by Lucas Flint
“Weird coincidence,” said Dillo, scratching his armpit. “Are you sure you don’t know him?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “Without revealing too much, I haven’t let anyone I know in real life know who my in-game avatar is. And I haven’t been playing Capes Online long enough to have made enemies with any of the other players. I think I’ve pissed off more NPCs at this point than players, so I have no idea why Atmosfear hates me.”
“Well, like I said, he seemed to be the Team Leader,” said Recover. “Actually, Brawn took some footage of the incident. Brawn?”
Brawn, who had sunk into one of the many comfy sofas strewn around Funky’s Base, sat up and pulled what looked like a mini-projector out of his pocket. His massive fingers somehow managed to navigate the tiny, fragile controls of the projector and a hologram streamed out of the projector into the middle of the area.
It showed what looked like a Team of at least a dozen Villains and their Sidekicks laughing and jeering among each other in a dark alleyway. The camera’s perspective was from the first person, most likely Brawn’s, because I could hear his heavy breathing as he observed the Team, although he was far enough away from the Villains that they probably couldn’t hear him.
As I watched, the Villains appeared to be celebrating something, although I wasn’t sure what until a break in the group appeared and showed a young girl—who couldn’t have been more than eighteen—kneeling on the ground in the middle of them. She was small and petite, with a costume that made her look like a walking sunflower. The nametag [HERO SUNSHINE] hovered above her head, which I was displeased to see was red, but that didn’t matter. After all, the nametags of the Villains were also red, which meant they had all accepted the UM to kill me.
“Please,” Sunshine was saying, tears streaming down the side of her face and wetting her sunflower-head-like mask. “Please, let me go. I just want to get out of this game. I don’t want to hurt—”
A rock came out of the crowd of Villains and struck her in the forehead. Although the blow did not knock her out or even kill her, it did leave a huge gash above her right eye that was bleeding profusely. I knew from experience that bleeding counted as a debuff in this game, but even if she wasn’t bleeding Health, she still had to be in pain.
“Please, please,” came a mocking Southern-accented voice from out of the Team. “Oh, please don’t hurt me, Mr. Villain. I’m just a scared little girl who just wants to go home.”
A Villain separated from the rest of the crowd and walked up to Sunshine. He was a tall, powerfully built man wearing a suit of silver and red armor, though it was mostly silver with splashes of red here and there. He looked like a bodybuilder, his huge muscles straining against his armor, yet it did not seem to slow him down in the slightest. His helmet reminded me of a Roman centurion’s helmet, except with a visor to hide his eyes, although it did not hide his cruel smile.
More importantly, however, was the nametag above his head: [VILLAIN ATMOSFEAR], which seemed to glow red even more than the others.
“Please,” Sunshine said again, her voice pleading. “I don’t know what I did to make you attack me like this, but I promise I won’t—”
Atmosfear suddenly slapped Sunshine across the face, knocking her down onto the street. The Villains broke into another round of cheers and applause, with one guy even wolf whistling.
“Shut up, darling,” said Atmosfear, lowering his hand. “Pretty young things like you should learn to keep your mouth shut. Your Sidekick was a mouthy one, too, and look what we did to him.”
Atmosfear gestured to something that Brawn’s camera did not show, but I could tell based on Sunshine’s terrified expression that it couldn’t be any good. Even though I knew Sidekicks were just NPCs, I couldn’t help but feel disgusted at the implications of Atmosfear’s words anyway.
“Do you want money?” asked Sunshine. She didn’t even get up. She was just staring up at Atmosfear with pleading eyes. “I don’t have much money in-game, but my dad is rich and he can pay any price you ask. Any price at all.”
Atmosfear knelt over Sunshine, a cool, wicked grin on his face. “Dearie, I don’t want or need money. Hell, I don’t even want sex, even though you’re a cutie. I just want to be able to do what I want, when I want, to whoever I want, for any reason I want. Like this.”
