Early morning, Monday, December 2, 2069
This hour of the day finds the 'salarymen' (and women) hustling from their cheap apartments (like Tracy's) to their work, most filing into filament-like elevator tubes. Some head around to the nearby Arcadia Tower access points where security waves them through to their aircars parked on the skywalk outside. Directly outside Tracy's apartment is the skybus terminal, but thanks to the video window, she doesn't have to look at the dilapidated skyline of the suburb and the nearby Old City.
Tracy is awakened by windchimes hanging from a coconut palm. She blinks sleepily to see waves crashing upon a beach, the sky a vivid orange - a virtual sunrise of course, her standard morning alarm program. The hour is early, but a pop-up reminds her that she needs to get ready for her first morning class in about thirty minutes. At least she has to go no further than her workstation to show up - but with finals next week, the teacher will probably be giving a general review.
Just a step away, the white dog is thrashing around in his sleep. Perhaps he's having a dream about chasing rabbits?
Tracy yawns and gets out bed, sliding her feet into red poly-silk slippers that match her Asian-style floral-print pajamas. She shuffles into the kitchen where the coffee maker is ready with her morning elixir, and uses the control wand to open a new window on the wall showing the North Bend News Channel.
Cadena abruptly wakes up with a yelp! "No! Run! They're coming! They...." He looks around from his toppled position, and rights himself, shaking himself out, panting heavily.
"Are you okay?" Tracy asks the dog. "Don't tell me you have nightmares all the time too?"
"Oh," Cadena says, and his tail droops, as do his ears. "My apologies, Tracy. I did not mean to disturb you. I am quite all right."
The dog doesn't look, however, as if he is "quite all right." He nervously glances about, and he rises, pacing about the apartment.
"I was already awake," the girl notes. "What would you like for breakfast?" she asks, and goes to the refrigerator to see what she picked up, dog-food wise. One whole shelf is full of little disposable plastic bowls with sealed tops. "Chicken and rice? Beef and Liver?"
"My apologies, Tracy!" He bolts toward the door. "I fear something real intruded upon my sleep - I am awake and yet someone is screaming!"
"What?" Tracy asks, closing the refrigerator. She heads to her bed, where she takes the taser from under a pillow and then follows the dog to the door. "Someone outside?"
"North entrance!" Cadena barks, as he leaps up at the door.
Tracy opens the door, and hopes Cadena isn't malfunctioning. But he's pretty insistent, so she gives him his lead.
There, far away but obvious since Cadena pointed out where they are, students and workers are fleeing from ... Werewolves and thugs? Could it be some kind of publicity stunt?
On closer examination, there seem to be eight or so of them - not good odds. There are two huge werewolves, one gray-furred, the other brown-furred; four men waving Uzis around, their faces wrapped in cloth, one white-bearded old man in robes, one green leather-garbed man toting a rifle, with a brown and black dog at his side. Some four civilians or so are fleeing ahead of them.
"Pull back," Tracy whispers. "We wait for them to get closer - no use charging into guns," she explains, her Krav Maga training taking over.
"There are people in danger!" Cadena protests. "I can't take on guns, but I can distract them! Call security! Bolt the door!"
Closing the door, Tracy throws the deadbolt (no fancy tech there!) turns on the door camera and presses the Emergency Call button on the intercom.
Gunfire. So far the thugs are just shooting up the lamps and trees, while the werewolves strike menacing poses and howl.
"This is a game!" yells the first thug as he advances toward the air shaft with his friends. "None of you are real! You're all fake!"
The civilians fly before them, unwilling to argue with anyone holding weapons.
The Tower intercom unit chimes pleasantly and then a female voice speaks. "I'm sorry, all lines are currently busy. Please state the nature of your emergency, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible."
Tracy gets a chill when she hears the thug's claim, and ignores the security voice. She presses on the intercom button for the door, and says, "Mike? Are you out there? If this is your 'Face Reality' protest, you've got no idea what's really happening!"
There is no response.
"Officer Mckenzie to Thompson, Chung, and Whitney," Andrew calls into his shoulder-mic, "Disturbance in the northern quadrant. Chung and Whitney, circle south and left heading up. Thompson and I will come from the right to trap the ... whatever they are. Non-lethal force, tasers only unless you hear otherwise from me; they may be firing blanks, scare tactics so to speak."
