The Game: Just an Ego Wound
By Sean McDonald
"What happened?" Spectreblade thought.
"What do you think happened?
We were bested in combat by a group of snow monsters," the soul within
his medieval armor silently responded.
"Oh. I remember now." The hero
replied as he looked around the hospital room he found himself in.
"’Tis not like us to fall so easily."
"I know. I’ve taken down hordes
of Paragon Protectors, and I get beaten by a bunch of snowmen? What’s
up with that? I mean, c’mon. Those guys should’ve been reduced to
slush in seconds…"
Spectreblade’s internal dialogue was cut short
by the sound of an opening door. A nurse walked into the room carrying
some papers. "May I talk to you for a second?"
"First of all, could
you explain how a high-level scrapper like me can be beaten by a bunch
of walking snow cones?" Spectreblade asked with annoyance in his voice.
"That’s just what I was going to talk to you about. You see, we noticed
some unusual activity on your brain scans while we were treating you."
"What are you talking about? I feel just fine… well, apart from a
bruised ego."
"Tell me, Spectreblade, have you run into anything unusual?"
she naively asked.
"You do realize we heroes see unusual things all
the time, right?"
"Of course. How silly of me. I’m just trying to
find out about what happened."
"What about that package we found?" Spectreblade’s
armor reminded him.
"Of course. The package," he thought.
"I remember
now. I found one of those packages the Gamester’s been leaving around
town. This weird music came out when I opened it. Strange thing is,
there were no snowmen in it like the others."
"Interesting. Where
did you find it?" the nurse asked.
"It was in Founders’ Falls, near
Sussex Academy." The nurse was shocked.
"Did you say Sussex Academy?"
"Yeah. What’s the big deal?"
"That’s the school where all those kids
disappeared from! Have you been living in a cave or something?" The
nurse continued to explain what Spectreblade should’ve already known.
"Then the kids robbed Van Biesbrouck’s diamond exchange."
"That’s
odd. A while ago I felt this strange urge to go there, but I had more
important things to do."
Spectreblade and the nurse finally put two
and two together.
"Then that means you were affected by the same force
that’s manipulating those kids!"
"What?!" Spectreblade yelled, his
fear showing even through his full suit of armor. "You mean to tell
me someone turned me into a mind slave?!?!"
"Well, tried to, at least.
It looks like you were able to partially resist it thanks to your
armor’s shielding abilities, but it’s still affecting your judgment.
We’ll try to get an empathy therapist to undo it, but it’ll take time
to find one, and even then, it’ll be a slow process getting you back
to normal. Until then, we’ll just have to wait."
With that, the hero
picked up his sword, realizing this was no time to be scared. "What
do you mean, ‘wait’? Those creatures are still out there." The nurse
wasn’t going to let him go that easily. Spectreblade tried a different
approach. "Besides, if I try to do something especially stupid, the
armor will stop me," he told the nurse. She tried to argue with him,
but it was no use. He was already out the door.
After virtually begging
the receptionist to let him out, Spectreblade made his way from Aquarius
Medical Center, leaping across the rooftops of Peregrine Island, the
blue glyphs on his armor seeming to glow in contrast to the black
metal in the light of the rising sun. He stopped on top of a building
above where he was defeated earlier. The monsters were still there,
milling about as though they were waiting for further instructions
from their master. There were three of them left, ranging in size
from four to eight feet tall and made entirely of snow and ice. As
they looked around for a new target, the knight started to plan his
attack. The armor projected its thoughts to its wearer. "We must be
more careful this time. Remember, you’re not at full strength right
now."
"I know that. Now we need to think of a plan." Spectreblade
thought for a moment. He looked back on his past battles for ideas
on how to approach this one, but one stuck in his head. That one was
against his new nemesis, the former mage-turned-walking-metal-shell
known as the Armorbound. The metal stalker was easily defeated due
to his inexperience, but Spectreblade got the inspiration he was looking
for. "I got it. We go stealth, sneak up behind the big guy, and take
him down before he knows what hit him."
