It felt the same as real life.
But Leo knew it was just a simulation. A virtual reality.
They had been within this reality for more than an hour, where they had been training to use everything within. When they all felt prepared enough, the video planning – or as little as they had decided to do – had started up.
The idea had been for them to be in groups, at different points around this world, giving an idea as to its scale. While they had been undecided on what would happen after the first race to the pub that Tom and Duncan would be at, she had a feeling that it might be more races.
If that were to happen, she felt she would be outclassed by everyone else.
Currently she stood outside the Temple Meads train station with Lydia and Bouphe waiting for the start of the introductions.
The weather was sunny with barely any wind. Such things were controlled within the real world before they had entered, and it did make a change from the cold and bitterness outside of this reality. She knew that leaving it would be hard.
While she didn't hate winter, she much preferred the summer.
The shops were still open as they walked past them. Leo looked in on the WHSmith, then decided she wanted to take a look around.
There was no-one inside, though she had never expected such.
"Aw, look at all this stuff we can just take and use while here," she said, noticing that Lydia had looked in as well.
"Well, if there's no repercussions for the actions we take," Lydia said, walking straight for the magazines and taking one from the shelf. She opened the wrapper up and pulled the magazine out from it, leaving that wrapper on the floor, as well as the free gifts within it. "May as well take something for the journey to the pub later on."
"It'll take ten minutes," Bouphe said with amusement, having appeared at the entrance. "Are you telling me you'll be bored on that short a journey?"
"I can at least read it while in the pub," Lydia exclaimed.
"Yeah, that's fair," Bouphe conceded, walking in and picking up a magazine for herself.
The two dissolved the magazines into their inventory, then headed out. Leo took a chocolate bar, scavenged the free gifts that had included a fizzy sweet, and followed them as she unwrapped it.
Out onto the platforms, it seemed oddly quiet without any trains or other people around, but it was to be expected when they were the only ones within this reality.
"Okay, everyone," Lewis' voice sounded in Leo's ears as she munched on the sweet. "Remember the order you introduce yourselves, but only when I give the word."
Leo activated the communications to say, "Got it," then turned them off again. She heard Tom and Smith give an affirmation as well, then a few seconds later, Lewis started.
They'd have a minute before they needed to introduce themselves.
"What are you two doing?" Leo asked as she turned to face the tracks.
Both were having a race across the tracks to the other side of the station.
"Hah! Take that!" Lydia said. "You aren't faster than me at racing anything."
"I so can be," Bouphe challenged "Want a race back?"
"You'll only lose again," Lydia laughed, already hopping down onto the tracks.
Leo watched as Bouphe spawned a weapon into her hand, which she pointed across the station to the wall that Leo stood by. As a shot was fired, Bouphe turned into a shapeless energy form and zoomed across the station to the point the weapon had hit.
She returned to her usual form just as Lydia got to the last of the tracks on this part of the station.
"Can't beat me without cheating, I see," Lydia said as she clambered back onto the platform.
"Creative use of game mechanics," Bouphe pointed out. "No cheating involved."
"If it's a running race, then on foot both competitors shall be."
"There were no rules to the race that I heard. Just get to the other side."
"Quiet!" Leo quickly yelled. "He's about to say it. Be ready."
The two stopped with their competitive banter and turned on their communications, just as Lewis said the line of, "There's ten of us around here. You know of me and Ben, but who else is around? Report in, people!"
Leo waited a second, then said her line of, "I'm here at the train station with Bouphe and Lydia."
"What are you doing there?" Lewis responded with surprise.
"Me and Lydia got here by train," Bouphe told him, adding a slight bit of annoyance to her tone as she continued. "You said you wanted us here. Leo came to meet us, since you couldn't make it."
All three of their faces lit up in silent giggles as they knew what would come next.
The outrage sounded real as Lewis burst out with, "I'm doing the intro!"
They managed the next part without letting the laughter out. Once Lewis finished with his last line and called for another introduction, they muted their end of the communications. As Smith started with his introductions, the three let their laughter out.
