File Three: Level Up

I peered around the circle of torches. I rubbed my arms like I felt unbearably cold, even though the weather seemed to be nonexistent in the Altered Plain. The drums thumped louder in my ears and nearly matched the beating of my heart. A hooded and cloaked figure approached me. “See you on the other side, love.”

Travis’s voice baffled me, as he hadn’t been allowed in the trench’s proving ground, so his communicating with me should have been impossible.

“Welcome, child.”

Goosebumps formed on my arms as the whispered rasp of the figure hung in the air. “I’m not afraid of you.” My voice clearly shook and I failed to hide it.

A familiar wheeze sounded, followed by a chuckle. I remembered the warehouse and shuddered.

“I see why he chose you. Indeed.”

“At that warehouse, you watched me, didn’t you?”

The figure nodded ever so slightly, I thought he hadn’t moved at all. “We always watch over you. We are Cicada. There are three thousand thirty of us. If you pass our test and get tired of being a Glitcher, you can become three thousand thirty one. We look forward to this.”

The figure stepped to the right, and gestured to another mirror-like portal. A long, grand, golden hall stretched out before me. I noticed busts of names long past in the streaming world. Legends in their own right, but they all shared one thing in common. Dead.

“The clock will start the second we confirm that you are properly reconstructed on the other side. Make it through this place in time, and you will become one of your heroes, as I believe you’ve stated over and over, D.”

I opened my mouth, but the figure vanished in a puff of smoke. Cicada seriously creeped me out. I gazed into the portal hall and felt a surge of energy in the midst of my hesitation and leaped into the liquid mirror. As soon as my feet touched the thick red carpet, I ran down the hall, only to have multiple voices fade in and out of my head like static. “Hey, I’m— And I’m not so—Hey guys, it’s—Hello, my name is--” I gripped my head and groaned. Too loud, and too much time wasting away if I stopped to listen to all of the history here. The static clued me in to the possibility that a glitch may be nearby. I carefully studied each of the golden busts and paused at the one that had two heads. One appeared to have straighter shoulder length hair with a lighter strip off to the side, and the other head displayed a mess of curls and frizz like me.

I stepped closer to this figure, and reached out to touch it, when an AI voice spoke into my mind. “We are coming for you in ten seconds. You don’t want that.”

I breathed in and touched the figure head on the left. The one with curls. I noted this statue’s off shaded hue. It shined duller than the others. My hand passed through the figure. Footsteps dragged across the carpet, and I caught a glimpse of some kind of monstrous robot when it turned the corner. I pushed my way through the bust, and the wound on my side pulsed a little.

“Hello. You have selected to watch a compilation of moments with my dad, entitled Holograms of Himself on Spoofy.” The hologram of a younger thin man with rather wild hair phased in and out for a minute. “As awesome as that would be, technology hasn’t been able to recreate my dad the way I’d like, so you’ll just be listening to me.”

I chuckled nervously. This had been an interesting glitch, but the clock shaved away precious moments I had left. I observed the hologram pick up a skull that had a blonde strip of hair that had somehow survived decomposition.

“Alas, here lies poor Egoraptor. His speedrunning did suck, and the lovelies chose to keep me around for my dad impressions, eeeeeeeeeeeeeh, bye!”

The room around me disappeared, and I turned around to see the robot creature behind me. I felt a scream catch in my throat and ran further down the hall. The hallway itself flickered in and out of existence, and I realized I walked in the dark black on the edge of the Altered Plain. I freaked out at the robot for no reason. He had been held in the confines of the game. I kept my head at a constant swivel, but did not find much other than the solid abyss around me.

“Hey, D.”

I started at the sudden voice. “Ryu?”

“Yeah, Travis decided to let me help. Eugene’s still pretty occupied. Anyway, I can see a smg blaster drop to your upper right.”

“Thanks, Ryu.”

“Love, you’re almost through it. Just like a stream. Find the save point.”

