LIT RPG 6 (Patreon)

“Hold on a second,” Jack said, once they had gotten inside and closed the door behind him.

“Why?”

“I leveled,” he said. “Let me allocate my points.”

“You leveled? For kissing a guy?”

“Don’t remind me.” Once more, Jack felt an urge to put his points where he would have if he were playing a tank, but he put them into his stealth skills instead. What did it even matter? He wondered. He had no intention of ever playing this game again once he’d finished this stupid mission.

They found themselves in a bland corporate hallway, cinderblock and low grade brown tile. It smelled faintly of  Clorox. They could see a T ahead, as well as a security camera that scanned back and forth. “Can you take that out?” Brett asked. Stealth characters in a lot of these games had to power to short circuit or even take over security cameras. Jack checked his skills. “Not yet. We’ll need to time it.”

They watched the camera as it swept back and forth, taking in all three hallways at different intervals. “Which way is the lab?” Brett asked.

“Right,” Jack said. In fact, it was only a guess. He had no idea, but he didn’t feel like getting into a debate with Brett about it. Luckily, Brett bought his confidence, as he just nodded in agreement. They knew they would have to time it just right, or risk triggering an alarm and bringing down a horde of NPCs to fight, which at this level did not seem a winning strategy. They watched, two more cycles.  Jack wanted one more, as he figured they would need to leave as the camera was just starting to sweep past their hallway, but Brett suddenly shoved past him, hissing, “Go!”

“Shit!” Jack said, and they sprinted down the hall, watching the camera swinging to the right, then starting back toward them.  Barreling around the corner of the hallway, they saw a door about ten feet away and kept running. “Better hope it isn’t locked!” Jack said, glancing back over his shoulder, seeing the camera swing toward them. They had maybe two seconds.

“We’ll make it!” Brett said, heart racing as the door grew closer and closer, as did the eye of the camera. He put his hand on the door knob and twisted, the door flew open! Yes! “Oh, no!” He said, freezing for a moment. Jack slammed into him from behind, and they both rolled to the floor. Jack found himself looking at a pair of steel toed boots. He looked up at the combat pants, up and up to what seemed like a really tall man wearing full tactical gear staring down at them.

“Hey, girls,” the man said with a smirk as he patted an anti-riot baton in his hands. “You lost?”

“Hi?” Jack said, rolling to his feet. A bar appeared above the man– Delray. Level Boss. The bar underneath his name showed he had a LOT of hit points. Brett also got to his feet, his hand on his gun.

“I thought you said the lab was this way?” Brett said.

“I guess I was wrong?” Jack said.

“You led us right to the boss!”

Jack didn’t feel this was the best time to discuss his choices. Instead, he decided to try to seduce again, turning on the carisma.  It was worth a shot. “We got lost looking for the little girl’s room?” He said, his voice small and flirty. “I get so confused sometimes?”

“Nice try,” the man said, his baton sparking with electricity as he lashed out towards Jack, who dodged and– almost– avoid getting hit. The bar grazed his shoulder and the force sent him flying across the room, slamming into a wall.  The word STUNNED flashed in front of his eyes, and he found he couldn’t move.

From Brett’s perspective, Jack now lay on the floor, little bubbles swirling around his head. He knew that meant Jack was out of it for now. It was up to him. He pulled his automatic and moved back from Delary, who stood there looking at him, the baton sparking in his hand. “You fire that off, you’ll bring down twenty of my men, and the only question will be whether they get here before or after I beat your ass,” Delray said.

Brett equipped his gun. It made sense, besides he was a tank, built for fighting, and as tough as he looked, this was only a low level boss. Brett liked the idea of beating him down hand to hand.

“Why not surrender?” Delray said. “I promise not to play rough.”

Gross, Brett thought. A series of dialogue options sprang up, and the action paused while a timing bar showed he had a few seconds to make a decision. Brett took the moment to scan the room– a security office with a desk and an array of monitors showing feeds from around the building. And– bingo! Another riot baton sitting across the desk. The only problem was Delray stood between Brett and the baton.

The dialogue choices were as follows:

I give up. Just don’t hurt me.

I look forward to kicking your ass.

Watch Out! (make a run for it).

Brett clicked on the second option, and he heard his character utter the phrase.

Delray smiled. “I was hoping you would say that.” His character flashed, and Brett picked up an office chair- a heavy, stainless steel chair that like much of the game seemed to recall the 1970s– and he used it to block the attack, the baton slamming into the chair, which conducted some of the charge into Brett, taking away 2 hit points, and the words stun resisted appearing.  Jack, who felt the shock in his arms, continued to circle away, drawing Delray away from the baton.

