Reality Heist - Geordi Riker (ready player one ebook TXT) 📗

eh?”

“Not really, I just see people's Pressures. Luckily, I haven't really developed a knack for healing, otherwise they'd probably try to get me in on the Traveler's Society deal. Not that I hate it, it's real nice, but I just can't stand seeing people in pain. I'm more head on, take-it-or-leave-it kind of person.”

“So what abilities have you developed?”

He shrugs, “I can sense when I'm in danger. Jake's started calling it 'Menace'. He says it makes me the best driver in town.” He runs a hand through his hair.

“How come y'all get the best of both words, huh? You get the stationary life, next to no dealings with the Black, and y'all get these kick-ass powers.”

He shrugs again, “No idea, just the way it is, I guess. I mean, I didn't start seeing people's Pressures until almost a year ago now. Before that, I was just one of the masses in this place, trying to find an answer to the big questions. I almost envy you, though.”

“What part?” I scoff, “The gypsy life, the lack of family outside your team, the inability to hold a job?”

“All of it. You get the chance to explore the world, find out what could have happened. Your powers are way stronger than anyone in here by at least ten times. You get to do stuff, no ties, nothing to hold you back.”

“Yeah, you kind of skipped over the part where none of us chose this.”

“Still, it's something to think about. The world isn't a half-empty glass. I'm not saying that the glass is half-full, mind. I'm just saying that it has  both air and water in it, who cares what the ratio is. Everything exists, why not find out all you can about it?”

“You're nuts.” I wince as a sharp pang shoots through my stomach.

“You okay?” His eyebrows narrow.

I grip my backpack as the pain disappears, “Nothing, must have been something I ate.” I give him the five that Tyler gave me, “Can you give that back to Tyler? I'll figure out what currency the tills'll take. Where's the closest drug store?”

“South entrance, a couple blocks past that.”

“Okay, thanks.” I hitch up my backpack and start walking away from the the railing, away from the cameras, remembering what Jesse had said about how there was a way to know when a person was about to slide.

“Hey wait!”

I double over as another pang shoots through me, “Shit! Little point of pain the gut, Jesse?” It feels like I'm being torn apart. “Shit!” I look up to see Mikey staring at me in shock before the world spins sideways and everything fades to black.

Kicked Out Of My Own Head

 

The wind howls, louder than usual. Slowly, I open my eyes and gape at the sight before me. Tall, thin wooden poles tower over the landscape, some thick ones leaning at odd angles as the tower above the uneven thinner ones. The sky is dark, filled with clouds that threaten to rain at any moment. I can see Hiyori, wearing her black clothes, facing away from me, the wind playing with her white hair. She's focused on something I can't see, crouched in a fighting stance. Lightning flashes.

Gingerly, I hop from one pole to the next making my way towards her. “Hey!” I call out, “I'm here!”

Slowly, she turns to face me. I'm too fa away to read her expression, but there's something wrong with her eyes. Her hands drop to her side. Something tells me to stop moving.

You shouldn't be here.

“Dude, I'm sliding. I always come here. You said that this place is the transitional stage.”

Hiyori vanishes from the pole in a sudden blur of movement. She lands beside me, our cheeks brushing against each other. In that brief instant, lightning flashes again and I see the blood streaming from her eyes. Something glints in the hand she brings across my face even as she launches herself in the air. As she lands ten feet away, the pain registers. I stare at the stream of blood falling into the abyss as my face pulses with pain, my hand going up to apply pressure to the shallow cut. "What?" I whisper, but Hiyori's already jumping further away.

The world blurs, and I feel my self losing my balance, tottering over the edge of the thin pole. Wind flies in my face as my body tumbles to the ground far below. The grey world darkens to black.

Chillax. Armageddon is Tomorrow

 

Wind gets knocked out of my lungs as I slam into the pavement. Slowly, I open my eyes and take in my surroundings. I landed on a sidewalk of a not-to-busy street. There are street vendors, and sidewalk sales, so I must be downtown somewhere. Slowly, I pull myself to my feet, leaning against a traffic light as the world spins. No one seems to have noticed my sudden appearance, except for a little kid leaning out a doorway, staying close to his mom as she talks to a store clerk. He stares at me with wide eyes, amazed by what he saw. He tugs his mom, “Mom! Mom, look!”

My cheek throbs. I press a hand to it, and check for blood, but there is none. My other cheek still tingles from where we had touched.

