Spacebound Chronicles

Chapter 8: Come Fly With Me

“Wooooooo!” Logan Spacebound screamed as he zoomed past Jude Judy, clouds dissolving before of his eyes. Winner City was now just a brownish-gray blot far behind them. From up here, he could see everything and anything, from the green sheet of forests surrounding the city to the blue nautical expanse after the thinnest strip of burned yellow sand. And up ahead… Up head, still largely concealed by the trees, a sandy outline that grew closer the by the second.

Logan in all his pink jet flurry still spiraled in a controlled lack of control, but his laughter made him seem comfortable enough with the new toy. That same laughter, however, made Jude shake her head. Narrowing her body into the shape of a human spear, she shot ahead, pulling beside her companion.

“Enjoying yourself?” she asked.

“So! Freaking! Much!”

“Well, calm your ass. See those cliffs up front?”

He nodded. She was indicating the approaching sandy mounts past the trees.

“That’s the Fire Wasteland. Where the last battle of that big war was fought,” Jude said. Yes, he remembered Potathunder mentioning that was the origin of Winner’s City name. “Shay had already been defeated, but one of his loyal commanders set up base in the forest right there. During the fight, it all burned. And the asshole commander had a freaking Concentrated Black Matter Diamond with him.”

Logan frowned. He kept hearing about Dark Matter, but still had no clue what it did.

“Dark Matter Diamond?” he asked.

“Dark Matter is the closest to magic this game gets. Diamonds are known to retain elemental properties and give their bearer control over said element, as well as universal forces themselves. So, when the whole forest was on fire…”

“The diamond absorbed the power of fire!” Logan understood.

“Bingo! Now, Dark Matter defies Space and Time. When the commander tried tapping into that power, it exploded and destroyed a huge chunk of ground, forming a canyon. It also destroyed the last of the commander’s troops and set him on fire, but since he was also covered in Dark Matter, that defies Time, the fire never ran out. To this day he roams the Canyon created by the detonation, still burning and enraged.”

“Let me guess,” Logan murmured, “Boss?”

“He is this world’s ultimate Boss, yes, but remember this is the starting planet of the game,” Jude pointed out as the trees became scarcer and a dusty soil sprinkled by scorched stumps took over the scenery. “To anyone past level 40, he is no big deal, but we still better keep an eye out. In fact, anything in this area warrants a little- DUCK!” Jude screamed, powering down her propulsors and letting gravity pull her down.

Logan was still a little confused, but a chilling guttural shriek put everything into perspective, accompanied by the sudden vanishing of all and any sunlight. Turning on his axis to look up, all Logan could see were four sets of dark talons the size of longwords diving towards him. Behind the shadow that blocked the sun, a two-ended tail flapped at the wind, bringing back the picture on the background of Clark’s Geek Cave’s website.

That was bad.

Logan flipped over again, not turning off his propulsors, but angling them so they would add a little extra aid to gravity’s acceleration. He was going fast. Too fast. Graphics were getting blurry, his face going numb—a game feature he still failed to comprehend—and he did not dare look back to check the creature’s progress behind him. Hopefully, he-

Jude’s body rammed against his, cutting any thoughts short, and they fell together, tangled to each other. Still, as confusing and breathtaking as the impact may have been, an intense beam of blue fire could be seen crossing the position where Logan had been not long ago. He could even feel the heat emanating for the rented headgear and gloves.

A glance up confirmed that the fire, as anticipated, left the feathered monster’s beak.

“Fly low, through the trees!” Jude screamed, breaking away from Logan and reengaging her green jets way to close to the ground.

He followed, not daring get that low, but still being assailed by the dust raised by Jude’s flight. The burnt trees buzzed as if they were running in the opposite direction. The sound of wood breaking behind him was often followed by pained eagle cries. Up ahead, Jude skillfully evaded a tree, then arched down into a c***k in the very stone foundations of the ground.

Logan, instead, simply overshot the stump and accompanied Jude from above the breach, not willing to risk pressing himself through such a narrow pass. Then again, if it was too narrow for him, it was too narrow for the monster as well.

Dedicating every ounce of attention he could spare, he aimed and dove into the ground, shoulders brushing on dry roots that stuck out of the cliff’s walls. Jude was still slightly ahead, anticipating any obstacles that would require them to dodge, dive or pull closer to the edges. Then he noticed said edges were growing further apart from each other, the breach itself becoming wider and deeper, so deep, to be honest, that he could no longer see the ground beneath him, only a foggy veil of dust and mist.

That was when Logan realized they had reached the Fiery Man’s Canyon!

