The Real World

by Jacob Long

  Xyla received a thorough education of Omega bombs while we were back in the Extreme World. Even though it's only on screen, it feels more real to see the bombs. "The restricted section is located on three floors: the forty-eighth, the forty-ninth, and the fiftieth," Xyla states. "They've been claiming that they have been doing renovations on those floors. I suppose that they weren't lying," she exhales, suppressing her anger. "The forty-eighth floor has various research and development rooms. The forty-ninth floor contains the Mass Teleportation Room which is about three times the size of our regular teleportation rooms. It also contains housing areas for Ministry soldiers, scientists, and visitors."

  The screen displays a red dot where the quarters of Senator Leroy are located. “And finally, the fiftieth floor contains the war room which is this one.” She points. “It looks very similar to the room that we're in now. It also contains the storage area and launching bay for the jets. As you can see, the fiftieth floor is our primary focus. Of course, after we're done, we can take a sledgehammer to the rest of it for insurance purposes.” She states simultaneously poised and infuriated.

  “Extreme Jayden and I will go through these corridors-” typing on the keyboard, she inflates several of the images, "-arrive at the storage area and dismantle the warheads before they can be placed onto the airplanes. As soon as we are in the storage area, Callum and Real Jayden will set off the evacuation alarm. She explains the remainder of the plan, and I adjust our imitation devices so that it looks like we're wearing the uniforms of Ministry soldiers. We exit the control room. The doors close swiftly behind us. Xyla starts jogging down the corridor, and I follow.

  It feels good to use my lungs like this. In fact, I feel a lot better. I can even feel my abilities returning to full capacity. That would be a very good thing at this point. We get into the elevator, I hold my hand out, palm facing upward. As I focus on the thought of a single flame, it generates into my hand. It grows bigger and bigger. Xyla looks on. "Save your energy." I nod, the fire absorbs back into my body. The elevator stops on the fiftieth floor. The doors open, revealing an empty corridor. We tread carefully albeit quickly down the way until we come up to a door that she says is the entrance to the storage area. "All right, guys." She says over the comm system. "Open sesame."

  Nothing happens. "Guys?" she asks. "Sorry, we don't have access to that door," Callum replies. "You're sure?" she asks. "Yes," RT confirms. "They must have all of the controls for the doors on that floor located in the war room." "So much for having control of the control room," I say. "Are the warheads armed in there?" I ask with an idea. "No, I don't think so," she replies. "They're scheduled to be completed in less than an hour. I can't be sure though." I fix my gaze from her toward the doors. I place my fingers on my temples and close my eyes looking for a soul in the room. That might be asking for a little too much. I guess I'll settle for a mind.

  I open my eyes, and I see... a warhead. I'm in the mind of one of the scientists. It only takes me a moment to search his mind before I see that the warheads are missing a key component: the weaponized Fortisium that fuels them. It's not even in the room yet. They'll be bringing it up in a half hour. That's enough info for me. I exit the mind of the scientist and lift my hands up in front of my torso. Swirls of heat and flame are dancing between my hands. "Stand back," I warn Xyla. "Don't tell me what to do," she replies, half serious. I look over at her. "Stand back, please?" She concedes and takes a step back. I turn my palms toward the doors, and both panels go flying into the room.

  There are several people in the room, most of them scientists hunched over the warheads, observing or working on them. Those who didn't run away to avoid the blast, immediately run away from the source. The six other people in the vast space are Ministry soldiers. Because of the size of the room, only two of them are nearby. Xyla shoots them both out immediately. One after the other, they drop like flies. We take cover behind a warhead as the other four soldiers raise their rifles to shoot. When they don't fire at us, we realize that they are worried about damaging the unarmed warheads. Since we are not, we use this to our advantage.

