"I don't think we will be doing anything like that," I state.

  Anthony, the fedora wearing leader, pours some water from a water bottle on the ground and he moves his hand and the water lifts up creating a seat for himself. "Oh, I get it, you don't know how the world works anymore. Let me explain it to you. Ever since the purple wave came people have gotten abilities, we aren't all equal anymore. Some of us are better. I am better. Now, in my crew, we are luckier than most, four of us got these abilities and by my count there are only two of you. That gives us the advantage," their slimy leader says. He pours out more water on his hands and starts to make it dance between them like he is trying to intimidate us. I have dealt with student like him, he is a bully. A powerful bully, but if we give him the backpacks, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to stop there. One of his posse already has eyes on my wife.

  "We are not giving you our stuff, now go beat off," my wife retorts. She has always had a temper and now this personality trait could really get us in trouble. We do not know powers these kids have, if it is anything like mine, we could be in serious trouble.

  "That isn't a way for a pretty piece to talk," Anthony taunts shaking his head. He waits for us to react and my wife and I stare at him. He shrugs and says, "If that is the way it is going to be, so be it. Boys, light them up!"

  The ground shakes and my wife and I are tossed off our feet. The ground explodes like a landmine went off and my wife screams in pain. If I wasn't resilient, I bet I would be screaming too. Now I am grateful for the pain I experienced while tempering my bones, that pain then means that I don't experience the pain now. I don’t experience the pain when my life is on the line. The ground vibrations have little effect on me other than tossing me to the ground. At this point, my energy beam is at maximum and I aim my hand at the guy in the baseball cap. He is moving his hands up and down in time with the vibrations of the ground. He must be controlling the shaking. A dark blue energy beam shoots from my hand and hits him in the face. He screams for only a fraction of a second before the energy burns his throat and eyes. His skin peels off his face and revealing his white bones.

  You have slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100 experience, 50 honor points and 10 green sigils.

  "Whoa boys, we have a live one here, everyone on the dude. Don't let him get another one of those death lasers off, " a voice I do not recognize says this, but I know it isn't Anthony. There are indistinct shouts echoing around me as they come to grips with the death of their teammate.

  Bangs and snaps to my right reverberate across the skate park and my right arm stings. I look down at my arm and I am bleeding. I do not know what hit me, but it must be hitting me hard to break past my resilience. It turns out I am not invincible. I flick my wrist and my shield unfolds. When the next wave of bangs happens, my shield tings as bits of metal clink to the ground. I peak around my shield, in the direction of the bangs, and the boy in the metal helmet is grabbing the bits of metal from a pouch at his side. He must be firing these bits of metal at super speeds. I need to keep him focusing on me, there is no way Rachel would be able to take a direct hit.

  I see another guy running toward me and holding two bottles of water. After seeing what Anthony could do with water, I don't think it will be a good idea to let him spray that water on me. Anthony is pulling out his own water bottles and throwing them like grenades. Fortunately, his aim is terrible and his open water bottles go wide splashing the ground ineffectually.

  Pounding footsteps behind me causes me to remember that there are four skaters left, not just three. I turn my head keeping my shield between me and the metal pellet guy. The foot steps have stopped and I see the sneering face of the final teenager who is winding up to punch me. He connects with my shoulder and there is a bright flash and an extremely loud boom. I go flying back and knock over one of my opponents. If I didn't have Hardy, I would have been in deep trouble. The bottle the skater is holding spills on my pants and I can feel my pants get wet. The skater I crashed into still manages to keep his head in the chaos and is squirts the last of his water over my legs.

  The guy smiles turns to run and shouts, "He's wet. He's wet!" This isn't good, I do not want to think what will happen. I try to charge up my energy beam, but it won't flow, the cooldown must not be up. I really need to reduce that cooldown. My energy beam is my main weapon and without my beam I am merely a punching bag. The guy who got me wet backs away and starts to run toward Anthony, who is still grabbing water bottles and opening them to throw them. I am able to get to my feet before the next cacophony of sound. There is a bang from behind me, and I am not able to get my shield in position as little bits of metal sting my back and shoulders. While painful, it is not life threatening.

  Punch boy is charging me at this point and I bring my shield in front of me and manage to meet his charge. Catching his next punch with my shield, I am able to absorb his attack and remain on my feet. I try to charge my energy beam again, and this time it starts to charge. The puncher grabs my shield and tries to push it down so he can get a clean shot at me. He manages to push my shield to the side and grabs my shirt and he starts to wail on my face. Boom, boom attack after attack is causing me to flop around, a crunching sound comes from my face as pain shoots through it. It feels like my face is broken. Three punches into his assault my energy beam reaches maximum charge. I shove my hand right in front of his face and let my blue beam fly. His face cracks and blisters instantly and his skin pulls back. The boy screams and grabs tighter to my shirt. He collapses and brings me down with him.

  You have slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100 experience, 50 honor points and 7 red sigils.

