Chapter 1: Reboot

“Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.” - Buddha

Avery Reynolds yawned hugely as she pulled open the plain glass doors of Johnny’s Eats Bar and Grill. Inside, the yellow light of fluorescent bulbs gave the room a homey atmosphere, with faded images of hamburgers and chicken fried steak on walls covered with wood paneling. Booths of torn faux leather seats surrounded large tables covered in an epoxy surface, scuffed from years of use. The air smelled of bitter coffee and sizzling bacon, and Avery paused to take a deep breath, letting the scents rouse her sleep-addled brain.

“Good morning, Miss” A deep, gravely voice called from behind the counter. “Your usual today?” The deep-bellied man stood towards the back of the open kitchen, dumping a laden scoop of hashbrowns into a to-go container. He grabbed a pair of tongs and tossed long strips of bacon onto the pile of hashed potatoes, then closed the lid.

Avery moved further into the diner with a smile and waited for the man in front of the register to pay and step away before she answered. “Good morning, Mr. Rivera. Yes, but the eggs scrambled please, with a little bit of cheese on top.”

The cook grinned and got to work, even as Avery fought another yawn. “Early morning, eh?” He asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

Avery shook herself, embarrassed. “Long night,” she replied with a shrug. Mr. Rivera smiled and accepted Avery’s payment, then handed her the box of food. Grateful, Avery headed back out to the street to catch her bus.

It had been a long night, and she had no one but herself to blame. She had been up until nearly 2 am, raiding with her guild on Tales of the Everblossom. She’d known that she would regret it in the morning but it had been worth it - they had finally killed the final boss of the Prison of Eternity raid, the Dread Prince Temmerell. It had taken them months of beating their heads against the difficult fight, and they hadn’t been sure that they would be able to complete it before the new expansion was released. But they did it, and Avery had had trouble going to sleep even after she logged off, because she’d been just too hyped.

Unfortunately, she would now be paying the price of her single-minded focus last night. It was Monday and she’d have to teach a bunch of teenagers how to analyze complex metaphors on 3 hours of sleep.

The bus was crowded, but Avery managed to find a seat and squeezed in between a young man in a sharp gray business suit, his long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a 12-year-old boy with spiky purple hair and a nose piercing, holding his backpack on his lap and playing a game on his phone.

“Good morning, Ms. Reynolds,” the boy greeted her after glancing up from his phone.

“Good morning, Conner,” Avery shot the boy a warm smile. “Are you ready for your math test today?”

The boy’s face split into a comical grimace. “Bleuch,” he muttered. “Miss Avery, why do we have to study this stuff? It’s so stupid.”

Avery considered for a moment, then asked, “Can you tell me, how many days will you need to work at Grungy’s in order to afford that new hoverboard that you want?”

Conner’s face fell and his brows furrowed. He shrugged. “I dunno.”

Avery smiled. “Well. I guess that’s why you need math, huh?” She watched the boy scrunch up his nose, and she chuckled, then let him return to his game. Normally, Avery would have pulled out her own phone and checked her various chat messages, but today she instead leaned her head back and let her eyes drift closed. She once more relished in the feeling of accomplishment. It hadn’t even been the fact that they had killed the dread prince that had felt so good. It was that crystalline moment when everything had just… clicked. It was like in that instant, Avery and her friends had been as one. Every movement choreographed perfectly, every attack anticipated, their teamwork flawless. It was those moments of pure unity that made every grind worth it, in Avery’s opinion. It was what she lived for.

Avery wasn’t sure when she had drifted off, but she awoke with a start when Conner pulled at her arm. “Come on, Miss Reynolds! We’re here!” Avery shook herself awake, embarrassed that she’d actually fallen asleep on the bus, but eternally grateful for the young boy. She followed Conner and a few other kids off the bus and down the street to the block of cement and steel that made up Northridge Public Secondary School. The teenagers rushed into the building, but Avery paused at the edge of the lot, staring up at the building. The eastern side was new, the metallic supports still shining brightly, and the gray walls smooth and unblemished. The new wing had finished construction the previous spring, and the sight of it still filled Avery with pride and excitement. She wasn’t sure how she had scored one of the new classrooms, but there it was - third floor, 4th window from the right. Her classroom. New furniture, new technology, and (best of all) windows! All hers.

