The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  Right before Master Haru could tilt the open bottle into Cy’s mouth, the sound of shattering glass broke the silence and I heard the sound of metal crashing through flesh. A second later, Haru screamed in pain and staggered backward, dropping the Z-Virus bottle onto the snow and grabbing his wrist. A quick glance showed me that there was now a very bloody bullet hole in Master Haru’s right hand, which was no doubt the source of his pain. He cursed violently in Japanese as he clutched his wrist, although he also sounded totally surprised.

  “What the heck was that?” said Atmosfear, glancing at the office window, which now had a small bullet hole in it.

  “Someone shot a bullet into the office,” said Giggles. He had drawn his knife but looked very fearful nonetheless. “I saw it go through Master Haru’s hand.”

  “A bullet?” said Atmosfear in disbelief. “But I don’t see anyone out there. Everyone out there should be a zombie now. Why would anyone shoot Haru?”

  Atmosfear’s question was soon answered when something small and round flew through the bullet hole. It soared over the heads of my Infected Teammates and landed softly on the snow before us. It was a small, round black ball, but that was all I could see before it exploded and unleashed the thickest, heaviest cloud of smoke I had ever seen.

  The smoke cloud quickly covered the entire office in less than a second. Visibility dropped to zero as a new notification popped up before me:

  Field Effect added: Smoke Cloud. Visibility and Accuracy -100%. Duration: 3 minutes.

  “Was that a smoke bomb?” Atmosfear’s voice called out in the thick smoke. “Haru, has one of your ninja lost their freaking mind?”

  “No,” said Master Haru, his voice tinged with fear. “Not one of mine. This is the work of—”

  Master Haru’s voice was interrupted by the sound of several solid thuds. I heard people falling to the snow all around me and realized that each one of my Infected Teammates had been knocked out. I knew this because as each one fell, a notification would show up informing me that my Teammates were all knocked out. This thankfully did not count as a total party kill, but it was definitely concerning to see all of my Teammates fall like dominoes. It made me wonder who could possibly be attacking them and whether they were a friend or foe.

  Without warning, I heard the sounds of metal rapidly clashing against metal followed by the sound of metal piercing flesh and someone—who sounded an awful lot like Giggles—screaming in pain.

  That was when I heard Atmosfear finally shout, “That’s it! I’m sick of this smoke. Time to get rid of it.”

  A second later, I found it impossible to breathe and realized that Atmosfear was likely using his Void Power. Although I doubted zombies needed to breathe, I still wasn’t fully Infected yet myself, so when the air was sucked out of my lungs, I knew I had precious little time before I died. At the same time, however, the smoke also vanished into Atmosfear’s hands, similar to dust being zoomed into a vacuum cleaner. Once the smoke was gone, Atmosfear shut off his Vacuum Power and I found I could breathe once again.

  With the smoke gone, I could see that the situation had completely changed in the less than five seconds since the smoke bomb had been thrown.

  All of my Infected Teammates lay on the floor around me looking quite dead, but a quick Scan showed me that all of my Teammates were still alive, just unconscious.

  I couldn’t be quite so sure for Giggles, however. The Villain Sidekick lay on the floor with a deep, bloody gash in his chest. He was cursing like a sailor which, thanks to the fact that Kids Mode was no longer active for me, meant I could hear everyone last one of his, er, ‘creative’ swear words. Atmosfear stood by him, appearing unharmed, but he was also making no effort to come to the aid of his wounded Sidekick, either, which was typical for him.

  More importantly, however, was the figure standing between me and Master Haru. He was a tall and powerfully built man wearing what looked like black and gold samurai armor modified to allow for greater movement and speed. He carried a long, deadly-looking katana in his right hand, which was red with blood that had probably been Giggles’. With his back to me, I couldn’t see his face, but I could read the nametag above his head that read [GRANDMASTER YAMAMOTO].

  My eyes widened in shock. “Yama-sama? What are you doing here? And why do you look so … different?”

