by Dayton Grey
“Maybe the underwater people!” Kumuki shrieked.
“VAT? VAT IS DIS, KUMUKI? UNDERVATER? DIS NOT A REAL THING!”
“Okay, listen everyone,” Geon jumped in, sensing this conversation was heading on a crash course. “Thanks to Sabien, I’m okay. Mama V, thank you for worrying about me but you don’t have to. And as for Shiv, well, we don’t really know if his dad works for CARE, right? I mean… do we? Ally?”
Allea sighed and responded, “Well, he’s right. We don’t. I mean, we know that CARE is incredibly secretive about its members, but we don’t really know who they are or where they live. As for Shiv threatening you, well there are laws in place to protect you.”
“LAWS!” Sabien and Mama V simultaneously cried out.
“CARE is the one who makes the laws, Allea. If CARE makes the laws, then CARE can break the laws… understand?”
Allea nodded and responded, “I understand, Mama V. But Geon is right. Let’s not get too upset over this. We can’t let worms like Shiv get to us. Besides, the silver lining is that Geon made the team and he and Sabien took the top two positions!”
“Yes, dis is very good,” Mama V replied, finally cooling off and collecting herself. “Okay you don’t vorry no more about dis. Mama V take care of it. It’s all being taken care of. You don’t vorry. I vish I had some bacon and ale right now.”
“What’s that, Mama V?”
“Oh nothing, dear, nothing. Mama V have some thinking to do. You go now, children. Go enjoy your day off, okay? And remember… alvays be true to you and think for yourself okay?”
“Okay!” The four of them responded in harmony.
They walked out of the house and into the misty, overcast morning. It was quiet outside, with only the occasional sound of the wind blowing, or the rustling of nearby debris and trash floating around. As they continued toward the city, they passed Mr. Dauphine, sitting atop his home.
“Good day, Mr. Dauphine! What’s the forecast for today,” Sabien asked him.
“Good day, my young friends,” he replied while scratching his beard. “Well, I think we’re going to have a wild one today. Looks like we’ve got a nimbostratus comin’ in from the north and a cumulonimbus comin’ in from the east! You won’t be dry for long. Take heed, you hear?”
“Yes, sir,” they all replied as they continued on toward the city.
“This won’t bode well for the JetSurf competition, will it?” Geon asked.
Sabien shook his head and replied, “Probably not. Plus the waterway course for today’s competition is down closer to the Open. So usually it’s much choppier out there.”
He noticed the concerned look on Geon’s face and told him to worry about the competition later and to enjoy his morning.
“All right, fine. So, then will someone tell me where are we going?” Geon was curious and excited, being kept mostly in the dark about the day’s plans, only being told that he would love it.
“Even Kumuki doesn’t know,” Sabien responded patting the excited youngest brother on the back. “Because if he knew he would ruin the surprise…”
“Or get us caught,” Allea quietly finished, with a hint of secrecy.
Get us caught? This sounds dangerous.
He became more and more excited as they ventured deeper into the city. Sabien explained that they were in for more of a walk today because they wanted to bypass the L-RUD.
“Of course, we can still be tracked,” he said with a snort. “But at least if we aren’t on the L-RUD, we aren’t being watched… as much,” he quietly finished as he looked up toward the sky.
“Looking for floating cameras again, Sabe?” Geon teased. Sabien smiled and looked back down, but Geon noticed him occasionally glancing up toward the sky as they continued on.
After about an hour of walking around the rubble and destroyed remains of the buildings around them, the foursome approached a rundown building that looked completely abandoned. Geon saw the ORB nearby was still slowly blinking yellow.
I guess that storm isn’t coming.
Allea looked up from her cuff and said sternly, “Okay, we’re here. Stay close together and mind your own business in here. Kuki, I know you get excited but this isn’t a place for kids so we have to keep it together once we’re in.”