As with every time she looked up at her classroom, Avery’s delight was accompanied with the slightest feeling of unease. She wasn’t sure how she had managed to become one of the senior educators in her department. Even after 6 years of teaching, she still felt like such an amateur, and most of the time she thought she had no idea what she was doing. She had no idea how it happened that her colleagues actually seemed to respect her abilities and she was absolutely sure that someday they would realize how little she actually knew.

For now, though, she would enjoy the new classroom and the thought that maybe, just maybe, she might someday feel like she had earned the respect they had for her.

Taking a deep breath, Avery prepared herself to be her best self - at least for a Monday, on 3 hours of sleep - and turned to follow the students into the building. She had barely taken a couple steps, however, before she stumbled as her world went momentarily dark. Thrown off balance, Avery tripped and landed hard on the sidewalk, the concrete skinning the palms of her hands even as her to-go breakfast tumbled out into the street. She was distracted from everything else, though, when a window popped up right in front of her eyes.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

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Planetary Reboot Commencing

System: Tales OS 10.1

Please Wait…

…

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Welcome, Avery, to Tales of the Everblossom, Patch 10.1: Gaia Reawakened.

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Avery blinked, then shook her head. Was she hallucinating? Dreaming? Had she fallen and hit her head too hard? She tried to look around, but every way she turned her head, the window remained in view. It was vaguely translucent but the view through it was a smokey gray. Feeling frustrated, Avery shook her head as if trying to knock the window loose and in a blink, it vanished, allowing Avery to see her surroundings clearly again.

She still sat on the sidewalk in front of the school, the dawn light only just beginning to peak over the walls that separated the educational buildings from the rest of the city. At first glance, Avery thought she was alone, but then she turned and spotted movement on the sidewalk behind her, near the bus stop. Three teenagers were standing around a fourth kid who lay sprawled on the grass. Avery started forward, frowning, then stopped when she realized she knew the kids. They were her own students, and not kids she would have expected to see bullying another. Greggori and Trevor were brothers, with Geoffrey a year older. Greggori was a member of the competitive science team, while Trevor ran track. The single female was Jasmine, Greggori's on-again-off-again girlfriend. Teenage dramas made Avery’s head spin, but the two were usually amiable enough even when they weren’t attached at the hip. The boy on the ground was Leo, who Avery had in her basic reading class. He had dyslexia and Avery feared that years of traditional schooling had left him in a permanent state of discouragement and self-loathing, at least where education was concerned.

Only mildly worried, Avery continued towards the group, and was a few dozen feet away when she saw Trevor turn towards the alley between a pair of squat 2-story buildings. “What the-” he muttered but broke off when a shape leapt out of the dawn shadows and charged towards them.

At first glance, Avery thought it was a medium-sized dog, but the hissing sound it made was like no canine Avery had ever heard. She raced forward even as Jasmine pulled Leo to his feet and they all turned to run towards Avery, away from the charging animal.

Later, Avery would wonder what possessed her to charge towards the animal. She wasn’t a fighter and didn’t actually know what to do with a wild dog, one that probably had rabies. But she knew that she was the adult, and had to protect her kids. So, she positioned herself between the shape and her charges at the very moment that it leapt. She raised her arm at the last minute, intending to knock the animal aside while reaching with her other hand in an attempt to grab its collar if it had one, or the scruff of its neck if it didn’t. Instead, the thing latched onto her forearm and 2 pairs of fangs sunk deep into her flesh, one set from the top of the jaws and a smaller set coming up from the lower jaw.

Avery let out a scream of pain - she had never been bitten before, and the agony was almost enough to short circuit her thoughts. She managed to stay in control of her body, however, and took a grip of the scruff of the creature's neck with her free hand. Chunks of her flesh tore loose as she ripped the creature free, and it caused her to cry out again as more pain spiked through her. Her injured arm dangled at her side as she leaned over and smashed the creature to the ground with her good hand. She would never have considered animal cruelty to be an option, but she needed to put this beast out of commission before it did any more damage to her, or her students.

The beast writhed under her hand, struggling to get free as she pushed his neck against the ground, but a large backpack landed on the creature with a thud and one of the students leaned down to put all his weight on the pack, effectively forcing the animal to lay flat against the ground. With the creature momentarily grappled, Avery took a moment to study it, and she gaped. What she had thought to be a rabid dog turned out to be a massive rat! The thing must have been 4 feet long from nose to tail and the fangs in the mouth that continued to gnash in her direction were nearly 4 inches long. Its fur was dark gray and matted and there were large tumors on several of its legs and at the base of its tail. Its eyes were pitch black, which Avery found mildly curious, if creepy. She had assumed that a large evil rodent would have glowing red eyes.

Behind her, Jasmine let out a high pitched scream as they also got a chance to study the thing that had attacked them and Avery heard Trevor yell, “Kill it, Miss Reynolds!”

Avery hadn’t ever killed a creature in her life, but she figured there was no other proper response for a real life, ROUS. She tried to lift the thing’s head and slam it against the ground, but it squirmed in her grasp. Her injured hand was useless and she almost lost her grip on the rat’s neck before one of the boys - Leo - ran forward and smashed his foot down onto the rat’s head with a bone-chilling crunch. The rat gave the barest of squeaks before going limp beneath Avery’s grip.

For a long moment, no one moved. Avery’s wasn’t the only breathing that was heavy from exertion and adrenaline. Slowly, Avery pushed to her feet, then swayed. Jasmine screamed again, “Miss Reynolds, your arm!”

Lightheaded from the loss of blood, Avery looked down at her shredded arm. She swallowed and nodded, trying to process the situation in her foggy mind. Bleeding… what did you do for a bleeding injury?

Greggori acted first and he tore off his jacket, then pulled Avery’s arm up to wrap it in the article of clothing. The pain from the movement of her arm made Avery grit her teeth to hold back another scream, but a grunt escaped her as she let herself be lowered to the ground. She focused on breathing through the pain while Greggori wrapped her arm, then she accepted the water bottle that he handed her. After a few sips and more deep breaths, Avery was able to focus through the pain on her surroundings. “Are you guys okay?”

The four students nodded, though they all looked shocked and pale. “What was that Miss?” Trevor asked, his eyes wide in a combination of fear and awe.

Avery shook her head. “I have no idea.” She glanced over at Leo and arched her eyebrow with a nod. “Good stomp. Thanks.”

Leo gave an embarrassed shrug, but they all froze at the sound of another hissing screech from down the street.

“More of them?!” Jasmine squeaked and Avery pushed to her feet. “Back to the school. Get inside. NOW!” The kids didn’t need any more encouragement, but they also weren’t willing to leave their teacher behind. Avery ran as fast as she could, holding her injured arm close to her chest to keep it from being jostled too much, and the five of them made haste towards the school doors. They were a few hundred feet out when, in the lead, Greggori skidded to a stop, nearly causing Trevor to run into him. They all stood, gasping for breath, as two more of the giant rats scuttled out from behind a trash bin to stand between them and the door into the school.

“Well, fuck.” Avery muttered.

Trevor shot his teacher a look, “You aren’t supposed to cuss, Miss Reynolds.”

“I think,” Avery replied, glancing behind her to where the other sounds had been coming from, “That the circumstances call for a few expletives, don’t you?”

Trevor started to reply, but Greggori interrupted him, “Watch out!”

In front of them, the two giant rodents hissed and charged.