Chapter 3

*This is the rough draft version of the novel. The polished novel will be posted at a later date.

Chapter 3: Mix

Day 2

Aitheros woke up on the cold pavement, his phone and a card on the ground near him.

"He's through," Glitch confirmed as the console in the Hub pinpointed his location in the game. "I'll attempt to contact him in a moment."

"So..." Atrinity hesitated until Glitch looked at her, "...do I have to go through?" she asked, her arms crossed defensively.

"No, I won't send you anywhere until I know for sure that it's safe," Glitch replied, and she lowered her arms, though her stance still seemed slightly guarded. "Aitheros should be up now, so let's see if we can reach him."

"Okay," she agreed, watching him tap his earpiece, and scan text that appeared before his eyes.

Aitheros was looking up at neon signs, pointing the way to a massive stadium. His phone lit up with an incoming call and soft ring, announcing Glitch's attempt to get through to him.

"Hey," he greeted as he answered the call.

"Sounds like you made it through. Any issues?" Glitch inquired.

"None that I know of. I woke up on the pavement in the middle of an alley, but other than that, everything seems fine," he explained.

"Good. Your next task is to locate the stadium where Red will be played. Leave me on speaker and take me anywhere you're able. I have a map open here on the Hub's console. Do you see Jarvis street?"

"Yeah, it's just ahead. There are signs marking the way to the stadium, so I'll start walking, and let you know when I get there," Aitheros replied.

"After you find Red's stadium, you'll need to find a partner to enter the game with you. If you can't find an NPC, Atrinity can join you, but ideally I'd like to put her in another game so we can clear more objectives in a shorter time," Glitch explained with Atrinity standing behind him, listening carefully. "On that note, there's something I'd like both of you to keep in mind..." Glitch said, turning to look at Atrinity as he spoke to them both. "Every person you meet in Remnants, no matter how real the may seem, they're just NPCs, programs, nothing more."

"Okay," Aitheros replied, while Atrinity clasped her hands and only gave a slight nod.

"You may find yourselves in difficult positions, so remember that they aren't real. Take care of yourselves before anyone else, and don't get too caught up in a game's storyline. Come back to the hub when I say to," Glitch instructed. "Got it?"

"Yeah," Aitheros confirmed.

"Good," Glitch said.

Aitheros turned the corner, hearing someone up ahead shouting. He tucked his phone into his pocket. "Can you still hear me clearly?" he asked as he continued walking towards the confrontation ahead.

"Yes," Glitch answered.

"Look, I don't have a pass, but I need to get in there!" a tall man in a black suit yelled at an even taller android, it's dark green metal arms crossed, and it's glowing white eyes narrowed.

"All players must present a battle pass," the android repeated.

"My wife is in there!" the man yelled back.

"Glitch, I think I already found a partner for Red," Aitheros remarked upon overhearing a bit of the dispute.

The man then started shaking his fists, screaming profanities at the android, making an even bigger scene, causing Aitheros to stop his approach.

"Ugh, maybe not," he said.

"We don't have time to waste, take what you can get and progress," Glitch insisted.

Aitheros watched the man start to storm off, then turn around and point at the android's face as he yelled, "I'm going to get in there!"

The android's eyes only narrowed further, expressing quite a lot for a machine.

The man grit his teeth, and pressed down on the hat he wore over his spiky black hair, stomping away in frustration as he tried to think of his next move.

"Hey, you're trying to get into Red?" Aitheros asked, a bit stiff and quiet, uncomfortable approaching this angry man.

"Ugh, I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm extremely stressed, and I lost it," the man replied, regretting his profane display, but clearly expecting the conversation to go nowhere as he put his hands in his pockets and looked anxious to get moving again.

"Do you need a pass for each player? I'm new to this," Aitheros asked, and the man tilted his head back a bit with interest.

"It's one pass per team. Do you have a battle pass?" he asked directly, and felt his heart pound when he saw Aitheros hold one up.

"I do, but I need a partner. Would you be willing to work with me?"

"You've gotta be kiddin' me! I'll do anything to get in there! I'll take either position, and I don't need a cut, I just need to find my wife!" the man yelled, desprate for any chance inside.

"Alright, let's sign up, I guess?" Aitheros replied, sounding a bit unsure about how to proceed.

"Thank you! Seriously!" the man replied.

A dark figure watched them from atop a nearby building. Strands of off-white hair lay juxtaposed against his brown skin and black tracksuit. He brought a phone up to his ear. "Negative. I'll check under the stadium," he said to someone on the other end of the call, then hung up and walked away from the edge of the building to the other side, his pale yellow eyes gleaming.

"Man, you don't know how thankful I am you showed up!" the man in a suit expressed to Aitheros.

"It's no problem," Aitheros replied, now nonchalant.

"No, seriously, I can't believe you had a pass and no partner. What's your name?" he asked as they began to walk toward the gate into the stadium.

"Aitheros, but you can just call me Aith," he replied.

"Alright, Aith! Call me Mix!" he grinned. "Listen, I'm a sharpshooter, you won't regret having me on your team!" he assured him, seemingly still trying to sell himself as an ideal partner. They walked up to the gate and Aitheros presented his battle pass to the android called Tezno, which let them both through. Mix crinkled his nose and flicked his hat as he passed the android. It satisfied him all the more to see an annoyed expression on that humaniod machine after he taunted it.

****

"We're off to a good start," Glitch acknowledged, then turned once more to the tall and timid woman next to him. "Are you ready to enter a game, Atrinity?"

"I think so..." she replied.

Glitch paced back over towards the room with portals. "I checked the queue for the RPG, Kaldea, on the console. Technically, all of the games are queued, but the portals to them aren't labeled because of the weird hub issues we're having, so I have to check where each portal goes before sending you in," he explained as she followed behind him. "The last thing we want is for you to walk through the wrong portal, unprepared," he teased in a less serious tone, but she remained quiet. "The RPG will take longer to clear than the others, all the main objectives are boss fights, so we need to get it started."

"Okay..." she said in a tone lacking confidence, and Glitch looked at her as she started to step towards the portal.

"Hey," he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder as she started to turn to look at him, feeling her flinch slightly but make steady eye contact. "We're going to get through this," he assured her, "...together," he added and she gave the hint of a smile before going through the portal, into a game.

Glitch walked into the large console at the center of the hub. He readied his earpiece to make a call to Atrinity, and looked at the maps of the game worlds. His eyes narrowed as he read their objectives again. He took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled. Some fun this turned out to be, he thought to himself. If someone else remembers... He caught himself starting to fidget with his earpiece again. "It's fine," he murmured to assure himself.