The Order of the Black Knights

Chapter Four

OBK GHQ/New York/New Jersey District HQ

The Former Sims Metal Management site, New Jersey

October 31st, 2040, 1:23pm

Blake Bradley Transmitting

After about a twenty minute swim through the near frozen New York Harbor, my energy was nearly shot. I clambered up the pier and began my limp towards the warehouse, finally arriving a few moments later. With all my strength I banged on the door. Sure enough our doorman, Allan Richard Soonja, decided to be cute and open the eye slot. “Password?” he asked looking at me as if he didn't know who I was.

“Are you serious?” I shot back, “its Blake Bradley.”

“Don’t matter if you’re the frigging Queen of France, what’s the password?” Allan replied.

“Allan, it’s thirty degrees out here, I just swam through the icy Harbor, and I’m freezing and suffering from near hypothermia. Please open the fucking door and get me a towel!” I ordered.

“Come on Bradley just say the damn password.” Allan answered.

I’m gonna fucking kill you, I thought. After a minute of being silent my shivering body made me gave in, “Caput Draconis.”

“Sorry Bradley that was last week’s password, what’s this one?” Allan grinned.

That’s when I finally lost it. With all my rage and anger I kicked the door in shattering the lock and breaking two hinges. Allan fortunately had enough foresight to back up before the door came flying at him. However he wasn’t fast enough and I broke his nose in the process. As I walked inside, I saw Allan lying on the ground cradling his face half laughing and half writing in pain.

“There’s your fucking password,” I gripped as I walked in. almost instantly I felt the warm air and pulled off my jacket.

He did managed to groan “Oh fuck you Bradley. Fuck you!”

“Can somebody grab me a towel?” I shouted into the warehouse as I pulled off my shirt.

Sure enough my teams mechanic Ovatio came up to me with a towel, “Had a nice swim?”

“Would’ve been better had the waters been a bit warmer.” I answered wrapping the towel round me, “Where’s my team?”

“Still in the city, they linked up with Ezio and Excelsior to assist survivors.” Marcus answered.

I nodded as I began my walk towards the dorm level, “Where’s Luna?”

“Upstairs with Chris.” Marcus answered.

I nodded again. As I headed up the steps towards the Dorm level, my mind was mostly thinking about warming up. Little of it had to actually do with reviewing the mission, probably a good idea considering how cold the Harbor actually was and how close to hypothermia I actually was. All that changed however when I entered the Lounge/Game room, which was the area you entered into immediately from the stairwell. I spotted Luna sitting at one of the tables, now wearing a shirt and some sweatpants I think Catharine from Yugi team gave her.

The Orders trusted doctor, Chris Knight, was sitting next to her probably discussing to her what exactly his job entails. However when Luna saw me, she got up and ran over to me. It was a clumsy run yes as I don’t think her equilibrium had returned, but she did make it to me without falling flat on her face. “Andrew, art thou okay?” she asked me.

“Just a little cold, don’t worry I’ve survived worse.” I reassured her.

Luna took a deep sigh, “That is glorious news; we thought you would not return.”

I smiled at that, “Don’t worry, takes a lot more than cold water to kill me. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go dry up.” I then looked over at Chris, “Take good care of her, you have no clue how much it took to get her here.”

Chris laughed, “Don’t worry Blake, I’ve never disappointed.”

But just as I was about to go, Luna grabbed my arm. She didn’t need to tell me why, her face told me everything I needed to know. “Don’t worry, Chris is a good doctor. He’ll take care of you. And I’ll join you once he’s finished okay?”

Luna seemed to pounder my reassurance for a moment, “Okay, We trust thee.” With a nod she let me go.

About an hour and fifty minutes later, I managed to warm myself up, get changed, and check in on Luna. It was around that same time that Chris was finishing up his check up on Luna. Chris had now moved her to the weight room to measure height and weight, as well as a few “other” details I will not mention for Doctor/Patient Privacy.

Deseret was actually there waiting for me, which meant that our GHQ Hacker Samantha Robinson was back. She was sitting over at the table eating on a Subway sandwich; I also noticed three others resting on the table.

“One of them for me?” I asked.

“Of course,” Deseret answered picking up my sandwich, “I just picked them up anyway so felt you earned a good one. Steak, egg, and cheese with avocado right?”

“Oh you know me well.” I said, “Those two for Chris and Luna?”

“Three for three you’re on a roll today!” Deseret replied as I unwrapped my sandwich. As I took my first bite, I heard Luna finish up her physical and head towards us.

Luna reached us first, “Ah Andrew is thou feeling better?”

“Much better,” I answered swallowing a bite of my sandwich. Luna looked at my sandwich and I could tell she was extremely hungry, “Don’t we got you one of your own.” I then handed her the sandwich marked “L,” Deseret didn’t stop me so I knew that had to be hers.

Luna took a look over the wrapped sandwich before looking at how Deseret and I ate. Then she attempted to eat her own sandwich without unwrapping it. Fortunately Deseret stopped her, “Honey, why don’t you take the paper off it first. Trust me it will taste better.”

