Wednesday, August 25, Afternoon

Leo Maxia

 With my fingers tightened around the Holy Sword Arondight, I steadied my free hand. Yuna clasped the doorknob and exchanged a glance with me. “One… two… three!”

She threw the door open. I threw up a barrier in the door frame. Several of the Creepers slammed into it.

“I’m the Creeper!”

“Catch me if you can!”

So many of them mobbed the Arondight’s barrier that it was hard to see through. There was a piercing sensation all around my body. It just stung, a bit, like an HP drain spell. “Can you… do something about that?”

“Can I get a please?” Yuna crushed another tarot card. “Seven of Coins!” The ground beneath the Viruses rose up, and flung them aside. I dropped the barrier, swapped to the Holy Sword Galatine, and locked the door behind me; Yuna and I charged into the sea of Viruses.

The school’s main office had a couple main sections: a lobby and waiting room, a couple of offices for the school’s main administrators, a meeting room, and, most importantly, a tech room. Equipped with the printers, scanners, a couple obsolete overhead projectors… and the school’s central wifi access point. The host of the Virus.

Yuna and I separated. Yuna whirled the Hellscythe and it’s counterweight like a massive staff, fast enough that I couldn’t individual strikes. I let her do her thing. That girl can take care of herself.

The enemy’s reinforcements are coming from the path leading to the technology room. Given the numbers, I’ve got a feeling that this Virus is one that prioritizes multiplication over all else. In other words, they won’t stop coming.

I slashed the Galatine in a wide arc, barreled through the Viruses, and hopped onto a table. Give it up, Anakin. I have the high ground.

“Four of Cups!” While Viruses gnawed at my pant legs, I pointed a finger at the hallway. Picture the ice freezing the path shut, the ice forming a sheet, and blocking the way. In an instant, it was done. Only then did I look down. My clothes were ripped and nicked all over. My headphones and the Hero Scarf weren’t looking great, either. Thank goodness this’ll be reset. I kicked away a Virus, and swung again. The Galatine cut through them, like a hot knife. All around me, they burst into fragments of blue and silver.

“I’m the Creeper! Catch me if you can!” More of the yelled, “I’m the Creeper! Catch me if you can!”

A glance at Yuna. She’s doing fine. Looking a lot closer to full health than I was. Oh, I’m still using the Galatine. Don’t really need a speed sword when I’m standing still, huh?

“Holy Sword, Clarent!” The sword morphed again. I slashed, energy radiating from its slender blade. Creepers, even those way out of the Clarent’s reach, shattered, like an attack from a Warriors game.

From across the room, Yuna jumped into the air. “Hey Leo! Stay where you are! Whatever you do, don’t touch get down!” She flashed that maniac grin. “King of Coins!”

She snapped her finger. The tiles morphed into earthen spikes and impaled the Viruses from below. The entire room was filled with shimmering shards. Then, they faded into nothing, and it was quiet. She canceled the card, and the floor returned to normal. Her shoe gingerly touched the ground. Her footing was a little unsteady.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine, yeah.” She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. “Damn, this’d been easier if we had Erin.”

I nodded. Erin was better with crowd control. “Need a breather?”

“Keh. I’m just getting started. ‘Sides, speak for yourself. You’re getting ichor everywhere.”

I looked down at myself, again. It was true. From the myriad of tiny cuts all over my body, ichor was starting to seep out of them. “Nothing serious.”

“Heh. Who do you think you are, trying to act all tough?”

“Why, none other than Caladbolg Montoya, Magus of Blue, of course.” I grinned.

“Just what I like to hear. Okay, let’s get moving.”

The hallway was still sealed with a wall of ice. I placed my palm against it. I could feel the vibrations of the Creepers chipping away at it.

“Ready.”

Yuna was focusing her Four of Wands, spinning the four fireballs into a massive spear. “You may wanna take a step to the right. Gonna drop the Neo Armstrong Jet Cyclone Armstrong Cannon.”

I did.

“On three. One…”

“Three!” She had that maniac grin. The fire spear blew clean through the sheet of ice. I had already been bracing myself, though. “You know me.”

“Maybe a little too well. Okay. Let’s move!”

The path had already been cleared by Yuna’s Wands attack. Again, I sealed the path behind me, and we charged into the tech room.

The room was flooded with them. It was a whole different level compared to the other rooms. Again, I switched back to the Arondight and threw up a shield. Looking through the barrier, I spotted the target: the school’s wifi access point, covered in a shimmery, blue-silver fog, as if possessed by a fashionable ghost.

“Attack Pattern Delta,” I said. “On your count.”

“The one that consists of flying straight at the enemy in the only direction they can actually shoot back, huh? Nice.” Yuna crushed a card. She knew what I actually meant. (I hoped.) “Eight of Wands. Get ready.” In front of her, the fireballs spun, and flattened out in to a massive disc. I took my place behind it, and readied the image of the Galatine in my head. “One… two.... Three!”

I switched swords. The barrier dropped, the flaming disc seared a path through the Viruses.

I leapt forwards, propelled by the Galatine’s boost to speed. For just a brief moment, I feel like I can break the sound barrier. Nothing can stop me. I need to rein it in; I’ve almost caught up to the fireball.

