“You’re good,” he called as Tori approached him cautiously.
“Damn straight,” she replied. “How are you keeping the Nexus up and running? What’s powering it now?”
“Blah, blah, blah,” he said. “All you people do is talk. It’s a wonder you found the Path in the first place.”
“I’m just trying–” she tried but was cut off as the man launched himself off the ground at her.
He tackled her and wrestled her to the ground, grabbing her arm and throwing her into an arm bar. She was familiar with the maneuver from when she used to spar with Jade, and rolled backward the moment he tried to lock her arm. She let go of her staff, and it landed in the snow. Using her free arm and her own momentum, she rolled him onto his stomach and grabbed his crossed feet. Wrestling the man’s ankle free, she grasped it with her right hand and locked the foot into an unnatural angle, using her wrist and forearm to keep him still as she applied the right amount of pressure.
Gargoyle cried out in surprise and pain. Tori growled and fought back her own shriek of agony as he continued to apply weight to her arm. Neither would submit, and neither could win. Tori could feel the ligaments in her elbow giving. However, she could feel his ankle beginning to weaken as well.
“Time out!” she shouted suddenly, wondering what he’d think. She lessened the pressure she was applying to his ankle slightly, though not nearly enough for him to escape. “You can’t move, and I can’t either. So time out! Stop it right now!”
She waited long, tense moments before he finally responded.
“Yeah,” the man replied, his voice filled with pain and anger. “Impasse. Now what?”
“We could injure each other and keep fighting, or we can both back off and do this some other time,” she offered. “I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I want to see my boyfriend.”
“I could kill us both,” he stated. “Then you can hop offline and go see him.”
“And you can run the risk of having the temporary ban come into place?” she asked rhetorically. “I know you can work around a permanent ban, but a temporary one is out of the question. You need to be online for some reason. So yeah, kill us both. See how well that works out for you.”
Silence filled the air as Gargoyle contemplated. Tori waited for the terrorist to decide before he finally lessened the pressure on her elbow.
“A temporary truce, then,” he said and let go of her arm. She simultaneously released his ankle and they rolled away from each other, wary. She readied another code just in case he attacked, but he seemed content to simply sit back and wait for her to move. They remained still for almost a full minute before she took a tentative step back.
She rubbed her elbow and winced. It wasn’t too damaged, but she’d definitely feel it until she logged off. She looked over at him and saw the man was most assuredly favoring his ankle. She picked up her staff with her uninjured arm and brushed the gem over the sore area. The pain immediately went away, though the swelling did not.
“You’re not going to tell me how you’re keeping the Nexus open, are you?” she asked him. He shook his head.
“No.”
“Can you at least tell me why?”
“It’s the first step of the Path,” he replied. She cocked her head and frowned.
“That sounds like some cult,” she told him. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “Everyone serves a role in this universe. Yours has yet to be determined. Mine already has. In the end, all that matters is the journey.”
“I’m a destination sort of girl.”
“That explains why you understand the Path better than anyone else I’ve come across,” Gargoyle said. He popped a shield code and backed away. “As much as I would love to stay and chat, you were right. I can’t afford a temporary ban right now. You understand better than most.”
He closed his eyes and let out an unearthly, primal cry. He then struck the ground with a closed fist and disappeared. No trace of his body remained behind. No big bright flash, nothing fancy, no explosive fireworks. There was little to show he’d been mere feet from her moments before.
Tori stared at the vacant spot on the snow-covered ground, clutching her arm to her chest. She was confused, angry, and no longer certain just what she was trying to do anymore. Most of all, she was now alone in a destroyed forest with a bunch of pissed-off Norse gods running rampant. She hazarded a guess as to how much mayhem and carnage they’d wrought upon Hel in their battles and came up with “a lot.”
“Out-frickin’-standing,” she muttered as she pulled her cloak tightly around her. She looked around the former forest one last time with a scowl, then turned to hurry back to where she hoped the others would be, praying they’d still be in the game. She was convinced each of the four realms had served its purpose for Gargoyle, and he’d no longer enter any of them.