"It's just so surreal that we're doing this," Lydia said once they had calmed down. "It feels as though we're in Bristol doing something normal, but then you look around to see no people around and no vehicles moving, and you realise once again that..." She paused, clearly taking it all in. "We can do whatever we want."
"Yeah, and I know we're not meant to be starting the race yet," Bouphe said, "but I know how I want to get to that pub."
Leo saw her flicking on her wrist control, then hold her hand out.
"Cool. It snaps onto the track," Bouphe quietly marvelled.
A train then appeared, looking as though it had always been there.
"Yeah, but does anyone have any idea how to drive it?" Lydia asked. "And how are we going to make it look like we've just planned it when the train's already here while discussing it?"
"Through the power of editing. We talk in the intro as if we've just got off a train. All it'd take is a shot of the train being put into that intro, and bingo. No continuity errors. If, of course, our viewpoints do get used in the intro."
"I'm sure they will, even if not much," Leo said. "But we still need to know how to control it."
As they stood back to admire the train, they listened in to the introduction of both Tom and Duncan, which told them they didn't have all that long to learn about driving a train. Leo also had another thought, but decided to wait until the race actually started before bringing it up.
They needed something to sound genuine about their decision to use the train, after all, as she had a feeling everything they said would sound pre-planned.
"Sure," Tom said. "We're at the Sugar Loaf. By the third junction of the motorway. Everyone able to get here easy enough?"
Lewis and Smith both affirmed, so Leo quickly turned the full range of communications on to say, "We'll find it easy enough," then turned them fully off.
They stood still, looking at each other as though wondering whose turn it was to speak first. Leo decided to break the silence.
"Has someone looked on a map to see exactly where we're going?"
"I'm just looking now," Lydia said. "Ah, there's a train station right next to the place. We could use the train, since we're here."
"Yeah," Bouphe responded, "but who knows how to drive it?"
"I'm sure it'll be easy enough."
"But what about time?" Leo asked. "What would be quicker? Driving something we know, or working out how to drive this on the fly?"
"You two sit back and relax in economy class," Lydia said. "I got this."
"Excuse me?" Bouphe said in a mildly hurt tone. "Economy class? I think we rate higher than that."
"Yeah. What makes you so special just because you're driving the train?" Leo added.
"Oh, fine. Make yourself comfortable wherever you want."
"Why don't we stick together in the control cabin?"
"Yeah, alright. I can teach you to drive as well."
"Since how long have you known how to drive a train?" Bouphe asked.
"Since about five minutes ago. Come on. It can't be that hard."
"You said it. Don't come to us when you fail, admitting defeat."
"Can we start moving?" Leo called. "It is a race and we've been stood still."
"All aboard," Lydia commented as she opened one of the doors to the train.
Once the three were on and within the control cabin, Lydia quickly looked up how she had to drive the train.
Slowly, and not looking all that confident, she reached out and moved the lever that would get them under way forward.
The train slowly picked up speed as it pulled out of the station.
"There's an emergency brake somewhere on here," Lydia said as she looked at the control board.
"How do you think the other two are doing?" Leo asked.
"Well, the Hat chaps have probably got a supercar blasting down the motorway," Bouphe said. "Kinda seems their style. I'm not sure what Lewis and Ben will have, but I wouldn't put it past them to have also gone for something fast."
"Maybe something with a bit of flair," Lydia added. "Not an expensive car, but something showy. At least, that's what I'd have done."
"We are on the right track, aren't we?" Leo asked.
"I... think so?" Lydia considered the track ahead of her, where multiple routes and changeovers presented themselves. "We'll just have to hope we are. I've got no idea what I'm doing beyond basic driving."
"So you found the brake, then," Bouphe commented.
"Uh... Yeah... Yeah!" She didn't sound all that confident about that.
The train followed the right route, so Lydia boosted its speed, all the while still looking for the emergency brake.
"That handle," Leo said as the train thundered through the Lawrence Hill station, pointing to the handle she mentioned. "How have you not seen it and realised what it was for? It's clearly marked what function it has!"
"Yeah... I knew that," Lydia flippantly stated. "Do we need to use it yet?" she then asked curiously.
"I don't know! Just pull it!"
