While they had survived, the bunker was no longer the safe haven it once had been. Sean knew that Emmy had made her own choice to fight out in the open with her own body but he couldn’t completely assuage himself of his guilt. As guild leader it was has responsibility to keep them safe and he hadn’t been able to do that.

After the battle, while the rest of the Misfits rested, he had sat and watched as Alison and Aeon had confirmed the worst: Emmy had been infected by the undead and it was only a matter of time before she changed into one of them. For now, she appeared to be stable and in fact was ready to dive back in and begin leveling her character again. Sean suspected that it was just bravado at this point and perhaps the hope that something would kill her out there first before she had to be put down by her teammates.

Sean couldn’t look his good friend, Miles, in the face. The pain he saw there reminded him of his accumulated failures. First Shelly, then Kevin, and now this. Would the Misfits even be themselves anymore if they lost Emmy?

They’d lost too many already and for what? Their mission in San Francisco had been a failure for reasons they still couldn’t comprehend. The fact that people were being changed into dungeon bosses for some AI’s unknown purpose was deeply unsettling. All the fears that humanity had in the early 21st century regarding computerization and the rise of the machines had come true. People were out there killing each other mindlessly and without even realizing it in some cases.

And what could any of them do about it? The world had gone to hell and there was seemingly no return to what they’d had. While it hadn’t been a perfect life before, Sean realized that he’d been deeply sheltered his entire life. Looking back at it now, although losing his job had seemed to be the end of the world it, in fact it wasn’t. Even losing his marriage hadn’t really been about him. He’d known that Julie was selfish and had married her anyway. She was all he felt he’d deserved and when she’d pulled the plug on their relationship, it seemed like he’d deserved nothing; but, the truth was she’d done him a favor. Being by yourself was far better than being in a manipulative relationship like that. He’d been too close to the situation to see it at the time but now, with enough distance, he realized that he was better off without her.

He looked up as someone punched him in the arm. “Damn, why did you hit me?” he asked.

“Doctor’s orders. She said you were looking like we’d lost and needed a reminder to snap out of it,” Miles said reaching for one of the cups in the mess hall. He poured himself a cup of coffee and offered one to Sean. They sat for a few minutes drinking their coffee in silence.

Sean looked at Miles, studying his friend’s face. They’d been through a lot together and felt he could tell him what was really bothering him. “It seems like we’re leveling up but we aren’t really going anywhere. I don’t mean just geographically. More like we haven’t accomplished anything that tells us what’s really going on or how to change it,” Sean said.

Miles sipped his coffee and replied, “So life needs to lead to a definite destination. Is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s rather conceited of me but I think that it ought to.”

Smiling, Miles finished the rest of his cup in a single gulp, “Our lives never meant much before AO, but suddenly now that we’re in a game they should? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even in Champions, the point of the game was to have fun and collect loot. Aren’t we doing that here? And who says that isn’t good enough?”

Sean shook his head. “But the stakes are higher now. Our friends are dying.”

His lips were drawn as he replied, “Emmy’s not dead yet and you best remember it. I won’t quit on finding out what’s going on here either but sitting around and moping isn’t going to fix it. You can armchair quarterback this life as much as you want but that never solves anything. All you can do is grind through it.” Miles put his cup in the dishwasher and walked out. Now that the cleaning bots had been destroyed defending them, they did their own dishes.

For a long while after that, Sean just stared up at the ceiling and thought about his friend’s words. Miles was right – there was no use in trying to figure this all out in his head. He needed to get back to leveling up his Knight and go crush some zombies. Hopefully, they could save Emmy’s life in the process and figure out how to fix this whole mess of a world they’d fallen into.

******

Back on their mains, Thag, Seona and Linca had spotted another zombie encampment. After sitting around for a day resting and seeing everyone else on edge, Thag had finally had enough and said she was logging in. She’d suggested that they make it a girls’ run only since they’d never done that before and it had seemed like a fun idea. At first, both the other girls had treated her like glass but after Thag had charged into the first encampment and taken on about a dozen enhanced zombies they quickly gave up trying to mother hen her and got down to killing zombies.

This was the third encampment they’d found so far that day and by far the largest. For the previous battles, the three of them worked like a tank, DPS, healing combo with Thag tanking, Linca doing DPS healing, and Seona healing both of them when needed. With the size of the encampment and the fact that it contained several types of more difficult zombies, they would need to get a bit more creative.

