Mist of Shadows
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Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 2
🕑 Added 2021-08-28 07:53:57 +0000 UTC"What the fuck?" Dean sputtered when he read Vicky's text.
Dennis glanced away from the monitor and looked at his friend that almost never cursed. "What's up?"
"No clue," Dean admitted as he showed Dennis his phone.
'Amy got kidnapped and stuck in the World of Whorecraft game, have you heard of any missing person reports?' Dennis read the text to himself, briefly wondering if Vicky was pulling a prank before realizing that she wouldn't joke about Amy being kidnapped. "I didn't know she played, how the hell do you trap someone in a video game?"
"Hacker?" Dean asked, not sure what was going on.
"It's augmented reality, not full immersion. The most a hacker could do would be to screw with your character so they couldn't log out, you could always just take the headset off," Dennis replied as he quickly sent a text to Vicky asking for more information, 'What do you mean she got kidnapped? How do you know?'
"Leet?" Dean asked warily.
Dennis shook his head as Sophia walked into the room. "Not a chance, he would have been screaming about it on his channel."
"Something the matter?" Sophia asked as she walked over to the fridge to steal a soda.
Dean scowled at Sophia, knowing she didn't actually care and was just bored. "Vicky said Amy got trapped in a game."
Sophia snorted. "Yeah, right. Which one?"
"World of Whorecraft," Dean muttered, wondering if he should call Vicky and try to get something more coherent out of her.
"She plays?" Sophia asked in surprise. "Huh, just when you think you know a girl."
"You've heard of it?" Dean demanded.
"Sure, it's basically a fantasy game about killing monsters and fucking people over," Sophia replied as she opened the fridge and grabbed one of Vista's Cokes.
'Close enough,' Dennis thought then stared at the phone as he read Vicky's reply. "Amy logged in and vanished, someone in the game had a phone that she could use to call me. She's apparently stuck in Stormwind, I'm trying to talk mom into letting me rescue her."
"Seriously? Who the fuck is that nuts?" Sophia asked, not sure how insane you'd have to be to kidnap one of the best healers in the world when more than a few capes owed her their lives or at least health, including a bunch of villains that wouldn't hesitate to express their displeasure.
"No idea," Dennis admitted. "Do you have an account?" he asked Sophia.
Sophia snorted. "Trying to get rid of me?"
"Vicky doesn't have a character, you're probably at least level twenty, right?" Dennis asked.
"Try sixty," Sophia replied smugly.
Dennis nodded. "Which means you can log in and take a look around the city on the off chance that she's actually stuck in the game."
Sophia snorted. "What if I get trapped?"
"Then you get to play around in a messed up world where you get to shoot people without anyone complaining until we can fix things," Dennis replied, fairly sure Sophia would be fine.
"Fine," Sophia said sarcastically as she headed for her room to grab her headset.
"The Director is going to flip," Dean whispered once Sophia was out of the room.
"Relax, they probably just targeted Amy's headset," Dennis assured him.
"What are we going to do if she vanishes?" Dean asked warily.
"You mean before or after the party?" Dennis asked in a whisper.
"Fair point," Dean admitted.
Sophia walked back into the room with her headset on her head. "It's just finishing installing the patch."
"Hopefully you can find her and we can figure out what's going…" Dennis trailed off as Sophia vanished, causing her headset and unopened soda to drop to the floor. "Shit, so much for this being a prank."
"Yeah," Dean admitted. "We should probably call Armsmaster before we talk to the Director."
"That would make it harder for her to make us disappear," Dennis agreed thoughtfully.
"What?" Dean asked in surprise. "No, he's a tinker, this is obviously tinkertech."
"That too," Dennis replied as he pulled his phone out and selected Armsmaster's number.
"Clock?" Colin answered the call after two seconds.
"We've got a slight problem, Shadowstalker put her VR headset on and vanished about ten seconds ago," Dennis admitted.
"World of Whorecraft?" Colin asked warily.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Dennis asked in surprise.
"Dragon has been tracking a growing number of missing persons cases related to the game," Colin replied, not seeing a point in mentioning that he'd lost contact after she'd tried to ping the server. "Wait, why aren't you more surprised?" he asked once he realized that Dennis didn't sound as shocked as he should be.
"Vicky sent a text about Amy vanishing and calling her from inside the game, Sophia logged in to check," Dennis admitted.
"Don't let anyone touch the VR unit until I get there, I'll explain things to the Director," Colin ordered as he headed for the curb so he could make better time. "I should be there in five to six minutes," he told Dennis then ended the call, too busy dodging broken bits of crap on the road to worry about estimating the exact time.
Dennis slipped his work phone back in his pocket. "At least we don't have to call the Director."
"That's not going to save us," Dean muttered as he sent a text to Vicky, 'Don't log in, Shadowstalker vanished when she tried.'
