Power Outage

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – To Make Things Relevant

A chime from the PA system is heard and James can be heard speaking through the system, “Good afternoon, this is the owner speaking. Just wanting to let everyone know that the new Virtual Reality Room’s system is on the fritz. So, enemies from the games will be appearing inside the building. Don’t worry though, because you have the option to either be evacuated until the issue is resolved, or, because of the bugs, you can fight the enemies as any of your characters in the games currently available in this building by using the goggles that are used in VR Rooms from any location.”

The sound of something burning can be heard in the background, “Unfortunately, the injuries received will apply to you in this way as well. I found this out the hard way… Good news is now I can’t flip people off anymore,” James laughs weakly, “One more thing, I lowered the power-disabling field slightly, so now offensive powers will work on the enemies.”

“He’s joking right?” asked Carol.

Her question was answered when everyone nearby teleported elsewhere. Damian also takes the time to put on the goggles. He a screen materializes to select which game mode and he tries Shooter. Damian gets a belt with two pistols holstered, a utility vest, and some basic padding on the knees and elbows. “I don’t get to pick what I start with?”

Marvin does the same, but he gets Riot Gear and a gas mask. His armaments betray his appearance with a light machine gun at hand and an automatic shotgun on his back. Marvin also has a couple of combat knives and an assortment of throwing items. “Nope, you have to find or buy better stuff.”

Alex and Carol reach for their goggles, but a thief from the Fantasy-RPG steals both goggles and runs off. Both Damian and Marvin shoot the thief in places that would normally kill or at least cripple, but the thief continues running unharmed. The PA system turns on again and James makes another announcement, “I almost forgot: enemies can only be defeated by powers or weapons and abilities from their corresponding games.”

Damian facepalms himself then changes to his RPG character and chases the thief. In the meantime, Marvin blinks twice and keeps his eyes shut after the second blink. A thin stream of red electricity darts out from his visible eye muscle and continuously shocks the thief to the point of paralysis. Damian makes a grab for the thief, but a soldier from the Shooter takes a shot at his leg from opposite side of the building. Damian trips from the shot and slides across the floor, but he transitions to his Shooter character on the way down to take several shots at the soldier. The shots make contact and kill the soldier quickly. A couple dozen more soldiers show up, but Marvin quickly dispatches them with a couple of well-thrown grenades.

Damn he’s good at this game… thought Damian as he limped to the thief. He loots the thief of all of his items and promptly goes to his RPG character to kill him.

The_L0ST_w0n:

+5 EXP

+1000 Gold

+1 Thief’s Outfit

+10 Smoke Bombs

+2 Goggles

Kills: 1

Cash: +$20

Dead_aye

Kills: 30

Cash: +$400

Damian tosses the goggles to Alex and Carol as they run over to him. Alex changes to her character first then Carol does the same. Alex’s stats and appearance are the same as they were Chapter 9 (remember, Alex is bad at shooting games in general). Surprisingly, Carol’s character is the same as her human appearance and is wearing a pure white robe with a purple sash that hangs from the neck and wraps around the torso all the way to the waist. The sash has runic symbols, embroidered in gold thread. And out comes the stats screen: