“So you like it.”
“Didn’t say that. Don’t you listen?”
I look over to the door, where Arnie is having a bit of a chinwag with the motel’s owner, an Indian man in his late fifties who’s wearing a guayabera, a pair of baggy khakis and black sandals. On the wall above them is a hand carved sign that reads, No refunds. Next to it is another sign that reads We Don’t Call 911 over a pair of crossed AK-102s.
The one Star Inn, in Gun Barrel City, Texas. Go figure.
“Why shouldn’t I worry?” I ask Doc.
“Did this letter mention anything about negative consequences, fines, incarceration, shunning, official disembiggenment, pee-pee whackage, that type of thing?”
“Come to think of it, no it didn’t.”
“That’s the beauty of all this,” he says as he sloshes more maple syrup from his private reserve onto his waffles. “They have no punitive authority, but they do have the ability to annoy the living shit right out of you until you give in and do what they want.”
“How do they justify that?”
Doc rubs his fingers together. “Money, honey. The centers that run these places have large government contracts in key congressional areas. It may be Humandroids and AI via iNet, but I guarantee you there are real humans there overseeing everything. In fact … ”
I catch something flash on the inside of my eyelids. Doc finishes the message before I do.
He drops his fork and stands. “Arnie, Code Blue!”
~*~
“Sophia! Sophia!” I bang on her door even harder. Damn, the lady sleeps like a resting statue with noise cancellation headphones on.
Doc: Where are you? Why aren’t you logged in yet?
Me: I’m getting Sophia!
Doc: What’s she doing?
Me: We need her to get into the OMIB!
Doc: Aiden can take you there. Log in now. I’m logging in from the RV.
Me: What about Frances?
Doc: Knock on her door on your way back to your room.
I walk as fast as my two little legs can carry me. Luckily, the hallway isn’t too long, and luckily, I was able to finish my first cup of coffee, giving me just the boost I needed. Doc’s right – it is too strong.
“Come on, Frances.”
Knuckles meet door and boy do they sting after I get to pounding. I pound again and again, switching to the flat of my hand.
Me: Wake up! I’m logging in. Something’s up with Zedic!
The door is yanked open and I nearly fall inside. I catch myself just in time, nothing graceful about it. She rubs the sleep out of puffy eyes and gives me a look that could neuter coyotes at a hundred paces.
“What? Whaddya want now?” she asks again, yawning.
“Zedic is in trouble and I’m trying to round up the team! What the hell’s gotten into you anyway? You’re usually up by now.’’
“No, I’m not.” I see a box of wine near her bed. I’d laugh if I weren’t in such a hurry to log in.
“Damn, Euphoria! I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Shut up,” she says as her cheeks grow red. “What do you care, anyway? You’re not the boss of me.”
“Well, throw some water on your face and order a HangOverOverseer, or whatever you call it. I’m logging in!”
She hooks her thumb over her shoulder. “Do it here, I have two NV Visors.”
~*~
Feedback Loop ramble yada yada yada. Science talk scions balk RPG please. Spiral existence, worlds of difference. No time for a senseless rhyme.
I awake on the other side of life in the Knights’ courtyard. No UK Assassins to be found, but good old Aiden appears in a flash, his weapon drawn.
“Just kidding,” he says as he lowers his Scissorsword.
“Where’s Dolly?” I ask.
“The boys took her to town to get some new clothes and to get her pissed.”
“Why do they want to annoy her?”
“Sometimes I forget just how Yank you are – drunk, not annoyed. Burly thinks it’ll help her remember who we are.”
“That’s the most British thing I think I’ve ever heard of!”
“Sophia was here earlier too, running some tests, but I haven’t seen her since.”
“We need to get to the OMIB. Now.”
He nods. “Zedic?”
“You got it.”
A flash of light indicates another player is spawning. The tactical vest I get, the half-goat body I do not. It’s Doc, and his avatar is listed as a White Warrior, which is definitely the most Aryan thing I’ve seen all day.
