After all, she'd been taught self-defense by a master cage fighter. She wouldn't go down easy. None of them would.
Cora didn't even notice Mary as she joined the group, her attention focused on the now closed fire door and the action in that direction.
Mary gave the nurse a silent nod and a wink to let her know she wasn't with Cora's crew and then turned to watch the fun. The men Cora had brought with her were muscular and big, but that didn't worry Mary all that much. With the muscles, an overconfidence seems to come hand in hand. Especially when faced with a much smaller, leaner adversary like Les. He didn't know it, but she'd seen some of his cage fights and the man was very, very good.
The first man to reach Les made the mistake of trying to push him out of the way. Les used the momentum of the man's own actions to send him flying across the room. He hit a table along the way and cried out in pain and fury. Before he could rejoin the party, man number two had turned to Les, now seeming to realize that he was the real danger to their plans.
With a silent grin, the man advanced on Les. Slowly at first, and then with a quick right fist flying out toward Les' beautiful face.
The woman beside her gasped, but Mary remained fairly calm. She'd seen worse fights than this one. Besides, if things went really south, she and Max would step in. But until they did, she knew Les would take that helpful action as a doubt of his ability.
As they watched, Les ducked beneath the fist in what seemed almost slow motion to deliver a powerful blow to the man's mid-section while continuing to move completely out of the man's way as he passed him by. Now there were two somewhat injured and very angry men to deal with.
"I don't suppose you'd let me join the fun?" Max asked from behind Les. "I'm all done with my part."
Les gave him a quick grin and then a nod. "I'm in a sharing kind of mood tonight," he said.
Her brother wasn't quite as proficient at the sport of fighting as Les, but that didn't mean he was a wimp. Between the two of them, the big burly male 'nurses' didn't stand a chance.
Obviously, that fact wasn't lost on Cora, either, as she maneuvered around the fight to reach the control panel. Keying furiously, she seemed to get more and more aggravated by the second. Finally, she whirled around to face the room again, just as Max took the second man down for good. Les' opponent had already gone before him.
Mary nudged the nurse beside her who was still standing with her mouth open staring at the rest of Mary's team. "I don't suppose you know if there is anything we can use around here to tie those two up?"
The nurse turned to her and their eyes locked. "Are you three the good guys here?"
"Oh, yeah," Mary said. "I promise once we have them safely wrapped up, we'll fill you in completely as to exactly what is going on here."
The nurse nodded. "That would be very nice."
With her help, they located enough cable and zip ties to secure the two men to nice heavy equipment. Luckily, they managed their task before either of them started coming around.
Then they turned their attention to Cora who was staring at them in horror. "You don't realize what you've just done!" she cried. "You've got to release this door immediately."
"Or what?" asked Les calmly.
"Or else die!" Cora said, flinging her arms about dramatically. "This whole place is set to go up in less than two hours."
"Go up?" Mary took a step toward her. "You're blowing up the building?"
Cora whirled on her. "Not the whole building, you idiot, just this lounge." She pointed to the massive structure at the end of the room that housed the main brains of the entire Gaia system. "We're taking that out," she said. "Anyone in this room will go with it. We have to get out of here!"
"And what?" The nurse asked, motioning to Nika and the other betas in their little curtained off areas. "Leave them here to die? Their brains are far too connected to the game right now to simply unplug them."
"Yes, we leave them here," Cora said. "Are you really willing to give your own life because of them? All of us can die right along with them, but it won't change the outcome for them one bit." She turned to Max. "How much for you to open that door? Name your price and I'll meet it."
Max looked at his two friends and swallowed. "My price is that nobody is left behind or endangered."
Cora screamed in frustration. "You don't seem to understand. The devices have already been placed, and the timers engaged. We have less than," she quickly checked her watch, "one hundred and ten minutes to get out of the building."
"I thought you said just the lounge was going up," Les said.
The woman hesitated. "That's what I've been told, yes, and it makes sense to limit the damage to this area, but I don't completely trust my employers."
"So the whole building could be wired to explode?" Mary was amazed at how calm her voice sounded. Then she realized that she really wasn't all that scared at all. But then her team did hold all the cards on this one.
"Yes, so can we please come to some kind of reasonable agreement quickly and get the hell out of here?"
"Explosive devices generally have override codes on them, don't they?" Max asked.
Cora just looked at him. "If I knew them, don't you think I'd be keying them in right now?"
"So where is the code you copied? If VirTech already has it, I sincerely doubt there is enough time to reach the front doors before they blow," Les said.
Mary realized he was right. To VirTech, Cora herself might appear to be a loose end.
"How the hell do you know about that?" Cora asked, her voice now quiet.
Oh sure, Mary thought, be willing to admit to being an accessory to blowing up a building and the people in it, but clam up when it comes to stealing code. This woman was a real piece of work.
Les shrugged. "Doesn't matter how we know, just that we do. And you still haven't answered the question," he said. "Do you still have the code? Or is it already in VirTech's hands?"
