by Jack Crosby
Nothing was ever easy. Under my breath, “Ugh, I miss Ali.”
“Did you say something?”
“No, let’s hurry.” I was already more annoyed than I needed to be. “I want to get to where I need to be and get out.”
Against my better judgement, I followed her down the cliff and towards the Binary Cove.
**Cutscene**
I was back in the Neon Underground. This was odd. Something told me that I wasn’t supposed to be here. But I couldn’t place it. Either way, I followed the path down into the market place just to check things out. The different guns, blades, and armor that they were selling were pretty damn cool.
While I was checking out a modified pistol called a Repeater, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. Turning around, “You!”
“Welcome back, Ash,” Ira greeted me warmly. She was in charge of this place. “Though if you prefer, I can call you Vector, as the others do.”
Vector was a cool name, but when she called me Ash, it made me melt. “No, no Ash is fine.” I turned around and pointed to the Repeater. “Pretty cool firearm, huh?”
“I’m a healer; I’m not much of a frontline fighter.” She looped her arm through mine. “Come, there is much I’d like to show you.”
We went on a tour around the Neon Underground. All of this felt so much like déjà vu. She said welcome back, as if I’d been here before and met her. Had I met her? I couldn’t quite reach this fleeting memory that was drifting in the back of my mind. It was just out of reach.
Finishing up the tour at her office, “I hope everything was to your satisfaction.”
That was odd, why would I need to be consulted. “You’re doing a fine job, anyone with two eyes can see that.”
Ira gave me a small bow. “Thank you, sir. I do my best.”
“Have we met before, Ira?”
As soon as I asked the question, everything went fuzzy. When it focused back in, “I’m glad everything is up to your standards. Still, if you feel the need to discipline me…”
Her intoxicating butt, still covered by her pencil skirt, was presented to me. What was I asking again? It didn’t matter. I gently patted her ass, each pat reacting with a giggle from Ira. She looked back around, “You tease. Don’t hold back, Ash.”
God, she was such a naughty girl.
I unbuckled my pants, freeing myself. As each inch slid into her, something amazingly right washed over me. I’m not sure what it was, but it sent me straight into a far too early orgasm. But Ira never blinked. She took it all in with just a smile.
We kept going after. Every so often as I bucked my hips against her, I squeezed her supple ass. The added contact was driving my girl crazy. Her intensity picked up, and then mine did. Soon, we were fucking like wild animals, not being able to get enough of each other’s touch.
The second orgasm was the most fulfilling sensation I’d ever had. Ira came with me, the beauty of the scene overwhelming both of us. As soon as the last drop of cum found its way into her, I went limp. Seconds later, when she finished, she joined me and we collapsed to the floor. All I could do was wrap my arms around her and bring her in close.
Ira nibbled on my ear. Then, in a low voice, “You have to go back soon.”
“What do you mean?”
A tear fell from her eye. “You have to go back.” She touched my heart. “Remember this feeling. One day, you’ll experience it again.”
****
I woke up in a cold sweat. I’d been asleep inside our tent, right outside Binary Cove. I’d been dreaming, but I couldn’t remember about what. The feeling had been so real, yet now that I was awake, I had no recollection of what happened. I sat there for a few minutes, trying to will myself into remembering. Eventually, when nothing returned to me, I laid my head back down, to finish resting up.
As my eyes shut once more, a lovely blonde woman welcomed me as I drifted back off to sleep. I dozed off in her warm embrace.
Introduction: Big Boss Man
Moonlight Cave offered no enemies. From the minute we entered the cool, damp place, nothing out of the ordinary jumped out. I’d been played, I think. “That’s why you said I had to level up on my own. There’s nothing here!”
“Oh, there’s something here. We go deeper.”
That was cryptic. So we kept going until we entered a part of the cave where a crack in the ceiling allowed moonlight to shine through. Obviously, this is the place where the cave got its name. Unfortunately, there was nowhere else for us to go, as we’d hit a dead end. “Nice job, tour guide. We’re stuck.”
