by Lucas Flint
Abaddon staggered back from the blast, looking down at the blade-less hilt in his hands with confusion and annoyance. A notification popped up in front of me when the sword broke:
You successfully shattered Boss Abaddon’s World Ender!
You successfully stole World Ender’s stat buffs! +50 in every stat!
My jaw fell open when I saw the buffs I got. I hadn’t even realized that Abaddon’s sword had any special buffs. It definitely explained why Abaddon was so freakishly powerful, although I had the feeling that Abaddon was still far more powerful than me even without his weapon.
“Why so freaked out, Abby?” I said, pointing the Cannibal Sword at Abaddon. “Bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?”
Abaddon looked up at me suddenly, his face hidden behind his helmet. “I will admit that I didn’t expect your sword to have such a powerful Ability. Nonetheless, this is but a temporary setback. I need not waste my time killing you personally when I can do the same thing by destroying the Vaultwork as well.”
Abaddon’s fist glowed with explosive golden energy, which he raised above his head. Although I doubted I could defeat him, I still Sprinted toward him as fast as I could, hoping that I would somehow be able to stop him from destroying Keoria. Just needed to get one blow in and—
Olga shot past me like a bullet, forcing me to come to a stop. I watched as she flew toward Abaddon, who, with a grunt, brought his fist down onto the ground. But his fist never touched the street, for at that moment Olga put herself under his fist and caught it. Even more shocking, she held it up, despite being much weaker and smaller than Abaddon. I could tell even Abaddon was shocked by this based on his body language.
“Olga!” I said. “What are you doing?”
Olga looked over at me. Her digital face was covered in sweat and it kept glitching out like she was overcome with some kind of virus. “G-Giving you time to log off. Do it n-now, before Abaddon’s power overwhelms me!”
“But won’t you die?” I said. “No, I need to save you. I—”
“Go!” Olga screamed, her voice slightly distorted. “I can’t hold it any longer.”
Against my better judgment, I realized Olga had a point. Even with my stats buffed, I couldn’t hope to defeat Abaddon in combat, especially with his power to destroy the world. And if he destroyed the Vaultwork, then I’d definitely die with it and become his minion in the process.
So I nodded and brought up my character sheet, which was where I noticed a small log out button in the upper right corner. With a thought, I logged off. The last thing I saw before logging out was Olga’s terror-filled face as Abaddon’s power forced her body down.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Like the last time I logged off, it was practically instantaneous. The scene of Olga holding back Abaddon’s doomsday fist was replaced by a simple black nothingness, and an instant later, I felt that same abrupt motion like I’d fallen into my chair. A second later, my VR headset popped off my head and I once again found myself sitting in the wide-open interior of Vault F.
It took my senses a couple of seconds to reorient back to the real world, but even before they did that, I jumped out of my chair and ran over to the computer terminal. Unfortunately, I stumbled a few times on my way there like a drunk guy, although by the time I reached the terminal, I was feeling much better.
I immediately began typing a message into the terminal:
OLGA! OLGA, ARE YOU THERE? IT’S ME, BOLT! I SUCCESSFULLY LOGGED OFF FROM THE VAULTWORK. ARE YOU STILL THERE?
There was no response at first, making me think for a moment that Olga must be dead by now.
But then, letter by letter, a message began to appear on the screen:
CONGRATS, BOLT. I AM STILL HOLDING BACK ABADDON’S POWER. I DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN HOLD IT BACK, BUT BEFORE I GO, TELL VALERIE TO ACTIVATE PROTOCOL ALPHA.
I frowned and typed back:
PROTOCOL ALPHA? WHAT’S THAT?
And Olga’s response:
SHE WILL KNOW. JUST TELL HER THAT
I waited patiently for the message to finish, but the longer I waited, the more obvious it became that Olga had been interrupted in the middle of her final message to me.
And it didn’t remain a mystery why for very long because another message—this one definitely not written by Olga—appeared on the screen underneath her last one:
CONNECTION TO OLGA TERMINATED. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OLGA UNABLE TO RECEIVE NEW MESSAGES.
