by Lucas Flint
Standing on the Teleportation pad was a group of Villains and Sidekicks. Although I did not know any of them individually, I had no trouble recognizing them from Brawn’s earlier recording. And even worse, all of their nametags were a bright red, telling me exactly which Universal Mission they had taken, although I guess I couldn’t say I didn’t know that already.
“It’s those guys,” said Cy, taking a step back in fear. “The guys who tortured that poor girl on Brawn’s camera!”
“We have a name, you know,” came a voice with a strong Southern accent. “We’re Team Atmosfear.”
From out of the group stepped Atmosfear himself. This was the first time I’d seen him in person and he was even taller and muscular than in the video, if that was possible. He practically towered over the rest of his Team, his arms folded in front of his chest. Standing beside him was a small Assassin wearing a black cloak that covered his face, but I could see his nametag, which read [SIDEKICK GIGGLES], which I thought was a weird name for a Villain Sidekick.
“What are you guys doing here?” asked Funky. He had taken a battle position, holding up his fists, while Lennox looked ready to take off from his shoulder. “I thought you were out on the streets of Adventure City kidnapping young women for Dark Kosmos to torture.”
Atmosfear chuckled. “Actually, we’re an equal opportunity Villain Team here. We don’t just focus on pretty young things. Men, women, children … anyone Dark Kosmos wants, we get. Oh, and we get paid, too. Pretty sweet deal, if I do say so myself.”
There was something extremely familiar about Atmosfear’s voice and mannerisms. I fell like I’d actually met him somewhere before, but I couldn’t place the time or place. I wanted to dismiss it as Atmosfear reminding me of someone I knew in real life, but the nagging part in the back of my mind told me that I had met him specifically.
“You’re just a psycho taking advantage of the Blackout to indulge in your worst impulses,” I said. “Don’t try to pretend to be anything else, animal.”
“Isn’t that what games are for?” said Atmosfear, putting his hands on his hips. “What is the point in playing a game if you can’t live out your wildest fantasies, which might get you judged by moral busybodies in real life or even face jail time? Met quite a few guys in here who have built for themselves a nice little harem of the most beautiful women, something they couldn’t do in real life. Don’t see myself as being any different.”
“There’s a big difference between indulging in pleasure and causing pain to other people,” said Funky.
Atmosfear cracked a grin. “What if you take pleasure in causing people pain? Reminds me of something my old man told me once: ‘Your pain is my pleasure.’ ‘Course, I murdered him as soon as I could, but I never forgot that particular piece of wisdom from him. Like something straight out of Proverbs.”
I frowned. “I’m no Bible scholar, but I don’t think you’ll find something like that there.”
Atmosfear shrugged. “Eh, who cares? S’long as I get to do what I want, I’m perfectly happy to play nice with Dark Kosmos. Can’t even say I disagree with him too much. Always respect a man with vision and the balls to go after what he wants, even if he’s just a bunch of code like this guy.”
“He hates all players,” I pointed out. “What makes you think he won’t come after you and your Teammates once he decides he’s bored with you?”
“Dark K and I are tight,” said Atmosfear, holding up his crossed fingers. “Tighter than skinny jeans on a fat chick. He promised me money, power, and my own little corner of the world to rule if I helped him. But frankly, I just like having the chance to indulge in life’s basic pleasures.”
“Like kidnapping innocent people and handing them over to a Villain so he can torture them for eternity?” I said. “Or allowing said Villain to threaten the lives of millions of people by trapping them in this game?”
“Hey, I don’t judge,” said Atmosfear with another shrug. “Can’t say I would do any different if I was in his shoes. ‘Course, Dark K doesn’t seem to wear shoes, but you get what I mean.”
“He’s right, you know,” Cy muttered. “Dark Kosmos doesn’t wear shoes.”
I wanted to strangle Cy for his comment, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off of Atmosfear for even one second. I didn’t trust him or his Teammates not to attack us when we least expected it. “I understand you’re a psychopath who is okay with the actions of another psychopath. I’m guessing Dark Kosmos sent you guys to stop us.”
