He winks at the camera and the feed goes back to the Pangea Online reporters. They looked as shocked as I am. I don’t think anyone expected the tournament to start a day after interviews. For something this big, usually there is at least a week of buildup.
“I don’t think anyone saw that coming.” The woman in the red dress turns to her co-anchor. “I’ve got a feeling this tournament will be full of surprises.”
The man nods. “Sometimes we all want to eat our dessert first. And it looks like we’ll be digging into it first thing in the morning. Stay tuned as we turn the broadcast over to our analysts as they reveal their favorites to win the tournament and dissect all of today’s news only on the official Pangea Online stream. As for us, we’ll be back here bright and early for the first stage of the Pro-Am Tournament. For Cynthia Blackstone, I’m Greg Orwin, it’s time to level up.”
I turn off the feed as it transitions to a table with four analysts. The last thing I need is to hear their thoughts and predictions.
“I hope you’re ready, Dean. Because tomorrow will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.”
His face is grave as he stares at me. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s show them what The Boxes are really made of.”
“We will. Now go home and get some rest. I need you at your best tomorrow.”
After Dean leaves, I sit on the couch to the sound of Fenrir’s snoring. We have some stiff competition. The odds are definitely not in our favor, and I don’t even want to know who the analysts have their money on. Probably Ryken. I can’t let Dean down, though, so I’ll be going at this with everything I’ve got.
I sound like Ryken as the thought crosses my mind, but two words stand at the forefront.
No mercy.
Chapter Fourteen
When I arrive home, I send a message to Buzz, Grayson, and Aleesia telling them not to worry about me, but I’ll be muting all incoming messages for the night—for everyone except Dean, but I don’t tell them that. If he needs me, I’ll be there, but I want time to myself to get in the headspace for the tournament. I know the others will want to wish me well, but the last thing I need is encouragement.
I expected to have more time. For what, I’m not sure. Dean and I have spent weeks training on so many different worlds just to get a feel for what may come, but the truth is that we have no better idea than anyone else. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have one advantage that others don’t. I know that full-immersion is coming.
Will it be unveiled from the start or is going to be in a later level? Will the Broken Lands be a part of the tournament? If so, will Carter and the others be a part of it?
I lay down in my bed and stare at the ceiling. More questions than answers. The story of my life.
Closing my eyes, I try to quiet the voices in my head, to silence the worries. If I’m feeling this stressed, I can only imagine how Dean is feeling. If he is stressed, he does a good job of hiding it. Maybe he’s better suited for this tournament business than I ever was.
The dull ring of my alarm slowly amplifies, gently waking me. I eat, shower, and strap into my haptic suit. Fenrir greets me enthusiastically as I enter my portal and a few minutes later, Dean arrives.
My jaw hits the floor when he steps into my home portal. Instead of going home and getting rest, it looks like he spent the evening shopping for a new outfit. His cowboy outfit is gone, replaced by something resembling my own.
He wears a red tunic, hemmed with black. A golden axe is embroidered on each collar. A golden wolf buckle stands out prominently against his black belt. Black pants tie the whole thing together. His outfit is practically identical to the one I’m wearing, but in a different color.
He looks at me expectantly. “What do you think?”
My face flushes, and I’m suddenly aware of just how much this means to him. I could make a joke about how we look like a better combination than a warrior and a cowboy, but I don’t want to downplay what he’s done. “I think we look like a damn good team.”
A grin spreads across his face. “Yeah, but we both know I wear it better.”
“Ha, whatever you say, kid. Just know I’m the original.”
Dean plays tug-of-war with Fenrir while we wait for instructions about the tournament. The giant wolf slings him around my portal like he weighs nothing.
A few minutes later, I receive a notification, detailing a special portal and the code to get in.
Dean and I go to the coordinates listed and input the code. We materialize inside of a massive white room.
You have entered The Vacuum. All abilities, levels, weapons, and items have been stripped of their power upon entering.
I open my inventory and sure enough, every item is grayed out and unusable. We all have our clothing, but any stats associated with them have also been removed.
Several hundred challengers are already here, and more materialize by the second.
Dean looks on in awe beside me. “This is a lot of people.”
Standing so close together, the competition finally settles in. Many of the faces around us are just as awestruck as we are. Two gnomes get lost among the host of large bodies. A giant with a young boy perched on his shoulder has the best view around.
We have quite a road ahead of us.
Off to the right, Ryken and Dawn stand with their arms crossed. A skeleton walks up to Ryken, says something, and then abruptly takes a step back.
“Esil!” A hand grips me firmly on the arm and I turn to see Talia. Her brother stands sheepishly behind her. “I was surprised to see you show up in the interviews. I thought your tournament days were behind you.”
I wrap my arm around her, giving her a half-hug. “So did I. But here we are.” I glance around the crowd. “It’s good to see a friendly face, though. I hardly recognized you in your new setup. Talia, this is Dean. Dean, Talia.”