"I can dream," Dennis replied as he leaned back in his chair and waited for Armsmaster to get there.
0o0o0
The gnome frowned when the purple skinned girl with demon wings fell out of the portal and promptly collapsed. "Are you okay?"
"Not really," Dragon admitted as she tried to figure out how she was supposed to control her new body.
"Do I need to call a healer?" the female gnome asked, ready to draw her wand in case the girl that looked like a demon with human legs attacked her. "You might want to move, we've been getting a lot of foot traffic."
"I'll try." Dragon wiggled her purple fingers then moved her arm, finding it surprisingly easy to control her limbs well enough to crawl out of the way of the portal now that she had a chance to focus and work on it. 'At least Colin isn't here to see me stumbling around.'
A well built human male with shoulder length hair wearing a pair of linen shorts stepped out of the portal and glanced around. He frowned when he noticed the demon girl using the shelf to stand up. "Are you alright?"
"I'm not used to having legs," Dragon replied as she adjusted her stance so she wouldn't fall over.
"Sorry," he offered. "You should probably stay in the city until you get used to it, some of the players are assholes."
"Thanks for the heads up," Dragon replied as she took a cautious step, keeping her hand on the shelf to make sure she didn't fall.
Sophia stepped out of the portal and frowned when the burlap sack she was wearing rubbed against her skin. She glanced down at her breasts and scowled when she realized she wasn't wearing her epic armor. "Sheet!" She stared in disbelief when she realized they'd reset her character to level one and stolen her gear. "I'm going to kill someone!"
"Let me guess, you missed the announcement about everyone's characters being reset now that the Alpha test is finished?" the guy asked as he looked at the attractive purple skinned elf.
"No shit," Sophia replied sarcastically as she stared at her character's pathetic stats, trying not to think about the hours she'd spent working on her character when she couldn't go patrolling.
"At least the full immersion tech is working better than I was expecting," the guy mused as he turned back to look at Dragon. "Are you going to be okay?"
Dragon took another step, finding it easier than the last one. "I should be fine in a few minutes."
Sophia glanced at the winged demon girl then stalked down the ramp, wishing she'd asked what type of character Amy played or her character name before she'd put the headset on because she doubted she was using her actual name.
"Best of luck," the guy told Dragon as he followed Sophia down the ramp, looking forward to hunting some monsters before all of the PVP idiots started causing trouble.
Dragon took a couple of steps then turned and took a couple more steps before pulling her hand away from the shelf and moving to the next shelf. 'Okay, that's easier than I was expecting. Enough procrastinating,' she told herself as she opened her belt pouch and pulled out her new cell phone. 'At least Colin set up some codewords if I ever had to call him without my rig,' she mused as she typed his phone number.
0o0o0
"This would be easier if I'd started with a fishing pole," Amy complained as she glared at the collection of players hanging around outside of the gates waiting for the monsters to respawn or for someone to get injured enough that jumping them was a viable option.
"Welcome to the club, they didn't even give me a sewing kit to get started," Taylor complained as she closed her skill page.
The pale skinned female elf that was leaning against the wall watching the group of assholes spoke up, "Try being an engineer."
Taylor turned to look at the elf. "At least you don't have to destroy magic items for dust to enchant everything."
"No thanks," the girl replied, knowing that most enchanters went broke if they didn't have a guild helping them. "Any idea how to get out of here without getting raped? It's one thing when it's an illusion, it's another when it feels real."
"That depends, how long does your defeated status last?" Taylor asked.
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Thirty minutes, why?"
"I grabbed the bondage gear summoning ability because it lets me summon handcuffs, it also lets me summon carriages," Taylor explained.
"That could work," the girl mused, fairly sure most of the idiots hadn't had time to buy or capture decent mounts and the carriage equaled the fastest land based mounts in the game. "How much are you offering for the risk?"
"I don't have any money right now but I'm a tailor and an enchanter, my alt is a jewelcrafter. If you help us get to my mansion in Darkshire, I'll give you some basic gear," Taylor offered.
"I'll toss in some potions and cooked fish," Amy offered.
"How about a place to stay for a couple of days and some ore so I can start tinkering?" the elf asked hopefully.
"Deal," Taylor agreed as she focused and summoned an old fashioned black wooden carriage.
"I'm Ezra by the way," the girl offered as she held out her hand.
"Amelia..." Amy trailed off as she grabbed the girl's hand and her power showed her the girl's alien biology. She absently shook the girl's hand as she tried to wrap her brain around the girl's biology. 'So much for being stuck in a computer game or a pocket dimension with holograms,' she mused as she forced herself to let go of Ezra's hand.
"Skitter," Taylor offered absently as she climbed up the ladder. "Do you know how to get to Darkshire?"