Delray followed, brandishing his weapon, the arrogant look still on his face. He lashed out again, slamming the baton into the chair. 2 more hit points lost, and stun resisted, but Brett could feel his arms going numb, and he couldn’t be sure he would resist again, so he decided to take a chance, taking a step back and then throwing the chair at Delray.  Surprised by the move, Delray swung wildly at the chair, but it struck him in the head and he stumbled backward. Brett lunged for the baton on the desk, grabbed it and activated it, a shower of sparks dripping from the weapon.

Delray growled and began to flash. It looked like he was charging up for a power attack. Brett considered. His character was not built to dodge, and he had no idea how much damage the power attack would do. The best defense is a good offense, he decided and charged, slamming his baton into Delray, watching his power bar drop, seeing the same bubbles around his head and pressing his advantage. Brett smashed him in the head, then swung up, cracking his chin. The power bar turned red and dropped to less than half.

Jack watched it all, frustrated that he couldn’t move.  He still saw the word STUNNED across his vision, but watching Brett wail on the boss, he also inwardly cheered.  Yes! Kick his ass, bro! But then, Delray recovered, the stun effect vanishing, and Jack went to intercom mode and shouted, “Watch out!”

Brett, overconfident, had raised his baton for another power strike, but Delray slammed his baton into Brett’s stomach, knocking him backward, making him stumble as he lost an incredible 8 hit points. It was Delrays’s turn to press, and he unleashed a flurry of blows at blinding speed, knocking the baton from Brett’s hands and this time succeeding, as Brett’s avatar sank to her knees, and he saw STUNNED flash in his vision.

Brett looked up, eyes slit with rage. He hated losing. Delray stood over him, and then much to Brett’s surprise, he dropped the baton and pulled out a gun, placing the cold barrel against Brett’s forehead, chuckling. Shit, Brett thought. Can my character die in this game? Brett’s eyes locked onto the gun, the bright silver ring at the end of the barrel, the dark, empty space in the middle, the dark space from which his death would come spitting in a flash of smoke and fire… Behind the gun, blurry, the face of Delray.

“You were a fool to challenge me,” Delray said. “I would have been gentle, cuffed you, taken you to lock up. But you drew blood, and for that you must die. Any last… Arrghhhh!”

Now it was Brett’s turn to cheer as Jack, finally freed from being stunned, leapt into the scene, doing one of his special takedowns, legs wrapped tight around Delray’s torso while he locked his arms around the man’s neck and held him in a chokehold. The power bar above Delray flashed, turned red and started dropping. Delray tried to shoot back at Jack’s head, but Jack moved, and the bullet crashed into the roof. Brett could only watch. Come on! Come on!

Delray now ran backwards, slamming into the wall, bashing Jack in the process. One hit point lost, and Jack didn’t have many. Then, Brett could only think, “Oh, shit” as the NPC AI smartened up, and he bent his arm to plant the gun against Jack’s thigh. POP!

“Fuck!” Jack screamed, clamping down tighter on the man’s throat.  The shot had cost him all but one of his hit points. He would be out at even the slightest damage.

Delray fell to one knee. His power bar was almost empty. “You… cannot… defeat me….” he mumbled, once more putting the gun to Jack’s leg. “Time for you to….”

And just before he could fire, his power bar read zero, he collapsed.

“Shit,” Jack and Brett said in unison.

The biofeedback in the game, as has been observed previously, was intense, and Jack felt a throbbing pain his leg. Meanwhile, his arms ached and his whole body sagged with exhaustion. His legs were trapped under Delray, and he struggled weakly to free himself.

Brett got up, the world seeming to tilt and turn as he realized he was still feeling some sort of lingering effect from the combat. His right arm hung uselessly from the side. Seeing Jack entangled with Delray, and the pile of their limbs twitching and lurching as Jack tried to free himself, Brett could help but activate camera mode and record a little bit of it.

“You gonna just stand there?” Jack finally said, unaware of how kinky the scene looked from where Brett was standing.

“I’m recording this,” Brett said with a chuckle. “It’s like a live action page from the Kama Sutra.”

“You’re an idiot,” Jack said, finally freeing himself with a powerful thrust from his hips that sent Delray rolling under the desk.

“I know.”

Jack used a med pack to heal up, and then he went to the door that led back out into the hallway, which had remained cracked open. The hallway was empty and quiet, the security camera still sweeping back and forth. “Nothing,” Jack said. “Looks like we’re good.” He closed the door.

