by Lucas Flint
“Like what?” I said. I stepped forward, my gaze meeting Mecha Knight’s own. “You and Dad were working together to clone dead people, with help from some guy called Benefactor, and neither of you mentioned it to me. You guys even succeeded in cloning my dead uncle, but again you didn’t tell me about that. Did you think I’m too weak to handle the truth?”
“How strong you are has nothing to do with our decision to bury that secret,” said Mecha Knight. “I initially assumed that when Genius died, Project Revival would die with him, but I see I was too naive to think that such a project would ever be entirely forgotten. I assume Valerie must have told you about it.”
“She told me about the Vaults, but didn’t know about Project Revival until we accessed Vault B last month,” I said. “Her memory of it was wiped.”
Mecha Knight nodded. “I thought so. Genius told me he made sure that none of his AIs would remember it, but I see he wasn’t as thorough in memory-holing Project Revival as he could have been.”
“Then tell me what it was,” I said. “What was the purpose of Project Revival? And who is Benefactor? And what happened to the clone of the Crimson Fist?”
“Bolt,” said Bait, reaching out to me, “I don’t understand what is going on here, but maybe you could talk about this with Mecha Knight later after we complete this quest?”
“No, Bait, it would be better to discuss it now,” said Mecha Knight. “Once we start going again, we likely won’t have time for anything else.”
“Then get to it,” I said. “What is Project Revival?”
“A project designed to perfect the human cloning process,” said Mecha Knight promptly. “The aim was to provide a way to revive people who had died earlier than they should. We got … mixed results.”
“Mixed results?” I said. “What do you mean by that?”
Mecha Knight shifted his gaze from me for a moment before looking at me again. “Ten clones were successfully produced across the different cloning facilities in North America, which double as Genius’ Vaults. Of the ten clones, five died before they were even a day old, two went insane and had to be put to death, two went missing, and one … one could truly be called successful, although it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time.”
My jaw dropped. “Ten clones? Why did they die?”
“The process wasn’t perfected,” said Mecha Knight. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Despite Genius’ skill and intelligence, he found it hard to build a machine that could clone a human being. Human beings are far more complicated than they might appear. If you get even one thing wrong, it can lead to all sorts of unintended consequences that could cause a catastrophe.”
“A catastrophe?” I said. “Like what?”
“Like a clone becoming a mass murderer,” said Mecha Knight. “That kind of catastrophe.”
I almost asked him which clone that was, but decided I had more important questions to ask. “Which clone actually succeeded?”
“I think you know,” said Mecha Knight. “You’ve already met him, though under a different name. It was the clone of your uncle and namesake, Jake Johnson, also known as the Crimson Fist, now going under the alias Fisticuffs.”
I nodded. My uncle Jake, whose name was also my middle name, had been a great superhero in his own right a long time ago, but he ended up getting killed by the supervillain Master Chaos when I was a baby, so I never got to know him. It wasn’t until last month, however, that I met the mysterious superhero Fisticuffs, who I believed to be my uncle’s clone. All Mecha Knight just did was confirm his identity for me, though I still had a lot of questions about him.
“If Uncle Jake’s clone was so successful, then where has he been all this time?” I said. “Why was Project Revival shut down in the first place?”
Mecha Knight scratched his chin. “When Project Revival was shut down, the Crimson Fist clone was put into hibernation in one of the Vaults. He was never supposed to reawaken again, at least not for a long time, because, although he was much more successful than other clones, he still had his own problems.”
“Problems?” I said. “Like what?”
Mecha Knight tapped the side of his head. “Like his memory. The Crimson Fist clone is physically identical to the original Crimson Fist down to the number of hairs on his head, but he doesn’t have the, ah, ‘soul’ of the original, for want of a better term. For all intents and purposes, the Crimson Fist clone is essentially an entirely new person, just with the same body and powers as the original.”
“I still don’t see what’s so bad about that,” I said. “I think Mom would have been happy to see her brother alive again.”
Mecha Knight shrugged. “Genius didn’t agree. He was very disturbed to learn that the Crimson Fist remembered neither him nor your Mom. Genius originally accepted Project Revival in order to revive the Crimson Fist, who was his best friend. When he learned that the Crimson Fist clone lacked the memories of the original, he felt like he had failed and he didn’t want to put Ashley through that torment, which is why he put the Crimson Fist away.”
Suddenly, Fisitcuffs’ cryptic remarks about not knowing who he was made a whole lot more sense now. “Was that why Project Revival was shut down? Because the clones weren’t perfect?”
“More or less,” said Mecha Knight. “Benefactor wasn’t pleased by the results, so he had the entire project shuttered and all staff laid off. He also had Genius and I sign an NDA, but we had no intention of telling anyone about it even if we hadn’t signed that contract.”
“Who is Benefactor?” I said. “What role did he have to play in all of this?”
“As his name suggests, Benefactor was the patron of Project Revival,” said Mecha Knight. “He was a rich man, perhaps a billionaire, though I never found out his true identity, which he always insisted on keeping a secret, apparently for his own safety, though I don’t know what he meant by that. I do know, however, that he was rich enough to pay for the construction and maintenance of over a dozen underground Vaults for the sole purpose of perfecting the cloning process.”