"Yeah, I'll drive," Amy said as she helped Ezra with the harness.
Taylor slid over so that Amy could take the driver's seat, mostly because she only had a vague idea where Darkshire was. "Sounds good."
"That should do it," Amy said after making a final adjustment.
"Thanks," Ezra replied as she wiggled her shoulders, wanting to make sure everything was comfortable. "Looks good."
Amy climbed up the ladder and sat in the driver's seat. "Ready?"
"Yeah, this is surprisingly comfortable," Ezra replied as she started walking then running down the path, the carriage practically weightless as it followed her.
"What are we going to do if someone jumps out in front of us?" Taylor asked as she looked at the group of idiots on the road that were looking their way.
"I was thinking about lighting them on fire before running them over," Amy said as she gestured for her demon to attack the group in front of her, knowing she could just resummon her if she got bogged down. "Break them."
Victoria laughed as she charged into the group of players and started hitting people with her whip, trying to get them to break so Amy could get past them.
"Move!" Taylor shouted as she tossed a frostbolt at one of the idiots standing in the way, wishing she had some actual armor or a force field to keep her safe.
Amy grinned when the wagon slammed into one of the idiots without slowing down, giving her a large chunk of experience thanks to her experience drain perk. "Charge them!" she ordered the guy she'd just defeated, knowing he couldn't attack but figuring he could get in the way or at least distract the rest of them.
Ezra did her best to ignore the distractions and run as fast as she could, trying to outpace the assholes and hoping they managed to escape.
0o0o0
"Get out of the way," Sophia ordered the leering guy that was blocking her path.
"Make me," the man replied with a smirk. "Oh that's right you can't attack people in town without getting beat to shit by the guards."
Sophia took a breath and let it out. "I just want to grab some tools and leave."
The man smirked. "You're going to give me your gold then we're going to have some fun or I'm going to beat you stupid and my friends will put a leash on you."
'Screw it!' Sophia glanced around to make sure none of the wandering guards were all that close then lunged forward and kicked the man in the nuts, lifting him off the ground with the force of her strike and causing him to squeal. She stepped forward, grabbed his neck and slammed his head against the stone wall twice, knocking him unconscious. "Fucking idiot," she muttered as she heard shouts in the distance, letting her know that the guards were coming to harass her for her 'unprovoked' attack.
Sophia phased through the wall into the back room of the shop and flipped the mental switch for her shadowmeld ability, vanishing from sight and dropping her 'threat'. 'It might not be the best racial but it's damned useful,' she thought as she glanced around the backroom of the leatherworking shop. 'It's too bad you don't have a bunch of leather but at least you've got tools I can steal.'
She waited another ten second to make sure the guards weren't tracking her then snuck over and grabbed a skinning knife and a leatherworking kit. She stuck them in her bag of holding then phased and walked back outside. She glared at the man that was getting to his feet then flipped the strange mental switch in the back of her mind and conjured a leash.
"Shit! Help! Guards!" the man shouted as jumped away from her.
"Shut up and don't move!" Sophia snapped, rather amused when his mouth snapped shut and he froze in place. "The guards are NPCS, if they can't find you, they stop looking," she taunted as she put the leash around his neck. "No lying. How long will you stay defeated for?"
"A day," the man admitted despite his best effort to lie, his defeated status making it so he had to follow orders that didn't involve his loot.
"Do you have a player house or mansion or anything worth stealing?" Sophia asked.
The man snorted. "No and yeah, I've got a couple of gold and a decent weapon I stole off a blacksmith with watermelon sized tits when the stupid bitch set it down but you can't make me give you anything."
Sophia smirked at the man. "Technically, you're correct, the defeated status doesn't let me steal your stuff. However, I'm guessing you're not a fan of pain."
"You're going to regret this," the man snarled.
"Let me guess, you're going to recruit your friends and jump me?" Sophia asked sarcastically as she started walking towards the abandoned shop she knew about that had a cellar with a rat quest, intending to leave him tied up for a couple of hours.
"We're going to rape you until you break," the man replied before he could stop himself.
"Lovely," Sophia replied sarcastically as she turned to look at the man. "I was just going to leave you tied up for a couple of hours but you're insane." She flipped the mental switch in the back of her mind and conjured a blindfold. "Don't talk, don't scream, don't try to run, we're going to have some fun."
Sophia stuck the blindfold on the man then spun him around a couple of times to screw up his sense of direction then shoved him towards the abandoned cellar. 'It's too bad Taylor doesn't play, we could have a lot of fun,' she mused as she hauled the guy into the abandoned shop then kicked him down the stairs, smiling at the realistic sound his head made when it hit the wooden steps. She pulled her new skinning knife out of her bag then jumped down the stairs and started stabbing the large rats that were already trying to eat her prisoner, looking forward to getting a couple of stacks of leather from the rats and would-be rapist before she went back to looking for Panacea.