She still wasn’t in any sort of hurry or looked panicked. “No, we’re far from stuck. You’ll see in a few moments.”
Forcing the issues wouldn’t get me anywhere. So instead, I just huffed around, quietly throwing a temper tantrum that was quite unlike me, but felt oh so good. As I stormed around the cave in a fucking tizzy, “We’re about to have company.”
Looking back at Zoe, I realized the moonlight was no longer shining in the center of the room. It’d been following me. “That’s not normal.”
I stood still and the light caught me, putting me in the spotlight. As soon as it did, the walls began to shake and the ground in the middle opened up. Something was coming up from underneath the cave. I didn’t have to wait long, as a large bullfrog wearing a top hat of all things appeared. He was sitting on a pedestal and it didn’t stop moving up until he was about five feet above me.
He smiled at Zoe. “Welcome back, anomaly. And it seems you brought a friend, ribbet.”
I’d gone insane. This was all some LSD fueled hallucination that was warping my mind in ways I couldn’t understand. The frog addressed me the second time. “You’re not going crazy. I am the Firewall, keepers of the beyond areas of the game. If you wish to access the anomaly’s spawning point, you must break the code.”
“How do I do that?”
He clapped his two front legs together and more shit happened in the room. Weird protrusions of rock came out of the wall, as well as a weird looking stone slab in front of the frog with carved out pictures. The pictures made no sense, but I got the feeling I was about to be doing some platforming.
When everything shifted into place and the rumbling stopped, “Player identification: Vector. You have twenty minutes to complete the puzzle or else you’ll be stuck in this room for the remainder of the game.”
“Wait, what puzzle?”
He stopped and realized he hadn’t given me the instructions yet. “Around this room are three stones that fit in the control panel in front of me. Find them and gain entry, or else, well you know the alternative already.”
I certainly did. There was no time to bitch out Zoe for setting me up in such a diabolical manner, so if I survived this, there’d be plenty of ass chewing. I crouched down into a runner’s stance and as soon as the frog bellowed, loud ticking sounds echoed through the cave. The countdown was on.
I quickly found the first step that was within reach. I pulled myself up and jumped to the next one. I followed the path of stones around the room as it went higher. At the last stone, I saw a small opening at the very top of the room that was wide enough for my hand to go into. I stuck it in and grabbed a hard, rough shape. When I got it free from the hidden compartment, I figured this was the first shape I needed. It took me less time to get back down to the frog and insert the shape on to the corresponding area of the board. It lit up yellow.
The frog seemed amused. “One down and sixteen thirty-three left on the clock.”
Nice! With the first one down, it was time to take a look for number two. I didn’t think it’d be as obvious as the first so I started sleuthing around the room, seeing if there was anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t realize how much time I’d wasted until the frog announced with excitement, “Ten minutes left!”
Shit, I’d been wasting too much time. I needed to do something and fast. Making the bold move, I ran up to the frog’s podium for a better view of the room. He didn’t say
anything as I stepped up and lo and behold, another shape was lying beside him. Without even looking at him, I grabbed it and put it on the board. A red light came on when inserted.
Less than ten minutes and I was two-thirds of the way there. Then something strange happened, the ticking stopped. The frog cleared his throat, bringing my attention back to him. “You have done well to make it to the final stage of the breaking process. Now, the third piece is here but it must be gained in a trial of combat.”
Combat? “Who am I facing?” And even before I got my answer, I looked at the third shape on the rock console. It was in the shape of a spear head. “Ahhh, hell.”
“If you want to go to where I came from, you’re going to have to earn that right.”
So many things made sense. “This was your stupid idea!” Ughhh, I hated being duped. “Why in the world would you offer to bring me here if only to end up fighting me?”
“Let us see just how strong you are. Oh Great Firewall, begin the countdown.”
