Last Train to London

The ground was swallowed by their incredible speed, soon reaching the outskirts of the city (or the district, John didn’t know which was which). The buildings here were a few stories high at most, and though they had the same neon lighting, it felt toned down.

The train station they arrived at was surprisingly mundane. It still had the overwhelming lights and advertisements of the rest of the city, sure, but it just looked more… normal. More akin to a scaled up version of something he’d see on Earth rather than a Las Vegas wet dream.

“We’re headed for the even wing. Walk in a line,” One ordered as the car touched down. The doors opened, and they all got out. “Hephaestus, go home.” One tapped the hood, and the car took off again.

“Even?” John knew they were going to district two, but that didn’t give him any idea what the ‘even’ wing meant.

“Earth concepts like cardinal directions don’t exist here. Odd and even designate whether you’re in the direction of the odd districts, which we’re in, or the even districts, which we’re headed to,” One answered, taking the front position in formation. Jackie shuffled behind him, and John brought up the rear.

“How are we going to get back?” the thought had just dawned on him, if they were escorting her there and taking the train to do it, surely there wasn’t a Rider-Waite base to teleport them back.

“Our tickets are round trip.” They walked through the labyrinthian building at a steady pace. The walls around them were simple steel, advertisements hung on them for various products. A poster for some sort of eye beauty product here, a video banner cycling through advertisements almost too fast to actually read them there. With a start he saw an advertisement for the Inferno, the colors of the seven sins outlining a beautiful woman with white hair he didn’t recognize at the microphone.

“Since we’re in Platinum Class, we can get on just before departure. Anor, you’ve got the tickets?” They reached the gate, a large screen informing him that this train would run from district one to district two, at two thousand kilometers an hour, and a trip time of eight hours. Jackie reached into her pocket and came out with a razor-thin phone. She handed it to her armored protector.

Holy shit! Two thousand kilometers an hour? That’s what, twelve hundred miles per hour!? And it’s still going to take eight hours? The duo he was with continued walking for a few steps as John stood there stunned.

“Does time run differently here than on Earth?” John hoped that he wouldn’t be gone for two thirds of the day, but he had signed up for this.

“Of course not. That’s an exceptionally rare trait for Kingdoms connected to Earth to have. You really are a rookie,” One answered, armored head turned toward John as he handed a clerk the phone containing their tickets. In a world of neon, she was no exception. She flipped her undercut bluish hair as she pressed the smartphone she was given against the screen on the desk she stood behind.

Looking out massive glass windows beside the gate, John saw the track they were getting on was one of dozens going in the same direction. The giant beams of metal all ran into the horizon. Along the platform and behind the ticket woman, he saw the train they would be boarding. The ticketmaster handed the phone back to One, who gave it to Jackie before waving a similarly neon worker over. The green-haired man led them back to the platform, along the train.

He used Advanced Spy on the woman as they left, but found nothing of note. The most magical thing about her is her hair.

The train was enormous, looking more like a wide double-decker bus than a passenger train. The sides were made of a foreign, tan metal. Lights peeked out from columns of windows that were two apiece, John guessed one for each floor. The backend he saw tapered off and looked to be made completely out of glass besides. How does that work if we’re going to go so fast? How durable is that glass?

Though he was deep in thought, he didn’t break rank as the man led them along the platform. It took an unreasonable amount of walking to get to their car. He counted thirty-two train cars in total, and each took thirty five strides from end to end, except for the back car. The front of the train looked much the same as the back, though the more he looked at the train, the more he realized there was a faint blue sheen about it. Some sort of shield then? Still not smart to make any of it out of glass.

The second car’s shield fell away in a wave of azure, and upon closer observation John realized its wall didn’t have any windows. The side of it hissed as the hydraulics therein opened it. The bottom half fell away to reveal a luxurious dining car. The gaudiness of the old world met the style of the new.

A single large table stretched near the opposite wall, wine glasses and plates set across the entire thing. Screens which showed the outside in clarity hitherto unseen by him were embedded into the wall. The other half of the car was dominated by small viewing stations, a couple chairs all pointed at a screen on the wall, a clothed table in between. “We weren’t aware there would be only two passengers with you, Ms. Anor. We apologize for the excessive setting.”

“It’s no problem, really.” She deliberately avoided the man’s gaze, stepping into the car and breaking formation. “The upstairs has appropriate accommodations for lounging?”

“To your family’s specifications, Miss! Thank you for riding with us,” Cyrus, according to a quick Advanced Spy, concluded, standing back. I should be doing that to everyone. Anyone can be an enemy.

John and One entered after her, the former marvelling at the technology of the screens and wondering if he could get something similar for his PC, the latter moving toward the stairs in the corner John hadn’t seen. “Gamer, stay here and protect her. I’m going to do a sweep of the car above.”

“Right. Will do.” The gunman turned his attention from the shiny marvels around him to the woman he was being paid to protect. She still refused to meet his eyes, her gaze on the ground as she skulked along the walls of the room.

“All clear up here,” One called as he came down the stairs. He raised his arm and a missile popped out from above the wrist, poised to fire behind them. John turned to see… their guide approaching. “Learn to watch your six better Gamer, that could have been anyone.”

John, annoyed but unwilling to argue, shot One a glare before turning back to the employee. “If everything is to your satisfaction, we will be leaving in five minutes. If you’d like anything, press one of the various call buttons.” The man pointed to a glowing blue button set into the wall. John saw five more like it in the car, equally spaced on the two long walls.

“This is lovely, thank you.” Jackie’s voice barely reached the doting man who nodded once before waving at the front car. The door walls hissed to a close, sealing them inside.

“Gamer, you stay with her. I’ll guard whichever room you’re not in,” One ordered, tossing John a black sphere no larger than a pill. John, unprompted, caught it nonetheless.

“What is this?” John took the object between two fingers, looking at its smooth surface. It was clearly metallic, but he couldn’t guess its function.

“Nonverbal communication. Put it in one ear and I can broadcast to your head through my armor and hear your thoughts in turn,” the technophile explained, tapping the side of his armor’s head.

“I have a spell that could-”

“Is there a physical component?”

“Well no but-”

“Then I don’t care. I don’t trust magic that doesn’t have a physical anchor. You can put your stock in it but I won’t. We’re using my methods.” He didn’t leave any room for argument, so John stuck the device into his ear. He felt a brief spike of pain, then nothing. As if it wasn’t there at all.

Good. Now head on up. Hearing a different voice in his head due to technology was distinctly different than party chat. With that it felt no different from his thoughts, natural. This felt intrusive. Unwanted.

As you say. John resisted the urge to scratch his ear as he saw Jackie ahead of him, already on the stairs. “I’ll watch over you up there, Ms. Anor.” He raced after her, dedicated to not let her leave his sight as they climbed the stairs.

A cyberpunk train lounge would look twice as cool as the dining car with a conflicting identity. As he emerged he found out he was quite wrong. Aaaand it’s a normal rich person’s bedroom.

“I'm mostly going to be using the interface, if that's alright with you, Gamer.” Jackie brushed her hair behind her ear as she locked eyes with him for the first time, quickly looking away as she ended her sentence.

“No problem! And John is fine.” He showed what he hoped was a charming smile to the shy girl as she scuttled towards a massive, empty desk across the room. A door sat just beyond it; John guessed that was the bathroom.

He watched as she took a black square off a leather strap on her wrist and plugged it into a dimple in the steel frame of the desk. A holographic display popped up in front of Jackie; in bright blue letters, ‘Welcome Jackie Anor!’ flashed as it processed.

Okay,