Sector 1 – Year 2236 – Month 2 – Day Twenty-Two

Ani rolled from the living into his kitchen, as he had dozens of times already.

“Is the anything I can do?” Reggie asked politely.

Ani didn’t really have an answer for him. Ghost and Mary rushed off to deal with some emerging issue, but made sure to drop Adam off back at Tartarus first. He couldn’t continue training, because he had to stay at his current level if he was going to complete the three quests Hidarian laid out for the Wrathic skill. He could of stayed in Tartarus and watched Georgia and Faraday research the quests further, but not only would it have driven him crazy, but there was the potential for him to gain experience in random skills that he didn’t ever use, thus adding to his issue of staying at his current level. So he opted to sign out. Time passed faster in Asphodel anyways, Mary and Ghost could settled their issue and send Adam a message to his grav chamber when they were done.

“Ani, there’s someone at the door.” Reggie pulled up the video feed to Ani’s front door in the living room screen just as Ani was wheeling back in from the kitchen. It was woman who appeared to be in her mid thirties. Adam just stared at her. She didn’t ring the doorbell, but instead looked suspiciously around the hall before attaching something to his door. Her furrowed brow conveyed a seriousness that he had not seen in the real world for some time.

“She is trying to scan the apartment, but I’m currently blocking her,” Reggie said.

“Reggie why does she look so familiar to me?”

“Hold please…I have scanned her facial features, but I can’t find a public profile.”

“Cross reference with Asphodel’s user base and profile images,”

“There are no profile images that match…Ani…” Reggie pulled up a still frame of Mary’s face from one of his recorded session. He put the image next to a snap shot of the woman’s face at the door.

“Oh my god,” Ani said incredulously. “Reggie, open the door.”

Ani wheeled into the entrance way for his apartment, just as the door slid open. The woman was looking down the hall, but turned to face the door, her slate blue eyes boring through Ani. They were cold, and emotionless. Ani felt the need to readjust the position he took in the wheelchair, even though it was impossible without Reggie’s help. Her jaw was tight, and clenched; it was exceedingly clear that she hadn’t showed up for a social call.

“Ani Kitos.” she said sternly.

Adam blinked in disbelief. It was her. It was Mary in real life, standing on his doorstep. The similarities between her and her in game avatar were mind blowing, it’s almost as if she wanted to look the same.

“I…yes,” was all that Ani could fumble out.

“Good,” Mary pushed passed Ani and pulled a black rectangular case from her back and set it on the floor.

Adam motioned for his door to close, then reached down to the wheels beside his chair and rotated to face her. She tried to scan of the room, but Reggie was still interfering with her equipment.

“Adam should I alert the authorities?” Reggie asked.

“No,” Adam hesitated, rethinking the answer. What if this wasn’t Mary? What if it was just someone that HTG sent that looked like her “No, Reggie not yet.”

“Yet,” the woman chuckled.

“Very well,” Reginald said cautiously. “I will remain at the ready.”

“I hate to break it to you Adam, but you’ve got a much bigger problem on your hands than me. I tried masking you’re identity here in the real world, but it didn’t work.” the woman said walking up to him. She crouched in front of his wheelchair so they could speak face to face. Her body was thin, but the muscles where tight. She wore a sleeveless black shirt that conformed to her body, and black cargo pants that hugged her legs. Her hair was dark brown, and short, the front bangs tucked behind her small ears. She was by no means traditionally beautiful, with her angular features and muscular body, but Adam found himself attracted to her nonetheless. Her confidence and seemingly independent and powerful nature contributed to that.

“Mary,” he said in a hushed voice.

She nodded curtly.

“You look…”

“Very similar to my host,” she finished. “They never expect that in the real world. They just assume everyone who spends a great deal of time in Asphodel isn’t happy with their life. So using your true identity and physical appearance can have it’s benefits when you’re looking for anonymity…ironically enough. You had the right idea with your name,” she looked his withered body up and down. “The rest was out of your control.

“Ani, I’m not able to access the genetic sample that was taking during Mary’s pre-registration for Asphodel, but I can tell you that this woman’s phonetics are near identical to Mary’s user. There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that she is indeed the person behind Mary’s Avatar.”