  I transform my body into a mass of flame. Standing up, I walk directly toward one of the soldiers. He repeatedly fires, to no avail. I send him flying backward with a huge burst of flame. The other soldiers start closing in on me while Xyla sneaks away. After eliminating the four soldiers and destroying four pods in the process, I turn around to see her standing amidst six demolished pods. We almost smile before both realizing what's going on. Xyla presses her comm button. "Where are the other pods?" "I'm not sure," Real Jayden replies. "Maybe they haven't teleported them in yet- Oh, no. It looks like we're about to have company." Xyla and I shoot each other strange looks. I reach my fingers to my temple and focus on Real Jayden.

  I see what he sees. On the control room display screen, several Ministry soldiers are heading down the corridor toward the control room. There are six of them, and they are not typical soldiers. They are elite soldiers. They wear a unique uniform, and they are all at least level 3 super-humans. By the shape of their individual armor, It looks like four of them are men, and two are women. Even though all of their armor is of the same design, I feel a unique and powerful psychic presence from two of them. Instantly, I know. They are Carlisle, and Fulloway.

  I haven't been this close to them since my recon missions. Even then, it was only in the same building together. I spotted them from afar. We couldn't get too close to Fulloway, because even a psychic disruption device can't hide someone away from her when they're within several yards distance. My feeling of spite for them is starting to overwhelm me. I have always had a strong distaste for Carlisle and Fulloway. The ones who are responsible for ruining and destroying most of the world. When I saw them on that recon mission, I thought that I hated them.

  Now I realize, that I didn't know what hate is. I take a deep breath in and breathe slowly out. I must focus on the mission. Callum and Real Jayden are in trouble. "RT, do we have teleportation capabilities yet?" I ask over the comm system. "Not yet, my friend," he replies. "Soon though." How soon? I think. Soon may not be soon enough. I look up to the ceiling. I turn to Xyla. "Are the other floors evacuated?" Xyla looks at me. "You're the psychic. Why don't you rub your temple and scan for intelligent life forms." "Ha, right." After doing as Xyla suggests, I locate Real Jayden and find that no one is in the direct path from me to the Access Room. At that point, it's already decided. I grab hold of a surprised Xyla, and we jettison through the ceiling, busting through five floors and into the access room.

  I turn around to see that the entrance to the control room has already been destroyed. Callum and Real Jayden have been taken. Of course. They don't want to kill them. They want to experiment on them. "They're probably not far away," says Xyla. I create a telepathic cloak, hoping that Fulloway won't sense us. We run down the corridor, quickly catching up to the group of soldiers. They are only within a few yards of the elevator. The two soldiers are carrying Callum and Real Jayden at the rear.

  We sprint as stealthily as possible, tiptoeing up to the soldiers that are holding Callum and Real Jayden. Xyla pulls out her knife, and I clench my fist, generating a flame. As we reach within a foot of the soldier's, we look at each other and nod. As I pop my elbow back to attack, the fire grows into a dagger. Before I can lunge forward, overwhelming green light envelopes my vision. An immense force smacks the front of my body, and I am hurled backward several yards. As I sit up, I see that my entire field of vision encapsulates with a green lens.

  There are dark shades, and light shades of green, but no other colors. I turn to see a jade colored Xyla lying on the ground unconscious. No more games. I quickly place my left hand on her forehead while touching my right fingers to my right temple. Her eyes open wide as she bursts into wakefulness. I put both hands to my temples and telepathically attack the soldiers. Four of them immediately fall to the ground, unconscious. The other two, a male and a female, clasp their heads with their hands as if they're in
pain. Carlisle and Fulloway.

  Xyla capitalizes on the situation by pulling her gun out and shooting them both in the legs. I rush toward Callum, and Real Jayden as the last two soldiers fall to the ground. She fires off another shot but Carlisle holds out his hand, and the energy disintegrates against his green, radioactive force field. I had always heard that he was powerful, but I never knew the nature of his abilities apart from invulnerability. I barely manage to reach Callum and Real Jayden as Carlisle holds out both hands, sending a tremendous blaze of green energy rushing toward us.

