Chapter. 36

It was the middle of lunch break as Vincent and his friends sat around on the school rooftop. Rebecca stretched her arms up as she looked around her. "So what's everyone's plans for the thanksgiving break?"

Corina was the first to answer. "Lyle and his mom are coming over to spend it with my parents."

"That sounds sweet. What about you Levi."

Levi shifted in her seat. "What are you planning to do?"

"I... I'll have to see if my parents will be home for it."

Vincent lightly patted Rebecca's leg. "If they won't be there then you can come over and spend it with me and my family."

"Thank you V. I'll speak to them tonight and see what they say."

Rebecca brushed her hair aside to take a bite of her lunch. Levi watched Rebecca do it again. "Rebecca if you're hair keeps getting in the way you should cut it, or brush it a side."

Corina nods in agreement. "She's right. You have such pretty eyes too."

"Thank you." Rebecca lowered her head so her hair could cover her face more.

A notice appeared in front of everyone. Brain burst started up with a progress bar under it starting to fill.

"What is this?" Asked Vincent.

"It's an update for brain burst." Said Levi. "That's rare, the last one was over two years ago for version seven."

Corina clapped her hands together. "This is going to be good. An update means more stuff to play with!"

"Along with fixes to any issues." Stated Lyle.

The bar filled and vanished, in it's place was another massage. 'Version 8: Rushed Ruin is now installed.'. Everyone scrolled through the update notes.

"So better connection, new enemy types in the unlimited field, new fields to fight in, and enhanced armament mods?" Asked Vincent.

"That sounds like fun, we'll need to hit a shop after school."

"What shop?" Asked Rebecca.

Levi spoke to explain. "Shops are in the unlimited field and you can spend your points to get new armaments. Though they cost a lot so be sure you know what you're getting."

"I've never been to the unlimited field."

"Well yeah. You're under leveled, did Vincent never take you?"

Rebecca turned to Vincent. "You know the pain you feel after a fight? Double that when you come out of the field."

"That's why you need to be level four to get in on your own, you should be used to it by then. Still you can get in if you're connected to someone and they can get you in."

"That sounds interesting."

Levi brought her hands together. "Alright. After school we can all go to my place and link in to the unlimited field there. Also I got some info for Corina and Lyle on the emerald leader."

Okay." Said Corina. Lyle simply nods.

The bell rang to signal that the lunch break was over. Everyone packed up their belongings then went down stairs, all returning to their classes. Lyle and Vincent waved goodbye to the girls as they entered their classroom.

Vincent sat at his desk and opened a folder to find a picture of Rebecca gently brushing her hair aside to reveal her hemochromic eyes. "Maybe I should get her a hairband."

"You look happy." Vincent's mood soured as Catherine stood by his deck. "So... How are things with you and what's her face?" Vincent didn't answer. "You know I hate to be ignored Vinny." Vincent opened more program for his schoolwork. "That girl is bad for you, she's trying to change who you are. I would never do that and take you for how you are." Vincent still didn't answer. "Fine." Catherine turned to her own desk.

...

School was over for the day and the group left to find their vehicles to follow Levi to her home. A two story house atop a garage next to a stair case leading to the house itself. Levi snapped her fingers and the garage door opened, letting her park inside. When the door closed Lyle parked his truck in front of the door with Vincent's bike stopping next to it.

The four left their vehicles then climbed stairs as Levi opened the door.

"This is you're house?" Asked Rebecca.

"It's nothing really. My family own a global shipping company, I wouldn't say rich but well off." Levi lead everyone to the living room. "You all get comfortable I'll be back."

Once Levi was gone everyone took stock of the room. The furniture was well made and each piece was a red, the rug was clean tan color. A large fire place rested on one side of the room. Rebecca walked over to a van with fake green roses by a large window.

"You like roses?" Asked Corina.

"They remind me of my avatar."

"Did I ever tell you that you're avatar is beautiful?"

"No it isn't."

"Why's that?"

"Anyone notice that there's no picture frames on the walls?" Asked Vincent. Everyone looked around to see there weren't any. "You'd think there's be something in a room where you have people hangout in."