"AWWOOooooo!" The eerie howls of the werewolves bounces off of the glassy walls of the Tower interior.
Cadena paws fruitlessly at the door. "That's not what I meant!" he protests to Tracy, as he dashes away from it in search of his box of belongings. "There are real people out there who could be hurt! You should shut the door behind me. I can be replaced. They can't!"
"Those thugs out there aren't real," Tracy says, a bit in shock. "It's the Fracture all over again. They found a way to open a portal from The Gloaming into the real world..."
Officer Mckenzie activates his standard issue 'micro' bullhorn. "This is the police," he calls out, "Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air. This does not need to end violently. We are willing to listen to your demands ... and should any of you need medical help, we will contact the appropriate hospitals." That goes on mute, then his shoulder mic activates again, "Move up. Try to stay under cover. They may be mentally unbalanced."
"Run for your lives!" yells a disheveled-looking businessman as he charges toward the skywalk.
"Those thugs look real enough," Cadena says, as he tries to work his way into his protective dog vest (but cannot hope to connect all the clasps properly without some assistance from someone with opposable thumbs), "as do their guns. Whatever they believe about reality, we can't assume it's all some illusion."
Tracy sticks to the door, and asks, "What are you planning, Cadena? You look like an Avatar, so there's no way for the police to know you aren't with the monster squad - and if the thugs see you, it may only reinforce their belief that they're still in the Gloaming game. We have to figure out a way to convince them this is reality - do something that can't happen in the game world."
"If they believe this is the Gloaming," Cadena says, "then you know far better about it than I. What could possibly not happen there? For an 'NPC' to call them by their real names?"
"Fools! We are the Wild Hunt," yells the ranger. "Your pathetic laws mean nothing to us! You merely obstruct us from our true quarry!"
"I can think of one thing, but.." Tracy says, then goes to help strap Cadena's vest on.
The mage reaches his hands to the sky. "I call upon... FIRE!" Flames engulf his body from head to toes, but do nothing to him or his robes.
"Besides," Cadena says, "it shouldn't be possible for me to appear in the Gloaming. My appearance is trademarked."
"That is a point," Tracy admits, and then puffs out her cheeks before exhaling. "Okay, you can distract them.. but you can't go far from the door. I'm leaving it open. I want you to get their attention but drop back inside if they open fire. I think I have a way to stop them in their tracks."
As the thugs move forward, blasting the nearby tree to smithereens, one pauses and then holds up a comm to his ear. "Yes sir? All right!" He shouts to the others, "Pedestrians, ten points. Police, one hundred points! Let's rock them!"
Gunfire rakes through the air!
But fortunately, the civilians that were close to them have managed to duck around the corners... Just in time. Bullets strike sparks against the edges of the nearby apartments.
The ranger barks orders to the others. "Minions, to the right! Graymuzzle, go with them and show these police who the true power is. Yappy..." He pauses, apparently looking disdainful at the brown-furred werewolf. "Pyrrhus! With me."
The gunmen rush forward under his command, blasting wildly all the way. "Yeehah!" "Woo!" "Time to rock some cops!"
"Mercy! They're shooting at us! They're really shooting at us!" One woman ducks behind a bench, trying to take cover while sobbing.
"Lethal force authorized," Mckenzie announces into his mic. He draws his weapon and sets the ammo selector on standard rounds as he and Thompson take cover. "Incursion tactic 12-34, eliminate the leaders."
"All civilians to the nearest exit, now," one of the police, a female, calls into a bullhorn. Meanwhile the two police in the more northern position are waving at the nearby civilians to head to the exit behind them!
Tracy opens the door for Cadena. "Probably best to go around to the south and avoid the police," she advises. "I'll be following you."
A woman at the west wall - tall, leggy, dusky-skinned and black haired, wearing a black mirrored suit - begins addressing the floating camera drone near her. "This is Alexandra Regis from Face Reality, and I'm here to bring you yet another example of how virtual reality games have corrupted our minds," she says. "These people have become so addicted to the game they play that they are playing it - in real life, with real people at hazard!" The camera drone whirrs as it takes videos of the ongoing drama.
Cadena bolts through. "Police both ways! Taking shortest route unless ordered otherwise!" he barks out quickly, as he dashes out the door.
