Worldshift- Virtual Revolution

by Scott Straughan

  Slowly, Ethan walked closer to check out the fallen machine. As he passed by the door, he glanced through it. Immediately, he noticed something sailing through the air toward him. It was a grenade.

  “Incoming!” he yelled as he dove back the way he’d come and rolled behind a desk.

  Lily flinched in surprise before ducking beside him. There was clattering noise as the grenade hit the floor and bounced. A moment later, there was loud bang as it exploded. However, instead of spewing fire and violence, a wave of thick grey smoke burst into being and crashed over Ethan. It filled the room and made seeing anything next to impossible.

  “What did you see?” Lily asked him. “What are we up against?”

  “I didn’t see anything but the grenade,” Ethan replied as he scowled in frustration.

  They were obviously under attack, but he had no idea who was doing it! Ethan popped back up from behind cover and tried to look around. He couldn’t see anything more than a few feet away, but he heard footsteps. It was coming from the same room as the smoke grenade.

  Eyes narrowing in determination, Ethan emptied his entire pistol clip in that direction. The bullets zoomed through the smoke before disappearing out of sight. There were a series of cracks as they hit unseen objects, and Ethan thought he heard someone yell in anger. Had he hit someone?

  There was a loud click from up ahead and then a stream of energy blasts shot out of the smoke and ripped into the furniture around Ethan. He quickly ducked back down. Beneath him, the ground was vibrating. It sounded like someone was unloading a heavy machine gun at them.

  The heavy gunfire continued for several long seconds until it came to a sudden stop, creating an eerie silence. Smoke continued to drift around the room as Ethan risked a peek out from behind the desk he’d sought shelter behind. He still couldn’t see where the enemy fire had come from. Beside him, Lily was pulling something out of her inventory.

  Without warning, there was a quick series of heavy footsteps, like someone was sprinting in armor, and then a human-shaped figure burst out of the smoke-filled doorway ahead. It was a man in sleek red-and-black power armor. The pattern gave it a racecar look, and his face was hidden behind a dark faceplate. Most importantly though, an energy sword appeared in his hand as he charged forward.

  Reacting quickly, Ethan stood and unloaded three shots at the man’s chest with his pistol. None of them hit. The armored figure was shoved sideways by a burst from the jetpack he was wearing on his back. Ethan recognized the design of the maneuvering device. It allowed the user to make quick jumps in any direction, even while in the air, but Ethan didn’t have time to get more than a quick glance at it. Another blast from the jetpack threw the attacker straight at Ethan again. Holstering his pistol, Ethan drew his blade, and powered it up just in time to block a swing of the attacker’s sword. There was a crackle of energy as the blades collided.

  A moment later, both combatants stepped back to recover their balance. However, the enemy didn’t stop his assault. He pressed the attack with a series of quick sword strikes. Ethan barely managed to block them and was forced backward.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw another enemy step through the door. This one was in purple armor with grey highlights. They were carrying an impressively large machine gun, which they handled easily thanks to how heavy their armor was. It was much larger than Ethan’s and weighed down by several military-style pouches and a full backpack. Obviously, they hadn’t built their character around speed. All those pouches would give them plenty of storage but would also slow them down.

  Hesitantly, the newcomer raised their weapon and pointed it at Ethan. However, they didn’t have a clear shot since he was still locked in hand-to-hand combat with the man in red. That was when Lily rose from behind cover and began shooting. Her first two bullets bounced off an armored shoulder, doing a bit of damage, but then the figure in purple raised an arm, and an energy shield crackled to life. The device was attached to their forearm, and it created a round glowing shield that protected most of their upper body and blocked the rest of Lily’s shots. Thankfully, having it up also made aiming their heavy weapon very awkward. The person in purple armor was thus forced to retreat back through the doorway and out of sight.

  Meanwhile, Ethan ducked under a high swing and slashed at his opponent’s stomach. The attack missed as the enemy stepped back. Ethan then had to jump sideways to avoid a downward slice.

