Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  EQUALIZE

  Book One of the ETHER COLLAPSE Series

  Written by Ryan DeBruyn

  © 2019 Mountaindale Press. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by US copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About Ryan DeBruyn

  About Mountaindale Press

  Mountaindale Press Titles

  GameLit and LitRPG

  Fantasy

  Appendix

  Acknowledgments

  There are many people that I would not have made it here without, and I don’t want to forget anyone in particular. So, I am not going to thank any individuals. However, I must thank my family who has always believed in me since day one, even when I didn’t believe in myself. You are all my closest friends, and I can’t imagine life without you.

  I would also like to give a heartfelt thanks to the team at Mountaindale Press for discovering my story and helping me polish it into what you will read. Without you guys, my dream of being an author would not have been recognized.

  To everyone else that knows they had a huge impact on me and this chapter of my life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Chapter One

  Whether it was the middle of the night or high noon, every living creature across the entire planet slept. This was not the typical sleep humans were accustomed to. No, the entire planet had dropped unceremoniously into a pain-induced unconsciousness in near unison mere hours before.

  The only intelligence that was jarred awake by the wave of Cosmic energy, from over a billion years of slumber, was Gaia—what humans called Earth.

  Gaia awoke slowly, stretching out and feeling her surface. Mental dendrites touched her expansive skies, deep waters, and fathomless depths. She felt wrong somehow. Everything was perverted; everything was disgusting. Gaia’s waters were filled with flotsam, discarded items of strange configurations, and the surface was strewn with materials in strange alignments.

  Next, Gaia performed a routine check of her Essence reserves, and a rumble from deep in the earth sounded across the planet. The temperature all over the planet rose a few degrees when she found stores of the precious liquid pillaged. Scrambling in search, she began finding parts of her invaluable Essence inside mechanical devices, long snaking pathways that stunted vegetation, and in the flotsam and other items that had been callously discarded.

  The entire planet shuddered as Gaia saw the pointless uses her most precious resource had been abused for.

  The dendrites Gaia had put out for her Essence noticed something else. They noticed the many sapient lifeforms that had grown and populated her surface. The investments that Gaia had made so long ago in a champion race, what the other races called Humans, had become ripe.

  Even though the creatures were a bare whisper of what they once were and what they could return to, Gaia knew that the sheer numbers were worth quite a bit of Essence. Even now, the wave of Ether that had signaled her re-awakening was simultaneously altering every creature on the planet.

  Gaia could create life and even control sentient life growth or mutations to a large degree. Sapient life, however, had free will, and it was impossible to fully control. If it wasn’t for the immense potential and functions sapient life could perform, no planetary god would create it or allow it to thrive.

  An idea began to crystallize, a plan that would use the Essence that was excessively placed inside every structure and mechanical device on Gaia’s surface. Perhaps, in time, it would benefit her champions and, in the short term, return some pillaged Essence back to the planetary god.

  An additional problem became apparent as the Ether raged over the god’s surface. The virulent Ether was slowly sinking into objects, creatures, and sapient lifeforms alike, but this energy felt different to Gaia. It felt desperate, almost like it had been put under pressure—or held in a forced state and was finally free again.

  There was also far too much of the cosmic energy from what Gaia could recall. Normally, Ether had areas where it pooled heaviest, but this was to an extreme and far more expansive.

  Gaia used her influence to coax into existence Dungeons and Territories, areas that would attempt to control this powerful energy, hopefully calming and utilizing Ether to benefit her. As the creatures on the planet fretfully slept, Gaia worked with cold, calculating detachment. The planetary god worked to regain her lost Essence, but she worked within the ancient patterns set down in a time long forgotten by humans.

  That is why, with her first adjustment, Gaia attempted to report in with the city of Atlantis, to inform the council and log the changes she had put in place. However, to her shock, it was abandoned, which was strange and exhilarating in a way the planetary god couldn’t fully grasp.

  No one could trigger a stop to her plan. There could be no appeal against her decisions. Gaia could barely remember a time before the Atlantean council existed and now it was just… gone.

  No one in Atlantis meant no bureaucrats to block her perfectly logical decisions.

  Gaia remembered the ancient codes and was still obligated to follow them, so as all life slept, the planet began triggering events that would take a full rotation to come into effect.

  The surface once more shivered and shuddered as notices were sent out. Topological changes were made. Though no sapient being living would recognize it, that didn’t mean Gaia wasn’t following the ancient Atlantian laws that even she with all her power couldn’t ignore.

