Something is better than nothing, as I'm often told. I'm still working on the chapter but here's the first part of it.
Chapter 23: The Enemy of My Enemy
“If Aekea wasn’t creepy enough the road to their toy store definitely is.” Jeremy was commenting for the seventh time as they walked uphill. The road was lined by empty apartments and damaged but still functional robots for collecting the trash. They crawled along the sidewalks with paper scraps still clutched in their mechanical claws.
“We heard you the first six times Jeremy.” Henry called back. He was a bit ahead of the group scouting the road ahead for any dangers. He kicked a tin can that had been left in the road to the side as he stared up at the vacant windows. Everyone had been so melancholy since the transmitter broke. He had hopes at least some of the letters home had managed to finish sending. “Looks like we have another quarter mile to go until we’re to the front doors.”
“Michael, given how long the signal lasted before it began to destabilize, do you think our letters got home?” Kerri asked as she trotted up next to Mikey. He had been keeping his distance from the rest of the group after coming back through the portal, and Kerri was trying to get him to talk again.
“If I had to estimate, I’d say at least six of the messages home made it.” He said brashly as he kept walking. He’d been silently assessing his situation since the underworld. His own looming mortality weighed heavily on him as he wondered whether or not they could even succeed. He felt that his letter hadn’t made it in the transmission and he was frightened his legacy would be just an online echo.
“What happened on the other side? You haven’t been the same since you came back from Earth-side.” Penelope boxed him in on the other side. His quiet brooding had become noticeable since they left downtown Aekea. “Was it the sensation of being transmitted to and from? Was it some kind of brush with death? What was that lizard creature you fell back through with? She thought by asking a lot of questions she might get Mikey to at least answer something.
“That lizard was The Phantom’s true form.” KJ chimed in, she could tell from the look on his face that Mikey was deep in thought; the kind of thoughts that should not be disturbed until they’ve reached a conclusion. “You guys know that The Phantom used to be an Anari, right? Well, that lizard is a bulked up version of what he used to be as an Anari. It’s based off Nullsaurs, which are an evil you thankfully haven’t had to combat yet. Vicious little buggers with their claws and whip-like tails.” Mikey shot her a smile that she took as meaning a thank you.
John who’d been between the rest of the group and Henry decided to talk about something he’d been thinking of since Aekea. “We implemented the interfaces on a relay system. We designed the system to work on a basis that the server relayed information directly to the interface, then the interface relays it on to the brain; two legs in the relay. But that portal in the sky acted as another relay leg. The system wasn’t designed to handle that without either seriously glitching up or ejecting the player for safety reasons. That’s why I tried to stop you from going through. But thing is, if it had had either effect, you wouldn’t be here, and clear as day you’re standing with me. It’s been bugging me about the how. I know your brain is different and while that has given you a significant edge, the fact it could handle that is a miracle.”
“Maybe some strange influence of The Phantom on the way things code?” KJ suggested as Mikey stopped and looked down at the ground. She could tell John’s words were part of something he was thinking about.
“I’m not certain I’m following the same relay conditions.” He said dryly as he started again, “I’ve been wondering ever since I rejoined you in Phazian Wastes the first time why I experienced things differently. I’ve reached two conclusions and I don’t like either of them. And they complicate things later if we succeed.” He said briskly as he caught up to Henry.
“Care to elaborate, or is that all we’re getting about your enigmatic brooding?” Jeremy stared a Mikey like he was ready for a fight.
Mikey took a deep breath and sighed as he shrugged his shoulders, “It’s no small secret any more about who my family is. I am Michael Berth Jr. Son of the inventor of the Brainlink Controller. What you don’t know is, he tested his prototype on me and my sister when we were both kids. It left me with some significant damage and a chemical dependence on using the controller. It’s that damage that’s allowed me to interact with the zOMG world the way I have, with being able to create different powers, copying abilities, keep up with The Phantom’s strength. But at the same time I’m also on a clock, so to speak. According to my last visit to a neurologist, I should be dead before next Friday. He didn’t specify whether it’d be physical death or brain death, either way if that happens while I’m here well, one of two options. Either it’s already happened and I’m just a phantom left behind, which would mean there was no relays involved with me venturing to Earth, or that venture to Earth causes it because of a cascading program glitch that has yet to catch up to me. And that’s why both possibilities scare me.” He quietly began walking again as everyone stared at him silently. Nobody quite knew what to say to a dead man walking.
They were walking a few minutes in silence before Henry finally spoke again, “You said you’re chemically dependent on the interface. That means there’s a possibility of being able to medically treat you right?” He asked cautiously.
