by Cheree Alsop
“You’re horrible at stalling,” Minx told him in his head. “But I’m glad you’re not afraid to die. Consider that good.” Before Breccan could question her line of thought, she continued with, “Contessa, we’ve learned that a power surge is the only way to stun the Techsecs. My theory is that if we overload Breccan’s avatar, we can short out the Techsecs completely.”
A chill ran through Breccan at her words, but he watched Victor calmly. “Shoot me before the Contessa. You know you want to.”
Victor shrugged. “I don’t care who I kill first.” He shifted his gun to Breccan.
“No, shoot me,” Bullshark said. “I’m the annoying one. Admit it.”
Minx spoke quickly. “Contessa, I need your permission to tell all of the avatars to disconnect before I send the overload through Breccan. Say yes to activate the clearance.”
“Yes,” the Contessa said aloud.
Victor glanced at her and his eyes narrowed. “Yes, what?”
The Contessa gave him a little smile.
“Every person who doesn’t want their avatar to be vaporized, disconnect now,” Minx’s voice said in Breccan’s head.
Victor’s gaze widened. Breccan realized that as an avatar, Victor heard Minx’s voice as well.
“You were stalling!” Victor growled.
“You get what you deserve,” Bullshark said. He reached for the back of his head.
The Contessa disappeared before Victor could pull the trigger. Bullshark followed.
Victor turned his gun back to Breccan. “You’ll pay for this, noder.”
Breccan looked at Jorie. She held his gaze. Her own was free of fear or regret; all Breccan read in them was her love for him. The moment they shared felt far longer than the space of a heartbeat.
“Ready, Breccan?” Minx asked. “This is going to hurt.”
“You’ve got this,” Garrick said from where he now stood at Jorie’s side. “You can take the pain, Brec.” He tipped his head at Jorie. “Do it for her. She’s worth it.”
“I know she is,” Breccan replied out loud. Garrick smiled and faded away.
Victor glared at Breccan. “You’ve destroyed everything, Game Breaker. You ruined my plans and upset everything with your bravado and idiocy. You’ll pay for this. You’ll pay for everything!”
Breccan held Jorie’s gaze and ignored Victor completely. “I’m ready,” he said.
Bright, painful white light flooded through Breccan’s head. He doubled over in agony as the power multiplied. The thought that he might never see Jorie again dropped him to his knees. He yelled her name before the pain burst out of him in an all-encompassing wave.
The explosion turned into a silence so stark Breccan’s ears rang with it. He opened his eyes to find himself in a white room that reminded him of his first experience with the Edge. His body felt as though every nerve burned with continuous fire. Even breathing hurt. His hand ached with an agonizing throb. Breccan wanted to lay on the floor and close his eyes in the hopes that the pain would go away.
“It hurts,” he said aloud.
“What did you expect?”
Breccan spun around. The movement stole his breath. The voice had spoken from everywhere at once. “Who-who are you?”
A circle of light appeared and then intensified to the point that Breccan had to lift his throbbing hand to shield his eyes. A moment later, it faded to leave Jorie standing there.
“How is this possible?” Breccan asked in shock.
Jorie smiled at him. “You’ll soon see. You were brave back there.”
“Did it work?”
Her smile touched her violet gaze. “You sacrificed yourself for the Edge. You destroyed the Techsecs and the corruption brought by Victor’s greed. You allowed us a chance to rebuild.”
Breccan followed her gaze to a single red button on a small podium.
“What is that?” he asked. He felt stupid asking so many questions, but his mind was reeling from everything that had happened and from the pain in his hand.
Jorie gave him an understanding look and said, “That’s the reset button. If one of the creators of the Edge pushes it, everything will be reset to the way it was before Victor took over.”
Breccan cradled his damaged left hand against his chest. The fact that he was still missing his right hand wasn’t lost on him. He realized in the same moment that his avatar was gone. Jorie was seeing him as he was in the real world for the first time. But there wasn’t any judgement or pity in her gaze, only the light and joy he was used to seeing. It centered him and he sucked in a shaky breath. “But how do we find a creator?”
Jorie reached her hand toward the button.
Breccan stared at her. “Wait. You created the Edge?”
Jorie nodded. “I did it a long time ago, and I had help, but they were killed off one by one by Victor’s assassins. I’ve created quite a few avatars. It’s my way of wandering the Edge in disguise. I made the Marjorie Avatars for that purpose.” Her violet gaze darkened. “And when I started hearing about the corruption from inside of the Edge, the avatar you see in front of you is the one I chose to investigate with in the hopes of getting more information.” Her voice lowered. “But they murdered me so that I couldn’t stop them, and I was trapped in this avatar without any way of fighting back for fear that I would be destroyed forever.”
“That’s horrible!” Breccan said. He couldn’t stop his gaze from flickering to her fingers as they hovered above the button. “If you reset the Edge, will you still be there?”
Jorie lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. But we’ve taken so many risks to save it, what’s one more?”
“It’s a lot to me,” Breccan replied.
He took a step forward, but Jorie raised a hand to stop him from approaching any closer.
