Code Jumper

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  And boom, I understood the concern, “Okay, so what does that mean? Is it some kind of messy encryption? Or has the code just changed that much?”

  “No, no I don’t think so.” Quinn replied, “From what I can tell it’s like someone is using old gen code to work around the security system and, as a result, us.”

  “Which means it’s some player who was smart enough to work with code that no one else was, right?” I asked, “Everyone’s just scared crapless because they can’t understand it.”

  “Again, I thought so too, but this is beyond their comprehension. As newer, sleeker code got introduced to the neural net the older, clunkier stuff got filtered out of everyone’s memories.”

  “So, in summary, you’re saying…” I started in the hopes that she’d just skip ahead to her point, but then trailed off as the pieces finally slipped into place, “They’re not a part of the neural net.”

  “Exactly, which means-”

  “There’s actually another Code Jumper in here…” I finished with a gulp, “Well, that can’t be good.”

  “No it can’t, but look at it this way… Yeah, I’ve got nothing. How ‘bout you? You got any ideas on how you can take them out?”

  At first there was nothing, other than the obvious dread, of course, and then I got an idea, “You remember how I-”

  “Eddie!” Benny barked from the front of the hangar, “It’s time to go!”

  “Just give me a minute! Now, yo-”

  “Not a minute, now!” Benny roared, “I won’t have you holding us back so you can have a chat!”

  I wanted to yell right back at him, or snap my fingers and close over his esophagus, but I decided against it and instead started jogging over to the small door that Benny was standing beside, the last of his men having just stepped out making me think that I really needed to work on my general perception.

  “Don’t worry,” Quinn whispered, “I get what you’re talking about. I’ll start working on a solution ASAP.”

  Once I was within a few feet of the door Benny raised his hand at me, “Hold up a second.” he said with what sounded dangerously close to actual kindness.

  “What’s up?” I asked as I came to a stop before deciding I’d like to go the sarcastic route, “Did I screw up? Should I have run?”

  “Shut up and take this,” Benny replied with sort of bitter smile as he dropped an inhaler that I just barely caught, “I keep a few on me at all times, but I think you should have one for safety.”

  I tapped my pocket and shook my head, “I’ve got a spare, don’t worry.”

  “You’re also a Code Jumper, who knows how fast you’ll burn through them. Just take it, alright?”

  “I… Thanks.” I said before pocketing it, “Glad you’re starting to put all that stuff behind us.”

  With that Benny’s face darkened and his nostrils flared, “Don’t, not for fuckin’ second, think that this makes us square, alright? We aren’t buddy-buddy just because I need you to stay alive long enough to take out Callomezi. We get through this and we never see each other ever again, alright?”

  Not going to lie, that did hurt me a bit, but I quickly got over it and shot him a grin, “Works for me, not like I plan on sticking around in here after I’m done.”

  “Good,” Benny snarled as he stepped out of my way, “one less thing to worry about.”

  I didn’t bother responding to that, instead taking the opportunity to cold shoulder him and walk out into the crisp night air.

  The moon was high in the sky, and the stars were almost blinding with their beauty.

  Oh yeah, and there was a cottage-sized structure comprised of two black pylons and an arcing sheet of blue energy.

  “This wasn’t out here when we got here, right?”

  “No,” Quinn quickly replied, “I would’ve definitely noticed and been sure to point it out to you as we passed it.”

  “Thank God…” I muttered with a smile, “Thought I was going blind for a second ther-”

  “Would you shut up?” Benny snapped before pushing me so hard I stumbled forward.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to enact some good old fashioned retribution, I’d already fallen through the blobby blue portal.

  I’d been expecting an experience like the portals that had taken me from game to game, but instead found that the process was actually kind of fun, like swimming blind through a big pile of jelly, at least until I came out through the other side.