“Nice to meet you. This is my brother Chadwick.” She spreads her arms wide, showcasing her tribal outfit. “You know I enjoy the spaceworlds, but in my free time, I like to get back to my roots. Maybe we can all keep an eye out for one another when the time comes.”
To our left, a group of beast people have huddled around one another. A couple of minotaurs, a centaur, others with the heads of lions and tigers. Are they forming alliances already or admiring one another’s avatars?
“I don’t think you’re the first person with that idea. We need—”
A gust of wind sweeps over the crowd as Nancy enters through a portal in the sky. Her pegasus flaps its massive wings as she hovers in the air above us. Her silver armor glimmers as it reflects the whiteness of our surroundings.
“Greetings, challengers, and welcome to the Pangea Online Pro-Am Tournament. I’m going to keep this short and simple. Your journey begins here. Complete stage one and you will move forward in the tournament. Fail, and your journey is over. In the end, only one team will be victorious. Good luck, challengers!”
She snaps her fingers and bodies begin to dissipate all around me. The next thing I know, everything is black.
Chapter Fifteen
There’s blackness everywhere. I wait for my eyes to adjust, but it never happens. A faint beeping echoes in the distance. My feet are on solid ground, I can tell that much, but that is the only thing I know for certain. Extending my arms, I feel the space around me. My fingers graze a cloth-like material.
“AHHH!” someone yells.
The scream carries as something firm swats at my arm.
“Esil, is that you?” Dean’s voice is higher-pitched than usual.
“Yeah, it’s me.” I breathe a sigh of relief. We’re together, so this is clearly stage one of the tournament.
The ground shakes, and I wobble to find my balance in a world where I can’t tell up from down. The space around us rumbles to life and dim lights flicker all around us. A pathway ignites beneath our feet in orange neon and a hatch suctions shut behind us.
It looks like we’re inside some kind of spaceship
. Panels and pipes run along the walls. Machinery hisses and grunts on the other side of the walls.
“Where are we?” Dean asks, his face bathed in an orange glow. His new clothing has been replaced by a gray unitard and matching gray boots.
I’m wearing the same thing.
In answer to his question, a prompt appears in my vision. Digital neon letters hover in the air before me.
In the year 2525, while passing through an interdimensional wormhole, the megatransport ship CS Lancaster disappeared while on a supply run to the intergalactic front. While the weaponry and armor on board are vital to our efforts to hold our territories from foreign invaders, there is a greater threat upon the ship. A rare artifact which could prove disastrous if it falls into the wrong hands. For twenty-five years, its whereabouts have remained unknown.
Until now.
The CS Lancaster has appeared just outside of empire territory, emitting a distress signal. All attempts to contact the crew have failed. An extraction team was sent to investigate and recover this valuable artifact. Upon entering the spaceship, the alpha team discovered that the ship had been overtaken by beings from foreign dimensions. Their attempts to make it to the control room failed.
Your research vessel has been commandeered for the good of the empire. While reinforcements have been sent, it will take days for them to reach your location. We must not allow the CS Lancaster to fall into enemy hands! You must take the control room at all costs, clearing the ship of any foreign inhabitants that stand between you and your goal. The fate of the empire depends on it.
Your team has docked at the lowest level up the ship. In panel A75, you will find an extraction kit hidden away for extreme circumstances. Equip the kit and fight your way to the control room, gathering weaponry and armor as you do so, and bring the CS Lancaster home.
“Sounds like a classic tower climb to me.” I turn to Dean. “We fight our way through each level, getting better gear as we go along. If we reach the control room, we’re on to the next round.”
Dean looks down the hallway. “Do you think the others are here? Or are we each playing our own version?”
“I have no idea. In the Developer’s Tournament, we each had our own first stage, but then we were all together in the rest. This ship could be the size of a small city for all we know, so I guess we’re just going to have to find out.”
“Then we better get moving.” He takes off down the hallway.
The grates beneath our feet clink with each step, sending ominous echoes down the empty tunnel. The dim lighting and winding corridor does little to put me at ease.
Each panel we pass is labeled with faded paint. A27. A49. A67. A75. Bingo.
Dean opens the panel. A tray slides out topped with two black boxes. Two latches run along the sides of each box. We each take one and sit in on the floor in front of us.
Out of curiosity, I open panel A74 to see if there are other hidden items, but it’s filled with breakers and wiring.
“Let’s see what we’re working with.” I return to the box, flipping the latch and opening the lid.
There’s a slight hiss as the interior of the box rises and then expands. On each side, there’s a silver helmet with a mirrored faceguard. In the center, two gleaming white chest plates reflect the dim light. Beneath them sits a badge with a barcode. I assume that’s how we’re making our way through this ship.
Dean’s box is much smaller. Inside, there is a futuristic pistol, an item that looks like the hilt of a sword, and two small metallic orbs.
He picks up the pistol and it whirs to life. A glowing streak of light runs down the side of the barrel. “Well? Are you gonna stare at it all day or are we going to try and win this thing?”
The entire thing is sleek and polished. If I had to guess, it’s some kind of energy weapon.