  “Electric bugs,” Ethan swore as he stood again and raised his guard. This wasn’t working. His enemy was at least his equal when it came to sword fighting. He needed to find a way to cheat.

  Behind him, Lily fired several rounds through the doorway. She then ran to the door and took cover to one side of it as another hail of bullets shot through the air where she had just been standing. She looked far too busy to help anyone else.

  Ethan slashed at his opponent, but the man side-stepped it. That was fine with Ethan. He’d just wanted the space. He let go of his blade with one hand and pointed his wrist at the enemy’s leg. Almost instantly, a line shot out, and the hook on the end hit the target. The impact utterly failed to do any damage, but it did stick. Grinning victoriously, Ethan tugged on the line. Swinging down, his opponent tried to cut the wire with his blade, but he was too slow. Ethan pulled his feet right out from under him, and his back hit the ground hard. As the man in the red armor tried to get up, Ethan knocked his sword aside and aimed the tip of his own blade at his enemy’s head.

  Suddenly, there was a voice behind Ethan. “Stop. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

  Ethan glanced over his shoulder and saw a third enemy had just come in through the back door. Crap. It was a man wearing totally black power armor, and he was pointing a pistol at Ethan. He also wasn’t alone. There was another disk drone floating above his shoulder.

  As Ethan hesitated, his original opponent climbed to his feet. Lily turned to see what was going on, and the woman in the purple armor took the opportunity to step into the room and point her machine gun straight at her. Ethan grimaced. Well, they were screwed now.

  CHAPTER 10

  THE BIG BOSS

  “All right,” the man in black said as his helmet’s visor collapsed to reveal the stern face of a middle-aged man. He had neat black hair and a moustache, both speckled by hints of grey. There were also lines at the corner of his stern brown eyes.

  “My name is Michael, and I feel we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Now that everyone has stopped shooting, I think we can find a peaceful solution to this unfortunate situation,” he announced.

  Ethan kept his face as neutral as possible. “Why did you attack us then?”

  “Actually, you opened fire on my drone first,” Michael said.

  A grimace appeared on Ethan’s face. That was a good point. “Honestly, it didn’t occur to me the drone could have belonged to a player. This is the first time I’ve run into other players in a PVP zone. I assumed it was a mob of some sort.”

  Michael nodded and then looked toward Lily. “That makes sense. Although, since you aren’t alone, that means you met her in a safe zone? That is unusual. In my experience, the tower seems to like pitting people against each other.”

  “Exactly!” Lily interjected as she turned to face Michael. “How can we trust you? We’re all competitors here.”

  Michael chuckled drolly. “It is certainly true that we have no reason to share the final prize, but unless I am very much mistaken, we are still far from reaching the top of the tower. Thus, there is no need to put ourselves at risk by fighting among ourselves just yet. In fact, the logical thing to do is to work together to gain some advantage over the thousands of other players still in the tower.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Ethan replied. He didn’t have any real desire to keep fighting, especially since he would most likely lose.

  However, Lily was less convinced. “You have us at a disadvantage right now though. Why not just finish us off?”

  “Three reasons
,” Michael explained as he raised three fingers. “First, scouting and information gathering is my specialty, and my drones detected that demolition charge you put under the desk there, young lady. It seems quite powerful, and I’m sure you have a plan to use it. Secondly, in case you haven’t noticed, this entire area is almost certainly a boss stage. Why fight at all when we could face it together?”

  “What’s the third reason?” Ethan asked.

  Michael shrugged and gave them a wry grin. “You seem like nice enough people, and I’m an old softy at heart.”

  Lily and Ethan glanced at each other and nodded. Ethan wasn’t sure about the last part of what Michael had said, but the rest sounded like the truth. He turned toward the man in the red armor, and they both put their weapons away at the same time and then opened their helmets.

  To Ethan’s surprise, his opponent’s faceplate disappeared to reveal the face of a smiling teenager with dark skin and short black hair that was a little too messy to be called stylish. There was no way he was older than eighteen.