“Thanks,” Adam said, unsure of what else to say to either him or Reggie. He was still coming to terms with the fact that Mary was in his apartment.

“Reggie?” Mary called. He didn’t answer.

“Go ahead Reggie,” Adam confirmed.

“Yes Mary?”

Mary squinted at Adam curiously. “He only answers to me unless instructed,” Adam explained

“That’s illegal,” Mary said teasingly. “Especially for someone with your condition who could need dire medical attention at a moments notice.”

Adam smirked, “What are they going to do, kill me?”

Mary tilted her head back in laughter. “Do you have a pair of gravlegs?” she asked.

Adam shook is head, “Paraharness.”

Mary flinched. “What? That’s and antiquated piece of technology,” she slammed a hand down on the wheel of his chair. “And this?”

Adam cleared his throat. “It’s a wheel chair, I use my arms to propel myself throughout the house.” Mary blinked purposefully long to convey a sense of bewilderment. “Several hundred years ago it was the only thing that paralyzed people like me had.” Mary continued to stare. “I’m a bit of history buff.

“I know what it is, I’m just shocked that you actually have one. Congratulations. Let’s hope it doesn’t kill you,” she said quickly. “Reggie, I need you to secure Adam in his paraharness while I set up my gear can you do that? I also need you to stop blocking my gear.”

“Your vocal patterns, retinal scans, and body temperature does not convey any ill will or deceit toward Adam. Yes, I can complete the task you’ve posited.”

“Well that was easier than expect, illegal indeed,” Mary said with smirk.

Mary rushed over to her case on the floor as Adam’s paraharness floated out of his bedroom and into the living room. She typed something into the skinterface on her arm, then moved the case into the kitchen and laid it on the counter horizontally. Adam wheeled over to the paraharness before Reggie used a variety of different gravports through out the room to lift him up and get him situated in the paraharness.

“So tell me,” Mary started while placing her flat palm on the case. Electrical whirs and a series of metallic clanks rang out before the case begin to separate into slats and unfold like a blooming flower. “You’re whole apartment is grav certified, it has to be given your condition. The UWGB is required to provide you with top of the line gravlegs, and yet you roll around in a wheel chair and use a paraharness, which if I remember correctly wasn’t known for it’s comfort,” Mary began removing items from the case. Adam couldn’t see everything, but he did spot the small blades that she slid into either side of her belt. “What gives?”

Reginald lowered Adam into his paraharness. It was an old, strap on system that created a mechanical exo-skeleton around Adam’s lower half. Mary took several small disks out of the case and started flicking them around the room. Each one floated to a specified location and attached itself at shoulder height to one of the apartments walls.

“Gravlegs can be hacked,” Adam secured the straps around his waist. “Wheelchairs can’t, a paraharness can’t.”

Mary started searching the apartment in various ways. Adam watched as Reggie finished securing him in the paraharness and ran through checks for all of the mechanical systems. She checked the seams of every piece of electronics he had. She surveyed each window and door. She even ran her hands over every inch of his bed. Her fingers must have had a variety of sensors installed just under the tips that relayed information back to the skinterface on the back of her hand.

Mary returned to her case and looked up at Adam. “Smart. Were you always this paranoid or is it because of more recent events?” She returned her focus to the case and started rummaging around. Adam could hear metal pieces snapping together.

“Always this paranoid,” he said quickly. “You haven’t told me what the hell you’re doing here yet.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Mary said without looking up. She raised a M4 assault rifle out of her case and pulled the firing pin back, letting it snap forward with a decidedly menacing ‘clack’. Adam was familiar with the rifle because it was very similar to the one that Ghost used in Asphodel, it even had a grenade launcher attached to the bottom rail, but this wasn’t a game. This was the real world, where guns had been outlawed and abolished for over a century. Adam’s silence caught Mary’s attention.

“HTG found you Ani. They’re sending people to kidnap you, like they did Lisa,” she looked back down at the case, but continued talking as she worked. “I don’t how they did it, Tony’s looking into it. The priority though is to get you out of here. Luckily, HTG is all about doing things quiet, so they’re disguised as a riot control squad to blend. They won’t have any lethal firepower like I do, and they don’t know I’m here.” Mary pulled two pistols from her case and set them on the counter. She pulled the slide back on one, checked the chamber, then holstered on her right leg. Then she did the same to the other and holstered it on her left leg.