"This is prototype artificial biological entity AVA-808-X-024, on lease from Avatars LLC!" Cadena barks to the police officers as he dashes out the door. "Request permission to lend assistance to evacuating civilians!"
Tucking the taser into the back of her pajama pants, Tracy runs out after Cadena.
The poor police stare at Cadena for a few seconds. They then look at each other and shrug in unison. "If you can help, by all means. Stay low and out of the line of fire," one of the police tells the dog. "And I can't believe I'm talking to a dog," he mutters to his partner. "And we're shooting at werewolves," his partner helpfully points out. "Right, time to switch to decaf," they agree.
"You've got to be kidding me," Tracy mutters as her phone chime goes off just as she's stepping through the door. She doubles back, grabs the control wand and runs back out with it, heading for the police and Cadena. She hits the phone button and holds it to the side of her head. "Yes? I'm kinda busy right now!" she answers, not bothering to check for caller ID.
The ranger calls for his forces to move, splitting up. "Our quarry lies in this direction!" he proclaims - heading straight toward Cadena.
"What the hell have you done?" Jason barks through the receiver when his face appears on the vidscreen. "It's all over the news about some attack on your apartment building!"
The thugs open fire! Several civilians go down. Screams and panic echo through the Tower.
"I didn't do anything!" Tracy yells into the wand. "But I'm gonna try and stop it!"
Alexandra Regis says urgently to the camera drone, "Look! They've opened fire! Within moments this Tower is going to become a bloodbath - and all because they can't tell real life from virtual!"
"Is that gunfire?" Jason barks, "Don't be an idiot! Give me your building access code, I'm going to end this. Instead of getting shot find one of the building power conduits!"
"I don't know where any are!" Tracy replies. "Look, it's the hacker group - I can see Mike in his werewolf character! You know where they're connecting from, can't you break their links?"
"They're using red class hardware. Doing that might fry my brain. It's easier to hack into your building and turn on the damn sprinklers. Then it's just a matter of introducing them all to Mister Sparky," Jason growls into the phone.
The police open fire! The ranger stumbles back as the bullets impact against his leather-wrapped chest - but stands up again, the holes in the leather revealing the shiny plastic/ceramic bulletproof vest he's wearing behind it. "After them, my faithful hound!" he yells, ordering his dog to break forward.
"Are you nuts?" Tracy asks. "How could you target just them and not everyone else?"
"I can't! It'll just incapacitate everyone," Jason nearly yells, "That's better than being dead!"
"And what if it doesn't work on their bodies?" Tracy asks. "They aren't flesh and blood!"
"Targets are armored! AP rounds authorized!" Mckenzie orders his fellow officers. There's a flurry of changing rounds.
"Just do it and quit arguing with me!" Jason now actually yells.
The smell of freshly-shed blood reaching his still-confused, recently awakened mind, Cadena dashes forward with a burst of energy, desperate to reach the fallen, rushing past the police officers as he makes the long circuit around the atrium.
"KILL THE FROTZING POLICE!" roars the ranger. The gunsmen switch their aim, looking for the uniforms.
The werewolves let loose shattering roars! They swell up into monstrous-sized versions of themselves, even more menacing now. The woman trying to hide behind the bench squeals and sobs in complete breakdown, too terrified even to move when the gunmen move up beside her.
The gunmen spray fire toward the police officers they can make out. Slugs plaster themselves against Brian Thompson's bulletproof vest. A good day indeed to be wearing protection.
"Fire, hear my call," says the mage as he gathers an enormous ball of energy before him.
In the meantime, as the mage chants, the ranger levels his rifle - a Winchester, with gold curliques on the stock - and fires.
Bam!. Andrew his hit square in the center of his chest armor and falls backwards onto his butt where he was crouched near the sofa. His vest now sports a rather ugly lead 'rose' where there bullet flattened out. Wincing, he says into his mic, "I'm fine. Stay focused. Take out the leaders!"
"God-damned idiot children!" Jason yells somewhere on the other end of the receiver. "Kimon, dive initiate. We're finding that rift-generator and shutting it down," he yells at his stylized computer.
Desperate to interrupt that fireball attack, Tracy runs to the railing and shouts across the atrium, "HEY! WILD HUNT! THIS ISN'T VR AND I CAN PROVE IT! LOOK!" She knows she'll regret it, but she pulls open her pajama top and flashes them! "NO NUDITY FILTER!" she bellows.