"But... Okay, but if we don't stop at the station, it's your fault for the lousy directions."
"Who's the driver here?" Leo indignantly exclaimed as the handle was pulled.
The brakes screeched on as the train violently tried to stop itself. It travelled over one bridge, then a second, stopping just before Stapleton Road station.
"Is this fine?" Lydia asked.
"Yes, out," Bouphe commanded. "I'll remove it from the track once we're off."
Quickly the three ran out, with Bouphe pausing for a second after hopping down to remove the train. As it made a sudden disappearance, she joined with the two and quickly they ran down the twisting footpath to get onto the road.
They didn't stop running even though they saw two other cars parked outside the pub, aware they had come last.
Outside the doors to the pub were Lewis and Ben.
"How is it that you used a train and still managed to arrive later than us?" Lewis asked.
Leo felt she should defend their effort. "Driving a train's hard work," she exclaimed. "Like you could do any better."
Lydia decided to go on the attack. She injected her voice with laughter as she said, "You drove here in that? You could have used something a bit more stylish like the Hat chaps have done."
Now Lewis was on the defence as he said, "We wanted to be sensible, okay?"
"Yeah, well," a voice from the doorway said. Leo looked to see Duncan leaning on the frame. "You can't be sensible about your next choice if you want to win the races we have planned."
Leo inwardly groaned. She'd be last in everything, she knew it.
It wasn't that she didn't like driving, but speed and the need to make quick decisions usually left her flustered, and in a race, such decisions mattered.
She would try her best within these races, though. Just because she felt she would fail didn't mean she wouldn't try.
Inside the pub, she looked around to see Ross, Trott, Smith, and Tom sat at a table with pint glasses in front of them. Every other chair around it had water in a shot glass.
"That's the prize for losing the race," Tom explained.
Lydia had taken up the bar and asked for orders, but then she and Duncan had a bit of disagreement about the ownership of the pub, which ended with Lydia pulling a rocket launcher out from behind the bar.
Despite the fact she knew she was safe, Leo quickly retreated back to the door.
"I'll have to blow something up later, then," Lydia grumbled as Lewis stopped the argument.
Leo walked to the counter, waiting for the others to be served. Ben had his own drink in hand as he walked to the table the others sat, then Bouphe ordered for herself and Lewis. Lydia handled the bar well, quickly sorting the drinks, and soon Bouphe was on her way as well.
Leo asked for the finest wine available, and once she had it, she joined the others. She had been following the conversation going on at the table, where they had been talking about what sort of races they could make.
It had just been agreed that a transform race would be the last one.
"Can we all make one?" she asked, hoping that she might be able to get an advantage if she knew her own track.
"It'd be a bit difficult to fit ten other races into one video," Lewis said, also explaining that they wanted one to end and another to begin close to each other to avoid travel time between. Leo had been about to say something to that, but Lewis had already guessed what she might try. "And it's better for the video that we keep this natural with no warping between locations. You can mess around in the creator if you want, though. There's every chance someone will play whatever you make once this place opens to the public."
While Lydia and Bouphe read their magazines, Trott, Ross, and Smith talked with Duncan, Ben, and Lewis, and Tom worked on the races they would use, Leo opened up the creator to take another look as she sipped on her wine.
The creator was a complex thing to work, and after ten minutes of floundering around within it, she decided to just take a look at the world they were within using it. It offered much better views than the regular map, which only offered a fixed overhead viewpoint. She could look anywhere she wanted from whatever angle and position she wanted.
After another fifteen minutes where she had joined in with the conversation going around and more drinks had been consumed, Tom announced that he had finished designing the races, which Leo was silently dreading.
She knew the others would never give her a chance at victory.
Once outside, Tom explained the race, where a ticket dispenser-like device rose from the ground.
It was to be a bike race to one of the nearby parks, which Leo found to be a better start than jumping straight into the deep end with high-end supercars.
Then again, a few others had little experience of driving real cars as well, so it was to be expected that a gradual increase in speed would happen between races.
She walked up to the machine first, looking at the options available. There were only two types of bicycle available, but a huge range of colours, which she took advantage of with a green and pink design.