Luna looked at the wrapped up sandwich before unwrapping it. After she pulled off the paper, Luna took a huge bite of the sandwich and instantly her face lit up as she chewed. Chris walked up and picked up his own sandwich, “Good you got her something to eat. She was suffering from acute case of malnutrition.”

“Well doc how is she?” I asked between bites.

“Well Blake, besides the case of Amnesia, which I can find no physical reason for, she’s perfectly healthy. Actually she’s better than okay, her stamina is twice that of a human. Better yet she has great reaction time and extreme leg strength.” Chris answered.

“That’s good enough for me,” I smiled.

Luna was not even paying to our conversation; she was too busy stuffing her face with the sandwich that Deseret brought.

“Okay so we know she didn’t hit her head or suffer any other form of physical trauma?” Deseret asked.

“Yes, from what I can see there’s no sign of physical damage.” Chris answered.

“What about the mental side of amnesia.” I asked.

“I ran some of the basic level questions; though I didn’t find anything I wouldn’t put much into it.” Chris answered, “However my personal opinion is, I don’t think she had a life before appearing on West 39th.”

“Could she be a game sprite?” I asked.

Again Luna was paying no attention; she was halfway through her foot long sandwich when I asked that question. Whatever ingredients Deseret asked to be put in, she was enjoying them.

“That’s the most logical explanation, but the normal key codes won’t activate on her. So if she is a sprite, her operating system must’ve fully switched over when she came to Earth.” Chris answered.

Now for those who aren’t technically or Sci-fi inclined, a game Sprite is a sentient and in-game created being. Unlike NPC’s, they weren’t created by game designers or any type of artist, in fact we’re not even sure how Sprites came to be. One theory is that game sprites were formed out of errors in the Emerson operating system, or that they were NPCs that evolved into something else since Emerson NPC’s can interact and work with in-game players.

The first Game Sprite, Giga, was discovered on Skyrim by Blaze Johnson over ten years ago. It was found that she had accidently been transported to Skyrim from her home planet, later determined to be Gaia which was used as the test planet for the Emerson creators.  Game Sprites, much like objects and NPCs from Emerson, can be brought to Earth though they are able to maintain their in-game format. One way to tell is to press three key points under the chin of the sprite. If they eyes light up and project a virtual display of codes, you’ve gotta sprite.

Why that wasn’t working on Luna, I had no idea. I’m sure it probably escaped Chris and Deseret too. “So what do we do with her?” I asked.

“We’ll have to take that up with Marcus, but I’d say we keep her. I mean look at that cute face,” Deseret explained.

Luna had just finished her sandwich and was now ready to join the conversation. Only problem was she had no clue what it was about, “We’re sorry but what is the topic of conversation?”

This drew laughter from the three of us. Just then the PA system crackled to life and Marcus’s voice said, “Blake Bradley, please join us in command.”

Luna seemed a little shocked and scared by the PA system, to which Deseret explained what it was. I meanwhile took a look at my half eaten sandwich and sighed, “Wrap this up for me.”

When I reached Command Central, the projector screen was showing a CNN broadcast of the event at the WTC PATH station. It was then I figured I was heading back to the area. Sometimes I hate my intuition. “Bradley we need you to head back out to Lower Manhattan, Lsyric is reporting some interesting finds that demand full team involvement.” Marcus briefed.

“We have two teams and three elements of a third out there, what will one more agent make any difference,” I asked. Personally I was trying to get out of this job, the last one I did nearly killed me. Hell the last thirty five jobs I did nearly killed me. You know what now that I think about it all the jobs I’ve done here have nearly killed me. Why was I even complaining to begin with? Better yet why am I telling you this let’s just get back to the story.

“You might want to take back that question Bradley,” Marcus told me with an ‘I know something you don’t’ attitude, “According to Lsyric and Liberty, Michael Albetross is connected to this crash.”

The name caught my attention. Michael Albetross isn’t a name that would make anyone spit out their food at a dinner party, but his online alter-ego of “Bloody-Bear” will. Bloody-Bear was the third in command of the Union Forces located within New York. Furthermore, he was responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks along the East Coast. Amazing that he hasn’t been caught yet, thanks homeland security.

Well at least I would get my chance to take a shot at him. The other upside to this was I might’ve been able to get some information about why the Union was so interested in Luna. “What would you like me to do?” I asked.

“We would like you to report to the PATH station on Christopher Street, head south on the 1 to Chambers street and meet up with the rest of Black team there. We have Ezio team currently hunting down Albetross’s location and Excelsior still working on how Union forces carried out their attack.” Marcus briefed, “When you link up with Black team, you’ll be regulated to the Death Squad.”

Death Squad, the term that meant that Michael Albetross’s life was going to end today. Death Squads are called in for high priority and high stakes operations, more importantly it gave us a chance to take out the Bloody-Bear.

Samantha Soft, the GHQ’s ultimate hacker and once fashion designer, turned from her computer, “Since your jacket and gloves are still drying, we have your back up pair ready to go.”

“The Jacket or the Sweater?” I asked, As if it actually matters.

Sam didn’t answer so I knew it was the Jacket. After that I nodded and headed off to Ovatio.