  “Christ…” I muttered from where I’d landed flat on my stomach, “Thanks for the… warning…”

  I was surrounded by people, all of whom were ignoring me as they walked about their business while I struggled to get to my feet, brushing off non-existent jelly that I was convinced was all over me.

  “Subway station,” Quinn answered before I got the chance to ask, “and it looks like it’s been about nine hours since you went through the portal.”

  “What!?” I cried as I quickly found one of the inhalers in my pocket and took the hit, “How long have I been here?”

  “You weren’t unconscious if that’s what you’re worried about,” Quinn clarified, eliciting a sigh of relief from me that more than a little smoky, “it appears that the portal has some kind of time distortion effect.”

  “That’s good at least,” I said before pocketing the spent inhaler, “where are the others.”

  “From what I can tell you’re the only one from the attack team to come out here,” Quinn replied, “shouldn’t be too hard to track them down… Unless…”

  A quiet grumble escaped me and I rubbed my brow, “Unless they’ve all used their inhalers, yeah?”

  Quinn hesitated to answer, but did eventually let out a defeated “Yeah, sorry…”

  “Don’t be, it’s not your fault that Benny didn’t give us any idea what to expect.” I said as I looked around, trying to get some idea where the others may have landed, “Any ideas?”

  “Well, we could just go to the destination?”

  “And what? Play chicken with every train that happens to come our way? Hard pass, there’s gotta be a better way to do it…”

  It was hard to think with all the people bustling around, even harder as it seemed that every five seconds there’d be another train letting out unearthly hisses and conductors muttering whatever it was that they muttered through the speakers.

  “Heh,” Quinn finally let out with an amused huff, “you know what we haven’t considered? The one thing that we would have thought of in an instant way back in the old days?”

  Like her, I thought that if I gave my brain enough time I’d eventually come to the conclusion, but, alas, it did not, “Drive away?”

  “No,” Quinn sighed disappointedly, “think about it, what have you been scared to do? What haven’t you been able to do for fear that you’ll bring all manner of Hell down upon you?”

  To both my and Quinn’s great dismay, it took me another few seconds to catch her meaning, but when I did I was so proud.

  “Ah,” I said before raising my hand in front of me and regarding the snapping position for a few moments with a smile, “yes.”

  WHEN REALITY HITS...

  I’d barely snapped my fingers and suddenly I was alone in the dingy, obviously abandoned subway station that I was supposed to be in, “Well… that was interesting.”

  “Quite,” Quinn replied, “it’s almost like your alteration was preempted.”

  The suggestion that something or someone might’ve been helping to grease the trail toward Callomezi prompted me to look around with genuine fear, “Is there any chance this is a trap?”

  “Not likely, I’m guessing it’s just a side effect of everything being so much more streamlined now,” Quinn said calmly, “you know?”

  “Yeah… I s’pose you’re right…” I trailed off, trying to hide the fact that I was not at all convinced.

  And then fifteen full minutes went by without anything happening and I became slightly less concerned wi
th whether or not I was about to get eaten by whatever the subway’s equivalent of a sewer gator was.

  “Oh!” Quinn exclaimed, making me jump from where I sat dangling my legs off the platform, “Did I tell you that I thought up a solution to our dilemma?”

  “Which one?” I asked with a quiet chuckle as I clutched my thumping heart.

  “The battle, you were concerned about fighting the sausage?”

  “Oh, yeah? What’s your solution?”

  “Well, it’s really quite impressive if I do say so myself. You see, I-”

  “Would you look at that,” Benny scoffed as he and his troops came out of the tunnel to my left, “Eddie went ahead and got here in time, who do I owe fifty bucks to?”

  I started to get to my feet and felt saddened as Quinn let out a dejected sigh, “I’ll tell you more about it later,” she murmured, “talk soon.”

  “Glad you guys finally decided to show up,” I said after Quinn had disappeared and Benny’s force had climbed up onto the platform, “I’ve been waiting here ages.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you follow the plan.” Benny scoffed, “I hope you’re glad that you managed to get out of doing any sort of strategizing with us.”

