The Real World

by Jacob Long

  My muscles strain against the fin of the submarine. Water splashes around just below me. My legs are entirely engulfed in flames. Behind them, for about twenty feet is a jet stream of fire pushing my body and this great whale of a boat forward. The MTUs are a great help, but it has taken a lot of my energy to move us this fast and this far. We are now two hundred and twenty-three miles out. The others agreed that it should be up to me as to how far out from Idem we need to be. I wanted it to be more of a group decision, but I understand that I am the one who is the most adamant about this part. I won't let myself lose another island.

  I extinguish my thruster flame and carefully lower my feet to the ground. My hands and fingers feel tight as I slowly release my grip from the fin. There are imprints on the metal from where my hands had been placed. "Are you just going to stand there, or did you have something to say?" I ask as I turn around to face Real Jayden and Xyla. He is wearing the suit that RT built for him. The two of them look like twins in their matching super suits. His has blue where hers has purple, but for the most part, they are very similar. "I just had a feeling that we'd be stopping soon," he replies, smiling. Xyla follows suit. "Fair enough," I say, returning the expression.

  I press my comm button. "All right, Nina, we're far enough out." "Roger that," she replies. "Beta Team initiating." I lower my hand away from my head. "Are you guys ready for this?" I must look exhausted because Xyla and Real Jayden stare at me. "Are YOU ready for this?" Xyla asks. "Yeah, I'll be fine," I say. I walk to the roof hatch and climb down. They follow me down. As my head enters the sub, I see Faction soldiers disappearing into thin air. They're teleporting two by two into the Ministry base. Callum and three others are gone now, and there are only two left. Their bodies light up sparkly blue, and they disappear as well as I step onto the floor.

  "We should get going as well," I say to Nina. She looks at me. "I think you should rest for a few minutes," she replies. "As soon as they detect Beta Team, they will be working non stop to find a way to block us out again." "He's got a point," says RT walking toward me. He's holding something wrapped in foil. He hands it to me. "Eat this." I take it and open it up. It's a slice of cornbread. "Oh, and drink this too." He holds up a vial of a familiar blue liquid. It's the same stuff that he took before his nap at the union ceremony, and it's the same stuff that I took before my nap at the IDPA headquarters. "I thought we agreed that there's no time for a nap."

  "You don't have to take a nap with it," he replies. "It just helps if you do." He pulls out two more vials and hands one each to Xyla and Real Jayden. "What is that stuff?" Liam asks, his body turned away from the computer console in curiosity. "It's a combination of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, with a slight hint of caffeine and glucose," RT replies. "Sugar water huh?" asks Liam rhetorically. "I'll take one of those if you have any more." RT passes them all around, and we clank them together before drinking. RT takes the empty bottles and throws them in the trash receptacle. He walks over to his computer console. "All right. Here goes you guys."

  Swirls of blue and white light surround us. Xyla and I instantly transport to the Control Room of the Ministry's Real World New York base. We burst out of the supply closet and quickly eliminate the threat of the soldiers in the room. "Phew!" I say. "That was probably my best teleportation experience so far. I think I even enjoyed it that time." "All right, portal junkie," RT says. "Let's stay on task." We plug into the system, and RT takes over. After that, he teleports us into the storage area where the Omega warheads are being kept. Xyla and I each appear right behind the two security guards. We administer some of her super sleep medicine, knocking them out immediately. "Hey, where's my guy?" Real Jayden asks.

  Disarming and destroying the missiles goes faster the second time around, especially with RT controlling the security system. One of us has to go with the crystals as we teleport them and since the process is potentially dangerous, that makes me the obvious choice. One by one, I travel with each crystal to the Faction's Teleportation island. Taking them all at the same time would be faster, but it's also potentially dangerous. Fortunately, the Ministry is still unaware of our presence here. That will change as we move into phase 3 of the plan.

  After I get back from dropping off the last crystal, we get to work placing explosives throughout the building. Xyla and Real Jayden go one way, and I go another. We each have five bombs to place in key areas of the structure. We use imitation devices to stay invisible as we put them in critical areas of the structure that RT has chosen. I place my fourth one and press the comm button on my manica. "One more to go," I say. "How far are you guys?" No response. "Xyla? Jayden?" I make my way down the corridor and to the spot for my final explosive. "RT? Do you have any contact with them? I wait for a response as I place the last bomb. I think it's safe to say that communications are down.

  28

  As I look at my manica for a solution to the problem, I hear the sound of running footsteps from around the corner. This is not a good combination. I flip on my infrared. There are several orange blurs about twenty feet away. It's hard to tell how many though. The image adjusts and it's confirmed, they're Ministry soldiers. It looks like the two in the back brought some big guns. I think I'll skip the anticipation of finding out what they can do and I'll just bring the fight to them.

  I turn around the corner, throwing streams of blue and orange flame from my arms. The first two soldiers instantly go down. Something is protecting the next two. A huge waft of steam generates in between their rifles and my flame. The power pushes my fire back, and I can see a bluish energy coming from the end of the rifles. The Ministry has developed an ice gun, and I'm getting the flattering and yet sickening feeling that it was designed just for me. The guns connect to tanks strapped onto the soldiers' backs.

  I increase the power of my blast and advance toward them. I'm gaining the upper hand. As I'm about to finish them off, two more soldiers attack me from behind. I rapidly extend my right arm down the opposite hallway, creating a second stream of flame. Four more soldiers join the fight, two on each side. This is starting to look very orchestrated. Both teams of soldiers slowly walk toward me. I make an effort to take them down telepathically, but I can't reach them. Something or someone is protecting them. It's Fulloway. She's here, somewhere in this building. I can feel her attacking me mentally. This has to end now.

  I summon all of the energy that I have and release it. As my flame vaporizes the soldiers and their ice emitting weapons, blue flames envelop the entire corridor. When it's all done, I drop to my knees, my heart pounding. The world is blurry. As my accelerated healing kicks in, my heart rate slows. I start to stand back up as another group of soldiers rounds the corner, shooting at me. I get hit in the chest before taking two of them down. Another shot hits me in the neck, and I grasp it to stop the bleeding and help the wound heal faster. Another shot hits me in the shin, and I fall to the ground. My heart is racing again. The shots stop as someone attacks the soldiers from behind.

  One man takes the three soldiers down. He fights them off while stabbing them in the weak spot of their armor. I feel as though I may be hallucinating but it looks like it's Barrett. He comes closer, and I can see that it is him. He kneels down and pulls out some medical wrap. "Let me see your neck." I take my hands away. It starts to bleed although the injury has mostly healed. "We need to get out of here," he says while wrapping. "Barrett," I say, "how did you-" "Xyla and Real Jayden are safe," he says as he helps me stand. "We can't teleport directly out. We need to get outside." My leg is still healing so he props me up on his shoulder and helps me walk down the corridor.

  "I- I'm sorry, Barrett. I looked for you. I used my scanners. There were no signs of life, anywhere." "It's okay, Jayden. We need to stay quiet and avoid being seen." We stay close to the wall as we make our way around. Something is off. This can't be right. I'm getting that bad instinctual feeling again, and Barrett seems to know his way around without having anyone in his ear to guide him. It also seems like there would be mo
re soldiers for us to hide from. The ice guns could have just been a precaution, but it feels like they knew we were coming. I have to be sure. If this is Barrett, I'll have to make a sharp, mental effort to cut past his psychic defenses.

  If he's an imposter, his defenses will most likely be even stronger. I cut through, reaching into the depths of his mind. Darkness encompasses my vision. A shroud of black and gray smoke as far as I can see. Bits of his memories flash through my eyes. They're moving too fast. I slow them down and focus on one. He's training as an adult soldier, fighting other soldiers. This could be Barrett. I need to climb my way back to the most recent memories. He practices fighting. He practices his transforming. I guess that explains it. I launch out of the shape shifter's mind and back into the corridor. As I move to flip him over, he slips away.

