by Jack Crosby
Were they dead? I didn’t know, but both were squealing. That just left me with the tall, very pissed off looking clown. He went on the attack finally, his hands producing very long, talon like nails. He took a few swipes at me, putting me back on the defensive. He was fast, very fast, and didn’t let up. The only way I separated myself from him was jumping over the desk and kicking it at him. He needed to go left to avoid that.
I wouldn’t have my skills ready in time to put him in the ground. The fat one was dead, as he was no longer moving and his corpse was smoking. The smaller one was still fidgeting on the ground. Just to make sure he was done, I put a couple of shots into his back. That stopped any more movement.
Knowing I was just left with tall dude, I started to formulate a plan in my head. Since he was too agile to really get a good shot off at, I needed to take away his movement. The best way to do that was to limit the amount of available space in the room. This of course had the risk of putting me in harm’s way, too, but it was a chance to take. I blasted the bookshelves off the back wall, causing them to fall, taking up floor space.
He chased me around as I continued to make a mess in the office, really boxing the two of us in. When I shot down the light fixture, this put the clown right on top of me, so close I could see into his horrid black eyes of clowny doom. He was rearing back to take a massive swipe at me, but the Nemesis gun was buried in his stomach. I unloaded as many shots into him as I could. At this close range, there was nowhere for him to go. I didn’t stop shooting until the gun overheated and the tall clown corpse joined his brothers. For my troubles I reached level twenty-nine, but I chose not to loot the corpses. There was nothing those weirdos had that I wanted.
The force field was gone as soon as the third clown died. I made my way back to the elevator, thankful that it was unlocked. I punched the up arrow as hard as I could and went inside immediately. Rationally I knew the clowns were dead, but I didn’t even want to be on the same floor as them.
As before, there was a preselected floor number awaiting me. This time we were moving up to floor twenty. Hopefully this one would be friendlier. I was still shaking a bit over the last nightmare.
Imagine my surprise when I got off the elevator and found myself greeted by a concierge. “Greetings Mr. Wilde, we have a reservation for you for the evening.”
He was a friendly faced man with brown hair and matching eyes. It was totally a trap. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull,” I started before he stopped me.
“I am programmed to provide one last easy night’s sleep before you venture to the thirty-fifth floor.” He showed me over to a table. “Please sit down and rest. We have tacos coming out for you soon.”
“How did you know I’d want tacos?”
His answer was very nonchalant. “The longer you’ve been a part of this world, the more the CEO knows about you.”
I was going to complain, but when the waitress brought me my dinner, my hunger took over. There’d be time for an ‘at gunpoint’ question and answer session later.
Introduction: The Final Boss
The elevator stopped at the top floor. Was I nervous or scared? I didn’t really know. What I did know was that I was going to get the answers I demanded, one way or another. I was rested, fed, and had all the guns I could possibly need. As the doors parted, I took my first step towards finishing the game.
The room was dimly lit. It looked like one of those boardrooms you’d see on a legal TV show or something. At the far end of the room was a figure sitting down, patiently waiting for me to join her. This was a bit weird, not at all what I expected.
I wasn’t about to put my gun away. I slowly walked down the long room until Yazmin Flockhart came into view. She was writing something on a piece of paper, paying little attention to me. As I got a bit closer, she waved to one of the chairs in the room, a gesture I took as ‘to have a seat.’ I didn’t feel like it.
Being annoyed she was ignoring me, “So, is this how the game ends? The main character gets bored to death?”
“How this game ends is entirely up to you, if you want it to end, that is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Yazmin put her pen down and looked up to me. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes were a very pale grey color. “Look out the window and what do you see?”
I hadn’t really paid much attention to the outside of this little room, but as soon as she mentioned the window, my eyes were drawn to the billowing areas of smoke that were littering Spark City. “When did that happen? I didn’t notice that during the Electric Mile race against Draxler.”
Her lip curled in disgust at the mention of Draxler’s name. “My failed bodyguard’s name doesn’t need to be said in my presence.” Whoa lady, chill. “Had he done his job and won like he was programmed to do, I wouldn’t be in this bind, negotiating with you.”
She still hadn’t answered the question. “What’s really going on? I get the idea this game and the outside world are a lot closer tied together.”
“At least you’re not entirely stupid, though something tells me you’ve been influenced by that bitch, Baba O’Riley.” Who in the digital world was this woman a fan of? Man she came off like a bitch. “When Tanaka found the old Neon Death Race file, they used technology beyond its grasp to bring an interactive game to life.” She broke off her explanation. “Why did you choose the name Vector?”
Talk about a question out of left field. It must have had to do with the previous protagonist of the game by the same name. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I picked it based on the nickname my dad gave me as a kid.”
“Is Hank Wilde still alive?”
She knew my dad’s name. “What the fuck, lady? Just who the hell are you, for real this time,” I added with the Nemesis gun quickly ending up on her forehead. “I’m tired of all the shit games and the double talk.”
My outburst brought forth the first bit of emotion I’d seen in her. It wasn’t fear, it was anger. “Put that thing away before you hurt yourself.”
