Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (30 page)

“Mother. Mother!” a child’s voice cried out. The young wailing that followed reminded Nona of her own daughter so many years ago. “Open your eyes. It will be okay.”

“As my comrade said, faith, trust, loyalty, by any name these things shall be repaid in kind.” The nun walked over and sat down on a chair that only existed in their virtual world.

Nona sniffed and dabbed her eyes again. After watching the digital beings travel around, she said, “I’ve already been repaid. Six years of knowing my daughter was still alive and able to exist. That’s all it took to set down my worries.”

“What would you say to a few more years?” James asked.

There was a pause before the normally proper woman broke down just a bit further. “It worked?” She blinked through a rapidly swelling stream of tears.

For once, James didn’t answer right away.

King Nero lived in a huge tract of land. The castle sat overlooking a sprawling city below, lording over it in every sense of the word. Part of the rear gardens spiraled up the mountainside to form secluded gardens.

The second highest point in the land belonged to a set of three temple buildings. There they worshiped the Voices and sought guidance. The location wasn’t restricted to any one specific divine being, but most Priestesses belonged to Selena. Mezo did not want her people to be up on the hill. After all, they stood for very different things, as most Voices did.

“Gather all the Priests. The Voices have a message for us,” a stern-looking woman said. She stood in a white robe that pushed away flakes of dust with a gentle breeze. Atop her head was a thin crown.

“Is it Selena?” one of her attending priestesses asked. This woman had once been directly quoted as saying, ‘Keep those leg spreading whores away from our temples’, which made Mezo laugh from high above where the Voices resided. Of course she refused to let it slide, sending a male to seduce the attending priestess.

Two coastal cities experienced a hurricane that same week. Mezo had laughed even harder.

“No.” The heavyset woman’s jaw locked into place briefly. She took a breath, then one more before answering. “All of them. All of them were present for this message.”

“Voices,” another woman uttered. Her eyes rolled up as her body went slack.

A heave rippled through the land. From atop the second highest vantage point, the Voices’ followers could see as earth rippled abruptly. Screams started seconds later.

“We’re too late. It’s started,” the crown wearing woman said. Her face locked into a proud position, but her eyes were out of focus.

Down below the city rapidly turned into bedlam.

“What’s that?!” someone shouted. The man clung to the side of his building for support. His shop had the misfortune of being right outside
[King Nero’s Castle]
. Workers from the main office often went to his shop for their lunches.

“The mountains, an earthquake, the Voices are displeased!” Another man ran by while wailing. His face bled, and still the earth shook.

Other people saw where the shop owner had pointed. Travelers dropped their forks and slowly stood. Locals froze on the spot in worry.

A giant made of darkness loomed over the castle. It was larger than a dragon, big enough to spread its arms and encompass all of
[King Nero’s Castle]
from end to end. Most Locals and Travelers started their mass flight away from the base of this monstrosity. Some brave few threw themselves into battle only to notice that their attacks did no good.

“It is the end of times!” an NPC said.

“The sky will swallow us whole!” More cries went up around the town.

Someone stood on its head. Fighting the fresh monster already. Those with
[Eagle Eyes]
or other skills that enhanced vision could barely make the figure out. A woman wore armor that shone in the fading evening. In her hand was a blade made of sunlight. She swung it over and over. Each blow causing the creature to roar out in anger.

Each roar vibrated the ground and shook more of the castle and surrounding city to rubble. The beast waved one arm, knocking down a path from the mountain side. Below, a good half mile away, one Traveler stood calmly while sipping at a cup of tea. His suit looked pristine, complete with polished cuff-links. Not a hair was out of place.

“Pity,” the Traveler known as Mister Stone remarked. “I rather liked that garden. He sipped his tea, even as the warrior woman was flung from her lofty perch into a building. She landed in a residential building.

Heavy armor and brute strength sent her flying through buildings. She hit supports and pockets of already damaged walls. Desks, lamps, beds, all were reduced to rubble in the wake of her cannonball of a body.

The woman was not one to be kept down, even in the face of such an overwhelming beast. She stood and staggered out of the building’s ruins. A small gathering of Travelers and Locals stood there in confusion.

“Go!” the Amazonian warrior shouted loud enough to shake the dirt. Her abruptly shouted word brought a jolt to her face.

The onlookers didn’t pause to ponder the look of happiness upon the tall woman’s features. They were too busy running away, grabbing anything of import in their dash to escape the large creature’s path.

The darkly tanned woman readied more blades. Her arms spun weapons that shone with fire and ice. They did damage or were knocked aside. A spear laced with vines and a carved wooden top jammed into the creature’s foot. It flashed green as wildlife sprang into being, quickly binding the beast down.

