by Dante Doom
"It sounds like he's independent then, right?" Sang asked. "He tells everyone what to do, but no one instructs him, so… I would be tempted to believe that he is singular, not collective."
"You speak heresy of our Leader," the Draco hissed. "Our Leader is not an independent, for he serves the needs of the all. As we all do."
"But you can't answer my question," Sang pressed. "You don't know who the Leader is directed by. My belief is that he is directed by himself."
"I shall answer your question in a moment," the Draco murmured. Sang could see that a small panic was beginning to come across him. Even though he was a lizard creature with a physiology very different from that of a human, the doubt was easy to see on his face. The creature lifted his hands up and chittered out in a strange, almost melodic language. A few moments later, another Draco entered. This one was wearing military gear and held a rifle in its arms.
"You have summoned this one?" the armed Draco asked.
"The prisoner has asked a question that I cannot answer," the janitor replied.
The armed Draco looked at her and shook its head. "It is not wise to provoke the ire of your captors, human woman. You will do good to keep your mouth shut."
"It's a real question," the janitor continued. "She asks who directs the Leader if he directs all of us."
"What an asinine question," came the reply as the armed Draco waved his hands dismissively. "That is simple: the Leader is directed by all of us, just as we are all directed by him."
"Do you have to clean, too?" Sang asked with a grin.
The Draco looked at her sharply. "Of course, we all must clean."
"All except for the Leader, right?" Sang replied.
There was a silence in the air as the armed Draco looked at the janitor. They exchanged glances and Sang could see that they were both puzzling over her questions.
"And so you are suggesting that the Leader is independent? That is a heretical charge," the armed one said after a few minutes of silence.
"Can you so easily refute my charges?" Sang asked.
"I cannot, but I cannot answer a great many questions, either," the armed one said.
"I know of one who can answer this question," Sang said. "The human. Van."
"You manipulate us as a means for escape," the janitor hissed, but the armed one raised his hand to stop the hissing.
"Speak your case as to why Van would know the answer," he said.
"It's simple," Sang replied, hoping these creatures weren't very good at picking up on deception. "Van is the ally to the Emperor, is he not? He was brought aboard this ship and given a lot of power. But Van is an independent thinker. Why would your Leader work with an independent?"
"So that the glory of our race can be furthered through expansion," the janitor replied. "Everyone knows that."
"I don't know…" the one with the gun said as it slowly slung its rifle over its shoulder. "It is a major security concern to have a human aboard our ship, especially when he has been given such power by the Leader."
"Van knows the Emperor well enough to tell us the truth," Sang said. "If we go find Van, he can tell us who is directing the Emperor. I know he'll back me up in telling the truth, that your Leader is nothing more than a filthy independent thinker."
"Bold words," the armed one said as it walked over to Sang and deactivated her cell. "But perhaps you are correct. Not everyone is in agreement with his decision to let you humans aboard this ship. But the Leader tells the Elders that they are wrong. No one can sway him. I have not thought of such a heresy before, but now… now it makes sense. I will take you to Van and we will see what he has to say."
"I must protest!" the janitor said. "The Leader instructed all of us to keep the humans restricted to their holding areas."
The armed one waved his hand dismissively. "It is for the good of all that I take her away for a while. You must recognize that and aid us, as well."
Sang could see confusion come across the janitor's face. It didn't seem to know what to say back. Free choice was probably a new thing for the Draco, and it probably had no idea what to do with two conflicting pieces of data from its own race.
"I must ponder this," the janitor said. "I will not stop you."
Sang grinned as the armed one motioned for her to get moving. Once she found Van, everything would be over for these evil monsters. They wouldn't stand a chance.
Chapter Eighteen
Van floated before the crashing tides of water, watching as the islands began to rise above the ocean. With a simple motion of his hand, the islands began to curve into a shape that he found most fitting. His eyes darted over to the gigantic statues that were standing tall above the land he was creating. Those statues resembled the figures of Sang and the Emperor. They were there to remind Van of what his true mission was. Sang would free him someday, and he would be required to act quickly. No matter how many hundreds of years passed in his mind, he knew that he could not forget what the mission was. So, for thousands of years, he had looked at the statues each day in order to practice what he would do as soon as he was free.
The island continued shifting and writhing as it began to grow trees. This would be the area where players of the new game would be able to create their own ships and sail across the seas. Van had decided that his fantasy world would be one of piracy and trade. Despite how much he despised being locked away and forced to build a universe all by his lonesome, he was growing to enjoy the process of creation more and more with each passing day. The loneliness had faded a long time ago, and instead been replaced by obsession. He would carve the world in an image fitting for all players, from the most casual to the most hardcore – there would be something for everyone in the game.
As Van moved his fingers to populate the land with NPCs, his eyes felt a sting and he was suddenly laying on his back inside of a pod. Standing above him was a Draco and Sang.
"Van!" Sang said as she grabbed him by the arm and began to pull him out from his pod.
"Wah?" Van muttered, trying to speak. He felt extremely woozy, and all of his plans for action melted away as he felt his brain turning into mush.