  “Honestly? Yeah, I am.” I replied boldly, foregoing any and all concern I had about offending him after he’d pushed me, “Last thing I need is to start getting all turned around trying to keep track of what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s better to just wing it.”

  Benny clearly didn’t appreciate my newfound self-respect, but was also obviously not about to start a fight with me, not after I’d gone ahead and got myself all Freedomed up anyway.

  “Your loss,” someone in Benny’s crew said, earning him a shocked look from his boss, “it was actually a lot of fun down there.”

  “I’m sure it was.” I replied before returning my attention to Benny, “So, we hitting this place or what? I’m gettin’ antsy.”

  “Well…” Benny trailed off as he apparently tried to think of a way to increase how long we were going to stick around in the subway, before shrugging and gaining a weak grin, “why not? We’re headin’ up the stairs, should spit us out right in front o’ Callomezi’s.”

  “And from there we just go charging in?”

  “Basically, yeah. You sure you’re ready?” Benny asked before growing a full-fledged smile, “There aren’t gonna be any checkpoints or respawns for you from here on out.”

  Ignoring the sick pleasure he obviously got from picturing me dead, I gave a nod without really thinking, something that I’d done a few too many times in games and then immediately regretted.

  It was too late though, I’d given my consent and the troops had taken their cue to start running up the stairs, blowing the gates that sat on the second landing clear from their hinges with some kind of super clap.

  “Follow up the rear!” Benny shouted as I started jogging up after them, “We’ll clear the way, you handle the rest!”

  I didn’t want to take his orders, I really didn’t, but it seemed to be the path of least resistance as I started taking the steps two at a time.

  To be honest, I actually kind of got lost in the adrenaline of it all. The roaring soldiers, the slamming boots and canvas shoes against hard concrete, it was all a rich tapestry of sound that drove me forward to my goal.

  Then I got to the top of the stairs and it all stopped.

  No more running.

  No more roaring.

  No more anything.

  At first I thought I’d somehow been deafened by the excitement of it all, or maybe there’d been some kind of glitch that froze time, but then I started to hear the panicked breaths of those standing in my way.

  I pushed my way to the front of the pack where Benny stood, immediately seeing what had stopped the troops.

  “That is… a lot of guys.” I said as I stared down the hovering tanks and good hundred or so soldiers and cops standing out the front of Callomezi’s tower just across the road from us, “Why’ve we stopped?”

  Benny didn’t say anything, instead he simply used his eyebrows and gaze to point upward, making him look like an absolute tool, and I’d probably have managed to get out a laugh if I hadn’t spotted the neon sign.

  “Give us the Code Jumper,” I read, “or my men will force you back and I’ll lock you in that subway for the rest of eternity. Heh, charming.”

  “It changes.” Benny said out through the corner of his mouth, getting me to turn my attention back to him, “The screen, watch the screen.”

  Again, I didn’t want to take his orders, but I looked up at the screen out of curiosity anyway and started reading as it changed, “If anyone moves, talks, or so much as breathes in a way I don’t like I’ll… subway for the rest of eternity, blah-blah-blah. Really, you’re scared of him? It’s not like you haven’t done this before.”

  “And normally he swats us away like flies,” Benny growled without moving his lips, “now that we’re actually a problem he’s brought out the big guns.”

  “Uh, yeah? You guys brought a BFG to a BFG fight, what did you think was gonna happen?”

  “Eddie!” Callomezi exclaimed with fake happiness through some kind of invisible speaker system before Benny could reply, “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of my city?”

  “Yeah, but… well, I ain’t exactly the best listener.”

  “Apparently not.” the Don laughed, “So, what’s gonna happen now is I’m gonna give you a choice, and after that it’s totally up to you how this all plays out.”

  “Alright,” I scoffed, “and what would that choice be?”

  “Simple, get the Hell out of my city, or experience my unending, God-like wrath.”