“At some point doctors tried giving me a cocktail of those chemicals to see what it would do. I became a mess like a meth addict. So unless there’s a way to counter those effects, maybe there is I don’t know, I’m stuck.” Mikey replied. As he silently walked on, nobody thought about pursuing the matter further. John was thinking about his recent life as they walked along, his thoughts lingered on his family and recent events.
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“Come on dad, I want to play catch. I need to practice for a game this weekend. You’ll be there right?” His son ran down the hallway of their home to the back door.
“Alright, just give me a moment to finish up this design.” John stared blankly at the computer. He was looking over designs for new animated creatures that were concepts for an upcoming project. He’d received an email about seeing if he would be interested in working on the zOMG Project again. With the email he was sent some sketches of various creatures under consideration for animated.
“You said that an hour ago when I wanted to have a tea party.” His daughter whined about his response. John shrugged his shoulders as he stood up and stretched his arms. He rolled his head before grabbing the baseball and going outside. It was already sunset and the smell of the ocean breeze stung his nose as he tossed the ball back and forth with his son. They tossed the ball back and forth joking with one another about various things. Before Mrs. Kim approached the back door.
“Come on you two, before dinner gets cold.” She smiled as she beckoned them both to come back inside. John, his son and daughter, and wife all sat around the table; they’d been lucky and had twins. They passed around the various dishes with food, which had spent the last few hours in a crockpot, until everyone had a small mound on theirs plates. “So what were you two boys talking about outside?” Mrs. Kim asked.
“Well we were talking about a new job I was offered.” John bit into a roll he was holding and chewed it a few times.
“Technically, it’s your old job.” His son laughed as he scooped up some peas and potatoes.
“Mind telling me dear?” She looked at John across the table.
“Working on the zOMG! Project again. Apparently, someone higher up in Gaia’s management thought it was worth another look. They want a complete rebuild of chapter one to fit a new controller going through prototyping right now, and some test productions for a chapter two. They want to get the original zOMG! staff back together to make sure everything flows together.” John replied as knives and forks clanged against the plates.
“Dad what’s zOMG?” His daughter asked as she looked at him.
“It’s a game your dad did some art and design work for. He was one of the last few people working on the project before it was shelved for so long.” His wife replied.
“Oh. Can I play it?” His daughter asked in reply.
“Depends on if your mother is okay with her daughter becoming a better player than she is.” John smiled back as his wife shot him a smirk.
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“This doesn’t look good. We’ve got Grunny Tanks and golems broken down and battered to hell on the last stretch ahead. No fighting, but the silence worries me.” Jeremy called back from ahead.
“Either the golems were kamikazes or there’s some third party we’re not seeing from this debris field.” Henry was flipping over some of the twisted metal wreckage there was.
“We’ve already seen some strange behaviors from them, what if the golems possessed some kind of self-destruct coding?” Kerri and the others caught up to Jeremy and Henry and were in awe of the wreckage they saw.
“How many golems have we seen explode when it would be advantageous?” KJ picked a few plasma rifles from the arms of broken golems to look at them. “Besides, most of their weapons still read as fully charged.” She tossed one to Mikey to examine.
He looked the plasma rifle over while examining scorch marks of part of a Grunny Tank, he pointed the rifle at an untouched part of the tank and fired off a few rounds. “These scorch marks weren’t made by the golems’ plasma weapons.” He pointed to some of the charred metal. “Maybe an explosive or high energy beam weapon.” He looked at the plasma weapon he held before tossing it away.
“Found a Grunny Tank with its onboard computer still intact!” John called out. Mikey and the others joined him around the blinking computer. “Think it’ll interface with that tablet the Aekeans gave us?” He added.
“One way to find out.” Jeremy pulled out a tablet computer that was silver in color. He pulled on one of the cables and checked the computer in the tank to see if it would fit. “Adapter looks like it will fit.” He said as he plugged in.
“If it’s available check the last recording.” Mikey said as Jeremy navigated a series of menus. He pressed on a blinking file and the tablet loaded a video in another window. They watched and listened to the rabble of chatter that was the grunnies communicating with each other over the radio systems they had as they moved up the hill. The video continued to play as the grunnies stopped at the top of the hill to meet a line of golems. There was static for several seconds, during which explosions and gunfire could be heard. The static was still a bit of a haze as some of the image cleared up, revealing a horrific sight. Grunny Tanks and golems were working together against some kind of explosive action figure looking enemies and enemies firing small plastic pellets that exploded on contact.
