Lost Portals

by Bruce X Brown

  “In some realities, you are the observer,” the Gatekeeper smiled.

  “That’s nice, but I gotta get this key to the LAB!” Phaze jumped for the portal gun. As he grabbed it, the device told him of his current location, “Universal Set 550.1, Eye of Anterus Creature, Microbial Multiverse.”

  The ground vibrated and two giant dilated pupils rolled beneath their feet. They stood in the mote of the eye of a giant creature. The iris of the pupils were bright amber and iridescent violet. The black spires were lashes extending out into space. The edges of the valley were mountainous eyelids. The valley closed as the creature blinked.

  Phaze screamed and shot the portal gun to escape.

  “And in some realms... you are the observed,” The Gatekeeper grabbed Phaze into a different portal as the valley closed into darkness.

  Phaze6 was drifting in nothingness.

  The portal device spoke and the voice seemed to echo, “Universal Set 8797, the deep, Void Multiverse.”

  He felt warmth on the sides of the device as he pulled the trigger but he could not see where the portal was in the blackness. Phaze6 could sense no frame of reference, surface or friction with which to move. He was just… drifting...

  The Gatekeeper’s voice echoed, “Much like you, humans of this reality have a limitation on what makes up life. And a limitation on what reality is.”

  Phaze felt himself being pushed out of the darkness and into a tunnel.

  The system notified him:

  Gatekeeper has shifted user Phaze6 out of sync with Universal Set .005453.

  The blinding light of a star engulfed him. The portal device interface informed him of his location, “Universal Set .005453, Sirius Binary, Dogon Multiverse.”

  He squinted and covered his eyes. He was gliding through the fiery loop of a prominence on the photosphere of a star. Plasma jellyfish drifted around him and moved on into pools of flame and plasma. A string of ringed planets set on the horizon of the gaseous firescape.

  “You have limitations on what is possible because… you have limited perception of reality,” the Gatekeeper dragged Phaze6 by the collar into another portal.

  Gatekeeper has shifted user Phaze6 in sync with Universal Set .1865.

  The portal gun interface gave his current location, “Universal Set .1865, Tenniel Underland, Earth, Lutwidge Multiverse.”

  Through the portal, he was in an area where he saw flowers and blades of grass around. There was a large mushroom growing near him. Blue and pink smoke drifted into a bright cloudless sky.

  “I’ll ask you nicely,” the Gatekeeper smiled and addressed Phaze6 for what seemed like the first time. “For your own good, give me the key to the lost portal.”

  Phaze responded by shooting the portal gun on the ground as he tried to roll into it. The Gatekeeper kicked him away from the portal he had just opened and off the ground. The kick knocked the air out of him and another 3% of his health. He flew into a portal that sent him onto a landscape with a starry night and light gravity that sent him spinning in the air.

  The portal gun informed him, “Universal Set .0553, Trappist Moon Terraform, k88 Multiverse.”

  He came down on his feet just in time to block a kick from the Gatekeeper. Even with blocking, every hit was costing 3 - 5% of his health. In 20 or 30 hits, he’d be dead. Uppercuts broke ribs. Kicks to the head almost knocked him unconscious. The Gatekeeper was so fast with her kicks and punches that Phaze had to tackle her to stop the barrage of strikes. The tackle sent them drifting toward purple grass. She opened a portal that sent them through the ground and into a clear blue sky full of fluffy white clouds.

  “Aaahhh!” A rush of wind pulled at his skin. He was falling from an incredible height holding on to the Gatekeeper tight. They landed on a taught bouncy red cloth of what felt like an air balloon.

  The portal interface told him his new location, “Universal Set .0887, Aerial Display, Earth, Mobius Multiverse.

  Phaze released the Gatekeeper and rolled away to hop to his feet. He blocked another barrage of fists until the Gatekeeper kicked him into another portal. He stumbled back into a small strip of land surrounded by lava. The heat was overwhelming. It felt like his flesh was cooking.

  Phaze6 loses 1% health for every second in Universal Set .00666, Post Life Earth.

