Eric and the Quantum Dragon

Eric’s Quantum Realm

Saturday December 29th, V26 (2046)

Sarah woke up lying in a rooftop garden, her legs dangling over the edge and her head surrounded by bright yellow flowers. Overhead she could see a pale grey sky, smudged with trailing ribbons of black smoke.

With a groan she lifted herself into a sitting position and looked about. Stanley was sprawled on the paved roof close by, with Carmody slumped against his side. They both seemed unharmed and breathing, so she hopped off the edge of the raised planter and stood on her feet.

Around her she could see towers and streets, looking almost exactly like the City she had left. In the distance a vast spire rose up, the Archimedes Tower, and beyond lay the glint of blue indicating the harbour and sea. Yet as much as this world looked like the one she had left, it felt off.

There were no drones or aircraft humming through the sky, nor any people visible on the streets below. The sky was a uniform grey, with a vague white disc that represented the sun.

However, a breeze was blowing just like back home and it carried the reek of burnt plastic. The trails of smoke she had first seen came from shattered buildings, mostly centered around the 10th District. Some were still on fire while others had already burnt out.

Wherever Eric and the Quantum Dragon were, they had been fighting pretty hard.

“Hey Stanley, wake up you lazy lizard!” she called out and the big Dracoris rumbled and opened one blue eye.

“Did we make it?” his voice asked in her mind.

“Well, this isn’t the After so I don’t think we are dead” she replied with a grin.

Carmody roused from her sleep and yawned, stretching her arms out wide.

“Do you know where Eric is?” the girl enquired, using Stanley for leverage as she got to her own feet.

A boom echoed in the distance and they all turned to see part of a building explode outwards.

“I think he’s over there” Sarah announced and pointed at the billowing flames.

=====

Eric was limping from the scene of his latest encounter with Nothing. The wily black dragon had slunk in stealthily along at street level rather than flying in. He was not sure if that was due to her right wing still being damaged or a learned caution.

His remotely detonated shrapnel mines had mostly blasted over her hunkered body, only her upper back and wing tips hit by the razor edged pieces of metal. She had spotted him as soon as he triggered the explosives and sent a deadly cloud of gas in his direction.

If he had not been so heavily Enhanced he doubted he could have hauled his broken body clear in time. As it was, his lungs and eyes still burned from the whiff he had inhaled of her toxic breath.

“She really needs some breath mints” he joked aloud, then remembered he had none of his friends there to hear his witty one-liners. He was clambering through the ruins of a shopping mall in District Ten and behind him he could hear the rumble and crash of concrete falling. Nothing was not going to let him get away so easily this time.

He quickly reviewed his options and then he saw the relatively open street at the rear of the mall.

“Activate Transport Routine Alpha-One” Eric spoke to the air and moments later swirling black and silver forms resolved themselves into a copy of his electric sports bike. He climbed aboard and synched his helmet to the bike’s internal processor, or at least the simulations of each that this world presented to him.

Eric was beginning to treat this created world as his reality after nearly seven days living and fighting inside of it. He had created the ground rules with meticulous care, even programming in things like realistic wounds and the need to eat and drink while in this environment.

His own drive to create such realism was probably going to be what killed him he realised with grim certainty. A painful cough erupted from his lungs and dark stained blood spattered the inside of his helmet. Eric judged he was far enough from Nothing to risk stopping so he swung the bike into the cover of a taxi rank outside a tower.

Snapping open his helmet he hawked and spat blood onto the tarmac then wiped his mouth with the back of his gauntleted hand. Thin trails of red ran across the Ceramite plates and he looked at them in despair.

Every wound that the dragon caused left him weaker. She seemed able to heal quickly in this realm, faster than the healing his own body provided. He had located and used hidden supplies of food and medical gear, but it was a losing battle.

In the long run, Nothing was able to take far more punishment than he could endure. Sooner or later she was going to cripple him and then there would be no escaping her wrath. The only consolation he felt was knowing she was trapped in here, unable to escape.

This Quantum realm would be his tomb and her prison. So long as he kept his friends safe from the creature it was all worthwhile.

“I can live with that” Eric said quietly to himself.

He was about to move off again when his system moderator sent him an alert.

<New players detected at Grid 27-10-12> it announced. <Provisional identification as Sarah-Prime, Carmody-Prime and Anomaly-Prime>

Eric was stunned by this announcement.

“How did they get into the program?” he wondered aloud. “I didn’t activate their characters. I shut all the assist modes down”

Then he realised the awful truth. These were not artificial copies of his three friends, they had somehow managed to find a way into his Quantum world. And if they found a way in, it might show Nothing a way out.

He wiped out the inside of his helmet then jammed it back onto his head. Data flowed onto the clear display, showing the location of the arrivals. It was a place he knew well since they had appeared on the roof of his apartment tower.

A roar of anger heralded the coming of Nothing, so Eric powered up his motorbike and raced out onto the street. She was fast but a quick glance at the rearwards display in his visor showed she was still moving on the ground. With a glimmer of hope he wondered if he had permanently damaged her wing. Either way she was following at a rapid pace so he twisted the throttle and rocketed out of her sight.

Black gas billowed across the street as she vented her fury and Eric knew she would never give up the fight.

=====

Stanley gripped the raised concrete edge of the roof and checked his companions were secure. Sarah sat astride his back, resting carefully on his lowered back spines with her legs clasped about his shoulders and hands holding onto his long black horns.

Carmody was carried in his forearms, laying crosswise in his grip in what he believed Achmed called a ‘princess carry’. Apparently boy heroes carried their love interests this way in all the Anime stories he watched.

“Are you both comfortable?” the dragon enquired and got a muttered assent from Carmody. She was frowning and holding her cricket bat in both hands across her chest, looking ready to thump somebody.

“Sure” agreed Sarah and kicked her heels into his sides. “Giddy-up!” she said with glee and Stanley shot out a surprised jet of steam from his nostrils.

“I keep telling you I am not your noble steed!” he harrumphed then leapt off the roof. He rose smoothly upwards then at Sarah’s suggestion started a long, slow descent; falling like a giant blue scaled feather between the residential towers.

They were about a hundred meters up in the air when a lone motorbike came roaring along the street below, a black-clad figure visible onboard. Its left arm raised and began waving at them urgently and pointing behind them.

“That must be Eric!” Sarah exclaimed and told Stanley to drop down and land near the boy. Stanley soared to a gentle landing as the bike squealed to a stop bare centimeters from his clawed toes.

The three Dracoris looked at Eric as he snapped his visor open, an expression of utter amazement on his face.

“You really are a Dragon!” Eric said loudly, his eyes meeting Stanley’s. “A big blue dragon, just like Sarah always said!”

“Hang on” Sarah said with sudden realisation. “You can see him? You can see all of us?”

“Yeah, I can” Eric replied and his face lit up with a huge smile. “I can’t believe you guys managed to find a way in here”

“I am exceedingly talented” Sarah responded smugly, then her eyes widened in shock. She pointed over Eric’s shoulder at the street corner he had ridden around. “Is that what you were trying to keep trapped in your head?”

Stalking around the side of the tower came a massive black dragon, bigger than the Dracoris Abyssal the girls had fought the first time. It screamed a roar of pure hatred at the sight of the gathered humans and Stanley, its red eyes fixing them with a baleful glare.

“We need to go!” Eric yelled. “Follow me to a safe place I use” He gunned his engine and wove his bike past the big blue form of Stanley, heading away from the enraged black dragon.

“Don’t try and fight it yet” Sarah whispered into Stanley’s mind. “You are still carrying Carmody you big dummy!”

Stanley knew what Sarah said was true, but he hated fleeing from an enemy. It belched a cloud of poison gas and he leaped skywards, turning to follow the distant shape of Eric on his bike.

“Cowards! Come back and fight me!” he heard the Abyssal scream in the Dracoris tongue.

“We’ll fight soon enough” he thought aloud and he heard Sarah voice her agreement.

They flew rapidly and caught up to the racing motor bike, leaving the black dragon to stamp and roar its fury to an empty world.

=====

Eric lead his friends to an underground parking lot beneath a university tower in District Nine. He parked his bike in one of the designated bays set aside for motorcycles, even though the entire lot was empty. It was just the kind of person he was.

Stanley flew in and landed close by, letting Carmody clamber with evident relief to the ground. Sarah tapped the dragon on the back of his head, then he lowered his upper body enough that she could climb down as well.

Both girls took turns to embrace Eric but it was Carmody who noticed he was injured.

“You’re hurt!” she declared and wanted to pull his armour aside there and then.

“Yes, but how about we go into my refuge before you strip me off” he asked her with a weak smile. He lead them to a narrow doorway labelled “Maintenance Staff Only” and triggered the electronic lock with a smart key he produced.

“This might be a squeeze” he warned the dragon and stepped inside. Carmody and Sarah followed, with Stanley finding he could only fit in as far as his forward shoulders. Everything else was still stuck out in the parking lot.

“I’ll stay out here and guard the entrance” the dragon suggested and wiggled his head and shoulders until he was able to step backwards into the lot.

Eric had already switched on the lights as he entered, harsh industrial strip lights that shone a brilliant white. Inside was a moderately sized room, about five meters along each side, with the walls lined with racks of food, water bottles and other equipment in hard plastic cases. A portable cot was set up against one wall, with a recharging pack alongside. Various battery packs were plugged into the unit, some flashing red for still charging and others the happy green of a full charge.

