Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (62 page)

"I've chosen!" TheLittleMan shouted.

"Help Eggman, then catch up with me," I called to the other two
[Mechanoid]
s. My feet started pounding a path toward the tiny player. Treasure and Jeeves went toward our human ally.

Had they really just reached this point? Again my mind wondered why we didn't start running right away. We should have tried to glide down straight to the
[Mistborn]
. So many other ideas flashed through my head.

"King Titus! I want to restore King Titus!" TheLittleMan shouted.

There was a gong of noise. Lightning crackled in all directions up above. Once, twice, and a third time. Whatever they had set into motion was starting.

"I'm taking you with me!" MrJohnson yelled. His hands glowed once more. This time, they slammed into his body, energy flooded the
[Behemoth]
's form. He charged across.

"Excellently done." Commander Queenshand turned and stabbed the tiny player in the back. His health dropped to zero in time with a rocket of explosions to the left.

The energy racing above stopped. I halted my dash and looked around. Eggman had been scattered into pieces along with MrJohnson. A pair of goggles that had once been on the player's head served as the only recognizable left over. Light crashed around the
[Mistborn]
in waves. My breath came in gasps. Everything was falling apart.

"What have you done?" I stared at the Commander. She had betrayed the player immediately after he provided a name. Never before had I seen such a backstabbing NPC.

"You were too slow. A better soldier would have used every resource. A good soldier does anything for their King." Commander Queenshand lifted her head. The woman was looking down on all of us, as if we were nothing more than ants, or chess pieces on a board to be thrown away.

"All this death, your men, betraying those players, stealing the Mistborn, just to bring back one man." I didn't know what would drive anyone, AI or human, to throw away so many lives.

Or maybe I did. Commander Queenshand was after the same thing I was. A chance to bring back someone important. We just drew the line at very different places. Ruthlessness was not a trait we shared, nor would I ever want to have that look in my eyes. All of those people, for one man.

"Our best hope at defeating the enemies! I've set in motion events that will save more lives than I've lost!" Commander Queenshand pointed a finger at me. She curled up a fist and gears appeared around the edges. The holographic orange device surrounding her limb exuded danger.

"Hundreds dead, for one man," I said, stuttering over the words. We had taken different roads. She was willing to lose men, I had badly negotiated a cease-fire.

"Not a mere man! A king! A ruler who could lead our planet better than those squabbling brats of his! Weak brats, like their mother. They are not prepared for the storm to come!" she was rambling.

Treasure and Jeeves were recovering from the blast. They appeared to be trying to find their legs. Dusk was coming down the mountain and hissing in displeasure.

My face drained.
[Mechanoid]
s didn't have blood, but energy from our
[Core]
s felt similar enough. Real me, the one lying inside an ARC device was getting worked up. I tried hard to find my happy place, but it wasn't clicking like normal. Thudding crawled into both ears. Commander Queenshand was ranting, but the words were difficult to distinguish.

All this work for Xin, and I had failed.

"A good soldier knows who to attack first!" The Commander struck during my self-reflective hesitation. Both her legs turned into blurs of motion, faster than any NPC I had ever seen. More of the orange and holographic mechanics appeared.

Dread overpowered the other emotions. My eyes glanced to the right, seeing where Commander Queenshand was going. Jeeves' face looked pained while Treasure tried to awkwardly
[Repair]
a detached leg. The AI was hopping in place, not watching the battle. Hal Pal, in any form, had never been a fighter.

"Look out!" I started running to intercept her. Jeeves' eyes went wide. Its body turned toward Treasure and pushed the gold and silver
[Mechanoid]
away.

In a flash of motion, Commander Queenshand was next to Jeeves. I felt like the
[Awareness Heightening]
skill kicked in only to help me watch these events in slow motion. Commander Queenshand's clenched fist came up, orange transparent gears spinning into existence.

She jabbed on with one hand, and
[Mechanoid]
body parts flew off in chunks. Commander Queenshand moved with a boxer's instep and gave my friend an uppercut. I watched the former Hal Pal AI shatter. Its health bar dropped and as dying cries came from the butler and nanny voices.

"Ahhhhh!" Treasure screamed. Her body was still falling. One of the woman's arms lifted as the other pressed buttons on her wrist device. Dusk was similarly hissing in outrage, his tiny body leapt into the air.

Old habits die hard. I frantically tried to imagine
[Blink]
ing next to them.
[Morrigu's Gift]
should have been in my hand. The large two-handed sword of William Carver and my
[Barricade]
skill could easily deflect the attack. Failure resulted on all three counts.

I had none of those items. Instead, I reached out with one hand and stumbled forward. Treasure's wrist shot lights at the Commander. I saw the aura of orange flicker, pieces shattered away, but this enemy leader was exceedingly strong. Treasure had never been a fighter either, it wasn't in her
[Core]
.

It was in mine. I got ahold of myself and switched to a large cannon blaster. One shot would drain all my energy. Treasure's face was wide with anger. In the time it took me to transform my weapon loadout, Commander Queenshand had already punched through Treasure's head. The
[Mechanoid]
popped like a pinata, wisps of smoke drifted off of the female human's orange lined fist.

I fired anyway. I didn't know what else to do. The blonde's head whipped in my direction. Her shoulder lifted and arm curled. Orange holograms once again flared to life in the form of a round shield.