Atmosfear snapped his fingers suddenly. I didn’t know what happened until Sunshine began choking and gasping for breath. She reached for her throat, but as far as I could tell, she was not being physically choked by Atmosfear. Yet she was clearly choking nonetheless and, based on the way her skin turned blue, I could tell she was dying.
Then, without warning, Atmosfear snapped his fingers again and Sunshine suddenly gasped for breath. She breathed hard as Atmosfear stood up and dusted off his hands like he had just finished a hard day’s work.
“Many, I love this game,” said Atmosfear with a lick of his lips. “In real life, I’d need to tie a rope ‘round her neck and pull to make her choke. Here, though, I can just take away her air and watch her choke like a puppy on a chicken bone. This really is heaven.”
“You mean … you aren’t going to kill me?” asked Sunshine in an incredibly weak voice.
Atmosfear shook his head. “Nah, darling. If we did that, you’d just respawn in your Base with your Sidekick. Naw, we’re gonna drag you straight to Dark Kosmos himself. He’s in the business of accepting players, or so I hear, and will pay a fine bounty for every player brought to him. I’m not looking to become a rich man by any means, but I don’t mind earning a buck or two off work I’d normally do for free.”
Atmosfear looked over his shoulder at the rest of his Teammates. “What the heck are you guys standing around for? Tie up this girlie and let’s get her to Dark Kosmos’ Hideout. Then we’re hitting the streets again. We’ve got a long night ahead of us and I don’t want to waste even a single minute of it.”
The Villains converged on Sunshine and Atmosfear again, but then that was where the recording ended. Brawn turned off the hologram and sat back, a deeply disturbed look on his normally stoic features.
Everyone looked disturbed by this revelation, including me. But frankly, I wasn’t disturbed. I was angry. Atmosfear reminded me of all of the crooks and thugs I had vowed to get off the streets of my hometown. It never occurred to me that there might be some in Capes Online, but it looked like some players took their Villain role perhaps a little too seriously.
“That was …” Dillo shook his head. “I don’t even know how to describe that.”
“Evil,” said Funky softly. “Pure evil.”
Recover nodded. “Can’t say I disagree. Some people like to use Capes Online as a way to live our their heroic fantasies, but then you get guys like Atmosfear who … well, use it as a way to live out all their most depraved fantasies that they aren’t allowed to in real life.”
“Why would the game designers allow this?” I said, my hands curled into fists. “Someone like Atmosfear shouldn’t be allowed to play this game. That was pure torture. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Normally, there are rules against such wanton cruelty against other players,” said Funky, “but with all connection to the outside world cut off, there’s nothing the developers can do about it. I imagine Atmosfear must realize this. He thinks he can get away with doing whatever the heck he wants in here because it’s just a game and there’s no one to stop him.”
My hands clenched even tightly, making my knuckles turned white. “The developers might not be able to stop him, but we can.”
I turned around to leave and go hunt down Atmosfear, but then Funky said, “Don’t go.”
I looked at Funky in irritation. “Why not? Someone needs to stop him now.”
“Because Atmosfear isn’t the main threat here,” said Funky. He pointed up at his nametag. “Dark Kosmos is. If we can defeat Dark Kosmos and reestablish a connection to the outside world, then the developers can deal with Atmosfear and his cronies. If we go hunting for Atmos
fear now, we’re just going to waste time that could be better spent taking down Kosmos.”
I scowled but realized Funky had a point. Atmosfear, as evil and horrible as he was, was just a player taking advantage of the current situation to do what he wanted. If I found Atmosfear and killed him, he would just respawn in his Hideout and probably resume his evil deeds.
But if we stopped Dark Kosmos, then we would not only free everyone, but also allow the developers to deal with Atmosfear properly. Maybe I could even convince Chuck to get the Department of VR to investigate him.
