7
Rick blinked, slightly disoriented. Before him was the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge to his left. Next to him, he saw Sam folding her hair behind her ear. She wore it down today instead of her normal pony-tail. Together, the two of them waited patiently for the next invasion to occur, holding hands but otherwise sitting silently. The attack never came.
May 5, 2053 – 4:30 PM
The two teenagers rose from their bench and stretched, Sam letting out a little groan.
"Ankle still bothering you?" Rick asked.
"A little," she admitted. "I got it wrapped up good and tight though, so it's okay."
A sudden thought flashed through Rick's mind as he glanced around, seeing a few small groups of people coming on and off the bridge; something that had occurred to him as they were bring logged-out. Quickly, he turned off and removed his neurolinker from the back of his neck, not something he did unless he was sleeping or bathing. Sam watched curiously as he folded the hyper-computer and slipped it into his back pocket.
"Do me a favor," he said quietly to Sam, "and turn off your 'linker."
Smiling as if amused, she complied without question, then took Rick's outstretched hand and together, the two of them strolled down the sidewalk in front of the bridge. Rick intentionally kept them from the big crowds, keeping his eyes peeled.
After a few minutes, Sam still looking curious, he heard the sound of heavy feet plodding on the concrete behind them and somebody breathing hard. They turned and saw a kid – maybe eleven or twelve – out of breath behind them, pointing and trying to talk. From his glasses to his pudge, everything about the kid screamed nerd.
"You're... them!" he stammered, failing at catching his breath miserably. "I mean...they're...you!"
Rick smirked at Sam before stepping up. "I'm sorry, what? Who are you?"
"Don't play dumb!" the kid wheezed. "You two are the only ones in the right age group in this whole area! I know, you play B-" he cut himself off. Nobody said the name Brain Burst in public, especially as loud as he was being! "I mean, that one net game! Where colors and metals are important!"
"Sorry kid, but I don't play net games," Rick replied off-handedly. He lowered his shirt collar, reveling his bare neck. "Heck, I left my 'linker at home! Too much distraction when I wanna go for a walk with my gal."
The boy's eyes bulged out of his head.
"And my 'linker aint even turned on," Sam said in a convincing Brooklyn accent. "Net games are for kids like you."
"But...but..." the kid stammered. "Nobody else fits the age..."
Rick shrugged. "About a minute ago, two kids about your age ran by, laughing about a fight or something like that. They took off down the bridge."
A new fire lit in the boy's eyes. "Thanks!" He took off at a sprint, his energy restored.
After a minute. Sam let out her girlish giggle as they resumed their walk. "Was that...?"
Rick nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was Yolk Glider. I had a feeling he was up to something when he didn't try to save himself from falling down the chasm. I can't believe he would risk outing himself in the real, just to try and out us. Seems kind of desperate, you know?"
He looked at Sam next to him and gave her sheepish half-smile. "Better safe than sorry, right?" She replied by quickly darting her head forward and planting a small kiss on his lips. It was so fast Rick wasn't even sure it had even happened!
"Huh...wha...?" It was all his suddenly overloaded mind could think to say.
"Sometimes," she said conversationally. "I wonder what I'd do without you."
He had trouble thinking of a response for the next few minutes. Did that count as their first kiss?
"Uh, may-maybe we should turn our neurolinkers back on," he stammered finally.
Sam smiled as she turned hers back on and Rick clumsily unfolded hi sand put it back around his next, restarting it. He hardly noticed all of the updates on news feeds that appeared in his vision, because Sam had stopped walking and her smile was gone.
"What is it?"
"Email from Lisa. Something happened to Leander during the territories. We need to get to Bellevue. Now."
Bellevue? Why the hell are they there?
Knowing that the subway or a cab might take too long, Sam checked to see if there as an uber in the area. With self-deicing cars, it was the quickest – though most expensive – way to get somewhere. She input the address in the GPS app, sending it to the car's navigation system, and they took off, heading north on Franklin Roosevelt Drive. With the other cars on the road communicating with each other, they made the trip in half the time any other mode of transportation would've taken.