  Two down three to go. I was bleeding from all these small puncture wounds in my back and arms and my face hurts underneath my left eye. They ached, but the adrenalin in my system wouldn't let me stop, even for an instant. The pain I experienced in the tutorial, was much worse than this and I kept myself awake then. I need to push through the pain or another chance may not come. I begin to pry the dead man's hands off my shirt as I am hit again in the back with bits of metal. I wish I could shield myself, but both my hands are needed to free myself. Just ten more seconds and I'll be able to charge my energy beam again. I need to last that long.

  The skater that squirted water all over me is screaming in the distance, "He's already wet, I know I got him. Trap him Anthony, trap him." My pants tighten and freeze solidly in place. I am not able to move my legs. I am finally able to pry the hands off of my shirt but I can't stand up, I can't move my legs at all.

  "Silas, Silas, I got him frozen in place, hurry up and end him," Anthony shouts at the guy wearing the metal helmet.

  "I can't, I've been hitting him with everything I have. My pellets move as fast as bullets and they aren't even slowing him down," Silas, the boy who was pelting me replies.

  "Then walk up to him and stomp him to death. He can't move. Stop trying to play it safe and just end him! He killed two of our crew. End him," Anthony screams.

  I can't move my legs, but I can move my arms. I place my shield awkwardly in-between me and my attackers. I think about slipping off my pants, but with my legs bent the way they were, I would never be able to take them off. All I have to do is to keep them talking for ten seconds and I will be able to shoot Anthony with my energy beam and then I'll be free.

  "You children are pussies, there is no way you are going to survive this," I shout at them.

  "What do you know old man, you are the one stuck to the ground," Anthony retorts.

  I struggle to try and free my legs, but they aren't going anywhere. Suddenly, a figure in the corner of my vision is running our way. I look over, Rachel rushing toward the pellet guy. This catches him off guard, but he is able to recover and I hear a bang as metal pellets hit her in the gut. Her momentum takes her forward, but blood does spray on the sidewalk. Rachel's hand glows green while she is charging and holds her stomach for a second before she reaches him and swings back with her hatchet. She buries the hatchet right through his metal helmet and into his head. A loud crunch and a crack come from his head as blood spurts out all over Rachel's hands and face.

  Your party has slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100 experience, 50 honor points and 12 green sigils.

  Rachel's hands glow green again and she touches her gut again, probably healing up the last of the wounds. Once the green glow subsides, she whirls to face Anthony and his water lackey.

  "You bitch! Get her wet, get her wet!" Anthony's lackey grabs some water from the ground, clearly fear of Rachel in his eyes. He is staying out of arm's reach of the ax wielding bad ass that is my wife. The lackey throws one of the water bottles at her. She knocks the flying bottle to the side with the flat side of the hatchet and it sprays on the ground to the left of her. My wife starts to run forward toward the pair. Without any more bottles of water, the lackey blanches in fear and he turns around and starts to run down the street. Anthony, not as scared, pulls out more water and flings it at her. When Rachel goes to bat this one away, she catches this bottle more with the blade than the flat and it sprays water all over her legs. My wife's eyes widen as Anthony smirks. She stops dead in her tracks, falling down to her knees about five feet away from Anthony.

  "Well, well, what did I tell you guys, it's a new world with new rules," Anthony explains. "You both killed my crew; you are going to pay for that." As he says this, I can feel my wet clothes tightening, constricting themselves around me. Rachel let's out a gasp of pain. "I will particularly enjoy taking it out of you, sweetheart, and your pretty little mouth." Rachel's head snaps up and white-hot rage fills her eyes. All of her pain is forgotten as she reels back with the hatchet and swings. He is not close enough to hit and he only laughs at her attempt. Rachel seeing that she can't reach him pulls back and throws her hatchet. The ax finds it's mark and buries itself in Anthony's chest. Anthony looks down at his chest, surprise and pain flashing through his face. His eyes roll back and he collapses forward. A sickening squelching and clanging reverberates across the park as the ax hits the ground and dislodges itself from his chest.

  You have slain another competitor in honorable combat, you are awarded 100 experience, 50 honor points and 9 red sigils.

  As Anthony dies, freedom returns to my legs and I am able to stand up again. The lackey is making a full-on sprint down 20th street trying to put as much distance as he can between him and us. No mercy for the wicked. My cooldown has elapsed and I charge up my Energy Beam to level five before I aim and fire.

  You have slain a civilian in honorable combat, you are awarded 20 experience, 10 honor points and 3 blue sigils.

  Blood is still pouring out of my pellet wounds, but this is nothing compared to the carnage Rachel and I have left in our wake. For the first time today, a sense of power floods me and I have true confidence in our ability to survive these Gate Wars. Rachel is staring at Anthony's body. She spits on him and yells, "Fuck you, asshole! You your pretty little mouth." She starts to kick him and furiously cursing. "Fuck you! You raping little fucktard." She keeps kicking him harder and harder cursing the entire time. She begins to sob and softly says, "Fuck you!"

