11
"-riend, Vanilla Butterfly was telling me..." Lisa slowed to a stop, probably seeing the blank expression on his face. Rick figured. "Rick? You okay there, bud?"
He blinked, trying to remember what he'd been doing before getting pulled into Brain Burst. "Uh..." He took a glance around him. Booth, food, diner counter to the right; Burger Joint. He'd been talking to Lisa.
It was amazing how much you could forget in just half-an-hour!
"You get sucked into a duel with Jayne?" she asked.
The duel with Jayne. Where he'd not only failed in his task to protect her, but subjected her to possibly the most painful death he could think of. All he could do was nod, not trusting himself to speak.
"How'd it go?" she asked after a sip of soda. "I had to help Sarah yesterday against a pair of level 4s from the Lupus Guard who thought they were hot stuff. It was totally easy, hardly worth the effort. You?"
Rick gulped. "I think we're in trouble," he said quietly.
Lisa's face was pale by the time Rick finished his story. Saying it out loud, he had trouble believing it himself, and he'd been there!
"He-he just ripped in half!?" she asked shocked. "Just like that!?"
Rick nodded. "She had a hole in her stomach, but yeah. It was horrible; that scream..." He cut himself off, not wanting to relive it.
"We need to tell Sam about this; shoot her an email with an update," Lisa said.
Rick shook his head. "You do that, I need to check on Jayne. See if she's all right. She was just ripped in two."
Lisa nodded, opening her virtual desktop. Her fingers began to fly over her virtual keyboard as she wrote the update for Sam. Though her face seemed impassive, Rick had known her long enough to know that she was moments away from panicking.
Opening his IM app, Rick highlighted Jayne's screen-name and wrote out a quick message, hoping she'd answer it right away. He needed to know she was okay!
GAMERICK: Bell? You doing okay?
About ten seconds passed until-
MISSNYNE: Yeah, I'm hanging in there. U?
Rick let out a sigh of relief. He couldn't imagine what being ripped in half like that could do to your psyche, but at least she wasn't catatonic or something.
GAMERICK: Kinda lost my head at the end there. Couldn't finish the job. Sorry.
MISSNYNE: Don't be. That guy was a BEAST! It was a - long shot in the first place!
Well, he couldn't really argue with that.
MISSNYNE: Hey!
MISSNYNE: When you said "lost my head", were you being figurate, or...?
GAMERICK: LOL. Nope. Took the thing off in one swing. Didn't feel a thing.
MISSNYNE: *wince* Ouch.
GAMERICK: What about you? R U OK? I mean really ok? I mean, if you need to talk?
MISSNYNE: *blush* I think I'll be fine, Mister Senator, sir. Thanks for thinkin a me though! Sarah says hi! I gotta go, so be safe! And thanks for being my knight in tarnished armor! Later! 3 - ?!
She closed the connection and Rick let out another sigh, this one out of worry. Clearly, she wasn't over what had happened – who would be!? - but she had to cope with it in her own way. That meant probably talking it out with her sister or Sam.
Sam always knew the right thing to say.
Rick, on the other hand, wasn't how he should be feeling about this. Brain Burst was a game! People shouldn't be using it as an alternate to real life! Using it to try and gain advantage over people in the real, or to use their avatars to overpower those weaker than them? That ruined the experience for everyone, as far as he was concerned.
And if those people could keep doing whatever they wanted, then what was the point?
"Email sent," Lisa reported. "Shouldn't be too long getting a response, what with no tennis for Sam today."
"But she's meeting with Peter Slip in the real, this afternoon," Rick said in monotone.
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. It may be a while, then," she grinned.
He shook his head, his thoughts all jumbled. "So, what do we do 'til then?"
Lisa shrugged. "Go home? I got homework I gotta finish before my work out tonight."
Rick took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly, turning his focus onto Lisa. Her eyes widened at the intensity of his gaze.
"I... don't know if I can do this anymore," he said quietly. "Brain Burst I supposed to be fun. A game that stops time and offers the ability to accelerate, like a magic stopwatch. It lets me do things nobody else can do, but now? I don't know. The people who talk it so seriously, who live Brain Burst. As a life style? I don't think I can keep up with that."