I grab my bag and start walking. Why did Hiyori do that? What did I do wrong? It was like she just looked at me and decided to ship me off. Why?

Slowly, I start looking around me again. Maybe I should get a fresh set of clothes. I really need to change out of these ones. The sun above beats down, heat rising from the pavement in waves. I shrug off my jacket and stuff it into my bag as I keep on walking, keeping an eye out to see what money the people use. I raise an eyebrow as I see a few coins that look a lot like gold clatter onto a table of an outdoor cafe as a customer pays his bill. I take a seat at the table next to it and start digging into my bag, coming up with the red one almost right away. Keeping it hidden, I pull out a small, brown pouch that jingles. I peer inside to see a pile of silver, gold, and bronze coins.

“What is this?” I mutter to myself as I shove the entire pouch in a pocket, “Diagon alley?”

Nobody answers, but I do get a few odd stares. It takes me a while to figure out why. Every single female is wearing a skirt, varying in length, but  a skirt nonetheless. I shrug, “Not happening.”

I zip up my bag and keep on walking, the pocket jingling slightly. What to do now? Finding the other guys using Pressure isn't even an option, especially after that whole fiasco with the crummy “orchestra”. It was like a radio set on the fritz, changing stations as it moved. So no, no Pressure-hunting. I wouldn't even be able to differentiate between one of the team's and a normal person's Pressure anyways, probably.

Figure out where I am and the date seems like a pretty good idea. “Hey,” I say, stopping a man in a business suit, “What's the date?”

“It's the sixteenth.” He takes off before I can ask him to elaborate.

Okay, I'm asking the wrong question. “Excuse me, what year is it?”

The woman gives me an odd look before she pushes past. A man leaning against the wall straightens up and starts following her, as if he's some sort of protector. He looks back over his shoulder at me, his eyes hardening as they take in my clothing.

“Hey!” A gruff voice growls as a heavy hand lands on my shoulder. “What's one of your kind doing out here?” He sneers as I turn to face him. He looks like he's a cop, by the way people start giving us a wide berth, making sure they don't look like they're associated with me.

“Sorry,” I mumble, trying to match his accent, “I got lost, y'know?”

“She's with me.” A clear voice speaks behind us. I look over my shoulder  even as the cop lets me go.

It's Dutch, but he's  not wearing normal-looking clothes. Dressed completely in black as if he were some sort of ninja with a pot-belly, with a black handle poking out from behind his left shoulder, Dutch winks at me before addressing the cop, “Forget about this incident. You never saw us here.”

The cop swallows nervously before he nods, bowing slightly as Dutch grabs me lightly by the arm and steers me past the cop. Once we're out of his hearing range, Dutch starts to chuckle. For Dutch, that's a series of deep-throated sounds in rapid succession, like a car with engine trouble. “Did you see the look on that guys face?”

Chase moseys up to us from his seat on a bench waiting for the bus. “Did the Law give you any trouble?”

Dutch chortles, “Oh Chase, don't ever change. This isn't a Pure-Curse place, just a Hanna.”

“Hanna?” I ask.

“Hanna, the nickname we've given to the dimensions that have wonky, backwards rules in the late 22nd century. Stuff like women must be accompanied by another person who has been trained in combat.”

“Why?”

Chase shrugs, “Different reasons for different dimensions. Who knows why for this one? Anyways, the three of us look pretty bad-ass. We should get off the streets. We've got a real deal going down- we're actually going to go all out on this dealio.”

“Dealio?”

“He means heist,” Jesse says as he pops out of an alley.

“Now we really look bad-ass.”

“Shut-up, Chase.” Jesse turns his attention to me, “So how are all the voices?”

“Annoyed, but I don't know what I did to make it that way.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Nothing, Chase, just an inside joke.”

Chase peers at me for a moment suspiciously, “She's not crazy, is she?”

I slug him in the arm, “Don't talk about me in the third person when I'm in the same room as you.”

“We're in a room?” Chase glances up at the sky. I shoot him a dark look. He shrugs, “let me guess, you just quoted an anime, right?”

Jesse glances at me, “Yeah, that's right, from an anime.” He smirks, “It's called Ranbu no Melody.” If that's an anime, it's one that I have never heard of before.

“Right, okay, just don't quote anything from it. I need my brain to remember important things, not stuff  like 'If you're willing to die for someone who's not willing to die for you, what the hell are you