Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy

by S. L. Rowland

  Dean and I remove our haptic suits and hang out in the living room before bed. We’ve done all we can to prepare. Now, it all comes down to execution.

  “How are you feeling?” I want to give him the opportunity to get whatever he is feeling off his chest.

  He brushes his shaggy hair from his eyes. “Ready as I’ll ever be. As long as we are able to stay near Talia, I think we’ve got a shot.”

  “I agree. The good thing about this tournament is that we’re all on the same page. Everyone else has had the same amount of time to prepare.” I stand up and stretch. “We should try to get some sleep. I need you to be as focused as possible tomorrow.”

  Advice is always easier to give than adhere to. Once in bed, I find myself wide awake, staring at the ceiling and playing through scenarios in my head. I know that there will be something tomorrow that we haven’t prepared for, but it doesn’t keep me from running through scenes that are likely to never happen. When sleep does come, my dreams are haunted by even more farfetched scenarios.

  Scenes where Ryken pulls me from my car and tosses me off a bridge, forfeiting our position in the race. Or where every other competitor turns on us, using focused fire so that we never move out of last place.

  I wake up in a cold sweat five minutes before the alarm is set to go off. Instead of waiting in bed, I go into the living room.

  Dean sleeps peacefully on the couch, his fists balled together beneath his chin as he pulls the sheets in close. He’s been through a lot. Even though he’s so close to being a man, I’m reminded that he’s still a kid. His life is only beginning, and winning this tournament could change his entire future.

  The alarm goes off. A gentle beeping that slowly grows louder until Dean stirs beneath the covers. He sits up and wipes his eyes.

  The look of confusion transforms into a smile. “Today’s the day!”

  After a quick shower and breakfast, we log into Pangea. Once the time comes, we depart from my home portal to Raceworld, where competitors continue to materialize around us. Many stand in groups of four to six. Apparently, more and more people decided it would be a good idea to have an ally in a race this big.

  “Ready?” A firm hand grabs me on the shoulder.

  I turn to see Talia, her dreadlocks pulled into a ponytail.

  “We’re ready,” Dean answers for me as he fist-bumps Talia and Chadwick in turn.

  There’s a flap of wings as Nancy takes to the sky on her pegasus. A moment later, her amplified voice carries over the crowd.

  “Greetings, adventurers, and welcome to stage two of the Pro-Am Tournament! You once again find yourselves competing against the best of the best. Portal Pass may be a familiar track, but let me assure you, there are plenty of unexpected changes in store. Your positions have been randomly generated, so without further ado, let’s get started.”

  She snaps her fingers, and everything goes black. The next thing I know, I’m sitting in a hovercar on the streets of a towering city. Neon lights flash all around us, reflecting off the wet streets. Holograms dance in the sky among the towering buildings. We’re in some sort of shopping district in a futuristic cyberpunk world. I can’t read any of the signs on the buildings. They’re in a foreign language but the images of ramen, clothing, robots, and more cast some light on what each shop contains.

  Revving engines fill the air. We’re surrounded by other cars, each hovering about a foot off the ground. I search the area, but I can’t see Talia anywhere.

  I tap the floorboard with my foot as I search for the gas pedal, but it’s empty. When I tilt the steering wheel, the massive turret overhead changes direction.

  “We need to switch,” Dean yells over my shoulder.

  He and I climb out of the vehicle. As soon as my feet touch the ground, a red timer appears in my vision counting down from thirty.

  Warning! Return to your vehicle immediately or you will be disqualified.

  That’s good to know.

  I climb into the front seat and the notification disappears. The dashboard in front of me has displays for speed, shield health, elemental charges, and equipped items. In the top right corner of my vision, there are displays for our position and current stage.

  Position: 80/163

  Stage: 1/10

  The shield is currently at zero, so I assume it will activate once the race starts.

  “Have you seen Talia?” I ask as I scour the competitors around us, looking for her dreadlocks.

