9
Sometimes, Rick hated being right. And he'd been absolutely right the night before, when he told himself he'd be a zombie at school the next day, for lack of sleep. He staggered through his morning routine, whishing that he drank coffee, and barely made the bus on time.
"Hey, Rick," a far too chipper voice called, that morning as he waited for homeroom to start. He looked up as tan-skinned girl with dark hair made her way down the aisle of desks, to where he sat trying desperately to rouse himself. "Did you type up our report?" It was Vanessa, one of the prettiest girls in class, who just happened to be his report-partner for this assignment.
Crap! He knew he'd forgotten something! He'd meant to do it Sunday night, but with everything that had happened that afternoon... well, his mind had blanked, as far as school as concerned.
But he plastered on a smile and flashed her a thumb's-up. "Sure thing. I was just about to send it to the teacher's inbox, now."
She flashed a pretty smile. "Good. I need that grade, or my folks will take away most of my apps!"
Rick nodded. "I hear ya sister." He really didn't care about her minor problems. Not when he had a very good friend in the hospital. But he needed a good grade as well so, as Vanessa turned and walked away, he covered his mouth as if he was yawning.
"Burst Link."
Everything in the classroom froze in place – or was moving so slowly, it may as well have been frozen – and the world turned blue. Thanks to the cameras installed in every public building in New York City, he could see the room and the people in it as clearly as if they had joined him in the Accelerated World.
But he didn't have time to admire Vanessa's curvy form as it very slowly made its way down the aisle to her desk. His 1800 seconds window was already rapidly closing. So, he opened his neurolinker's word processor and began retyping the report that he, Vanessa, and a boy named Brian had been assigned that past Friday.
The paper was basically written already; he simply had to fix any typos or grammar problems, add a few internal citations, and throw in a few stock-photo graphics for extra measure. And with the power of acceleration, Rick didn't break a sweat, though he didn't like the fact that he had to spend a burst point to do it.
But it was either that or turn in a sub-par report, and Rick's dad harped on him about grades just as much as the next parent. Maybe even more so, since he had allowed him so much autonomy.
He was able to wrap the whole thing up in less than his 30-minute time limit quite nicely. Letting out a breath – or at least the semblance of one since his school avatar didn't need to breath – he decided to exit his home away from home.
"Burst Out."
The world resumed its normal colors and speed, with not even the usual one-point-eight seconds transpiring on his digital display. With that, he opened his school-mandated document app, selected the paper he'd just finished, and emailed it to his English teacher's inbox.
Done and done!
"What did you just whisper to yourself?" the boy behind Rick asked quietly.
Rick started and turned around. "Huh?" Had he been that loud?
The boy behind him, Dean, had thick, curly black hair, a slight pudge, and acne. Rick didn't know much about him, but he knew that while Dean wasn't really bullied or picked on, he was a bit of a social outcast. Heck, up until recently, so was Rick.
But nearly everyone in school knew he was dating Samantha Watt now, so while most thought it was Samantha toying with the plain, boring boy, it still increased Rick's standing on the social ladder, though people still tended to forget who he was on occasion.
That was fine by him, though.
"I heard you whisper something to yourself when Vanessa turned around just now."
Rick blinked. "Oh, uh, it was nothing," he replied, hoping he didn't sound too nervous. "Just, uh, thinking out loud is all."
"Oh yeah?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. It, uh, helps me to hear my own thoughts out-load sometimes."
Dean grinned. "Me too. I like to think out-loud when I'm writing."
Writing? Like, for school? Or, maybe creatively? Maybe Dean was an aspiring novelist? He didn't get the opportunity to ask though, because the bell rang and Mr. Marsten, his homeroom teacher, walked into the room and class began.
"And so then, she gave me the card," Rick told Sam as they strolled across the virtual field during their lunch hour on the school's local net. "I don't know how many points are on it, but it could be a lot. But I don't feel all that comfortable using it, you know? I mean, technically, that card's an entire Burst Linker."
Sam nodded in agreement. "I get what you're saying, but sometimes you can't be picky. Plus, I know Pewter Slip, and she gave us this card to use. We need you at Level 4."
"I know, I know. ASAP, I get it. I debated using it last night, but I figured you'd want to know about it. I mean, if anyone should use the card, it should be Leander. He's the one who got hurt."
"Well, we can ask him, but I'm fairly certain he'll say the same thing about you," Sam said.
"I wasn't hurt though," he protested.
"But Leander knows you," she counted. "He knows how much you worry about him in the Accelerated World. How you think he's your responsibility. In his mind, he knows you're beating yourself up over not being there. He probably thinks you're hurting more than he is."
"Yeah, that sounds like him," Rick muttered.
"You know he's not good at expressing himself," she continued, "but he knows how protective you are of everybody. Even Sarah and Jayne, once they joined the Legion, I know you resolved to help them, no matter what."
Well, he couldn't deny that.
"I received an email from him last night," Sam said. "He's still trying to figure out what triggered such a massive attack. I'll have to explain the Incarnate System, to him. I had hoped it would be a while before I had to explain it to you guys, but with things the way they are now... it'll probably be a while before Leander logs into Brain Burst again."
Rick nodded. "Then nobody uses the gift card until he decided what to do with it. As far as I'm concerned, those burst points are his."
Sam smiled warmly at him.
"What?" He wanted to hold her hand, though he wouldn't feel it if he could, but the school's software forced a three-inch distance between avatars at all times. He imaged that made football difficult.
"I'm just constantly amazed at how grown-up you are most of the time," Sam replied wistfully. "And this is you without the aid of Brain Burst. I'd think you'd been accelerating for years to talk to you. You have such a mature attitude about such heavy topics."
Rick shook his head, smiling. "Nope! You got it all wrong. I'm plenty immature, I promise. I just have different topics I'm immature about!"
Sam let out a giggle. "Oh? Such as?"
He looked up at the artificial blue sky of the digital outside, clouds slowly spanning the sky's length even though there was no wind. So much detail in every little thing, all in an effort to convince the human brain it was real.
Turning his head to Sam, he grinned. "I can't very well tell you that now; can I? I mean, that's the girlfriend's job to figure out in what ways her boyfriend is immature. Besides, I like that you think I act grown-up. It gives me an aura of mystique that makes me more interesting."
Sam grinned back, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "I think I'd really like to kiss you right now," she idly commented.
Rick almost stumbled over his own feet, just barely catching his balance at the last second. He looked up to see Sam laughing.
"Jerk," he grinned.
She blew him a kiss and they continued their walk.
"So, did Ms. Buckler say anything else during your impromptu meeting last night?" Sam asked after a minute of silence. She had seemed quite surprised to hear about Emerald Buckler's appearance the previous night, but had allowed Rick to explain instead of jumping to conclusions.
Rick was very grateful for that.
But now what? Did he talk about what Buck thought might be happening in the Slip Circuit? She never said he couldn't tell his Legion, but should he?
Finally, he nodded.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Do you know an avatar named Peach Parfait?" He spent most of the rest of the lunch period telling Sam everything he remembered from Buck's conversation during their duel. She listened calmly, not interrupting once.
As he finished up, the five-minute warning sounded, the blue sky turning red. Students who had been walking the field, alone or together, made their way to a log-out stating, or simply logged-out where they stood; technically a violation of school policy, though not very heavily enforced.
"This is very important news," Sam said seriously as they approached the net's log-out point. "We need to discuss this as a Legion, because it sounds like the Lupus Guard is declaring war on the Accelerated World.
"Hopefully, I'll get a response from the other Governors this afternoon about a meeting."
"Don't you have tennis today?"
"I got the day off because of my ankle on Saturday," she said. "I'll be at home after school, organizing everything for the meeting, since I'm the one who called it.
"And with this new info, I'll need to speak to Pewter Slip alone."
"You know her?" Rick asked, surprised.
Sam gave a sad smile. "We used to be pretty close, yeah."
Rick raised an eyebrow in question.
"She's the real-life little sister of my parent."
Rick and Lisa sat in a booth at Burger Joint, a small diner down the street from Rick's apartment building, after school. Their cheap prices combined with Rick's limited income meant that that he was a regular customer. He slowly sipped a chocolate milkshake while Lisa chowed down on a huge plate of French fries. And a double bacon cheeseburger. And a large soda.
"So," she managed to say between chews, "you wanna know about Sam's parent, eh?"
"Yeah, um," he stammered, "what's with the food? You never eat this much."
She slurped down a gulp of soda and let out a silent belch. "Shut it! I start training next week for Summer League, so I'm working out every night and I gotta carb up."
Rick nodded, remembering that Lisa played soccer every summer, which demanded a lot of time from her during the months of May and June and into July. Luckily, the final games wound down on July 3rd every year, so that the teens could enjoy July 4th with their families.