“I don’t think you’re in a spot to make –”
She grabbed the gun and with a lot more strength than I was ready for, bent it down away from her. “You want answers and I need your help. To get your answers, I need you to go out there and lead my shock troops to victory over the Tanaka Corp’s uploaded army.”
I was struggling to keep upright against her sheer power. This wasn’t normal. “You know what I think,” I said, pushing back as hard as I could. “I think if I take you out, and then somewhere around here will be the answers I need.” What I don’t think she had known was just how far my father and I had fallen apart. Dangling that carrot wasn’t as appetizing as it probably should’ve been.
“So you’d rather fight against an unbeatable foe instead of being smart and taking the deal?”
“The Electric Mile was unbeatable and yet you had to blow up Draxler for losing to me.” The gun slipped through her grasp and was back in my control. “Games are meant to be beaten and distracting me from taking out the final boss isn’t going to work.”
She slid the chair back and stood up. She was just under an inch shorter than me, but I already knew looks could be totally deceiving. I was up against some sort of mini-hulk or whatever. She pulled her heels off and her eyes went deep red. “You will die here today and no one will remember your name.”
“I doubt that, bitch.”
Wings materialized behind her. “The real Yazmin Flockhart considers herself an angel, and in this form, she made me one.” A flaming sword appeared in her hand, too. “Not what you were expecting?”
It wasn’t but she wasn’t going to get that satisfaction. “I’ve beaten bosses a lot scarier than you.” I had both guns out now, ready to engage my skills. “I’ll take a great deal of personal satisfaction adding your head to my collection.”
She took a step towards me, her sword hanging in the air very menacingly. “This is your las
t chance.”
I responded with a gunshot to her head. Her head whipped back from the impact, but when she came back around, all I’d done was piss her off royally. “So be it.”
She took two flaps of her wings and became airborne. Knowing that in a final boss fight there would be a lot of shit happening, I decided not to waste my skills, yet. Instead I took a few pot shots, just to see what would happen to Yazmin’s health bar. If anything happened, I didn’t see it. That wasn’t good.
She swooped down like a bird of prey and tried to take my head off. I slipped under the table and let her flaming sword cut nothing but air. Still, the heat that went by on the miss was something else. Think, Ash, think! She had to have a weak spot; no one would be dumb enough to create a boss that they couldn’t beat. Maybe I needed to think of how the real Yazmin Flockhart would beat herself. What would she have used?
There wasn’t really a lot known about the Tanaka Corp CEO. After her husband died a few years earlier, she buried herself into the company that they lifted off the ground. At least that was the public story. I slid out from under the table and saw that the angelic final boss was floating around the room, waiting for me. “Defeat is inevitable, as I said before.”
On top of being bitchy, she was supremely confident in her own skills. That was probably a trait that was passed down from creator to program. “Maybe I’m just too damn stupid to give up. Guts will prevail the day.”
She gave me a snide grin and went on the attack once more. It wasn’t part of my plan, not that I had one, but I shot out the glass window behind me. A gust of wind whooshed through the office and blew her off course, keeping me alive and giving us some separation. “Oracle’s Outlaw!”
With all my target based equipment and now my best offensive boost applied, following her movements wasn’t an issue. I fired off some more shots, barely making a dent in her abnormally large health bar. Sweet fuck sticks, what would it take to do some real damage?
I had to break off from my attack and retreat as she aggressively came forward, jabbing that damn sword of hers forward. The only advantage I seemed to have being her wings made it cumbersome for her to change directions quickly. Still, the place wasn’t all that large and the chances of getting trapped in a corner were decently high. I had to keep moving, never staying in one place too long. A few more shots were fired.
This was going to be an endurance fight, I just knew it. Draxler’s race tested my patience and reactionary reasoning skills to navigate the maze that was the Electric Mile. This was just a brute force monster; this fight was all about how hard and long you could go (and not in the good way, am I right?!). After a few more rounds of sticking and moving, her health bar was maybe down to ninety percent. And I was spent.
She landed on the part of the table that hadn’t been broken. “How long do you think you can keep this up?”
“As long as it takes.”
“Be reasonable; you are almost to your breaking point and you haven’t even done enough damage to constitute me being concerned. I’m giving you one last chance to reconsider our deal.”
There was nothing to consider. She wanted to use me as a puppet and thought by dropping my dad’s name, I’d cave. My dad, that no good, two timing crook! When I got out of this mess, I was going to find out just what he had to do with the original Neon Death Race. But one problem at a time, Vector.
There’d be no deal. Call me a jackass or a moron, but I wasn’t going to sellout to this thing. “Piss off, bitch. My answer’s still the same.”
She shook her head in disappointment. “You were warned.” A red glow came over her body and the angelic appearance faded, turning a bit more demonic. Even her voice changed, getting very husky. “The fun can really start now.”
Oh fuck me.
Final Form: Vector’s Last Stand
Demon Yazmin Flockhart was even worse than angel Yazmin Flockhart. On top of the flaming sword of doom, she now was able to breathe hell-fire at me. What next? On second thought, no one answer that. I needed a solution to this problem and fast!