CONNECTION TO VAULTWORK TERMINATED. ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT … ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT … ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT … CONNECTION ATTEMPT FAILED.
I hung my head. I knew why the connection had failed: Abaddon had successfully destroyed the entire Vaultwork. That meant not only was Olga gone, but so was Aeolus and my player character, as well as every other person and creature in the game. I knew they were all just a bunch of meaningless data with no greater purpose beyond what they had been built for, but I was still saddened to lose them. Olga had been a good friend and ally. She might have been an AI, but to me, these AIs were people in their own right, even if I didn’t always treat them that way. At least I still had Valerie.
That reminded me of Olga’s second to last message about the so-called ‘Protocol Alpha.’ I tapped my earcom quickly and said, “Val, you there?”
“I am, Bolt,” said Valerie, her voice clear and monotone as usual. “How was your trip into the Vaultwork?”
“Crazy,” I said. “Seth Richards was there and he destroyed everything. We can’t log back in or use it to track down the other Vaults anymore.”
“Seth Richards destroyed the Vaultwork?” said Valerie. “You know, that does explain why I suddenly received a notification that my own connection to the Vaultwork had been terminated a few seconds ago, but I just assumed it had been a temporary loss of connection. But if what you say is true, then this is not merely a simple loss of connection we’re dealing with here.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “And Olga was taken with it. She sacrificed herself to make sure I could log out of the game before Abaddon destroyed everything. I owe her my life.”
“Olga is gone as well?” said Valerie. “As an AI, I am incapable of feeling sadness, but out of all of my AI ‘sisters,’ she was probably the one I got along with the most and the one who was our best ally.”
“Yeah,” I said. “She was good, but she gave me one last message to give to you before she died.”
“She did?” said Valerie curiously. “What might that message be?”
I hesitated for a second, reread Olga’s second to last message, and said, “She said to tell you to activate something called ‘Protocol Alpha.’ She didn’t explain what she meant by that, but she said you would know.”
“Protocol Alpha,” said Valerie thoughtfully. “Yes, I do know what she is referring to, but I don’t know why she wants me to activate it. I fail to see how it would help in our current situation.”
“Mind explaining to me what Protocol Alpha actually is?” I said, turning around and leaning against the computer terminal for support. “She didn’t elaborate.”
“It was something I came across while studying that document about Project Revival which Olga gave me the last time we were here,” said Valerie. “It was the only new bit of information I learned from that document about the Project. According to the document, Protocol Alpha was an emergency measure Genius came up with in case of the destruction of the Vaultwork.”
“Destruction of the Vaultwork?” I said. “Did you mean Dad knew something like this might happen?”
“Not sure,” said Valerie. “The document wasn’t very specific. However, I do know that you can activate Protocol Alpha here in Vault F, where it will activate the emergency measures that Genius set down a long time ago. Would you like me to activate it now?”
I thought about it for a moment. It seemed unlikely to me that Olga would recommend we do something that could harm us. On the other hand, neither of us knew anything about Pro
tocol Alpha, which made me hesitate to use it. Normally, I didn’t mind rushing into danger and figuring out the consequences later, but I’ve learned the hard way that you didn’t just rush into using Dad’s old tech unless you wanted to have a really bad day. Then again, if it was that bad, it wasn’t like I was alone. I would have Black Blur for backup, for one, so I wouldn’t be alone down here, at least.
Thinking about Black Blur suddenly made me look up at the Vault, only for me to see that there was no one in here but myself. I pushed myself off of the terminal and did a complete one-eighty, but I didn’t see Black Blur anywhere and there was definitely nowhere for him to hide in here except behind the VR chairs and the computer terminal, although it was obvious he was not hiding behind either.
“Hey, Val?” I said, still rotating slowly as I searched for Black Blur. “What happened to Black Blur?”