His friend sat quietly for a minute, taking it all in. "Look," she finally said, "I get it. Really. I do. Some people get really intense. They take it too far. And I know you hate politics. But you made a promise to Sam. You're not the kind of guy who goes back on his word."
Rick sighed, looking out the window of the diner. Lisa knew him as well as he knew her. And what she said hit home; he didn't like breaking promises. He couldn't imagine the feelings of betrayal and hurt Sam would have if he suddenly quit Brain Burst.
But then, there was his opponent, Magnesium Apex. Somewhere north of Rick, this man who had so soundly defeated him was out there. He was a danger, not just to Sarah and Jayne but to the entire Conclave if allowed to ran free. But did he have the courage to stand up to him again? Rick doubted it.
Was that what this was all about?
It wasn't as if he'd never lost a match before. Heck, his win/loss record may as well have been tied! Plus, Magnesium Apex was four levels higher! There was no reasonable expectation to defeat so powerful an opponent.
So why do I feel like I failed? Rick thought.
He got up from the table. "Let's go. I'll think about it some more at home. And I'll talk to Sam about it, okay?" He saw concern in Lisa's face and smiled. "Don't worry; I'm fine. I just need some time to think."
Trudging up the stairs, opening the door to his apartment, and plopping on to the couch. Rick let out a loud sigh that sounded even louder in the small but empty room. Leaning his head back, he closed his eyes, trying to get a sense of what the next right move should be. Yes, he'd told Lisa he'd talk to Sam about it, but he didn't want her solving all his problems for him. She'd already solved plenty of what was wrong in his life; he didn't need to burden her with this.
But then, what was the right thing to do? He'd already said something to Lisa, and he was fairly certain Jayne wouldn't want to discuss it. Besides, she'd probably want to discuss it with Sarah, anyway. So now what?
So many conflicting thoughts and emotions were bouncing around in his head.
The truth was, he actually really liked Brain Burst; the duels, the competition, the other Burst Linkers who enjoyed the thrill as much as he did. He could talk about his love of acceleration until he was blue in the face, but at the end of the day, it was the fight that continued to bring him back.
Being Copper Tarnish brought nothing but joy.
Of course, he couldn't really admit that to his friends; he had to be the one nay-sayer sometimes.
Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, Rick turned on the TV in the center of the wall his couch faced. Using the television uplink on his neurolinker, he switched it on with a blink of his eyes. Most folk didn't own TVs anymore, mostly watching live feeds of specific people – mostly celebrities – or they got a direct feed from different networks streaming into their neurolinkers and watched on virtual screens nobody else could see.
Those were optional features though, and they were quite expensive. It was money neither Rick nor his father had, so they made due with a flat plasma-screen that was probably older than Rick.
Luckily, they had found a Universal Remote app for free on the global net, and it was legal! They both downloaded the app and that was that!
The screen came into focus, an old movie slowly coming into view. A... what was that? A samurai movie? He really had to talk to his dad about his obsession with old movies. And this movie in particular looked to be made back in the 1960s! Almost one-hundred years ago!
He was about to change the channel, but stopped as the scene unfolded in front of him. On screen, a small unarmed, unarmed man stood before a massive samurai in full armor, a huge Katana in his hands. With nimble ducks and dodges, the smaller man evaded each and every swing, back and forth, in an effort to get past his opponent.
Rick could commiserate.
Finally, back against the wall, the unnamed man seemed to surrender. But as the Katana came down for the killing stroke, he raised his hands over his head in one fluid motion and slapped them together on each side of the blade, stopping the sword in mid-swing. The giant let go of the katana and bolted in fear at the skill of the smaller man.
"Yeah, right," Rick groaned. He switched the TV off, all desire to veg-out and be lazy all night gone. There was just so much extra crap going around in his head right now, it seemed he was seeing prophetic messages in movies now.
He decided to go for a run to try and clear his head. That by itself was a scary idea.