Why does he keep talking about a path? she asked as she looked around. She figured he wouldn’t want to risk running into her again, but nobody would ever accuse her of not being overly cautious. The sound of fighting could be heard, though it was muffled through the thick, snow-covered pine trees. It was as though she was cut off from the rest of the realm. It was serene, the solitude. She shook off the feeling and focused on what she knew.
The Nexus was the key somehow. Gargoyle needed it up and running. She didn’t know why. Yet. There was still so much for her to learn about everything in The Warp, but she needed more time to figure it out. It all rested within the online system. She also knew whatever he was doing had to be done soon. There was no way he’d have been afraid of a temporary ban if he wasn’t close.
Then why is he in the worlds? She wondered. Any gamer could get lucky and take him out, especially since he was one of America’s Most Wanted and on the FBI’s Top Ten list. If he was smart, he’d have laid low while doing whatever it was he was trying. Instead, he’d been spotted in two separate realms toying with gamers and Moderators. Why?
She wasn’t yet sure, but she was going to find out.
* * * * *
Chapter 17
Tori could see the giant snake hovering overhead even before she managed to reach the rest of her team, its massive head thrashing back and forth as the combined power of the Moderators managed to keep it at bay for the moment. She figured each of them would have their eyes on their power levels, and would be watching in no small amount of fear as they steadily dropped. For now, though, their combined energy was keeping the immense serpent at a distance.
“Tori!” Tyler shouted as she limped into view, still clutching her arm. She was covered in soot and snow, and her chin was a bloody mess. Still, she seemed to be a sight for sore eyes.
She looked at the massive serpent and shook her head.
“Gargoyle’s gone,” she called out through gritted teeth. “I have no idea where, either.” She looked at the group, confused. “Where’s Robert?”
“Lunch!” Shane cried out and pointed toward Jörmungand. She blinked, surprised, before she realized what the southerner was talking about. The giant snake must have managed to slip through their defenses somehow and swallowed the Moderator whole.
“Damn!” Michael shouted suddenly as his power level moved to empty. “I’m tapped out! Anyone got a boost?”
The serpent thrashed free just as he spoke, the massive, fanged maw of the beast open to strike. Tyler pushed his brother aside and tried to make up for the sudden loss of power by attacking the beast with his own maximum attack code, but it was no use; Jörmungand was loose, no longer held at bay by the combination of codes.
The snake struck with a blinding ferocity, and Tyler, unable to move as fast as the god, was struck multiple times before he could even shout out in pain. The massive snake’s poison pumped into him, and he fell, thrashing and shaking on the icy earth. The snake withdrew and laughed, the evil sound a collection of short hisses.
Tyler depixelated, and Michael, who had been saved by his younger brother, stared in s
hock as he disappeared, eliminated from the game. He bellowed at the snake, his roar loud and ferocious. Jörmungand shifted its massive head to look at him, and it stared at him with cold, black eyes in consideration for a moment before it opened its gaping maw.
Michael hefted his blade and threw it at the snake in a blind rage. The blade, while sharp, wouldn’t normally have hurt the massive god. However, as the blade flipped through the air, Stacey, seeing his intent, added a special code to the flipping sword, charging it with an extraordinary amount of power. The now supercharged sword struck Jörmungand with a glancing blow. However, with the charge behind it, and the strength and speed at which Michael had thrown the massive sword, it caused more damage than anyone could’ve possibly hoped for.
The god howled in pain and fury as a long gash was rent across the side of his sinuous neck. The creature hissed and struck at Michael, intent on finishing off the impudent mortal. The fangs of the god sunk into his thigh, releasing poison into his system as well. Michael, though, had been ready for the attack.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to prevent the beast from striking him; the god was simply too quick. He also knew, however, that he could hold the god in place once it bit him. And he did just that, pressing the god’s head down onto his thigh as it continued to bite, not giving the god a chance to escape. The massive fangs, over a meter in length, slid completely through his leg.