It seemed like a lot of work just to play soccer, but maybe it was worth it if she was allowed to eat anything and everything!
"So, anyway," she said, dipping some fries in a pool of ketchup and popping them in her mouth, "Sam's parent. Can't say I know too much about him myself; all I know is that he was a metallic named Zinc Burst. He was a Gen-Oner and rumor says he was the first to make it to level 9."
Rick almost choked on his shake. Sam's parent was level 9? But didn't he fall to total point loss? How was that possible?
Lisa nodded at his reaction. "Yeah, that's about how I felt when I heard about him. He's been gone for around two years now, so I never knew him, but from what I've been able to gather, he seemed like a genuinely good guy. Sam doesn't really talk about him much, but from what she's said, his goal was to unite the Accelerated World into one solid entity, to ensure the survival of all Burst Linkers. A sort of Utopia, if you will." She said all of this in hushed tones, as they weren't in a sound-proof Full Dive booth.
"Sam said he's Pewter Slip's big brother in the real."
"Yeah. And her parent," she said, biting a chunk out of her burger.
HIs head shot up. "But I thought Sam was Zinc Burst's child? You said you could only give the Brain Burst program to one other person."
"Yeah, that rule doesn't apply to Gen-Oners. They're allow to have up to three children." She shrugged. "Most think it's because the creator wanted the game to spread as rapidly as possible, what with only one-thousand kids out of all New York getting it randomly. He knew there was no promise that any kid would be able to use the program, so he probably wanted to know that the game would spend at least some of the time."
Rick's mind reeled at that. If what he'd been told was true, one thousand first graders had randomly been selected throughout the entire city to have the Brain Burst program installed onto their neurolinkers. Nobody knew how or why. But the game's creator had to know that not all one thousand would meet the requirements to complete the install.
But if even half of them did, that was five thousand kids with acceleration. What must that have been like? To suddenly have a power that nobody else had? Then, if all five-hundred had been able to successfully give the program to three others, that would be two-thousand people.
As he thought about it though, he recalled Sam telling him that at any particular time, there were only about one thousand Burst Linkers in total over the whole of the city. If that was the case. What had happened to everyone else?
But the answer was obvious. Of course, it was. Kids don't lead stable lives; they move out of town with parents, they broke their neurolinkers, they just stopped playing for any number of reasons. The biggest problem would've been total point loss, though. Whether abusing their ability to accelerate or simply losing their points in duels, that would've been the number one cause then, just like today.
When he thought about it like that, Rick was actually impressed that as many as one thousand were still playing the game.
"So, other than Silver Lupus, are there any other Gen-Oners out there?" he asked.
Lisa shrugged. "Titanium Titan claims he's a Gen-Oner, but there's no way to prove it, unless he has more than one child."
"And who out there claims Silver Lupus as their father?" Rick asked.
"Nobody," Lisa said. "As far as I'm aware, Silver Lupus has never given the program to anyone. Again, this is just rumor, so it might be total smoke, but nobody's ever met a Burst Linker who claims him as a parent." She took a sip of soda. "Good thing too."
"Why?"
She snorted. "Cause that kid'd be just as screed up as him!"
He nodded, though it wasn't as if he knew everything about Silver Lupus first hand. But from the actions that had been coming from the Lupus Guard ever since Sam had upset the established order. Rick couldn't help but not like the guy. Throw in the kidnapping of Peach Parfait and the things Periwinkle Pigtail and Bluebell Bonnet had told him, and he had a number of reasons not to ever want to meet him.
Silver Lupus just seemed disconnected from reality.
But then, wasn't that sort of the point of Brain Burst? To Help kids escape their reality? Your avatar was created by the game from your mental scars, so clearly this was a game created for troubled children. An app that allowed you to become a costumed superhero – just like in those old Marvel movies – turning those scars around and making them benefits, finding strength in them!
What scars did Silver Lupus have? What traumas created his avatar?
Not wanting to go down that road, Rick quickly changed the subject. "Do you know much about Peach Parfait?"
She nodded. Sam had sent her an email, explaining the situation in regard to the Slip Circuit. Sam had not told her about the gift card, however, and Rick wasn't sure why. "Yeah, she was the main recruiter for the Legion. Remember when I was explaining the Governors and Legions to you, a million years ago, and I told you I'd been invited to join the Circuit? She was the one who invited me."
Rick kind of remembered that.
"She's really friendly and outgoing," Lisa continued. "Always cheerful and happy. If she was abducted by the Lupus Guard. Then I really feel for her. She doesn't deserve it."
