Chapter 6
A/N: Hey guys! I'm bored, so I'm updating. Um. . . yeah. Well, thanks to
DeLorean86, who reviewed chapter 6. . . sorry I took so long to update.
Well, here we go. For a change, this part is totally my idea! So don't take
it! LOL.
I'm a black belt, so of course one of my adventures has to be something involving fighting. The characters you meet in this chapter are based on my best friends. If you've read "Charmed High", another of my fanfics, you already know two of them. Analise is my friend Jen, Micaela is my friend Mandie, and Kyrsten is my cousin Jackie. Cameos are fun!! Anyway, hope you enjoy, and if you don't, please review and tell me! Thanks a ton!!
~Sammy Solo
"Is this ever gonna end?" I asked in a shaky voice. I knew that this falling thing was just leading me to another adventure, but my stomach was starting to churn violently.
"Give it a sec, it's gotta load." At least Cole was here this time, and I wasn't stuck by myself through this.
"Any idea where I'm going next?" I asked.
"Nope, we just have to let it go." Easy for him to say, he wasn't about to throw up in a video game.
"Is it me, or is this longer than usual?"
"Jess, will you just shut." I didn't hear the end of his sentence as I came to a crashing halt. As I sat up, I saw that my new location was not much lighter than my fall had been. Looking around, I saw that I was on a dark side street of a city. A single streetlight gave illumination to the dirty sidewalk on which I sat. I stood up and dusted myself off, looking down at the clothes I now wore. I was back in the attire I had been in before I had entered the game- black swishy pants and a plain white T- shirt. Even the inventory belt was gone.
"Cole, what's going on?" I asked, confused. "Did I come out of the game?"
"No," his voice came back. "This is another adventure. Aren't your health and energy still there?" I looked down and saw that he was right; the green and blue bars one again floated in the air in front of me. I was about to say something else, but a sudden banging rang in my ears. I whirled around, but saw nothing but the empty street.
"Cole, what was that?"
"The door to the basement. Just.uh. walk around, or something. I'll be right back." Once my heart stopped pounding, I started to stroll up the street. It was a warm night, like early spring. Buildings lined the street on either side and the occasional car sped by past the pavement.
I passed under the only streetlight and came out on the other side of the small circle of light. The darkness on this side seemed deeper. It felt almost like it was a tangible thing, like I could reach out and touch it.
A quiet scraping noise came from behind me. I turned around to see what it was, but saw only the same darkness. "Cole, what was that?" There was no answer; he must have still been dealing with whoever was at the door.
I turned back to my original direction, back towards the darkness. As I took another step forward, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I was being watched. "Cole, what do I have to do to get out of here?" I asked. I could hear his voice, as well as someone else's, coming quietly into my ear; apparently he wasn't trying to talk to me because I couldn't make out the words. I shuddered at the thought of him not being here with me, but continued down the street anyway, determined to figure this out by myself if I had to. I had taken just a few more steps down the street before I bumped into something hard. I stumbled back a few steps and strained my eyes to see what I had hit. It must have been a pole or something.
Then the pole took a step forward. It resolved into the face of an older man, covered in dark stubble, with eyes that looked black in the dim light. He was dressed in all black, and when he smiled down at me his teeth were tinted yellow.
"Hello there," he said in a deep voice dripping with an inner city accent. "What's a little thing like you doing wandering the streets this late?"
"Uh.just going home," I replied hurriedly, then turned to run the other way. I nearly reached a full sprint, then slammed into another solid object. I fell backwards and pain shot up my back. Rubbing my bruised bottom, I looked up into the face of another man, almost identical to the one I had confronted before.
"Gee, Spike, what have you found here?" the newcomer asked. He took a step towards me and bent down to pull me up, but I scrambled backwards, away from his outstretched hand. I stood up and drew my fists in front of my chest in a fighting stance, a reflex after my six years of training in the martial arts. The two men continued to smile at me with malice in their eyes.
"I'm warning you," I said, my voice surprisingly steady with the fear that was coursing through my veins. "I hold a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and will use my skills to defend myself if I have to." My two attackers looked at each other and laughed. As they did, two more men stepped from the shadows into my range of vision, these two even bigger than the ones I already faced. I tried to back up, but I was already against a building.