“Thanks to your bravery, we now have concrete proof of Victor Cranfield’s betrayal from the recordings of Sneedle, as well as grounds to hold him for Mortimer’s murder. The Cranfield Corporation will be held accountable for his actions, and they will be forced to restructure their involvement in the power trade now that we have proof of their attempts to monopolize,” she explained. “Techsecs will also be banned from the Edge forever because they were too easy to corrupt.” Her voice lowered. “But with that goes the security they once brought. Chaos will reign.”
Breccan shook his head. “Not with the avatars I’ve met. There are good people in the Edge. They need the Edge; everyone does. It may take a while to find balance, but they want the Edge to work, and so it will.”
Jorie smiled. “I believe that, too.”
She reached for the button.
“Wait,” Breccan said. He tried to walk forward to stop her, but he was frozen where he stood. He strained but couldn’t break the hold on him.
“Goodbye, Gabe,” Jorie said.
“I won’t leave you,” Breccan told her.
She crossed to him. “Remember what I told you once?”
“That this is all pretend?” Breccan asked. He tried desperately to move, to touch her face, to kiss her, to do anything to let her know how much he cared about her, but he could only stand there.
She shook her head. “To take time to smell the roses.” She put her hand on his chest. Pain flared out from where her fingers touched. “Promise me you’ll do that, Gabe.”
“I’ll do it,” Breccan replied. “Promise me you’ll be there when the Edge resets.”
Jorie’s smile was sad when she said, “I can’t promise what I don’t know, but I can say that some things will be better than they are now.” Pain flared from her hand with such severity Breccan’s breath caught. She leaned closer to say, “Smell the roses for me, Breccan.”
A final flare struck him so hard Breccan blacked out.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Breccan’s eyes flew open and he stared at the forms above him.
“He’s awake!” someone said.
“Give him room,” another called out.
Breccan blinked and the
faces around him solidified. His gaze focused on Jonny.
“Wh-where am I?” he managed to ask.
Jonny’s face looked pinched and he couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes when he said, “In Holram City in Building Seven. We all unplugged from the Edge when the Contessa told us to.” His cousin’s eyes searched his. “But you didn’t follow. Then you started spasming and your heart stopped. We had to use that to get it going again.”
Breccan followed his finger to where Murphy stood holding a defibrillator.
“That’s why my chest hurts so much,” Breccan said weakly.
A few laughs were given in reply, but they were hollow sounding from the group of kids clustered around him. He wondered how many of them were avatars he knew in the Edge.
“Does it still exist?” Jonny asked as if he couldn’t help himself any longer.
The eagerness on the faces above him told Breccan just how badly everyone needed to know.
“I-I’m not sure,” he replied honestly. “I hope so.” He thought through the events that had happened. “The Edge was reset by its creator. If it worked, the Techsecs will be gone and everything will be the way it was before Victor Cranfield tried to destroy it.”
“But you don’t know for sure?” Murphy pressed.
Breccan shook his pounding head. “We won’t know until we plug in tonight.” The thought that he wouldn’t have an avatar left to use whispered in the back of his mind. He tried not to let it bother him that he could no longer be Game Breaker. He hadn’t realized until that point how much he had enjoyed being the avatar. “Let’s meet back here at the first possible minute.”
“Deal,” Jonny said. He held out a hand. “Let’s get you home. You look horrible.”
Breccan lifted his left hand to grab Jonny’s and then stared at it. It was no longer wrapped in the lacy doilies, and the bullet hole was gone. He didn’t know how that was possible.
Jorie’s words repeated in his mind. “Some things will be better than they are now.”
He opened and closed his hand and was grateful for the way it responded without pain.
“Come on,” Jonny said, grabbing it and pulling him up. “Don’t be weird. Mom’s going to be mad if we miss breakfast.”
Breccan thought of the body in the living room and ran for the door.
“Slow down!” Jonny shouted. “I don’t think you should be running if your heart just got jumped!”
“We’ve got to get home before our moms do,” Breccan called over his shoulder as he flung open the door and darted through it.
Jonny’s face was red with exertion when he caught up. “Why?”
“You’ll see,” Breccan said grimly.
They reached the Catlan residence early enough that Breccan was sure they had beat his aunt and mother, but when they ran up the stairs, he could hear voices speaking inside. Breccan reached for the doorknob and turned it. He pushed the door open slowly.
“Come on,” Jonny whispered. “Mom’s cooking might be bad, but it won’t kill you.”
“It’s not my death I’m worried about,” Breccan replied.
He ignored Jonny’s confused expression and walked into the living room with the certainty that they would be stepping into a disaster.
Instead, everything looked perfectly normal. Uncle Jix’s piles of papers sat on the usual surfaces covered in Aunt Jenny’s doilies. The couch was undamaged, and the bloodstain Breccan expected on the floor near the door was completely absent. He stared around the room in shock.
“I know, I know,” Aunt Jenny said from the door. “I tidied up a bit. You don’t have to look so surprised.”
Breccan realized his mouth was open when he looked at her, so he closed it again, then said, “Uh, yeah, that’s why I was surprised.”
She gave them a fond smile. “Come on, you two. You’re just in time for breakfast.”