True to his nature, Doc is decked out in projectile weapons – mostly crossbows – which hang from just about every place they can hang from. There’s a big ol’ crossbow on his back (I might have to ask him to trade for that one), two clipped to his belt, silver gauntlets that clearly double as medieval bolt-flingers and a pair of knives strapped to his lower legs. He’s level ninety, just like the rest of us, which answers my question regarding if he’s in our guild or not.
“What?” he asks as he shuffles in a little circle. His hooves strike the pavement with a castanet clatter.
“Really?”
“Is this about healing? Sure, my subcategory is white magic, but I chose it for the stat multipliers, which becomes an option after a player hits level 30. Sorry Charlie, no healing from the kid – Ha! I kill me sometimes!” he snorts.
“That’s not at all what this is about. Your avatar is a faun? That’s what it’s called, right?”
“It’s called, this is my avatar and don’t give me shit right now because we need to figure out what’s going on with Zedic! Besides, fauns are babe magnets, except for that creepy one in Pan’s Labyrinth.”
Frances spawns; even her avatar seems a bit wobbly. “Sorry,” she says as she straightens her skirt. She catches Doc’s attire, but keeps her trap shut. Smart girl; maybe I should be more like her.
“Well what are we waiting for?” he asks.
A red sphere forms around us and our avatars dematerialize.
Chapter Six
A giant black cloud hovers over Zedic. I’m talking huge, yuuuge, large enough to block out the stars and the million Milky Ways that make up the OMIB sky. Jagged lines of electricity connect the sinister black cloud to Zedic, pulsating as they move between the two masses. He’s in a bad place, his life bar bouncing back and forth between one and two percent. He tries to crawl away and the bolts of electricity blast into him and slam him to the non-ground.
Doc gets it before anyone else can figure out what the hell is going on. “Something keeps reviving him before it not-quite-kills him.”
Aiden and Frances advance on the nonground towards Zedic. He looks to her, his face a mask of pain.
“It’ll overload his NV Visor! Zedic! Zedic! Can you hear me?” she yells.
I equip my Golden Goosinator hack. “Fight?” I call to Doc.
“Fight what? It isn’t a battle,” he says. “It’s … ”
A flash next to Doc sends him stumbling away. He has both crossbows aimed by the time Sophia steps out of the light.
“Oops! Sorry! I fell asleep in the shower!” Her mouth opens wide as she takes in the chaos.
Aiden reaches out to touch Zedic; a dendritic jolt of energy sends him flying ass over teakettle, but cat-like as always, he lands on his feet, ready to bounce back in.
Sophia goes all Jean Gray Dark Phoenix. She rises into the air as ripples of white flame spread down her arms. Her hands come together and she fires the magical cruise missile at the cloud and …
Nothing. The cloud continues to hover over Zedic, healing and killing him at the same time.
“What do we do?” Frances cries. “Doc, can’t you heal him?”
“I’m not that kind of White Warrior!” he shouts. “I’m a stats boost guy!”
A huge blast of wind lifts us high into the air and smashes the five of us together. We drop to the nonground like cinder blocks. I cover my eyes as a transl
ucent, golden triangle takes shape above the black cloud.
“Incoming!” Doc jumps to avoid a lightning ball. On the recovery, he comes up arm gauntlets locked and loaded.
Two human forms take shape within the translucent triangle. One is small and hooded. The other is a mahoosive man-beast, easily two and half times my size.
“It’s her,” I hear Zedic scream. “Her!”
~*~
A trumpet sounds and the battle begins.
Sophia lifts into the air. “I knew it! I knew it! You … you … bitch!”
More white fire twists over Sophia’s body and shrinks into a ball between her hands. She kneads it there for a moment, small portions of the fireball flaring up into a purple tail whenever her hand passes over the ball of energy.
She releases the fireball. It hits the triangle protecting the two figures and dissipates into the OMIB.
The hooded figure moves closer to us, is now twenty feet out at the most, and I’m as angry as I am shocked as I am confused to see Veenure, her eyes shining green and the tattoos on her face alight.
Doc doesn’t give me a chance to offer a few choice expletives.