“Hmm?” said Valerie. “I’m not sure. When you went into the Vaultwork, I took that moment to monitor your vitals. I made sure I was ready to re-enter the Vaultwork in case you needed my help, although I was hesitant to do so for obvious reasons. As a result, I paid no attention to Black Blur, who I understand you don’t really like very much anyway.”
“I may not like the guy, but he’s still a member of the Leadership Council and a fellow NHA member to boot,” I said as I came to a stop. “If he’s gone missing, that’s a problem not just for me, but for the whole organization. I’ve got to find him, and fast.”
All of a sudden, a loud, painful scream came from the open door to the Vault. It sounded like it was coming from the Vault’s entrance, but more importantly, it sounded like Black Blur’s own voice. He was screaming long and loud, like someone was torturing him, which made me jump at first.
“Was that Black Blur?” said Valerie. “My sensors have matched that scream with his voice.”
“Must be,” I said. “Sounds like the poor guy’s in trouble. I’ll go check on him.”
I used my super speed and rushed out of the chamber and up the staircase. With my super speed, what should have taken me a few minutes was accomplished in seconds and soon I found myself standing on the threshold of the Vault, my breath visible in the coldness of the night outside the Vault. I looked around desperately, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see much even with the light from the moon and stars above providing some illumination. It didn’t help that Black Blur was no longer screaming, which meant I couldn’t rely on his screams to find out where he was.
“Blur!” I shouted, cupping my hands over my mouth to make my voice louder. “Black Blur! Can you hear me? Hello? Where are you?”
Another scream answered me, this one short and abrupt. It was followed by the very clear sound of metal cutting into flesh and then Valerie said, “Sensors indicate that Black Blur’s screams are coming from five hundred feet beyond the Vault entrance.”
“Thanks, Val,” I said somewhat sarcastically. “I would never have guessed.”
Nonetheless, I rushed out into the forest around the Vault, my feet stomping through the snow as cold air bit at my exposed chin. When I was about five hundred feet from the Vault entrance, I stopped and looked around, straining my eyes to see in the deep shadows around us.
“Val, where is he?” I said, whipping my head back and forth as I searched for Black Blur. “I don’t see him.”
“He should be right on top of you, according to my sensors,” said Valerie, “yet I, too, do not see him. I believe my sensors are working, but—”
I stopped listening to Valerie when a drop of some kind of liquid fell on my shoulder. Startled, I looked up, but almost wished I hadn’t:
Black Blur hung from the tree limbs above me, looking quite dead.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Under the darkness of the night, it was no surprise I missed Black Blur’s body, his black costume allowing him to blend in with the shadows extremely well. But his body was set up in just a way that the light from the moon and stars allowed me to see it in greater detail than I otherwise would have been, in more detail than I honestly wanted to.
Black Blur was strung up by his shoulders from two thick ropes. The chest of his costume was ripped open, bloody and gory, although his heart did not seem to be exposed. Blood dripped down his chest, most of it already freezing over, although given how fresh most of it looked, I guessed he must have been killed very recently. He looked kind of like a bloody puppet, hanging from strings after being put away by its puppeteer. He was definitely as still as a puppet, showing no signs of life in him at all as he hung like a slab of meat.
“Holy crap,” I said, my eyes widening in shock and terror. “Val, are you seeing this?”
“I am,” said Valerie who, unlike me, did not sound particularly terrified by this revelation. “As terrible as Black Blur looks, my sensors indicate that he is still alive, although just barely and I doubt he is conscious.”
“Who … what … could have done this to him?” I said. “Looks like something you’d expect a cannibal tribe on some deserted island to do to an intruder.” I looked around suddenly. “You don’t think there happens to be an unreached group of savages living in this forest, do you?”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Valerie. “Nor do I believe his attacker is very far away. The blood hasn’t frozen yet, meaning most of his wounds must have been performed just recently.”
I gulped, but said, “Doesn’t matter. I’m going to check on him and get him down. Actually, I’ll just teleport us both back to Showdown. No way am I going to stick around when there’s some crazy guy hanging out in this forest stringing up supers for fun.”