She tried once again to roast me like a stuffed gamer on a spit. The biggest problem was the flames didn’t die down once they were on something. Soon half the room was inaccessible to me. I was running out of hiding spots. Even with Heart of the Oracle activated, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to protect myself.
Wait a minute; wouldn’t a building like this have some sort of fire prevention system in place? Taking a quick look up, I did see sprinkler heads on the ceiling. I wondered why her fire wasn’t making them go off. As I fled to save my bacon again, I needed to figure out this puzzle.
And the answer was right in front of me. Her hell-fire wasn’t producing any smoke. I didn’t understand the video game physics behind that, but with no smoke hitting the ceiling to let the fire system know something bad was happening, there would be no water to quell the flames. That is, unless I got her to aim higher.
There was a spot on the table that was still intact. This was going to be a bit of a risk, but I didn’t have much choice. I jumped over to it and she followed me, still in the air. Here was the risk. I proceeded to jump over her and she rotated her head, ready to spew fire. A jet of fire rushed from her mouth, straight up towards the ceiling and the sprinklers. My plan was almost a complete success.
I fell to the ground in so much pain. Some of the fire hit my leg, burning it pretty fucking bad. It burned away my jeans and I could see the red, blistering skin exposed. The pain was so bad that it nearly sent me into shock. Then water, cool wonderful water fell from the sky. It did nothing for my pain though, but it was doing a number on all the fires in the room and Yazmin.
She too was on the ground, the water having the same effect on her that her flames had on me. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw her health bar rapidly draining. Just when I thought all was lost, I was (semi) back in the game. I just needed to do something about this leg.
Then the water kicked off, with probably fifteen to twenty perfect of Yazmin’s health bar still intact. Shit. But she was back in her normal form, no wings or flaming swords. Looking over at me with hatred, “You’re worse off than I am.”
Ain’t that the God’s honest truth. Still, I was laughing about it. “How does it feel knowing you’re not as invincible as you thought you were?”
“How does it feel knowing I am going to kill you?” She pulled out a gun from a concealed holster on her back. “You can’t even defend yourself.”
“Can’t I?” I still had my gun in my hand. “Bullet Burst, Mass Explosion!” And for good measure, “Bullet Burst, Mass Explosion!” A double dose of my hardest hitting skills as I gritted my teeth, trying not to vomit from the pain.
Above the cluster fuck going off all around her, I watched with eagerness as her health bar was draining away. Each detonation took off more and more. After the sixth one, I was almost on baited breath waiting to see it drop to zero. And then it didn’t.
There was five fucking percent left. What in the world was left to do?
As the smoke cleared, Yazmin looked like hell. Her clothes were torn and blood was flowing from cuts just about everywhere. But she was still laughing. “It seems your best shot came up that much short.”
I tried to fire off another shot, but she was faster than me and shot my gun from my hand. It flew back and way out of reach. I was dead to rights as I laid there on the ground. She slowly took her time, her gun focused on me, as she sauntered over to my prone position. “Any last words?”
“Piss off.”
What she didn’t see was that my left hand was holding the dagger the Oracle gave me. Thinking that I was just a sniper, she never saw or expected the knife to fly out of my hand and bury itself in her chest. With that quick movement, her health bar dropped to zero and Yazmin Flockhart fell over, dead.
As her body hit the ground, a blue stone fell from her jacket and rolled to me. It was a deep, midnight blue with silver specks that looked like stars against the ni
ght’s sky. As the level up noise was ringing from my oculus, it paused and another, deep hum came from it. When I slid it open, I had a message:
‘The five Easter Eggs have been collected. The Mark of Zeus will grant you access.’
Oh my God, I’d completed the game and unlocked the Lost Level!
****
I came to, unsure of what happened. I remembered holding the Mark of Zeus and getting the message that I unlocked the Lost Level. As I went down to look at my leg and see if I could walk, my leg was fine. In fact, I was sitting in my recliner at my dad’s old garage. How the hell did I get here?
In my hand was my game controller and on the television was the starting screen for The Electric Mile. The first rays of sunshine were coming through the grimy window above me. Wait a minute, had it all been a dream? It couldn’t have been, I’d been struck by lightning for fuck’s sake!
Getting up, I saw the wrappers from the burritos I’d gotten the night before at my feet. I walked over them and out of the garage, just in time to see the sunrise. I was so confused by everything.
I did nothing the entire day except look at the television, hoping something would make sense. I was tempted to hit the start button and continue my campaign mode, just to see what would happen. Every time I went to do anything, something held me back. I didn’t know what, or why really. I knew I just couldn’t. I ended up falling asleep in my chair again, but there was no awesome dream this time. I woke up the following morning and nothing had changed.
Eventually I chalked it all up to a bad burrito and unresolved issues with my dad. Two weeks later, I went out to the state penitentiary where the old man was being held. It had been almost two years since I last saw him, so his face was a bit shocked seeing me behind the glass holding the phone.
He carefully picked it up, looking more thin and frail than I remembered. “Ash, what’re you doing here?”