Play the Game

“What am I supposed to do with you John?”

Keith’s steel form faded away as he killed the mage in front of him, and the skeletons sunk back into the ground. “Alright, alright! That power of his is trying to restore itself, but his body’s not letting it. At this rate, he’ll be torn apart,” Keith said, looking at the **** shell Jenny was crying over. He had removed the spike from John’s chest, and a gaping hole was left behind. He was inclined to believe John was dead, but the fact that both he and Jenny were still in John’s party proved otherwise.

“Keith, what’re we going to do! He’s dying!” Jenny said, wiping her face with her arm. She immediately went to her case, shoving things aside in a **** attempt to get to her healing potions.

“Put a shirt on, we’re taking him to my apartment,” Keith told her, pouring a viscous black liquid into John’s wound. It hardened around the gaping hole in his chest, preventing further blood loss. He reached into a pouch on his waist, his only pocket dimension, and a small one at that, and took out a small vial of golden sand. He tilted it over John, and the golden sand flowed into his body. “Those were sands of time. He’s in stasis for fifteen minutes. Let’s go.”

“I thought you’d make it past the first week at least, sheesh.” It was a distinctly feminine voice. Beautiful. Melodic. Smooth. In the ocean of blackness John was in, the brilliant light it came from was comforting. It would’ve been more comforting if he understood anything that was going on.

“Well, you levelled up right after, so technically, I guess you should be totally fine. When I was designing your powers, I didn’t anticipate you using a level-up to bring yourself back from negative health.” The Light pulsed as it spoke, radiating a gentle warmth.

His throat was dry; he was in awe of what he was seeing and what it (she?) was saying. Despite all that, he still somehow managed to speak, “Am I dead?”

“No. Not yet anyway. If those friends of yours don’t find a way to fix your body, you might be. I haven’t decided if I want to patch that feature out yet,” the Light replied. John had resolved to calling it a she but hadn’t said as much yet. His mind was still reeling from, well, everything.

John swallowed the lump in his throat despite its massive size and replied, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t patch the feature out. At least, until all this is over.” There was a brief silence, and for a moment, John was worried he wouldn’t get an answer at all.

Jenny zoomed ahead with him in her case. She played as she made a beeline toward Keith’s house, sprinting through the fast travel barriers with her supernatural speed. She arrived at Keith’s apartment and went into his lab, totally ignoring Kimberly. Kimberly, who had been watching soap operas out of boredom, followed Jenny inside.

Jenny laid John on the table in the middle of the lab. Typically, either Keith or Kimberly would lie down here so that Keith could test a new potion. Kimberly, who was a blood mage, could filter the more dangerous failed potions out of their blood. John’s utter lack of blood was far beyond her expertise. Kimberly was shocked by seeing this teenage boy with a gaping hole in his chest.

“Is this that boy, Jenny?” Kimberly asked, immediately running her hands over the sides of his body.

“His blood has started flowing again. I can form temporary blood vessels for him, but I can’t do it forever,” Kimberly explained, intricate tubes replacing the hardened shell that had formed around the hole in his chest. Kimberly worked on keeping the pollutants and the air out of his blood. Keith walked in just in time.

“I guess that wouldn’t be very fair, would it?” the Light replied offhandedly, as if it was busy doing something else. For all John knew, it was. “Well, I guess it’s only fair since this is partially my fault. Fine. I’ll keep the feature patched in. I’m going to need to make some changes to it so that this doesn’t happen every time.”

The light disappeared, and John was left to his own devices in the sea of the void.

“Jenny, I need you to direct tiny, weak sonic blasts into his nose and mouth. That potion regenerated his heart and lungs, but we need to get air into him again. You’ll be using those blasts to **** the air into his lungs. Too strong and you’ll eviscerate his lungs, too weak and it won’t do anything at all,” Keith explained, putting a hand on her shoulder. Jenny looked absolutely terrified. Her grip on her bass was shaky, and the energizing potion she had had before was wearing off. She was tired and terrified.