  “Hey, I’m Kyle. Nice to meet you!” the kid said as he grinned in a friendly manner and offered his hand.

  Dazed, Ethan shook Kyle’s hand. This was the skilled enemy he’d almost lost against? That was more than a little embarrassing. “Um, yeah. I’m Ethan.”

  Over by the other door, Lily and the last of Michael’s group were sizing each other up. Thankfully, both of them had put away their guns and lowered their helmets, although they didn’t appear to have lowered their guards much. They exchanged names and then just stared at each other warily.

  “That was a nice trick you pulled off with that grappling hook!” Kyle told Ethan, forcing him to look back his way. “Having the device wrist-mounted really surprised me. Normally that makes weapons way too inaccurate and light to use, but I guess a hook isn’t normally a weapon, and it certainly allowed you to transition from the blade quickly.”

  “Yeah, I like your jetpack too,” Ethan mumbled in reply.

  Kyle kept grinning in a super friendly way. “Thanks, it doesn’t allow me to fly, of course, but it really helps me get in close without eating bullets. That’s where I like to be, since I’m a sword fighter. You’re not bad at that either.”

  “The hookshot has a targeting camera built in, and I practice with blades a lot,” Ethan replied vaguely.

  “Wow, that sounds like pretty nifty custom gear. All mine is custom too,” Kyle bragged. “What level of swordsmanship are you at?”

  “Five,” Ethan answered. Talking to Kyle was tiring. He couldn’t seem to stay focused on one thing.

  “Me too,” Kyle replied happily. “It sure is hard getting to six, isn’t it? I think I need to fight tougher opponents or something, but all the level fives and sixes are hard to find.”

  Unlike in most other games, skill levels in Worldshift were awarded based on the user’s actual skill, and they didn’t usually make you stronger or faster. They were sort of like belts in martial arts. Thankfully, the game helped players learn much faster than normal. When it came to swordsmanship, level six was the current known max, and only around a dozen players had reached it.

  Before Ethan could reply to Kyle, the woman in purple armor wandered over. She pushed Kyle out of the way and gave Ethan a flat stare. Almost instantly, Ethan found himself disliking her. She had spiky purple hair to match her armor and tanned skin, and her face was slightly on the roundish side, although she wasn’t fat. She looked like she had Hispanic heritage, and Ethan pegged her as a college senior or something. He had seen plenty like her back when he was at school.

  “I’m Jude,” she announced.

  “I’m charmed,” Ethan replied automatically.

  There was an appreciative chuckle from Kyle, but Jude continued to stare at him, as if waiting for more.

  “But my name is Ethan,” he added after the awkwardness became too much.

  “Good to know,” Jude replied without a hint of amusement.

  “Come now, let’s all be friends!” Michael remarked with dry humor as he walked closer to join them.

  “We all just met. That might be a little premature,” Lily answered as she moved to stand beside Ethan.

  Michael gave her a suffering look. “A good first step would be disarming that bomb of yours. Then we can talk about the boss and make plans to deal with it.”

  Lily frowned but then walked to the desk. Ethan hadn’t noticed her put anything like a bomb there, but Michael was undoubtedly right about that. What had her plan been? Just blowing up everyone seemed like a risky strategy.

  When Lily was done messing with whatever she had left under the desk and returned, Michael gave her a nod of approval. “So, let’s get to business. We’ve been scouting this chamber out for quite a while but decided to wait instead of fighting the boss once we realized you were on your way.”

  Ethan frowned. “How did you know we were coming?”

  It was Kyle who answered. “Simple. While we were making our way here, new lights on the door panels kept turning on. Obviously, someone else was wandering around this place with us.”

  “Right…” Ethan agreed sheepishly. He really should have noticed the same thing.

  “So what did you find out about the boss?” Lily asked.

  Michael stretched his chin. “We believe it will rise out of the floor once the last lever is pulled. In the very center of this stage there is something like a blast door.”