I jumped, carrying the momentum, and switched swords. “Holy Sword Carnwennan!” The longsword’s blade shrunk, and thinned, until it all that it was a small, white dirk, no bigger than my hand.

I plunged the Carnwennan’s blade into the wifi device.

There was a scream, like metal scraping metal. The Virus emerged, a hulking, massive variant of the ones we’d been fighting. The room had decent overhead space, but it suddenly seemed very small.

“I’m the Creeper!” It yelled, “Catch me if you can!”

We were on a time limit, now. Now that the Virus was forcibly disconnected from its host, it wouldn’t be able to go back in for a little while. So, now’s our chance for an all-out-attack.

“Clarent!”

I stabbed upwards. A beam from the blade pierced the Virus. It screeched.

“Leo! Get outta there!”

“Trying!”

“Try harder!” Yuna threw aside some enemies with her scythe and fired another blast. It hit the monster, square in the ‘face,’ staggering backwards.

I jumped, and swapped to the Galatine. I touched a wall, and sent myself straight upwards. The Galatine’s signature power: I call it Vector Redirection. The ability to launch myself in any direction, provided I’m touching a surface, physics be damned. I pushed my hand against the ceiling, then soared into the body of the Virus, planting a foot in its face.

I kicked.

The large Creeper screeched, and swung a massive claw in my direction, I bounced backwards, finding myself pressed against a raised pillar of earth. I knew Yuna had raised it to give me a surface to vector off of. I flung myself at the enemy again, this time running the Galatine’s blade through it.

Faster, faster, faster, faster! I bounced back, and forth, each time striking, and weaving around its attacks, and bouncing off a pillar that Yuna would prepare for me.

The Virus was on its last legs, now. One more good hit should do it. I bounced off Yuna’s pillar and swapped swords. The Clarent glowed with power, burning brighter, and brighter. I ran it through the Virus, let go, and jumped away.

The Creeper writhed, slashing at the air, all around, as the sword burned. After a few seconds, it burst into shimmering fragments.

Only then did I remember to look around me. Yuna had taken care of the small ones on the ground.

“Target defeated,” I said. I wiped my brow. “That’s how it’s done.”

“Nice tag team,” Yuna said. She dismissed the Hellscythe and extended a fist.

“Nice assist.” I returned the gesture. “Okay. Let’s clear out the remnants and go home.”

Wednesday, August 25, Late Afternoon

Leo Maxia

I knocked twice and tried the door. Locked. “Randy? It’s us. You in there?”

There was no reply, as I expected. Now that we’d eliminated the Virus that had pulled him in, in the first place, he’d been sent back.

“We should head back,” I said.

“Never hurts to check.” Yuna crushed a tarot card and shot out the hinges of the door. I winced. “What? It’ll be reset anyways. Oh, what time is it?”

“Uh… it’s like, almost 5:30.”

“Well there we go. It’ll be reset in like, half an hour. Stop being so uptight about it.”

Yes, but I really don’t want to be so casual about property damage. It’s the same principle as mistreating someone you know won’t remember it.

“After you, Pres,” Yuna said. “Let’s not stick around for the reset, shall we?”

The classroom was indeed empty. Randy was really gone. All that remained was a backpack leaning against a desk, an open notebook, and a pen on the ground. Slowly, I walked to it, and took a look at its contents.

By Avalon, the penmanship was awful. From what I could decipher, it was notes on how our powers worked, ideas on how to balance day-to-day life with the hero life. Fighting in a place beyond what others could see. Scrawled in the corner, “Similar to The Dream Walker?” I cracked a small grin. So he’s read Erin’s webcomic.

I tried to commit as much of it to memory as I could.

“Leo. The reset’s gonna happen in like, fifteen. We should at least start heading back to the clubroom, or we’ll have to shift out in the open. I would say you could just come back after the reset, but…”

I nodded. “Alright. Let’s head back,” I said, closing the notebook. It will be wiped clean. The record will be lost. But… it was real. I’ll remember.

Or I’m delusional. That’s a possibility, too.

When I shifted back, Yuna was already in her usual chair, checking her phone. “Dude, we actually did it. We saved the internet. I’m gonna go and tell my brother. ‘You know what I did at school today? I rescued the internet.”

“The school’s internet, technically,” I said.

“I mean, was my statement fallacious? For all the students of the school, we saved the internet. That makes us worth of a legit medal, or something.”

Heroes aren’t in it for the reward. “We’re just doing our job.”

Yuna laughed. “You’re no fun.” She stowed her phone and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Gonna head out. I got some stuff to take care of.”

“Good work today.”

“You too. You saved the internet, too.”

I mean, I guess I liked the sound of that. I saved the internet. “Hah! But a mundane task for Caladbolg Montoya.”

“That’s the spirit. What are you up to? Wanna grab dinner?”

I said, “I’m gonna pay the Comics Club a visit. I mean, we gotta go looking for clients, sometimes, too. I think we could help Randy.” I don’t want to be useless.

“Heh. I was hoping for an excuse to procrastinate.” Yuna grinned. “Lead the way, Magus of Blue.”