Chapter 9.B

“You should have seen the look on the kid working the register. Dractus was yelling in his face “Give me sustenance human!” Half the time I can’t tell if he is serious or if he is purposefully fucking with people,” said Jimmy.

“Oh he’s fucking with people,” said Cerulean.

“Damn that sounds like a good time. I’m sad I missed out,” says Hank who is still laid up in his med-bay bed. Hank is happily munching on a triple cheeseburger and coke while he listens to the adventure that Dractus, Jimmy, and Cerulean went on without him. Suzie is still next to him, she hasn’t left his side.

“Oh I forgot, I got presents for everyone!” shouts Jimmy. He digs around at his feet in the bags of food and pulls out the Zippo display. He hands one to Hank that says Kill Them All and Let God Sort Them Out. He hands one to Cerulean that has an image of a mermaid on it with long flowing blue hair. He hands one to Dractus that has an extremely stylized dragon on the side of it. Lastly he hands one to Suzie that has a rose on it.

“Cool, what is it?” asks Cerulean.

Jimmy flips open the one he decided to keep and shows them how it produces a flame.

“Oh wow, very thoughtful gift Jimmy. Is that why you bought them?” asks Cerulean.

“Honestly I bought them as an initial payoff to get that old man to show me the security footage, but earth has a saying I am fond of: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“So what does yours say?” Asks Suzie. Jimmy holds his lighter up for all to see, it reads: F.B.I. Federal Booty Inspector. This elicits a round of chuckles from everyone.

“So what’s next?” asks Hank.

“We are going to wait for Bertha to surface. I’ve also got a digital BOLO out on the vehicle that was used to kill the kids at the blind school. The windows were tinted so no ID on the driver and the license plate had been removed. In the meantime we were thinking we could squeeze in some training for you two,” says Cerulean who is referencing Jimmy and Hank.

“I thought I was bedridden for a while?” asks Hank.

“You are, but some of an Arbiter’s finest training can take place during convalescence. Arbiters get hurt a lot, we devised ways to use the downtime productively a LONG time ago,” said Cerulean.

“You’ve peaked my curiosity. What about Suzie?” asks Hank.

“She should probably head home. Things are only going to get more dangerous from here,” said Cerulean.

“I’ve been thinking about that...” says Suzie who is looking very concerned. “What would I even say, I mysteriously disappeared in the middle of a bank robbery in which authorities saw an unidentified airship. Even if they don’t know it’s a spaceship or if they were sworn to secrecy or whatever, how could I ever go back?”

“I’ve got that covered,” says Cerulean as she pulls out her tablet. “Normally I would just take you to whatever authority that recognizes the Arbiter Core on your planet, but this planet doesn’t have one. Also the digital infrastructure of your planet is relatively weak compared to what I am used to working with and I’ve been setting up Root Kits in important databases since we landed on your planet. I’ve got you a new identity. Your new name is Suzanne Smith and you have a bank account with two million dollars in it. Your new drivers license and bank card are printing off in my office right now. I’ll bring them to you soon,” says Cerulean.

Hank, Jimmy, and Suzie’s eyes are wide open as they all sit in surprise. Suzie is the first to reply. “Wow, I umm… I don’t know what to say. Thank you. Does this mean I shouldn’t go home?”

“That’s more of a question for Jimmy. I’m not intimately familiar with how law enforcement works on this planet. As a general rule of thumb though, yes, don’t go home. I calculated the two million amount based on the average price of homes and vehicles in this area. Was that not enough?”

“Cerulean I only clear about 60,000 a year. If you spent it right and invested you could live off 2 million dollars forever. Well I could at least,” says Hank.

Jimmy jumps into the conversation next “Yeah Suzie, just don’t call your parents for at least 2 weeks and tell them to keep your re-arrival on the down-low and you should be fine. I don’t know the quality of this fake identity, but don’t apply for public office or a security clearance or anything like that and you should be fine.”

“Well again, all I can say is wow. I’d like to stick around for a bit longer if that is okay with everyone,” says Suzie.

“It’s going to be boring around here, and we can’t take you with us when we get a line on Bertha,” says Cerulean.

“If it’s all the same, I’d still like to stay for a bit.”

“You’re welcome here.”

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. Each of them lost in their own thoughts. Jimmy was a light eater, just something he picked up always being in someone's crosshairs over the years. So he opted instead to watch Dractus eat at least twenty cheeseburgers in the span that it took everyone else to finish their meals. In fact Dractus was the one who broke the silence.

“What animal was that from?”

“Cows,” replies Jimmy.

“Cerulean, we should get some of these cows before we leave.” Cerulean shakes her head and laughs as if she is used to Dractus’ antics by now. Cerulean jumps up and claps her hands together.

“So who is ready to start training?” she asks.

“Shouldn’t we wait for our food to digest?” asks Jimmy.

“Where we're going, we don't need digestion...” says Cerulean. Jimmy and Hank exchange a confused glance.

“Unfortunately Hank, I’ll have to ask you to get up. This is a small ship, it’s not a far walk. We are just going across the hall and the monitoring machines work remotely and there is another set where we are going anyway. I wouldn’t risk your health.”