  I stumble and catch myself with the wall. I'm not as fast as usual. I'm still recovering. He stares down at me, laughing. "Can't trick you, can I?" As he steps back, I see him clearly. My heart rate increases. My eyes are fixated. He has transformed himself to look like my dad. The sight of it paralyzes me. By appearances sake, my dad is standing in front of me. I haven't seen him for almost a year. "What's wrong, son? Aren't you happy to see me?" I can't respond. "Perhaps your mother can be of some comfort to you." I shake my head as his molecules shift again. "Still not working, dear?" she asks. "Oh my. Well there may be one other person that can help us."

  I shake my head more vigorously than before. "No, no, no. Don't do this!" The shape-shifter changes again. Her green eyes. Her black hair. Everything is the same as it was before I lost her before I failed her. I have to get a hold of myself. I'm completely frozen, except for the tears in my eyes. I can feel it growing. The rage building inside. I'm not going to be able to attack this guy physically. Not while he looks like Elena. This one has to be telepathic, and it needs to be done quickly. I need to see if the others are okay. I take a deep breath and focus. I shoot back into his mind with everything I've got.

  I come back out of his mind, and he transforms into his true form. Lunging toward him, I hit him with a cross to the stomach followed by a hook to the jaw and another cross to the stomach, this time with a flamethrower attached at the end. He's finished. "Jayden!" I hear a voice as I fall back to the ground. Fighting that shape-shifter took everything back out of me. "Jayden, come in!" I search my eyes for the source of the voice calling my name. Oh, wait, the headset. That's RT's voice that I'm hearing. I reach up and press the comm button. "RT, where are Xyla and Real Jayden?" I ask.

  "Carlisle showed up. I was able to teleport Xyla out but they took Real Jayden." "How do I get to him?" I ask. "I'm not sure, I can help you there," he replies. "Are you guys okay?" I ask. "You sound a little exasperated." "We ran into some trouble of our own. One of the Ministry Elites teleported here. It's taken care of now though. The bad news is that the Ministry has found and disarmed all of the explosives that you guys have set. The second bad news is that they have also reestablished the teleportation blockade and all electronic communications."

  "Wait, how are we talking right now." "The telepathic broadcast device. I brought it with us, just in case. Sienna's using it to contact you across dimensions." "So, I've been pressing my comm button for no reason?" I look at my arm. "Still pressing?" I say as I drop my arm. "Haha, yeah I guess so. We can talk about that later though. I'm not done delivering the bad news." "What else can there be?" Before we were kicked out of the system, I discovered a hidden room containing more Omega-crystals and more warheads." This is horrible. The entire mission is now a bust. "Right now, you need to find Real Jayden, and get out of that building so that we can teleport you back here," he continues.

  "Unfortunately, you're on your own for that one," he replies. "Neither Sienna nor my machine is going to last much longer." "Fair enough. I'm going to try and teleport myself out. Let's break contact soon. I don't want Sienna to strain more than necessary." "You got it. Contact us when you're out." In an instant, he's gone. Now I'm on my own. I focus my mind on RT and the submarine back in the Extreme World. I find him, and I focus on the empty spot to his right. I'd rather not end up teleporting inside of him.

  My skin feels tingly, and I get a little nauseous as I begin to feel my cells phasing through dimensions. It stops, abruptly, and I'm completely back in the Real World. Something is preventing me from leaving. It's Fulloway. She has a lock on my mind. She's trying to get in, but I'm too strong for that. It looks like I'm stuck navigating a building that I only looked at a few of the schematics for. Let's see, how did I get here in this random corridor. A better question is, where was the last flight of stairs I saw? Or better yet, where is a window? Unfortunately, I haven't seen any so far. I think I'll skip the maze run, and just burn holes through walls until I get out of here. I shoot a beam of fire directly at the wall in front of me. I keep it as concentrated as possible. I need to do this fast so that I won't run into- oh no. Behind the fourth wall that I melt is a large room and inside is Carlisle.

