by Justin Sloan
“Rivera, tell me you’ve got something,” I said into my comms. “This… isn’t working.”
She took a moment to reply, then cheered.
“That’s a good sound, right?” I asked.
“It’s crazy, but it might work,” she replied. “Trust me?”
A window with dialogue choices popped up for me, like in my game and so many more before it. I laughed, ignoring it and said, “You know I do.”
“Ah, you’re no fun. Okay, here goes.”
The whole labyrinth started shaking, walls crumbling as new walls formed into them, like adult teeth taking over the baby ones, but neither being able to win, so both falling out. Monsters appeared and were squished by new walls moments later—various colors of brick and some with intricate designs.
“What’re you doing?” I asked.
“Merging the labyrinth,” she replied with a chuckle. “Basically, all floors and offshoots will be one, like laying all of the maps on top of each other as if they were transparent.”
“You’re insane,” I said. Then a red floor appeared and I saw one tunnel was staying constant—the one with Omarav in it. He gave me a glance over his shoulder and took off at a sprint.
“You see him?” Rivera asked. “He’s showing up on my map right in front of you.”
“I’m in pursuit,” I replied, and was charging down the hall after him. As I ran, our surroundings were changing. The area around us morphed into a dark castle with skeletons and zombies. I recognized the early Castlevania setting, but before the first of those monsters could hit me, it had transformed again, and the ground was a rainbow road with vast drop-offs into space on either side.
He made one wrong step and started to fall, but as he did the setting changed again. Now we were charging up a hill and onto a broken bridge, where he pulled out a whip and yanked himself to the opposite side. I wasn’t sure if this was from Link’s Awakening or some similar game, but said screw it—we didn’t have to follow game rules. I ran and jumped, grabbing hold of the broken bridge on the other side to pull myself up. Only, by the time I managed to climb up and get my footing, I’d lost track of Omarav.
“What’s happening right now?” I called out for Rivera as I ran, looking for any sign of the general.
“He’s gotten smart,” she replied. “Saw what I was doing with porting bits of old games, and is using it against us. I keep trying to counter, but then he counters right back. Some were so fast that you didn’t even notice, I’d bet. Like the Star Fox one.”
I shook my head, trying to get a grip on all of this, then noticed several vines hanging over the side of the hill. That seemed to be the only way he could’ve gone, so I ran to the vines and started lowering myself down. Knights and monsters from the game ran around down there, but I didn’t have time for that, and took off toward a bridge that crossed a river near a waterfall. I wasn’t sure he’d gone that way, but if not he’d likely have still been here, navigating those monsters. Unless they didn’t attack him—but I couldn’t bet on anything right now. I ran past more monsters, trees, a waterfall… I saw a castle in the distance, but no sign of him.
At a turn around a hill, a blue knight leaped into my path and charged me. I took aim and fired, but the rounds from my rifle bounced off his shield and armor. In the game, Link always used a sword, so I dropped my rifle and pulled out my Ka-Bar just in time. It took several well-placed strikes before I broke through, but then I had him and he vanished.
“Rivera,” I said, coming to a pause by a small pond and running my hands across my head as I looked around, feeling hopeless. “Rivera?”
No answer came. I wasn’t sure what I even wanted to say, except to maybe ask if she could find a way to track him, if she had any smart ideas. I was alone, standing there with my rifle on the ground at my feet, only the Ka-Bar in my hand.
In a fit of anger and confusion, I stepped forward and heaved my Ka-Bar into the pond in front of me, then collapsed to my knees. What was I doing here? I buried my face in my hands, trying to keep from shouting out in frustration, when I heard a faint dinging sound like a bell. When I looked up, I saw an image of the monk in the pond.
“Did you drop this?” he asked, holding out my Ka-Bar. I nodded, and he grinned. “Honesty. One of many characteristics I’ve been proud to see on you lately. Here, let me give you something better in return.”