Michael bit his tongue and tasted blood as the creature struggled to wiggle free. Using his unnatural strength combined with raw emotion, he jammed his fist into the black eye of the snake. Jörmungand flinched and pulled him high into the air, fangs solidly caught in the large man’s thigh. He continued to keep pressure on the god’s eye as he was hoisted about and shaken like a rag doll.
He refused to let go, and the creature, in agony, finally lost some of its strength as he pushed his fist deeper into its eye and into its cranial cavity. Jörmungand struggled to free himself from the blinding pain the tiny man was causing, but to no avail. Michael hung on doggedly, refusing to yield. He pressed further, and the god twitched as he began to imitate an egg beater within the snake’s skull. The massive god pumped one final burst of venom into Michael’s body as the two came crashing down to the ground together.
Jörmungand’s fangs slowly retracted at long last, slipping out of Michael’s thigh as the god died. Poison from the fangs oozed from the gaping wounds as Michael struggled painfully to his feet. His face was calm, though his eyes seemed to look far into the distance. He took a single step, staggered slightly, and managed a second. He looked at Tori, who had watched the entire fight in absolute awe.
“Do the right thing,” Michael told her solemnly as he took another step, stopped for a moment, and then fell down. Stacey and Shane rushed to help their fallen comrade, but it was too late. Michael began to depixelate, his body disappearing once more into The Warp. The remaining three gamers stared silently, watching their friend disappear.
“That. Was. Epic.” Shane stated in an awe-struck whisper.
Tori looked at the survivors of the battle and sighed, defeated. She hated doing it, but they needed to regroup. Her encounter with Gargoyle hadn’t gone according to plan, to say the least, and the arrival of the gods was simply too much for them. We need to recharge, she thought. They need to see their friends outside The Warp, to see them alive. They’d been fully immersed in The Warp for hours, and she knew the entire group needed a break. She, however, needed to find Gargoyle before it was too late.
“You guys log off,” Tori ordered the remaining two members of her team. “It’s safe to do it right now. After some rest, I need to find Gargoyle and figure out what he’s doing. He’s not like the other terrorists. He’s doing something else, something he sees as being more important than eliminating me from the game. Or taking everyone hostage for money.”
“I’m not letting you solo him,” Shane said immediately. Stacey swallowed and nodded in agreement. Tori sighed. She’d been afraid of that.
“There’s not much else you two can do,” she said in a reasonable tone. “He’s in the Nexus, and I don’t think you can help me interact with him in there. I don’t think I can really do anything in there. It’d be a one on one for any of us, and unless you know something I don’t, I doubt you’ll make it out of the encounter in one piece. Nothing against either of you, but I’m not sure I can do it...besides, I need you two to do something else.”
“What’s that?” Shane asked, his interest peaked.
“Gargoyle keeps talking about a path,” she said. “After you guys go offline, come back in a few hours and look around for something about a path. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s all I have. Gargoyle keeps mentioning it. I need to know what it is.”
“I can instant message you when I find something,” Shane agreed, although reluctantly. “But how do you know he won’t eliminate you or something?”
“He could have and didn’t,” Tori said with a slight shrug. “He listened, which is good, and he talked some.” The other two stared at her, clearly unhappy. She looked away. She couldn’t give them any more definitive an answer. Not yet, at least. Maybe soon.
She closed her eyes as they logged off, leaving her alone in the middle of the wastelands. She was running out of options, and though she’d figured out the person behind the glitch in the Nexus, she still had neither a location nor a reason. Gargoyle wasn’t insane, she was certain, but he definitely wasn’t in a right state of mind. He was biding his time, but to what end? What could possibly be so important about some road?
“Path,” she corrected herself. “He said something about a path. Not a road.”