Kumuki nodded as Sabien smiled and nudged Geon. “So, where exactly, is here?” Geon quietly questioned as the foursome descended under an arched doorway and down a long set of concrete steps. The narrow stairway became darker with each step and at the bottom they found themselves at the beginning of a long, scarcely lit hallway. The air was cold and damp and a strange musty smell permeated the air. The sides of the hall were lined with old, worn, concrete blocks, covered in moisture and some sticky black residue.
“Well,” Allea replied as they walked slowly and cautiously down the long hall toward a door at the end. “I know how you love animals, and so Sabe and I thought you might like this. We’ve only been here once and Kuki has never been.”
“It can’t be a zoo,” Geon asked himself, his face crinkled with confusion.
“A zoo?” Kumuki excitedly blurted.
Sabien laughed. “No, brothers, it most certainly isn’t a zoo.”
As they approached the door, Allea typed something into her cuff which generated a series of audible beeps. Immediately, the large metal door in front of them unlocked and swung slightly open.
“Welcome, G, to Jungle Wars.”
As the four walked through the door, the loud sounds of people shouting and clapping startled them. They were in a large, very dark, open room, with high ceilings and people crammed in around the edges. There was a second open level around the four walls of the room, which were filled with people hanging over the side, screaming and clapping.
It’s all adults in here, Geon thought as he nervously moved closer to Sabien, whose attention was focused on the middle of the room. Geon turned to see what everyone was fixated on and gasped when he saw it. In the middle of the room was a raised, circular platform, about twenty-five feet in diameter. On the platform were two massive, eerily lifelike three-dimensional holograms, one, a light grey rhinoceros, and the other, a dark black grizzly bear. The animals were ferociously attacking each other as onlookers cheered them on. Behind each animal and just off the platform was a man on each side, a small hologram in front of them showing the vitals and statistics of each animal.
“Oh my God,” Geon exclaimed. “They look so real!”
“Those are the conductors on either side,” Sabien said, leaning down and in Geon’s ear. “They only control minor aspects of the animal’s behavior once the battle begins. But the animals do most of the work themselves.”
“How does that work?”
Allea leaned into their compact circle and responded with a smile, seeing the expressions of awe on the faces of Kumuki and Geon.
“Each fighter is given the basic framework algorithm to create their animal and each animal already has some basic behavioral ‘E-DNA’ encoding. Alligators can’t jump, lions can’t fly, and so on. It’s a fair fight because each fighter is given one hundred points, of which they can allocate to speed, strength, agility, endurance, recovery, and intuition. They can also tweak the mannerisms, reactions, and attacking style of their animal. See how the bear is swiping at the rhino with his claws? Well, in this particular battle, it might have been more effective to have the bear do more jumping attacks. The skin of the rhino is thick and strong, and its weakness lies more in its lack of agility and sight.”
Geon looked on, as the bear roared, swiping at the rhino’s head, but being thwarted by the two large horns at the front.
“Once the tweaks are made, the algorithm takes care of mostly everything else and the battle plays out. You can’t control every individual motion of the animals. It’s more of a battle of intellect, instinct, and design, rather than a simple show of power. The winner is usually the person who designed his animal the best to take on his particular opponent, and customized
it to take advantage of its weaknesses.”
“Sounds like you might be good at this Allea.” Sabien smirked.
She ignored his comment and continued. “The goal is to knock your opponent out of the ring three times. First animal to do it, wins. Of course, if your animal slays the opposing animal, you win automatically.”
Geon could barely contain his excitement, mustering all of his willpower to stay calm and learn more.
“This is unreal. I mean, how… so, okay… first off, there are only adults in here.”
“You noticed!” Sabien replied. “So this isn’t really meant for children. That’s why we have to play it cool. I’m the oldest and obviously the most mature one here, so just stay behind me and keep it together.”
“Secondly,” Allea jumped in. “This isn’t actually a sanctioned event. In other words, if CARE knew about it, we would all be in trouble.”
Geon’s eyes widened as the thought of being involved in an illicit event, feeling hesitant and nervous. Those feelings soon gave way to undeniable feelings of excitement and anticipation. There was something about the secrecy of the event that thrilled Geon. The fact that CARE didn’t know about it, when they seemed to know about everything else, made Geon smile with content. But what if CARE did know?