Lisa thought as she chewed her food a little more. "That would explain a few of the strange things that have been going on around in Queens. Just the other day -"
Lisa suddenly froze and the world around Rick vanished as a metal-on-metal keening drowned out all other noise as flaming letters appeared in his vision:
A TAG-TEAM BATTLE IS BEGINING!
Copper Tarnish looked every-which direction, trying to get his bearing. He'd forgotten that he was teamed-up with Bluebell Bonnet this afternoon, for his protection detail. Now he was miles away from his actual location, near Tompkins Square Park; somewhere north of 110th Street, north of Central Park.
Quickly, he scanned the stage the game had randomly selected. He was still clearly in New York, but the buildings around him had more of an elaborate quality to them. As if artists had designed each one as a work of art. That coupled with a dim, violet sky told him all he needed to know.
A Twilight Stage.
He'd never been in one before; they were very rare. Wracking his brain, he tried to remember the qualities and features of a Twilight stage that Sam had told him.
C'mon, c'mon...Uh, burns easily, buildings are easy to collapse, and, uh, oh! Sudden bouts of darkness! I think that's it...
He didn't visit northern Manhattan all that often, so he wasn't quite sure where he was. Still, at the top of his vision, a blue arrow pointed the way to his closest opponent. And who were those opponents? He'd been so disoriented; he'd forgotten to look. He checked next to the arrow, which sat between four health gauges, two on each side.
Magnesium Apex. Baby Bubble.
He didn't recognize either of the names, though that shouldn't have surprised him. It wasn't like he'd challenged every Burst Linker in Manhattan! With around one-thousand Burst Linkers in the entire city, there was no way he could know all of them!
Rick followed the blue arrow, running down roads, through alleys, and over fences, which collapsed at a mere touch. Hopefully, Bell wouldn't take any stupid chances until he got there; then they could take stupid chances together! Still, she was a competent, close-range fighter, and a level higher than he was. She'd probably have both of these guys beaten by the time he got there!
He was thinking this thought when a chunk of her health vanished. After a few seconds, another. Then, another.
The other two hadn't moved.
Rick increased his running speed. When another five-percent of her health disappeared, it turned into a sprint. Luckily, avatars didn't breathe, though you could feel out of breath if you stopped to think about it.
But he didn't stop to think about it. Instead, he moved even faster, almost crashing into an ornate mailbox on a corner as he took it too quickly. Upon doing so, the arrow faded, meaning his opponents meaning his opponents were right up ahead.
"Bell!" he called out. Where are you?"
"Get outta here Tarn," a voice croaked to the side.
He barely managed to keep his feet as he skidded to a halt. What he was seeing in front of him just had to be wrong.
Bluebell Bonnet sat slumped against a building, the web of cracks branching from the wall and ground where she sat signifying that she did so carefully, as the building would've fallen on her otherwise. She had cracks and dings all over her avatar's armor.
She was missing her right arm.
Standing before her, looking over his shoulder at Rick, was a molten juggernaut. Magnesium Apex stood well over six-feet, probably closer to seven, and wore massive shoulder pauldrons and a flowing cape. The helmet of some sort of Hell Knight covered his head and in his gauntleted hands, he held a great sword.
All-in-all, this was the embodiment of an evil Knight. Even his plate armor glowed the evil orange-yellow of hell's flame.
Magnesium Apex nodded politely. "Copper Tarnish."
"Uh, hi there." Rick stammered. The voice that echoed within that helmet didn't sound like a child or teen; it sounded like a full-blown adult! How old was this guy?
"It's nothing personal," the behemoth continued, "but your tag-team partner has quite a bounty on her head. You do too, actually but I'm more interested in her and her sister, so if you like, you can go."
"You're with the Lupus Guard." it wasn't a question.
But Magnesium Apex shook his head. "Never. I belong to no Legion. I am simply collecting a bounty. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Sorry," Rick said, sounding more confident than he actually felt, "but I can't let you do that. Seem she joined our Legion for protection, so that's what she's gonna get."
"Tarn, no!" Bell cried, though she didn't move.
Magnesium Apex nodded to himself as he readied his sword. Likewise, Rick got into his fighting stance, trying desperately to come up with some sort of plan.
"I see she's still a good judge of character," Magnesium Apex rumbled. "It's good to know some things are constant." He looked at Rick.
"I can respect your dedication. I'm sorry for what I'm about to do to you and your friend. If possible, I'll try to make it quick."