Monster Hunt NYC 2

by Harmon Cooper

  It wasn't quite punk rock.

  We were playing jazz and with hints of contemporary rock, but there was something DIY about it, something completely original. Also – and it was something I hadn't really thought about up until the point where I was on stage watching the ink shadow do his thing, always the front man like Thad had been–

  We were creating music with a digital entity.

  That was what was strange about it, we were literally creating music with a feat of artificial intelligence, of neuronal physics, quantum mechanics, in sync with the OMIB, insert any large word here as to how the Proxima Galaxy came into existence – it was so real that we were able to create music with it.

  And even with the fact that we had the tournament tomorrow, I was looking forward to playing music with the ink shadow again, which looked like it would become a regular thing.

  The owner of the Midnight Library had offered us a nightly gig after our performance. We were going to be the house band, which was pretty sweet, starting tomorrow night.

  “You aren’t the only one that needs rest. I still have class tomorrow morning,” Iris reminded me.

  “I’ll call a taxi.”

  “Just sleep here,” she said, her hand falling onto my wrist.

  “Sure,” I told her as the NV Visor let me know I was now allowed to take it off. I removed the visor and placed it on the bed next to me. Iris sat up, stretched her arms over her head, and went to the restroom to get cleaned up for bed.

  I wanted to call the Huntresses here, but I figured it’d be good to get an actual peaceful night of sleep, rather than the distraction they’d create. I was up next for the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth with my finger and used some mouthwash.

  I really need to keep a change of clothes here, I thought as I looked myself over in the mirror.

  I removed my glasses, stepped out of my jeans, and got in bed with Iris. We lay there for a moment, the few inches between us feeling like it was several miles wide. I kept wondering if she was going to turn to me, or if I was going to bite the bullet and turn to her.

  The tension was palpable. I remembered what it felt like to kiss her the previous night, how our lips seemed to fit perfectly together.

  Now isn’t the time, I told myself, followed by a second thought: now is the time.

  And somewhere in that tug-of-war of deciding if I should make a move, and deciding against it, I actually fell asleep.

  It had been a long day, a day that started off with hunting, moved to a brawl, then more hunting, then getting my ass handed to me in EverLife, then battling in the subway in a dark tunnel, to a literal nightcap with Dalton the ink shadow.

  Dalton and the Alpha Duo ...

  I fell asleep reliving some of the key moments on stage.

  That was the weird thing about music: once it started, it was like a slow-moving vehicle blasting forward at the speed of light, and you were one of the wheels. You just kept rolling forward with it, and because of the space-time dilemma, it was hard to pick out any specific point.

  With this as my mindset, and given six hours or so for my musical dream musings to stew, I awoke the next morning with a crazy idea.

  Iris hadn't been gone for long, and as I took in her place, my sleepy eyes still waking up, I pictured her there alone, going about her business.

  For a brief second, I felt her imprint, from her musical instruments in the corner to her stack of books at the table where she would study.

  This brought a smile to my face. She really was unique.

  After a cup of coffee, I relaxed onto her futon and placed the NV Visor over my head.

  It was time to do some training, time to prep for the tournament.

  I logged into EverLife, and my avatar appeared in the middle of the field. There was some activity in the mythcrea quarters, a few lights on, the morning sun red and casting a strange ruby light on a scene playing out in the meadow.

  Rose and Rambi the giant rhino were facing one another, as if they were discussing something. Gobi was weaving in and out of their legs, a happy look on his face.

  Not far behind them, Joe Camel was eating some grass, and as usual, I could see Yaksha in the distance, sitting in contemplation. A few birds flew through the air chirping and divebombing insects.

  The huntresses were still asleep, and rather than wake them up, I figured I'd go say good morning to Rambi and Rose.

  Hello, Chase, Rose said as I approached, her voice ringing out in my head.

  Good morning, said Rambi.

  You seem excited about today, Rose thought to me.

  “I am. These tournaments can be a little grueling, as you know, but they're also fun, and if we win our division, we'll be able to compete against other kingdoms. Plus, I have an idea.”

  And the secret of EverLife? she thought to me. Have you given up on that?

  “You mean cracking the Steeple? No, it's still something we’re working on, we just have to get through this tournament today. Maybe we'll head to the Steeple after, or maybe tomorrow. I don't know.”

  Gobi waddled over to me and fell onto his back, exposing his soft belly. I bent over to tickle his stomach, and he cooed while I did so.

  Please remember what I told you about the power you may find. It may be something worth keeping a mystery.

  “I haven't forgotten,” I told Rose. “As far as I can tell, it could be just a glorified puzzle that the developers put in to keep people interested, to create an artificial mystery. Who knows?”

  I have the feeling that sooner than later, you will know. But it remains to be seen what you will do at that time.

  Even though she said this in my head, and even though I knew she was trying to say something positive to me, I could tell that there was a hint of melancholy in Rose’s voice.

  I placed my hand on her scaled head and look deep into her eyes. “I can't tell you what the future holds, but I can tell you that I will try to make the best decision I can when given a set of choices. I don't want to endanger anyone here, nor am I some megalomaniac that wants to control all of EverLife, so if that's what the tower offers, you can count me out.”

