5. Hard-Light Hero, Part 5

  Sam had shown up and we were in the process of reintroducing ourselves when the news hit. We didn’t know what was happening, exactly, except that everyone’s phone started going off telling that there was an emergency and to stand by for further details. We turned on the television, which is when we learned that something was happening at a nearby chemical factory. We were being warned that the mayor was issuing an evacuation order for the nearby area when Uncle Tommy pulled me aside.

  “Luke,” he said, looking around nervously. “Luke, look, what I’m about to tell you is classified. I told you that the projector you’re using, that it’s for … I don’t know, executives to attend board meetings and stuff, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Seems a little weird that it can put a whole through six inches of steel then, doesn’t it?” he asked.

  “I figured you were just tweaking it because it’s a prototype,” I pointed out. “I mean, as long as it doesn’t actually do something dangerous, then there’s no problem--”

  “That’s what I’m saying though, Luke. I can turn off those safety settings. You could be like Superman, or Iron Man, or whatever superhero it is that you used to like.”

  “I liked all of them,” I reminded him. “DC and Marvel both. I didn’t even realize that there were two different universes--”

  “It’s not important. Here’s what is important, Luke. One of the things we wanted to test this device for was it’s use in emergencies like this. If nothing else, you can go into hazardous areas that nobody else can without special protection. You can figure out what’s wrong, and maybe you can help the authorities keep this emergency from becoming a bigger disaster than it already is. All I have to do is turn off your safety settings and--”

  “Absolutely not!” My mother screamed from the doorway. “How can you even suggest this, Thomas? You’re the one who’s always insisting we treat him normally!”

  “Believe me, Katherine, I’m only doing this because there’s a chance that if we send him in there, he might be able to save lives. He’s in no actual danger; he’s not really in the projector. It’s streaming his consciousness from the ER server where his brain simulation is still running just fine. Even if the projector is destroyed, all Luke will experience is being disconnected from the projector, which will be like any other unexpected disconnect. It’s happened to him before.”

  “And it totally sucks when it does,” I pointed out. “But yeah, Mom, Uncle Tommy’s right. If I can save lives, then I should at least try, shouldn’t I?”

  “And what about what he’ll witness when he goes?” she demanded. “What if he can’t save anyone, and all he can do is witness their final moments? We should leave this to the professionals.”

  Uncle Tommy looked at me, and then at his phone. “Luke, I’m going to disable your safety protocols. I am going to set it up so that your skills from EternalRealms interfaces with the capabilities of the projector to the best that we can make work. I’m not telling you to go, but --”

  I was already gone, running from the house at a full sprint.

  And I was fast. Because I was already using [shadow walk].

  I whipped through the streets, passing through crowded traffic like a speedster in a superhero movie. Unfortunately, when I set out, I only had a vague idea what direction to travel in. That problem was solved when my HUD’s minimap popped up, the location of the chemical plant a glowing red dot. I adjusted my course and began closing the distance, but I still figured it would take fifteen minutes to get there.

  Fifteen minutes, while I was traveling at eight miles per hour. I didn’t like that our house was so close to something so dangerous. What if the spilled chemical was, like, a nerve gas or something, and the wind blew it to our house before my family evacuated?

  “Luke, we’re pushing you a new gear set. It will make you look like a fireman, but that’s on purpose,” Uncle Tommy told me, surprising me a little because the voice seemed to be coming from just left of my head.

  “Uncle Tommy? Where are you?”

  “I’m on my way to the office. We’re … Luke, there are some things I haven’t told you or the rest of the family. EternalRealms has some military contracts. There’s stuff that we can do with our hardware and software that the public isn’t meant to know about. I’ve informed the first responders that we’re sending in an experimental device to help with the emergency and we’re trying to get access to their data so that we can feed it to you in a useful way.”

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  “Right, okay. So what do I do?”

  “Just equip the gear set like you were in the game. We labeled it gear set [firstresponderAlpha],” he informed me.