"Let's do this thing!" Sang said as she helped him up. She reached into her bag then and pulled out the silver sphere meant to destroy all of the Draco. "You can log out, right?"
"We must question him!" the Draco standing next to her said.
"Right, we will," Sang said.
Van glanced at his UI display and saw that the log-out function was disabled. "I… I can't log out," Van said.
"Well, I really hope this doesn't affect your pod then," Sang whispered, "because we don't have a lot of options."
"Trickery!" the Draco hissed as it reached for the gun hanging at its side. "You fooled me with lies!"
"Not lies!" Sang said as she grabbed the Draco's arms before it could pull its weapon free. The word Grapple hovered above the both of them and Van watched as the two wrestled with one another. The wrestle meter was quickly moving in the Draco's favor.
Van didn't have any weapons on him, as they had all been confiscated by the guards as soon as he'd been brought aboard the ship. Without the ability to log out, he'd be susceptible to the virus that Sang was carrying. His mind began to reacclimate to reality and he could feel the thousands of years of vivid memories washing away as if they were nothing more than dreams.
"A little help!" Sang shouted as she fell to the ground, still refusing to let go of the gun. The Draco was holding onto the weapon with one hand and was punching her in the face with the other. Van could see her health dropping down from 1,700 to 1,400 quickly. That wasn't good at all.
Van noticed that while his character's ability to log out of the game was hindered, his abilities list was still activated. That meant he had access to some high level powers which might help them escape the ship. An idea flashed to his mind, and it was the perfect plan. He activated his Fierce Rage power and watched as his already boosted stats went up even higher. His strength score said
MAX and he grinned as he felt his muscles grow even larger.
Van reached down and effortlessly ripped the Draco off of Sang, throwing the creature hard into the wall. The steel wall gave off a clonk sound as the alien flattened against it. Lethal Damage hovered above the Draco as it slid to the ground.
"Aw man!" Sang said as she held the rifle in her hand. "It says I’m not proficient with this weapon and can't use it."
"Yeah, well, we're not gonna be here long, Sang," Van said as he walked over to the Draco and picked up a short knife that was hanging from the creature's belt. "Can you set the virus to go off after a certain amount of time?"
"Yeah," Sang said, "of course."
"Good. Set it for seven minutes and follow me – we're going back to Oirthear."
"The game world? Why?" Sang asked.
"No time to explain!" Van said as he pointed at a large light that was resting above the door leading out of the room. The light was beginning to flash rapidly and Van could hear shouts. "We gotta go!"
"Alright, as long as you know what you're doing!" Sang said as she followed after Van as he ran out of the room.
"I think I do!" Van replied as he made his way through the empty hallways of the ship. Despite the alert going on around them and the sounds of an alarm screaming as loud as it could, there were no forces to oppose the two escapees.
"Alright, it's set," Sang said. "When should I activate it?"
"Right now!" Van replied as he rushed up to the door leading to the bridge. He had no idea how to escape from the ship using those platforms, so his plan was far less elegant. He was gonna smash a window and jump back to the planet. Hopefully, the programmers hadn't put in realistic re-entry physics.
"Okay, seven minutes until it all goes to hell," Sang said. "And you think you can log out in such a short amount of time?"
"Yeah," Van said as he tried to push the steel door open. Normally, they would just slide open when someone got close, but this door didn't want to move. He took a deep breath and activated his Doorkicker ability. Power surged through his legs as he reared back and kicked with one foot, causing the steel door to shatter upon impact. Shards of metal splintered everywhere and Van was forced to close his eyes for a second to protect his vision from the shrapnel.
"Nice work," Sang said as she rushed past him and onto the bridge of the ship. Thirty Draco were all lined up in a row, their rifles trained on the both of them as Van and Sang came to a halt.
"Ah, crap," Van said. He tensed up, waiting for the laser fire… but they didn't shoot.
"Are you two serious?" the Emperor asked as he strolled out from behind the line of soldiers. He was shaking his head, and Van could see there was a look of mild amusement on his face. "You really thought you could escape this place? Whatever was your plan? There's nothing in this room for you to use to escape."
"Screw you!" Van shouted back.
"That's really all you have to say?" the Emperor laughed.
"Van, the clock is ticking," Sang hissed. "We gotta get you out of here."
"You stand there laughing," Van replied, "but you have no idea what's aboard this vessel, do you?"
The Emperor shrugged. "I have no idea, no. But I don't care, because your precious planet is going to be destroyed now. You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? I was earnest in my offer, and I even gave you the benefit of the doubt, but you still decided to cling hopelessly to your race. How pathetic."
"You think I'm pathetic? Because I'm not the one who's about to flee from this ship in a panic," Van replied.
"Ha," the Emperor snorted as he walked up to them with a sneer.
"We've engineered a virus to backfire on your pods. The lethal biofeedback system you developed? Turns out there's a way to make your fancy Draco pods employ it. And it's about to go off in less than five minutes."
"Oh really?" the Emperor asked. "You expect me to believe that?"
Van grinned. "In five minutes, that virus will pulse out a wave and anyone that it touches will experience a severe electrical pulse that will kill every nerve in their brain instantly. You'll be cooked from the inside in less than a second."