  To our right, there are two elves in jewel-toned cloaks. Straight ahead, there’s a blue-haired beastman and a post-apocalyptic human. Next to them, two men with fairy wings protruding from their shoulder blades. A few rows up, I spot Ryken’s massive frame. Dawn scowls at me as she points the turret gun in our direction. How has he managed to turn her against us too?

  “They got lucky. Look all the way to the front.” Dean fiddles with something behind me.

  Sure enough, all the way in first place I see Chadwick in the gunner spot. He waves at me as our eyes briefly make contact. Talia sits ahead of him in the driver’s seat.

  There are over seventy cars between us and them. Sticking to our plan is going to be a tall order, and I won’t blame her one bit for not waiting around for us.

  All around us, the other teams are getting into position, switching seats, and locating their allies for the race. One thing I notice is that we all have the same style of hovercar.

  They are all matte gray, with one seat facing forward and the other facing the rear. Thrusters glow beneath each vehicle, changing from a dull gray to a bright yellow as drivers tap the acceleration.

  One major change I spot is the way the turrets are mounted. Instead of having one blaster attached to the front and rear, a turret is mounted in between the driver and the gunner a foot overhead so that it allows the gunner to shoot in three-hundred-sixty degrees.

  Nancy flies down the center of the street on her pegasus. Her shimmering mail reflects the neon lights, giving a cyberpunk glow to her Norse armor. Her mouth moves, but I can’t hear her over the revving engines and constant chatter.

  She taps her neck twice and the scream of feedback silences the noise around us.

  “That’s better.” She smiles. “I can understand your excitement, but I have a couple of announcements before we get this race going. First off, I’m sure you’ve noticed our upgraded turrets. This allows the drivers to focus on driving and the gunners to focus on shooting. In addition to the new turret, Portal Pass also has new portal options and a few new items, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. And finally, you all received packages in the mail. Each one has a time-delayed lock that will open for those who finish in the top one hundred. For those of you who finish outside of the top one hundred, a drone will come to recover the package.”

  She hovers in the air at the front of the line. “Now that we have that out of the way, everyone take your positions. The race will begin in sixty seconds. Good luck and godspeed! I’ll see you on the other side.”

  A timer appears in the center of my vision. I scout ahead, looking for any of the items or elemental charges on the track. From my position, I can’t see anything beyond the first row of cars. We’ll need to catch up with Talia, but there are over seventy cars between us.

  The timer hits zero and whining engines surround me. The two elves smash into us from the right at the same time as the beastman reverses into us. Our shield cracks as more cars ram into us from behind.

  Dozens of cars bypass us to the left and right.

  I try to maneuver away, but we’re pinched between the pileup. There’s no one to our left, but we’re so jammed that I can’t break free. Our shield continues to decrease as more and more cars pile up around us.

  Our shield hits zero and the acceleration gauge plummets. I press the gas, but nothing happens. That’s when I notice that we have dematerialized into a ghost version of ourselves. Our car floats higher into the air, and the pileup of cars fills in our empty spot below.

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sp; “What’s going on, Esil? Get us out of here.” Dean yells.

  “I can’t do anything. Our shield is down.”

  Panic begins to set in. Are we already out of the race this soon? We didn’t even make it past the starting line.

  Several other cars begin to drift into the air, including the beastman in front of us. Our shield springs back to life and we’re jostled as our car drops on top of the pileup. After a couple of seconds, the other cars regain their form and are dropped on the track. Once we touch down, I’m able to accelerate again. I press the pedal to the floor and we slide off the pileup, crashing down on the street below before our car resumes hovering. The fall damages our shield, but we’re able to break free and finally start the race.

  More cars crunch against one another, but the pileup eventually begins to disperse as more and more cars respawn on the track. I keep a wide berth from any of the other cars as we exit the first stretch and head into an underground tunnel.

  Around the first turn, an elemental charge and item spawn sit in the center of the track. I pass over each one in turn, unlocking a fire charge and two shield cells.