"C'mon, girlie, don't make us hurt you," the leader, Spike, said. One of the latecomers took a step forward and grabbed my left wrist. I twisted toward that side and slid my right arm up my left. His grip loosened by my sudden turn, he was forced to let go as my fist pushed against his grasp. For the instant that he let go, his midsection was exposed. That was all the time I needed to land a punch solidly on his floating rib. Air whooshed out of his lungs and he fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
"Hey!" yelled one of the guys. A hand came down hard on my shoulder and spun me around. Something hard smashed into my stomach and I suddenly couldn't breathe. I stumbled backwards a few steps to catch my breath. I regained my composure fast enough to block a punch aimed at my midsection, then threw a kick toward my attacker. My heel connected with his stomach, then a hastily thrown second kick as he dropped to his knees caught him on the side of his head to finish him off.
I turned toward my remaining two opponents. With shock painted on every feature, they stared down at their comrades, who were groaning and crawling away from the fight. I spared an instant to check on my health and energy; a little of the green health was gone, and about half of the blue energy.
I looked back up. Spike smiled, but there was still a hint of fear in his eyes. "They were just a warm up," he said coldly. "Now you'll get a real fight." His hand dug into his pocket and came out with a small red device. He flicked his wrist and a long metal knife came out of the end. I backed away a few steps, hoping to get the chance to run.
"Jess?" Cole's voice sent a jolt of fear, then one of hope, through me. "What's going. shut up!" Another voice was talking behind Cole's, words indistinct but obviously female. "What's going on, Jess?"
"Not a good time to talk, Cole," I whispered, watching the two men stalk toward me as I tried to back up. My eyes flicked left and right, searching for an escape route. There was nowhere left to go.
"Cole, is there any way to." Before I could finish, the two men attacked. Spike lunged at me, knife hand outstretched. I jumped back and turned to face him, watching the glinting knife.
"Jess!" Cole's voice said in my ear. "Where's the other guy?" Just as he finished talking, my arms were wrenched behind my back. I pulled hard against the grip, but the man held tightly. Spike came around in front of me, smiling his yellow-toothed smile.
"Now you'll see what happens when you mess with us," he sneered. He drew back his fist. Before he could strike, my leg lashed out and my foot caught him between the legs. He let out a groan and dropped to his knees, grabbing his bruised manhood.
"Spike, you all right?" asked the guy holding me. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I stomped hard on his toes. He yelled and let go of my arms. I dropped to my hands and knees and swung my right leg out behind me. My leg contacted his ankle. He collapsed to the ground, and with a final punch to the midsection I made sure he stayed there.
"Go Jess!!" I spun around, looking for the female voice that had spoken.
"Yeah, way to.oww!" A different female voice. I had opened my mouth to ask what was going on when another voice took over.
"Kyrsten, get away from there!"
"Cole?" I asked. "What's going on?"
"Noth.stop that!!! Nothing Jess. You haven't changed levels yet though. There has to be something else to it."
Suddenly, a sharp pain dug into my back. I turned around. Spike was standing behind me, every yellow tooth showing in his smile. Clutched in his right hand was the knife, covered to the hilt in blood.
"Jess, run!" Another female voice. I tried to stumble away, but ended up tripping and falling to the ground. I caught a glimpse of my health bar: more than half was gone, and the rest was slowly disappearing. Spike started laughing. I tried to get up, but I couldn't move.
"Cole, what's happening?" I asked, a little panic slipping into my voice. "Why.?"
Without warning, everything went white. Spike, the dark alley, even my health and energy bars were gone.
"Cole, where am I?" I asked, not even sure if he could hear me.
"Jess? You still there?" His voice no longer came into my ear, but instead echoed through the infinite white all around.
"Yeah, I'm here," I called out. "But where is here?"
"Well, I guess you lost the game," he replied.
"That's stupid!" yelled an all-too-familiar female voice. "Jess, you were kickin' butt!"
"Uh, Cole? Why are they in your basement?"
"I don't know. They're you're best friends!" he replied. "And somehow," his voice took on a note of anger with that word. "Somehow, they knew the password!"
"Yeah, little blue bunnies rule!" That would be Kyrsten, the youngest of our group. While the rest of us were seniors in high school, Kyrsten was a junior. That didn't stop her from being involved in our more.mature conversations and activities.
"Anyway," I said loudly, trying to change the subject before Cole had a chance to respond to that. "What do I do now? How do I get back in?"
"Umm. hold on a sec, Jess, I'll find out," Cole said in that reassuring voice he had.