Breccan couldn’t help looking around the room again as they passed through it.
“Don’t act so weird,” Jonny whispered. “She’ll know something’s up.”
“Sorry,” Breccan replied. “It’s just….” He let the words fade away.
“It’s just what?” Jonny asked.
Breccan shook his head. Saying what he was thinking would make him sound even crazier than he felt. He followed Jonny into the kitchen and sat down at the round table. His mother turned from buttering the toast to ruffle his hair.
“Good morning, sweetheart. How was your night?”
“Good,” Breccan said with some effort. “How was yours?”
“Strange,” his mother replied. “It’s probably a good thing you two didn’t stay at the Zone anyway. Work shut down and it sounds like they might be doing some restructuring.”
Breccan was amazed that he could keep his tone steady enough to reply, “Did you lose your job?”
“I’m not sure yet,” his mom told him. She smiled. “But don’t look so worried. We can always go back to Kirik Reservoir.” She watched him expectantly.
Breccan knew she assumed he would jump on the opportunity to return home, but the thought of going back to Kirik didn’t feel right. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I kind-of like it here.”
“Really?” his mom replied with hope in her voice.
Breccan nodded. “I’ve made some friends and Holram City’s starting to feel like home.”
His mother gave him a big smile and kissed him on the forehead.
Jonny opened his mouth. Breccan knew by his expression that his cousin was going to comment on how getting kissed by his mother was gross, but he was interrupted by a scream from the alley.
Breccan shot to his feet. There was no doubt in his mind that his aunt had found the missing body and would know what had happened while they were gone. He ran down the hall with his mom and Jonny following closely, then stopped short in the doorway.
The others crowded behind him. “What is it?” Jonny asked.
The sight of his aunt staring accusingly down at the discarded plates of dinner from the night before filled Breccan with such relief that his knees went weak. He leaned against the door frame and let his cousin and mother pass by.
“How did this happen?” Aunt Jenny demanded.
Jonny saw the spilled garbage can and shot Breccan a questioning look. Breccan shrugged. While the discarded food might seem like the end of the world to his aunt, Breccan knew it was anything but that.
School dragged on. Conversations about what had happened at the Edge came from every group he passed in the hallway. Speculation and fears were voiced as to whether the Edge would still exist when they plugged in that night. Breccan felt the pins and needles sensation of uncertainty when he admitted the same worries.
Everyone approached the various rundown buildings in the poor end of Holram City in a group. The unspoken strength in numbers applied as they faced the question of if the Edge would be there when they needed it. The boys and girls took their usual chairs without speaking and waited for the lone clock on the wall to chime the hour.
“Here goes nothing,” Murphy said.
“Here goes everything,” Minx echoed.
She shot Breccan a smile before she picked up her plug. He nodded back. Neither of them had spoken about what had happened the night before. He wondered if she was just as anxious as he was to see what remained of the Edge. He was pressed with a strange worry that talking about it would make the events real again, and if they were real, the chance that the Edge no longer wasn’t was far too possible.
His last thought as he pushed the plug into his port was that the room suddenly smelled like roses.
“Woohoo!”
Breccan opened his eyes and found himself in the ready room. Jonny and Murphy grinned at each other, then ran for their doors. Minx winked at Breccan.
“Good job.”
“Same to you,” he replied.
She walked with him to his door. “What avatar will you create?”
He paused with his left hand on the doorknob.
“I haven’t really thought about it.”
She nodded. “Take your time. I’ll tell the boys to go on ahead and we can meet them at the café.”
“Thanks,” Breccan replied.
He stepped into his room feeling nearly as nervous as he had the first time. He told himself he was being foolish, but he couldn’t help the tremor of nerves that darted up and down his spine when he looked at the rows before him. Once again, they appeared daunting.
Breccan made himself take Minx’s advice and take his time. As much as he wanted to rush up to the Hub and see the Edge for himself, he also dreaded what might not be there. So he got picky and wandered the aisles, grabbing a small item from one shelf, two from the next, and nothing from the following few. He lingered for a while in the hair section and debated how he would look with a goatee. He knew Jorie would be relieved when he finally continued on without one. The thought made his chest tighten in a way he didn’t want to contemplate.
He paused near the tattoos, then pushed on without getting one because he had already been there and done that. As tempting as it was, he chose to leave the past where it belonged. Now was the time to move on and accept that things were different. He just wished he knew how very different they would be.
When he set the basket in the space on the avatar creation chamber, he did so with his left hand. He appreciated the way his fingers opened painlessly from the handle and then closed again when he wanted them to. Though he still had his right hand, it didn’t feel quite as important as it once had. He was still grateful that when he thought about it that way, it didn’t disappear. If he had his choice, two definitely made life easier than one.
Breccan stepped out of the steam-filled chamber feeling as though he had just slipped on a new pair of shoes. He put his hand on the reader beside the door and the familiar monotone voice asked, “Do you wish to save your avatar?”
“Yes,” Breccan replied.
“Name your avatar.”
Breccan tossed around a few ideas, but only one would truly fit. “Gabe,” he replied.
“Select a password,” the voice said.