“Mortal!” a voice boomed in her ear. Tori screamed and swung wildly at the speaker. Her fist connected solidly on someone’s nose and the large figure fell flat on his backside. Her chest heaved as she went into a defensive posture. She blinked twice more before she recognized Loki. The god grinned and looked none the worse for wear. “You pack a wallop, tiny creature. This makes me happy. I would take you for my wife, but the current one would be most displeased.”
“You scared the sh—” She stopped as she spotted something on the ground near Loki’s hand. It resembled…“What is that?”
“Oh, this?” Loki chuckled and held up a large object. It was a shield covered in some sort of black ichor. A large stained sack remained on the ground near his feet. It was dripping something black from the bottom as well, and it smelled horribly. Loki motioned toward it. “This was Hel’s shield. You can guess what I have in the bag. I told you I would deal with the goddess. She’s been dealt with in a most permanent manner. Am I not true to my word?”
* * *
Leo sat at his desk, hands folded in front of him as he eyed the two men seated on the other side of his table. His features were ragged and worn, his normally impeccable demeanor frayed at the edges. He looked tired and his face was drawn. He hadn’t shaved for a few days, and it showed.
“Jorge,” Leo spoke to his longtime personal assistant, the man many called the right hand of WarpSoft. “Did you do the background check on him?”
“I ran it through CJIS, like you asked,” the Hispanic man replied as he pulled out a pad of paper. Unlike every other employee of WarpSoft, Jorge Machado didn’t use many electronic devices; he was deathly paranoid of hacks and viruses and preferred to rely on his memory and a hand-sized journalist notepad. “They wanted me to wait, but a few calls to some people I know sped up the process. Cost me some money, too. That reimbursement slip will go straight to your inbox. Laszlo Zalan just appeared as if by magic three years ago in Prague. Gained a reputation as a reformed hacker, but we can’t find anything in his history to suggest he actually ‘hacked’ anything. Got some private funding from unknown sources to start Rathe Solutions.”
“Private funding?” Leo perked up, curious. “When I invested in them, they were cash-strapped. That’s what they reported, I mean.”
“Yep, still checking that angle,” Jorge confi
rmed. “Once I asked the CJIS about it, suddenly the SEC was very interested in it as well. So was the FBI. Anyway, he magically pulled out his quantum network surprise at COMPUTEX and now he’s a big player.”
“You keep saying magically, mate,” Leo told him.
Jorge shrugged. “Like I said, he just appeared and became a major player. No schooling history, no records of where his funding came from, no prior relationships, credit history, education, birth certificates…now, I’ll be honest with you, boss. Bosnia and Serbia were a mess around the time he was born, so it’s entirely possible his family fell under the radar. I dunno. Just feels…weird.”
Leo grunted.
“How did he come up with quantum networking?” Vilim asked as he looked at Leo. “This isn’t something a savant comes up with in his basement. This takes years upon years of testing to go from theory to prototype to production. He managed it in two. Nobody is that good.”
“I’m more than a bit surprised some government agency didn’t scoop it up first,” Leo commented as he drummed his fingertips on the surface of his desk as he let the problem and potential issues play out in his mind. “The encryption capabilities are out of this world. It has some serious military implications. I know for a fact the DoD is begging to look at the physics involved, let alone the designs. He even said so at COMPUTEX.”
“You know, I don’t think anyone has actually seen the copyrighted blue prints of the thing,” Vilim said as he leaned back and stared thoughtfully into open space. “I wonder why?”
“File a patent, and you have to release the mechanics behind it,” Leo stated. “Same reason WD-40 isn’t patented. They never wanted to release the ingredients. Laszlo probably did the same thing for the same reasons.”
“You think it could be a cold fusion type of thing?” Jorge asked, intrigued. People had been coming up with ways to get cold fusion to provide clean energy for over thirty years, but somehow when a scientist said the problem was solved, the technology could never be replicated by anybody else. It went from the next alternative fuel source to just another pipe dream over the years, until it was finally ridiculed by most engineers.
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