"Hey, Jess, what's up?" That was Analise, another of my friends. Analise was the oldest of the girls in our group, but that didn't much matter at our more.immature moments.
"Oh, not much, just staring into the white-ness, waiting for something to happen."
"Sounds like a blast!" came the expected voice. Wherever you had Kyrsten, Analise, and me, you had to have Micaela. Micaela was only a few months older than I was. The four of us could always be found doing something together.
"Oh, yeah, such fun. I can't stand."
"PLAY AGAIN?"
I jumped and cried out as a man's voice echoed through the blank space.
"Uh.yeah?" It was more of a question than a statement, but the voice didn't seem to care. In an instant I was back on the dark, filth-laden street. "Oh boy," I muttered. "Cole, can't I skip this level?"
"No, I don't think you can," he replied. "But I'm about to make it easier on you."
"How?" I asked.
"Trust me," he said. "Just get going."
I sighed and started off down the street. It was even creepier than before, despite the fact that nothing had changed. I approached the streetlight and stopped.
"Cole, whatever you're gonna do, do it fast." I could hear him talking, probably to Kyrsten, Micaela, and Analise, but couldn't make out what he was saying.
Well, here goes nothing, I thought. I took a step towards the streetlight, then started to take another.
"NEW PLAYER IN GAME!"
My heart leaped out of my chest as the voice boomed down the empty street. My ears ringing, I asked, "Cole, what was that?"
"That was this," said a voice from behind me. I spun around, fists in front of my chest, expecting to see Spike ready to start the fight. Instead, I was face to face with.
"Cole?" I felt my jaw drop a few inches, but my heart flutter with relief as he stepped into the dull light emanating from the lamp overhead. "What are you doing here? Who's running the game?"
"We are!" said Micaela, Analise, and Kyrsten at the same time.
I looked amazedly at Cole. "You actually let them touch your equipment?"
"Well, they were there anyway. I was getting bored with watching, and my legs were getting kinda stiff from sitting there, and."
"And we wouldn't stop bugging him," interrupted Micaela, and giggles erupted from the three girls.
"Aw, Cole, you softy," I said in a sweet voice. "You know the only reason you let them run it is because they asked to."
"Absolutely not!" Cole yelled, blushing slightly. "Now can we get on with this before they find a way to fry our brains with this machine?"
He strolled past me, stepping out of the light. I smiled and followed him, more confident now and ready to face the adventure waiting on the other side.
I'm a black belt, so of course one of my adventures has to be something involving fighting. The characters you meet in this chapter are based on my best friends. If you've read "Charmed High", another of my fanfics, you already know two of them. Analise is my friend Jen, Micaela is my friend Mandie, and Kyrsten is my cousin Jackie. Cameos are fun!! Anyway, hope you enjoy, and if you don't, please review and tell me! Thanks a ton!!
~Sammy Solo
"Is this ever gonna end?" I asked in a shaky voice. I knew that this falling thing was just leading me to another adventure, but my stomach was starting to churn violently.
"Give it a sec, it's gotta load." At least Cole was here this time, and I wasn't stuck by myself through this.
"Any idea where I'm going next?" I asked.
"Nope, we just have to let it go." Easy for him to say, he wasn't about to throw up in a video game.
"Is it me, or is this longer than usual?"
"Jess, will you just shut." I didn't hear the end of his sentence as I came to a crashing halt. As I sat up, I saw that my new location was not much lighter than my fall had been. Looking around, I saw that I was on a dark side street of a city. A single streetlight gave illumination to the dirty sidewalk on which I sat. I stood up and dusted myself off, looking down at the clothes I now wore. I was back in the attire I had been in before I had entered the game- black swishy pants and a plain white T- shirt. Even the inventory belt was gone.
"Cole, what's going on?" I asked, confused. "Did I come out of the game?"
"No," his voice came back. "This is another adventure. Aren't your health and energy still there?" I looked down and saw that he was right; the green and blue bars one again floated in the air in front of me. I was about to say something else, but a sudden banging rang in my ears. I whirled around, but saw nothing but the empty street.
"Cole, what was that?"
"The door to the basement. Just.uh. walk around, or something. I'll be right back." Once my heart stopped pounding, I started to stroll up the street. It was a warm night, like early spring. Buildings lined the street on either side and the occasional car sped by past the pavement.
I passed under the only streetlight and came out on the other side of the small circle of light. The darkness on this side seemed deeper. It felt almost like it was a tangible thing, like I could reach out and touch it.