The Emperor didn't look nearly as confident as he had before as Van continued to describe the way the virus worked. He frowned and glanced at Sang. "Is this true?"
Sang nodded. "You bet it is. See, we got access to your little schematics, so guess what? We figured out exactly how your pods were designed to terminate their hosts and, oddly enough, getting those pods to activate the Clean-Up Protocol is surprisingly easy."
"So you can blow the earth up right now, give the order to activate whatever system you have, or you can save yourself," Van said as he confidently walked right up to the Emperor and seized him hard. The word Grappled hovered above the both of them.
"Are you insane?" the Emperor shouted as it tried to push him off, but Van's increased strength – thanks to the Emperor's buffs – had made it a difficult task to pry him off. "You're in one of those pods, too! You'll die!"
"I'll do anything to make sure humanity is safe!" Van shouted back.
"No! No!" the Emperor screamed as he kicked Van hard in the stomach. The words Grapple Broken flashed in front of Van as he fell backwards. "I did not get this far to die here! Not in this game! Not like this!"
"Why do you speak as such?" asked one of the Draco as it looked at the Emperor. "You speak with fear of death in your voice. There is no dignity in what you say!"
"No dignity!" echoed a few other Draco. They were now all staring at the Emperor as if he were some kind of a freak.
"To hell with you all," the Emperor said. "You have no power over me in this wretched realm."
The Emperor's body began to shift and change as he transformed back into the red dragon that Van had been so familiar with. With a roar, the dragon rushed up to the glass of the ship and crashed through it, flying back toward Oirthear at full speed. The lack of a vacuum suddenly pulling everyone out into space indicated that there was indeed oxygen in space.
"We gotta go!" Sang shouted as she grabbed Van and helped him up.
"Should we kill them?" asked one of the Draco. They were all looking around in complete confusion, unable to figure out what to do.
"They are enemies of the Draco!" shouted a bright yellow Draco as it rushed into the room. "Kill them!"
Lasers began to fire at Van and Sang as they rushed toward the shattered glass.
"Come on, come on!" Sang yelled as a few bright streaks of yellow nailed her in the side of her head. Her health dropped down to 750.
"Crap!" Van yelped as bolts of electricity crashed into him, as well. The pain was intense – far more than just the haptic simulation. They must have activated the lethal biofeedback setting on Van and Sang.
"I can't run!" Sang cried out as the word Stunned floated above her head. Her legs gave out and she crashed onto the ground. "Get out of here, Van! Log out before it's too late!"
"No!" Van yelled as he turned back to retrieve her. "They've got the biofeedback on – you'll die here!"
"Look, you risked your life to save me already!" Sang said as she rolled out of the way of a few more laser bolts. The Draco were beginning to grow more and more disorganized as they fired their shots. They were scrambling for cover, despite the fact that no one was shooting at them, and a few of them were running into the walls and continuing to attempt to run.
"The hell is going on?" Van asked as he rushed up to hoist his fallen ally up. He slung her over his shoulder and then fled toward the broken windows that would lead to freedom.
"I put a scrambling thing in the virus code, meant to mess with controls; I guess it's doing a really good job," Sang said.
"Uhhhh," Van said as he began to walk backwards. He wasn't trying to walk backwards, but no matter what he did, his legs refused to follow his orders. "This might be a problem."
"Oh crap, the virus just switches controls," Sang said. "Try walking backwards instead."
Van shrugged and tried
to walk backwards, only to move forward. He took a deep breath and began to run for the exit, rushing as fast as he could. He hoped that his jumping capacity still existed as he reached the edge of the platform. There was no time to take in the beauty of the view as Van leapt with all of his might off of the edge. He found he could still breathe, which was great news, and sure enough, gravity was still functional. Space was programmed to be nothing more than a big empty area with some stars painted into it.
As Van fell toward the planet, he wondered if he was going to survive all of this. Not the fall, of course, but the virus. He was still trapped in his pod on the base, so would he be able to log out as soon as he landed on the ground? Or would he be liquefied in his pod in less than two minutes?
"So, the virus, was it engineered to be based on proximity?"
"Yeah," Sang said. "It's based on the zone only – that way, it doesn't accidentally spread to innocent players. The virus is, uh, pretty strong, though. We don't have the power to deactivate it once it gets going."
"Am I infected?"
"No, there's a signal output from the orb. Once you're out of range, you'll be safe," Sang replied.
They sailed toward the ground at a startling speed and Van let out a sigh of relief. As big and blustery as the Emperor was, he wasn't the main threat now. That ship was the problem. All of the major controls were located inside of that ship and, with all of the workers dead, the final protocol wouldn't be activated. All that was left for them to do was to find the Emperor and finish him off, once and for all. Van still had one biofeedback hijacker in his inventory, too, and no doubt the Emperor would be looking for revenge.
"It's my turn to save us," Sang said as she activated her Ring of Safe Falling. She grabbed onto Van before he smacked into the ground and the two slowly drifted toward the ground. Van glanced around and chuckled.
"What do you know – we're at the starting beach of the game. Ha, this was where we were first attacked by those bandits."