Rick didn't fit the description of athletic by any stretch of the imagination, and he absolutely hated running. He couldn't understand why some people ran for sport! They always talked about the "Runner's high," but he'd never felt it before; all he'd ever gotten from running was shortness of breath and stiches in his side.
Still, he needed a way to focus on something – anything – that wasn't Brain Burst related, and he couldn't think of a better way to funnel his thoughts than doing something he hated more than just about anything. HE shut off his neurolinker, leaving an away message telling people what he was out doing, in the hopes it would scare Lisa into silence. He didn't need her trying to console him right now!
He left his apartment in shorts and a T-shirt and took off a jog, west on 14th street, before turning on 1st Avenue. There were jogging trails all over the place, but Rick ignored them, dodging between the people on the sidewalks. The people didn't couldn't, know that such a thing such as Brain Burst existed; they couldn't possibly understand the struggle going on inside his head.
No. Focus on the run.
Having no really destination in mind, he turned onto 23rd street, heading east towards FDR Drive. He began to pick up speed as the people thinned, though self-driving-cars lined the streets, moving in an orderly procession. Without thinking, he made a sudden left, heading north on FDR.
He was close to sprinting now, thinking only of the burning in his lungs and the cramp in his side, ignoring both. He had no idea how long he'd run, how many blocks he'd passed; all he knew was that running wasn't helping! The thoughts in Rick's head not only didn't move away from Brain Burst, but now they were full of the thoughts of him tiring himself out and sweating all over!
Still, he forced himself onward, faster and faster, trying to outrun the choice he felt he had to make.
Rick stopped so suddenly, he almost fell on his face. Sweat poured down his face and he felt uncomfortably squishy in his shorts; not something he really needed right now, though how he was going to avoid something like that while sprinting in early May, he hadn't considered. His shirt was plastered to his average body, rising and falling with his chest as he made vain attempt at catching his breath. Whose idea was this, again?
He hadn't realized he'd been sprinting.
Desperately trying to catch his breath, Rick took a glance around trying to figure out where he was. But the series of buildings and large parking lot told him exactly where he was. A huge hospital, known the world over for its medical care: NYU Bellevue Medical Center.
Rick Had no idea how far he'd run, but he wanted to believe it was more than a mile. It probably wasn't, but even still, he had sprinted a good distance; that had to count for something, right?
Leander was here.
Had his legs taken him here because of that? Dared he go see him? He hadn't even sent the kid an email, though he wouldn't get it until he left the hospital and reconnected to the global net.
Like schools, most public buildings had their own local net, not allowing any connection to the global net for fear of hackers and viruses. Hospitals in particular needed their own local net, in order to monitor and maintain the vital signs of their patients.
Oddly, Rick remembered that the incident with Leander happened only yesterday! Just over twenty-four hours ago! Why did it seem like a life time ago?
Steeling himself for the reception he might receive walking into a hospital sweating and in shorts and a T-shirt that were stuck to his body, he took a deep breath and walked across the parking lot towards the hospital.
"I'm sorry sir, but only family is allowed in the ICU," the nurse at the reception desk said to Rick when he asked after Leander Hines. "Those are the rules and I can't break them, even for the President of the United States."
Rick had no doubt that, should the President stride into this waiting area and demand to see a random ICU patient, the nurse wouldn't be able to move fast enough. He also had little to no doubt that his sweaty appearance played into her decision, rules or not.
"But...but," Rick sputtered. He'd worked up the courage to come in here and confront his fear of rebuke; he couldn't be turned away now! "But, we're closer than family! We're, uh, were' in the same study group!"
The nurse raised an eyebrow, again taking in Rick's disheveled appearance. I find that very unlikely, young man. It says that Mister Hines is only seven."
"Have you spoken to the kid?" Rick asked blandly. "He's a frick'in genius." "Be that as it may," she replied, nonplussed, "You can't visit the ICU unless you're immediate family." She returned to her virtual desktop, entering patient records fed directly into her neurolinker into the main hospital net.
Rick plopped into a waiting room chair, furthest away from the one person there, so as not to offend them with his – probably – ripe odor. She seemed to be focused on the rosary in her hands, head bowed in prayer. He figured that made sense; it was an ICU, after all.
What caught his attention was that the woman wasn't wearing a neurolinker. Odd, that.
He shrugged. Not sure what to do, Rick logged into the local net, browsing the magazines they had available to read, scanning an article that showed some study about prolonged neurolinker use or something like that. Leander probably already read that one.
Rick let out a quiet sigh, eyeing the reception area. That nurse wasn't going to let him past, no matter what he said. Now he was just wasting time, in an effort to avoid what he had known from the beginning he was going to have to do. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes.
"Burst Link."
Everything turned blue and everyone stopped moving, frozen in place as Rick entered the Accelerated World. The only thing moving was Rick's avatar him in dress khakis and the button-down shirt. It was his school, as well as his home avatar.
Only in this blue world could he access the Brain Burst program, and because he wasn't connected to the global net – only the local hospital net – he couldn't attempt to challenge any Burst Linkers unless they were here in the hospital. And at the moment, there was only one.
Reluctantly, he selected Mauve Dictionary, then moved his finger to the Duel Icon and pushed it.
The blue around him vanished, as did most of the building around him. What remained were cracked, crumbling walls and a floor pitted with dents and holes; an obvious Post Apocalypse stage. Rick had to avoid rebar jutting from the walls as he made his way into the ICU area.
A large wall barred his path, with no apparent way through, so Rick decided to knock the thing down! Since the building was on the verge of collapsing anyway, it took little to no time, and since he was on the first floor, he didn't have to worry about falling I he made a hole in the floor. He just hoped he'd find Leander on the other side.
"About time, slow-poke." a voice called from the dust as the wall crumbled.
"Sorry." Rick replied, stepping over the rubble that used to be a wall. "There was this will see..."
"Not that, stupid. I meant it took you long enough for you to come over here and see me. Everyone else has at least sent me an email. Even the new girls. What took YOU so long?" The boy's voice was his normal monotone, not a hint of emotion in it.
But Rick had known him long enough, spoken to him enough times to know that Leander was upset. At him? For not making an effort to see him sooner? It had only been twenty-four hours!
"Uh, yeah. Sorry," Rick said. "I, uh had some stuff I had to get off my chest and I wanted to get that straightened out first."
Mauve Dictionary sighed and hoisted his giant book up under his arm. "That's a feeble excuse Rick. Even for you."
Rick let out a laugh. He'd missed the kid's bluntness.
"So, what was the problem?" Leander asked. "It has to do with the new girl Jayne, right? She was rather cryptic in her email about an hour ago. She said you might be upset, so I assume it has to do with our protection detail?"
Rick told him the entire story. Not just about the fight itself, but about his own fears and worries. Also, he talked about his worries about Brain Burst itself; its ability to erase memories or perhaps tamper with the mind on its own.
"I've never liked that last part," he concluded. "I mean, it creeped the hell out of me when I was told how my avatar was made, but this," he motioned to the light purple avatar in front of him, "this takes the cake."
"This?" Mauve Dictionary asked.
Rick shook his head sadly. "Do you want to know how you really got hurt?"
Leander nodded. "I already know. I didn't know it had a name, but same called it the Incarnate System. I'd been doing it on my own for a while since I figured it out for myself. I just wasn't expecting someone to use it in the middle of the territories, so my guard was down."
"Uh... you figured it out?" He wasn't sure he'd heard that right.
"Of course. It makes sense, doesn't it? All videogames, even from back in the beginning, had special cheat codes, for those in the know to figure out. It stands to reason that Brain Burst would too, don't you think? It was just a matter of figuring out how to activate it. No controller or hand-held device and the only other option is your mind. But I have to say, using imagination and willpower to activate it is brilliant. I'd really like to meet the creator of this game."
Rick smirked. "Yeah, just get to level 10."
"I have an Incarnate Defense, using my book," he continued, "So I guess I'll have to be ready to activate it in the territories from now on."
"Uh, no," Rick butted in. "I don't think you will. And you won't have to worry about terracotta Break anymore either. Pewter Slip used her Judgement Blow on him, removing him from Brain Burst for violating an agreement the Governors came to a few years ago. She put all of his points on a special card. "He pulled out the card Emerald Buckler had given him the night before.
"I figure, the card's yours, since you were the one hurt."
"Pewter Slip gave us the card as an apology?"
Rick shrugged. "Technically. You want? It'll shoot you up to level 4 really quick."
Leander was silent for a minute. "I think it should be split evenly between the Legion. I doubt I'm the only one who's been suffering because of this attack."
"But -"
"Stop," the boy interrupted. "Just stop. You always do that. You overthink everything. That's where this irrational fear of Brain Burst comes from. Just stop overthinking everything and you'll relax. It's that simple."
"YOU'RE telling me this?"
"I overanalyze," he replied. "There's a subtle difference."
Rick chuckled at that.
"Really, at the end of the day, it comes down to this; do you like dueling?"
A beat, then Rick nodded. "Yes."
"And do you enjoy the ability to accelerate?"
"Yes," he whispered.
"How about the Legion? Do you like spending time in the Accelerated World with your friends?"
This time, Rick didn't even speak; he only nodded.
"Then just play the game," Leander said calmly. "You forget that neurolinkers, by their very nature, are dangerous tools. They link directly to your brainwaves using a quantum uplink. Anybody could hack into your 'linker and see what you see and what hear what you hear. They could upload viruses that change your digital overlay, or release all of your emails to a public forum, or any other of a million different things.
"You know the risk, but you still use the technology anyway. Neurolinkers are still new technology to mainstream society, remember. Nobody's quite sure what any of the long-term effects might be. I don't hear you complaining about any of that.
"But more importantly, if learning about the Incarnate System has taught me anything, it's that Brain Burst isn't a game you play with your mind, despite the name. Being a true Burst Linker comes from your heart and soul."
That surprised Rick more than anything he'd thus far, Leander using words like "heart" and "soul."
"Brain Burst isn't about fighting and it isn't about accelerating," Leander continued. "It's about the other Burst Linkers. Think about who you've met in your two months of playing this and ask yourself if playing the game might be worth a little risk."
Rick grinned wide, not the Leander would be able to see it through his helmet. "You really are a genius."
"True."
"And I should probably meet your parents, just in case something like this happens again," Rick added.
"Also true."
Rick approached the M-type, child-sized avatar and patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks, kid. I needed that."
"You also need to get over yourself," Leander said.
"How's that?"
"Bluebell Bonnet didn't lose because you couldn't protect her." he explained. "She lost because she tried to fight a level 7 by herself, instead of waiting for you to arrive and giver her backup. Sam told her on Saturday not to take stupid risks, but he did it anyway. That doesn't mean she deserved what happened to her," he said quickly as Rick was about to interject, "but you can't shoulder all that responsibility by yourself, That's not your job. Your job is to get back up and try again. Take one step, then take another."
For some reason, that really struck a chord with Rick. He held his hand out, still grinning under his helmet. Leander tucked his dictionary under his arm and took the outstretched hand into his, shaking it firmly.
"I'm glad I found you, bro," Rick said.
"Same," the boy replied. "When you meet with everybody tomorrow, be sure to distribute those points evenly with everyone. And make sure you save some for me."
Rick blinked. "Tomorrow? Since when are we meeting tomorrow?"
"It's Sam. You honestly think she'll have a private meeting with another Governor and not have a meeting with the Conclave the next day?"
That was a very good point.
"So, that's what you really want to do with the card?" Rick asked, returning to the question at hand. "I mean, this many points, you may get to level 5 in a duel or two." Not that he actually knew how many burst points were even on the card.
Leander shook his head. "Those points belong to the Legion."
Rick nodded. They spent the next ten minutes of duel making small talk until the timer ran out, declaring a draw.
"Be good," Rick told him as the stage began to fade out. "We'll throw a party for you when you get out!"
Leander nodded but said nothing as the stage turned black.
Rick walked from the hospital back home and took a much-needed shower. That night, he had the best night of sleep he'd had in a good while.