  24

  I create a fire shield of flame to protect us, but I am weakening rapidly. Carlisle pushes toward us as Xyla, and I continue to back away. The green energy that he creates is immensely powerful and hot. Its radioactive nature could be very harmful to Xyla, Callum, and Real Jayden. However, at the moment, it feels mostly harmful to me since I am absorbing the radiation along with all of the heat energy. I'm not sure how much longer I can stand it.

  "RT!" I yell into the comm system. "How's that teleportation project coming along?" I ask loudly. Sparks of green and orange energy disperse around me as the energy hits my fire shield. I could use my blue fire right now. I take a deep breath in and focus on my flame. A thin layer of blue flame emanates from my body. "Almost there, Jayden." RT assures me. "And just in time too. I've located the President. He's about to launch the warheads."

  The force from the blast continues to get stronger and stronger. "I'm going to tell teleport the others back here to safety, and send you to the launching bay to stop the missiles," RT continues, "Good luck, my friend."

  My increased power helps, but it's not enough. Carlisle's energy is rising as well. With each step backward, I am now preventing myself from moving back too swiftly. As I lean in and step forward to strengthen my stance, I feel a strange sensation. It's the same sensation that I get when walking through the Quantum Spectrum. I look down at my palm. My hand is glowing, peppermint blue. It's a separate energy from my fire. It covers my entire body. I feel a little nauseous and sleepy. I look over to see that the blue energy is encompassing the four of us. We disappear in a flash.

  The Extreme World–The First Island of Idem-2019

  I am back on the Mason's roof, lying, helplessly. Elena has just administered her telepathic morphine into my system and now I'm looking up at her, admiring her infinite beauty. I could stare up at her forever, and never need anything else to occupy my attention. "Mrs. Mason is down there." I point over to the car. Elena brings her right hand to her forehead and concentrates. "She's very weak. We need to get to her soon.""Let's get you two out of here," she says, softly. "My hero," I reply. She levitates the baby and I up from the building and lowers us to the ground. She starts walking, and her mindless soldiers follow, as the baby and I float in the middle.

  We reach Mrs. Mason, and Elena lifts her up, adding her to the floating party. "Lancaster, come in. This is McElroy." the voice comes from my helmet. "I hear you, Mac," I reply. "We are closing in on your location. We'll be there in a few minutes." I look up at Elena and smile."That's good to hear, Mac. I've got Elena here with me as well. She has a few Ministry soldiers under her spell so don't be alarmed when you find them standing right next to us." He lets out a single breathy laugh. "Thanks for the heads up, Sarge." I faintly smile at Elena.

  It doesn't take long for McElroy and his three remaining soldiers to meet up with us. It might save Elena some energy if I was able to walk on my own, but my cough is getting worse. Although, I've never seen her use her abilities for this long. In an attempt to avoid coughing any more than I have to, I look at her as if asking her to read my mind.“How are you holding up?” I ask in my mind, hoping that she is listening. She looks at me and responds in kind, “I think that question is reserved for you right now.” “Don't push yourself too hard.” “Don't tell me what to do.” I laugh and cough. “Please, don't make me laugh right now.”

  She smiles and looks back up. I can see in those beautiful eyes of hers that she has spotted something. "We've almost reached the bunker entrance," she says before I can ask. I can feel my energy quickly fading. Elena has one hand on her forehead, concentrating on her abilities. I reach up and grasp her other hand with mine. "Thank you," I say. She gazes down at me with that worried look in her eyes. "You can thank me when we're on the other island," she replies. My response is reflexive. Even if she couldn't read my mind, she could see the way I smile, sadly as if it to say 'that I don't know if I'll make it to the other island.'