I frowned. “You mean you worked with a mysterious rich guy whose real identity you didn’t even know? That doesn’t sound logical.”
“Looking back, perhaps it isn’t,” said Mecha Knight. “But I had my reasons for being interested in cloning, reasons which happened to overlap with his own. Genius approached me to help with the Project because of my scientific expertise, which I was happy to do.”
“Why were you interested in cloning?” I said.
“That is none of your business,” said Mecha Knight shortly. He rubbed his forehead. “All you need to know is that I became rather disillusioned with the Project after seeing so many failures, so I was happy when Benefactor shut it down only a year after it started. I felt it was the wisest decision Benefactor could make at the time.”
“Where is Benefactor now?” I said. “What is he doing now?”
“ I don’t know,” said Mecha Knight. “As I said, Benefactor kept his true identity a mystery. I was under the impression that he was a very old man, so I don’t know if he’s even still alive anymore. I’ve tried to get back into contact with him recently, but all of my original contact information seems to be out of date because he has not responded to any of my messages or phone calls.”
I bit my lower lip, feeling a bit frustrated by Mecha Knight’s answer, but I could tell he was telling me the truth, so there was no point in getting angry with him. “What are you doing in Vaultwork Online, then? If you wanted Project Revival to remain a long forgotten secret, I don’t understand why you would come here.”
“Because of you,” said Mecha Knight, folding his arms in front of his chest. “When I heard that you discovered Vault B last month, I became concerned that you might also find out about Project Revival. Even when Vault B self-destructed, that didn’t alleviate my worries, because I knew you had the list of the locations of the other Vaults and that you weren’t going to ignore them.”
“Let me guess,” I said, “you’re here to try to delete any leftover files about Project Revival, right?”
“Wrong,” said Mecha Knight, shaking his head. “I entered Vaultwork Online for the same reason you did.”
“To save Valerie from Holly?” I said, tilting my head to the side.
“Somewhat,” said Mecha Knight, “but the real reason I entered the Vaultwork is simple: To destroy it from the inside.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“What?” I said, taking a step back from Mecha Knight. “Did you say you wanted to destroy the Vaultwork?”
Mecha Knight nodded. “Of course. There is no need to repeat what I said. Bait and Switch here can hear you just fine.”
“No, that’s not what I—” I shook my head. “Why do you want to destroy the Vaultwork?”
Mecha Knight turned around, facing the darkness deeper down the tunnel. “It’s the only way to ensure Holly’s destruction. By destroying the Vaultwork, I can ensure that Holly will never be able to escape into the Internet, which is where she wants to be.”
“How do you know Holly is trying to escape the Vaultwork?” I said. “When she kidnapped Val, she never mentioned anything about that.”
“Because she has already tried it once,” said Mecha Knight. He glanced over his shoulder at me. “She attempted to escape through my own connection to the Vaultwork. She nearly succeeded, too, but I shut down the connection before she could complete the transition, thus trapping her here. But I know she hasn’t given up, and she never will, not as long as her AI is active, anyway.”
“If Holly escaped the Vaultwork, would that really be a bad thing?” asked Bait with a slightly hesitant tone. “I mean, not saying I think she should do it, but—”
“It would be a very bad thing,” said Mecha Knight. “Almost apocalyptic, because Holly would use her access to the Internet to wreck civilization as we know it. She is a virus that needs to be stamped out. Indeed, I believed she was already stamped out a long time ago, but recent events have shown that I was wrong to believe that.”
“Why would Holly want to destroy everything?” I said. “That doesn’t make sense. Is she like Freya, just bitter and angry at Dad for trapping her in the Vaultwork?”
Mecha Knight shook his head. “No. Freya was driven by her emotions, emotions she largely had no control over. Holly, on the other hand, is a force of destruction by nature. As a virus, she takes pleasure in corrupting and destroying things. She is driven by instinct rather than reason or emotions, which makes her far more dangerous than Freya could ever hope to be.”
“I see why you would want to destroy her, but destroying the entire Vaultwork seems excessive,” I said. “Shouldn’t you just delete her files or something?”
“I agree,” said Switch. “I’m not a big fan of this game, mind you, but I always thought you dealt with viruses by using anti-malware software.”
Mecha Knight sighed and turned around to face us again, still wearing a serious expression on his face. “You don’t understand. There is not a single anti-malware software in the world that can delete what Holly has become. She is a combination of a virus and Genius’ own assistant AI program, which is a nearly unstoppable combination. Even now, years later, most computers would be unable to withstand a direct attack from her.”
“I still don’t see why the Vaultwork itself must be destroyed, though,” I said. “Like I said, it seems excessive.”
“It’s excessive only if you don’t understand that Holly is the Vaultwork,” said Mecha Knight. He gestured at the walls and ceiling. “She has merged her consciousness with it, her very nature, to the point where the two are practically indistinguishable. It isn’t a perfect fusion—otherwise she would have killed you all already—but it is good enough that there is no way to separate the two. That is to say, killing Holly would be the same as destroying the Vaultwork.”