  “Any idea what it is?”

  Michael nodded again. “Yes, we managed to power up one of these computers and access the data inside. The files mentioned that a plant sample was being stored beneath the center room.”

  “He got through a level six encryption,” Kyle added with a wink.

  Ethan felt one of his eyebrows rise. He was impressed. Advanced hacking in Worldshift wasn’t easy. You had to play a mini game that started off simple but at later levels became almost as complicated as real hacking. The best Ethan had ever managed was a level three hack.

  “It wasn’t that impressive. In real life I’m a government bureaucrat, so I’m very used to sitting around doing nothing and dealing with software that refuses to work,” Michael explained with a self-depreciating roll of his eyes.

  “Did you come up with a plan to deal with this evil plant?” Ethan asked his new allies.

  Jude grinned smugly. “Ha, just some simple stuff. I’m a heavy weapons expert, so I was going to unload on it from afar while these two looked for a weakness.”

  Michael frowned. “Actually, I was planning on distracting and analyzing the boss using a drone or two, while Kyle waited for a vulnerable area to become apparent.”

  “Whatever,” Jude replied with a roll of her eyes before turning toward Ethan and Lily. “What is it you guys expect to do? We should all work in harmony.”

  Ethan shrugged. “I’m fairly mobile and half decent with an energy sword, so I’ll join Kyle.”

  “Awesome, I can’t wait!” Kyle held up an open hand toward Ethan. Stifling a sigh, Ethan gave the kid a quick high five.

  “And what is it you do?” Michael asked Lily.

  It was her turn to shrug. “A little bit of everything, but I’ve got a rifle, so I guess I’ll join Jude and help out with the long-range bombardment.”

  “Hmm, all right,” Michael remarked as he eyed her skeptically. There appeared to be something bothering him, but he shrugged it off a moment later.

  After hashing out the details a little more, Ethan and Lily both officially joined the others. Michael sent them the request, and they both accepted. The newly formed team then dispersed in preparation for the boss fight. Playing it carefully, they each chose spots around the edge of the open space, where the broken observation windows offered them cover. Michael was the only exception. He needed to throw the last lever, which was at the back of one of the side rooms.

  Since they were now all part of a team, Michael used team chat to message everyone once he reached the lever. “Is everyone in position a
nd ready for action?”

  Everyone quickly responded in the affirmative, so he pulled the lever. As the last light blinked on, a heavy grinding noise reverberated from beneath the floor, and everything began to shudder. Ethan felt the floor vibrate beneath him. From the far side of a shattered observation window, he watched the blast doors in the center chamber open. Beside him, Kyle glanced his way before looking back through the window.

  There was a loud thud as the sliding metal panels of the blast door finished opening and then the vibrations and grinding noise stopped as suddenly as they’d begun. A massive pit now occupied the center of the room. It was over twenty feet wide, but from his position, Ethan couldn’t see down into it.

  As Ethan stared intently at the pit, something emerged. Slowly, a huge brown spike rose into the air. There was a bulge near the top, and Ethan thought its surface looked a lot like bark. It was a plant. A huge one, almost as large as the entire opening.

  While Ethan was studying the plant, he saw one of Michael’s drones fly toward it. Jude took a more proactive approach. She immediately opened fire. Her machine gun whined as a hail of bullets slammed into the side of the plant. There was an explosion of smoke and loud bangs, but a few seconds later, she stopped firing. The plant was unharmed and still growing. Halfway up the trunk, three brown branches began to grow outward.

  “Stupid fraking plant-thing,” Jude swore on team chat. Ethan wasn’t sure why she’d decided to share that.

  “It appears unhurt. Perhaps we should wait and see what happens next,” Michael said.

  Jude grunted in disagreement. “Let me try one more thing. There is no reason to let this fraking monster have time to do whatever it is it is doing.”

  A moment later, there was a loud poof noise as she shot a grenade across the room. The small round projectile arced down, hit the side of the plant, and exploded into a ball of fire.