  ***

  Rockland Barkclay felt like he had been up all night drinking malt liquor, eating fast food, and smoking cigars, though he had never smoked before. The only other option that could add to this unpleasant bouquet of flavor on his palate was not worth thinking about.

  Rocky tried furrowing his brow because what little sunlight penetrated his thin eyelids was already sending spikes of pain into his sensitive cranium. From past experience, he knew he needed to get up and find some water to begin calming the wild hangover beast.

  Funny, he didn't even remember drinking last night. In fact, he had…

  Before Rocky could think better of it, he shot up, opening his eyes wide as the events of the previous night
came crashing back.

  ***

  Rocky had been all alone, staring up into the star-studded night sky. He leaned his back against a tree, adjusting himself against his makeshift seat—a stump. He glanced at the unopened bottle of vodka in his hand, weighing his options for what might have been the hundredth time. He glanced between the clear bottle and his growing beer belly before reluctantly shaking his head and setting it on the ground beside him.

  It had been a terrible year for him, and it was only May. Right at the start of the new basketball season, Rocky had discovered that his hard work in becoming a professional athlete was going to amount to a pat on the back and a friendly walk to the door.

  Shortly after that life-altering moment, his father had passed away suddenly, leaving his mother, sister, and him bereft.

  Those two tragedies had led him to sit against this stump contemplating his future. The Algonquin weekend trip was commonly a father and son affair with a lot of drinks, fun stories, and bonding. Of course, this year, Rocky had come mostly because his father had already booked and paid for it before his untimely death.

  “It could have been us, two old men,” he spoke to the universe with the vain hope his father might hear and chuckle. Rocky stood and heard two distinct pops from his knees while his shins protested in a constant pain he had begun feeling on the basketball court, the same pain that led to the swinging door of his semi-pro team, hitting his ass on the way out.

  After placing a freshly quartered log on the fire, Rocky sat back down, easing his heavily injured, thirty-one-year-old body back onto the stump. He then watched the fire dance briefly before sighing and trying to kick his brain into gear. It was time to stop feeling sorry for himself and decide what to do now that his sports career was over.

  “Come on, man! What do you want to do? It isn’t a hard question. Not like asking a significant other where they want to eat.” He chuckled to himself, thinking of all the times he and his ex-girlfriends had infuriated each other. Then he thought.

  Talking to yourself is always a good sign…

  The problem—at the moment, it felt like there wasn’t anything he was good at. Rocky could probably count on the fingers of one hand what those things included, and half of them had been taken away.

  As Rocky sat contemplating, the starry night had begun to come alive. It went from the dark of a heavily canopied night to that of an open sky valley, and it kept illuminating. Before long, it was as if every leaf on the trees was glowing with a strange iridescent light.

  The critters of the night began to sing their unique songs of warning to each other, creating a growing cacophony.

  Deep in gloomy contemplation and staring at the fire, Rocky didn’t notice the change. He kept circling back around to finding a better version of himself, his sad and weary mind only considering how to make his father's memory proud. He was unable to shake the depressing feeling that his dad had died disappointed in him.

  Unsurprisingly, being an athlete who wanted to spend his nights playing World of Warcraft had hurt his career. Staying up all hours to raid a dungeon or remote into a Dungeons and Dragons game with friends had been extremely counterproductive.

  Rocky could’ve told you from experience that burning both ends of the proverbial candle didn’t leave a person the most enthusiastic when it came to training. Partly, he blamed society for not allowing him to be more competitive, stifling his inner desire to win at any cost. Some sports psychologist he had hired had explained it to him as the “Deviance Dance”, how being competitive and cutthroat at one time was seen as normal, but somewhere, society had stopped wanting to see that “base” nature. That societal cage had removed some of the fun of competition, but mostly, he blamed himself for not conforming fast enough for all of his shortcomings in the sporting arena.

  The night continued to brighten until the stars no longer shone off the river in front of him. Instead, the river reflected a vivid kaleidoscope of cyan, varying in shades and oscillating between blindingly bright and manageable.

  The light still might not have roused him if it didn’t combine with utter silence. Just as all the creatures of the forest reached a crescendo, everything in the forest seemed to hold its breath simultaneously. The eerie quiet in conjunction with the odd light finally clued in his reptilian brain to an issue.

  Rocky covered his eyes and almost fell off his stump as the brightness finally overwhelmed the light from his fire, breaking into his contemplations.

  What the hell?

  He tentatively peered through his fingers towards the sky, trying to figure out what sort of idiot had turned a spotlight on the river from the air. What Rocky gleaned in that brief moment made his mouth fall open and his hand fall away from his eyes as they widened. The sight froze him and simultaneously sent heat running over his shoulders.