Now, with a moment to catch their breath, the boys looked at the smashed up room, the crumpled form of Delray. Jack looked at Brett. Brett looked at Jack. “That was a hell of a fight,” Brett said.

“It was pretty amazing.”

Without even realizing what they were doing, the boys felt drawn together, wrapping their arms around each other and hugging. It was only when their bodies pressed together that they’d realized what they’d just impulsively done.  Jack’s head rested against Brett’s firm, athletic breasts, while his own pressed into Brett’s belly. His soft thigh pressed against Brett’s as well, and he could feel Brett’s strong hands on his back, pulling him in, the two of them fitting their bodies together.  As warmth seemed to pass between them, they heard a bell ring, and the words “Level Up!” appeared, followed immediately by another bell and another, “Level Up.”

Each boy felt his female body growing aroused, sensations in places they did not have in real life, and once more, terrified by these foreign desires, they quickly separated. “Bro,” Jack said, trying to make his voice sound lower and husky. “Good fight.”

“Yeah, bro,” Brett said, doing the same. “We kicked ass. And got two levels for beating that asshole.”

“Pretty sweet,” Jack said, as the two of them opened their character menus and allocated their points.

“Search,” Jack said once he’d finished. He went to the computer station. “I’m going to see if I can override the security system.” His nipples were now hard little eraser heads, and there was an extremely disturbing warm and wet feeling between his legs. He focused on the computer, which was, thankfully, not password protected. As he typed, he found he had to adjust his technique to account for his now long fingernails. They weren’t extreme by any means, extending just beyond the fingertips, rounded and painted red, but they led to mis-hits until he changed his hand position.

“Sweet,” he heard Brett say.

“What?”

Brett had found a locker, and opening it he found two more medi-packs to replenish their supply, as well as 175 credits, ammo and a pair of combat boots that would up his armor class by ten points. He told Jack. “Boots?” Jack said.

Brett answered, holding them up.  They were actually clunky, military style combat boots.

“I want them,” Jack said, perched on his high heels.

“You are so obsessed with cute boots,” Brett answered, smirking.

“Har har. Come on.”

“I’m the tank and…”

“I know. I know,” Jack said. “Whatever. Take all the good gear for yourself.” He went back to the computer. Oddly, he felt comfortable in heels– didn’t even notice he was wearing them unless he thought about it. Once more, he supposed it was a function of the game. No one would want to spend hours trying to learn to walk in heels, and half the girls he knew couldn’t manage stilettos like these. It was similar with his mini-skirt.  As tight as it was, it stretched and didn’t limit his movements at all. At first, he’d been aware of the feeling of the cool air swirling around his bare thighs, a sense that the skirt was dangerously close to showing off his – well, to revealing things best left hidden, but once he’d been wearing it for awhile he’d just tuned it out.

Jack’s musings gave way to focus on the mission, and he made a feminine squeal and pumped his little fist as he succeeded in hacking the system.

“Good?” Brett said, coming to stand behind Jack and look over his shoulder.

“I have blinded the security cameras, looping old feed of empty hallways through the system. Also, I found a floor plan. There’s the lab.” In fact, the map left no doubt as the room labeled “Lab” was also flashing yellow with the message, “Mission Point.”

“We should have gone left. I told you.” Standing behind Jack like that, Brett found himself struggling not to pat her on that perfect ass, play with her hair.  Come on man. Keep it together, he thought, stepping away, confused. When he’d suggested playing female characters, he’d never expected to find himself so attracted to Jack’s avatar, and it was freaking him out for sure. I mean, she was hot as hell, of course, but he knew she was a Guy In Real Life.

“No, you didn’t,” Jack said.  In fact, he’d had an intuitive sense that Brett, standing behind him like this, was feeling- handsy? And he’d felt a flush of full-bodied relief when Brett stepped away. “How long have we been playing, anyway?” Jack said. “I have a test tomorrow.”

“Impossible to tell,” Brett said. “You know these games are like casinos. They never want you to know how long you’ve been grinding.” Sensing that Jack once again wavered on continuing, this time he chose to remain silent.

Jack huffed, blowing his bangs up and out of his eyes. “I really want to know what’s up with that lab,” he said. “That’ll be the last thing. Then, I really need to study.”

“Cool.”

“I’m serious.”

“I said, cool.”

“Okay. Just so we’re straight.”

With that, the two boys went to the door and started to creep down the hall.