He pulled out a weapon that resembled a Ka-Bar, but with a line of red glowing along the hilt. He tossed it over and I caught it, then gripped it tightly and pressed the indent at the top of the red line.
“Whoa!” I said as the blade shot out in a golden beam of light like a laser sword. It was somewhere between a lightsaber and the gold sword the large fairy gives to Link in the SNES Zelda game, Link’s Awakening. God, I was such a nerd for knowing that. But I loved it.
When I pressed it again, the blade went back to normal Ka-Bar mode.
“Cool, right?” Rivera’s voice came from the monk, and then he transformed into her and stepped out of the fountain.
“How’d you…?” I started, but noticed that the robe still covered her lower half.
She grinned. “New avatar, kind of a mix of the monk I’d been using and my normal one.”
“So it was you? I mean, I guess I figured, but… yeah?”
“The monk, the others. Not exactly ‘me,’ but my creations. Yes.”
“I have this cool sword, but now what?”
“You really think he’s just going to run off, not try to kill you?” Rivera asked. “Think about it—he doesn’t win until you’re gone.”
“So… what you’re saying is—what, exactly?”
“Patience, he has big things coming for you. Just be glad I got here when I did, and…” She turned, gesturing to the monsters and knights within eyesight. “And them.”
I shook my head, confused, but then two of the knights shifted into the forms of Glider and Banshee, as they’d originally been. A couple more started walking our way, transforming into Oliver with his mom, the white wizard and other villagers. And then new characters began appearing, notably Sam from Game of Shadows, Link and Zelda, Mario, the three from Secret of Mana, Bigby from Wolf Among Us with Clem from Walking Dead at his side, and so many others. To my delight, there was even the sexy cat-lady from Dark Stalkers.
I turned as a roaring, thunderous monster horde appeared south of us, charging. They had an equally amusing smorgasbord of enemies. Among them were such legends as Gannon, Smaug, Dark Sol, the space pirate Brimstone, and all manner of dungeon and space monsters from various games and other media. It was like a fantasy and nightmare in one.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on here,” Kline shouted over the noise. He stepped out from the pool as if he’d just exited one of C.S. Lewis’s crazy world-pools from the last in his Narnia books, and the other two Marines followed close behind. “But if all of these guys are on our side, I don’t care what those other bastards are throwing our way. Just point me to the bad guy, whatever crazy-ass video game shape they’re in, and I’ll do the killing.”
“Oorah,” the other two Marines said.
“OORAH!” all of the video game characters in our little army shouted as one.
This was a lot to take in, but I felt the swelling in my chest, the thrill of the fight and the excitement of the moment. Turning to point my lightsaber Ka-Bar at the oncoming horde, I shouted, “For the freedom of the world, for the fight of good against evil. For the fun of it! Let’s kill those sons of bitches!”
I lifted my sword in the air, and they roared as the charge began.
20
This was a war of epic Hyrule Warriors proportions, but with more variety. We were tearing through enemies, my golden Ka-Bar hacking and slashing, my rifle lobbing grenades into the enemy ranks. If not for my upgrades, this would have been impossible—but now I was a certified badass. All of my allies were bringing it like I’d never seen them do in the games they came from, and the three other Marines pr
ovided cover fire while watching with utter fascination.
It was insanity, but the kind of insanity I could spend an eternity in. Every moment of that fight made me want to shout with the thrill of it, every ounce of me saying this was what I was born to do. The idea of life and death meant nothing here, only the slash of my sword, the pull of a trigger.
All of the monsters and simulated enemies had just as much of a chance of killing me as Omarav, but I had a leg up on them—the knowledge that I’d faced them all before, and destroyed them. Every single one of these baddies had been my bitch at one point or another. The vampire from Castlevania swept down at me, fangs exposed, but I jammed my Ka-Bar into his mouth and twisted, cutting those stupid teeth right off. When an army of demonic mutations rose out of the ground from Dante’s Inferno, I didn’t think twice, but swept through them like an angelic hero here to send them back to hell.