The little car turned on a small side road that led to the hospital's main parking lot. Sure enough, as they entered. Rick saw Lisa, Sarah, and Jayne sitting on a bench near the front entrance talking quietly to each other.
As soon as Lisa saw them get out of the car, she sprinted towards them, putting her powerful, soccer running legs to work, easily leaving the other two in her dust. It took a second for Rick to notice that she had tears staining her cheeks!
Lisa Pak didn't cry! Especially not in front of two people she'd just met the day before! But then, looking from Sarah to Jayne as they approached, it looked like – yes! Tears on their faces too? What had happened?
Lisa nearly tackled Sam in a tear-stained hug. Luckily, Sam was an athlete too.
"Easy," she said softly to Lisa as she sobbed. "What happened? You never said."
"Sorry," she sniffed. "We were in the hospital and couldn't use the global net to give more details."
Sam held her at arm's length and looked into her eyes. "Talk to me."
"Leander," she said through a sniffle, "had a massive asthma attack. Right in the middle of a fight! We were at the Midtown Tunnel. The doctor said if we weren't so close, he might've died!"
"How?" Sam asked. Rick just looked dumbfounded. Leander could've died?
"He couldn't have suffered an attack suddenly," Sam continued. "Not unless he was just about to suffer one as he was pulled into the fight, and he's too smart to be unprepared for that."
Lisa took in a deep breath and gulped, looking into Sam's eyes. The two shared a look, as if they were speaking without words. After an agonizing silence, Lisa nodded.
"It was an Incarnate Attack," she said to Sam quietly. "Not a doubt in my mind; I saw the overlay." When we burst out, Leander collapsed and stared gasping for air. I did what I could with his inhaler, but his neurolinker was blaring a warning siren and he started to foam at the mouth and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and... and..." she fell back into convulsive sobs, leaning her head against Sam's shoulder.
"It was pretty unsettling to see," Jayne commented. Though she also had tear stains on her cheeks, she was trying to keep it together. Her sister wasn't as composed.
Rick was doing all he could not to join them. Leander was his little buddy; his partner in crime. Rick had brought him into the Conclave, a big brother able to look after a little brother who couldn't defend himself. To hear that he was fighting for his life in the building right across the parking lot almost made him make a full sprint to the ER.
"I don't understand." Sarah sniffled. "How could an attack in the game affect a person in the real world?"
There was silence before Lisa let go of Sam. "We have to tell them. If this is how it's going to be, they need to know."
After what seemed like an eternity to Rick, Sam closed her eyes, let out a sigh, and nodded. "Let's go this way."
She led them to a small courtyard nestled between two wings of the hospital, a third wall – probably a hallway – creating a cul-de-sac with a grassy lawn and a few small picnic tables bolted into the ground; a place where doctors, nurses, and recovering patients could have a meal and enjoy the outdoors. Nobody sat here now, though that might change soon, with dinner around the corner.
Everyone but Sam sat at a table, while their Governor stood at its head. All eyes were on her as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Leander was injured during his fight by what is known as an Incarnate Attack or Technique. It is, in fact, an attack that doesn't exist within the Brain Burst game. It is, instead, an attack that is brought into being with sheer force of will."
Something about this whole conversation was poking at Rick's memory. Where had he heard the words Incarnate Attack before?
Jayne raised her hand. "Uh, if it doesn't exist in the game, how can it be used at all?"
"Well maybe saying it doesn't exist isn't really accurate. Perhaps it's better to say it shouldn't exist. Think of it as a cheat code, like in a normal video game. Programmers put in all kinds of hacks and easter eggs in their games, and apparently, so did the creator of this one. Only, this one can be activated using your imagination."