  29

  They always say that breaking the fourth wall is risky. It works out for some guys though. I guess I'm just not one of them. Carlisle is in this room alone. Fulloway must be hiding somewhere so that she can focus on attacking me mentally. “Well, I'm here, standing in front of Carlisle so I might as well fight him. He appears to be waiting for me.

  Allow me to make the first move. I redirect my flamethrower fists toward him. His green, radioactive energy rushes up to protect him, pushing back against my flames. This is going to be a challenge. "You've already grown stronger since the last time we met," he says. "That's impressive."

  His energy is getting to be too much. It's nearly reaching me now. To my right is a barricade. I roll over to it before his power overtakes me. I can't win this one energy to energy. He's too strong. I'll have to use other tactics this time. If I can weaken him telepathically, I may be able to get close enough to defeat him hand to hand.

  He ceases the energy blast. "You can come out now. I only want to talk," he says so earnestly that I almost believe him. Why is he just standing there, talking? "I'm good right here, thank you," I reply. "I wanted to apologize to you, Jayden." I listen to his drivel as I gaze around, looking for something to help me devise a plan. "The attack on your island did not go the way I had planned." All right. That's it. I stand up to face him. He's about thirty feet away.

  "Maybe you should have been there yourself." Flames surround my body. "I wanted to be, believe me, I wish I could have been." He seems sincere. His tone makes it sound like he actually cares. Which is very weird. Is he sad that he missed the slaughter of my family and most of my civilization? "I'm sure you have a lot of questions," he continues. "I've been looking for you so that I can give you the answers." He walks toward me. I walk toward him. "Let's start with Gabriel," I say. "What happened to him?" "Gabriel? I'm not sure I'm familiar with him?"

  We stand face to face. "For a second, I thought you cared," I reply. I glare at Carlisle, disgusted. "The man that your shape-shifter posed as! You must have kept him for interrogation, brainwashing, experimentation!” He drops his head as if ashamed. I know better though. My fingers tighten into my hand as I await his response. “I'm sorry, Jayden. I had to get to you. I didn't have many options-” “What happened!” He takes a deep breath. “He died. He killed himself with one of the soldier's weapons before we could get a telepath to him.”

  I stare him down for a moment. "I want to show you something, Jayden." He walks over to my side and gestures to a door about twenty feet in front of us. I want to attack him now, but I'm curious to hear what he has to stay. I'm also not sure if I can take him down, so I walk with him. He scans his hand on a panel, and we enter. The shape of the room is like a hexagon. It's long like a tunnel. The four walls along the sides have small panels that look like they can open. The walkway extends to the other side of the room. It is raised up, halfway to the sealing.

  We walk to the center of the room and stop at a large circular platform. Carlisle wav
es his hand over a control station, and holograms appear above it. He uses the interface to access the panels on the walls. All of them open up to reveal bodies floating in tanks of water. The people inside of the tanks are the Real World doppelgangers of some people that I know, and many that I don't. Sienna, RT, Fetu, and Mayor Matua's doppelgangers are among them. Carlisle turns around to face the opposite walls. I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this. I turn around to see Real Jayden and his family. Next to them is the Real World version of Elena's family, and Elena.

  “I hate to think of what might have happened if you had melted your way into this room." He says to me while my eyes fixate upon Elena. "It's a good thing we stopped you before you destroyed this building." He pauses. I'm still in horrified awe at the sight of these people in these tanks, and I think he wants me to absorb every word that he says. He steps toward me, and stops, standing right next to me. "My greatest regret is that they died that day." Now I've had it. I elbow him in the stomach as fast and as hard as I can. I immediately follow it up by twisting around uppercutting him in the stomach with a left and a right.