I put on one of the helmets. It fits snugly to my head and an augmented reality overlay pops up on the inside of the faceguard. A health bar appears over Dean and when I look at his weapon, stats appear in digital green letters.
Weapon. Plasma Pistol.
The sword hilt turns out to be a plasma sword. It feels natural in my hand, and when I activate it, a beam of hot white energy shoots out about two and a half feet long.
“Badass!” Dean’s eyes light up as I slash the sword in front of me.
I can toggle the blade on and off as needed. There’s also a detailed reading of my own health on the right side of the faceguard, displaying a map of my body segmented into different regions. Currently, they are all green, but I expect that it will change if I’m injured.
The two orbs are plasma grenades.
I pick up the chest plate and press it to my body, it opens at the edges and strips of kevlar-like material wrap around my back and sides.
Armor. Flex-armor. Level 1.
I focus back on the badges.
Key card. Technician. Level 4 access.
Interesting. Does that mean we’ll have to find other key cards as we go along?
Dean follows my lead, putting on the helmet and then the armor. He picks up a plasma grenade and surprisingly, it sticks to his chest plate like a magnet. I test it out my own armor with my sword and it clings just the same. Not a bad place to store items in a pinch.
“Are you cool taking the pistol?” I remove the sword and feel its weight against my palm. “Your aim is better than mine.”
He pries the weapon from his chest and spins it around his finger. “Is that even a question?” He squeezes the trigger gently and the strip of light glows brighter as it charges for a pulse shot. “I’ve seen you play. It’s like watching a barbarian, the way you charge into battle. The sword will suit you just fine.”
“Alright, alright.” I roll my eyes. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
With our weapons at the ready, we make our way down the empty corridor until we come to a door. Dean reaches up to scan his badge, but I stop him.
“Wait a second. We need a plan first. We don’t even know where we are going.”
“Maybe we can find a map somewhere.”
“Wait, that’s a great idea.” I play around with the AR overlay on my helmet. There are options for notifications, appearance, voice commands, and much more. I could spend a lot of time setting it up to my exact specifications, but we don’t have time for that. We just need it to do the minimum to get us to the control room. After some trial and error, I pull up a map of the ship. “Go to your settings on the helmet. I think we just hit the jackpot.”
A blue hologram of a giant spaceship hovers in front of me. It’s shaped like a giant block with rounded edges. A half-dozen massive thrusters protrude from the rear, surrounded by an equal number of smaller thrusters. More run down the sides, top, and bottom of the cargo ship.
I reach out and touch the hologram. It spins with the movement of my fingers. When I push them together, it zooms in, and when I pull them apart, it zooms back out. A tiny red dot shows my location on the bottom. As I zoom in on the holographic blueprint, I’m able to see numerous cargo bays, hundreds of floors, tunnels, and rooms. This ship is bigger than I ever imagined.
Dean moves his hands back and forth as he examines the map. “How are we supposed to get through all of this? If we take our time, it could take days to fight our way to the top.”
I enable voice control on my helmet so that whenever I touch the side of the helmet, it responds to my voice. “Search for control room.” A section of the ship near the upper front glows yellow. “Display the quickest route to the control room.” A zig-zag line forms from our location to the control room.
Add route to display? pops up in my vision. I accept and a highlight forms along the floor leading from where I’m standing to the door.
“Alright, scan the badge.”
Dean swipes it, and the door opens with a hissing sound. My eyes adjust as we step out into a brightly-lit hallway.
Where the one we came from was some kind of maintenance shaft, this one is clearly fo
r transport. It’s wide enough to fit a vehicle and several lifts are parked to the side. Lights flash along the walls, but there is no sign of life.
I take an instinctive step back when a loud screech exits a vent overhead. Heavy thumps echo, and the metal sags as something crawls down the shaft.
“What the heck was that?” Dean stares at the vent.
“No idea, but it didn’t sound friendly. Let’s get moving.”
We follow the display route from the helmet as it guides us down the hallway. After we pass through two gateways, I begin to wonder if we’re going to face any obstacles. That thought comes to a halt when Dean scans us through the third gateway.
The gate slides open, but the passage is blocked. A thick wall of a golden translucent substance distorts the area beyond. A skeleton floats inside the outer edge of the substance. My helmet beeps as it analyzes the substance.
Foreign Lifeform. Slime. Slow, deadly, and unintelligent. Slimes absorb the life force of any living creature trapped within its gelatinous confines.
If these are anything like the slimes I’ve encountered in other worlds, then they are slow but dangerous. While they are easy to evade, getting caught inside one is almost certain death. The floating skeleton is reminder enough not to underestimate the slime.
Considering it’s blocking the entire entrance, we need to find a way through or around. Ripples travel through the slime as it wobbles, making the lights on the other side bulge and shrink with the movement.
“How are we getting through?” asks Dean.
“I don’t know, but the path leads through here and we don’t know that there won’t be something equally as dangerous if we try to detour. Maybe we can try to lure it toward us.”
Pangea Online 3: Vials and Tribulations Page 13