The civilians continue to flood toward the skywalk and nearby entrance!
The ranger stares stupefied at Tracy. "I... you... What the?"
"It's a trick, you fool!" says the mage, whapping him upside the head.
"Yappy" aroooos! at Tracy gleefully, while Graymuzzle doesn't even notice.
The ranger reels back as two bullets impact against him. CRACK! Blood fountains from the vest where it was strained by a second bullet impact. He crumples to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Striking a blow for reality today, the police have downed one of the VR-crazed freaks!" Alexandra Regis cheers.
Cadena continues to run, casting worried looks at the fallen as he passes, but there is little he can do in scant seconds while others are still being shot. "This is artificial biological entity AVA-808-X-024, property of Avatars LLC! You are harming civilians, including one under my care! Cease your hostility immediately!" He reaches the couch near the cluster of enemies, with the werewolf on the other side, and the attack dog close, but with no clear path to reach the apparent leaders with tooth and claw.
The mage curses as his ranger friend falls. He redirects his attention to his sphere of energy. "You'll pay for Arcturus, fiends! You'll all FRY!"
Cadena, having just ruined all chance of surprise by announcing his presence (failing to impress anyone), leaps up onto the couch, and lunges toward the mage, dangerously within reach of both the hunter's dog and the werewolf.
The black and brown dog sprints up and lashes out at Cadena!
However, its bite is glancing, sliding off of the toughened harness that Cadena wears. Its fangs click together in the air and then it's on top of the bench, glaring after him.
The brown-furred werewolf grins ferally as Cadena charges forward desperately. "Oh hey, puppy wants to play!"
He swipes -- but though his ham-sized claws would have made a mess of Cadena if it had hit, his blow is off by a country mile!
The leap, although it clears the claws of werewolf and dog alike, is a bit too daring for Cadena to pull off. His fangs snap at empty air as he rather ineffectually bowls off of the mage - leaving himself now surrounded by enemies and vulnerable to the counterattack.
Turning, Tracy runs to the emergency fire-alarm on the nearest wall and yanks it down. "MIKE!" she shouts. "IF MY DOG GETS HURT I'LL HUNT DOWN YOUR LITTLE BROTHER AND BREAK HIS FINGERS!"
Immediately fire alarms go off! But not yet the sprinklers, as the building sensors try to determine whether a fire is actually in progress.
A female voice announces, "Do not panic. Emergency help is on the way. There may be a fire in the vicinity. Building personnel are en route to investigate. Do not panic..." It repeats.
Yappy peers at Tracy. "Oh hey! I remember you! Your in-game avie looks just like your real life one!" he yells, still distracted with Cadena.
"This isn't the game, Face Reality tricked you and they're going to kill you at the end of this!" Tracy yells back, and points across the way to the fake 'Reporter'. "It's a set up!"
The thugs continue to obey their fallen leader's orders: kill the police! They spread out, doing dramatic rolls on the ground to 'avoid fire'.
Their fire, fortunately, continues to be largely inaccurate. Brian curses as a bullet grazes his shoulder, but fortunately it only caught cloth.
"Ungh... It hurts," Arcturus moans from where he's lying on the ground, hand clutched to his chest.
"BY THE FIRES OF GEHENNAS!" yells the mage-- but his aim is off!
FOOM The fireball lands behind the police, smouldering, setting fire to the building decorations.
Now the fire sprinklers go off.
Both Mckenzie and Thompson take aim at the mage ... while the other two continue to move up!
The mage crumples backward against the ground, a streak of crimson flying into the air!
The black-and-brown dog growls at Cadena being so close to its master! Yappy, meanwhile, yells, "This is just a game! C'mon, join the fun! We're raising havoc!" at Tracy, waving hugely at her.
"It's NOT!" Tracy yells back. "Switch out of VR for a second and turn on the news!"
"And our police are two for two," enthuses Alexandra. She whispers to her camera drone, "Get a closeup of the dog on Pyrrhus!"
"By the Light, you fire-flinging fiend!" Cadena growls, as his claws extend out of his now-more-strangely-shaped paws. "To the Darkness with you!" And with that, he slashes madly with a flurry of fang and claw at the mage's exposed face and throat, in animal rage.