“Bingo, brother,” said Atmosfear with a chuckle. “When Dark K learned of Omega Burst’s death, he didn’t like that at all. Nope. Not one bit. He wanted to come down and confront you himself, but I managed to convince him that we could do it. Told him only a player could beat another player and all that.”
“He believed you?” I said.
“I’ve invested in my Charisma,” said Atmosfear. “In case you couldn’t tell.”
“I could,” said Cy.
“Cy, shut up,” I said without looking at him, keeping my eyes locked on Atmosfear. “If you think we’re just going to go with you quietly, then you’ve got another thing coming.”
Atmosfear shook his head. “Nah, man. I know you’re gonna fight to the last man. That’s what cops like you do. And cops playing as Heroes are the absolute worst about that.”
“Cop?” said Dillo. He looked at me. “Are you a police officer in the real world, Winter?”
“Sure is,” said Atmosfear, putting his hands on his hips. “And an annoying one, at that.”
I bit my lower lip. I didn’t like Atmosfear just dropping my real life profession out there like that. But I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, given how he seemed to know who I was already. “Is this personal now or something?”
“Oh, it’s always been personal, donut,” said Atmosfear. “You don’t know how long I’ve been looking forward to killing you myself. Giggles here tried to do it early on, but as usual, the idiot botched it and nearly got caught.”
Giggles, the hooded Assassin standing next to Atmosfear, giggled nervously. “Sorry, boss. Please don’t hit me again. Teeth are not a renewable resource.”
Atmosfear suddenly slapped Giggles in the back of the head. “Don’t tell me what do. I’m the boss here. You’re the Sidekick. Remember that.”
Cy grimaced and looked at me. “Geez, Winter, Atmosfear treats Giggles almost as badly as you treat me.”
“What is that supposed to—” I shook my head and took several deep breaths. “Never mind. Just … never mind.”
Atmosfear looked at me suddenly, a wicked grin crossing his features. “As I was saying, I’ve been looking forward to killing you myself for a long time now. As much fun as this game has been for me, I do miss real life a little bit. It’s the small things, you know. The taste of a good cigarette in your mouth. A particularly cute girl’s touch. Getting drunk and speeding at night. Pissing on your dad’s grave. As real as this game is, it still doesn’t quite match real life.”
“I don’t understand how any of that is my fault,” I said. “If you can’t log off and do all of that, blamed Dark Kosmos, not me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, donut,” said Atmosfear, shaking his head. He locked his eyes on me. “Even before Dark K showed up and started wrecking stuff, I couldn’t log off. After all, that would require having a physical body I could log off to.”
Suddenly, I began to understand Atmosfear’s implications. I was even now starting to suspect what his real identity was, but I didn’t want to say it aloud. The implications were staggering if true. I refused to believe it.
“What’s he talking about?” asked Recover, glancing at me curiously. “Everyone has a physical body. It’s not like any of us actually live inside Capes Online. Sure, we’re trapped now, but—”
“That’s where you’re wrong, cutie,” said Atmosfear. He put a hand on his chest. “For some of us, this game is our life. We can’t just log off at the end of a long day. We’re stuck h
ere … whether we want to be or not. Didn’t your Team Leader tell you that?”
“Tell us what?” asked Dillo in complete sincerity.
Atmosfear put a hand over his mouth. “Oh, what’s this? Did your Heroic Team Leader not tell you everything about him? About what he really is? My, my. And here I thought Heroes were always honest and truthful. Then again, I guess cops tend to be pretty secretive, manipulative bastards in real life as well, so I shouldn’t be that shocked to see a cop just doing what is in accordance with his nature.”
I felt the pressure of my Teammates’ eyes as they all looked at me in confusion. I wanted to make Atmosfear shut up, but there was no way I could stop him from revealing our secret.
And yes, I said ‘our,’ because I now knew that Atmosfear wasn’t just another player. He wasn’t even just another participant of the Second Life Program. He was someone I knew in real life and I now knew exactly who he was. I just wish I could have met him under different circumstances.
