The Eternal Sleep

Welcome to 'Rulers of Street’ demolition racing competition

    Luca sat on the railing that lined the beginning of the car racing track. He fiddled with his screen, reading through unnecessary information. Essentially, he was doing ‘The Eternal Sleep’ version of fiddling with his phone to avoid awkwardly meeting someone’s eyes or having to talk.

    He was supposed to meet Olivia here today, she wanted to sign up for the latest racing competition and he was her right-hand man. Originally, Armando was the one that sat with her, giving her routes to use, but he had a habit of stating every possibility and that became very confusing very fast if you’re going two-hundred miles per hour, at minimum.

    Jack, as they learned earlier on in a test run, had motion sickness even in the game, and Rena disliked cars and any other moving vehicle for a good reason. Luca was against being a puddle on the road should Olivia be hit, but he was also the only one who could focus on the road and translate Armando’s strategy over the comms in the simplest way possible.

    He twitched as he heard a yell, not wanting to move from his position should the call not be for him. It was barely two seconds before the yell became a loud shout in his ear. He floundered to get his footing on the ground, teleportation totem at the ready.

    Olivia’s sea green eyes glowed in amusement, hands covered in fingerless gloves like his on her hips and short blond hair wind-blown. “I don’t know how you manage to get startled every time; you should expect me to do this by now.”

    “Yea, well… I have no argument in return for that right now.” Luca wrinkled his nose; he wasn’t good with throwing words back on the spot. He was the kind of person that would finally figure out a response days after an argument. Olivia laughed good-naturedly again, pushing up the sleeves of her racing jacket and adjusting the front over her black tank top.

    “Come on Luc, it’s just about time, the NPC should be there by now.” Olivia held out her hand, accustomed to Luca using his totem to get the team anywhere, fast. He shrugged and grabbed her hand, the world fading in and out for barely a second.

    The sound of chatting and rambunctious laughing greeted them immediately. Luca released Olivia’s hand in favour of looking around, the sound of loud revving engines making him wince. Olivia tapped his shoulder and pointed to a man standing at the edge of the chaos, holding a clipboard and wearing a brown leather vest and cowboy’s hat.

    They walked up to him and tapped the clipboard, he immediately seemed to come to life. NPCs or ‘Non-Player Characters’ were programmed to only say a small number of words, merely a guide to the player than of any actual aid. They could be activated by tapping their shoulder or the item they have in their hand, and it this case, it was a clipboard.

    “Well hello there, welcome to the first annual ‘Rulers of Street’ demolition racing competition.” The NCP smiled at them; Luca took a step back to allow Olivia space to pull up her information. “How can I help you?’

    “I’m here to sign up for the competition.”

    “That will cost you seventy-seven, non-refundable coins.” She pulled up her screen, tapping several times, “Will you be accompanied by a guide? If so, that will be an additional forty coins.”

    Luca moved forward to pay, but Olivia held up her hand, she never let anyone on her team pay for any of the costs that arose when they joined. He moved back, letting her do her normal ritual, turning around and looking around at their competition.

    “Do you have any past experience with racing?” Luca couldn’t help but lean back, watching her open her list of past competitions and achievements. He was always amazed to see it, he had his fair share of winnings, but it was always amazing to see all the possibilities of the game, and what better way to see it than watching someone’s achievements.

    A loud roar rang through the area, Luca jumped so hard, he accidentally bumped into Olivia. She merely steadied him, glancing back to see the commotion before choosing her confirmation on her screen, accepting the competition. The men standing near a car were laughing at Luca’s reaction, the engine back on idle.

    Olivia nudged his arm, getting his attention before nodding. He stepped back, face grim as Olivia yelled at the group, “Hey, you wastes of game code, what the heck is wrong with you?” the laughing immediately stopped, dark glares painting their faces, Olivia just grinned.

    Luca waited till they were barely ten feet away from them, with a flash of blue, he teleported to the back of their car. In their anger, they’d left their car unattended, a rookie mistake. He could hear their raised voices against Olivia, he wasn’t worried, she’d proudly shown her team time and time again that she could easily handle herself.