  “Now we’re talking!” Dean immediately opens fire with his elemental charges.

  Flaming balls of fire bounce across the street, and cars behind us swerve as they try to avoid them.

  While I’m glancing behind us, an errant ice beam hits the front bumper as I crest the hill from the tunnel, dropping our shield by a quarter and slowing our speed. The icy effect makes it incredibly hard to steer, and the hovercar drifts to the right, almost colliding with the wall before the effect wears off.

  “You okay up there?” asks Dean.

  “Yeah, I’m good, just getting the hang of things.” I activate one of the shield cells and it repairs our shield immediately.

  For the moment, we’re caught in no man’s land between those that were able to escape the beginning chaos and everyone who got caught in the pileup.

  “Up ahead!” I shout. “There’s a car just getting up to speed, see if you can hit them.”

  Two dwarves sit in a car as their shield reforms and ghost mode fades. The thrusters glow yellow as they accelerate, but we’re catching up quickly. The turret shifts overhead, and a stream of fireballs hits the dwarves’ car, sending splinters cracking through their shield.

  They point their gun at us, but their water beams turn to steam as Dean counters them with fire.

  I wave to the dwarves as we speed past.

  “We’re almost out of fire.” Dean alerts me.

  I check the elemental gauge, and the fire emblem is nearly empty. “Nice job back there. I’ll keep an eye out for more charges.”

  A glowing lightning bolt hovers in the air near the edge of the track. I swerve to hit it, filling a second gauge with electricity. I also unlock a speed boost that shows up as a picture of winged shoes.

  As we hit the next stretch of flat track, there are three cars within striking distance. Beyond them, the first portal awaits. Only instead of one portal, there are three. Each one is circular, their center filled with purplish-black energy and their edges covered in glowing runes.

  So it looks like there is more than one way to finish this race.

  One of the cars disappears into the portal on the left. Another appears to be on track for the right portal.

  “Hold on tight!” I activate the speed boost and the front of the car tilts up as we’re thrust forward. “Trouble at two o’ clock.”

  Dean points the gun in their direction, and I recognize a familiar face as Lyle, the vampire, showcases his predatory incisors while he fires on us. A gale of wind erupts from his turret toward us.

  Dean hits the gale with a bolt of electricity and the two elements converge in a thunderous explosion. A dark cloud forms and tiny bolts of lightning arc out from it for several feet. I swerve around the thunderstorm just as Lyle’s apprentice Aliyah hits the far-right portal.

  “Someone’s catching up,” Dean warns.

  I glance over my shoulder just as an unlucky minotaur drives too close to the thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning hits the car, stunning them in place as we pass through the center portal.

  For a moment, we travel through space and time before the portal dumps us into a desert wasteland at full speed. The track is nothing more than a dried-out riverbed. We hit the ground at top speed, and it takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the scorching sun.

  For the first time since starting the race, I check our positioning.

  Position: 113/163

  Stage: 2/10

  We’re thirteen spots out of advancement currently, and way behind where we started.

  As we speed through the winding riverbed, it’s hard to gauge who might be in front of us. The riverbank and twisting track obscures my view of anything other than what is right in front of us. Our plan of staying by Talia has gone completely to hell. I hope that every other alliance faced the same problem we did.

  The sun blazes overhead. Everything around us is a shade of brown or yellow. I hit an elemental charge for poison, and then one for earth. Since we can only keep three at a time, Dean is forced to choose which elements to keep, and discards the nearly-depleted fire charges. I also manage to snag a couple more shield cells, a second speed boost, and temporary invisibility—one of the new items.

  The track is so windy that it demands all my attention to keep from crashing into the riverbank.

  I turn another corner and slam on the brakes as a car sits stalled in the middle of the track. In the front seat, a knight in silver armor raises his hands into the air. I focus on the knight and his name appears in the air above his head.