  The whole sky was illuminated by something off in distant space, beyond the stratosphere, behind the moon. As Rocky watched, he saw the light envelop the entirety of the moon, which began to glow a bright white in the kaleidoscope of blues around it.

  The moon had been swallowed in less than a blink of an eye. Whatever this crackling blue energy was, it was coming fast!

  Rocky just had time to swear at those pricks in the G7 and the other country leaders, suddenly realizing why they had all made such a push for massively populated space exploration. Then the light was too bright, and his eyes felt like they were being burned from his skull. "Fudge nuggets…!"

  ***

  The act of recalling the events combined with the glaring sun immediately elicited a cry of pain. He quickly brought both of his hands up to his head to ensure that it still was there and not a mushy, exploded mess. Finding his skull intact, his hands quickly checked his ears for blood.

  His overly sensitive eyes couldn't even focus properly; no matter which way Rocky turned, there was a massive, blue square of light in the middle of his vision and funny looking, flashing lights in all the corners.

  Perfect, I always wanted to be a slot machine…

  He tentatively removed one of his hands from his ears. With relief, he realized his hands were dry, but if his ears weren’t bleeding then why did his head feel like it was under constant pressure.

  Rocky began furiously rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with mixed results. His focus did seem to get better, but the blue square began to become more distinct. In fact, the blue box had foggy, white figures on it which slowly began to form into letters and finally resolved into words.

  Restart Message: Thorsday, Juno XXIV, GR0

  In an attempt to keep Gaia from being overwhelmed with discarded items, Gaia has initiated a restart. Anything that is left unattended for a single rotation on her axis will be reclaimed by Gaia or put to use by her. This action can be changed by Atlantian Court Repeal, as written in The World Decree Section 3.

  Best of luck, and may your ancestors help you rise!

  As soon as Rocky finished reading, the screen blinked out. He made an excruciating scan of his surroundings and noticed that the sun was well past its peak, making it mid to late-afternoon.

  Where has the day gone? And why does moving my head hurt so much! Seriously, what the tarter sauce is going on?

  Rocky tentatively got to his feet, figuring he would head to the river and grab a bottle of water out of the mesh sack he left floating there to keep the bottles cold. Both hands had since returned to his head to minimize turbulence, and the pressure seemed to ease his headache somewhat.

  With every step, Rocky rechecked his hands for blood, still unable to convince himself fully that the pain he was in wasn’t something more serious. Only the complete loss of sanity or massive brain damage could explain the continued flashing lights and whatever that blue box with a message on it was. Right?

  Where is my new jacket? The one with white sleeves that tie up in the back… the one you get placed in before that comfortably padded room.

  When walking to the water, he noticed the entire park was devoid of
sound. The water was smooth and unbroken as if it was a sheet of pristine glass. The trees were more significant, their limbs stretching higher. Their leaves were shading the clearing more heavily, and their coloring just spoke of a vivacity he had never seen before. A deep, steadying breath made Rocky wince before questioning the air quality. It was too fresh—like a storm had just come by and cleansed the entire forest.

  A cold sweat broke out over his skin. Maybe he was deaf, or the pain in his head was because he was missing the part of his brain that interpreted his senses. What else could explain the flashing lights and eerie quiet?

  He took a calming breath and shouted, “Hello?” The sound skipped along on top of the water. His face contorted into a mask of pain, and he stumbled when the treble of the echo violently assaulted his ears. His hands shot back to cover them. He decided they would stay there for a while.

  Upon reaching the river, he dunked his whole head under the water. He was forced to remove his hands from his ears to use them to brace his body on the nearby rocks. The water felt refreshing and invigorating, so Rocky gave a few vigorous screams into the liquid, which only had the effect of making a few bubbles of air get trapped in his nostrils. Once the pressure of the water took over the vital job of plugging his ears and soothing his headache, he was finally able to relax. After a few long seconds, he resurfaced and took a deep, relaxing breath before immediately reaching a hand to the side to fish out the mesh sack of water bottles floating alongside him. Ripping the cap off a plastic water bottle, he gulped down every drop. The pain in his head diminished a fraction more, and Rocky finally rested back on his heels and allowed the water caught in his hair and dark beard to seep on to his "May the Force Be With You" sweater.

  With Rocky’s immediate concern of his brain missing or leaking out taken care of, he glanced at the bottom right corner of his vision where a lime colored, flashing light was starting to annoy him. Out popped another box; this time it was green in color with the same white writing across its front.