Page 14 of 3013: Hellion
“Aye, here I am!”Jaya said in response.“I have been very worried about you, Jecca. And that is not normal. Usually, I am the one doing things to cause you concern, not the other way around. Do not make this a habit.”
“Is something wrong?” Xian asked from beside her.
She nodded without opening her eyes. “I am just checking in with my twin, Jecca. She is trapped inside the sector near the damaged power cell.”
“Then you need to warn her that section is the superhero area. There are people with superpowers, fanatical government operatives, and killer robots in that section of the island.”
While Jaya thought that sounded like a lot of fun, concern flooded her when she realized whatever had caused Jecca’s injury had also made her lose her memory. Jecca couldn’t even remember her name or what she looked like, so she was in no condition to be fighting killer robots.
“Look in a mirror,”she told her sister.“I am your twin, Jaya. I look exactly like you, only with better hair.”
Jecca snorted.“I highly doubt that.”
She heard her sister thinking about how inconvenient her memory loss was, and she had to agree. It seemed completely preposterous that she had forgotten she had a twin, and Jaya couldn’t help but rub that in a little.
“I agree. I cannot believe you forgot about me. When I find whoever did this to you, I am going to skin them alive, then feed them to Roko and Aki. And after they are done feasting, I will turn the leftover carcass to bloody dust.”
“I do not know what happened,”Jecca admitted.“In order to figure that out, I need access to my memories. I believe my head injury must be causing my memory loss and a disruptionof my magic.”She paused, then asked,“Who or what are Roko and Aki?”
Jaya groaned.“You forgot them, too? They are our argos. Or yours. You claim I have a difficult enough time keeping myself alive, so I am not to be trusted with the care of anything breathing without supervision.”
She waited a moment while her sister processed that, then continued her explanation. She tried to stick to the basics, not wanting to overwhelm Jecca with information.
“We are on a planetoid called Evo, and we have been exploring an island where a simulated city has been created as the base for an advanced game that is a mixture of virtual, holo, and reality. You started on the north end of the island, while I explored the south. We were supposed to meet up in the middle of the city, but something happened when one of the power cells that run this island exploded.”
“We are not on Earth right now?”Jecca asked.
“Nay, we are on an island in a city that has been created to look like it is from Earth in the early 21stcentury. The damaged power cell is close to your location, and when it exploded, that section of the city was put into some sort of magical lockdown. That is why I cannot teleport directly to you. I am outside that barrier. The power cells were created with a blend of Dragon Warrior and Ilius magic. The damaged one is leaking and creating a powerful chain reaction with the other cells around the city. That leak is causing…magical complications.”
“That sounds very bad.”
“Eh, it might seem that way, but out of all the strange situations we have found ourselves in during all our years of traveling the universe, this does not even make the list of the top five most bizarre.”
Jecca laughed a little.“Seriously?”
“Umm, guys?” Cosmo said, sounding nervous. “I’m not sure, but I think I just saw something moving over there.”
Jaya opened her eyes and turned to see a horde of zombies shuffling down the street toward them. The zombies hadn’t caught sight of them yet since they were still several blocks away, but they would soon.
With her enhanced vision, she was probably the only one who could see exactly what was heading their way. She realized she was wrong when Xian gripped her hand again, squeezing hard.
“More zombies,”Xian said using their bond.“I know there were several staff members playing the game in that sector. That means there are a lot of zombies roaming around the island now.”
“I will take care of it,”she assured him.
Before he could argue, she let go of his hand and transported away.
Reaching out to her sister again through their bond, she said,“I could remind you of some incidents that would truly seem fantastical, but…well, we do not have time for that right now. Hellfire, hold on a moment. I have to go kill something.”
Jaya transported directly in front of the group of zombies and as soon as they saw her, they started running at her. Not bothering to use her magic whip this time, she just wiped out a large group of them with a massive fireball. As zombies came at her from the different cross streets, she created more fireballs to fling at them, turning them all to dust before they could get close to her.
Realizing her sister was talking to someone distracted her a little. She continued to destroy the zombies as she demanded,“Who are you talking to? Is someone bothering you?”
“It is someone who thinks you are a figment of my imagination.”
“Ha. Speaking of imaginary, the magic leaking out of the power cells is bringing the various holo images to life all over the island,”Jaya explained.“Right now, I am fighting a bunch of undead things that can continuously reanimate if not destroyed properly. The magical surge is also causing random quakes, tornados, and floods from the incessant rain, so we have been rescuing people as well as killing things.”
She paused to blast a new group of zombies that spilled out of an alleyway. Hellfire, how many of these things were roaming around the damn island?