So I turned to face Funky again and said, “Then what are we waiting for? Now that we’re all here, let’s go take down Dark Kosmos once and for all.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Before we left Funky’s Base, Funky gave all of us Health and Energy Drinks, about twenty each. That surprised me, but Funky informed me that he had a whole bunch of different items in storage for exactly this sort of occasion. Although we as a Team would be able to help and support each other, it was still important that we were able to stand on our own as well, should we get separated from the Team. It was a nice gesture on his part, but once again made me wonder what Funky’s real identity was.
In any case, after restocking our items, Team Winter left Funky’s Base and continued our trek through the sewers. Our destination, of course, hadn’t changed: Dark Kosmos’ Hideout, the former Hall of Justice, which was not too far away now according to Funky, who had somehow obtained a map of Adventure City’s sewer system. I said ‘somehow’ because when I checked my map, it showed nothing but a tiny dot representing me and Cy walking through a blank environment. Apparently, you needed to buy or obtain maps of specific locations as rewards for completing missions, which was something I didn’t know until Funky explained it to me.
The seven of us formed a basic formation. Dillo took the lead, due to his Powered Armor status and excellent Defense meaning he could handle frontal attacks better than the rest of us. Although Brawn was a Fighter and not a Powered Armor, he nonetheless took up the back due to his own massive Defense making him ideal for protecting the Team from sneak attacks. The rest of us were in the middle, although Lennox took to the air above us, flying and staying near the ceiling to keep an eye out for any ceiling traps. Although our formation was conducive for safety, I still kept my guard up in case of attack, although I noticed all of us were on edge.
Except for Cy. He was rambling on and on to Hop, who was still absorbed in her phone, about how he loved being part of a Team and how he was busily thinking of a dance routine for the Team. Funky also happened to be listening, because he walked near the two Sidekicks, although I could tell he was wishing he had decided to scout ahead rather than stay with the rest of us. Frankly, I was just glad Cy had found someone else willing to put up with his tangential ramblings other than me, although I could tell Hop was not paying attention to anything he was saying to her.
That left me and Recover walking side by side. I walked on her left, putting me near the water. That was fine, because Recover, as a Healer, was no good at offense and wouldn’t be able to defend herself against any attacks from the water. That probably explained why she looked so jumpy, her eyes darting back and forth rapidly as she kept an eye out for anything that might try to attack us.
“I get keeping your guard up, but maybe you should relax a little,” I said to Recover as we walked. “You’re perfectly safe with us.”
Recover looked at me suddenly as if she had forgotten I was here. “Oh, sorry. I’m just so used to being Solo that I’ve picked up the habit of situational awareness. As a Healer, my offensive stats are pretty poor, so I usually have to rely on Brawn here to defend me in the event of an attack.”
I nodded. “How do Healers level up if you guys have such poor offensive stats?”
“Through healing,” Recover explained. “Healing people grants Healers such as myself experience. Depending on how much Health we restore or how bad the debuff or status condition is, we can get a lot of experience. That’s why Healers typically stick to Teams, because when you’re on a Team, you always have lots of opportunities to heal people, especially if it’s a big and active Team that goes on a lot of dangerous missions where people get hurt.”
“Makes sense,” I said, “but you always seem to be on your own whenever I see you. Any reason for that?”
Recover looked away from me suddenly, keeping her eyes on the floor. She ducked under an overhanging pipe as she said, “I’m … not much of a Team player, honestly. I prefer to work alone, which is why I’ve had trouble leveling up. Kind of ironic I got the Healer class when I don’t play well with others.”
I also ducked under the pipe, but heard a dull thud behind me and Cy say, “Ow!” which I ignored in order to focus on Recover. “I get it. Frankly, I’m not much of a Team player, either, and I was a police officer in the real world.”
“Was?” said Recover, looking at me curiously. “You mean you aren’t anymore?”
Uh oh. I forgot that Recover had no idea what I really was, so I quickly said, “I mean, I am. I just spoke in the past tense because this game is so real that it feels like a second life sometimes, you know?”
“I know exactly what you mean,” said Recover. She ran a hand down her body. “Every sensation feels almost exactly like real life. I know this technology isn’t really new anymore, but it still blows my mind how realistic it feels. Sometimes I even think that it is real and that real life is the game.”