Rivera and some of my allies had formed lines on each side of me, and we were pushing forward like a flock of killer geese.
“Where’d you learn how to use that thing?” Rivera asked, gesturing to my Ka-Bar sword.
“VR and sims,” I replied with a laugh, and then plunged my blade into the heart of Jack from Borderlands. He fell, loot guns flying everywhere. At this point, though, I was as equipped as I needed to be, and wasn’t about to slow my pursuit.
A tall man with four arms stormed over to me, but when I cut off two of them, he was no different than the rest of us, just a bit taller and uglier. His head rolled like anyone else’s, and several shots hit the round guy who was twirling his mustache—Dr. Robotnik from Sonic.
Rivera shouted, “You’re welcome,” to which I replied that I didn’t need the help, or not yet, anyway.
When the vast shadow of Smaug passed over us, I wondered if I’d spoken too soon. Bullets rained down from Omarav, who was riding the dragon’s back, and then the fire came. I thought for sure we’d be dead, but Banshee and Glider teamed up to put a force field between us and the fire, which caused it to shoot out over the sides and ignite a good portion of the enemy army.
Omarav cursed and led the dragon back around.
“All of this,” he shouted to me, “can be used to make a change! To shape the world. Why fight it, when you can be a part of it?”
“I am part of it,” I replied, kneeling and taking aim, waiting for our force field to vanish. “The part that’s going to kick your ass.”
The field flickered out and I squeezed, sending two rounds to the side of his head. His shield rippled as I’d assumed it would, but my goal hadn’t been to make contact. It was to use the force to knock him from the beast, and that’s what happened. As he was propelled sideways, he fell, shouting in anger.
At his shout, Dr. Robotnik—still alive, apparently—flew up in one of his crazy contraptions and snatched Omarav out of the air, then the two swept around and came right at me. We both fired, our bullets making contact against shields.
But as he swept around, I took my last grenade and slid it into the launcher. Thwump! It went up and over, making a perfect arc to land in the vehicle. When it exploded, I had to laugh.
The vehicle and doctor were gone, leaving Omarav to hit the ground and go skidding to a stop on his back. My army charged on to continue the battle against the enemy, but I turned back to deal with Omarav.
“Careful,” Rivera said, though a glance over showed she needed to listen to her own advice. She was locked in battle with a purple-bearded monster that I recognized from Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Where and how these guys were digging up these creatures was beyond me. They must’ve had a room full of people going through old games and working to match code against walls put in place by Rivera. How she was keeping up was damn impressive.
Omarav leveled an original Doom gun at me and shot out bursts of red. My recently upgraded shield flickered while I retaliated. My laser sight had him between the eyes and I let loose a barrage of shots, but he thrust sideways, propelled through the air. Then his weapon morphed into a sideways arc-cannon. Bursts of blue shot out with electricity, like the pistol I’d had but a hundred times stronger. The only reason one didn’t kill me was because I had upgraded my health so much. Apparently, it acted like another layer of shield, as the shots hit but only stung. A health bar appeared on a floating screen to my right, showing just twenty-five percent remaining.
My focus and aim upgrades kicked in as I dove for cover, shooting mid-fall, and this time his shield broke, too. Many monsters appeared charging toward us. I realized I could be in trouble now, but then Glider and Banshee were next to me, sending those bastards to digital hell.
“Just you and me, asshole!” I shouted, and this time shot for his hands. Thank God for my increased aim, because not only did the hit make contact and cause him to drop the weapon, but another level also came my way! I dove back and quickly swiped for increased critical strike chance, then swept back in to fire, only he was running!
I charged after him, and he didn’t have the upgrades I did. Apparently, his team hadn’t considered doing a level up mod on him. Or, if they had, they hadn’t done it early enough or he’d focused on something like strength—seemed about right for him.