He kicks off the ground, both his arm gauntlets aimed at Veenure and her bulky, shadow-clad companion. The gauntlets spread up his forearms and bubble as they form a pair of hack blasters. He discharges a blast that would make Samus Aran stop and marvel and takes a big hit in his life bar for doing so.
Doc might as well be shooting a dollar store water pistol at Veenure’s muscled Reapermate.
The blast hits him, sizzles for a moment and evaporates. The beefy bastard is in an executioner mask with a stylized Punisher skull stitched on the front. A choker collar around his neck is attached to a thick chain that scales down his body and into the septum of a ridiculous, skull-shaped belt buckle. A pair of Black daisy dukes barely cover his bulging buttocks and he’s barefoot, his legs thickly covered in hair.
I’m just about to comment on his Bruce Banner shorts when he latches his fingers together and stretches them in front of his body, cracking them as he shows us his palms.
Counter attack!
The Reaper comes down hard on Doc with an impossibly large ax; at least I think it’s an ax. At his blurred speed, it’s impossible to tell. The only thing I have to go on regarding the weapon type is the arc of the blade.
“I’m out.” Doc’s life bar flashes red and he bails.
“SHIT!” I’m just about to scroll through my list and equip my Reason Railgun, item 459, when the floating shitbirds move even closer to us in their golden triangle.
“Where’s Luther?” Veenure asks, her voice booming across the nothingsphere. The executioner Reaper crosses his arms over his chest and veins pulsate on his arms.
Sophia grabs my arm. “We need to logout!”
“Logout? Are you serious? You want to finish this now,” I tell Veenure and her button man, “we finish this now.”
“Quantum.” I turn to find Frances wide-eyed. “We need to do this, now, before it’s their turn. She’s stronger than us and she has tech that … ”
“What about Zedic?” I ask, anger rising in my chest. “We can’t just leave him here! He’s one of us, dammit!”
Sophia wipes a tear away, raises her hand to logout.
Veenure says, “Last time, Quantum Hughes, where’s Luther?”
My hand lifts into the air on its own volition.
“Dammit! No, Sophia! NO!” I catch Zedic out of the corner of my eye, his avatar smoking and twisted, his life bar at zero. I try to pry my hand away from Sophia’s control; all I can manage is a digitus medius manus, which is jammed forcibly onto the logout button.
~*~
I cry out as soon as I awake in the real world.
The NV Visor is still giving me an eyeful of colored lines subtle bursts of light as I rip it off. I’m just about to mutter some things I’ve been meaning to say about Sophia when I notice Frances pacing, speaking rapidly to Rocket.
I get a big whiff what all the fuss is about once I hear a single, three word phrase from Frances’ mouth. I’m on iNet before I can stand.
Rocket: Zedic is flatlining! Flatlining! SHIT! The ArachnaMed is trying to revive him, Frances! What do I do?
Frances paces and speaks, her words appearing instantly in the message pane. Did not know one could do that, but that doesn’t matter at the moment.
Sophia: He can’t be dead! There’s just no way. I’m logging back in!
Rocket: He’s dead; I’m telling you he’s dead! Paramedics are on the way. What the hell do I do? Shit! I didn’t sign up for this!
Me: Yes, you did. Deep breaths, kid, and stay focused.
Doc: He’s not dead yet, but panic and he will be. There’s nothing we can do from here anyway, except wait and see if the paramedics can revive him. What’s their ETA?
Rocket: Checking the GPS. Less than a minute.
Doc: Let the machine do its job. I’ve seen the ArachnaMed do improbable things.
A video feed appears in Rocket’s message box. It shows the ArchnaMed hunched over Zedic, its respirator attached to Zedic’s face. The body of the machine lifts and two extensor arms position defibrillator electrodes on his chest.
“There must be something we can do!” I shout to Frances. “Is Sophia in?”
She nods without making eye contact with me.
“This is bullshit, all of it. ALL of it. I’m logging back in with Sophia, dammit!”
~*~
Feedback nightmares, static lies. From the logon screen I select our guild, where I assume I’ll find Morning Assassin. I call out for him as soon as my body finishes materializing.
“No one’s here.”