Yappy frowns at Tracy's words. "Um, all right..." He freezes in place, eyes distant.
The mage coughs, then gives up the struggle, his eyes rolled up.
"Error. Directive nine breached. Cannot take ordered from a bloated, self-important cow, the camera drone 'chirps' cheerfully. "Engaging directive ten, eliminate camera woman." And the camera does just that! It tries to beat on Alexandria!
Arcturus struggles back to consciousness. The hunter looks up. "Oh no! Rob-- Pyrrhus! Dark take you, filthy hound..." He grits his teeth, but is too out of it to attack. The same does not apply for his dog however, which lunges toward him!
The dog knocks Cadena off his feet, taking him by surprise, as the white dog was focused on the deadly mage!
The thugs settle into defensive positions and continue to rain fire on the police. One yells, "FRAGS APLENTY!"
Graymuzzle streaks toward the police toward the southern end of the circle! She roars malevolently.
Crack! "Gah!" yells Andrew as another round pounds square into his chest painfully, kicking him back on his butt again. "My entire chest is going to be black and blue after this," he mutters to wide-eyed Brian. "I am so requesting extra vacation this year."
Alexandra stares horrified at the camera-drone as it tries to bludgeon her - but before it can hit her, she manages to dodge! "They're trying to sabotage our broadcast!" she yells gamely, picking up her feet and sprinting toward the hallway. "They want to stop our message - but if you're out there, remember, VR doesn't just kill fake lives - it kills for real!"
The camera drone's red "On the Air" light goes dead. Alexandra's face changes, becomes feral and... Dangerous. "You'll pay for that, whomever you are," she hisses.
"Someone with more experience and power than you, Miss Cow," the drone cheerfully 'chirps'.
Feeling useless out in the open, Tracy runs back to her apartment. "If Mike doesn't pull the plug from his side, I'll have to try and find the synecdoche or whatever they set up from the inside," she tells herself, as she rushes to her workstation and VR helmet.
"Incoming beast!" Officer Chung says to her partner. "You know what we do with a beast, right? Shoot it" Her and her partner open fire!
The bullets land, but against Graymuzzle's enraged state, they seem to do little more than enrage her! "PUNY HUMANS!" she bellows.
"Where's Moonbeam now, Sasha?" the bot chirps. "Think she'll come save you?"
*** Delete Graymuzzle's line above
Graymuzzle reels back as a shot finds its mark! "Ungh... Puny humans! How dare you," she roars.
Andrew and Brian return fire against the thugs. Their police training pays off, as accurate fire sends both the nearby thugs to the ground. But wait-- that's not blood. Greasy black smoke roils from their bodies.
The gray-furred werewolf shakes her head, trying to recover from the shock.
"Drop her!" Chung yells to Whitney. They open fire once more on the wolf!
Alexandra yells into her wrist-comm as she sprints, "Abort operation! Repeat, abort!"
"Take out the other wolf!" Andrew orders Thompson ... and they open fire on Mike!
Another bullet impacts on Graymuzzle's fur, but there's no blood from this one. Must not have penetrated her thick fur.
"Come back, Sasha!" the cambot calls after Sasha as it pursues her as fast it can. "Lets do an interview all about you and what happened years ago!"
"Argh!" Graymuzzle grunts with pain.
In Tracy's apartment, Tracy is finding that the login process, normally fast, seems to be taking longer than ever. "Establishing connection," the screen reads. "Please stand by." And then the streets of Old London rez in around Treasa Truclaw. Just now seems to be a bad time for her to step out of a shadowy alley however, as everyone around her is panicking - something about a fire.
"Got to find the portal," is all that Treasa cares about, and closes her eyes to seek out the nearest ones, and with any luck, where it leads to.
Turning towards the fire, Treasa realizes that is where the portal is. "Of course," she mutters, and wraps her trenchcoat around her before running towards the conflagration!
Yappy suddenly comes back to life. "Oh man, what have I gotten myself into," he groans. "There's been some kind of screwup! Don't shoot anyone! They set us up! We're controlling robots or something!"
Arcturus, still groggy, looks around. "Are you insane? What are you talking about, Mi-- YARGH!"
"Put down that gun, you vile spawn of chaos!" Cadena snarls as he leaps upon the ranger!