Before he could reach his monsters, I tackled him by the legs. Pulling back, I twisted one of his ankles and then brought my enhanced Ka-Bar around to get him right in the chest. But he rolled with it, punching down to the ground to set off thrusters that sent him up and spinning. He landed about three paces away, then shot a chain of some sort out at me. At its end was something that snapped as if trying to bite me, but I dodged sideways and laughed, expecting a voice to say, “Get over here!”.
They were going to Mortal Kombat? Fine by me, I trusted in my skills. When he tried again, I slashed up with my Ka-Bar and the gold burst cut through the chain. I spun and thrust, anticipating his dodge and then using my rifle with my free hand to shoot. If not for my enhanced focus and aim, the shot never would have hit, but it caught him in the chest. His armor kept him from being killed, but the impact sent him back and left him gasping. As a Marine I’d learned to always move forward, to take the hill, so that’s what I did. I kept putting the pressure on, and when my next slash with a knife missed, I stepped into it and caught him with a backwards elbow right across the face.
Critical hit! My screen told me, but I could’ve guessed by the crack and the way he fell to his back and started scrambling away, scared.
“This isn’t how today ends,” he said, voice shaky. “You’ll get yours, trust me.”
I was about to come back with a witty retort, when white flashes lit up the sky, monsters and more flickering for a moment.
“He’s trying to change the environment again,” Rivera said through my comms. “Dammit, distract him!”
As the words came through, parts of the land where the fighting was taking place gave way, crumbling into pools of lava. Monsters and allies alike fell to their doom, shrieking. A T-Rex roared as it met its fate, and a cowboy from some old gunslinger arcade game seemed to think he should shoot his way out of the lava—no such luck.
I grabbed Omarav by the lapels, glaring as I applied a choke, pressing my fist hard against his opposite carotid.
“Make it stop!” I shouted.
“They’re NPCs,” he replied with a laugh, gesturing to Rivera, who was fighting more monsters. “All of them are, even her!”
My grip loosened as I processed what he’d just said. “Bullshit.”
“Is it? Think about it—you’ve led the last of the Marines right to me. You all are in one convenient spot. Now all I have to do is press the button and poof, dead.”
I shook my head, not buying it. “Or I apply a tad more pressure, and you go poof, dead.”
“Ever seen The Sword in the Stone?” He grinned, then vanished from my grip, emerging from his clothes two seconds later as a little squirrel. As he ran, he transformed again, this time into a dragon that took off into the air, wings flapping. He circled back to me for an attack.
Before he could reach me, though, the world shifted again and a large slab of earth rose up to slam him in the face.
“That had to hurt,” Rivera said, running over to me and laughing. I grinned, taking my enhanced Ka-Bar and preparing to leap for Omarav, when the ground beneath Rivera gave way. Her avatar’s next step led her right into the lava beneath.
She shrieked for a split-second, then was out, eyes going white so that only the husk of her avatar was dying. Still, seeing the woman I had come to care for sink like that caused my chest to lock up, my arms to stiffen. Maybe she could return in some other form, but I didn’t plan on letting Omarav live long enough for that to matter. He’d done his damage, now it was time to end him.
He appeared as if on cue, charging at me with new clothes materializing around him. He’d given up the dragon look, but wasn’t exactly himself, either. Long claws extended from his fingers, slicing through my body armor, tearing at my flesh. When he opened his mouth, fire gushed forth and I had to throw myself sideways to avoid getting burnt to a crisp.
“This ends now!” he shouted, and snatched me close with one hand, the other held with claws at the ready.
But in the chaos of our quick little scuffle, he hadn’t paid attention to the fact that he’d ended up with his back to the same spot of lava where Rivera had fallen. And he didn’t count on the fact that I had one leg behind his, ready for the sweep.
Just as the Marine Corps had taught me, I pulled on one of his elbows while pushing on the opposite lapel, and swept at the same time.
He went off balance, still holding onto me, and fell, dangling over the side.
“Is this what you want?” Omarav demanded, clutching me with one hand, his other dangling. “We could change the world with the technology of EAC, and I’d be at the front of that change! And you… you can join me.”