“Is that?” one player asked watching the combat.

The battle, one-sided though it was, raged on. The woman leapt up to a ruined building, high speeds and superior
[Brawn]
sent her form flying an impossibly high amount. A large spiked shield replaced the spear as she let gravity and inertia pull her toward the beast’s shoulder. Its dark red eyes glinted angrily as Shazam’s shield tore shadows apart.

“It’s gotta be, who else could move like that? She died, right? I had heard it in a rumor.” Some Travelers stopped to watch the destruction. They didn’t care about the death of a physical body, compared to the spectacle of watching such an event.

“No, she’s an Ultimate Edition, she has to be. It’s got to be her. Look at her ID,” the first responded.

“Shazam! You can do it! Let’s go lads!” Those Travelers who played to fight shook off their stupor in unison. Their weapons lifted high into the air as a mob of battle junkie players charged forth together. They ran toward certain digital death, in the form of a humongous giant made of smoke and darkness.

“Help her!”

“Let her guild know! Tell everyone what’s going on!” another Traveler shouted to his fleeing friends.

In moments, players all over
[Arcadia]
saw guild messages, talking about the chaos of
[King Nero's Castle]
. They also spoke of Shazam’s resurrection. The highest Warrior Path in the game, Slayer of dragons, conquerer of the
[Tower of Stars]
and
[Plane of Smoke]
, Sword Princess, and guild leader of
[Valhalla Knights]
had returned.

An hour later and the creature had laid waste to the town. Players of all types lay dead or dying. Others hid or sifted through rubble. Some organized friends in a search for lost NPCs.

The dirt took a long time to settle. It rolled around in pockets for another twenty minutes before daring to touch down. The silent stumbles of a few Locals and Travelers alike could be heard, as people dared venture toward where it had fought. Those that arrived were rendered speechless.

In front of them was a giant hole in the ground. Its bottom sat far out of sight, even from those Travelers with
[Eagle Eyes]
. The castle had vanished as if the world had opened up to swallow King Nero’s folly whole.

Two players jumped in holding hands, Locals could only watch. The Travelers’ yells echoed up without end.

Shazam looked expressionless despite the rapid beating of her heart. Weapons were scattered everywhere. Her face tilted toward the hole first, then off to an unknown location far away. The woman walked toward the west, her voice cracked with the effort of saying another word.

The latest date hadn’t gone well. As a result, Liz had been drinking. Not a lot, in moderation. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was controlling herself around liquor. Her brother had rather firmly outlined the possibilities of indulging too much.

Still, after such a lousy date, relaxation-inducing beverages helped. In an hour, she would be asleep, alone again. At least she wasn’t one of those pill poppers doped up on happy drugs. Liz snorted into her bourbon filled coffee mug.

“At least I’m grounded in reality,” she muttered before taking another swig. Liz’s feet walked a tired path to the upstairs computer interface. Sensors around the room were implanted to detect motion, words, and would respond accordingly.

Her free hand lifted into an L, then pointed at a cleared wall. A projection splashed onto the wall with quick launch icons to choose from. The older woman pointed a finger at the newsreels and waited while a brief loading icon came up.

Moments later a partially three-dimensional video reel played, it went on for a few minutes before the enormity of what she was watching truly hit home.

“Ahhhh!” she shrieked.

Footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. Her daughter quickly ascended the split level house and peeked over the railing to see what was playing.

“We’re standing outside Trillium Inc.’s headquarters where their Vice President of operations, Miz Riley, was just shot,” a reporter said. Her voice took over the room. In the background dozens of police officers could be seen. Some jackets said “FBI” on them. People were being escorted out of the building in droves.

“Jesus, Mom.” Beth pointed at the screen. “I did a paper on her last month for school.”

“That’s the woman your Uncle Grant goes to visit, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I asked him for information to help with the essay,” Beth answered but the normal liveliness to her tone was lost. She slowly crept into the front room as the video playback of news kept going.

“Authorities say they’ve replayed video footage and determined the location of our shooter. Hold on, I’m getting an update,” the reporter said. Behind her flashing lights could be seen in droves.

“Holy shit.” Liz’s hand was on her face.

“It appears the suspect has been confronted. There’s more gunfire coming through.” The reporter was hiding behind a wall. The camera bobbed a bit as whoever filmed tried to keep up. Additional gunshots were heard.

“We do not have confirmation on the motivation of the suspect being chased at this time.” The footage cut out and went back to an anchorman sitting behind his desk. The man spoke while Liz turned down the volume.