Switch covered her mouth with one hand. “You mean we’re not just on a quest to kill an evil sorceress, but to destroy the entire Vaultwork itself?”
“That is what it amounts to in the end, yes,” said Mecha Knight. “And Holly knows this. That is why she kidnapped Valerie, who does have a connection to the Internet, a connection she is trying to exploit to ensure her survival. Holly is confident, but she knows she’s not invincible and knows that if a player kills her in-game, that will be the end of her.”
“But where did she even come from?” I said. “Olga told us Dad deleted her.”
“Even I don’t know the answer to that question,” said Mecha Knight, “but I suspect it may be connected to the Crimson Fist clone and how he was freed and awakened.”
“You think the same person is behind them both?” I said.
“Perhaps,” said Mecha Knight. “All I know is that many things have started happening since you unlocked Vault B. Much of it looks like coincidence, but if there is one thing I have learned in my superhero career, it is that there are very few coincidences in life.”
“So, um, what do we do?” said Bait, looking from me to Mecha Knight and back again. “Do we keep going on our quest or—?”
“Because we both have the same goal, I think we should travel together,” said Mecha Knight. “I am higher leveled than you three, but there is still safety in numbers. It will be easier for all of us to accomplish our goals if we become one party, rather than compete against each other to see who gets to Holly first.”
“That sounds good to me,” said Bait. “The bigger our party, the better, especially if you’re a lot higher leveled than us.”
“I suppose I wouldn’t mind it if you joined us,” said Switch with a shrug. “Although if you think we’re going to keep saving you from random monsters like we just did, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been more than happy to allow Mecha Knight to join us. He was an experienced, veteran superhero with an amazing track record and a real dedication to justice. And, of course, he was my mentor who had taught me a lot while I was in the Young Neos. In some ways, he was like a father figure to me, at least after Dad died and I didn’t have any other role models or mentors to guide me in my superhero career.
But, despite the fact that Mecha Knight had explained everything to me, I still wasn’t sure I trusted him as much as I used to. I didn’t think he was still hiding anything from me, necessarily, but knowing he had kept that a secret from me for as long as he had—even if he had a good reason for it—made me slightly hesitant to accept him into the party.
On the other hand, we were going to need as much help as we could get if we were going to defeat Holly. I still remembered the stats I’d seen when I Scanned her that first time. Though Bait, Switch, and I had leveled up a lot, we were still nowhere nearly as powerful as her. I had no idea what Mecha Knight’s stats were—Scan apparently did not work on player characters—but he had to be stronger than us. Plus, because he had played the game before, he most likely understood the mechanics better, which meant he could be useful in formulating strategies that we could use to survive.
“All right,” I said. “I’m sending you a party invite right now, Mecha Knight.”
Mecha Knight nodded and touched the empty air. A second later, a notification popped up:
Player Mecha Knight has joined the party! Mecha Knight has been added to the group chat and can send and receive messages from other members of the party.
“Thank you for the invitation, Bolt,” said Mecha Knight as I swiped the notification away. “To tell you the truth, I am relieved to have allies. The Vaultwork can be traversed by an individual, but it is easier to travel through it if you have a party.”
“Right,” I said. “So, mind telling us what your Class is?”
“Certainly,” said Mecha Knight. He raised his staff, which was longer and fancier than Switch’s. “I am a Mage. More specifically, I am a Crafter Mage, which means I can craft new items and equipment for myself and other players using materials you can find in-game.”<
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“Wait, you mean there are Classes beyond the three main ones you choose at the beginning?” said Bait interestedly.
Mecha Knight lowered his staff to his side. “Yes. As you advance through the game and complete quests, you will get opportunities to reach higher and higher Classes. Not all Classes are available to every player, however. It all depends on the Class you chose at the start of the game.”
“So Switch here could become a Crafter Mage at some point because she’s also a Mage, while I can’t?” said Bait.
Mecha Knight nodded. “Correct. You catch on quickly.”
“That’s because he’s a huge nerd who plays video games all day,” said Switch, rolling her eyes.
“I don’t play video games all day,” said Bait, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Just whenever I have free time.”
“Whatever, nerd,” said Switch. “I don’t particularly care about all this Class talk. I just want to beat this game and go home so I can spend the rest of the week doing whatever the heck I want.”
“To beat a game, it is helpful to have an understanding of the underlying mechanics,” said Mecha Knight. “Of course, it helps that I helped Genius design the Vaultwork, so I understand it better than most.”
“What’s your Level?” I said. “You said you were higher-leveled than the rest of us, but you didn’t specify your number.”
“My Level?” said Mecha Knight. “Oh, it’s fifty.”
I started. “You’re Level Fifty? Already?”
“I haven’t done any grinding recently if that’s what you mean,” said Mecha Knight. He patted himself on the chest. “I’ve been playing the game longer than you three, so it makes sense my character would have higher levels. I wasn’t sure my character’s files still existed in the Vaultwork, seeing as it’s been almost twenty years since I last played, but when I logged back in, I saw that my character was exactly as I left him.”
“If you’re so high-leveled, then how come you had trouble with those Cave Bats?” I asked. “They were Level Eleven, which seems pretty weak compared to Level Fifty.”