Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (61 page)

“
You
sure that’s not the infatuation speaking?” Now that we
were having a moment of down time I felt comfortable poking a bit of
fun the youngsters way. He reminded me a lot of myself at that age
though chemistry had never been my forte. Awesome Jr. flushed and
looked over at the other girl. She was drawing lines of chalk on the
ground, measuring who knows what.

“
No,
it's not that,” He whispered in response.

The
other two kept right on pulling single creatures down the lane and
killing them. We were lucky that this cleared area seemed safe
enough. My stamina was back to nearly full so I could probably pull
another one of those blade swings out of nowhere if things got dire.
After I figured out how this cane transformed.

“
How
do you do it, Mister Carver? Everyone looks up to you, you’re a
hero.” Awesome Jr. was whispering still while staring at the
girl of his dreams. They may have grown closer in the last two days,
but I could detect worry. Those days felt familiar, the worry if I
was lacking compared to all the other guys out there.

“
I
don’t know how to be a hero.” Not like William Carver
did. “I don’t know how to be a villain. I only know that
there are things in this world I must do.”

Awesome
Jr. chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, both hands frozen
in the air with two test tubes of swirling colors. Then he shook his
head again and banished the fuzzy headed thoughts.

“
That
reminds me of a poem. Invictus. He said, it matters not how strait
the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of
my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

“
Good
kid. You know your stuff.” The older female said. HotPants was
huffing while holding her staff. Shadow looked worn out behind her. A
pile of dead ink monsters littered the ground. Emeralds and other
greens bled across the landscape to slowly meld with our safe zone.

“
Yeah.
We studied Mandela in history. It came up twice along with another
passage.” Awesome Jr responded.

“
Yeah?
Anything good?”

“
Yeah.
Wait, hold on. I’ll grab it. I think you’ll like this
one, Mister Carver.” Awesome Jr.’s form almost turned
into a dull lifeless version. His hands went back mechanically to
mixing potions and trying not to sneak sidelong glances at SweetPea.
The autopilot was not flattering on the teen.

Clearly
the machine AIs that ran Continue knew exactly what kind of
personality Awesome Jr. had. I would love to see his autopilot get
caught stalking SweetPea. The Event message from that would be
hilarious. Awesome Jr’s object of affection was completely
oblivious. SweetPea was jumping up and down for joy. Hair flew
everywhere as her skinny body danced around.

“
We
did it!” She shouted.

“
Oh
yeah? You mean we did it.” Shadow said. “You two sat
there.”

“
Hey,
you leave the kid with the bundle of explosives alone. We’ll
probably need them." HotPants was completely onboard with
Awesome Jr.'s mixtures. "The robot here can probably only do
that, whatever he did, a few more times, and I’m not going to
wipe in this dungeon.”

“
Wipe?”
SweetPea stopped her happy dance and tilted her head.

“
It’s
where we all die and fail,” Shadow said. “And I have no
plans to die.”

“
No
one plans to.” I sadly muttered, sinking into my sad mood once
more. Maybe I should invest in some anti-depression medications. They
helped last year during my second relapse.

“
Here.
I wrote it into my journal.”

“
What
did you write down?” HotPants.

“
It’s
another quote, this one’s not a poem. It’s from Theodore
Roosevelt.”

“
Come
on, gab and walk.” HotPants recovered enough to start pushing
bushes out of the way. She huffed and pulled out a much smaller
dagger. Slowly she sawed at branches to clear a solid path that any
of us could walk through.

“
It
is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better.”

“
Sounds
like someone I know.” Shadow gave his snark-filled opinion
about the work he was doing to kill our invading monsters. Awesome
Jr. broke away and flipped off the would-be ninja.

“
This
isn’t about you, this is about Mister Carver.”

“
Keep
going.” I motioned.

“
Right.”
He took a breath and tried not to look embarrassed. I had forgotten
what being a teenager was like. For me, everything had been steps
away from an ego-crushing event.

“
The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly.”
Awesome Jr. was emphasizing so many of the words as if trying to give
the great speech himself. It was impressive to me. Even HotPants
seemed appreciative and halted her hacking of bushes with the tiny
knife she had pulled out.

“
Who
errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the
deeds. Who knows great enthusiasms.

“
Sounds
pretty wordy to me.” Shadow blurted an interruption. HotPants
punched the young assassin and gave him the blade. He grumbled and
started sawing away at the clensed plants.