Jude flew under an arch of stone, then kept going down until she was lost in the dusty fog. He forced himself to slow down, not daring to fly in there blindly. That is, until the sunlight flickered as the flying predator crossed the breach over his head. That was enough incentive to dive into the fog too.

Which turned out to be a considerably simpler experience than he anticipated. As dense as the fog was from the outside, visibility within it was not that limited. After about ten seconds of flight, he found Jude seated on a rock on the canyon’s bottom, her feet dangling in a stream that defied the arid desolation of a war-scarred wasteland.

Logan’s pink propulsors deactivated beside her on a relatively well executed landing.

“Congratulations, you survived an encounter with a Ruckorr!” Jude said with a smile, her face covered by a thin mask of dirt she didn’t seem to mind.

“That was so swesome,” he said still suspended in disbelief.

“Wait until you can kill one. Or better, ride one.”

“Right, you have to teach me that!”

“One thing at a time, space cowboy. We’ve only made it halfway through the canyon. You wanna win that race, we’ll need way more flight time! Ready?” she stood up, determination stamped on the familiar eyes still alien to that girly face.

Scott sighed. He never thought he would feel physically drained by a videogame, but here he was, tempted to ask for a fifteen-minute break as if back in gym class.

 Except he never flew like a bird in gym class.

“Ready!”

***

Zero Guy rolled over the wasteland’s dust. He was not wearing his usual tight leather outfit, but rather a thong, a wooden mask and body paint that twirled in a mad pattern of black and orange over his pale body. In the distance he could see a Ruckorr flying in circles, probably looking for prey, but there were more immediate concerns, like the furious Rajaptor charging at him with a spear.

He rolled again as the hairy opponent speared the ground where he stood seconds prior, then jumped to his feet, spun his own spear and buried it into the sand-covered leg of the enemy. The tribesman roared in pain; the audience roared in surprise. On the corner of his eye, he could always see the blinking red dot that announce permadeath, and that drove him to absolute precision…

The Rajaptor fighter spun fast and struck Zero’s chest with a massive closed fist. The spear remained stuck to the leg while Zero flew across the arena. He was fighting to recover his senses when the hairy foot pinned him down and his own spear’s head angled towards his throat. The red dot was still there.

The spear exploded in a dark and silent detonation before it could be used. The mesmerized Rajaptor stared at his empty hand for a second, then saw himself leave the ground, suspended by black and lilac tendrils that hugged his torso, contracting, pressing…

And suddenly he burst into purple flames. A short muffled scream announced his demise, and as the sphere of dark plasma shrunk within itself, the enemy was gone without a trace.

Zero hasted himself to his feet, face dirty and cut, eyes wide running straight to Lady Parly Zin standing in the center of the arena, her eyes still purple for a second second before returning to their natural green. The tribal Rajaptors that watched the fight had kneeled to her.

With a grimace, Zero ran to her.

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

“Saving you from an embarrassing death in the lowest-level planet possible,” she replied dryly. “What are you doing? Why did you call me here?”

“I found the noob. Spacebound.”

“Using your bard, I hope?”

“Yes! Yes, of course!” he said. “And I learned some things. First, he plays in a cybercafé, he doesn’t have a rig.”

“Good, less frequency,” Zin mused. “Anything on how he heard of us?”

“Maybe. He has a friend. I met her.”

“Top 500?”

“Definitely not. Level 7. The thing is, she handled Phoenix suits like a pro, she knew how to get to the Fiery Man’s Canyon…”

“Fiery Man’s Canyon? The one ten minutes from here?” Zin pulled him closer by the naked arm, staring holes at his face.

Yeah, he could see how that had been a risky move.

“Yes, and she also knew about Ruckorrs, and that they were too strong for them. Still, they came here.”

“So, she is probably a secondary to someone better. Way better. The one spying on our meeting?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Zero said.

“And why are you risking you neck with the Firespawns?” she asked looking around at the crowd idolizing her.

“The noob will take part on a contest to win a full set,” he explained. “By what they said, I managed to look it up. It’s a race through the Canyon, it would be good if they failed.”

“It would, but I don’t see the connection with these savages.”

“Zin, if you defeat their champion in single combat, you become their rightful ruler.”

She laughed.

“Your plan was to march an army into a race?”

“No, that would call too much attention,” he whispered. “But with their help we can trigger the Fiery Man to spawn at our leisure.”

“And that, could very well be a random event,” she grinned in sudden comprehension. “Not bad. You could have thought, though, that as followers of the Fiery Man’s legend, this tribe worships Dark Matter. Could have saved you the embarrassment of having your ass kicked in single combat.”

“I have no Dark Matter powers.”

“Good thing I do,” she patted his face with her perfectly manicured hands. “Now I want you to learn more about this race. See if we can get someone in on it.

“I have a monster to summon.”