“Turn it off.” Henry said.
“Why?” Jeremy asked.
“Just, I suddenly feel uncomfortable like we’re being watched.” He said. The video continued playing as Grunny Tank mounted camera was knocked off by an explosion. One of the action figures picked up the camera to turn it around to show the carnage before smiling creepily. It gingerly set the camera down so that it could focus on the figure burying itself in the ground. In the video several of the figures could be seen also burying themselves.
“Jeremy, pack it up. We’re about to get very busy.” Mikey said as he saw several mounds rising from the ground.
“What do we do?” Penelope asked.
“Sprint for the door, shoot anything in the way.” Mikey replied.
“But.” Henry began.
“They’re made of pure explosive and shoot explosives, do you really want to try fighting that?” Mikey replied. After a second Henry nodded. “Now!” Mikey called as they took off for the door. As they made for the door they were greeted by several of the creepy smiling action figures. As they’d pass close to one the head on the figure would enlarge and contract like a beating heart before exploding. Mikey was the first to reach the door and he held the surprisingly heavy glass and metal open as he motioned the others in. Penelope was still lagging behind from her sprained ankle, “Henry, don’t open the door until I tell you.” Mikey slammed the door shut and took off back towards Penelope. A group of the action figures had surrounded her and were about to explode. “Get down!” Mikey shouted as a blue shield took form around Penelope.
“Mikey!” She watched as explosion after explosion rocked the bubble shield she was in. The bubble dissipated after the last of the action figures near her exploded. She stood up and limped her way over to Mikey. The two of them moved towards the door with smaller blue shields flickering here and there as nearby action figures would explode. Mikey tapped the door three times. Henry quickly opened it wide enough to let them in and closed it as soon as they were inside. Mikey leaned against the door and pressed both his hands to it as it began to glow blue. It shuddered several times as they could hear explosions on the other side. After the last one rocked the door Mikey collapsed to the ground, twin streams of blood ran down from his nose and onto his shirt as he lay twitching on the ground.
“Michael?” Kerri knelt down next to him and put a hand on his chest until he stopped twitching.
“It looks like it might be taking more effort for him to use those abilities.” John said.
“Obviously, but why?” Henry looked him over to make sure he’d stopped bleeding before they tried to wake him up.
“It could be a side effect of what he was talking about earlier with his brain failing. Maybe it’s having trouble holding itself together so additional strains just drain him.” Jeremy put a hand on Mikey’s shoulder as he came around. “You okay? Thought you we lost you for a bit. You okay?” Jeremy and Kerri both looked Mikey over before helping him to his feet.
Mikey looked around a moment before speaking, “I saw a chamber with a strange pillar of sparking energy in it. I also saw us fighting The Phantom there.” He took a few deep breaths before starting again, “It’s getting harder for me to focus on things, which in turn is making it harder for me to trigger ring imitations. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to continue.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re a team, and that means looking out for each other. At least we know why we couldn’t reach Labtech X or any Grunny Tanks now.” Henry looked around the empty checkout counters at the toy store they were in. “So why would minions of one of his generals turn against his main army?” Henry finally said as they approached one of the counters.
“You think The Phantom is losing control of his own forces?” Jeremy asked as he looked at some of the empty shelves.
“No he’s starting a ballet company. Of course he’s losing control. We’ve upset the balance of power, makes sense some of his minions would question how well thought out his plan is if he can’t manage a few interlopers. But why now? Malevobear is the last general before Kamila, and he’s holding hostage a council of this world’s citizens that were about to unite against The Phantom.” KJ retorted.
“If he really wanted to turn on The Phantom he’d join the council.” Kerri tried turning one of the registers on to no effect.
“Kimberly, was Wayne Pennyworth part of the council?” Mikey asked.
“Kimberly? So you did pick a name! I’m so proud of you.” Penelope chattered.
KJ raised an eyebrow, “Uhh yeah. And yes, he was at the council meeting. Why?”
“He was the original intended villain of chapter two, most of The Phantom’s generals were originally experiments of Wayne’s. Just a hunch.” Mikey said as he approached the shelves.
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“John.” A voice called from the darkness, “John, wake up. You’re going to be late for your first day back at Gaia.” His alarm clock was going off as his wife stood at the end of the bed. He rolled over and looked at the time on the display, and opened his eyes wide as he jumped out of bed.
He hurriedly showered and brushed his teeth as dragged a razor over his stubble. He quickly dressed himself and filled a travel mug with coffee before kissing his children on the head. They watched curiously as they ate their cereal until they heard his car leave the driveway. His son was the first to crack up, then his daughter and finally his wife began laughing. “Good prank mom, setting his clock an hour fast.” His son said.
“Let that be a warning to you kids. Don’t mess with mommy.” She sipped her mug of coffee smugly.
Meanwhile on the road, John was banging his head against the steering wheel as he found himself stuck in traffic on the highway into town. He turned up the radio to drown out the sound of incessant horn honking. The station he’d picked was full of advertisements so he began adjusting the dial to find a station that was actually playing music. After about twenty minutes of constantly changing the station he was forced to leave it on the morning radio talk show because the traffic had started moving at a good pace. “Finally. Maybe I’ll make it just in time then.” He muttered to himself as he drove on. After another forty minutes of the stop and go and babbling about farm product prices he was finally pulling onto the street for Gaia HQ when he heard an interesting ad.
“Do you play games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, or MapleStory? If you answered yes to any of these we’ve got a game for you to try. Go online to gaiaonline.com, go to our game selection and give zOMG! a try. We dare you. Like what you’ve played? Well new content is currently being developed. zOMG! try it today.” The advertisement went.
John chuckled a moment, “If that’s the best ad and placement they came up with it’s no wonder the game didn’t perform to expectations. Some of the players around the forums could make better ads and place them better than that.” He shook his head as he pulled into the parking garage. He could see Bret and Ryan talking next to their cars as he jumped out of his.
“Someone’s early for day one back on the job.” Bret joked.
“Early? My clock says it’s almost a quarter till ten.” John looked at his watch in horror.
“Ah yes, your wife called while you were on the road and told us about how you adjusted her browser to Rick Roll her every two hours. She said she got you back by moving all your clocks an hour and a half forward.” Ryan took a drink from his mug after telling John.
“So we’re really getting the team back together to work on zOMG again?” Bret asked.
“Someone higher up thought it was a move the company could afford now, and they wanted people who knew the material and were passionate about it working on it.” Ryan said he smiled a moment before adding, “Told you all I’d be the one they couldn’t get rid of.”
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“John wake up.”
“John wake up please.” Penelope was shaking John back to consciousness as a jet of water flew overhead.
“What happened?” He was groggy in getting up. The world around him felt like it was spinning.
“We wandered into the appliance section and you took a Washmor’s hydrojet to the chest.” Penelope helped him to his feet.
“I don’t get it Kimberly, you said the Maytagues were on your side.” Kerri jumped out of the way of a Drymor’s flamejet as it scorched the ground. The dryer animated rumbled as it took a few shuddering steps.
“They were. I have no idea what could be happening now.” KJ looked a split second at the approaching animated, “Look out!” She pushed Henry to the ground as a lamp animated almost hit him with a beam of light.
Mikey was struggling against the ice a refrigerator animated had buried his feet in. He bobbed side to side to avoid its barrage of ice spears before launching a beam of light at it. “Probably the same thing that happened to those Exploaction Figures outside. We’ve caused such chaos, people have no idea who to side with now.” As the Refridgator collapsed the ice around Mikey’s feet cracked enough he could free himself.
“We need to get through here. That council is counting on us.” Jeremy knocked over an animated that was a combination TV and DVD player as it fired several metal discs. The appliances were in retreat as the crew continued to push on. When at last they found themselves through the appliance section of the store and into the construction toys they breathed a sigh of relief.
“Alright, five minutes then we press on.” Mikey said as everyone began brushing assorted parts and pieces from their clothing. Mikey’s head moved back and forth as he scanned the construction section for anything approaching. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. There had been a humming in his left ear since he returned from Earth with occasional crackling, he clutched his ear as he thought he heard whispers amongst the humming. “Kimberly, do you think you could program the tablet to transmit a signal to somewhere.” He asked as he coughed a bit. He looked at his hand and then wiped off the red speckles from it onto his pants.
“To anywhere within the server, it is possible it could transmit. But the tablet doesn’t have enough power to transmit to Earth at all. Why?” She looked at Mikey as he continued to stare down the section.
“Just a feeling, like we might need it soon.” He finally saw something in one of the aisles: A small RC car with a camera mounted to it. He took careful aim for a few seconds before blasting off one of its wheels. He quietly retrieved the car and brought it back before anyone noticed what was going on. He dropped it on one of the empty shelves they were leaning against.
“What is that?” Henry looked at all the spikes on the car.
“It’s been watching us. How long, I don’t know.” He pried the camera from the cradle it sat in. He was examining the camera when Jeremy spoke.
“KJ where is the stockroom? I have a feeling that’s our target destination.” He asked as he stood back up.
“At the back of the store. We’ve still got to get through the construction toys, action figures, and electronics, still a ways out.” She gathered up as they began walking through the construction toys section. Several boxes were shredded on the shelf and several loose pieces on the ground were cracked or broken. There were scorch marks and water puddles in several places around where they found damaged toy pieces.
“Look.” Kerri bent down and picked up memory card from the ground. Jeremy reached for the tablet and began pressing a few things on the screen before handing it to Kerri. She plugged the memory card into the tablet and a video began playing.
The scared face of Jonjon stared back up from the tablet’s screen, “Mayday, mayday. Our attempt to escape in the confusion of a civil war here is failing. The battle has been between Phantom loyalists and servants of a turncoat that was among us in the council. Wayne Pennyworth is not to be trusted. He’s got something. It’s turning some of the animated to his side, including Malevobear. Phantom loyalists have been surprisingly helpful in our escape attempt. But we’re surrounded making a last stand here. Oh god.” He looked away as several flame jets and electric bolts zoomed past. “Oh god, they’re coming. If anyone finds this…” He was cut off as a large metallic black claw grabbed him and smashed his recording device.
Everyone was silent as they looked at one another nervously. The camera Mikey was holding began to chirp, “Greetings humans, no I’m not an animated camera, but I am an animated in the store. We have a common enemy. We’ll meet you in the action figures section. Good luck.” A garbled voice chirped.
“So we’re going to ally ourselves with Phantom loyalists? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.” John commented.
“If we’re taking a vote, I’m with John on this one. We’ve been fighting these guys all this time, now we’re working with them. I don’t like it.” Penelope shrugged.
Mikey crushed the camera in his hand before he finally spoke, “I don’t like it any better than you do. But if we’re going to rescue that council we need a way to get at Malevobear. If the loyalists can keep Malevobear’s minions off us. Then let them take the damages and we’ll mop them up after we’ve taken care of the bear and Pennyworth.” Mikey replied.
The march to the action figure section was a somber one as they gingerly stepped around the broken remains of Constructor animated. If any of them dared speak it was in a whisper. Mikey and KJ were walking a few paces behind the rest of the group as they kept whispering to each other in hurried tones, “You want me to be ready to broadcast a signal to where? Have you lost it?’ She looked at him startled by what he’d just asked her about doing should the situation arise.
“You heard me correctly. I have a sinking feeling about it, but I want to be prepared for any possible contingency we may need squaring off against Pennyworth and Malevobear. And that broadcast, as much as I hate saying, could be a very real contingency plan.” He replied in a bitter tone.
“I could do it, if I was somewhere the PDA could get a signal to use for the broadcast, which means being outside of this toy store. I hope you’re wrong about needing it, but in likelihood that you aren’t I’ll work on it.” KJ replied flatly. Her tone softened to a more gentle tone before she continued, “How’s holding yourself together?” Mikey shot her a sour questioning look like she’d figured out something secret, “You can hide it from them because they don’t understand about being pure thought in this world. You’ve got the look I’ve seen in many animated and NPC’s when their programming becomes unstable.”
Mikey looked away a moment to ensure none of the others were trying to listen to their conversation before replying in a whisper KJ could barely hear, “How long have you known?”
“Since Kerri told me about what happened in the Underworld and Halloweentown” She leaned closer, “I’ve seen how you fight now versus before. You’re more held back, more reserved, like a majority of your focus is on something else.” She pulled back and dropped her tone again, “Tell me, what was your letter home about? Was it a good bye note to the world?”
Mikey pulled away from KJ in agitation, “My letter home probably didn’t make it, so what does it matter?” He looked down at his balled up fists.
“No need to get so emotional. You aren’t the only one here with an expiration date.” KJ responded tersely.
“I’ve given yours and the other’s problem with the size of The Void some thought. Your current programming keeps everything you experience in active uncompressed memory, right?” KJ nodded at Mikey’s simplification, “What if we could restructure your programming to compress and store away inactive processes and memories in such a way they can be uncompressed and recompressed as necessary?”
“And how would you do that?” KJ looked at him shocked at the conversation shift.
“By basing the restructuring on a machine that already does that.” He pointed to his head, “The human brain stores a remarkable size of information. Mostly, by filing it away from the active mind unless called upon, then it decompresses the needed memory from storage, gleans useful information needed in active thought, and then recompresses it to store.”
“I don’t see how that gets around the issue of size, but it’s a start.” KJ responded.
Kerri and Penelope were talking to each other about a dozen paces ahead of Mikey and KJ. They couldn’t hear what the two were whispering about but they could see the reactions. “You sure you’re okay with your boyfriend talking so intimately with her?” Penelope whispered.
“He’s not my boyfriend, not officially yet. But it’s not like he’s going to chase after another woman simulated or not.” Kerri replied coolly.
“Could have fooled me on the official part. You two really do act like it.” Penelope replied, Kerri only smiled as they continued walking.
“I trust him enough.” Kerri replied.
Ahead of Kerri and Penelope, Jeremy and Henry were walking side beside. After giving him several strange looks Henry finally decided to say something to Jeremy, “So you’re like a mini-Mikey” He asked.
Jeremy chuckled and shook his head thinking of an answer, “Hmm, I may be young and intelligent, but are you like a mini-Schwarzenegger? You got muscles and a slight accent, and a pair of stunner shades.” Jeremy replied.
“I see your point.” Henry shrugged, “But you are the nerdy kind right?”
“Well yeah,” Jeremy said, “I am only 14 and a junior in high school.” He smiled at that.
“So you are a brain. I barely passed high school.” Henry sighed as he responded.
“But I imagine you broke many hearts while being the star of the football team.” Jeremy glanced at Henry, “I have trouble with women; the trouble of always thinking.” He sighed.
“Too many hearts. But I’m trying to do better.” Henry shot back.
“With Penelope?” Jeremy asked.
“Yeah.” Henry paused a moment as he was thinking, “Hey, have you ever thought instead of thinking around a girl all the time, you try just stopping and letting things happen naturally. You know rather than imagine everything and sort through responses, just go with whatever pops up first. It helped me break all those hearts when I was your age.” Henry shrugged.
“I might have to try that.” Jeremy said, “So what do you plan on doing in life?” He asked.
“Computer programming, emphasis on flash and java. You?”
“Game design.”
John walked alone at the head of the group quietly turning a broken piece of a Constructor over and over in his hands. He was lost in his thoughts about everything that had gone on since the misadventure began. He stopped turning the piece as he held it closer to examine it. He remembered modeling the Constructors after Lego technic sets his son would play with, he silently thought to himself until the names of Furno, Surge, and Tahu sprung to his head. Those were simpler days when all he had to do was check the floor for rogue pieces before traversing his house. Then he was called back to work at Gaia again on the zOMG project, and everything changed. He began to lose his time at home as he would work night and day to meet deadlines. The construction of 3D characters for a 3D environment pressed the modeling and rendering of his poor workstation to the limits, but then a day came when they could explore their newly shaped world.
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“So we put these helmets on and we can be fully immersed in the world we’ve spent so long working on making?” John asked as he looked at the controller he’d been handed by Ryan.
“These new controller helmets look bigger than the prototypes they showed us.” Ryan commented as he examined the second helmet he pulled out of the packaging.
“They look more like something Daft Punk would wear than a game controller.” David remarked as he continued to scribble notes down. “But they’re supposedly the future of gaming so the boss wants us trying to make them work.” He continued scrawling his notes as Bret eyed him carefully.
“It probably helps that the company making these things wants to use zOMG as a demo game to prove the concept before approaching the big boys like Blizzard and EA.” Bret looked at the blinking lights on the helmet as he plugged the cable off its back into the USB port on his computer. He opened the manual that came with the helmets to determine what the blinking indicated.
“So what are you writing David?” John looked over at him, “Some sort of secret code you’ll embed to destroy gold and fame hungry players?”
David chuckled as he put down his pen, “I still think gold rewards were a bad idea, but seeing how things around Gaia are now, I don’t blame the players for using the game for that. No, I was thinking, in an immersive environment it would be possible to house a place to make server changes on the fly. Like if say, something needed to be adjusted while the server was running, this could be done in a server control room type place.” He looked at his notes before continuing, “Of course it could be structured so you’d only need a basic knowledge of how to run the server, in case the only person available to make changes had no clue how to code changes. And it’d have to be located somewhere players could never reach. Or I was thinking what if we created an artificial program with enough intelligence to gauge the goings on in the server and have it respond as necessary in the control room. A phantom developer if you will.”
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If only he’d known that his phantom developer would not be happy being just that. John thought to himself. The original program that he later learned had existed since the original chapter one days was codenamed Phantom affected lag and other connection issues to coerce players and developers into making changes to their behavior or the server. David based his Phantom Developer program off of that, and he put those powers into one of the more curious life forms they came across in that world they created. David believed the beings that born of a connection glitch called the Anari were capable of being the guiding intelligence behind the Phantom Developer program. But the program corrupted the first and only Anari they installed its entirety to. As the Anari named Kirk began to go rogue he began to call himself The Phantom, and his first action was to seize the Server Control Room they had been tweaking the server from once all of chapter two’s code was added. Once he controlled that, his infection spread to the other servers running the chapter two tests. John was thinking about all those events as he quietly walked ahead of the others. They had been told part of that story, but they never knew the full story. He wondered how they would react if they did. He imagined each of their reactions if he told them everything: Mikey he could see as being unfazed and still dedicated to their mission. Jeremy he imagined leaving saying something about Gaia making their own mess and having to deal with the fallout now. Kerri would stay and help Mikey to the very end. Penelope would probably demand some greater form of compensation to stay, otherwise leave like Jeremy. Henry was the wildcard, his reaction would depend on whether or not he really did trust Mikey. As for himself, he knew it was Gaia’s mistake and he was on the staff to clean it up. Could they walk away if they wanted? Would The Phantom lift his restriction to logging off if it meant some of his would be foes were leaving? As John looked up from his thoughts he could see they were coming into the action figures section of the toy store. He put the Constructor piece he was turning over into his pocket as he called back to the others.
Even before they were close enough to make out the individual animated they could see there was already a battle raging at the far end of the section. The smoke and trails cast off by the attacks peppered their view. “Alright guys, looks like the meet location is little hot. Let’s clear it out.” Mikey called as he took off toward the fight. Action figures and construction toys were trying to fend off stuffed animals and electronics equipment. Mikey’s fist enlarged to a massive club before he bashed through a television type enemy that was shooting multicolored beams of light. Henry flexed as he cut through a gigantic stuffed panda that was hurling explosive cotton balls everywhere. Out of the corner of his eye Mikey saw Kerri and KJ back to back as they fended off a pair of speakers firing solidified sound waves.
“How do those sound attacks even form a solid visible form?” Jeremy yelled over to John as he flung around a group of small beanie stuffed animals. John was nearby singeing a pair of game controller helmets that were flailing their cables as barbed tentacles.
“Purely effect, no science behind that decision.” He shot back to Jeremy. A jet of flames from Penelope charred the poor teddy bear in front of her as it was turning to flee. In fact the remaining group of stuffed animals and electronics were fleeing deeper into the store.
“We’ve heard stories about your strength, but this is the first time we’ve witnessed it.” A mech warrior action figure said as the crew approached the entrenched location.
“Cut the small talk, you said you could help us.” Mikey said dryly.
“Ah yes, well, I may have exaggerated about that part.” The mech figure responded.
Before anyone could blink KJ had an energy dagger from her gauntlets across the figure’s throat. “So not only do you support our enemy, but you also pull us away from our rescue mission, cute. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t make you an example.”
“Kimberly, that is enough.” Mikey’s voice boomed. KJ shook her head as her appearance distorted for a second, “We don’t need to sink to The Phantom’s level and destroy those who have freely chosen their side.”
KJ stared back at him puzzled, she hadn’t released the mech yet, “Their kind slaughter those who would help us or otherwise scare them into inaction. Leaving them alive would be a sign that their behavior will not be tolerated.”
Mikey stared down a moment before locking eyes with KJ, his gaze was cold as ice as it pierced through her. She hesitated a moment before steeling herself again, “We can deal with him and his ilk later. For the time being we have a bigger foe and could use their help. Is that understood?” He stared at her unblinkingly as she shrugged and released the action figure.
“Understood.” She replied flatly before adding under her breath, “For now.” She grudgingly slunk back to stand behind Kerri as Mikey, John and the action figure conversed.
“You ever feel like they leave us out of the big decisions?” Jeremy asked as himself, Henry and Penelope watched the discussion that was going on. “Huh? Jeremy squinted as he thought he saw part of Mikey’s fist dissolve and reassemble. He blinked a few times before looking at Penelope and Henry, neither of whom acted as if they’d seen anything.
“It does get unnerving, but why not those determined to think of the plans make them? I don’t know, trusting Phantom supporters sounds like a recipe for trouble.” She shrugged her shoulders. Henry had closed his eyes as he stiffened in his stance.
“I don’t like it either. Too much that can go wrong. It’s like G.I. Joe asking Cobra for help to fend off aliens.” He said in a sighing tone. Kerri and KJ walked over to join Jeremy, Penelope and Henry as they stared at what was going on. Both Mikey and John looked like they were getting red in the face from having to repeat something over and over. Mikey had begun tapping his foot which the others had come to recognize was a sign of agitation when he was trying to explain something.