His question actually seemed to calm the woman down a bit. Mary could only imagine the thoughts racing through the woman's head.
Finally, Cora smiled, her ice queen persona back in full force. "I'm not an idiot," she said. "The code is with me until I reach a place of total safety. Only then will they get it transferred to them."
"So it's on your person now?" Mary asked.
"No, like I said, I'm not an idiot," she replied, still smiling. "But it's somewhere safe that only I have access to. VirTech could look a hundred years and never find it."
It was so in her purse, Mary thought. It was all right if the woman wanted to think she had them fooled though. It didn't hurt a thing.
"Then you can contact VirTech and get those emergency disarm codes, right?" Les said. "I can't see the company losing all their hard work on this project. Not to mention the financial outlay they must have put into it."
"I'll need a phone," Cora said.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you already have one," Les said. "And you can make that call right here in front of all of us, too."
Their two trussed-up prisoners choose that moment to start coming around and things got really loud really quick.
The nurse, Pam her name tag said, turned to Mary. "The bigger one most likely has a broken leg. I need to treat that." She grimaced. "Sometimes that oath they make us take really bites."
Mary nodded to her. "I'll help you," she said. "Hopefully you know by now that we are the good guys."
"Yeah," Pam said. "I kinda get that now." She led Mary over to the supply cabinet and got out first aid supplies for a makeshift splint, then they headed over to the man who was in obvious pain.
Well, both men were in pain, but he seemed to be the more urgent to deal with first. The other one's broken nose could wait.
Standing over them, well out of their reach, Pam looked down at them. "The oath I took when I became a nurse requires me to help you." She paused. "However, any actions on your part to try to hurt me or my assistant here will be taken as a refusal to be treated and reli
eve me of that oath completely. Do you understand?"
The men looked at each other and then nodded.
Pam started to work on splinting the leg and Mary handed her whatever she asked for. Once they were almost finished, she had to ask.
"So did the two of you know about the bomb?"
Two sets of panicked eyes locked onto hers. "There's a bomb?" the big one asked.
"Yes, but I'll let Cora explain all about that. Apparently, it was on a timer to go off in around an hour," Mary told them.
The men's eyes flashed over to Cora. "You bitch!" They yelled, struggling against the cables restraining them.
"Hold still," Pam said, smacking the man she was working on to get his attention. "I'm not done yet."
Mary glanced back at Cora who was glaring defiantly at the men. It made her want to let the lesser wounded man loose for a bit. She'd bet that would wipe the defiance off the bitch's face.
"It's okay guys," Les said, suddenly standing behind them. "The bombs have been handled."
"Bombs?" The bigger one asked. "As in more than one?"
"Three actually," Les answered. "One on either side of the Gaia mainframe and one in the middle on top. They weren't taking any chances."
"They're really disarmed?" Mary asked. "You verified that?"
He smiled at her. "Hell yeah, and I made them tell me how to disconnect the damn things too."
"How did you do that?"
His smile widened. "Let's just say they think a deal may be on the table with us."
"You promised them the code?" Mary asked.
"Not exactly promised," he said. "More like strongly stated that a deal would be impossible once the devices went off." He shrugged. "I never actually said one would be possible even if they didn't, now did I?"
Mary shook her head. Les was great at word wars. "What about the rest of the building?"
"They say these are the only ones," Les said. "Of course, I trust them even less than Cora does, but there isn't much we can do about them. If they do exist, I'm betting the timers are all off by now at the very least."
"As long as they think they can still win this," Mary said.
"Yeah," Les agreed. "From here on out, things could get a bit tricky."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Portals
It didn't take long for them all to agree to bump their levels up to the maximum in the game. The time for pure enjoyment of the game was over. This was life or death now.
Once that change was made, the others started to get ready to head for their camp, but Louella hesitated. As far as anyone had said, their original plan of heading out tonight for the oasis mid-way to Gaia still stood. But there simply had to be something that could speed up their journey drastically.
As much as she wanted her new friends around her, she wanted them safe more. So she asked the question that had been burning in her mind for some time now.
"Did you never even consider a portal system for Gaia's Rebirth?" she asked Cameron. "Not just between the two areas, but between all the main fields of battle and towns? Most games like this have them."
Cameron nodded. "I considered it, and actually coded it too, but we wanted to see how the game played straight through without it before adding it as an option." He paused. "I was thinking it would be a good addition to the endgame play-through, once players made it all the way through Gaia."
Louella's heart started beating a little faster. "It's already coded?" She noticed Nika's gaze had gone from her to her father too.
"Well, yes, but...," he stopped. "My God, why didn't I think of that?" He popped open the terminal again and the keystrokes started flying.
"How long will it take to add it to the game?" Nika asked. "Is it possible to do it without the outside world knowing?"
"I don't see how they could know unless they happened to be looking at that section of code as it changed," he said, his finger never hesitating on their journey across the keyboard. "As for how long, not very would have to be my answer. It’s already coded and ready to go, it's really just a matter of copying and pasting it into place. Like that," he said with a flourish, making the final keystroke.