Despite myself, I could not help but follow Recover’s hand as it went down her body. This may have just been an avatar designed to represent the real Recover, but that didn’t stop me from appreciating her rather curvy form. But then I remembered Sally and shook my head. “No. However realistic this game might be, there’s no way I could ever think this is anything other than that.”
“I guess so,” said Recover with a shrug. “But if we can’t stop Dark Kosmos, then it might become our real life after all. Not saying I want it to, you understand, but if we can’t stop him—”
“Don’t say that,” I said. “Don’t even think it. We have to stop Dark Kosmos.”
“I know,” said Recover, “but I also know that nothing in life is guaranteed. In the real world, I’ve seen lots of people—young people with a bright future ahead of them—die due to some tragic accident no one saw coming. I worry sometimes that we’re going down the same path here.”
I bit my lower lip and looked at my feet. “We’ll figure something out. We have to.”
Although I didn’t say it out loud, I said that because we had the lives of millions of people on our shoulders. Real human beings, with real lives, histories, and real friends and families. Even if some of them were monsters like Atmosfear, that didn’t mean we had any right to ignore their plight. Give it a few more days and soon people would start dying from a lack of nutrition to their bodies in the real world. That meant we had no time to lose.
We became quiet after that, except for Cy, of course, but even he rambled in a much softer tone than normal. All of us were either on high alert for possible ambushes—not unlikely given what we’d already been through—or lost in our own thoughts. For me, I alternated between thinking about how I really should have level grinded more before coming down here, because I was still Level 11, which I doubted would be enough to make me useful in the fight against Dark Kosmos, and keeping my eyes and ears open for any sounds that might herald trouble.
Luckily for us, however, Funky not only had a map of the sewers but he also apparently had high enough Perception that he was able to steer us away from possible ambush sites. We took several shortcuts, going through secret doorways and passageways I would never have guessed even existed if Funky hadn’t pointed them out to us. Every now and then we’d come across a [Sewer Rat] or two, but they were never a problem for our Team and always went down extremely quickly. It was amazing how well Funky knew the layout of the Sewers and made me grateful he was on our Team.
&nbs
p; Despite the knowledge that we had made it this far because of Funky’s Skills, I still found the lack of enemies very concerning. The closer we got to Dark Kosmos’ Hideout, the more enemies we should have run into … right? We didn’t even run into any players, although I took that to mean most players were still too afraid of the sewers and the creatures which dwelt within to risk coming down here in search of me. I bet most players didn’t even know I was down here, either, which made it even less likely that they would come after us.
After another half hour or so of walking through twisting, winding passageways, I looked over my shoulder at Funky and said, “Funky, just how much much longer until we find the entrance to Dark Kosmos’ Hideout? Getting a little tired here.”
“Me, too,” said Cy, nodding. He gestured at Hop. “Doesn’t help that Hop is a bad conversationalist. I’ve been talking to her this entire time and she’s just said like, one or two words, when I’ve said at least thirty thousand and one-half words.”
Funky’s eyes briefly lost focus as he no doubt looked at the map that had materialized in his vision. “Actually, we should be almost directly underneath it now. Should be right around this upcoming corner and down the hallway a few feet.”
Everyone on the Team sighed in relief. I guess all of us had been getting impatient with just walking around in the dark, dreary, stinky sewers for what seemed like hours. Even Cy’s Sweet Scent Power make the journey that much more pleasurable.
We turned the corner up ahead, but came to an abrupt stop as a group as soon as we saw what stood before us.
Just a few feet ahead of us was a wall of pitch-black darkness. Well, it wasn’t entirely darkness. It looked kind of like the night sky out in the countryside, reminding me of the nights I’d spent on my grandfather’s ranch during the summer back when I was a kid. Twinkling lights of various colors shone from the dark wall, which stretched vertically and horizontally in every direction, making it impossible to go through or around.