by David Petrie
“Nix got away with the book, I tried, but I couldn’t stop her. Oh god! She said that what he’s selling could kill billions! I can’t–” She keeled over, pressing her forehead into the floor while bracing her skull with her hands as tears streamed from her eyes. She gritted her teeth and pushed through the pain.
Max forced his hand to his mouth, using the last bit of strength he had left. Before her could speak, his house ring melted off his finger and ran down his vest in a river of silver liquid.
Nix relaxed and raised her head off the floor as somber expression fell across her face. She had won.
It was too late.
“Will she live?” Max asked in desperation.
Nix looked down at him, her eyes telling him more than he wanted to know. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Kira’s a good person. Sometimes, I wish Carver had never found her.” She stood, leaving the book on the floor beside him. “Your team should have gotten all the hard out of the vault by now. At least there’s that.” Max fought the numbing control she had over him as she walked out of his field of vision.
“I swear on everything I have ever cared about. I will find you, Nix!” Saliva foamed through his teeth as he screamed. “I will hunt you through both worlds if I have to!” He shouted every threat he could think of, finally seeing her for the monster that she was.
Then suddenly, he was free.
She was gone, and his body was his again. There was nothing he could do from where he was, he couldn’t get to Kira with the pyramid locked down. In the end, he did the only thing he could.
He logged out.
Chapter Sixty
“Nix got away with the book, I tried, but I couldn’t stop her. Oh god! She said what he’s selling could kill billions! I can’t–”
Max’s voice echoed through the house line, stopping Farn in her tracks as the weight of his words slammed into her.
They had failed.
Agent Dawson responded over the line, his voice angry as he insisted that one of them do something to salvage the op. He clearly didn’t realize that he was asking the impossible.
Farn’s heart leaped into her throat.
When it came to the impossible, there was really only one option left. She jumped back away from Ripper and shouted up. “Kira don’t!” Farn pleaded up at the little mage. “Don’t–”
It was already too late.
The fairy hovered in the air with her hands clasped over her mouth, shaking her head. Then she relaxed and gave herself a determined nod.
Ripper halted his advanced for a moment to look up as well, clearly unsure of what was happening. Berwyn did the same. No one could have been prepared for what happened next.
A sound rang out from above like a single note plucked from a harp. It hung in the air as a strange energy filled the chamber. Farn held up one arm, every hair standing on end. The chime echoed back, this time louder and infinitely deeper—so deep she could feel it in her bones.
Then the world changed.
The waves froze and jerked about, losing texture as the throne at the center bent impossibly, folding in on itself. It sunk into the surf like a stone in quicksand. A wave of distorted pixels spread out in all directions from Kira.
The loose sand below Farn’s feet went rigid, then vanished, leaving the floor as clean and smooth as the crystal walls that surrounded her. A blank slate. Berwyn’s mouth dropped open.
Then came the images.
The walls and ceiling flashed with one picture after another as if searching for something. Some were disjointed and mismatched, while some aligned to make a panorama that made the space appear completely different, like they were being teleported around the world instead of the world changing around them.
For a moment Farn recognized the red sky of the sphere where they had been a year before, then Alderth Castle in Rend where they had fought Death, then her cubicle where she worked in Checkpoint’s headquarters. A gentle caress passed through her mind as images that only she could know filled the walls.
The pictures shifted again, becoming less clear for an instant before returning to focus. The city of Torn under siege appeared across the floor as if Farn was floating in the sky above it. Again it changed, and a view of the ocean at night filled all four walls. A large yacht floated in the distance. Farn didn’t recognize it, but from the horror on Berwyn’s face, it looked like he did.
Next, the room cut to black, and darkness consumed the world. The only light came from Farn’s sword, Ripper’s gauntlet, and Kira’s wings. A trickle of pixie dust drifted down from her body.
No one moved.
Then came the sun.
Farn shielded her eyes as the light blinded her and sounds reached her ears, sounds from a different world. In the distance, a plane flew overhead. Cars passed by as a city bus stopped, its brakes letting out a familiar screech. Then there were people. Walking, talking people.
They were everywhere.
Farn’s head spun as her eyes adjusted to the light. She couldn’t wrap her mind around what had happened. The throne room had been there a moment ago, but now, she was standing on a sidewalk while people walked past her in everyday clothing. They paid her no attention, her sword still blazing beside her with power. She reached out and touched a woman’s shoulder as she passed, only to pull her hand away an instant later.
It felt real.
Cars drove through the street, honking horns and spewing exhaust. She could even smell it. Farn looked up at Kira as she hovered peacefully. Behind her floated a disk of flawless, black obsidian. It was twice the size of her and hung parallel to her body as if she had created it. Patterns of white streaked across its surface like text on a computer screen, opening in circular windows before closing in rapid succession.
Modern buildings stretched into the sky, bending slightly around where the pyramid's ceiling had been. Farn squinted. It was as if everything beyond a certain point was a projection. She glanced around, noticing the same thing further down the street. The walls were still there, acting as an animated facade to extend the environment. Cars passed through the edge, becoming nothing more than projections as they disappeared down the road. The complexity of it made her head hurt.
Farn returned her gaze to the street, finding Ripper in the crowd. He seemed just as confused.
Berwyn, however, looked utterly terrified.
“This–this isn’t possible.” he backed up until he nearly fell into a building. His eye bulged as he clutched his head. “Get out!”
That was when Farn understood what was happening. The city street she stood in was important to him. Kira had somehow used the system to pull the location from his memories. It was just like what Carver had done a year ago in the Sphere when he had recreated her 18th birthday. Her worst memory.
Suddenly, Kira’s voice echoed over the house line, despite the fact that she hadn’t opened her mouth.
“Dawson, I have the location of where Berwyn is storing his merch. It’s in an office building on the corner of…” She trailed off before adding a surprised, “Oh. I can do better.” The fairy’s back arched, trembling as another loud chime rang out. The circle of black glass behind her erupted with activity. Hundreds of round text windows opened and closed like ripples in a pond during a downpour.
Farn pressed a hand to her chest, her heart aching as she watched from below.
She was helpless.
Down in the hidden field office of the F.B.I.’s cybercrime Taskforce, Agent Dawson lunged forward, gripping the edge of a desk. The monitors flooded with information. All he wanted was a location of the sale or the date that it might take place. What he got was like nothing he could have imagined.
It started with an address, then, out of nowhere, came blueprints, floor maps, street views, and public satellite images. It was more than enough.
Then things got scary.
New images came in, this time with far more detail. Too much to come from public systems. The pictures became videos, with ti
mestamps in real time. Next came the number of Berwyn’s men currently occupying the building. Then security footage. Captures of each of their faces shifted from one monitor to another.
Dawson shuddered as a strange sensation swept through his mind. He wasn’t sure what to make of it until a new monitor lit up with the Bureau’s database already active. His login information populated fields along with a message underneath saying, ‘Sorry about this.’
The photos of Berwyn’s men ran through facial recognition, each gaining a name along with a laundry list of suspected crimes. Half a second later, hundreds of files appeared, sorting themselves into dozens of folders marked evidence. The photos restructured, becoming a complex network with Berwyn sitting at the top. More faces appeared, with each suspect getting the same treatment. Security footage, documents, and dates populated folder after folder as they sorted into the detailed map.
It was everything.
Everything Dawson could have hoped for. Enough to take down Berwyn’s entire organization.
Sweat ran down his forehead as he clenched his teeth, nausea rolling through his stomach. If he had been in the real world, he would have thrown up.
Whatever Kira had become, it wasn’t human. It wasn’t even possible.
Countless systems had been breached all at once. There wasn’t a firewall in existence that could stand up to that kind of power. He hadn’t seen the fairy as anything more than a harmless slacker, but now, he couldn’t even reconcile what he was seeing. He was out of his depth.
“What are you?” Dawson breathed the words through his shaking fingers.
Text ran across all of the monitors at once, ‘I don’t know.’
Milo leaped out of bed, nearly scampering across the floor of the small apartment that connected to his office within Checkpoint Systems headquarters. He checked his smartwatch. It had already been six minutes since he’d logged out after receiving an emergency alert from the real world. His heart raced as he grabbed a bathrobe and ran down to the main server room.
Chaos met him as he skidded through the doors.
A continuous beeping sounded as red lights blinked all over the server towers that filled the space. Milo froze for a moment before burying his panic and taking charge.
“What’s going on?” he called out to the lead tech on duty.
“We’re not sure.” The man jumped from one console to another. “Some kind of attack. It’s taking over our servers and using them to run an unknown program.”
“How did it get through our security?” Milo jumped on to one of the consoles to lend a hand.
“It didn’t. It was already inside.”
“Can we stop it?”
“It’s faster than anything we’ve ever seen. Just keeps slipping through everything we do to contain it.” The tech practically attacked a keyboard, typing in commands at a frantic pace. “Whatever it’s doing is well beyond what the system was built for. It’s melting servers one after another. We’ve already lost five percent.”
Milo’s mouth went dry. “We have to shut it down.”
Suddenly, his assistant, Jeff, slid in through the door. A crease ran across his face as if he’d been sleeping on the edge of his pillow.
“What’s happening?”
“No time, we’re being hacked.” Milo ripped a key off a chain around his neck and jammed it into steel cabinet on the wall. He threw it open, revealing the bright, red button that he hoped he would never need to press.
“Wait!” Jeff held up his hand. “That will kick everyone and force-quit the entire system.”
Milo let out a defeated sigh. “We don’t have a choice.”
“But it will take days to get it back up and running.”
“It will hurt the bottom line, but we can recover from that. I learned my lesson last year. I’m not taking chances.” Milo reached for the button.
“Please don’t,” another voice pleaded, stopping Milo cold. It hadn’t come from anyone in the room. Milo’s eyes welled up as he recognized it. “Kira?”
“Please, don’t stop me. I’m so close,” she continued, her voice coming from the tiny speaker in his smartwatch.