“
Shut
up Shadow. Keep going Awesome.”

“
Awesome’s
my father.” Awesome Jr. absently mumbled while gazing at
SweetPea. His head shook and consulted whatever notes his ARC
displayed. A moment later and he was reciting the remaining passage.

“
Who
knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions. Who spends himself in a
worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Mere
moments after finishing his quotation a box flickered into existence
on his screen. I gave a smile. The machine had rather enjoyed his
touching rendition. It might have been the effect of Awesome Jr’s
new skill. It might have been the fact that we ventured into a new
room, but I felt better than ever.

A
wave of energy washed over me, reducing the wear and tear that
plagued William Carver's computer body. My hand gripped the cane
eagerly and I could almost feel the hilt of a blade shifting beneath
my fingers. It would only take a moment of intent to transform this
walking stick into its outrageously giant form.

“
So
there you have it,” He said.

“
You
keep reading your history." HotPants looked almost the happiest
she had ever been. "Some of those presidents, they may have
screwed up as much as they fixed, but they knew how to give a
speech.”

“
Anyway.
I figure you’d like this one, Mister Carver. The people in
town, they tell stories about your adventures. Lots, the tavern
practically tells your top ten greatest stories every night.”
Awesome Jr. creased the journal entry together and put it back into
an inventory pouch at his side.

“
God
help me, Peg wouldn’t shut up about you. She was so excited to
see you getting back in the field. Drove me batty.” HotPants
still had a lingering bit of cheer, but her memories of Peg must not
have been positive.

“
I
guess that’s true. Even my master seemed to respect your
journeys." Shadow piped in his opinion.

“
Anyway.
You’ve been the man in the arena. I don’t know about the
others, but I’ve never done much of anything with my life."
Awesome Jr. sighed. "So this, has, is like serving next to a
legend.”

“
Mh.”
This was embarrassing. I was being praised by players for the work of
another user that I was only pretending to be. Awkward.

“
Well.”
I thought about what Leeroy had said. The last boss in here was
unlikely to be anything these plebs, his word not mine, could handle.
“You’ll have your own story to share by the end of this.”

“
Why
did you pick us, Mister Carver? You could have taken any number of
fighters from the town. We’re nothing, even if we’re
Travelers.”

“
I’ll
answer your question with one of my own.” I grumbled and got
back into my role as Carver. My cane banged against the ground. This
was a really good chance to execute my Carverisms. There was no
progress bar anymore, but that didn’t mean I should break
character.

“
What
do you want form this world? Why did you come here?” This was a
question that I posed to these players before.

“
Fame.”
Shadow was the first to respond.

“
Adventure.”
Awesome Jr. was looking at SweetPea when he responded. She pulled
down her hood and didn't have a good response.

“
I
just want to hit things.” HotPants said. “A lot.”
Her faded red clothes seemed to stand out even more among all the
greens and blues in our landscape.

“
Whatever
it is you want, whatever you feel your world is lacking, you can find
it here,” I said.

“
And
you, Mister Carver? What do you want?” SweetPea asked.

I
wanted one thing for myself. One item honestly and deeply. I wanted
the hurting to stop over my deceased fiancée. James had given
me this chance as both a distraction and a lure. But Carver wanted
something else entirely. Giving my answer would be invalid and
cheapen this whole event.

“
Me?”
I hummed a bit and banged the cane once more. I knew what Carver
would want. But saying it out loud and not sounding goofy was another
matter.

“
Yes,
Mister Carver. What do you want?” SweetPea asked again. In my
four weeks, she was the first player to actually turn the question
around. SweetPea, my first Traveler.

“
You
say the people tell stories about me?” Awesome Jr. nodded to my
question. “Well, no one tells them to my face. They let me sit
on the bench day in and out because they think I'm done with it all.”

What
had the journals outlined? Vague recollections of the various
adventures passed through my mind. I had scanned them all recently
looking for details of William Carver's past life in order to send
out farewells.

“
I’ve
slain many different monsters in defense of those who needed it. I’ve
been across the oceans and battled on the high seas. I’ve
chased a creature born of flame and nightmare across the swamps only
to tame the beast.” Carver's form gave an involuntary cough and
my chest started to hurt.

“
Treasures,
women, I did all this in order to train myself for the greatest
adventure I thought one could have.” The pain slowly faded and
came under control after another cough.