She turned around to face the spaces where the bikes would appear, and sure enough the green and pink bike waited for her, somehow staying upright despite nothing keeping it from falling.
Walking up to it, she admired it from all angles. It was still strange to her that they could use whatever they wanted, design things how they wanted them to be, and just mess around with no real impact on anything within the world.
She looked up to see most of the others already sat on the bikes, with Duncan making a selection and Tom waiting to do so. She walked to the side of the bike and sat upon it, and a few seconds later, she heard the countdown begin.
A large beam of light had appeared, strobing into the sky, that marked where they had to go with a second remaining on the countdown. Once the countdown announced the start of the race with its horn-like sound, she pedalled as fast as she could.
Already she was falling back as others overtook her, but she continued pedalling, not ready to give up early. There was every chance someone would make a mistake, which would be her time to take advantage.
The first checkpoint marked the end of this road, and the next one appeared on her right. Turning as best as she could without losing any speed, she managed to overtake Lewis.
"Haha!" she laughed as she continued on. "See you at the finish, slowpoke."
She got no response from him, and realised that no-one had the full communications on. A small frown creased her face as she knew that no matter what she did, she wouldn't be able to relish in it until the very end, at which point it would probably have been forgot about, anyway.
This next checkpoint marked the entrance into the park, in which she slowed slightly to keep herself from smacking into either of the brick pillars that marked that entrance.
The third and final checkpoint revealed itself to her, which was halfway along the main path of the park. Turning right and keeping to the path's left side, she soon saw the finish point up ahead, where Lydia and Trott were furiously trying to get in front of the other, making moves they hoped would unbalance the other while trying not to fall themselves, with Duncan and Smith not far behind them.
Somehow, she had placed within the upper half of the group. It felt great. Then Bouphe overtook her, followed by Ross, Ben, and Tom.
She hadn't picked her speed back up since she'd entered the park.
She quickly built up speed again, and upon hitting the finish line, came to a stop and gave a small celebration. At least she had beaten Lewis, who arrived half a minute after.
"I guess I pushed a bit too hard with that one," Lewis said as he stopped.
"Really?" she mocked. "You pushed too hard? I'd never have guessed."
"Don't think I didn't hear you as you passed me by. I could have won if I wanted to. I just didn't want to."
"Sure." Leo stretched the word out, mocking the excuse he was giving.
"We're going out to the end of the park for this next one," Tom informed.
Leo's eyes lit up. The end of the park marked the end of the world. She knew they were surrounded by beach and ocean, and wanted to see how good that beach looked.
The bikes having vanished upon the race ending, the group walked it up the path to the end of the park. Beyond the trees, where the small lake and more fields would normally be, was instead a vast ocean. Between them and the water was around ten meters of sand.
Looking to the left, the ocean and sand continued. There was no motorway in sight.
"This is so surreal," she couldn't help exclaiming.
"I bet it'd be even more so were this to have cut through the town centre," Lewis said, clearly experiencing the same as her.
There was no time to fully admire the beauty of the beach and ocean, however, as Tom set up the second race.
"This is a different kind of race," he explained. "We'll be driving over to Gloucester Road, then down it to just before The Arches. That route will have checkpoints to mark it, but the ending isn't at that point. Instead, each racer will need to navigate a route that they feel will be the fastest to get them to the Bristol Zoo Gardens."
Leo felt sure her groan had been audible.
"Don't worry about it," Lydia quietly said to her. "Just have fun with it. It's not a contest."
"I know that, but I want to be in the chaos. It's no fun hanging at the back."
Lewis then spoke up, telling everyone to activate their communications so that they could fire insults at others. She grinned at that, as her own communications had been open, but obviously everyone else had forgot.
Even if she lagged behind now, she could still join in and enjoy the banter.
Stepping up to the sign-up booth first, she looked at the choices available. She felt even happier that they weren't using the supercars yet.
This time she had elected not to go for a green colour for her choice, but had still kept the pink wheels. Instead, her vehicle was a sleek purple, which she took the time to admire just the same as the last.
Once the race had begun, she settled for not pushing her limits on the sand, sure that if she did the car would just get stuck. While the others blasted on ahead, she decided to take a look around.