  Yamamoto looked over his shoulder at me. His face was still as age and withered as ever, but the grin on his face was the same grin he had worn after pranking me and Cy back in the Ninja Guild HQ.

  “Hello as well, Hero Winter,” said Yamamoto. “As for why I am here, that is simple. I have come to end what I started.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  Before I could ask him what he meant by that, Yamamoto turned his gaze back to Master Haru and said, “Haru-san, it has been a while since we last saw each other face-to-face like this.”

  Master Haru carried a long dagger in his hand, which I realized he must have used to parry Yamamoto’s katana during the smoke cloud. “Not long enough, Yamamoto. Should I live to be a thousand years old, it would still not be long enough.”

  “What did I tell you about anger and hatred, Haru?” said Yamamoto. “Bathe too deeply in your negative emotions and you will be drenched in them.”

  “What would you know about emotion?” Master Haru snapped. “You, who would condemn the innocent people of the world to this cruel and unjust cycle of pain and death, despite knowing it could be averted, are a monster and an enemy. The Ninja Guild had stagnated under your leadership and that is why the Stalking Shadows will replace you.”

  I was taken aback by Master Haru’s emotion. Before, he had come across to me as a calm, collected man who rarely let anything bother him. Now, however, I felt like I was looking at a completely different man. I suppose it had to do with the fact that he was now speaking face-to-face with his former master. It also probably didn’t help that his hand was still bleeding.

  “I do not lack emotion, nor do I repress it,” said Yamamoto as he raised his blade before him. “I master it. That is why the Stalking Shadows will never rise above being a petty criminal gang. You never learned to master your emotions, Haru. Instead, you allowed them to master you, which is why you have made foolish decision after foolish decision, starting with leaving the Ninja Guild and forming your own group with your sycophants whom you call disciples.”

  “How did you even get in here without getting Infected by the Z-Virus?” asked Atmosfear, glancing out the office window. “Sure, the gas has died down a bit, but you still should have gotten Infected.”

  Yamamoto held up a gas mask. “I was aware that something like that might happen, so I brought this gas mask to protect my face from the gas. Although I prefer to use the traditional methods of old to deal with most problems, I will admit that some of these modern gadgets are quite useful every now and then.”

  “Why are you even here?” said Master Haru, practically spitting out the sentence. “Our intel suggested you weren’t going to be part of the assault.”

  Yamamoto smirked. “Don’t tell me you weren’t aware that I knew of spies within my midst. I might be an old, silly man, but I am not foolish. I ensured that incomplete information was given to my own followers in order to keep my involvement in the assault a surprise. Even my own daughter—who you Infected—was unaware that I planned to help.”

  “The bullet,” said Master Haru. “Was that you, too?”

  “No,” said a Ukrainian-accented voice from the doorway. “That was me.”

  Startled, I looked over my shoulder and saw Targetman standing there. He wore a gas mask over his head that looked like Yamamoto’s, except slightly more advanced. He flipped the visor over his eyes off, however, and glared at Atmosfear and Master Haru. I didn’t see Mechbeth with him, but I didn’t care. I was filled with both excitement and dread. Excited that Targetman was here to help stop Atmosfear and Master Haru. Dread because I knew Targetman was going to kill me, too.

  “Targetman?” said
Atmosfear. He actually took a step back in fear. “Don’t tell me you also had a gas mask.”

  “I do,” said Targetman, gesturing at the mask on his face. “It was the last gift that my Sidekick, Mechbeth, gave to me before she succumbed to the Infection herself. I shot Master Haru’s hand all the way from the other side of the factory thanks to my Perfect Aim Skill.”

  I gaped. “No way you could have hit Master Haru’s hand from the other side of the factory that accurately.”

  “It’s true,” said Targetman. “It took me a while to get here, mostly due to my own Infected Teammates trying to kill me, but now I am here and I am going to do what I am paid to do: Eliminate glitches.”

  Targetman looked at Atmosfear in particular. “And you are Atmosfear, the player who aided Dark Kosmos during the Blackout by kidnapping players for Dark Kosmos to torture. The bounty SI Games put on your head is extremely high, high enough to pay my bills for a whole year.”