The voice startles me.
Dolly lies on her back on the guild table and her red hair hanging off the side. She’s in a tight tunic and a pair of leggings, no shoes and a single leather strap around her ankle. She sits and I swear I see a twinkle in her eyes as she recognizes me.
A smile forms on her face.
And then it’s lost – the smile, the look of recognition on her face, the softness in her eyes as she takes me in. Zilch, nada, jack squat. She’s back to staring at me like I’m some sort of nothin’.
“Dolly, it’s me,” I tell her. ‘I’m going through some real shit at the moment. I wish … I wish you could help me.’ I choke back a sob. Looking at her confused face burns a hole through me. I suck it up, swallow my disappointment.
Sophia alights, settles on the ground next to me. “I think I’ve figured out what is going on with her.”
“Don’t you ever, ever, force me to logout again!” I point my finger at her and hold it there. “And why did we logout just to log back in again? What kind of message does this send to our enemies? What if they’re still there?”
“We can argue about this later,” she says, “for now, we need to help Zedic. Be prepared for anything.”
Everything drops out of sight. Cue the stars and the vast galactic wasteland. No black clouds, no Benedict Arnolds parading around with Harley Quinn pigtails – all that I see is Zedic’s avatar lying in a heap.
Sophia sits, places his head in her lap.
“Crazy, this is just all crazy, looney tunes, loco,” I mumble as I pace like Frances. I can’t look at Zedic; I can’t watch someone I actually liked die. And I know it is coming. And I hate that I get that sense, that I’m predicting his death before it happens. If he doesn’t die, he’ll be a vegetable at best. Say it ain’t so.
“We aren’t safe anywhere in Tritania now, aside from our guild and places with visitor restrictions, like Athos.”
“She can’t get in our guild?” I ask. Looking at her does little to quell my anger.
“No one can; you have to be a member of the Knights to spawn there, and I’ve revoked her membership.”
Good ol’ 247 appears in my hands, my tommy gun, and I unload two magazines into the ether. It’s loud, brash, and I unload another for good measure. I finish, equip my pair
of Halo M6Cs and do the same. It feels good to do that, but it doesn’t nothing for the anguish welling inside me. “COME ON!” I scream. “Show yourself!”
“Quantum.”
“They’re here, I know it!” I tell Sophia. “I’ll find the bastards.” I brandish my Reaper’s skull, item 551, and on my noggin it goes. The colors invert to reveal that the stars are connected by grid lines.
“If they are, I will force you to logout again.”
“Dammit, Sophia, don’t you dare!”
She looks down at Zedic. “Look what they did to him. Look!”
Both Zedic and Sophia are star children through the lenses of the Reaper masks, their bodies outlined in digital nebulas, but her form is outlined in green and his in red. I tear the mask off and throw it as far as I can.
“What do we do?” I ask as I drop to my knees in front of Sophia.
“There’s nothing we can do.” She feathers her fingers across his forehead, stifles a sob. “I had two colleagues die in a Proxima World, a couple of years ago.”
“How?”
“Faulty NV Visors. They were testing a new molecular machine and there was more synaptic action than anticipated. They knew the risks, just like Zedic. These things aren’t toys. This is more than a game.”
“You’re telling me. I’d say it is even more than a game, bigger than a game. Out there I’m a cripple with little or no skill. At least in here I have some skill.” I shoot her a grin to see if she picks up on my joke. She doesn’t, so I continue. “How did they die? Was it from some type of NV Visor overload or something?”
“People think that, but actually, it’s cardiac arrest that gets most people in a Proxima World, or I should probably say the Real World. You know what I mean.” She wipes a tear from her elven face, continues to cradle Zedic’s head. Her voice softens as she says, “A faulty visor can cause the heart rate to skyrocket and cause cardiac arrest or trigger a fatal cerebral hemorrhage like the Reapers do. There are other physiological effects that cause Real World death from Proxima induced causes, but they’re not as common as the main two.”
The Feedback Loop (Books 4-6): Sci-fi LitRPG Series (The Feedback Loop Box Set Book 2) Page 29