“Cosy” Sarah offered. “How did you find this place?”

Eric went to the cot and sat down gingerly, his left arm cradling his side.

“It was a supply point I already programmed into the simulation” he told her. “This place has a matching twin in the real world. Most of the buildings and rooms in this realm are empty or filled with a randomised collection of furniture, but some places are highly detailed for use in training scenarios”

Carmody was examining some of items, picking up food packs and sniffing them and shaking bottles of water.

“It looks quite real” she commented. “The stuff has weight and smell too. You must have spent a lot of time encoding all of this”

“Achmed helped with some of it, but the core programming is used around the world for Virtual Training. The same technology is used in Virtual Reality games, it is just not as extensive as the world I created here”

Camody found what she wanted on the shelves and carried a medical kit to Eric’s cot. She sat down next to him and opened it up.

“Okay, soldier, tell me where it hurts” she said and Eric gave a small chuckle that quickly turned to a grimace of pain.

“I have a couple of bruised ribs on my left side” he admitted. “Plus my lungs and throat have some scarring from Nothing’s breath weapon”

“Is that its name?” Sarah asked, coming to stand at Eric’s other side. “Nothing?”

“Yeah, I know it sounds weird” Eric agreed. “That is the name it uses so I just went with it” He gasped in pain as Carmody unbuckled the side of his armour, wincing as the pair of them lifted off his chest plates and shoulder guards. He had already discarded his helmet, leaving it lying on the bike seat outside.

“Okay, we are going to have to take off your shirt too” Carmody announced. She looked quite calm and focussed yet even Sarah could tell she was blushing furiously.

“It’s been a while since I saw that” Eric said and gave her an encouraging smile.

“Yeah, well I am not as shy as I used to be” she responded. “Must be all the fights to the death I have been in or something. Quit stalling and get that shirt off!”

“You may need to help” Eric answered and Sarah assisted while they took the stained garment off. Beneath the clothing they saw his pale skin was marred by substantial bruising underneath his left armpit.

Carmody gently probed the area, feeling for any broken bones.

“There doesn’t appear to be anything broken at least” she decided. “Lots of tissue damage though. You must have a tough rib cage under there!”

“My whole skeleton is reinforced with Ceramite” Eric explained. “It makes me a lot heavier but my bones don’t bust that easily”

Working together, the girls applied pain relieving gel and anti-bruising patches. Finally a supporting web of bandages and sporting tape protected his injuries as best they could. Once they had finished, Eric leaned his bare back against the wall and regarded his two friends.

“That was some pretty good medical treatment” he complimented them both.

“I did pay attention during all those first aid courses the Project conducted” Carmody replied. “I even got good marks as I recall”

“I think I flunked” Sarah admitted. They sat in companionable silence for a bit until Eric had a coughing fit, his arms holding his sides while he hacked up some bloody phlegm.

Sarah took a paper towel and wiped his face and neck down, her eyes betraying her worry.

“Is there anything we can do about that?” she asked him. “It looks really bad”

Eric leaned back against the wall, breathing a little raggedly.

“No, not here” he said. “My lungs are damaged too much for my cellular regeneration systems. It will eventually kill this body”

“What!” shouted Carmody. “You mean we got all the way in here to find you and you are going to die anyway!”

Eric gave her a grin and reached out his arm to touch her shoulder.

“It’s Okay, Carmody” he said comfortingly. “This isn’t the real me. I mean, it is my consciousness but it’s not my real body. That is back in Pan City, hopefully in a hospital bed and not lying on the ground someplace”

“Erm, sure” Carmody agreed. “So if this body dies here fighting Nothing, what happens to you?”

“That depends. I locked my mind in here with Nothing, so we only have virtual bodies. If I destroy her body in here, it should destroy her completely. As for me, I don’t know. In theory my real world body would be fine, but without my conscious mind it would remain in a coma of some sort”

“So how do we get your mind out of here and reunited with your actual body?” Sarah demanded to know.

Eric pondered for a while, having another brief coughing fit, then agreeing to Sarah and Carmody wrapping his shoulders in a blanket. They sat either side of him, careful of his wounds, offering their own body heat to keep him warm.

“There is a key” he finally spoke out loud. “The key that unlocks this realm. I hid it when I came here so that Nothing would not find it. If you can carry that back into the real world, that should take my conscious mind with you”

“Okay, so where is this key?” Sarah insisted.

“I put it in the most important place in my life” he told the girls. “The place I first met you, Sarah”

“What, our homeroom at the school?”

“Yeah. I hid the key in your school desk” Eric replied.