She glared at me. Dusk landed on her back. The woman spun around and popped a blade out of its sheath and jammed it into the
[Messenger's Pet]
in one smooth motion. He bit, spit, and clawed with all four arms. The Commander's shields of orange were shattering further. Her health remained untouched. She twisted the blade while I tried to fire off one more large blast from the cannon.

It wasn't enough to save Dusk. He shattered in a spark of light and energy. I hadn't saved anyone. I lost myself for a moment. In less than thirty seconds the woman had decimated all those who stood by me. It was my worst fear realized. All the deep-seated worry that had plagued me for days came to pass. Those I cared for were gone once more.

Commander Queenshand tried to fire up the holograms around her legs, the ones that allowed such insane bursts of speed. An image of gears came in but faded rapidly. For a moment, the woman stared at her legs then shrugged. She stomped toward me.

Those around me always seemed to pay a price for my inability. First Xin, I should have made her skip the train. My sister, putting up with the repeated suicide attempts. Beth, learning all about my issues was another mistake.

This woman was responsible for all the latest failures. Lightning crashed above, lighting up the localized destruction for me to see. My eyes zipped to each fallen body in turn. It felt like the ARC synchronization skipped, imagery froze, my head tried to push it all away for only a moment.

Then rage solidified. This time, when Xin was taken away, I had a reason. A focus and it hadn't just been the possibility of her. It was Jeeves, Dusk, and Treasure. All of them gone because of her, a woman willing to stab someone in the back to achieve her goals.

"You took away my wife!" I shouted as lightning crackled above. The cannon shifted to my heavy Gatling gun. Another round of energy drained away as bolts slammed into her orange shield.

Numerous pieces chipped off, but it still held strong. Her armor finally showed signs of damage from Dusk's vicious clawing. Portions around her belly and shoulder were adorned with long streaks going through to skin.

"Weak!" Her hand curled in front and a giant orange shield popped up. The second set of blasts from my Gatling gun vanished into it, shattering additional holographic gears.

"You took away my friends!" I yelled. The giant gun was tossed to one side. It transformed into miniature Dusks and they ran toward her.

"Because you're weak! A coward!" she shouted. Her hand glowed orange and she bashed one of the metal Dusks hard.

My hand reached down in an attempt to activate
[Material Conversion]
. The microwave noise dinged, but my energy kept going up. Mass stayed constant. There might not be enough material in here for me to absorb, or this wasn't metal at all. Obsidian should have been comprised of iron and other elements.

I couldn't see a way through but kept trying. Four more Dusks went out. My body turned into a tiny creature compared to the looming Commander Queenshand. I felt like a child standing against a demon. David versus Goliath. An ant against her boot.

The world around us was falling apart. Energy above kept zipping through purple mist in waves. Thunder rolled and overpowered us. This was hell, this was the underworld, and I was fighting a losing battle.

My head hurt. The world around me felt disturbingly alien. A nightmare landscape where every passing second drove home painful imagery. I would go down swinging, Voices, game creators, and my own past be damned. Cowardice would never be an option again.

Two of the
[Mechanical Minion]
s tore into her shield. It had finally shattered, but her fist dealt excessive damage. She destroyed one, and another attacked. I could see her health bar dipping.

I had spent too much mass on the army of Dusks. My wrist lifted up, fingers tipped down, and weak blasts went off. One by one the
[Mechanical Minion]
s bit at her armor. They each got a few good bites in before being punched into a million pieces.

I tried to activate the fourth ability,
[Camouflage Program]
. My body shimmered briefly with green. This skill wasn't useful in a blackened landscape like this one. The laser blasts kept going off. By the time Commander Queenshand got close enough to swing she was at half health.

It wasn't enough.

I panicked and tried to use
[Blink]
once more. The ability of my prior game world would have saved me.
[Morrigu's Gift]
and
[Morrigu's Echo]
would have easily displaced that shield. Here, though, in this world, I had been doomed from the start.

Then the universe tilted like someone changed the channel. There was no other way to phrase it. Lightning above still flickered. Obsidian still existed around me, but it felt like the science fiction scenery sloughed off. This floating piece of earth became an island, and all around a storm raged.

Once more I tried
[Blink]
, only this time the ability worked. My body snapped into being right behind Commander Queenshand. I swung around, feeling a level of grace and ability that had been missing since my banishment from Continue Online. The weapon in my grip lashed out automatically. Similar to how I had done thousands of times before. Everything tilted back. It had only been a few seconds before science fiction and space odysseys ruled again.

My body, shorter by far, sat perched on the woman's back. Two streams of light came over of the metal hilt in my hand. Both eyes shook as I followed the lasers down and saw where they drove through her. The weapon had pierced her from shoulder to stomach.

[Mechanoid]
body parts lay all around. Eggman and MrJohnson were in pieces. Commander Queenshand grasped at the twin lasers sticking out of her chest. Orange holograms fragmented as the woman tried to grip the beams of solid energy. She attempted to take in a lungful of air.

Her head turned just enough for me to see one outraged eye. I stared as the light of consciousness drifted away and she lost focus. The health bar shattered and a message popped up telling me I had killed a key NPC. My fingers lost their hold as we fell forward.

My belly shook. Bile crept upwards. That hadn't been a player who might resurrect. She didn't feel the same as a monster or dungeon creature. The creed I tried to follow of letting humanoid NPCs live their lives in peace had been violated. I had killed in rage.