A quiet scraping noise came from behind me. I turned around to see what it was, but saw only the same darkness. "Cole, what was that?" There was no answer; he must have still been dealing with whoever was at the door.
I turned back to my original direction, back towards the darkness. As I took another step forward, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I was being watched. "Cole, what do I have to do to get out of here?" I asked. I could hear his voice, as well as someone else's, coming quietly into my ear; apparently he wasn't trying to talk to me because I couldn't make out the words. I shuddered at the thought of him not being here with me, but continued down the street anyway, determined to figure this out by myself if I had to. I had taken just a few more steps down the street before I bumped into something hard. I stumbled back a few steps and strained my eyes to see what I had hit. It must have been a pole or something.
Then the pole took a step forward. It resolved into the face of an older man, covered in dark stubble, with eyes that looked black in the dim light. He was dressed in all black, and when he smiled down at me his teeth were tinted yellow.
"Hello there," he said in a deep voice dripping with an inner city accent. "What's a little thing like you doing wandering the streets this late?"
"Uh.just going home," I replied hurriedly, then turned to run the other way. I nearly reached a full sprint, then slammed into another solid object. I fell backwards and pain shot up my back. Rubbing my bruised bottom, I looked up into the face of another man, almost identical to the one I had confronted before.
"Gee, Spike, what have you found here?" the newcomer asked. He took a step towards me and bent down to pull me up, but I scrambled backwards, away from his outstretched hand. I stood up and drew my fists in front of my chest in a fighting stance, a reflex after my six years of training in the martial arts. The two men continued to smile at me with malice in their eyes.
"I'm warning you," I said, my voice surprisingly steady with the fear that was coursing through my veins. "I hold a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and will use my skills to defend myself if I have to." My two attackers looked at each other and laughed. As they did, two more men stepped from the shadows into my range of vision, these two even bigger than the ones I already faced. I tried to back up, but I was already against a building.
"C'mon, girlie, don't make us hurt you," the leader, Spike, said. One of the latecomers took a step forward and grabbed my left wrist. I twisted toward that side and slid my right arm up my left. His grip loosened by my sudden turn, he was forced to let go as my fist pushed against his grasp. For the instant that he let go, his midsection was exposed. That was all the time I needed to land a punch solidly on his floating rib. Air whooshed out of his lungs and he fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
"Hey!" yelled one of the guys. A hand came down hard on my shoulder and spun me around. Something hard smashed into my stomach and I suddenly couldn't breathe. I stumbled backwards a few steps to catch my breath. I regained my composure fast enough to block a punch aimed at my midsection, then threw a kick toward my attacker. My heel connected with his stomach, then a hastily thrown second kick as he dropped to his knees caught him on the side of his head to finish him off.
I turned toward my remaining two opponents. With shock painted on every feature, they stared down at their comrades, who were groaning and crawling away from the fight. I spared an instant to check on my health and energy; a little of the green health was gone, and about half of the blue energy.
I looked back up. Spike smiled, but there was still a hint of fear in his eyes. "They were just a warm up," he said coldly. "Now you'll get a real fight." His hand dug into his pocket and came out with a small red device. He flicked his wrist and a long metal knife came out of the end. I backed away a few steps, hoping to get the chance to run.
"Jess?" Cole's voice sent a jolt of fear, then one of hope, through me. "What's going. shut up!" Another voice was talking behind Cole's, words indistinct but obviously female. "What's going on, Jess?"
"Not a good time to talk, Cole," I whispered, watching the two men stalk toward me as I tried to back up. My eyes flicked left and right, searching for an escape route. There was nowhere left to go.
"Cole, is there any way to." Before I could finish, the two men attacked. Spike lunged at me, knife hand outstretched. I jumped back and turned to face him, watching the glinting knife.
"Jess!" Cole's voice said in my ear. "Where's the other guy?" Just as he finished talking, my arms were wrenched behind my back. I pulled hard against the grip, but the man held tightly. Spike came around in front of me, smiling his yellow-toothed smile.
"Now you'll see what happens when you mess with us," he sneered. He drew back his fist. Before he could strike, my leg lashed out and my foot caught him between the legs. He let out a groan and dropped to his knees, grabbing his bruised manhood.
"Spike, you all right?" asked the guy holding me. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I stomped hard on his toes. He yelled and let go of my arms. I dropped to my hands and knees and swung my right leg out behind me. My leg contacted his ankle. He collapsed to the ground, and with a final punch to the midsection I made sure he stayed there.
"Go Jess!!" I spun around, looking for the female voice that had spoken.
"Yeah, way to.oww!" A different female voice. I had opened my mouth to ask what was going on when another voice took over.
"Kyrsten, get away from there!"
"Cole?" I asked. "What's going on?"
"Noth.stop that!!! Nothing Jess. You haven't changed levels yet though. There has to be something else to it."
Suddenly, a sharp pain dug into my back. I turned around. Spike was standing behind me, every yellow tooth showing in his smile. Clutched in his right hand was the knife, covered to the hilt in blood.
"Jess, run!" Another female voice. I tried to stumble away, but ended up tripping and falling to the ground. I caught a glimpse of my health bar: more than half was gone, and the rest was slowly disappearing. Spike started laughing. I tried to get up, but I couldn't move.
"Cole, what's happening?" I asked, a little panic slipping into my voice. "Why.?"
Without warning, everything went white. Spike, the dark alley, even my health and energy bars were gone.
"Cole, where am I?" I asked, not even sure if he could hear me.
"Jess? You still there?" His voice no longer came into my ear, but instead echoed through the infinite white all around.
"Yeah, I'm here," I called out. "But where is here?"
"Well, I guess you lost the game," he replied.
"That's stupid!" yelled an all-too-familiar female voice. "Jess, you were kickin' butt!"
"Uh, Cole? Why are they in your basement?"
"I don't know. They're you're best friends!" he replied. "And somehow," his voice took on a note of anger with that word. "Somehow, they knew the password!"
"Yeah, little blue bunnies rule!" That would be Kyrsten, the youngest of our group. While the rest of us were seniors in high school, Kyrsten was a junior. That didn't stop her from being involved in our more.mature conversations and activities.
"Anyway," I said loudly, trying to change the subject before Cole had a chance to respond to that. "What do I do now? How do I get back in?"
"Umm. hold on a sec, Jess, I'll find out," Cole said in that reassuring voice he had.
"Hey, Jess, what's up?" That was Analise, another of my friends. Analise was the oldest of the girls in our group, but that didn't much matter at our more.immature moments.
"Oh, not much, just staring into the white-ness, waiting for something to happen."
"Sounds like a blast!" came the expected voice. Wherever you had Kyrsten, Analise, and me, you had to have Micaela. Micaela was only a few months older than I was. The four of us could always be found doing something together.
"Oh, yeah, such fun. I can't stand."
"PLAY AGAIN?"
I jumped and cried out as a man's voice echoed through the blank space.
"Uh.yeah?" It was more of a question than a statement, but the voice didn't seem to care. In an instant I was back on the dark, filth-laden street. "Oh boy," I muttered. "Cole, can't I skip this level?"
"No, I don't think you can," he replied. "But I'm about to make it easier on you."
"How?" I asked.
"Trust me," he said. "Just get going."
I sighed and started off down the street. It was even creepier than before, despite the fact that nothing had changed. I approached the streetlight and stopped.
"Cole, whatever you're gonna do, do it fast." I could hear him talking, probably to Kyrsten, Micaela, and Analise, but couldn't make out what he was saying.
Well, here goes nothing, I thought. I took a step towards the streetlight, then started to take another.
"NEW PLAYER IN GAME!"
My heart leaped out of my chest as the voice boomed down the empty street. My ears ringing, I asked, "Cole, what was that?"
"That was this," said a voice from behind me. I spun around, fists in front of my chest, expecting to see Spike ready to start the fight. Instead, I was face to face with.
"Cole?" I felt my jaw drop a few inches, but my heart flutter with relief as he stepped into the dull light emanating from the lamp overhead. "What are you doing here? Who's running the game?"
"We are!" said Micaela, Analise, and Kyrsten at the same time.
I looked amazedly at Cole. "You actually let them touch your equipment?"
"Well, they were there anyway. I was getting bored with watching, and my legs were getting kinda stiff from sitting there, and."
"And we wouldn't stop bugging him," interrupted Micaela, and giggles erupted from the three girls.
"Aw, Cole, you softy," I said in a sweet voice. "You know the only reason you let them run it is because they asked to."
"Absolutely not!" Cole yelled, blushing slightly. "Now can we get on with this before they find a way to fry our brains with this machine?"
He strolled past me, stepping out of the light. I smiled and followed him, more confident now and ready to face the adventure waiting on the other side.