After a few moments John came over and huffed as he sat on the ground, “I swear some animated are as stubborn as n00bs.” John said as he leaned back on his arms. Penelope and Henry looked at each other before looking at John.
“Which definition of noob are you using? I mean there’s newb which is spelled new bee, those are new players willing to learn. Then there’s n00b with the zeros which as a player too stubborn to learn any better.” Penelope stared back at Mikey who was now flailing his arms explaining something to the action figures. After a few minutes he pointed at a target the action figure had indicated and the target was completely vaporized. The action figure jumped back and ran away before Mikey shook his head and came to the others.
“Well that was a headache for nothing. They’re too frightened to even try helping. So I guess we’re right back where we started.” He grimaced before sitting down. He rubbed his temples a few times before letting out a sigh and lying down. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at the fluorescent lights overhead trying to think of a plan of attack. “I don’t know if we have the manpower to assault the electronics section, rescue the council, and end Malevobear on our own. Any two of those, we could probably do, just all three.”
“Well the answer isn’t going to be found staring at lights while the clock keeps ticking is it?” Henry growled. Everyone looked at Henry, who merely shrugged his shoulders without an answer.
“I don’t see you coming up with any plans. Care to enlighten me on one you’re thinking of?” Mikey stared back angrily a few quiet seconds before adding, “No? Well then be patient and let the people who think, think.”
“Kimberly, John, what do you know about Malevobear? Anything could be relevant.” Jeremy asked. Mikey rolled over onto his stomach because of a twinge of pain he felt as KJ and John looked at each other before speaking.
“Well, when we first began work on chapter two, Malevobear was one of the first bosses we worked on coding and testing for. In fact, we intended Aekea and Peyo’s Fun House to be the first areas after Phazian Wastes that someone would check out in chapter two. We made Malevobear so a decently intelligent player could in fact solo him, just to get them into chapter two.” John said as he looked at Mikey. “Mike, you alright?”
“It’s nothing, please continue. Mikey gritted his teeth as he felt another pang. This time he felt the edges of his virtual presence distort from the effort it took to hold himself together. He could hear whispers in his head, but what they were saying or who they were he couldn’t quite tell.
“The Phantom never trusted Malevobear too much either. As such he has only the creatures of the toy store under his thrall, and as we’ve seen not all of them obey him. He’s got vicious, hardened, black steel claws grafted onto the arms of a once cuddly stuffed bear. He lost one of his glass eyes and it has since been replaced by a laser shooting, thermal vision cybernetic, and one of his legs is a peg leg. I never got to meet the guy much, but he seemed rather unintelligent.” KJ rattled off her information about Malevobear.
Mikey stood back up clutching his side where he was hurting but with a new look of determination in his eyes, “Since he’s dumb and able to be soloed it makes sense to only send one person to face him. Point me in the right direction and I’ll distract the bear while the rest of you free the council from the warehouse area in the back of the store.” He said as he eyed the rest of the team.
“Are you sure you’re up for that on your own?” Kerri asked worriedly as she swore she saw a part of Mikey’s ear distort.
“We have no idea what’s waiting between here and the warehouse section. And given some of what we’ve seen in the Underworld and the mines, it makes sense to assume once Malevobear is defeated a similar destabilization will occur here. We won’t have time to complete a rescue and escape with the place crumbling around us. John and Kimberly have both pointed out that Malevobear is soloable and unintelligent, I am the logical choice to square off against such a foe.” Mikey closed his eyes to focus on bringing himself back to cohesion.
“What makes you think that? I think I would be the likely choice given it would be a power and damage per time match.” Henry chimed.
“I think Mikey means the soloing aspect. Given his abilities and intelligence he has the versatility to adapt mid-fight to whatever Malevobear throws at him.” Penelope said to Henry. Mikey merely nodded as she stared at him questioningly.
“The route to the warehouse in the back we can take goes around the electronics section, so Mikey, you can have the entire section to fight in if you need it.” Jeremy was drawing lines on a map of the toy store he was showing. He detailed the route the others, led by John, would take to avoid attracting Malevobear’s and Wayne Pennyworth’s attentions. On a separate area he outlined the more direct path Mikey would take to ensure he arrived in time to draw off the boss and its master so the others could move unopposed to their destination. After five minutes of going back and forth deciding on the timing and any signals they could use to indicate various situations the crew moved ahead to the fork where they would part ways.
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