His hand fell away from the kill switch. “What are you doing?”
She gave a somber laugh. “Would you believe saving the world?”
His heart ached as his mind flowed back to the night one year ago he’d watched Kira’s vitals flat-line during Carver’s quest. “What about you?”
“It doesn’t matter. There’s something more important.”
Milo let out a sigh. “Okay, what do you need?”
Chapter Sixty-One
Farn tore her eyes off of Kira, finding Berwyn on the busy city street.
“No no no no no! He frantically stabbed at the options woven into his stat-sleeve with a finger. “God damn it! Sign off!”
It was obvious that he’d figured out what was going on. With Kira in his mind, his entire operation was an open book. The only thing he could do was break the connection. Clearly out of options, he ripped the golden crown from his head and threw it to the pavement, taking away his own immortality. It bounced into traffic, disappearing under a car. His empire didn’t matter anymore.
The desperate man didn’t even hesitate before dashing into the street and stopping in the path of an oncoming truck. He braced for impact.
Brakes screeched and tires squealed.
A few awkward seconds later, Berwyn opened his eyes; the bus had stopped a few inches away. He let out a growl and tried again. This time, a taxi stopped short as another car collided with its rear. Even with that, Berwyn stood unharmed, his face drained of color.
Suddenly, another chime sounded from above, and several pedestrians rushed toward the suicidal man. They grabbed at his arms and forced him to safety. Kira must have had enough with his attempts to end himself. Berwyn struggled to get free, but there were too many, leaving him trapped and unarmed. Finally, he raised his head and yelled to Ripper.
“New plan, kill me!”
The twisted Shield gave Berwyn a skeptical glare, then he shrugged and started moving. He shoved pedestrians out of the way, cutting down a few that didn’t move fast enough. They cried out and vanished in clouds of shimmering pixels. A sickening grin crept across his face.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Farn dashed toward him, the crowd parting as she ran.
Ripper spun, catching her Feral Edge with his claws as she swung for his head. Sparks exploded from the clash of contract items as each of their weapons crackled with power. Farn stopped short. He was more prepared than she had expected.
“You think I’ve just been standing around while you gawked at that fairy?” He tightened his fully charged claws around her blade. “No, I’ve had plenty of time to get ready for you.”
Shit! Farn cursed herself as his sword blurred, just missing her throat and scraping against the dragon scale lining of her cape. He followed with a left hook aimed at her head. Violent energy radiated from the Death Grip, burning her skin without even touching her as she weaved to the side. Farn tried to back away, but she was too slow. He slammed his fist down, cracking the concrete with a blast of power that crashed into her like a tidal wave.
Wind rushed through her hair as her feet were torn from the ground, her body soaring backward into the street. All the air escaped her lungs as she smashed through the side of a parked bus with a roar of shattering glass and tearing metal. She landed in the aisle inside, her health plummeting to the red. Coughing, she reached for a health vial. Only two left. She downed them both, getting close to full. With Kira busy with whatever she was doing, there wouldn’t be any heals coming her way. She needed to be more careful.
Farn gripped a handrail and pulled herself to her feet just as a glowing fist slammed into the back of the bus. The vehicle exploded inward, throwing Farn back against the windshield, her body cracking the glass. She glanced at her health. Down ten percent already.
Damn!
Even just being near the Dea
th Grip was dangerous.
“No time to rest!” Ripper climbed through the gaping hole. “Nowhere to run.” His voice was cruel, laced with manic excitement. Farn pushed herself off the glass as his wicked gaze drifted to the class emblem on her hand. “Starting to fade already? I didn’t even use that much power on that last hit.” One of his eyebrows slid up his forehead. “Oh, that sword of yours has a tradeoff, doesn’t it?”
Shit! Farn thought as he figured out her weakness. Using the Feral Edge in its true form may have given her more damage and range, but it also cut her defense in half.
Ripper chuckled to himself. “All that extra power has to come from somewhere, doesn’t it?”
Farn readied her sword. “We can’t all drain the lives of other players to fuel our contracts. Some of us just have to have skill.” He narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist, his claws beginning to glow again. “Oh, I’m sorry, did you not like hearing the truth?” Farn taunted, trying to buy time.
She didn’t actually have to win. No, all she had to do was keep him occupied. The real fight was going on in the sky above. A sharp pain echoed through her chest at the thought of Kira. She just hoped the girl would be safe when everything was over.
Farn shook off the thought and tightened her grip on her weapon, taking in a breath. Then she charged, her sword held out to the side, its blade of crimson energy roaring. Letting out a growl, Farn tore across the narrow space, carving through the interior of the bus in a storm of sparks and desperation.
Ripper back-stepped and blocked everything until finally, Farn made her move. Confusion washed over his face as she cut off the flow of power to her sword. The shining blade of ferocity shattered just before she darted to the side and slammed her gauntlet into her chest plate. “Sure-Foot,” she snarled as she planted a boot on the undamaged wall of the bus and ran past him, using her the skill to gain a new angle. She swung back down off a pole behind him and slashed at his rear.