At the point where the motorway would have continued on, she saw that it had instead ended at the roundabout, with just a small road following the western border of the park up to the beach.
Those roads that had been removed to make way for the beach ended awkwardly, with some houses continuing onto the sand. For the most part, though, it looked as though whoever had designed the world had tried to not interrupt the flow of buildings and roads too much.
The point at which the beach crossed Gloucester Road looked a mess, though, with the theatre and School of Gymnastics still being within the world despite no road to connect them. The water was even touching the latter building.
As she drove around them and onto the road, she could see the same thing had happened with buildings on the other side, though without the awkward route to go between them and those still connected by the road.
She picked up speed as she headed down south, listening to the comments made by others to gauge where they were. It seemed those out in front had just arrived at the second-to-last checkpoint, as Smith exclaimed that Trott hadn't turned off with the others.
She wondered whether he had found a better route to take, and decided that she should follow his route in the hopes of overtaking a few of the others.
When she arrived at that point, she could see what Smith had been talking about. The wide-open intersection allowed access to Zetland Road – the more obvious choice to take – without the need to slow down. But Trott had decided to continue with the route this road had taken, which is the route she followed.
She had to admit to her mistake as soon as she had committed, as the obvious route would have allowed her to know which way to go. Here, she had no idea where Trott had turned off, and was pretty sure she was heading into the city centre, which was very much the wrong way to be going.
She turned off, and found herself driving past the hospitals, the university, and the museum, wondering how this was meant to be a faster route than the obvious choice. Trott had obviously made it work, as he was currently celebrating his victory.
"I'm lost!" she wailed, having ignored the one-way rules and kept to the right where she was now heading up a road she was pretty sure she wasn't meant to be on. She could barely see the beam of light that was meant to be her guide.
"How did you do that?" Tom asked with a laugh.
"I didn't turn off," she confessed. "I tried following the route Trott took and realised I had no idea what that was."
"Where are you?" Bouphe asked. "Get off, Ross!" she then added in frustration.
Leo slowed to look at a nearby road sign. "Alma Road on its eastern side. I can see the checkpoint looking down it, so I think I should be fine."
She didn't get a reply from Bouphe, but Tom did say that route should be easy enough to keep the checkpoint in view.
She felt a bit embarrassed from her outburst and momentary panic, but it would give entertainment to those watching, and that was her job.
Once with the others at the finish line, Tom asked if she had a map active. She admitted that she didn't, but felt that it might be helpful to have. But then a thought crossed her mind.
"We're using the supercars, aren't we?"
"You can sit this one out if you want," Tom suggested kindly. "No-one expects you to race them all."
"I'll be fine," she admitted. "I can sit back and have a gentle cruise."
There was something she wanted to know from someone else, though.
"Speed," Trott answered. "That obvious route had quite a few turns, but I knew I could keep a higher average speed not trying to wind through those roads. It might have been a longer route I took, and there were some tricky corners, but I had the car for the job."
The third race proved to be a long one, and Leo was glad to have not been speeding along it. Sure, the route was clearly marked from start to finish, and she now had a map within the upper left of her vision to give her better direction, but she was certain she would have made a mistake trying to keep going fast.
And she was certain that some alterations had been made to the world during it, but Tom denied the fact when questioned as they walked to the start of the fourth race.
Now stood at the western entrance to the Cabot Circus area of the Shopping Quarter, the sign-up booth to start the race had already been waiting. Leo had been surprised to find nothing to select on it, but Tom explained that this was the transform race. There was one set motorbike for everyone once they had run the length of the Shopping Quarter and reached the start of Nelson Street, which they would use to reach Queen Square.
Leo felt it would be unwise to use the weapon to slow someone down, as that would give them a reason to use it on her. However, she hadn't counted on the fact that someone would use it on her as soon as the race started.
She had no idea who had done so, as no-one owned up to doing it when she asked them. However, once they had reached The Podium, she felt certain that it had been Tom. He used the beam to get ahead of her, so once he stopped firing, she fired upon him to get ahead.