  “Equip [firstresponderAlpha],” I said, and suddenly my body changed. The clothes that I had been wearing, the physical ones to hide the glow of my hard-light body, fell behind me as I didn’t stop moving, and suddenly I was a faintly glowing fireman. I didn’t feel any different than when I’d been wearing my teenage-self’s appearance, but now I looked to be in my twenties, generic, with an oxygen mask over my face. Not that I could tell, but when I watched the videos later, that’s what I looked like.

  “Right. We’re working on getting access to the blueprints and CCTV feeds from the factory so that your map will work once you arrive. But before you get there, you should test out your abilities to make sure they work. The ones that are grayed out are incompatible, only the ones that are lit up are the ones we think you’ll actually be able to use with this hard-light body.”

  With the [Map] and the [Skill List] pulled up, I had to slow down a little as I ran, but I was surprised to see just how many of my skills Uncle Tommy thought I could use in the real world. [Fireball], [Shadow Walk] [Shadowflame whip], over a dozen of them.

  “You want me to use them?” I asked, somewhat surprised because some of them were actually very destructive.

  “Um, how about just the whip to make sure that you can use it. It’ll drain the projector’s power too fast if you go through all of them, I wanted you to check the list more than anything,” He admitted. “I didn’t want you reaching for a skill to find it wasn’t there.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “That would have sucked. It’ll still probably happen, but now I’ll at least know why.”

  Issuing the mental command, I summoned my whip and whipped it around a light pole, swinging myself forward to increase my speed. I grinned madly and prepared to do it again when a flashing of my HUD gave me a warning. I was at [68% MP].

  “What the hell? That cost me like one third of my mana!” I complained.

  “Actually, it was more like two percent of your energy,” A new voice said from behind my right ear. “Seven percent has been used simply maintaining your projection, and the rest since you began moving at speed.”

  “Who the hell are you? Where’s my uncle?” I demanded.

  “I’m Captain Trevers,” the new voice said. “And this operation is now under my command. Your uncle has explained to me who and what you are, and that you’re willing to help. If you want to do so, you will follow my commands. If not, I’ll pull the plug, and you’ll wake up back in your … what do you call it? Dimensional closet?”

  “That’s a totally lame name. It’s a [Pocket Dimension],” I informed him. “Don’t I have to join the army or something for you to give me orders?”

  “Son, you are either interfering with a military operation or cooperating with one,” he answered testily. “I am only approving it because using hard-light projections to investigate hazmat zones has already been a suggested use of the technology, and because your ‘uncle’s’ suggestion puts no actual lives at risk.”

  There was something about the way he said that that I didn’t like. Oh, right. The bit about “Actual Lives.” Technically he was correct, since I wasn’t physically there. But did this asshole even see me as a person?

  “I want to speak with my uncle. Put him back,” I said.

  “I’m here, Luke. Captain, remember, you’re dealing with the mind that was captured digitally at age twelve. We’ve tried to mature it as naturally as we can, but even if he was actually seventeen, he’s not an army recruit, or even a reservist or something like that. He’s just a kid who plays EternalRealms a lot. If you want results, treat him as if he’s a civilian teenager. Just remember that none of your decisions can put him in physical danger, because he’s not actually going to be going inside the hazard zone.”

  “I think I understand the suggestion, Mister Feldman,” the captain said, annoyed. “I’m sorry if I came off the wrong way. It’s Luke, right? What you’re doing is very brave, and I do approve of your actions. If I didn’t, I would have the tech boys I’m sitting with simply deactivate the projection core and send somebody to collect it once the danger has passed. If I sounded annoyed earlier, it was because, while I approved of the testing of the device using the parameters your uncle provided me, I was not told of the exact circumstances, nor the identity of the pilot. Your existence – this brain-capture technology – is a secret that EternalRealms has not seen fit to share with its military liaison until an urgent phone call about fifteen minutes ago.”

  “Why would the army care about some kid trapped in a video game?” I asked, confused. “Look, whatever. I want to help, so tell me what to do. That’s what you want, right? Well fine, I’ll totally follow your orders if it helps.”

  “That’s all I needed to hear, son,” the captain said. “Now, we’re going to make a bit of an entrance. Just ignore all of the cameras, the police, and the other people dressed as fireman when they start screaming at you to turn back.”

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