  Thank you, Chase.

  I took a step back and looked at them for a moment. As a bearadillo, Rose was by no means small, but she was a lot smaller than Rambi, who was about the size of one of those aeroSUVs that the President flew around in.

  “So, we're in this tournament later today, and I may call on one of you, or both of you, for our fighting party.”

  And the rules? Rambi thought to me.

  “It works like this: we're allowed two Hunters, one Alpha, and one mythcrea. There's a coin toss at the beginning of the match which is administered by the Kingdom Lume authorities. The winner of this toss gets to select their mythcrea second, which gives them an advantage after they've seen what the other side has selected.”

  By all means, call on us whenever you'd like.

  We are ready and willing, added Rose.

  “Thank you,” I said as I took the short walk over to Yaksha.

  Just being beside the Thai mythological being made me feel peaceful.

  He radiated a calm that I would be hard-pressed to describe, and considering what Dalton had said about vibration, it was almost as if Yaksha was vibration, or better, beyond it. He sat peacefully, looking south, his eyes half-open, his chest moving ever so slightly as he took a deep breath.

  “Hello, Chase,” he said without looking at me.

  “Hey, I just came to say good morning.”

  “Good morning to you as well,” he said, a tranquil smile spreading across his face.

  “Anything new?” I asked, which was a stupid question, but I really didn't know what to talk to him about. I kind of just wanted to be around him, to be on his level for just a few moments.

  “Everything is new, and it constantly renews itself even as it dies,” came his reply. “You are participating in the tournament today, are you not?”

  “I am, and I have an idea
about how Iris and I can actually be useful.”

  “I see, well, in that case, enjoy the competition. But remember, if you compete with no one, no one competes with you.”

  "Do you really believe that?”

  He thought for a moment. “The statement does remind me to not be overly competitive. After all, the desire to win is still a desire. And these desires are what lead us to make mistakes, to make poor choices, especially when they aren't checked.”

  “And if I desire to eat because I'm hungry?”

  He laughed. “Then you should eat! That is not quite the desire that I speak about when I speak of desire, but we can discuss that more later. For now, I would like to enjoy the morning tranquility, and its serene vibrations. Please come talk to me again another morning.”

  “You got it,” I told him as I turned back to the cabins. Serene vibrations, I thought as I made my way through the meadow, careful not to trample any flowers.

  By the time I arrived, Aya was already outside, stretching her hands over her head and yawning. She was in her leather battle outfit, and as soon as she saw me, her mouth snapped shut and a tough look formed on her face.

  “I hope you’re ready,” she said, almost in a mocking way.

  “I'm ready, what about Lady C.?”

  “You know how sleepy she is,” Aya said as she approached Lady C.'s door. She drew her blade and tapped it against the door. Once Lady C. didn't respond, she hacked through the door, laughing as she did so.

  Lady C. came storming out wearing her pajamas, her sheathed swords held in one hand.

  She yawned, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and flicked some splinters off her pant leg. “You're going to fix my door later, Lady Aya,” she said after she’d collected herself.

  “I know, I just had the urge to hack something down this morning. I should have just hacked up Chase.”

  “That's why I'm here,” I told the two. “I have an idea, and we're going to try it out.”

  Lady C. and Aya exchanged looks. The Metican yawned again and kicked some of the remains of the door aside.

  Aya simply turned to me, brandished her buster sword and brought it to the ready.

  “Are you sure about that?” she asked.

  I equipped my bass guitar, and once the strap was in place, I nodded my head. “Just try it.”

  Aya gave me a grin I swear only a hyena could make as she approached me with her weapon. I had a sense of where her ghost limbs were; as she grew closer, I took a deep breath and focused on the vibrations around me. I couldn't quite see them, but I tried to feel them, to be one with them.

  “You are going to play for me, or fight me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Fight.”

  And as stupid as it sounded to say, I brought my hand down and played an open chord.

  The grass ripped from the field, forming a perfect line that swept Aya off her feet.

  “What did you just do?” Lady C. asked, her jaw dropping.

  “Try it again, Aya,” I said, now aiming the headstock of my bass at her.

  Anger spreading across her face, the Thulean charged at me, only to stop suddenly and fling a throwing knife instead.

  I played another open chord; the throwing knife fell out of the air as if it had hit an invisible wall.

  I was breathing heavily now, feeling the vibrations all around me, feeling the grass, feeling the sky, feeling vibrations of the two Huntresses as Aya drew her blades.

  I was moving as well, almost as if I was getting ready to play another note, my shoulders heaving up and down as I waited.

  After another exchange of glances, they both tried to attack at once, Lady C. still in her PJs.

  I hit two chords that knocked both of them off their feet.

  “It's a fucking miracle,” I whispered as I blasted them with another note from my bass guitar.

  I decided to try something else. I changed some of the sound settings on my dashboard to give the bass guitar extended reverb.

  Aya used her ghost limbs to throw herself up into the air, so she could bring her blade down on me.