Both Sarah and Jayne's mouths dropped open, but Rick wasn't paying attention. The light bulb had finally clicked on.
"Midnight Talon!" he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls that surrounded them. Looking quite abashed, he sat back down and continued quietly. "That night we faced off against Talon and those mercs, you trapped them in an invisible cage. Or cube?
"Anyway, you said it would take time for them to escape, 'cause you were buying time. But he sliced through it like a hot knife through butter. I thought it was just some random ability he had to break open barriers, but you were mad. You called it Incarnate."
"Yes," Sam replied. "Because they don't use the normal parameters of the game, Incarnate Attacks are not affected by the in-game settings. Therefore, my Prison of Quartz, which should have been able to hold those four for at least five minutes, was sliced open in less than ten seconds.
"He said something about paperwork?" Rick muttered.
"Because of it's incredible destructive potential, it was agreed by the four governors that those in their Legions would never initiate Incarnate; only use it defensively if it was used against them." She quieted for a minute. "There must be some sort of regulation in the Lupus Guard for the use of Incarnate Techniques." She glanced at the twins.
Sarah held up her hands. "Don't look at us!"
"Yeah," Jayne muttered. "We didn't even know Incarnate was a thing."
"I still find it hard to believe," Rick said.
"Do you remember what talon's arm looked like, before he cut his way out?" Sam asked Rick.
He thought for a minute; it was almost two months ago! "Uh, wasn't it, like, glowing silver or something?"
She nodded. "That's right. That glow is called overlay, and it's the only visual clue that someone's about to attack you with Incarnate. Everybody's overlay is a different color."
"My question," Jayne piped up after a brief silence, "is why I've never heard of this before? Some super awesome cheat code, sitting right in our brains this whole time?"
"That's the reason," Lisa said calmly. "Think about I. Who would be able to resist using a super awesome cheat code at every opportunity they could? Duels would no longer be fair if an Incarnate user could just one-shot a non-user. Territory battles would just become blood baths and larger Legions would just swallow everything up. Think about it; even Silver Lupus has rules for allowing its use."
That thought sobered them.
"It was decided," Sam continued, "that the Incarnate System would be kept from anyone who might abuse it. Usually at around level 6 or 7, a Governor will take a Burst Linker aside and explain the System to them. By that point, the Burst Linker should have the maturity to use it sparingly and responsibly."
"The only reason I know about it is because I caught Sam using it during the Legion Leader Quest, when she qualified to begin her own Legion."
Sarah, Jayne, and Rick all eyed Sam.
"Using a cheat code?" Jayne asked, smirking.
Sam actually blushed a little. "The - the Quest requires it! Like I said, it's a part of the game, but it's a secret. The Quest tests your knowledge of Brain Burst."
"All that's great," Rick interrupted, moving back to the topic at hand, "So what happened to Leander? What happened at the fight?"
Lisa motioned to Sarah. "She saw it."
All eyes turned to her. "Uh, well," she stammered, "um... Mauve Dictionary was fighting a guy named... uh, what was it... Oh! Yeah, Terracotta Break! Level 4, I think."
"Yeah," Lisa nodded, "it was him. I've fought him a few times. Didn't know he could use the Incarnate System though."
"But still, cheat code or not, how does an Incarnate Attack induce an asthma attack?" Rick looked to Sam. "I need an explanation."
She sighed. "As far as I know, there are four different kinds of Incarnate Attacks. There's range enhancement, defense enhancement, speed enhancement, and mental types."
"Mental?" Rick asked suspiciously. He knew something was coming.
Sam nodded. "Yes. Mental attacks do just what you think they do; they effect the target's mind."
"Uh, how?' Sarah asked shakily.
"Through our neurolinkers," Rick said through gritted teeth., "Neurolinkers connect to our minds through a quantum connection with our brain waves."
"Correct." Sam said.