A wave of energy passed through the room but nothing inside seemed to change at all.
"Where is the portal?" Evan asked.
"A few yards from the save fountain," Cameron said. "It was easy to simply tie them to the major save points. Wherever there is a save point in the game, there will now be a portal that will allow you easier access to the next boss battle." He hesitated. "But in order to use the portal to advance to the next boss area, we will have to defeat the boss by the save fountain."
"Now that we're level twenty, that shouldn't be too hard," Evan grinned. "I mean, I've got freakin' dual wield right now. I can actually fight with two blades." He looked at the others. "And I know you guys got great perks from the increase too, right?"
They all nodded. For Louella's part, she got the equivalent ability to Ash's new staff, Heaven's Blessings and a Shield All that would give the entire party plus twenty in defense. They should be able to take on even Gaia herself without too much trouble now. Which brought up another point.
"Um, guys?" she said. "Before we forget and go rushing off to end the game, don't you think we should all join up as a single party again? I really don't want us to have to face three Gaias."
Nika shivered. "Lord in Heaven, no." It took a few minutes and a little dickering but eventually they traded their way to the best team of little critters and all joined Nika's team. They might not have every critter in the game, but they had a good split of some pretty powerful ones in all the different element classes. Besides, with the Gaia portal, they might not even need them.
Dean looked at Nika with an odd expression. "About the Trials update," he said. "That won't stop us from exiting the game, will it? I mean, we don't have to win both games, do we?"
Cameron shook his head. "I checked the code, and it's still set to open the portal once Gaia is defeated." He looked over at Nika. "I can't guarantee that there won't be a critter battle before we get to her."
Nika nodded. "Kind of like the arena we had to pass to get into town, I guess." She squared her shoulders. "Well, we'll just have to kick the little critters' butts, then won't we?"
Louella grinned. "So are we still taking that nap?"
Everyone looked at Dean.
"Okay, yeah, I'm tired, but if we can get out of this game and back into our bodies, I say we power through. At least to the mid-way oasis," Dean said. "We might actually want to rest a bit there to be at our best before tackling Gaia herself."
"Couldn't have come up with a better plan myself," Nika said, clapping him on the shoulder. Then she looked around at the others. "So, team, anything we're missing before we head out?"
"Maybe one more trip to the market?" Louella said. "Just to see if there is anything we missed."
There wasn't. But they did stop off and place their mounts in the care of the local stables. They shouldn’t really be needed if they were traveling by portal between the bosses.
When they got back to what passed for the town’s square, a little ways from the glowing fountain now stood an ornate dais with a stone archway over it. The portal. As they got nearer, they saw Striker waiting by the fountain and staring at the portal. How had he known they were getting ready to head out?
"Now that's something you don't see every day," he said as they came close enough. "Damn thing just popped in there looking like it had been there for years. Damnedest thing I ever did see."
After a brief round of introductions, during which Cameron Logan couldn't quite stop grinning, they all reverently touched the save fountain. With every touch, it shone a bright blue, just as it always had. As they were turning to leave, Cameron stopped suddenly and turned to Striker.
"Just out of curiosity, young man," Cameron said. "Would you be so kind as to touch the gem in the middle of the fountain?"
"Your good luck charm?" Striker asked. Then he shrugged
. "I don't see how a little extra luck could hurt a dwarf at that." He reached out to touch the fountain, and there was a brighter shine of color, but it was a teal green instead of the player's blue. Striker didn't seem to notice.
Louella did, as did Cameron. The man's eyes caught hers and he smiled. The game still thought of them as players. That had to be a good sign, right?
He came to stand next to her. "You ready for this, little pixie?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I think I am."
"I still wish you'd stay here in the town where I know you're safe," Nika said. Then she hesitated before looking to Louella. "That goes for you too. I don't want to risk losing either of you."
"Either way it goes, I'm okay with it," Louella said, a little surprised to find that she actually meant every word. Having already died, she guessed Death just didn't scare her. Not even if it was the forever kind. Which was previously the only kind she'd thought there was. Who knew, right?
"As am I," Cameron said, putting his arm around Louella's shoulders and pulling her in to him. "Although I really do think we'll be just fine. It's the rest of you I'm more concerned about. We need to get you back as soon as possible."
Nika hesitated, but Louella knew that Cameron wasn't about to budge and neither was she. They were going whether Nika liked it or not. Finally, the Amazon nodded and calmly walked into the portal.
When she disappeared from sight, they all looked at each other. The portal to the desert they had all taken hand in hand and that had helped their confidence a hell of a lot. After a second, Ash gave them a shrug and followed.
In a matter of minutes, they all found themselves standing in the middle of the desert beside another large save fountain. They each saved their progress and took a minute to look around. The oasis still wasn't in sight. But if the portal worked, they should be near it.
Louella pulled up her map and located the oasis about two miles down the glittery path. If she had to guess, that meant the mini-boss battle here would happen on the road, not at the oasis. Which most likely meant bandits, as so far, they had been the strongest Gaia monsters out here.
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