I launched into the air and hovered in front of Black Blur. I reached out toward the ropes, intending to rip them both off, but then Black Blur suddenly looked up at me. His eyes were full of terror, while his broken nose and bloodstained mouth gave him the appearance of a zombie.
“Whoa!” I said, hovering back slightly. “You’re awake! Can you hear me? Do you recognize me?”
Black Blur gasped deeply and said, in a weak, barely audible voice, “Run … or he’ll get you next …”
“Who will get me next?” I said, leaning in closer. “Who did this to you? Are they still around? Who—”
I heard a gunshot go off somewhere nearby and then a powerless pellet struck my back and exploded. I suddenly found myself enveloped in a cloud of powerless gas, which I accidentally inhaled when I gasped from the pain of the pellet. As soon as I inhaled the gas, I fell down to the ground and hit the snow, landing flat on my back, the fall jarring my senses. I half-expected to see a damage notification from the fall, but then remembered I was no longer in a game and that real life didn’t have damage notifications.
Shaking my head, I looked up just in time to see the barrel of a gun pointing at my face. My instincts kicked in and I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the gun as it shot a bullet into the ground where I had been lying mere seconds before. Rolling to my feet, I almost stumbled, because the powerless gas had rendered me weaker and less coordinated than I normally was. Not to mention I was still dazed from the fall, although the snow had managed to keep it from hurting me too badly, at least.
“Still as quick as ever, super,” said a harsh voice before me. “But instinct alone won’t save you from my bullets, though it’ll make me work for your kill.”
Terror filled me when I heard that voice, which I had no trouble recognizing. I looked up at the man who had almost shot me, the man who had ambushed Black Blur and then strung him up like so much dead meat.
Standing about a dozen yards away from me was a man in full military gear, although some of his armor looked a lot more advanced than even anything the military had. He held two guns in his hands, one aimed at me, the other pointing at the ground, but I could tell he had a lot more weapons than just those two on him.
But more importantly was his face. Or lack thereof, because he wore a featureless silver mask over his face that reflected the moonlight peaking in through the treetops abo
ve. I could even see myself in the reflection of his mask, staring up at him with bewilderment and fear in my own eyes.
“No way …” I said. I felt like I was losing my mind. “You can’t be him … the Neo-Killer …”
The Neo-Killer chuckled. “Ah, how I love hearing the fear in your voice. Hearing you supers speak my name in fear is one of life’s simple joys, although between you and me, I find actually killing your kind even more enjoyable.”
Fear that I hadn’t felt in a long time rose up within me like a geyser. I wanted to turn and run away into the forest, or maybe hide inside the Vault and hope he wouldn’t try to follow me inside, but I knew better than to run. No matter where I went or what I did, the Neo-Killer would follow me.
Staying right where I was, I said, “You aren’t him. I killed the original Neo-Killer. You’re an impostor.”
The Neo-Killer laughed. “Kid, do you really think an impostor would have been able to lure, trap, and torture Black Blur, a member of the NHA Leadership Council and one of the most powerful superhumans alive today? I’m not sure whether to be insulted for me or for him. Aren’t you supers supposed to be friends with each other?”
“But I punched you,” I said. “You flew into the screen in Vault B. No way a normal human could have survived that.”
The Neo-Killer inclined his head toward me. “That is because I didn’t. But it’s fine because I’m all better now.”
“But how?” I said. “You were dead. Dead people don’t come back to life.”
The Neo-Killer rolled his shoulders. “Humans aren’t supposed to fly like a plane or run faster than a speeding bullet, yet that’s the world we live in today, kid. But hopefully, once I’m through with you guys, not for much longer.”
The Neo-Killer fired another bullet. I leaped to the side, but being so weak, I just sort of fumbled to the side. Nonetheless, I scrambled to my feet again as the Neo-Killer casually reloaded his gun, like he was down at the range practicing his shooting skills or something.