  I pretended to sarcastically mull it over, but I was actually genuinely considering it, I wasn’t any use to the mission if Callomezi and his army killed me, and I’d be getting Benny and his lot stuck in some kind of purgatory which, despite their shitty attitudes, didn’t sit well with me.

  “I’m waiting…” Callomezi mocked, apparently seeing through my disrespectful façade, “I have got other stuff to do today you know, important stuff.”

  “Okay then,” I replied, a sly grin playing across my lips as I reached my decision and got ready to snap my fingers, “let’s get to it then.”

  ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH

  With a single click of my fingers, I’d replaced Callomezi’s annoying voice with the Ramone’s Blitzkrieg Bop, and split the street up the middle, causing both Benny’s and Callomezi’s troops to flinch as brilliant red shimmer came up between us.

  “What the Hell are you doing!?” Benny shrieked as the tanks opened fire on us, their powerful energy blasts doing little more than splattering against the shield, “He’s gonna kill us all!”

  I stepped forward and looked down the street with a smile, “If he could do that,” I said as my car came roaring down the road and pulled up in front of me with a screech, “he’d have done it already. Now, I strongly suggest you get over there and kick some ass.”

  “I…” Benny started then stopped as I climbed into my car and pulled out my handgun, before puffing up his chest and turning his attention to his small force, “Attack!”

  “You sure this is the best idea?” Quinn asked, obviously knowing exactly what I had planned as I pulled the door shut, “I mean, Callomezi does have an army.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, snapping my fingers and changing the ammo in my pistol to something slightly more capable of attacking an army, “we aren’t exactly rich with options, and I doubt he was expecting this.”

  I started watching the hipsters running around my car, some taking to gliding over the gap I’d created, others simply leaping the distance and launching everything from fireballs to barrages of bees from their hands at the waiting soldiers.

  “Trust me,” I said before pulling the steering wheel down hard and hitting the accelerator, aiming us at the gap and stopping long enough to create a steep ramp of rubble, “t
his is gonna work.”

  “I know that you’re not sure of that.” Quinn replied, thoroughly unconvinced of the validity of my plan.

  “Yeah, well… let’s try it anyway.”

  Before Quinn could sow any more doubt, I slammed my foot down on the gas again and thundered toward the ramp, keeping my revolver on the top of the steering wheel in the hopes that it’d keep it level throughout the jump.

  The tires hit the ramp right as we’d hit about fifty in an impossibly short distance, sending us soaring into the utterly terrified force outside the tower’s doors.

  I took a deep breath in through my nose while I was forced to watch the blank wall of glass before the bonnet finally started to point us back toward the ground.

  “I’ve got you.” Quinn said as I pulled the trigger, my bullet passing through the windscreen without leaving a mark and hitting a cluster of Callomezi’s soldiers with a slightly more focused version of Owen’s imploder, causing a bloodier result than expected.

  Quinn, being the miracle worker that she was, managed to do something that made everything I wasn’t directly interacting with in the car rotate and shift right before we hit the ground, landing us tires first.

  Unfortunately, in doing so she’d gotten us stuck on the stairs leading up into the tower, right in between Callomezi’s small army.

  “Come on…” I muttered as I tried to drive us up the stairs, watching nervously as the tanks turned their guns on me, “Come on…”

  “Ah, Eddie, you’ve really got to start working better under pressure.” Quinn said before generating some kind of shield made up of thousands of orange hexagons around the car.

  “I work brilliantly under pressure,” I said, regaining some of my composure and snapping my fingers, sending a burst of fire along the stairs out from under the car, torching several of the soldiers in the process and giving Benny’s troops some breathing room, “I’m just having some trouble… adjusting.”

  “Ha, sure,” Quinn mocked, “and you knew exactly what you were doing before you kicked off this little kerfuffle.”

  “Litt-do you see the tanks? Quinn? Do you see them? The tanks? There are no tanks in little kerfuffles.”