    Olivia came from a family of five, three siblings, she happened to be the oldest. Her parents were in the decision of getting a divorce, and it had fallen upon her shoulders heavily to take care of her two siblings. It was the main reason why Luca and Olivia became easy friends; they knew what it was like to have things out of their control fall apart.

    Their situations were slightly different though, Olivia’s family had problems with money. With the separation, they would be able to gain aid from the government, securing a future for their children. Olivia used the game as an outlet for her recklessness, doing all the things she could that she usually wouldn’t even dare of thinking about in real life or around her siblings.

    “Looks like your pretty friend ran off.” The man chuckled, a spanner in his hand. Luca slowly crawled to the side of the car, keeping low to avoid being seem.

    “More like he was done with your childishness.”  Olivia growled back. Luca quietly moved to the front, sticking his hands into the familiar circuitry, and began pulling apart.

    “Oh no, was he frightened?” The man echoed a tone usually used for babies, Luca could practically hear Olivia scowl, she had a temper that rivaled an active volcano when someone mocked anything she considered under her protection. Luca winced, he needed to pull of this trick quick before Olivia was taken off the competition for killing competitors.

    “No… but you should be.” She grinned maliciously.

    “And why is that?”

    “Because you always keep an eye on all your opponents.” Luca spoke up, holding the car’s battery in his hands, weight wasn’t really a problem in the game world, so it wasn’t hard to hold it up.

    “What the?” the man shouted, he and his lackeys not the given the chance to react as Luca teleported next to Olivia. They rushed them, skating on the rough ground as Olivia placed her hand on his shoulder and they teleported next to the car again. “That’s against the rules, you’ll be disqualified!”

    “No, the rules state that cars of competitors can’t be tampered with before the competition.” Olivia listed cheekily, “If I’m not mistaken… you haven’t signed up yet.”

    In a panic, the group turned to the NCP host, he nodded, “You, Mr. Brexiet, have indeed not confirmed your decision.” By the time they turned around to yell at Luca and Olivia, they were already gone, and with the battery in their grasp.

    Olivia and Luca were laughing too hard to stand by the time they appeared on the roof of an old skyscraper, the battery laying forgotten on the side. “I assume you two got through the sign up.” Jay sat next to the pair lying on the ground. Luca could faintly hear Rena and Armando chatting, simple greetings muttered cheerfully as the pair regained their senses.

    “I’m genuinely afraid to ask what you guys did this time.” Luca pulled himself up and sat to the side of Jay, Olivia doing the same so that the rag-tag team formed a small circle. “But I’m pretty sure it has to do with that battery.”

    “The same move we always pull.” Olivia grinned. “Those guys were being rude.”

    “Hmm, imagine what a menace they would be if we let them on a racing track.” Luca smiled as the others chuckled. The moved they pulled wasn’t anything new, a lot of racers could be really rude to other competitors, so they made their time worthwhile and pulled them of the list without actually causing any damage to themselves.

    “You think the battery is of any use?” Olivia pushed it towards Armando, he nodded almost immediately, pulling up its specifications and highlighting the important parts before showing her. “Nice score, Luc.”

    “Hay, I was just following the plan.” He grinned even more as Armando chuckled, running his hand through his silver and black shoulder-length hair. He pulled up his screen and began rapidly trying away, his black jacket sleeves pushed back. In Rena’s guidance, he was wearing a calf high boots like Luca, but it made him look more dangerous rather than the geeky look that he originally protested.

    Armando came from a family of musicians and artists; he was the only one who truly had a love for science. Unfortunately, his genius and talent was not something that was easily understood in his family, so more often than not, he would be quieted by his parents or given an irritated look by people who just assumed that Armando was pretending to be above them rather than actually being smart.

    Years of this had led to Armando choosing to not talk over being quieted. He was originally recruited to the team for a quest, but Luca agreed to persuade him to stay, it was not easy, but it was worth it. Not many may know, but the few words that Armando had said at the beginning easily thought them that he could be very sarcastic and sassy if he wanted.

    Speaking of which, Armando was waving at them frantically, clicking his fingers to gain their attention. He showed them his screen before swiping his hand and sending the feed to the entire group.

    Nothing could have prepared Luca for what he saw next.