  My reverb attack not only sent her flying backwards, it kept her in the air for a moment, each note slapping her.

  Whooom! Whooom! Whooom!

  I would have continued too, if it weren't for the fact that I was suddenly frozen.

  Everything around me was still moving, but I could no longer play my instrument. Whatever had hit me was only related to my physical movements.

  And I was pretty sure I knew the culprit before a pajamaed Lady C. approached me, a defiant look on her face as she spun and cut my head off.

  Instakill!

  As it had done before, my head zipped back to my body and reattached itself to my neck. The spell broke at this point, and I gave Lady C. a thumbs up.

  “You learned a new one, didn't you?”

  “I was lonely last night,” she said, her chin raised at me so that she stared at me over the bridge of her nose. “I decided to do some reading.”

  I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as Aya sliced my arm off.

  -331 HP! Critical hit!

  “That will teach you to cheat.”

  “Ha!”

  I waited for my arm to reattach, and once it did, I aimed the neck of my bass at her and hit a four-finger chord past the twelfth fret mark. A walloping blast of energy cut her down, and by the time she got up, she was seething with animosity.

  “Hey, let's chill out for a second,” I told her, a shit-eating grin spreading across my face. I couldn't help it; I’d finally been able to give her a taste of her own medicine.

  “Magic musician,” she spat, “could it get any worse? Well, you are much more than a bard, I will give you that.”

  “You think singing might work?”

  She relaxed her posture a bit, morphing from teacher to collaborator. “I have no idea,” the Thulean said. “I was unaware that you would be able to use your instrument to attack us. I am assuming that little Iris will be able to do this as well. How would you call this? A game-changer?”

  “Yeah, that's a good way to call it, or a good investment on these pretty pricey axes.”

  “Axes?” Lady C. asked.

  “Our instruments. And I wouldn't call Iris ‘little Iris’ if I were you, Aya. Because she is one hell of a shredder on a ukulele.”

  “A shredder?” Aya laughed. “Our Alpha has suddenly become confident. Okay, choir boy, sing something to me. Let’s see if it works.”

  “Any requests?”

  “Happy birthday?”

  Lady C. nodding in agreement. “Or you could sing one of those cute songs that you were singing with Iris before, that really cute one. I Know You’re There. Ooo, I Know You’re There.”

  “I'll just sing Happy Birthday.”

  Aya’s frown flipped into a smile. “I definitely approve.”

  I cleared my throat. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to beautiful crazy dangerous Aya, happy birthday to you.”

  As I sang, I tried to focus my sound waves on them.

  Nope, didn't work.

  I tried another one. “I am with you, you are with me, even though I can’t see you, I know you’re there.”

  Aya chuckled. “Looks like choir boy will have to stick to his axe.”

  “Doesn’t matter, this is a serious game-changer for us. I’ve got to tell Iris.”

  She would flip when she found out my discovery, and I was stoked to see what she was capable of. I knew that she was a better musician than me, that she could play several instruments with the skill of someone who had just focused on one instrument throughout their musical career.

  If I was good with this newfound ability, she’d be straight killer.

  “I’ll be back.”

  I raised my hand to log out, and Aya's ghost limb stopped me.

  “We're not done practicing,” she said as she lowered my arm. “Get back into position, and this time, Lady C. and I are going to come at
you full force, like we would if you were a normal opponent.”

  “Um, sure, yeah, let’s do it. But I’ll need to log out to tell Iris after, she needs to train with you two before the tournament.”

  “You’ll have your chance to boast after. Lady Cassandra, change to full armor.” Aya licked her lips. “And do not, I repeat, do not hold back.”

  Chapter Fourteen: Rockstars

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes!” Iris said, her form visible on my viewing pane.

  “Great, get ready for an awesome surprise.”

  “Come on, at least give me a hint…”

  “Okay, music. That’s your hint.”

  “You learned a new song?”

  “Ha! Something like that.”

  I was at her home, it was around noon, and Iris had just gotten out of class.

  I’d since learned a few things about using my bass in EverLife, my favorite thing being to play around with the effects. Putting a phaser on it, or adding delay, or increasing the distortion really changed the way that the attacks were delivered.

  But now I was back in the real world, and the real world always presented new problems. For one, I wanted a change of clothes, and rather than go home, I ordered some from EBAYmazon, just their EBAYmazon Basics 3D printed stuff, which was on the way.

  I was also hungry, and figuring Iris would be hungry as well, I ordered us some calzones, which would arrive in the time it took for her to walk home.

  My real-world bank account wasn't looking too bad, but after the tournament, we would need to do some hunting, so we could do some mythcrea flipping.

  And what a way to make a living, way more interesting than any hobby-based job someone might have had seventy-five years ago.

  In high school, we’d taken a trip to one of those early twenty-first century museums, and had seen all the primitive electronic items they used at the time. It was hard to imagine that this was what people had used, and I was sure a hundred years from now, people would be looking back at us and saying the same thing.

  But I was a musician, not a historian, and for the most part, aside from the way that I could modify the instrument over iNet, not much had changed about instruments.