“Guys, what about CARE! I mean, our cuffs… they must know we’re h—”
“G, don’t worry,” Allea said, motioned him to keep his voice down. “That’s the reason the battle is in this place, deep underground and surrounded by thick concrete walls. The signals from our cuffs get blocked and scrambled down here.”
Suddenly the crowd cheered as the rhino put his head down and charged at the bear, knocking him off the platform and into the crowd, falling through them and then immediately reappearing back on the edge of the platform.
“Black Rhino 12, two points. Grizzly Bear 22, zero points,” came a voice from the speakers above the room as the spectators continued cheering and clapping.
“What’s with the numbers? Twelve… twenty-two?” Geon asked.
“Simple,” Sabien said. “That’s just an identifier, because there are a number of other people who use black rhinos and grizzly bears. Those numbers just indicate the identity of those particular beasts.”
“Right. The one thing you should know, G, is that the fighters are betting credits on the outcome of the battle. The spectators as well. The winning fighter gets credits from the loser, and a portion of every bet made in the room.”
Geon looked back at Allea and shook his head in awe. “Wow. People can really make a fortune in here.”
“Or lose it all,” Sabien retorted.
“Exactly,” Allea replied. “And as you know, betting is absolutely forbidden by CARE.”
Kumuki clapped loudly as the bear began furiously swiping at the rhino, trying to push it out of the circle. The strength of the rhino was too much for the bear, and as the bear soon became tired, the rhino took advantage and charged, knocking it off the stand with one final blow. The room erupted with cheers as the dejected losing fighter walked away, watching the credits disappear from his LifeCuff.
“Next battle. Ankylosaurus 4 versus Silverback Gorilla 17!”
The crowd cheered as Geon and Kumuki’s mouths dropped open.
“W-w-w-what? Anklyo-what? I thought you said animals. You didn’t say—”
“What? Ankeliosnoriforuhsus? What’s going on here?”
Sabien and Allea laughed in unison at Geon and Kumuki.
“She forgot to mention…” Sabien responded. “Any animals, from any time, are allowed. As long as the E-DNA encoding is available.”
“And if you think about it,” Allea said, nodding her head. “There is really no difference. Ankylosauruses are extinct now, but then again, so are black rhinoceroses and silverback gorillas. They all are.”
Geon and Kumuki nodded and cheered with excitement as the enormous, lumbering beast appeared at one edge of the platform. Its greenish-brownish body was covered in thick, thorny, armored plates, and it had horns on its small triangular head and a thick tail with a bulbous double club at the end of it. It roared as it slowly moved about, waiting for the battle to begin. The silverback gorilla appeared on the other side of the platform, dark and imposing, with intensely black eyes, though overall it was much smaller than the ankylosaurus. Black fur covered its body with the exception of the light grey patch on its back and lower hindquarters. It threw its head back and bellowed as it thumped its chest with its thick, muscular arms.
“That gorilla doesn’t stand a chance,” Geon said, reaching up on his tiptoes to get a better view over the other spectators.
“You might be surprised,” Allea replied, looking at the animals’ statistics on her LifeCuff. “The ankylosaurus definitely has the edge on size and overall power, but the silverback is nimble, clever, and incredibly intelligent. The ankylosaurus, on the other hand, has a brain about the size of my fist.”
“Small brain or not,” Sabien exclaimed. “Look at it! It’s massive!”
“The ankeelohsnoriflornuhsnuss is gonna win!”
Geon nodded at Kumuki and Sabien. He didn’t see how the gorilla stood a chance against this three-ton monster.
“Well, I guess it’s me against the boys, huh? Let’s just say if the silverback wins, I get to say, ‘I told you so’.”
The three boys nodded at Allea and gave each other back-fives as she rolled her eyes.
“Three. Two. One. FIGHT!”