The door swung open and Levi returned with a bag over her shoulder and a tray carrying a pitcher water and a glass for everyone. "Drink up if you're thirsty, if not then lets get going." Levi handed a slip of paper to Lyle and Corina. Levi fell onto the sofa then opened her bag to pull out several three foot long cords. "To the unlimited field, my treat." Levi took two of the cords and connected them to her linker.

Corina connected one of the cords to her linker then took another to connect with Lyle. Vincent also took a cord to connect himself with Rebecca then picked up the other cord from Levi, putting it into his own to complete the set up.

"Let's go. Unlimited burst!"

The world shattered around the group, as they changed into their duel avatar forms the room there were in was destroyed with a large purple flower growing against the only remaining wall, giant purple roots grew out of the flower. Everyone walked out the ruins to see the in ruins with more purple flowers growing in the building with roots connecting them. All under a clouded night sky.

"This is creepy." Stated Levi.

"It's so beautiful." Said Rebecca.

"No point staying here." Corina took a few steps forward. "Well come on then, I want to see those flowers up close!"

Levi shrugged as she and Lyle went to join Corina, Rebecca quickly followed. Vincent glanced back at the large flower then joined his friend.

"Now... It should be here, somewhere?" Levi walked down the street, looking inside each of the ruins for their goal. She stopped in front of a large hole in the side of a three story building blocked by a large purple root. "Vincent, cut this out of the way."

"Got it." Vincent started shooting the root to build up his special meter then drew his sword. "Royal cut!" Vincent slashed at to root twice to cut out a section of it. "Lyle?" Lyle grabbed the freshly cut root and rolled it out of the way. With the path cleared they spotted a big metal cylinder, as they got closer it opened up and a holographic menu appeared.

Levi stood in front the menu. "This is interesting." Levi scrolled through the menu as she looked over the options.

"This is gonna take a bit." Vincent walked away from the group and saw a flower growing at street level. As he got closer to it Vincent began to hear a chiming sound. "It's so... peaceful." Vincent started his recorder to capture the flowers sounds. Vincent reached out and touched one of the flower's petals, it felt soft yet strong.

"V?" Rebecca jumped to Vincent's side.

"Listen, and feel this." Vincent took Rebecca's and placed it on the same petal. "What do you think?"

"It's... wonderful."

As Vincent and Rebecca listened to the flower Corina and Lyle watched as they waited for Levi. "What do you think?" Asked Corina.

"I was censored when I first met him, the way he hurt Catherine. Seeing him with Rebecca." Lyle rested his hand on Corina's hand. "He was just rogue looking for something to fight for."

Corina held onto Lyle's hand. "We all are."

"Okay that should do it." Levi stepped back from the cylinder and turned away.

"So what did you get?" Asked Corina.

Levi held out her staff that broke into three parts, each connected by small metal rings. "My staff can now becomes a three-section staff."

"That's so cool! Do you know how to use it like that?"

"I'll figure it out. So who's next?"

Lyle ducked into the building and opened the shop. He took a few minutes to look then bought a mod for his shield. "So what did you get?" To answer Corina Lyle came back out into the open then swung his arm to hurl his shield down the street, the shield traveled down a block the went up and came back to Lyle, returning to his arm.

Corina ran to the shop and frantically searched for mods to buy. After a minute closed the shop then ran outside.

"So what did you get?" Asked Levi.

Corina pointed to a large piece of stone. "Lyle can you throw that up?"

"Sure." Lyle picked up the stone and tossed it a few feet into the air.

Corina held out her hands and fired laser bolts at the stone, burning it as it fell to the ground. "Okay can you do it again?" Corina waved her finger around as she changed her settings. Lyle repeated to act and Corina fired lasers again. This time each shot knocked the stone back to fall further away. "Impact mod. Now my lasers have some stopping power!"

Levi turned to Vincent and Rebecca. "Hey lovebirds! Come get your mods!"

The two turned away from the flower and ran to the shop. Vincent held his hand out to the shop to let Rebecca go first. Rebecca bought her mod then join the other, she drew her knife which glowed with an amber light. "I got a heat mod for my knife and gun. Now they do more damage to metal avatars."

Lyle nods. "A wise investment."

Vincent clapped his hands together then came out to join the others. "Okay I-"

The world around them was swallowed in darkness, causing Rebecca to panic. "What's happening?!"

"A new field is being formed. All the dead enemies will reappear, we might have to fight our way back." Explained Levi. The world shifted in a massive graveyard under black sky, the building changed into giant tombstones.

"Let's get out of here." Said Corina.

"Amen." Answered Vincent.

Levi looked around then nodded. "Dito." Everyone ran for the exit point when they all heard a loud screech. "That hurt."

"Up there." Vincent pointed to the sky, perched on top of the giant tombstones gargoyles took to the air and came down towards the group. Corina held up her hand and shot laser bolts at the beasts, hitting one of them, as it came plummeting to the ground Lyle hurled his shield and sliced it in half.

Vincent drew his sword and waited for one to come to him. Once it was close Vincent sidestepped the monster and slashed the top half of its wings off then plunged his blade into its head.

"Prism shift red!" Rebecca's body changed form. As her minigun and laser cannon warmed up she locked on to four of the gargoyles and launched missiles at them.

"Blaster, scatter!" Vincent's blaster beeped as another gargoyle came flying at him. He held up his right arm and fired several bolts of light at the gargoyle, stopping its movement while burning through its body.

"I see you also got the impact mod." Commented Corina.

Vincent shrugged in response. "You can't beat a good old shotgun."

The ground around them cracked as humanoid enemies broke out and climbed up. "Oh my God! They're in the ground!" Levi swung her staff and knocked the head off of one of the enemies. "No! No! This isn't happening!" Levi tripped another enemy with her staff the stabbed it in the neck with spike on the end of her weapon. "This is completely unacceptable!" Levi raised her staff and bashed an enemy's head in until it split in half. "Go back, start over, and don't return to me until you have something better!"

Rebecca and Vincent watched in awe. "She must really hate zombies."

"At least there's things we can kill on our own now." Vincent sliced an enemy's head off then shot another one with his blaster.

Attracted by the noise a hulking enemy came lumber around a tombstone. The monster was pale white, it stepped with its left foot the dragged it right. It's right arm hung at it's side while its left arm was twice as big and carried a greatsword over its shoulder.

"This'll be good." Lyle rotated his shield arm. The enemy limped towards the group, Lyle stood in its way and the monster swung its greatsword o him who blocked with his shield.

Corina raised her hands and fired laser bolts at the monsters hand, causing it to let go of its weapon. Lyle's shield shape shifted into a battle ax, he held the the weapon back then swung to chop into the beast's arm. Lyle slid the ax out to leave a open wound and Corina used her pigtail energy swords to cut even further into it. The monster punched at Lyle who stepped aside and let it fall into the dirt. The enemy used its left hand to push itself up when it arm snapped and it fell. In doing so the enemy swung its limp arm, striking Rebecca and Levi, sending them into one of the large tombstones.

"Reby!" Vincent right started to violently shake. "Cleanse!" Vincent held out his right arm and fired a enormous beam at the enemy, incinerating its head. After the attack Vincent fell to his knees, dropping his sword with a hand on the side of his head and the other on his chest.

With the enemy dead Corina and Lyle rushed to the rubble to dig Rebecca and Levi out. "How bad is it?" Corina took Levi's hand and pulled her up.

"I'll be fine. After we get out and after I feel the pain again."

Lyle lifted Rebecca up who saw Vincent in pain then ran to his side. "V!"

"Are you hurt?"

"A fifth of a health bar. What about you?"

"I'm fine, just a headache and chest pains. Nothing out of the normal in this world."

Levi watched Rebecca help Vincent to his feet then turned to Lyle. "What happened to him?"

"He used his special to kill the enemy."

Levi spun back to Vincent. "Special or incarnate."

! #$%^&*()_+}"?:{{+_)(*&^%$# !

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