Chapter 19: The Flight to Winner City
1888 Words
One moment, Gurm was falling to her self-induced death at the bottom of a glowing green sea of dark-matter. The next she was opening her eyes inside the consciousness-transference cloning tube in the Infinity.
Just outside the glassy vat, in Takol’s ship’s infirmary, all of her friends awaited. Takol, with his white armor, was perched over a box of medical supplies, while Kramen stood by the door and poor Serry drank some warm tea while wrapped in a blanket.
“Killed you too?” Serry asked the newly revived teammate.
“No, it just left,” Gurm said. “I had to kill myself to get back here.”
“Wait, it left? The Choker?” Takol asked.
Gurm nodded. “He ate my staff and left.”
“Oh no!” Serry realized what that implicated. No more time bending!
“It’s no big deal,” Gurm waved Serry’s worries away. “I can make another one, with the right components. Though I would rather avoid all that, if possible,” she threw Kramen a crooked, accusatory look.
“Still not happy about my methods?” Kramen asked, holding his ground by the med-bay’s entrance. “What have we learned today?”
“That you’re crazy?” Serry asked and laughed, followed by Gurm.
“That’s what we learned,” Takol pointed at the laughing duo. “You two seem to be getting along really well.”
“We did work pretty well together,” Gurm nodded at her newest ally. “Even if that wasn’t enough to kill the thing.”
“Okay, seriously now,” Serry stood up and dropped the blanket on the ground. “What I learned is that no matter how well we work together, we got exhausted real bad, real fast. Physically and dark-matter wise”
“Second that!” Gurm said.
“You know what we need to work around that?” Serry asked Kramen in particular, and he nodded.
“A bard.”
“Yes!” Serry smiled. The same smile Barry had seen in Sarah days prior, just now on a face topped by snow-white hair and fair skin. “I just don’t know any bards.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Takol said. “Unlike other classes, finding a bard is super easy, barely an inconvenience. Wherever there is a crowd, there is an audience, and wherever there is an audience…”
“There is a bard,” Serry complemented.
“Mega Fleet used to be packed with them, back in the day,” Takol said. “Now I suppose the most certain place to find one would be Winner City.”
The four players exchanged glances and nods amongst themselves. Winner City made sense. It was the first place in Fantasy Stars any player visited. As soon as a character was created, they spawned in a train bound for Winner City, making that the busiest urban landscape in the entire galaxy. The place where newbies arrived, elite players showed off, merchants gathered to trade the spoils of their adventures and major guilds set up recruitment stands. A bustling hive of business and culture, always packed with players, most of which would stop to enjoy musical numbers or comedic plays planned, organized and executed by bards.
“I like the idea,” Gurm was the first to voice her agreement, even though everyone seemed to be on the same page about visiting Winner City. “The market there will have some of the materials I need for a new staff.”
“Also a good place to sell all those Bluehorn spoils I have in the fridge,” Takol added.
“Then it’s settled,” Kramen said. “Takol, plot a course to Winner City. Serry, if you’ll log out, there is something I want to show you.”
***
Barry rested his gaming helmet on top of his blue beanbag, then stood up and walked over the broken glass from the window to sit at his desk. Sarah pulled Luca’s study chair to sit beside him. Behind them, Luca remained limp on the green pouf, helmet still on as he guided the Infinity across the stars.
“What’s it you wanna show me,” Sarah asked inspecting the laptop that displayed a strange interface.
“This is the TOPAS,” Barry explained. “It’s a System I built to help us simulate teams and choose the best players to join us.”
“Sounds nice…” the girl said. “How does it work.”
“Here, let me show, you,” Barry quickly typed in Serry Frost, and a resumed profile of Sarah’s character appeared on screen:
[SERRY FROST
[Physical Damage: 200
[Dark-Matter (Damage): 300
[Dark-Matter (Diverse): 780
[Tech: -
[Endurance: 100
[Support: 500
[Healing: -
[Spawn: -
[Overall: 1,880]
“Cool!” Sarah smiled broadly. “I have never seen those numbers myself.”
“They’re not official,” Barry said. “Just a numeric estimate to better translate the sum of your skills in the context of an FSL match. Now let’s see our team…”
[SERRY FROST | KRAMEN BLACKSKY | GURMONYA BEARIUS
[Physical Damage: 250
[Dark-Matter (Damage): 300
[Dark-Matter (Diverse): 1,600
[Tech: -
[Endurance: 300
[Support: 1000
[Healing: 600
[Spawn: 800
[Overall: 4,850]
“That’s a big difference…” Sarah hummed.