The two animals attacked each other as the room erupted with commotion. The ankylosaurus turned sideways, trying to swing its clubbed tail at the gorilla to strike it down. The silverback was far too nimble for the slow moving tail, and easily jumped out of the way or under it as it passed. It charged directly at the dinosaur’s head, attempting to strike it with thunderous blows from its massive fists. The ankylosaurus took blow after blow, screeching and trying to turn to attack with its tail. The silverback continued to stay in front of the head of the beast, now grabbing and wrestling with it. They moved around the platform, twisting, turning, charging, dodging, and striking each other. Suddenly, the gorilla took a step back away from the side of the dinosaur and crouched down.
“Here it comes,” Allea muttered.
The gorilla suddenly jumped into the air and on top of the neck of the ankylosaurus, its horned head held tightly in the gorilla’s powerful arms and its neck held by the gorilla’s muscular legs. The ankylosaurus screeched and forcefully thrashed its head and body around, trying to shake the gorilla loose, but it was to no avail, as its grip was just too tight. The gorilla rolled off the side of its neck, still holding the head of the animal tightly. As the gorilla’s shoulder hit the ground, it released the head of the ankylosaurus and scrambled out of the way. The head of the giant beast was turned so violently that the body of the animal followed behind it. Its massive body continued to roll, right off the platform, as the room erupted with screams of shock, horror, and delight.
“Ankylosaurus 4. Zero points. Silverback Gorilla 17. One point!”
Unbelievable.
Two more quick points for the silverback gorilla using the same method, and the battle was soon over. Geon looked at Allea, who stood quietly and humbly smiling to herself.
She’s too smart for her own good.
“You got us, Ally. We learned something new today,” he said to her with a grin. “Bigger isn’t always better.”
She giggled and said to the three of them, “Maybe this lesson will help you guys out on the waterways someday. And by the way… I told you so!”
The four of them laughed and stayed to watch two more battles. One of them was between a swift hyena and a feisty panda that kept hugging the canine and rolling around on the ground, and the last battle was between a terrifying crocodile and a massive, portly polar bear. The polar bear kept trying to pound the reptile on the head with its fist, but all that did was anger it even more. Eventually, the crocodile immobilized the bear with some savage bites to its
legs and then went in for the kill by clamping its powerful jaws and razor teeth onto its neck.
“Let’s get out of here so we have some time to eat and warm up before the competition,” Sabien said. “Don’t worry, guys. There will be plenty more Jungle Wars to watch. It’s every Saturday.”
As they headed down the long hallway and back toward the stairs, Geon thought about how amazing this underground battle was. He also wondered why people seemed so reserved and emotionless in general, but in Jungle Wars, they seemed fuller of emotion and life. The other three had no answers for Geon, but Allea admitted to wondering the same thing herself.
“I guess it’s one place where we know we aren’t being watched,” Sabien exclaimed as he resumed looking back up into the sky. The three of them looked up as well and saw that the sky had darkened and the faint rumble of thunder could be heard miles away.
“Mr. Dauphine was right again,” Allea said. “G, hope you are ready for a very wet, very windy race today.”
Geon nodded and the four of them grabbed some fishcakes for lunch to go and headed to the waterways. By the time they had reached their stop on the Glidewing, the rain had become to come down. It began with small slivers of cold water pelting them in the face, and within minutes became large, heavy drops, pounding down on their bodies as they ran toward the course.
“Does anyone have a ONEbrella?” Kumuki yelled as he tried to undo his hood from his jacket.
“A ONEbrella?” Geon asked.
“It’s like an umbrella,” Allea answered, also unfolding her hood from her own jacket. “Except that it’s slimmer and comes down more, shielding you from the sides also. It’s also coated in acryli-flex to protect you from falling debris, hailstones, etc. And no, Kuki, we don’t have one.”
Geon and Sabien pulled hoods over their own heads and dashed around the giant puddles that were now forming in the streets. Within minutes, it had gone from a rainstorm to a massive downpour, causing streams of fast-flowing water to rush through the city. The dark sky thundered so loudly that each time it startled Geon and made the hairs on his arms stand up. The wind around them howled and changed direction often, causing the rain to come from above, the sides, and even below.