“Right.” The weird transmission left, and I moved to my upper right and dove through a hall wall and rolled into the weapon drop.

The robot stared at me for a second before charging at me with a mechanical screech.

I fired the sub machine gun and sprayed a wall of plasma down the hall. I managed to graze the robot’s arm and I also managed to destroy most of the busts in the hall. The force of the shot caused me to stumble back a little.

The robot ceased to rush me and gripped its arm. I heard a wail down the hall and to the left, so I sprinted to the noise’s source, only to be greeted with another wall. “Help me!”

I pressed my hand against the wall, hoping to find another glitch. Unfortunately the wall remained solid. I shifted my attention to the injured robot walking around the corner. I attempted to aim better and held the trigger down. I scored a critical on the machine’s head and watched it spasm as it fell to the floor.

Crying alerted me to the person behind the wall. “Please, I only have a minute left to live. They voted to—”

I punched the wall. Something about the wall shifted. “Hang tight. Fight if you can. I’m coming.”

A whimper answered me.

I analyzed my surroundings and spotted a few narrow ledges that I figured I could try jumping on, even though I got the feeling that I technically needed to find the “proper” route. I knew that I didn’t have time to find the right route, so I jumped and sort of stuck to the wall below the first ledge, so I jumped again, and I climbed the wall in that manner.

“D, what did you just do? That wall, it—”

“Eugene! I could have used your help back there.”

“Researching. Gonna be a while, sorry. I’ll pop in again when I notice anomalies, though.”

I shrugged. Eugene and his cryptic ways. I returned my focus to the task at hand. The wall turned to a flat roof with a vent. I shot around the vent and jumped on it. I landed with a crash into the room below. I scowled at the small girl who cowered in the corner.

“Thank you. They threatened to, and then they voted for some guy to—”

“Bastards. Let’s go.” My stomach churned at what the poor kind said.

“Love, there you are. Better than I expected.”

“How did you get in there like that?”

I considered Ryu’s question when an old video came to mind that showed a similar scenario. “I Borderlands it, I guess.”

“What? Well, whatever. There’s another weapon drop straight ahead.”

“Thanks.” I gripped the girl’s hand and pressed my hand against the door. It creaked open. I sighed when the save point illuminated the area in front of me. In front of the save point, a plasma rocket launcher hovered above the floor. I pulled the girl along with me and switched out weapons when I heard a vicious roar. A huge leopard dropped down from the ceiling. I felt its breath on my skin. If I tapped the trigger on the rocket launcher, the blast would send the big cat backwards and into the save point. I surmised that the risk of that to be too great. I pushed the girl to the left. She staggered and fell to the floor. The leopard pounced to the girl, but I slid my body between the predator and the girl with the launcher on my shoulder. I aimed for the beast’s chest and fired. The leopard nearly split into two as it flew up to the ceiling. I told the girl to close her eyes. Blood rained down and splashed on my face. The girl trembled, judging from her shaking hand in mine. I dragged the girl and myself into the save point.

“D!” Ryu’s arms enfolded me into his chest. “I watched the whole thing!” I perceived a possible glare from Ryu directed at Travis, but I dismissed it.

“So?”

Travis clapped a few times. “You returned a precious child. Welcome, Glitchers.”

“Only one of me.”

“I added the other two. Teamwork. Strength in numbers and all that.”

I grinned at Ryu. “Wait til we tell Eugene.”

“In any case, here. Next objective.” Travis tossed my visor at me.

I caught it and listened to the message on speaker. “You’ve officially ranked up to fifteenth most watched streamer. This means you will have a chance to become one of the big shots. You know the consequences of failure.”

I blinked and did a small dance. I placed my visor on my head. It booted up faster than normal and read my thoughts more accurately. A mysterious folder appeared on my desktop, and I selected it. Maps flashed before my eyes and had points marked in flashing red. I removed my visor and grinned. Steamer’s Paradise fiftieth annual tournament. Excitement clashed with fear in my chest.

Next Chapter: File Four: Shambles