Jimmy, and Suzie help Hank get to his feet and he winces a bit when his leg with the gunshot wound lands on the ground. They can’t get a good view on it because it’s still wrapped in the transparent bandage with the horizontal blue lines through it, but Cerulean assures them it is not infected and healing at an extremely rapid rate. They limp him out of the room holding him up and take him down the hall about ten feet to another futuristic looking bulkhead door. Like the room they were just in the entire hallway is purple including the floor which is just a slightly different shade of purple. Once they go through the door they find themselves in a room with ten different chairs, a few are vastly different than the rest. They all have strange looking helmets connected to the head portion that remind the humans in the room of salon style blow dryers.

“Wait a minute,” says Jimmy. “I would recognize this set up anywhere. Is this the fucking Matrix?”

“I’m unfamiliar with the term,” says Cerulean.

“Like a computer world where you teach us Kung Fu?” asks Jimmy. Hank just looks confused. “Hank don’t tell me you didn’t see the Matrix?”

“I didn’t buddy, sorry,” Hank replies.

“This is my standalone version of the MetaSpace,” says Cerulean. “We are using Arbiter software not available to the general public. Remember when I told you that Arbiters get the best tech? You are about to experience some of it first hand. Jimmy and Hank you take those first two chairs.”

Jimmy and Suzie help Hank into his chair which promptly reclines just a bit which makes Hank let out a sigh of relief. Sitting upright was agitating his wounds. Jimmy sits in the chair next to him and his chair also reclines.

“Suzie you can come up here with me, we can watch the show from here. Or if you get bored, hungry, or sleepy let me know and I can help you out with any of those things,” says Cerulean as she gets behind a slew of monitors on a raised pedestal. Dractus walks to the middle of the room and grins menacingly.

“Why does he look so happy?” asks Jimmy.

“He has the same look a few of my drill sergeants had at my first day of basic,” says Hank. “I may not have seen this Matrix movie, but I know what happens next. Bring it on,” he says with a smile.

“Alright this standalone version of the MetaSpace will be running at four times normal speed. Meaning four hours in there is only one hour out here. So if you feel like you have been in for a long time, don’t worry. All Arbiter training sims have pain immersion set to 100% so if you get hit in there you will feel it. Your profiles will be created using the biometrics of your actual bodies. So whatever limitations you have now will still apply in there, minus your current injuries of course Hank. I’ve taken those out so you can get the most out of this training. That’s the general disclaimer I give all initiates. For the record. I have to get verbal confirmation from the both of you that you are willing participants in this Arbiter Training-Sim or the software won’t let me initiate it.”

“I’m ready and willing,” says Hank.

“Me too,” says Jimmy.

“Alright then, hold onto your butts.” says Cerulean. She starts typing into her console which Hank and Jimmy can’t see from their perspective since they only have a view of the back of her monitors. Their chairs recline a bit more and the helmets above them automatically lower further on their heads. Hank and Jimmy can hear small servos articulating as the VR helms reconfigure to fit their heads perfectly. A small rubber seal extends out of the bottom of the helmet and adheres itself around their neck and shoulders which feels slightly claustrophobic since it is pitch black inside of the helmets now.

“Can you guys hear me?” asks Cerulean.

Jimmy and Hank both respond that they can. Without further warning Cerulean starts counting backwards from ten. As soon as she hits one the helmets rip off of Jimmy and Hank’s heads and their chairs fall out from under them. They are falling through man-sized leaves, different sized branches, and dense vines. Jimmy’s stomach lands on a branch at some speed which immediately causes all of the air to leave his chest. Hank hits a similar branch a few feet lower but his weight is too much so the branch snaps and he keeps falling. Their eyes that were just starting to adjust to the dark helmet interiors are now being assaulted as the light slanting through the leaves hits their pupils. Hank is grasping at everything he can, leaves, vines, branches, but everything is snapping with the combination of his momentum and weight.

“Fuck!” shouts Hank as his hands slip from yet another vine and he continues to tumble and fall. His rapid descent takes him past the lowest level of branches and he knows the inevitable time to hit the ground has come. The last branch he hit snapped him around so he is falling back first now. He can see Jimmy above him jumping from branch to branch and swinging from vines like a spider-monkey trying to get to him. That’s when he hits something with some give, but the fall is still hard enough to almost knock him out and then he falls again another ten feet or so landing face first on the ground. One of his wrists took the brunt of the fall and Hank can already tell it is broken.

Hank rolls over and is surprised to see something that looks vaguely like a Woolly Mammoth. He doesn’t remember them being so muscular with three trunks and six eyes though. The mammoth is fucking pissed that it just took a Hank missile to the spine. It’s snorting hard and starts stomping its front two feet like it plans to charge Hank’s position. Hank flips over onto his back and starts pushing away with his feet slowly to slide his body backwards through the dirt and strange undergrowth that he doesn’t recognize around him. As he is about to hop up and run he sees Jimmy swinging from a vine Tarzan style straight at the Mammoth…

“Take this fucker!” Jimmy shouts before impacting with the thing’s skull, feet first. The mammoth’s head visible rocks to the side.

Jimmy bounces off and lands in a heap, the Mammoth is staggered. He pops back up faster than a crackhead looking for a score and is running towards Hank. Jimmy reaches down with one hand for Hank to grab.

“Come with me if you want to live,” he says with a smirk. Hank reaches up to grab Jimmy’s hand still shell-shocked from all of his injuries and other strange on-goings. As soon as their hands touch a mammoth’s tusk erupts through Jimmy’s chest, his blood sprays Hank’s face.

“NOOOO” Hank shouts. The Mammoth rears up taking Jimmy’s body with it then it lifts its front legs and brings them down onto Hank’s chest, instantly killing him.