  Paul Campbell.

  I remember him from the highlights Grayson showed us.

  “Don’t shoot!” He lifts his hands higher.

  In the back seat, a purple fairy with green wings has her arms raised as well.

  Dean aims the turret at them but holds his fire.

  “What do you want?” I ask, hesitant of a trap.

  It won’t be long before someone shows up behind us, so we need to deal with this quick.

  “We need to hurry, just hear me out. We lost our allies, and we’re never going to catch up at this rate if we stay solo. Can we team up until we are in better positioning, then you can go your own way?”

  I don’t know that I want to let my guard down around someone I don’t know, but I defer to Dean. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t like it, but he’s got a point. Our entire plan is ruined, so it’s worth a shot.”

  I nod. “Alright, we need to get moving before someone catches us. What charges are you running?”

  “Right now, we have fire, wind, and water. You?”

  “That’ll work. We have poison, electricity, and earth. If we can coordinate our shots, then we should have some good effects. Water and poison make acid, fire and earth make lava, wind and poison make toxic gas, and the wind and electricity create a thunderstorm.”

  “Someone’s coming!” Dean warns. He points to the fairy gunner. “Switch to wind. I’ll hit them with electricity.”

  A hovercar turns the corner, and the eyes of the half-dragon driving goes wide when he sees us. A gale of wind and bolt of electricity hit the car at the same time, engulfing it in a thunderstorm and stunning it in place.

  “Nice! Now let’s go.” I punch the gas, and we take off down the riverbed.

  Paul follows behind closely, his silver armor looking almost yellow as it reflects the landscape. The turret swivels back and forth as his apprentice scopes the area for threats.

  When we arrive at the next portal, a car sits in front debating which one to take. We hit them with a thunderstorm and zoom through the right. The portal spits us out going full speed in the jungle.

  We speed down the dirt track when something crashes into us from the side, knocking us off course. I search for our assailant, but all I see is a log hanging by two ropes just as we fall into a ravine.

  We los
e five seconds to ghost mode before we respawn on the track. Not far up ahead, Paul respawns from a similar fate. Row after row of swinging logs sway back and forth like a pendulum.

  I slowly inch us forward, waiting for the log to pass before accelerating through. “We need to take this one slow or we’ll lose even more time.”

  We’ve managed to gain five spots, but we’re still out of placement.

  The drive through the jungle is slow-going. It seems like there’s a new trap every few seconds, from spiked pits to rope bridges, and more swinging logs. They definitely made this stage much harder than the one we trained on.

  We pass another handful of teams as we take our time. A team of robots curses us to seven hells as we hit them with a toxic cloud the moment they respawn on the track.

  Position: 105/163

  Stage: 3/10

  With careful effort, we slowly gain on our competitors. After the jungle, we go through a tunnel track that winds all the way down a volcano. Ramps force us to jump over molten lava, and random geysers send us soaring through the sky between tunnels.

  After the volcano, the race is less stressful as we pass through a medieval town and countryside. By the end of that stage, we are running fire, ice, and poison charges. Ice has the effect of slowing whoever we hit, fire leaves lingering burn damage, and poison does damage over time. By hitting our opponents with the ice beam first, it allows us to spam the other elements. Even if they manage to get away, the burn and poison damage keeps them hurting and a few times, we force a respawn even after they’ve escaped.

  At the end of the medieval stage, we enter ninety-ninth place right as the portal spits us out onto a rainbow bridge. There are still six stages left, but things are finally looking up. Teaming up with Paul turned out to be a good idea after all. For as far as I can see, there’s nothing but brightly-colored empty track that arches through the sky. Currently, we have two shield cells, three speed boosts, and one invisibility burst that makes us invisible for five seconds.

  “I’m gonna use the speed boosts now,” I tell Paul. “There’s nothing but straight track ahead.”

  His eyes cut at me through his visor and he smashes into us from the side. The car swerves, nearly falling off the edge.