  For the first time since I had seen Atmosfear, he looked genuinely terrified. I guess he knew just how powerful Targetman was and just how screwed he was. Not that I could blame him. I had personally seen how powerful Targetman was in combat and knew there was no way Atmosfear could ever hope to beat him in combat.

  “Well, this is an unexpected, but welcome, development,” said Yamamoto. “It is good to see you again, Targetman. Last time we met, you were a new Hero just starting out. It’s good to see you have become the Hero I knew you would become.”

  Targetman just grunted. “Nice to see you again, too, Yama-sama, but we can catch up later. Right now, we have two criminals to eliminate.”

  “I agree,” said Yamamoto with a nod. He looked at Master Haru. “What do you say about this, Haru-san? Will you surrender and allow us to take you into custody peacefully? Or will you continue to foolishly fight us for no reason?”

  Master Haru scowled. “Despite being my former master, it is as clear as daylight that you don’t understand me. I will never stop fighting for a world without pain and death. If that means I must kill you and every last member of the Ninja Guild in order to do it, then I will. I fight for the future.”

  Without warning, Master Haru threw his knife at Yamamoto. Yamamoto easily parried the knife with his sword, but that turned out to just be a distraction because Master Haru pulled out his own smoke bomb and tossed it at his feet. The smoke bomb exploded and unleashed a small smoke cloud that covered him from head to foot.

  Yamamoto, however, rushed over to the smoke cloud and slashed it in half. But instead of his blade cutting through flesh, he only cut through the smoke column that had enveloped Master Haru, revealing that the leader of the Stalking Shadows had completely disappeared.

  “Whoa,” said Cy, staring at the empty column of smoke in shock. “Did Haru get away?”

  Yamamoto stepped back and grunted. “He only thinks he did. I can sense his ki. He is still in the factory. I shall go after him.”

  Yamamoto pulled out another smoke bomb from his armor and was about to toss it onto the floor before I said, “Wait, Yama-sama! Can you free me from these chains?”

  Yamamoto glanced over his shoulder at me and his eyes locked onto the energy chains still keeping my wrists tied together. Without another word, he raised his sword and slashed it down, shattering the chains and getting me this notification:

  Debuff lifted: Power Negator. All your Powers are once again available to you.

  I grinned when I read the notification. My Energy was only about a quarter full now, but that was more than enough for me to use my Powers. I quickly popped open an Energy Drink and downed it all in one gulp. My Energy bar filled up again, making me grin even more broadly than before. I rose to my feet, along with Cy, and looked over at Atmosfear and said, “All right, Atmosfear. Your time is up.”

  Atmosfear stepped back, while Giggles pulled a Health Drink out from his robes and drank it. Giggles’ chest wound began to heal as he rose to his feet and scrambled to stand beside Atmosfear, but it was clear to me that even Giggles didn’t believe they would be able to stop us.

  “Hey, Targetman,” said Atmosfear quickly, putting on a rather forced-looking grin on his face. “I know I have a big bounty on my head and all, but is this really what you should be doing? I mean, Winter here is actually Infected with the Z-Virus. Shouldn’t you focus on eliminating him instead?”

  Targetman’s eyes darted over to me briefly, as if he was seriously considering Atmosfear’s words. “Under other circumstances, I would. But you are the bigger threat. Not only did you willingly work for Dark Kosmos during the Blackout, you also helped Master Haru spread the Z-Virus in an attempt to harm players and destroy the game itself. Winter poses a threat only to himself and his immediate surroundings. You, on the other hand, pose a threat to the entirety of Capes Online. And that is why you must die.”

  Targetman raised his gun to fire it at Atmosfear, but before he could do so, the floor shook underneath us like an earthquake. Almost all of us were knocked down to our feet, including Targetman, who looked around in surprise for a moment as the floor shook.

  “What was that?” said Targetman. He looked at Atmosfear again. “Was this your doing, Atmosfear?”