“I can do it,” Jenny kept it short. Despite her condition, her resolve was steeled. Kimberly had kept his blood flowing, but artificially starting his heart was beyond her capabilities. Despite that, she had to try. That seemed to be the central theme of the night. Both ladies tried to do something far beyond their capabilities as Keith worked to bring John back to life.

The Light was gone, John had to accept that much. He didn’t have access to his powers in wherever this was, so he had no idea what time it was, or how much time had passed. Without notice, he was sucked downward.

The blackness he was standing in turned oily, and his own weight pulled him through the “ground.” A barrage of images assaulted him as he fell. Some he recognized. Sitting at his desk writing his stories. The first day of school. Frank bullying him. His 18th birthday. Meeting Jenny for the first time. Using Rocky to defeat Shakespeare. Shakespeare killing him with an ice spike.

There were more images he didn’t recognize. A dense forest full of mythical creatures. Holy light. A dark-skinned elf-girl with translucent guns. A futuristic city. Legions of skeletons. A steampunk city. A barrier shattering. Falling from a skyscraper. Nothing.

Jenny **** air into his lungs with her sonic blasts as Kimberly pumped blood through his heart. Keith tipped another potion of regeneration down his throat, now that it actually had a place to go, it worked even better. His skin went from deathly pale to relatively normal.

“The only thing I’m worried about are the side-effects. Taking so many regenerative elixirs in one sitting can be dangerous. We’ve not got another choice though,” Keith explained as neither Jenny nor Kimberly faltered.

John stirred, and they tried not to be too hopeful. His eyes opened and closed as he took a **** breath, shuddering all over. There were a million popups in front of him, and everyone in the room was feeling a whirlwind of emotions. Did that really happen? What was all that? That… thing? She? Created my powers?

John was snapped out of his thoughts by Jenny slapping him. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!” She pulled him into a tight hug after. He was at full health, and the slap followed by the hug cost him five health points. He hugged her back but was still wondering about what he had seen.

Keith extended a hand toward him, “Welcome back to the land of the living, lad.” Keith helped John sit up, and John tried not to look directly into the lights of the room. There was a woman here he didn’t recognize.

She was young and tan, or maybe Latina. Somewhere along that blurry line. She had brown, lustrous hair and eyes to match. Despite the dire situation the room had been in a second ago (or so John imagined, as he wasn’t actually conscious then), her smile radiated warmth and positivity.

“We’ve not met yet. I’m Kimberly.” She kissed him on the cheek, and John blushed. Before Jenny’s slight jealousy at this could be expressed, Keith scolded John.

“You’ve got to start thinking, boyo! You could’ve gotten yourself killed, lad. I can’t do this for you every time you nearly die! I’ll go broke.” Keith patted John on the back, which didn’t match the tone he was taking with John. “Still, you were a great help. That situation was getting pretty hairy before you showed up. So thank you.”

On shaky legs, John stood up. Jenny was looking at him intensely, and she was **** to let go of his arm, which she took hold of the moment he stood. “Never scare me like that again! I won’t lose you too! I swear if you die again I’ll kill you!”

Despite her poor wording, she was deadly serious. John kissed her hard, and she relaxed at his touch. “I’m sorry, everyone. I’ll do my best to ensure it never happens again.”

Jenny mumbled something he couldn’t hear, but Keith and Kimberly both smiled at him. “You just need to be better aware of your surroundings, lad. You got too confident. That man was more powerful than you could’ve possibly imagined. I’m lucky you showed up when you did.”

They were all tired, Keith and Jenny the most so. With Keith as their escort, John and Jenny made their way back to John’s house. “So much for S&S,” Jenny idly commented as they threw open the door. It was past midnight, and Brenda was furious. Jenny used her persuasive magic on Brenda to avoid any trouble, since they were both dead tired. Jenny was surprised it even worked with how out of focus she was.

They stumbled into bed, both discarding their clothes, Jenny putting her bass on the stand in the corner of the room, and fell asleep.