“That’s because it looks at what we can do together, not just the sum of our scores. Now, let’s use this to find ourselves a bard, shall we?”
“Let’s!” Sarah rubbed her hands together.
Barry punched in a few commands and selected a few filters, and the System spilled a list of bards ranked by overall power.
[BUSTER THE ROOSTER: 3800
[ALAN ADAM: 3770
[KELLY EUROCENT: 3765
And the list went on.
“Seems like an obvious choice,” Sarah shrugged. “Talk to the Rooster guy, if he says no, we check out the others.”
“Not so fast,” Barry said, then ran back to the team simulator. “We’re not looking for the best bard in the world. We’re looking for the best bard for our team. Let’s see how compatible Mr. Rooster is to us.”
[SERRY FROST | KRAMEN BLACKSKY | GURMONYA BEARIUS | BUSTER THE ROOSTER
[Physical Damage: 450
[Dark-Matter (Damage): 600
[Dark-Matter (Diverse): 2,000
[Tech: -
[Endurance: 600
[Support: 2000
[Healing: 700
[Spawn: 900
[Overall: 7,250]
“That’s a nice sum!” Sarah smiled.
“Is it now?” Barry crooked an eyebrow at her direction. “The impact he had in our overall score is less than his own personal score.”
“Oh my! You’re right!” Sarah scratched her head and frowned. “How?”
“His support skills are probably not in line with what you and Gurm need to get on top of your game. Someone with a lower score than his may prove more useful to us specifically,” as Barry said that, he stood up and took a step away from the desk. “Now, Sarah, I have a mission for you.”
“Sounds exciting…”
“Find the best bard for our team while I go potty.”
Sarah laughed as Barry retreated to the bathroom, but before he could shut the door, she called out:
“Barry, wait!”
“Yes?” Barry poked his head out again.
“This System… You made it?”
“I did.”
“Man, you may be a dork, but you’re a brilliant dork.”
Barry smiled, then vanished into the restroom, deciding to take that as a compliment.
***
Serry and Kramen walked into the cockpit of the Infinity side by side. Takol was piloting through the blurry lines of passing stars while Gurm napped on the passenger’s seat. Once the remaining two members of the crew arrived, the reptile pilot looked over the back of his seat at them.
“You two weren’t making out next to my unconscious self, were you?” Takol asked.
“I have a boyfriend out there, smart pants,” Serry said and lodged a conjured snowball between Takol’s eyes.
“We were looking for a bard,” Kramen explained.
“Any luck?” Takol asked.
Serry nodded. “We found one who should double our overall score!”
“Sounds good…” Takol returned his attention to driving the ship. “And this bard guy… he’s in Winner City?”
“The System suggests he spends most of his time there, yes,” Kramen confirmed. “Though it’s impossible to tell if he is there right now.”
“But someone must know the guy…” Serry said as she sat down on a seemingly unimportant control panel. “His reputation score’s insane! He’s neck to neck with many popular streamers and pro-gamers.”
Takol discreetly glanced at Kramen, who just shook his head. So, Sarah did not know about how important it was to get someone with a high reputation score on the team. Anyhow, if the player they found was so reputable, that would be way more than enough to fulfill the requirement to enter as a Wildcard Team and skip all the rookie leagues.
“And what’s this guy’s name?” Takol asked.
Kramen and Serry looked at each other and suppressed a mutual giggled.
“Apparently his name is Lord,” Kramen said.
“Lord?” Takol raised the scaly leather where his eyebrows would be. “It’s not a title, it’s his name.”
Kramen and Serry nodded.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Serry said. “You’re thinking this must be one of those silly kids who makes a bard just to have fun and fool around doing stupid tricks. But his impact on our score was fantastic, so I think we should at least give him the benefit of the doubt.”
But even as Serry talked, Takol just shook his head and looked straight forward, thoughts dispersed on the sea of stars opening before him. He muttered something inaudible at first, but that got louder as he nervously squeezed the helm on his cold palms.
“That’s not at all what I’m thinking, sweetheart,” he said at last. “I’m thinking you’re in way over your heads dealing with this guy.”
“You know him?”
Takol nodded. “His last name. What is it?”
Serry looked askance at Kramen, who nodded allowing her to speak.
“Potathunder,” she whispered. “His name is Lord Potathunder.”
Takol massaged his reptilian temples and let out a long breath through his oversized nostrils. “Yup, congratulations…
“You’ve just decided to recruit a legend.”
- Writer