  There is strange movement on the ground. The cars and the buildings are shaking. Everything is shaking, lightly at first but the strength of the vibrations quickly increases. The mounds of dirt beneath us grow larger, rising several feet into the air. Elena struggles to stabilize our group. She swiftly decides that the effort is fruitless, and levitates us into the air. With debris flying everywhere, she creates a force field around us. Her psychic bubble quickly propels us toward the bunkers. We get within ten yards of the nearly destroyed entrance when I hear a whooshing sound. I turn to see a car hurtling toward us. The whooshing sound becomes a loud ringing sound as the car rushes toward me. I brace myself for impact and-

  The Rich World – New York City – 2020

  The blue energy fades away as we teleport into the room. I collapse to the floor, disoriented. Now I'm dreaming while traveling from one dimension to another. Xyla helps me stand up. Wait. I look over to my left and to my right to see Callum and Real Jayden here as well. Something is wrong. Why did all four of us teleport here? I look up to see President McElroy and Senator Leroy at a control station. There is a large screen displaying various parts of the world. This must be the war room. "Expecting something else?" McElroy asks, observing the confused look on my face. He smiles, cruelly. "We know you had other plans, but Leroy and I decided that this is where you needed to be." He presses a few buttons, and one of the images on the screen enlarges.

  It's the launching bay. Xyla and I bolt toward him as he presses a few more buttons. I knock him and Leroy to the ground, and Xyla grabs the controls, but we're too late. We look up at the screen to see that the missiles are launching. Xyla tries to stop it, but a message comes over the screen reading: 'Override Disallowed.' I can't recall which direction the storage room is, so I choose one. Before I can launch a fireball at the wall, I feel a powerful smack on my back that knocks me into the wall and onto the floor.

  I slowly push myself up, quickly creating a fire shield. I crawl over to Xyla. She's unconscious, barely breathing. I look up to see electricity emanating around Leroy. McElroy is standing next to him, his clothes wrinkling in motion. I stand up, and upon closer inspection, I see that there is wind gusting about his body.

  Wind and lightning. The same abilities that Haws and Carter have. Carlisle and Fulloway must have a particular taste for what kind of abilities their administrators have. It doesn't matter. Those two soldiers didn't survive, and neither will these two. "What's wrong, Extreme Jayden?" taunts Leroy. "You look like you've seen-" I project a scorching, burst of flame directly at them before he can finish his sentence. They weren't expecting it. The fire only touches them for a second, but it's enough to cause considerable damage. They scream in pain even after the backlash of their powers pushes my flames at bay. Behind the flames, one of the outlines of their bodies is disappearing. It's Leroy, the Coward, he's leaving McElroy on his own. With his ability to create wind, you would think he could snuff me out.

  Since he is across the room, far away from the source of the fire, he is, in fact, able to extinguish some of my flames. The flames are several feet away from him now. I'm rapidly losing energy. I'm not sure what to do. Then it hits me. I am the fire, and the fire is me. I extend my essence into the fire up to the forefront where the wind is hitting the hardest. I absorb the life-giving oxygen as I run toward McElroy as fast as I can. I collide with him in an immense explosion of heat and energy. My body feels as though it is tearing itself apart. I see stars floating amongst the
fire. I feel weak, and I let go, giving into unconsciousness, and possibly death as well...

  The Extreme World – The First Island of Idem - 2019

  The car crumples against Elena's force field. She moves her arms apart, and it rips to shreds. I look at Elena to see that her nose is bleeding and her expression is straining. She's not used to using her abilities at this magnitude for this long. More flying objects are hurtling toward us. The source of this mayhem, Administrator Carter floats down from the sky. "I can't get to his mind," Elena says. "Get to the bunkers. I'll call for back up." I reply as I send a distress signal with my manica. A flash of blue electricity surrounds the force field as Administrator Haws attacks with a bolt of lightning. This attack is too much for Elena to handle on her own.

  I see Fetu flying through the air like a cannonball heading for Carter. He turns around to stop the attack, but he's too late. He barely manages to slow him down before the impact. They both drop. Elena continues to move us toward the bunkers. Carter regains awareness just in time to prevent himself from crashing to the ground. Fetu lands and jumps back up for another round. Before he can reach Carter though, Haws strikes him with a powerful lightning bolt. A robust, invisible force knocks Haws backward. General Kurpatov hovers toward us. He uses his telekinesis to throw nearly every large object toward Haws and Carter.