So, Spectreblade put his plan
into action. He jumped down to the street below and carefully crept
up on the largest of the three monsters. "Remind me to thank the old
rust bucket next time he tries to kill us," he thought as he approached
his enemy. He was just within striking distance when it turned around
and hit him with a backhand to the face, sending him flying. "What
the Hell?! How did he know I was there?" He thought aloud as he got
up. Then he saw the dark corrosive mist on the ground around him and
the small puddle around the snow beast’s feet. "Damn death shroud!"
he said angrily as the creatures closed in.
"Trying to sneak up on
someone with death shroud on, huh? That is just priceless."
"I know.
What, did he think he was a stalker back there?"
Spectreblade came
to as he overheard the nurse’s conversation with a doctor.
"Back so
soon?" the nurse half-jokingly asked.
"It’s the armor’s fault!" The
knight shouted.
"Right," the doctor said.
"No, really, it is."
The
nurse patronizingly replied, "Of course it is, Spectreblade. Now just
stay there and get some rest. We’ll be back." With that they left.
"’Tis a poor carpenter who blames his tools, my friend."
"You know
you’re the reason we got beat again. What, did the Gamester affect
your mind, too?"
"Perhaps so. In that case, I think we should wait
here until we recover."
"We can’t do that!" Spectreblade yelled. "While
we wait here, those monsters could be beating up some random guy on
the street!"
Then he heard a shout through the wall. "Shut up in there!
I’m trying to sleep!"
Spectreblade jumped out his hospital room window
and was once again on his way to the site where the creatures were.
As they came into view, a small man carrying an assault rifle flew
backwards past him and landed on the pavement behind him. He picked
the hapless gunner and carried him up to a roof, but it was too late.
He was already unconscious. Spectreblade took a look at the ID card
he had dropped. "Now let’s see who you are," he thought as he read
it.
Name; T3h 00ber 1337 5kl1xz0rz!!1!!1
Security Level; 9
"What’s
he doing in a high-level place like Peregrine Island?" Spectreblade
went on to read the description.
1 wnt 2 b t3h 6r8ist h3r0 1n t3h
c17y & 5h0 tem 1 r0xx0rz!!!!1!!!one!
They’d read enough.
"Oh,
I see," the armor thought. "Looking for a shortcut to glory, are you?
Sorry, my friend, but fame doesn’t come so easily." The fallen gunman
faded away as his emergency beacon sent him to the hospital.
"If the
nurse thought we were fools, she’s going to love this guy," Spectreblade
thought to the armor. "But even so, this is why we got to stop these
monsters."
"Agreed."
"Well, let’s roll, then!"
"Chivalry lives!"
Spectreblade
let out his battle cry as he charged toward the snow creatures, sword
in hand and armor shrouded in protective shadows, running on pure
emotion. He glared at one of the beasts, freezing it in place. He
threw a bolt of dark energy at the smallest of the snowmen, ripping
a hole through its torso. He jumped at it and sliced its legs out
from under it. The monster collapsed into a puddle and disappeared.
The he turned his attention to the big guy. The beast, still weakened
from their last encounter, hurled spears of ice at Spectreblade, but
the knight leapt out of the way just in time. He closed in and swung
his sword upward, cleaving the creature in two. "One more to go,"
he thought. The last remaining snowman had just recovered from the
knight’s gaze in time to see a gleaming steel broadsword hit it right
between the eyes. That was the last of them. There was nothing left
to do but triumphantly raise his sword into the air and look overly
dramatic. His self-congratulatory fervor was interrupted by his cell
phone ringing. "Can’t you see I’m gloating?" he thought. He answered
it. It was the nurse from the hospital.
"What are you doing out there?
You should be in bed!" she said, annoyed.
"Don’t worry. I beat them.
I’m on my way back now," Spectreblade replied.
"Good. The therapist’s
here and we’re ready to begin your treatment. Oh, by the way, wait
till you hear about the patient who just showed up."