  The portal gun warped in his hands from the heat. The portal interface was not chiming in with his new location. He tried to shoot another portal but got sucker punched from behind by the Gatekeeper who had walked out of a portal behind him. Phaze6 fell forward toward the river of lava. He fell through another portal down into a place with heavy gravity.

  The gravity pulled him down to the ground where he heard his shoulder crack.

  The system let him know what had happened:

  Phaze6 has lost 17% health from fall damage.

  His body and clothing were still hot enough to wilt the yellow clovers beneath him. His entire body was smoking. And all exposed skin was flaking and reddish. It took all his strength just to stand, “Aaawwwwww.” He grabbed his shoulder then moved his gun to his other hand. He shot the portal gun at his feet hoping to fall down gracefully into the Developer Lab in his own reality. But when he went through, he crashed down into the shelf of a grocery store. A few greenish octopus faced shoppers scurried away from the freakish primate horror that was now half buried in kelp canned plankton goods.

  Phaze tripped over the cans and quickly tapped the exit button to shut the portal so that the Gatekeeper could not follow him through. He limped down the aisle covered with baked on gore. A pleasant whale song over chill step was playing as ambient music in the backdrop of the soft turquoise sea motif in the grocery store. Phaze6 smelled like partially burned human flesh. Charred bits of blood and bone on his face had fried on the post-life Hell Earth of .00666. His arm dangled from a fall on a planet with 10 gravities. Phaze’s mind was broken by the darkness of the void on the face of the deep. His eyes stared 1000 yards away, for he had flown near the surface of a binary star and walked in the mote of a god’s eye. He ignored the shocked stares of bipedal octo-people. There is no way these mere system-sleep NPCs could comprehend what he had just experienced.

  He looked around, “Where. The. Hell?” He had preset the coordinates to his portal device DIRECTLY into the Developer Lab! He was sure this was not the right universe. He looked at the portal gun. It was smoking. It had taken a lot of damage from the heat of that hell world, the falling, and the fighting. For the first time, he noticed the sharp pains in his ribs, shoulder, and face. He coughed up blood.

  His health was at 5 of 5000. He was operating at .1%. He could barely walk. One more punch from the Gatekeeper and he would be “bodied”.

  “Portal interface,” He commanded. “Open a portal to Universal Set .000 Staging; Developer Labs. DIRECTLY to the Developer Labs!”

  The portal navigation system responded, “Scanning… Phaze6, I am unable to establish a link to your portal device. Contact your administrator or customer support.”

  “Customer support? Bitch, I’m not in the same reality as customer support!” Phaze noticed the dream catcher key pulsing with light and heat once every second. He took it out and stared at it. Then put it back in his pocket. He might as well try there was nothing to lose. Phaze6 tapped his temple, “Support. CZ Support! Come in if you can hear me. I-I’m stuck in some realm. My portal gun is not working. The Gatekeeper boss of the Czarzakian exoplanet chased me. I was on the classified, priority 1 Artifact of the Lost Portal run. The Gatekeeper took out the entire Special Ops MarySue Team. Support, do you read!?”

  The lights in the grocery store flickered. As soon as the dream catcher key stopped pulsing, a portal opened up in the same location he had come in, among the wreckage aisles of kelp canned foods. The Gatekeeper stepped out of the portal and looked around. Phaze6 ducked his head down and hid in an aisle. He huddled down and stared at the portal gun. The cracked screen displayed only part of a message “...nter des**nat*? ___”.
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br />   He tapped at the command line interface and pulled the trigger to open a new portal. He took a deep breath, stepped through and quickly shut the portal. Fresh air and the smell of horse shit slapped him in the face. The place felt familiar. He was in between two large patchwork cloth tents. He limped out into a muddy road to get a better look at the place. It was a medieval township. There was a street sign that read “Royal Road”. It was the town of Verian, in Britain, on Earth; Universal Set .16731. He had done a few quests here for dragon eggs and magical OJT for some Game Master Corps noobs. “The gun must be selecting random places saved in my favorites,” he said to himself passing a staring merchant who was on a horse.

  He walked down the road trying to access the *favorites* item in the command line interface on the gun’s touch screen. The interface scrolled randomly through his history. The device had recorded all the places it had transported him to. He didn’t want the history items. There must be over 100 locations there... He wanted to get back to favorites. That would allow him to quickly get back to his own Universal Set.

