It was dim at first, but the stage lighting inside Rick’s mind slowly rose. He looked at himself and found he wore only boxing trunks.
Manuel’s voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere. “You okay in there, man?”
“Holy shit, Manny—it sounds like God’s talking to me.”
Manuel laughed. “Don’t lose your head, gringo. It’s still just me.”
“You didn’t tell me I’d be almost naked down here.”
“You’re in the training room. The game assumes you want as little restriction as possible. Are you cold? Your balls crawlin’ up inside you or something?”
Rick shook his head. “Naw man. It’s not cold. Not hot, either.” He shook his head. “This is weird as shit. Nothing like the augmented environment I’ve got at home.”
“It’s not that different. You’re asleep, but it’s the same wires and circuits conducting the signals back and forth—the dream state just makes it more real.”
More real. That would be the problem.
“So what do I do?” Rick gazed around the empty room. Four off-white walls with red and blue criss-crossing lines were all that greeted him.
Then, as if in answer to his question, a door appeared at the left corner of the far wall. It opened, and a man stepped through.
“Yo, I don’t know if I’m ready…” Rick stammered.
The man approached, saying nothing. Caucasian and bald, the man didn’t smile—in fact, the man’s blank eyes seemed nearly devoid of life and recognition. Rick took a deep breath as the AI construct—a ‘bot’ in gaming parlance—stepped up to him.
And stopped. Like Rick, the bot wore only boxing trunks, though its trunks were red instead of Rick’s blue.
Rick waited.
The bot’s chest gently rose and fell, but otherwise, it moved not a muscle.
“The fuck you doing?” Manuel asked.
Rick’s heart rate rose. “What am I supposed to do?”
Manuel laughed. “I’m starting to believe you’ve never been a fighter, hombre. Fucking hit it. What the fuck?”
Rick’s heart rate ticked up a notch and his pulse pounded in his ears. He raised a hand and balled it into a fist. A flash of bitterness bloomed in the back of his throat. He steadied himself and, very slowly, thrust his fist toward the AI bot.
His breathing became jagged as panic welled up within him. As soon as he made contact with the bot, it sprang into motion. It landed one, then another strike to each side of Rick’s head. He reflexively raised his arms to protect himself, but was already on the way to the ground.
He balled up.
I’m a nonviolent offender.
I’m a nonviolent offender.
I’m nonviolent,
nonviolent,
nonviolent,
nonviolent…
All he could do was wait.
“Hold up.” Manuel’s voice—the voice of God—rang out. The beating ceased.
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Rick looked up.
Manuel’s voice boomed from the sky. “What the heck was that?
Rick stood and brushed off his shorts, hung his head, and remained silent.
“That’s not normal, man. How the fuck have you survived on the street like that?”
Rick took a deep breath. “Look, Manny—you can’t let anyone—”
“Thank God you can run, I guess.”
Rick opened his mouth to explain, but stopped when the scene before him flickered and a wave of nausea and dizziness washed over him. “Whoa!”
“Oh shit. You feel that?” Manuel asked.
Rick’s body seemed to stretch till his hands seemed a foot further away than they normally were. “What’s—”
Just as suddenly, the nausea and dizziness were gone. He tentatively opened his eyes and was shocked by the appearance of the AI bot.
Manuel’s voice rang out from somewhere above. “I told ya, Hector’s tech is bleeding edge. We had a surge in one of the couplers that misaligned the environmental clock. Are you good?”
“I’m…” He looked around. The AI bot didn’t look human anymore; it was just a framework of differently colored polygons now, and though he knew where the walls were, they didn’t appear solid anymore. He jumped in place twice. “My balance is back to normal. Everything looks weird though.”
The sound of Manuel’s sigh blanketed the entire room. “This is the best I can do for now. Everything looks normal from this end. It doesn’t matter much, anyway. You weren’t lying when you said you’re not a fighter, but after that display of total fail… I don’t know if the bossman’s gonna want you as a courier, either.”
Fuck.
Rick looked up and stepped forward, ready to explain, but he tripped on his own foot, stumbling into the AI bot.
Like before, as soon as he made contact, the bot struck back. The first punch took Rick by surprise, but this time he instinctively counter-punched, knocking the AI bot frame back a foot.
Wow.
The bot dashed back at him, but Rick dodged left and stepped forward, then slammed his elbow against the back of the bot’s insubstantial looking head. It felt the way it should have, and the bot dropped to the ground, as if Rick had knocked it out.
“Holy shit.” Manuel’s voice was guarded.
“It was an accident!” Rick protested.
“That’s one hell of an accident.”
Rick held his breath and waited for Manuel to continue.
“You think you can do that again?”
“I dunno. I can give it a shot.”
The bot rose to its feet and squared up. Rick widened his stance, slid his right foot forward slightly and swayed back and forth. He jabbed with his right hand, then swiftly ducked the bot’s left jab. After the incoming fist missed its mark, he rose and drove a left uppercut into the bot’s wireframe chin. The bot’s feet left the floor and it collapsed onto its back. It didn’t get back up.
“Okay…” Manuel began. “That’s two for two. What the hell was wrong with you before, man? You balled up like an armadillo that first time. Now you’re a killer?”
Rick sighed. “I was nervous, man. I told you, I’m not a fighter.”
“Right…” Manuel drew out the word, then muttered something unintelligible under his breath. “I’mma turn the difficulty up—you okay with that?”
The rest of the training session was a breeze, as Rick made quick work of each successive bot. Their maneuvers became more efficient and they adapted more quickly each time Manuel announced an increased difficulty level, but only the ninth and tenth levels had given him much of a challenge. To Manuel, it may have looked different, though. Rick had forced himself to hold back. He’d needed to temper the initial shock of his dramatic improvement by making himself appear to struggle more than he truly did.
Rick felt like an uncaged tiger. It had been years since he’d been able to fight, and by the end, he couldn’t help but do a bob-and-weave dance while he punched the air between rounds. For the first time in forever, he felt like a man again. It had been so long, he’d forgotten. They’d broken him and put him back together crippled, but for a brief time, it was as though he was again whole.
But this had been a fluke. Only the power surge and the fact that the AI didn’t seem human to him anymore had allowed this to happen. This was a one-time furlough. It would clear his past due payments and get him medicine for Kristina-Anne, but it wasn’t like this could be his life again.
You don’t deserve to have that life back, and you know it.
“I think we’re good for now,” Manuel said.
A large red balloon materialized in front of Rick. “What’s this, a reward for training?”
Manuel laughed. “Getting out of SR is trickier than VR. Getting into it is pretty quick, but the brain needs some time to transition out or it’ll make you sick.”
“Okay…” Rick cast an uncertain stare at the balloon.
“Grab the string, gringo. The balloon will float you up.”
He grabbed the string. Slowly, he rose.
A few short minutes later, Rick was awake and fully dressed in the chair again.
When they got back to the office, Hector was elated. “Good, good! You think he can beat Sonny?”
Manual shrugged. “I dunno. He balled up like a baby when he first got in, but then… he just transformed.”
Hector narrowed his eyes. “That true?”
He couldn’t tell them. It was too dangerous. Rick shrugged and sighed. “It was just a fluke. I think I just got lucky.”
“Okay, that’s bullshit, but whatever.” Hector smiled and shook Rick’s hand. “Come back tomorrow and I’ll have my… trainer run you through the details of the tournament and game world.”
Manuel opened the door for him, but the look he gave him as Rick stepped through was curious. Rick ignored it and shook the bottle of pills in his pocket.
Tonight, Kristina would sleep.