity, he wouldn't be able to bring his Glock, but he could at least carry in the rural area they were heading to first.
Carrying his stuff to the garage, Jason stopped and contemplated his cane.
He didn't need it anymore, but wanted to bring it anyway. It was an old friend, and a weapon that he could always carry if they ran into trouble carrying their guns.
Jason grabbed it.
When everything was ready, it was still pretty early. Jason headed to the kitchen to try one last time to convince his second self to come along. He found Jason 1241 drinking vodka.
"Jesus, dude. You're up to vodka now?!"
Jason 1241 scoffed. "Well, you were pretty fucking clear about me not drinking up all of your good beer! I got some shit for myself. You should be happy."
"1241, what's going on, man?" Jason asked, reaching out to touch him on the shoulder. His other self shrugged off the touch and frowned down at the floor, which gave Jason 934 a jolt of pain in his heart. "Hey, man, I'm sorry that bad shit happened on your world, but it doesn't have to be like this. We've gotta just keep moving forward."
"Easy for you to say," Jason 1241 muttered, taking a hearty sip of the clear alcohol that
Jason 934 could smell from across the kitchen. It must have been flavored vodka. Cinnamon. That's what he would choose, too. "You've got your new friends," he added with a sneer. "Sounds like you're gonna get some cyber shit. Getting the jacket. Meeting with Ben to talk about that business we were thinking of, huh? Your life is so full of shit now. But you know what?! It's fuck-all."
Fuck-all? Jason 934 wondered. He didn't know if he'd ever said that term before...
Jason stared at his second self for a few seconds. When Jason 1241 looked up and met his gaze, Jason 934 noticed that his eyes were red above dark circles. The other man looked away with a scowl. He was so angry.
"You're my friend, too," Jason said. "Riley and Gliath are also your friends. We're all in this together, man. If you can't go home, well, you belong with us now. There'll just be two Jasons in this Reality Rifters."
"How can you not see the problem?" Jason 1241 snapped back. He looked away toward the toaster. "Forget it. It doesn't matter anyway."
"Come with us, 1241," Jason said warmly. "Let's go meet Riley's dad. It'll be fun."
"I don't ever want to planeswalk again."
"What are you gonna do?"
He shrugged. "Play games. Sleep. Maybe walk. I dunno. Our knee doesn't hurt anymore."
"Are you sure you wanna stay?" Jason asked. "You should come with us. There won't be any adventures. No killing."
Jason 1241 downed the rest of his glass. "Yeah, I'm sure. Fuck it. I'm staying. Have fun without me."
Jason 934 sighed. "Well, we'll be back tomorrow night probably, unless time is weird."
The other Jason scoffed and turned away, refilling his glass. Yep. Cinnamon vodka.
Several minutes later, Jason 934, Riley, and Gliath were all standing in the garage. Jason's backpack was a little heavier than usual. Riley was carrying some packed scorpion meat for his dad and a six-pack that Jason had helped him pick out the night before. Riley had wanted the best beer that Earth of u934 had to offer to give to his father when they arrived. Jason had chosen "Arrogant Bastard" by Stone Brewery in San Diego.