  The key pulsed again. “Oh, shit,” he pulled it out. “It’s like a beacon… is it counting down? Oh, shit.” He tucked the key back into the cargo pocket and got back to the portal gun’s touch screen. The “U” button did not work on the alphanumeric touchpad. He punched it hard again and again, “C’mon, C’mon! You little bastard.”

  A flash came from behind the patchwork tents that he had just come away from. Phaze ran between another set of tents and pulled the trigger. He went through the portal.

  Chapter 3:

  Noob Scavengers go Into the Lost Portal

  The girls struggled to lift the 400-kilogram crate, while Priest McKenna watched them work. The ladies were both in drab green fatigues. He preferred a tailored suit. With their long black hair pinned up, he could barely tell their avatars apart.

  Angel dropped her side of the crate on her foot, “Awwwww! Get it off!” Kiera yanked the huge wooden box back and Angel fell back and grabbed her foot.

  A system notification popped up:

  Angel Kali dropped a crate on her foot for 4 points of damage.

  “Whoa!” Priest said slicking his hair back. “Careful with the merchandise! There are a few potential portal devices in there.”

  Kiera attended to her little sister’s foot, “This would go a lot better if you would help us move this stuff, Priest!”

  Priest gasped, “And rob you of the opportunity to gain strength? I am a mere cleric. I don’t even have the muscle to budge that thing. You ladies are buff warriors.” He read their stats to them, “Lady Blades (Kiera Kali), level 3 warrior and Angel Kali, Level 2 warrior… You both have a bonus to your strength. And besides, as your leading game master, I have to supervise your work.”

  Kiera looked at him. She hated when he threw the “game master” role around to pull rank and bestow privilege on himself. The Game Master Corps commissioned some servicemen with the role of “game master” which granted them rank and additional powers to create and lead teams, but respect as a leader must be earned. Some commissioned GM’s knew this instinctively. Some had to be trained. Kiera cocked an eyebrow, “Are you serious? Get your ass over here and administer healing.”

  “She’ll be alright,” Priest said observing the 2% reduction of her health points. “You want to be healed, Angel?”

  “If you don’t mind,” Angel sucked through her teeth. “Man, this is a simulation, right? Why does this hurt so bad?”

  “You get used to it,” Kiera said showing a bright dimpled smile. “Pain is the first complaint of noobs.”

  “You sound like a GM corps drill instructor,” Angel winced. “I don’t remember it hurting this bad in the training mods.”

  Priest laid a hand on her little foot and inhaled mana. He could sense a couple of broken toes. He exhaled and let the light of healing flow into the foot.

  Angel sighed as the healing energy did its work. She wiggled her toes, “Oh, man. Thanks.”

  Priest removed his shades and used them to point at his sister-in-law, “Aren’t you supposed to be a prodigy or something? Like one of the youngest to make it through the Game Master Corp basic training? What are you gonna do when we have a real quest and you get stabbed in the pancreas?”

  “Avatars have a pancreas?” Angel asked.

  “Avatars have all the… parts,” Priest said pointing at her. “What do they teach these guys in the new GMC training?”

  The massive crate had a bluish glow then hovered a few centimeters off the ground and moved into the storage warehouse. The mage, Stokes, was moving the crate.

  “Speaking of ‘real quests’, Priest,” Stokes joined in the conversation. He was dark, tall and fit in his black jumpsuit. “When are we going to stop doing these scavenger runs? I would love to test out some real spells, man. We’ve outgrown this Set. Can’t get any more real experience here anymore. It’s been months since we’ve leveled. Don’t see why we can’t just use the portal mage.”

  Priest put his shades back on and slicked back his hair with a smile, “A few more scavenger runs… I hope...”

  “You ‘HOPE’?” Kiera said.

  The team’s thief and resident portal mage, Cryptic, flicked a toothpick at the warehouse, “I heard the corps don’t trust you with a real quest because they don’t trust you with the Game Master role. We’re stuck on scavenger runs as a punishment...”

  There was an awkward silence as everyone looked at Priest. His smile faded. He looked away.