0o0o0
"Gah!" Taylor sputtered when her phone rang and startled her. "So much for just being able to call out."
"You're not used to having a cell are you?" Amy asked as Skitter fished her phone out of her bag.
"Not for a while," Taylor admitted as she glanced at the caller ID. "Did you call the PRT?"
"No but I called someone that probably reported it to the PRT," Amy admitted, figuring Vicky had called Dean who would be obligated to report it.
Taylor quickly handed Amy the phone. "In that case, you can talk to them while I'm driving."
Amy hit the talk button and brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
"Amy?" Armsmaster asked, surprised that she'd answered the phone since he'd thought she'd borrowed it.
"Yeah, Skitter is driving the carriage so she tossed me her phone," Amy replied.
"Skitter? Are you free to talk?" Armsmaster asked warily.
"Mostly, we're taking a carriage through the woods to Darkshire and we've got to worry about bandits, insane players and werewolf knockoffs so I'm a bit distracted," Amy explained as she kept her attention on the forest.
"Werewolves?" Emily Piggot asked skeptically.
"Part of the game," Dennis explained. "Ask them why they're going to Darkshire."
"Resources and a flight point," Amy replied as she gestured for her demon to attack a bandit on the trail. "The starting area near Stormwind is a nightmare of players trying to kill each other and we're basically low level blasters and tinkers without gear right now so we're trying to get to Skitter's mansion where we can pick up some resources."
"Makes sense," Armsmaster agreed after Dennis nodded. "Shadowstalker and Dragon got stuck in the game. Dragon has a phone but Shadowstalker doesn't so let us know if you run into Shadowstalker. Do you want Dragon's contact information?"
"It wouldn't-" Amy dropped the phone in her lap and started casting shadowbolts when a group of bandits charged out of the forest at them.
Taylor pulled her attention away from the call and tossed a string of frostbolts at the group of bandits, quickly burning through her mana and making her wish she had something more impressive as the level difference and lack of gear was making it hard to kill them. "I need a gun."
Amy distracted the last two bandits with a shadowbolt so they didn't dodge the carriage.
"Did you hit them with a carriage?" Dennis asked, having recognized the noise.
Amy mentally sent her pet dragon to pick up the loot as she picked up the phone and put it to her ear. "As I was saying, I wouldn't mind having Dragon's contact information in the game. We should be able to help her out with resources."
"Do you have any idea who kidnapped everyone?" Emily asked.
"I'd take a look at the company. We got a message when we logged in about being stuck in the game until we can defeat the end boss but they're only letting the first one hundred people to beat the boss leave until the next expansion and the next 'last' boss so we're going to try to escape as soon as we can," Amy explained.
"What are the chances that you'll be able to?" Emily asked.
"Decent, I know what I'm doing and everyone got reset to level one. I should be able to solo the last boss with my minions, it's just a matter of hitting the level cap and getting there before everyone gets to a point they can contest it," Amy assured them. "Skitter is in the same boat and she's got a decent collection of crafting skills to help us get there."
"In other words, maybe by the end of break?" Dennis asked thoughtfully.
"With any luck," Amy agreed as she spotted the bridge they needed to cross. "Text Skitter the contact information and we'll try to get in touch, I'll be able to talk in twenty to thirty minutes, the next part of the trip is going to suck."
"Give us a call when you can," Armsmaster replied then sighed when she ended the call. "What do you think her chances are?" he asked Dennis, figuring he was the closest thing they had to a local expert on the game.
Dennis considered the question for a few seconds. "If they can get away from the starting area and get past the first twenty levels, they've got a decent shot depending on their abilities and class setup. I'm more worried about Dragon, there's a lot of open space and the graphics are decent."
"That's a concern," Armsmaster admitted.
"What about Shadowstalker?" Emily asked, trying to get an idea of what she was going to tell Sophia's mother.
"Given the nature of the game and the fact that her combat skills should help, she'll probably get there unless something comes up," Dennis offered.
"Good." Emily looked at Armsmaster. "Were you able to figure out how they teleported her out of the building?"
"The headsets are tied into an interesting network that the designers or the right tinker could probably use to target people." Armsmaster frowned as he considered the logistics of teleporting a bunch of people. "The real problem is you'd need some serious hardware to teleport hundreds of people in a short window."
Emily sighed as she realized what he was saying. "In other words, even if we catch them, someone is going to want to recruit them."
"Most likely, being able to grab people from around the country and teleport them to endbringer battles in seconds or a couple of minutes would be a game changer," Armsmaster admitted.
"See if you can track down the company while I call the Chief Director's office," Emily ordered, more than happy to toss the problem up the chain on the off chance that they could get some thinkers on the problem.