The back and forth of their positions continued until they passed the Tesco, where they both realised that fighting between just them wasn't going to win them any races. Lewis and Ben had overtaken them, with Duncan, Lydia and Bouphe already having been in front.
Leo saw that Tom had aimed for Duncan, so she aimed for Lewis. They both fired at the same time, but due to their fighting, the energy within the weapons had ran out.
Leo slowed a bit, aware that the vehicle section was coming up soon, and she wasn't wanting to be within that fight. Ross, Trott, and Smith overtook her, and once they hit the checkpoint, their weapons transformed almost instantly into the motorbikes they would be using.
Once on her own motorbike, Leo drove as fast as she dared, only stopping when she saw Lydia on the floor at the entrance into Queen Square this route took them.
"You need help?" she asked.
"No, no. I'm fine," Lydia responded, quickly jumping up and dusting herself off. "Completely unharmed. This place is just all sorts of great." She picked the bike from the floor and started walking with it. "Darn thing lost grip as I tried to avoid a tree," she grumbled. "Not the best end to these races."
"It happens," Leo said, starting the engine back up and roaring off through Thunderbolt Square to get onto Queen Square and the final checkpoint.
"Oh, thanks for that," Lydia said.
"You said you didn't need the help," Leo reasoned. "I don't need to stick around."
Once they had both joined the others in the centre of Queen Square, and all the motorbikes disappeared, Lewis started the outro.
As they said their cheery goodbyes, Trott threw the object Lewis had given him into the air, which exploded to release a shower of fire down upon them.
Leo screamed, feeling the flames burning her. It felt deadly real and she was completely panicked from it. That panic didn't leave her even when her mind left the body at Queen Square for a new one within the ready room.
"What did you do that for?" she screeched once Lewis had returned.
"I wanted to know what it would feel like while in a safe environment," he exclaimed. "There's no real harm been done."
"It was still scarily real." She tried to calm herself down, knowing that Lewis was right. Everyone else looked the same as she felt, and she knew that blaming Trott wouldn't be right, even if he should have questioned Lewis as to what it was.
Come to that, anyone should have. Even her.
"I'm sorry," Lewis said sincerely. "I just didn't think it through at all."
"No, you didn't," Ben said.
The recall to the real world was activated, and Leo felt as though she was waking from a nightmare. It had been fun, but Lewis had gone too far... But had he?
He had known they were safe, known nothing could happen to them. If it would have been dangerous to them, he wouldn't have done it, of that she was certain.
And really... it was less real, already seemed as though it hadn't been her within those flames, now that they were back in their own reality.
"How we all doing?" Lewis asked.
He seemed tentative, as though expecting them all to mob him for having put them in the situation they had just been in.
If no-one else would, she would make him feel better.
"I want to do that again sometime," she said with glee. "It was excellent."
"Can we do more than just races next time?" Bouphe asked.
Leo looked around the room, and saw that everyone else seemed to have forgiven Lewis for acting the way he had while within the video game environment, but he still looked slightly scared around them.
She had felt the way she had purely because of the suddenness of it, and felt the same could be said for everyone else. It had been unexpected, and caused a panic of shock to wash over them as it had happened. But as it abated, the entire situation seemed less serious as they were once again to comprehend the situation fully.
The manager walked into the room, and it seemed he had heard what Bouphe had said. Though he talked directly to Lewis, it seemed as though he did so for the benefit of everyone. He mentioned that the creator allowed for many things to be done within the world, and revealed that his technicians would continue working on getting the machinery compatible with a streaming setup.
As he left, Leo jumped on the chance to say, "I want in on that!"
"Count us in, too," Smith said.
Lewis said he would let them know of the date and hoped to get more people involved for the Jingle Jam. He then added that he wouldn't surprise them with anything that could be considered dangerous when they returned.
"It was just a surprise within a reality where nothing could hurt us," Lydia said cheerily. "We know you wouldn't do anything like that in real life."
Leo joined in with the laughter, and as they prepared to leave, she thought on all that they could possibly do next time. Doing races this time, she surmised, was actually a great idea, since how would you be able to do so on clear roads within a city without closing the entirety of it down?
But next time, anything really was possible.