“I see ol’ Nyle there isn’t gonna come out and say it, so I will,” said Atmosfear. He spread his arms wide. “It’s me, you dirty, donut-eating pig: Bryce Cunningham, the first—and last—crook you ever tried to put behind bars. And now I am going to make sure you suffer for ruining my life.”
CHAPTER FORTY
Based on the confused looks that my Teammates wore, I could tell that Atmosfear’s revelation meant nothing to them. But it meant everything to me, because I knew who Bryce Cunningham was.
Back in the real world, before I died, before my mind was uploaded to Project Second Life, I had been a new cop on my first day on the job. It had been both exciting and scary because being a cop was dangerous business. You never knew if today was going to be the day you died. I had heard plenty of stories from older cops of guys with a family and a future being killed in the line of duty, often at the hands of some dumb punk with more bullets than sense. I was fully prepared to do that, but frankly I didn’t think I really understood that now that I look back.
In any case, on my first day on the job, I got a call from the Cane First Central Bank that 35-year-old Bryce Cunningham had robbed the place, assaulted several bank tellers, and even killed one of the bank’s customers.
I wasn’t really surprised to hear that. Bryce Cunningham was a known criminal in the area. He had first gotten on the Cane City Police Department’s radar at the age of 15 when he tortured a neighbor’s cat and left its body on their front porch. His crimes only escalated from there, until he actually murdered someone. Despite our best efforts, we hadn’t been able to catch Bryce, who was much smarter than he seemed. I personally knew about him because his crimes kept getting featured on the local news.
So when I got the call about Bryce, I hopped into our cruiser and went after him. I was lucky. I managed to find his getaway car on the highway and pursued him. Bryce, of course, didn’t want to get caught and so he led me on a high-speed chase that lasted maybe five minutes before he tried to ram me. That caused both of us to smash into a huge fuel truck, which resulted in our deaths, and, well, you know what happened from there.
I thought I was the only survivor from the crash, but seeing Atmosfear here now, I realized I was wrong.
“Bryce Cunningham?” said Recover, arching an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”
“The most famous criminal in all of Bell County, girlie,” said Atmosfear with a note of pride in his voice. “Evaded capture from the cops for twenty years before my tragic, untimely death. And it’s ‘cause of ol’ Nyle here, right, Nyle?”
My hands shook, despite my best efforts to stay calm. “You killed yourself due to your bad driving. If you hadn’t led us on that high-speed chase, no one would have had to die that day.”
“That’s one perspective, and I respect it,” said Atmosfear. “But consider this: If you donuts had just minded your own dang business, we’d all still be alive.”
“Why does he keep calling you a donut?” Cy whispered to me. “You don’t look like a donut.”
“It’s an insult,” I replied, again without looking at Cy. “Atmosfear, you know we couldn’t let you do that. Robbing banks and murdering a person isn’t exactly something cops can overlook.”
“Wait, what are you guys talking about?” said Recover. She was looking from Atmosfear to me and back again with a confused expression on her face. “What’s all this talk about dying in a car crash? If you guys died in real life, then you shouldn’t even be here.”
“And what did Atmosfear mean when he said you were keeping something a secret from us, Winter?” asked Dillo. “I’m so confused.”
Cy smiled. “Welcome to my world, bro. I’m always confused.”
That explained a lot, but right now I couldn’t afford to focus on Cy’s quips. I needed to focus on this situation, which was rapidly spiraling out of my control.
“It’s nothing,” I said, “I mean, I didn’t mean to keep a secret from you guys, but—”
“But he did anyway,” said Atmosfear. “See, that’s the difference between people like yours truly and donuts like him. With me, what you see is what you get, but with cops like ol’ Nyle there, you never know what you’re gonna get. Like a lottery ticket, except even worse.”
“Now he’s calling you a lottery ticket,” Cy whispered again. “Thinking this guy isn’t right in the head now.”
“It took you this long to figure that out?” I muttered.
“Let me explain what’s going on,” said Atmosfear. He gestured at me and himself. “Ol’ Nyle here and I died in a car crash not too long ago, but then we both had our minds uploaded to Capes Online as part of a secret UN project to test for ‘digital immortality’ or whatever. I didn’t know Nyle was here, though, until I accidentally saw him and recognize the jerk for who he is.”
“Digital immortality?” Dillo said. “Winter, what the heck is he talking about?”
“He’s telling the truth,” I said, not meeting the shocked eyes of my Teammates. I put a hand on my chest. “I don’t have a body in real life that I can return to. I am stuck in Capes Online. I can never log off.”
Both Recover and Dillo looked floored by this revelation, yet Funky, for some reason, did not. He was looking from me to Atmosfear with an odd expression on his face. If I had to guess, I would say he seemed almost vindicated, as if I had just confirmed a theory of his. Did he know, or perhaps suspect, that I was part of Project Second Life? If so, then did that make Funky another Department of VR agent or was he with another group entirely that happened to know about the Project? Maybe, if we survived this, I would have time to ask him about it later.
“Yep,” said Atmosfear, nodding. “We’re two peas in a pod, or maybe two chickens in a pit trying to kill each other. No matter how you look at it, we’re in the same boat, although that doesn’t make us shipmates.”
“So many metaphors,” Cy muttered. “Gonna have to up my game if I’m going to top that.”
“How did you get here?” I said to Atmosfear. “Were you on Project Second Life’s list of potential participants?”
Atmosfear laughed. “Of course not! Who in their right mind would ever give someone like me immortality? Don’t get me wrong. I like me, but I know lots of people don’t, including people in high places.”
“Then how did you get your mind uploaded here?” I said.
“Someone apparently pulled some strings behind the scenes,” said Atmosfear, scratching his chin. “Someone who wanted me here to do something for them.”
“Who?” I said. “Who wants you here?”
“Like I’m going to tell you that,” said Atmosfear. “I might be a crook and a murderer, but I’m not stupid. I know that knowledge is power. And given all the knowledge I hold that you don’t, I reckon that makes me way more powerful than you, regardless of what Level you are.”
I gritted my teeth. I was now wondering if the person who had got me into Project Second Life was the same person who saved Bryce. Yet what could possibly motivate someone to grant immo
rtality to a small-town cop and a small-town criminal? It made no sense. Something more was clearly going on here. I hated the fact that Bryce knew more than more, but perhaps he was just bluffing. He was just a simple criminal, after all. Criminals weren’t exactly known for telling the truth.
“I still don’t entirely understand what’s going on here,” said Dillo, scratching the top of his head in confusion. “Feel like I just walked into the middle of a movie and no one has explained the plot to me.”
“Then let me summarize it,” said Atmosfear, clapping his hands together. “Nyle and I are basically immortal, everyone is going to die, and I am going to have a ton of fun watching it all happen. See how easy that is to understand?”
“You said you wanted to kill me,” I said. “I thought you liked Capes Online.”
“Of course I like it,” said Atmosfear. “Hell, I love it. Can’t die. No restraints. And with Dark K in charge, I don’t even have to worry about Heroes coming after me. Still, I can’t pretend that this is reality. I hate the idea that I’ll never be able to return to my normal life, even if my real life wasn’t much to speak of. I’ve always loved having power over myself and you took that choice away from me when you killed me.”
Atmosfear took a step forward. “I’m tired talking now. Why don’t we finish what we started in the real world? I came here to kill Heroes and chew bubblegum. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”
“Bubblegum?” Cy muttered, glancing around. “I don’t smell any bubblegum.”
I was about to snap at Cy for making such a dumb comment when a new notification suddenly popped up in front of me:
TEAM VS TEAM BATTLE ALERT!
Team Atmosfear has engaged Team Winter in combat! All members of Team Winter are treated as combatants in battle! Experience and loot will be evenly divided among Teammates in the event of a win. In the event of a loss, all Teammates will die and respawn back in their respective Bases minus all accumulated EXP up to this point.