  I walk up to her and place my hand on her shoulder. She spins around and grabs me in a hug and starts to cry. Her hands get wet with the blood on my back and she looks at them and stifles her crying. Focusing on the blood, her hands start to glow green, "Let me help." I hug her as she places her hands on my back healing me. Getting healed itches. The bones in my face knit back together and my back skin tightens and as the metal pellets that were lodged in my back fall to the ground. I let my wife go. She has stopped crying by now. She wipes her eyes and says, "That earthquake guy broke my legs from the get go, sorry I wasn't of more help."

  "More help? Rachel, you were a bad ass. I thought we were screwed when he stopped you in your tracks and then you threw your ax. Bam! That was bad ass! We will have to get you a proper weapon."

  She smiles at the praise, "Speaking of which, we should probably get our hatchet back." Turning around she lifts bends down to lift up Anthony’s body. She is heaving at his body when his body starts to turn to dissolve into ash. I start to bend down to help when I notice the dissolving. I say something to her and when Rachel finally sees she backs away and stares mouth agape. A few moments later his body is ash. A purple sparkle comes into existence and a gray water bottle and some silver coins are left after the sparkles fade from view. She bends down to pick them up, the coins disappear as soon as she touches them, the bottle stays in her hand and she begins to concentrate on the gray cylinder. "An everlasting water bottle, apparently it pulls water from the environment to refill itself twice every day."

  "Did he just drop loot?" I ask.

  Rachel barks out a laugh, "Yeah, I guess he did."

  I walk over to the other corpses and start to search them. As I expected, they begin to turn to ash similar to Anthony. After looting all the four competitors, we wound up with 615 credits. That is what the silver coins are. One of them drops a magical baseball cap sporting the Rockies logo. Another drops enchanted weight lifting gloves and the last one drops another everlasting water bottle.

  Camouflage Helmet: Durability 46/50 Hardness 4. Increases the chance to go unnoticed by 20%.

  Gloves of Gripping Durability 21/25. Increases the strength of the wearer while gripping and grabbing by 100%.

  Everlasting Water Bottle. Absorbs moisture from the air at a rate to refill itself twice per day. Works while stored in your personal inventory.

  I want to avoid people noticing Rachel as much as possible, so I convince her to take the baseball cap. I take the gloves, because we should both earn loot from our first victory, and we are each left with an everlasting water bottle. We decide that we will evenly divide all the credits we loot to use as our own fun money. We try to divide up the sigils, but when we try we find that sigils aren't tradeable and we each got different types and amounts. sigils will just have to be something we each have to earn individually. We continue to walk down 20th Street and arrive at the body of the civilian I killed. Just like the other bodies, when we touch him, he turns to ash. He drops 3 red sigils for me and 12 credits that go into the pot to divide up.

  Chapter 5

  **EDIT**20th Street leads us past Coors Field. Luckily the Rockies are not playing a home game or this area would have been packed with people. On the other hand, if this area were packed, maybe we wouldn't have been attacked. I can’t help but think of all of the people in the world now, disconnected and alone. I am extremely grateful for Rachel, she is keeping me grounded. She is my rock, I don’t know what I would do without her. Instead of the cacphony of people, quiet surrounds us as we make our way down the street. The level of quiet is eerie when compared to the normal bustle of a city. We should have seen more people by now, where are all the people? Normally, this area would be sparse of people, but not barren. In fact, we don't see another person until we hit Broadway. It hits me that the world is different now. Maybe that purple wave had a greater impact on the world than we yet know about. It strikes me that anything could be happening in the wider world and I would never know about it. With the electronics out my connection is cut off. No internet, no television.

  When we do see people, they all seem to be heading in the same direction, toward Capitol Hill. It makes sense, if these people knew someone who experienced the tutorial they would have been told that Capitol Hill is where the Gate is. We get about halfway down the block before I stop Rachel and tell her that I think all of these people are competitors like us. There is usually safety in numbers, and we do not see any active battles. However, Rachel and I were still very wary.

  "Do you think we will be attacked when we get to the Gate?" I ask.

  "If everyone who got abilities is like those skater douches, then, maybe," Rachel replies hesitantly.

  "Should we still go? We could lay low for a few days; we have the food. Let the douche bags kill each other."

  "Will, I love you, but you know as well as I do that we have to go to the Gate. We can take care of ourselves. Hell, we just killed five people in under two minutes. Between your energy shots and my healing, we are in a great position to actually survive these Gate Wars. We need to grow and develop and these Gates are the best way to do that. We need to grow as strong as we can, so we aren't ever the victim."

  "Rachel, we can always explore the Gates later. Those skater douches broke your legs and shot you. What if someone gets a lucky shot and hits you in the head or heart and you aren't able to heal it?"

  "If ifs and buts were salad and nuts. Bottom line is if we don't grow as strong as we can as fast as we can, then we will regret it. I will regret it. We will become victims of people who took this opportunity to get more powerful," Rachel is a lot of things, determined, passionate, logical, but she was never great at sayings. I have given up on correcting her, but she is right. No one is going to sweep in and protect us. We will have to protect ourselves. The tutorial pointed us to these Gates for a reason. The purpose of these new powers is to fight in the Gate Wars, that is where the real rewards are. Maybe risking our lives is worth it.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6