  “Get back to work,” Priest said. “We need these pallets and crates inside the storage.”

  Priest walked away.

  By sunset, they moved the boxes, crates, and pallets into their warehouse. Kiera noticed that Priest was standing alone with his back to everyone, arms folded. She walked up to Priest and put her hands on his shoulders. She smiled, “Hey babe, are your feelings hurt?”

  “What?” he said. “No... But I would love to know why our NPC is such an asshole? Other NPCs appreciate their system user counterparts. Ours is just an asshole,” Priest said hoping it was loud enough for him to hear. “I regret giving him access to power, I regret making him system-realized and bringing him into our team!”

  Kiera laughed, “You don’t mean that. Cryptic is brutally honest. I think his honesty has been almost as valuable as him being a portal mage.”

  Priest looked down. He took off his shades, “I don’t know how I can earn the trust of the GM Corps. We’ve been on these scavenger missions for months. Cleaning up after other crews, collecting their loot, getting the stuff they don’t want. Stokes is right. We cannot level up in this Set. The quests are too weak… I’m sick of it, Kiera.”

  Kiera gave him a kiss and flashed a big dimpled smile, “Let’s appreciate what we have—”

  “HEYYYYY!” They heard someone calling out in the distance. It was a tall man in black limping toward them.

  They ran over to meet him. If it was an NPC, they would lure him away. But it was unlikely that he was an NPC because all of his stats including his name were hidden. He was either a system-realized NPC or a player character. So, they prepared to defend the site. Kiera pulled out her swords and Priest extended his staff. The area was restricted from civilians as it was a storage area for government property. They should not even be able to see it with the barriers up.

  From a distance, they could see a stranger covered in blackened blood in partially burned tattered clothes.

  “System interface, give me an Enemy Scan for system stats,” Priest commanded as he focused on the stranger.

  The system interface responded:

  Phaze6 (Fox McKenna)

  Level 57 Fighter

  Level 20 Portal Mage

  Role(s): Game Master

  HP: 5/5000

  Strength: 15 (Advanced Tank 2700kg deadlift)

  Stamina: 3/980

  Dexterity: 15

  “Fox?” Priest said, “What the…”

  Kiera gaspe
d, “What happened to him!?” She had to get a scan of the stats for herself just to be sure.

  Priest’s brother, Fox, (aka Phaze6) hunched over with one arm dangling and the other arm gripping a smoking portal gun. With 5 health remaining, it was amazing that he was standing.

  Priest got under his brother’s good arm to help him stay on his feet, “Fox, what the hell happened to you, bro?”

  Phaze6 gave a weak smile to Kiera, “Hey, Lady Blades,” he gave her a wink. “I’m on a quest. It is not going well.”

  Angel, Stokes, and Cryptic ran up armed and ready to fight.

  Priest put a hand on Phaze6’s shoulder. He closed his eyes and inhaled as much mana as he could. Priest saw broken ribs, a broken shoulder, a cracked ankle and wrist from fall damage but what was worse was all the internal damage. He exhaled and evoked the spell cure wounds. It wasn’t much for this high-level character, but it would heal some of the damage that would otherwise terminate the avatar and force a respawn and end whatever quest he was on.

  The health points went from 5 to 54, “I’m just a level 5 cleric, bro.” Priest said, “That’s the best I can do with the number of injuries I’m seeing. If you want to salvage this avatar—”

  “No!” Phaze6 rasped. He pulled out an oversized pulsing key. “Priest. Come here!” He grabbed Priest by the front of his suit. Flecks of bloody spittle and ash got on the clean white shirt, “I am about to go through a lost portal. Do you know what that is?”

  Priest nodded, “yes”. But he did not know what it was. He had heard rumors, conspiracy theories, and hearsay. He’d heard that they were dangerous and that they lead to other universes full of riches and magic artifacts. The Game Master Corps classified the data on lost portals so only those who had a need to know actually knew what was going on with them. They were very rare. Low levels (players under level 10) were taught a simple protocol for dealing with lost portals, don’t go inside of them; mark their location; call for back up.

  “Good. Conduct protocol 5. Make sure no one from the GMC follows me. Do you understand?”