Should Have Let Me Die

"I hope that wasn't a joke," Eva said, taking her form and floating up beside my presence.

"No, well, ya, but, ya. So, speed, according to the download thinger. I can go really fast, but I drain power, not fast, but it does drain it out, and then...really? I have to be idle and meditate like this to gain it back? What kind of cockamamie bullshit is this? I have never had a limit or a constraint to the amount of power I could use other than the Gates themselves," I said, feeling a bit miffed.

"Hyde, your brother designed the power this way for a reason, right? Or was he the type to just do things without putting any thought into them?" Eva asked me.

Well, she did have a point there. While not always that bright at picking up social cues or with hanging out with people at all. Dave was meticulous with his game design and world-building skills. 

Sure, after we decided to stay in the game we added edited quiet things that would have got us slammed left, right, and center for copyright infringement. Thankfully this wasn't ever going to exist in the real world, the time dial of sixty years had passed.

Dave and I had talked about this right before coming into the game. We were talking about hypothetical situations that could happen if something went wrong. If the time dial passed the sixty-year time would stretch, but only so far.

Unlike in the shutdown, if the time band stretched too far things would start to warp. according to the base model of Dave projection of the events that could follow,  but that wouldn't start happening for another thirty years. That clock also resets with each game reset, and two hundred and fifty years was the threshold before things got weird.

According to my memories, I had yet to see this weirdness, but things were a bit hazy with any memories pertaining to the Zodiac worlds. The actual Mainframe would be keeping them from me according to the game laws that Dave put in place. 

I could still remember bits and parts of the other two worlds, but no people or even me. One was water, a lot of water, but there were some islands, but that was all I got from Cancer. 

The last was Sagittarius, and this was just a mountain on mountains. All glimpses were of rocky ranges, except the brief flashing memory of a cave. The short flashes always showed a cavern that was lit up with purple light from glowing crystals. Plants and animals flourished, but that was it. 

I was still absorbing the Gate, but it was almost finished. While I was here, I might as well absorb the fifth gate. There was no point in playing if I wasn't going to have all my tools and weapons currently available at my disposal.

"I don't recommend that. While you have been thinking, I have been going over the file on what this Gate or Law means. You are going to have to take a bit to control yourself," Eva explained to me.

"What do you mean by controlling myself? Wait, let me see what you are seeing, hold on… oh. This looks like you might be a little busy over the next little while until I can get a hold of this Law," I said as I started having mental images for what was about to happen when I stepped back into my Dragon armor body.

Download thinger said that I would be moving fast, but not like a burst of speed kind of fast though. No, this was some MACH three bullshit from a step, a hand motion, or if I turned my head too fast.

Also, no extra strength whatsoever. I just got unadulterated, balls to the wall, peddle to the metal, ass clenching speed. My asshole was already puckering at the thought, and I didn't even have one right now! 

Eva started to laugh, and I turned my glowing sphere of self to her and tried to darken my light at her.

"You don't laugh at my other joke, but you think it's hilarious that I am going to have my mechanical asshole stretched out the back of me? You read what it said right? The only time it gets sucked back in is when it hits something!" I roared out in protest, but Eva was a fit of laughter rolling in the air.

I wanted to give her shit, but seeing her laugh like that reminded me of Nina. I wonder how the Graph was doing? 

That thought made Eva sober up quickly, and I felt bad for ruining her happy moment.

"No, don't feel bad, I enjoyed the laugh while it lasted. I have to say I kind of miss having Trinity in here. As for Nina and Graph, they are good, and unlike that weed that won't stop growing, Graph is aging at a normal pace," Eva said with a bright smile.

That made me chuckle. Yes, Kyla did grow like a weed, so it was good to hear that Graph was growing at a normal rate. I would get to see home still as a baby when I got back. 

Kyla on the other hand might almost be eight by then, and that gave me a headache just thinking about the kind of attitude she was going to get. I couldn't even rub my hand over my face in the old, 'what am I going to do with you' expression. 

The Gate was finally absorbed, and it had been for a little bit. I was just… relaxing, yeah. To be perfectly honest with myself, I was too excited to get back at it. It was something about the whole, 'simple movement in any direction will hurt, a lot,' that part really just threw me off the whole idea of going back out there.

Suddenly, I froze, didn't even move my eyeballs

'What the fuck, Eva?'

"Sometimes you just need a little push, when you are standing at the edge of a cliff.