"I knew there was a catch to this," Rick said angrily. "And now, I learn that any Joe Schmoe from the street can just use one of these Incarnate Attacks against me and rearrange a few things to make me think I'm a ten-year-old girl!"
"It's not like that," Lisa said quickly. "Even if you know about the System, it takes a lot of training to use it properly. You're just as likely to injure yourself as anybody else. Not to mention that you can only learn two of the four types of Techniques because of the amount of mental strain it has on you. I mean, you're making your imagination tangible!"
"Plus, as far as I know, the agreement is still in place," Sam said quietly, yet still with an air of command. "Members of the four Greta Legions should still be restricting the use of the system for defense only."
"Not that it seems to matter." Rick growled, "but who was this guy? Terracotta Break? Anyone mind if I go to Queens and break him?"
Sam held up her hand. "No need. I'm going to call a Conference of Governors and get to the bottom of this."
"A Conference?" Sarah asked.
"It's far past time," Sam said. "It's been two months and I think it's time I properly introduced myself and my Senators to the Accelerated World."
"So that means...?" Lisa asked hopefully.
"Yes. Both Indigo Viper and Copper Tarnish will accompany me."
Rick swallowed; his anger dissipated. "Then we'll meet...them? The other Governors?"
"Only if they agree to the summons," Lisa said sarcastically.
Sam winked at her. "Oh, I think they will." She turned to Rick. "And while it isn't necessary, its it's possible I'd like you to be level 4 by the time of the meeting. I'd like my Senators to at least be able to enter the Unlimited Neutral field."
"Uh, when will his meeting happen?" Rick asked.
"As soon as humanly possible, but probably not for another week and a half at the earliest."
He blinked in surprise. A week and a half? He had anticipated getting to level 4 sometime around the end of the month, after school let out; this seemed highly unlikely. "I'll try," was all he could say, "but I can't promise anything. But what about Leander? Do we just leave him at the hospital all alone or..."
"We called his parents," Lisa said. "They should be here soon."
"Don't you think they'll question why their seven-year-old son was hanging around the Midtown Tunnel with three middle-school girls?" Rick asked.
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I met his parents, stupid. They know who I am. They think I tutor him for us advanced classes."
Rick looked back blankly. She knew Leander's parents?
She let out an exasperated sigh. "You know how crazy smart he is! You have to know he's taking middle school level courses! This won't be hard to explain."
"You met Leander's parents?" Rick asked blandly.
"Oh, shut up," she groaned.
Sarah and Jayne stifled giggles between their sniffles. "You two do act just like siblings." Sarah said.
Lisa folded her arms testily. "So I've heard."
That night, Rick lay in bed, still stunned by the events of the day. It was well past when he should've been asleep what with school the next day. He just knew that he was going to be a zombie tomorrow, shuffling from class to class. Luckily, summer vacation started at the end of the month – right before Memorial Day – so he could catch up on his sleep then.
He could also spend some quality time in the Accelerated World. That was, if he still wanted that.
Ever since that fateful day two months earlier, when Lisa had given him the Brain Burst program and explained about how it worked, he'd harbored serious doubts about letting an unknown computer program read his mind. Where did all the information go? Was there some sort of central server somewhere? Where was that located?
And did it hold the thoughts and memories and minds of hundreds of thousands of children al around the world?
Plus, if Lisa was to be believed, the game had been released in Japan first. How many Japanese kids had had their lives turned upside-down by this secret game? She had mentioned that their Legions had been ruled over by the "Kings of Pure Color," whatever that meant. No doubt it was a better system that what they had over here! At least Kings wouldn't have to submit themselves to politics!
An alert suddenly popped up on his neurolinker; a Brain Burst duel request. At this hour? It was half past midnight! He thought about refusing, but he knew that name well enough to know she didn't live in Manhattan.
Sighing, he accepted the duel invitation.
SKREEEEE the metal-on-metal keening rang out, a sound that only he could hear piercing the silence of his apartment.