Alexandra retorts, "Where Moonbeam is... You won't know until too late!" She hits an unseen switch - and fades from sight, the sneaksuit camouflage effect rippling from head to toe.
The white dog tackles the ranger, snapping and frothing and doing everything he can to impede the use of that rifle or who-knows-what other weapons for at least a few seconds more.
It's a literal dogpile on the hunter as his own dog lunges for Cadena, trying to protect its master!
The other dog bites and snaps at Cadena, but to no avail. Arcturus continues to flail, trying to break free of the dogpile.
Chung and Whitney don't let up on Greymuzzle! Nor do Mckenzie and Thompson on Mike. Bullets fly!
Yappy yelps as bullets sing through the air. "Ow! Hey!"
Graymuzzle reels before another onslaught of bullets! Mike, or 'Yappy', stares at the wound on his arm. "You... You shot me! It... Kind of hurts. A lot."
In Old London, the fires can now be seen over the nearby buildings as Treasa darts through the shadows. Someone's set fire to the old and decrepit houses in this quarter! Citizens yell to each other and pass buckets along, and a steam-powered water wagon rumbles by, staffed by two Royal Firefighters. There-- that must be the portal, just ahead and inside that thief's hidey-hole.
Dodging debris and bystanders, Treasa hurries into the chaos and dives through the portal!
Cadena snarls and snaps, slashing about. "Drop ... that ... gun ... or ... I'll ... tear ... your ... throat ... OUT!" In the flurry, he manages to knock the rifle out of Arcturus's hands, and, as a bonus, the sword as well - though for all the slashing and fury, he succeeds in no actual damage to the ranger.
*** Reorder this to come before Old London section
It looks like an abandoned apartment on the other side of the portal, a modern 21st century one. As she looks out the window, the thought comes to Tracy... What were the odds that she'd have logged in right next to the portal that Alexandra and her friends were using? Before her rise massive skyscrapers, similar to the Towers she knows so well but somehow more menacing, black steel and obidian mirrors, with a giant airship dreadnought in the distance. Somewhere out there, Face Reality must have a base of operation.
"The synecdoche may be near," Treasa mutters, as she heads for the door to the apartment to see just what's on the other side.
The remaining two terrorists slump, as do the hunter, dog, and werewolves, as if they were marionettes whose wires had been cut.
Beneath Cadena's paws, greasy black smoke suddenly erupts from Arcturus's flesh. It's as if his touch were burning him!
Cadena recoils at the sudden sense of deadness, and shakes the dog off of him, letting the claws slide off. Then, the scent of blood - real blood - reminds him that the aftermath is still real. He dashes toward the nearest fallen civilian, his first aid kit at the ready....
The police all look at each other when everyone slumps. "Definitely time to switch to decaf," they all agree. Though cautious, they move forward now to put the suspects in cuffs. "Better get a raise for this. I didn't join the ASPCA..." Andrew mutters as he heads towards the collapsed 'Yappy', cuffs out and ready.
The camera drone continues down the hallway... And comes up against a rather battered Duamutef's Donuts, the door shattered from the inside out. There's no longer any sign of the rift here.
The camera bot inspects the rubble, trying to find evidence of that rift. "You always were a coward, Sasha, the robot comments. Finding nothing, the bot pauses for the time being...
Meanwhile, in New Metropolis, Treasa finds herself in an anonymous apartment building.
First, she presses an ear to the door to listen for any activity on the other side.
Not hearing anything, Treasa carefully opens the door, wary of any creaks or squeaks, to get a better look at the area - and to find a better hiding place.
In the end, the police have no trouble subduing the miscreants - it's as if they were all suddenly lobotomized. Emergency medical vehicles are quick to the scene to help the injured civilians - and are surprised to find that the patients have already been stabilized.
Cadena finds Tracy and is able to let her know that the situation has been defused - for now.
In the Gloaming, Tracy stashes Treasa away in a closet and disconnects. "Are you hurt, Cadena?" she asks, while she quickly dials up Randall's direct number at CERT.. and also remembers to finish buttoning up her shirt.
Deciding to disconnect from the interface for the moment, Jason realizes he still hasn't had any coffee ... and now has a terrible headache. "Maybe I can move to Ireland and change my name," he mutters as he rubs his temples. "Idiot children."