Thag had been trying several things this morning to activate her own General Abilities. Thag wanted more power in order to be able to help her guildmates and this was the quickest short-cut. She’d spent some time with Tim before she’d left trying to get a handle on how he’d done it. The question was what type of metaknowledge did she have and how could she manifest it with Thag? From what she could gather, Miles had figured out his ability by playing lots of games where he’d played a rogue and Tim had figured his out because he was a huge D&D nerd and was constantly thinking about magical theory. Thag didn’t really have anything like that because Champions had been most of her adult life thus far.

Wait, that was it. She could use Champions as her metaknowledge. While it was a VRMMO, it wasn’t the same game as AO and that meant she could use anything she’d learned there to up her power. But what would be the best way to destroy a group of zombies if she was playing Champions? That game was a pure fantasy and didn’t have undead creatures per se. However, they did have creatures of the darkness which wasn’t too different. How did she fight them? Usually, she played an Unholy Knight so she was on the side of the dark ones in Champions; however, there was an event she’d played once a year where they turned on all the players and you had to destroy them.

Linca and Seona looked at her and she gave them the thumbs up. She picked up her demonsword and ran right into the encampment of about two-dozen enhanced zombies and three zombie giants. As she did so she yelled, “Darkness has betrayed darkness but even those most evil Champions must shine.” With that she slashed at the closest zombie to her and pulled an orb out of thin air with her other hand. The orb began to glow. A few seconds later she was engulfed in white light that blinded and pushed back even the most aggressive zombies.

***Congratulations! You’ve learned the General Ability: Aura Swap***

Since Unholy Knights were typically aligned with evil and darkness, her new aura was just the opposite and was quite similar to that of a Paladin’s. However, this ability was more powerful than Smashpal’s abilities given that she was already a powerful level 67 Unholy Knight.

Time to have some fun. Thag’s sword had turned pure white and she turned offensive with her tanking abilities, pushing in between them with her shield which seemed to blind and burn them and then stabbing them:

-1670 slashing/holy aura boost

-1597 slashing/holy aura boost

As zombie and after zombie fell she felt reinvigorated and cleansed. Her body had been tainted by these same vile creatures and she intended to make them pay. Ever since she’d been attacked in college she had vowed never to cry and never to back down from bullies and she wasn’t about to start now just because these bullies’ faces were decayed and nasty. Seeing her friends join her, she lost herself in the melody of combat. The holy light boosted her friend’s attacks as well and especially for Linca, who was already a Priestess, her healing damage went through the roof:

-3471 healing holy aura boost X3

Instakill

-2074 healing holy aura boost X3

Instakill

Wow, this ability could really turn the tide for them if she could show the other Misfits how to use it. Getting grouped up like this their holy damage seemed to amplify each other’s attacks and quickly the zombie encampment was no more.

Getting back to the bunker she tore off her micro-transmitter and jumped out of her pod. Alison and Emmy were just starting to get up when she left the control room and ran to the mess hall where the boys were eating lunch. “Guess what, folks? I just found a General Ability that will solve all of our zombie problems.”

Sean looked up first and asked, “How did you activate it?”

“You remember that holiday event where all the creatures of the dark turn on you? Well there is a temporary orb you pick up that allows you turn your dark energy to light energy. I remembered that and used it as the metaknowledge to do the same thing with the zombies,” Emmy’s entire body felt like she was on fire and her heart raced with excitement. “See here is the ability.” She shared her Seemi screen with everyone else and they could see where it said General Ability: Aura Swap.

Sean frowned, “It looks like it only works for players who are aligned with the dark. We never had that quest,” he replied. Well, that’s true. The ability probably wouldn’t work for Sean or Linca who weren’t dark aligned. Nor would it work for Laura since she’d never played Champions. But they still had two other formerly dark aligned players with them.

“Good point. But it should work fine for Miles and Tim. They both played the same dark aligned characters then as they do now,” Emmy said assuredly.

Miles just shook his head and Tim looked down. What was wrong? Looking at her, Miles sighed and said, “I never did that quest because I hate holiday events.”

Are you kidding me, Emmy thought? There was still Tim though – he was a power gamer and completionist so he had to have done it.

“No, that was one of the quests I’d been meaning to get around to,” Tim replied.

Seriously, this was bullshit. Emmy pointed at them and yelled, “Boys! You are all idiots!”