“I…” Ani stumbled his words. “You’re going to use those…to like…kill people?” he asked sheepishly. “Like for real?”

Mary slammed her hands on the table and stared at him. For a tense couple of seconds, she remained quiet. Logic prevailed over emotion and she realized that Adam had never seen violence before, not in the real world. Asphodel was great to help people get their frustrations out, but it didn’t erase a two decades of living in a world at peace. Adam knew Asphodel was a game and despite the fact that understood the severity of the situation, he was now starting to accept the reality of it.

Mary sighed, “They killed Lisa. They plan on killing you and billions of innocent people. These aren’t aid workers, or honest peace units coming to take you Ani. They’re killers. Killers disguised as anything but, and they plan to make your life immeasurably painful until you give them what they want.”

“Mary if I may,” Reggie interjected. Mary went back to her case. “Ani, I’ve been doing research on my own since you’ve started working with Mary and the HTG.”

“You decided to do that on your own?” Adam asked.

“Yes. You’re my friend, and I will always do what I can to make sure you’re safe. My research into HTG raised more than a few concerns, but I know that you trusted Mary and wanted to see where she led you. After she revealed HTG’s true intentions a few days ago, I researched the concerns further. HTG has deep ties in the UWGB utility and financial districts. Fifty employees within the districts have disappeared over the last ten years, including Mary’s sister. We can review the information later, but with the proper leverage in these two districts, HTG can destabilize the entire world and plunge it into chaos. There’s also this…”

Reggie activated the holographic screen in the living room. A video appeared that showed a well dressed business man in an exceedingly expensive suit sitting behind a large conference table. “Reggie what is this?” Ani asked.

“It is a live feed to the boardroom at Ascendant Technologies.”

Ani shook his head, “How…what?”

“Since we’ve been looking at ways to transfer me into Asphodel,” Ani looked back at Mary to see that she had stopped what she was doing and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Ani just shrugged as he didn’t want to cut Reggie offer. Mary smiled and went back to her kit. “I’ve been working on expanding my knowledge of code and hacking. There was only so much for me to do locally, so I started cracking into more sophisticated systems that may be useful to us in the future. Richard Gouda is the CEO of Ascendant Technologies, and very open about his involvement in Asphodel under the under name Andion.”

Mary scoffed, “Impressive Reggie, but I think we just found out how HTG tracked you down Ani.”

“Reggie, why would do that?” Ani asked, clearly annoyed.

Reggie unmuted the video. Mary and Ani watched Richard shout into his holographic communicator. “I don’t give two flying shits what you have to do to take this little prick down, you do it NOW! I couldn’t care less that he’s paralyzed. What the hell do you need an exact address for? Send in both teams under the guise of a routine peace evacuation of the building and snag the little dick and make sure it’s done right. Hold on…No I have to go, some asshole named Reginald just hacked into our systems from sector fifteen for the third time this week. Get it done!” Richard slammed his hand down on the holographic controls, then opened a new line. “GARY! Get me IT I want this hacker found.”

“Huh,” Mary said closing up her case. It whirred and retracted back into itself. “Sector fifteen Reggie?” she asked looking up at Adam.

“The furthest sector from out current location, yes.”

Mary grabbed a small metal disk that was attached to her belt and tossed it at Ani’s window. “I stand corrected.” As soon as the disk made contact with the window, it shattered, and imploded falling all over the dining room floor. Mary grabbed her case from the counter and tossed it through open window.

“We’re twenty stories up!” Ani shouted. Beyond the wind that was blowing into the window, an quite, electronic humming rolled in to the apartment. The case hovered up to the middle of the window with ionic boosters under it and shot out into the sky.

“It’s a surveillance drone too.” Mary said with a wink. She blinked twice. “Oh, and not a moment too soon.” The drone was feeding video back into her contacts. Ani could the video moving over top of her eye. “We need to get moving. Reggie you’re coming with us, I can’t wait to see what you can do in Asphodel.