Frogman didn’t even offer me a chance for a rebuttal. He croaked again and the ticking noise started up. Unlike in the arena, Zoe was aggressive from the start.
Without a chance to draw either weapon, I made my way back to the stone steps I used to get the first shape. With her long spear, it was harder for her to pursue me, so I had a few steps advantage. I pulled my gun out and let loose a Bullet Burst at her feet as she landed two steps below me. She dodged it pretty well, but the narrow section of step didn’t leave much room for maneuvering. She stayed upright, but was off-balance.
I wanted to make a statement, not just to her and the frog, but to myself, too. Knowing the risks, I jumped from my step towards her, with my foot outstretched. I connected with her chin, knocking her to the cave floor below. The spear fell out of her hand and the head broke off. I landed nicely and picked it up, placing it on the final shape. A green light joined the yellow and red ones.
The frog jumped once and the ticking went away, this time for good I hoped. “Well done, player. You have successfully entered the proper code and have access to what is beyond this point. As a token to your play, I grant you one hundred experience points and these three prizes.”
At the mention of prizes, three treasure chests appeared in the center of the room. They were the same colors as the lights from the console. “Thank you for that!”
“My presence is no longer required.” The room began to shake again; everything that came with the frog was beginning to return to its dormant home. “Good luck moving forward, Vector. There are many more challenges in front of you, ones that you’ve never experienced in this life or your earthbound one.”
He knew? Before I could grill him, the Firewall frog sank back into the ground and the room was once again an empty place with just a single beam of moonlight in the center. Once again, I was left with more questions than I had answers.
Action Taken: Reconcile
I ignored the three treasure chests at first. Nope, I was all eyes on Miss Zoe, still rubbing her back from the fall. I was mad – no wait, I was fucking livid. “Some friend you are, setting me up like that.”
“Who said we are friends?” Her snapback caused me to take a step back. “I am trying to do what’s right for this world and you just happen to be the tool I need. If there was a chance you didn’t have what it took, then being stuck here would’ve kept you out of my way.”
So that was her plan. I had to admit it was probably a good plan on her part, but now that was over. “Since I don’t trust you and you doubt me, how about we just go our separate ways then?”
“No.” She folded her arms over her chest and pouted. “We’re in this together, that’s how it must be.”
Apparently, in the digital world, logic and reason were thrown out the window and forced demands were in season. “Just because you say it like that doesn’t mean that’s how it has to be.” In the middle of our argument, a portion of the wall on the far side of the room slid open. “I’m going to gather my loot and go get myself leveled up. When I get back, it’d be nice if you weren’t here.”
My words pierced her like a knife. “Fine.” When a woman said fine, you knew it was never just fine. “If that’s how you want this to play out, then your death will be your reward.”
That was it, I was done. Pretending Zoe wasn’t even in the room, I walked over to the three chests and began to anticipate what awesome shit I was about to be gifted. I started with the green one, as it represented the shape I had to work the hardest to get. Inside was a new pistol, one that was silver and sleek. Unlike my current weapon, this one had a longer barrel and a more comfortable grip.
I immediately pulled my old gun out and transferred the scope to the new one. Engraved in the wooden handle on the new weapon was the word Reaper. This was a new one to me, but man oh man, was it a cool fucking gun.
Next up was the red chest. Inside was a pair of leather, steel toed boots; black with red laces. Eagerly, I whipped those bad boys on and marveled in how soft they felt on the bottoms of my feet. This would make the endless walks around this world much easier to deal with.
And the excitement continued into the final chest, the yellow one. This was straight cash homey, one thousand credits. Plus, being able to scrap my old pistol, the next time I found a marketplace, I’d be able to finally buy some shit. I did what I needed to and when I was finished getting prepared; I started to walk towards the new exit, my confidence at an all-time high.
“You’re going to need me.”
Oh, she was still here. “No I’m not. You can move along now.”