  Atmosfear suddenly grinned again. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your Teammate?”

  Before Targetman could respond to that, a huge stone fist smashed through the office window and grabbed Targetman like a toy. Targetman had just enough time to lower the visor on his gas mask before he was yanked back into the factory. I caught a brief glimpse of Goalem’s deathly pale, zombified visage before he disappeared, although the sounds of fighting could be heard quite clearly outside as Targetman did his best to free himself from his Teammate’s solid stone grasp.

  “What an idiot,” said Atmosfear with a laugh. He looked down at Giggles. “Giggles, I think it’s time for us to make our escape. Sometimes, you gotta know when to fold ‘em.”

  Scowling, I aimed my Energy Cannon at Atmosfear and said, “Oh, no, you don’t.”

  I fired my Energy Cannon at Atmosfear, but Atmosfear dodged it and thrust out his hands. Black smoke—the smoke he had sucked up earlier—spewed out of his open palms toward us. The smoke quickly obscured our vision, making it almost impossible for us to see before Cy used Gust and blew the smoke away just in time for us to see that Atmosfear and Giggles were gone. But I quickly caught sight of the back of Giggles’ robes disappearing through the office window, so I said to Cy, “Come on! We can’t let them get away. Not again. Not when we can stop them for good.”

  So Cy and I jumped through the window and rushed after Atmosfear and Giggles as fast as we could.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Even though Atmosfear and Giggles got maybe a two-second head start on us, they somehow kept well ahead of Cy and I as we ran after them. Atmosfear, in particular, made great strides as he ran, with Giggles following closely behind. We were running down the walkway in front of the offices, heading to … well, I wasn’t sure where Atmosfear and Giggles were going. Best as I could tell, they were simply trying to find the quickest way out of here. But I had no intention of letting them get away. I had already allowed that once. I would not repeat my mistake.

  I fired Ice Beams at the two, but my attacks missed, although at times only narrowly. It seemed like both Atmosfear and Giggles had either great Evasion or maybe had leveled up Dodge a lot because they sometimes managed to avoid Ice Beams that should have hit them. Cy helped with regular Gusts, but even his attacks missed.

  As we ran, I glanced down at the factory below. I saw ninja—Ninja Guild and Stalking Shadows alike—wandering around in what looked like dazes, seeking out fresh human flesh and blood to feast upon. I also saw members of the Task Force doing the same. It was a reminder of what I would become if I didn’t get healed right away. In the corner of my eye, the Infection rate was now 51%. My hunger and thirst grew stronger than ever and I found it harder and harder to think straight, but my single-minded focus to bring Atmosfear to jus
tice helped me push forward regardless of my feelings.

  The four of us were just about to reach the end of the office walkway when Atmosfear suddenly grabbed Giggles and jumped off the catwalk. I thought he was going to jump down to the floor for a second, but then he landed on a slightly lower level catwalk and resumed running. Without missing a beat, Cy and I made the jump and landed as well, although Cy nearly fell off upon landing and I was forced to grab him to prevent him from falling to the floor below.

  That gave Atmosfear and Giggles more time to put more distance between us. The two of us resumed running after them when suddenly three ninja jumped up and appeared before us. Two of them were Stalking Shadows while the third was a Ninja Guild member, but I didn’t even hesitate to blast them back with Ice Beams and Cy’s Gust, knocking all three of them off the catwalk onto the floor below.

  By now, Atmosfear and Giggles were well ahead of us, but still within our sight. I pushed myself to run faster than ever, but it was hard because I was already running at full speed. Below, I could hear the various zombies all growling and crying out as we passed overhead, but I ignored them in order to focus on Atmosfear and Giggles.

  Our pursuit took us all the way around the factory, forcing us to make sharp twists and turns just to keep up. More than once we almost lost Atmosfear and Giggles, only for us to see them again a moment later. My Stamina kept me going, but it was running out and would soon hit zero if we didn’t catch up with the Villains soon. But again, I ignored it in order to focus on catching up with them.