If there was a rebuttal, I wasn’t sticking around to hear it. I held my new gun up high and slowly walked into the darkness. Soon, the light from the moon was no longer visible. Fortunately my goggles had a night vision mode, so I wasn’t completely in the dark, but it was still weird and eerie.
I knew there was an enemy here called a wayward son. I had no idea what it’d look like or what kind of attacks it performed. On second thought, I probably shouldn’t have given Zoe the cold shoulder and picked her brain a bit more for her knowledge. As it was, I was in the dark hunting an enemy I knew next to nothing about. Yeah, not one of my better moves.
A sixth sense or something told me there was someone nearby. I quickly turned around, as I thought I saw movement, but there was nothing there. Trying to keep my cool, I crept forward at a slower pace; trying to keep my eyes open at all angles. The last thing I wanted was to be ambushed.
Then it dropped from the ceiling. Something hard and heavy landed on me and knocked the wind from me. Whatever it was jumped off of me and landed a few feet out of view. I pointed my gun in the general direction and activated the Bullet Burst skill. The bolts lit up the area, so even though I missed, I found my attacker. Hot damn, did part of me wish I hadn’t.
This must’ve been a wayward son. It was a three eyed half zombie looking thing with a bit of the terminator mixed in. Circuitry was running down its left arm and the middle eye had a reddish glow to it. This was definitely a techno-organic foe.
The wayward son staggered forward and came into full view. A bit taller than me, it swiped with the mechanical arm at me, but it telegraphed the punch giving me time to avoid. The fist slammed into the wall behind me, putting a decent sized hole in it. Reminder – don’t let this thing punch me.
At such close quarters, I pulled out the dagger the Oracle gave me. As the wayward son lurched forward again, I stuck out the bladed instrument and stabbed the unprotected center eye. The attack caused it to start whirling and steaming from the ears before it fell down lifelessly. My oculus dinged, signaling my next level.
There was clapping nearby. “Bravo.” Zoe – and it was dripping with sarcasm. “I was pretty sure you were going to get killed on the very first attack. Good thing that was only a level ten wayward son. The more dangerous ones lurk deeper.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I was dead serious when I told her to hit the bricks. “I d
on’t want your help nor do I need it.”
“Come now, you nearly were killed by a low level enemy. Look at your oculus and tell me we still can’t be a team.”
If looks could kill, she’d be long gone. Still, knowing that it couldn’t hurt to look at what the oculus said, I went to the ally page and was a bit surprised. “Son of a bitch, how can we still have an eighty percent trust ranking?”
Ignoring that, “You also need to choose your next skill it seems. Maybe pick one that’ll help in these tight spaces.”
I slid the screen back to the skill tree. I’d been so annoyed at everything else; I forgot that at level eight I picked up my next skill. With gunslinger no longer my designation, the skill tree looked a bit different. Bullet Burst was still activated, but the next skill in that line was not what I remembered. My next two choices on the tree were Sentinel’s Wrath and Mass Explosion. Both of them sounded really cool.
Doing my due diligence, I tapped Sentinel’s Wrath to get the breakdown. This skill was a knife skill, which when activated, gave the user (me) five seconds of total invincibility to hack and slash at an enemy. The only requirement was that the Oracle’s dagger had to be equipped at the time of use.
For Mass Explosion, this skill was used to charge a shot before the trigger was pulled, allowing the bolt to become an explosive. Upon impact, the bolt would blow up, causing significant amounts of damage in a five foot perimeter. The best part, this skill could be used in conjunction with Bullet Burst. As always, both had their cool down times, to stop players from spamming the skills.
Zoe was standing over me, just waiting for me to ask her for her opinion. The problem was, I didn’t want it. While Sentinel’s Wrath might’ve been useful in this situation, in the long term, I thought Mass Explosion seemed the better fit for me. With my mind made up, I clicked on the skill and completed my selection. Next skill would be available at level thirteen.