Chapter 5

The next two months were like living a double life. ‘Above ground’ I was grinding away at work, I’d quit hockey and focused on the gym and George’s training camps.

Cardio people!

The ‘Underground’ was me looking for other groups to go into portals with. I staked out the Kinsmen park portal for a few hours every evening. There was a big ugly fence around it now, like the kind around transformer stations. Ten feet high with razor wire around it. The group of tough guys that I’d seen earlier didn’t show, but some others did. I chatted a bit, indicating I was interested in them and their ‘portal plans’. It was here, about a week later, that I found I could sense another Weapon.

She was a short girl, maybe 5’3” lighter blond hair falling past her shoulders in light curls. The kind of hair that you just knew was a bitch to manage in the high humidity. Early High school, maybe grade 10. (Later I’d found out she was grade 12). Smack dab in the middle of her flush of beauty. Younger than this and she’d just be a pretty girl, older than this and she’ll just be a 6, but right now she was finishing growing through her baby fat and everything was smooth, firm and defied gravity. And she had a Weapon. I could tell two ways. One; because my pickpocket skill engaged as she passed about 3 meters from me.

‘Pickpocket Activate? (Y/N)’ flashed up on a screen just to the left of my field of sight, seeming to hover near her. I selected ‘Y’ and was presented with a sliding scale from 1 to 5. Selecting ‘1’ the whole screen disappeared and when I checked my Silver, sure enough it had gone up by one. I’d nothing else, this skill was making me rich. Each of these silver nuggets was reportedly going for $400 or so, and apparently there was a store available in the Start Room that I hadn’t been aware of (thank you internet!). I tried to activate pickpocket again, but nothing different happened. I hadn’t yet determined there was on some sort of timer, or if there was any reason why you couldn’t just go for the same person twice or more.

“You ever go in one of those?” I asked. She’d sat down on a picnic bench about two meters away, staring at the portal through the chain link fence.

She turned to look at me, appraisingly. Being a smaller guy has one major advantage, women are far less likely to perceive you as a threat. I had girls shy away from the 6-footers on my teams and basically fall into my lap on numerous occasions. This might have been one of those girls.

“What makes you think that?” She asked, a bit of an interest in her voice.

“You don’t look afraid.” I replied. In reality she didn’t look like anything at all, but little women often like being told they look big and tough from my experience. Besides, I knew things about her that she didn’t know that I knew. “Anyone that kills Bears can’t be afraid of much” I commented in passing, turning to look at the fenced-in Portal.

She looked shocked and sat back. I guessed she was ready to draw her weapon.

“Relax, you left your titles on display...” I said with a laugh. “They float above your head, only others of us who’ve already got our weapon can see them”. Giving her some information about myself. “Call up your Status screen, find the toggle for ‘Display Titles’ and select it off” I said with a smile. I hadn’t seen mine either, only a little avatar on the screen when I accessed this part of the game interface.

“My what?” She asked. Either she was a hell of an actor, or really did t know about it.

“Ok, say out loud the word ‘Status’ and look for the screen. It’s greenish for me and floats about here” I said, indicating with my left hand right about where the screen had already popped up.

“Status:” she said warily, then jumped. I guessed the screen had surprised her. She spent a minute poking at something only she could see and eventually the title vanished.

“There you go!” I added, once the white floating words had disappeared.

“Thanks” she said with a smile. A smile I could work with.

“Albio...” I said, rising and walking over with my hand out. Sitting on top of the table, her head was at my height.

“Albio?” She repeated, shaking my hand.

“You have the same name! How cool is that!” I replied with a smile. “We folks with the weapons are using nicknames right now. Depending on what happens with the news and the Net, we might go back to our real handle, but for now, I’m Albio.”

“Hmm, in that case call me J” she replied after a moment’s thought.

“Gonna need to do better than that” I teased. “Met two J’s already, one guy, one girl. J-dawg? J-bird maybe?”

“Nope, Jay like the bird. Pronouns: they-them” and she stuck out her (excuse me, their hand).

I took it and shook. “Albio, pronouns: fun-funny, I self identify as both amusing and attractive” I said with a wink. I’d met a hundred like her before. ‘They-them’ was just an overlay put on to please some ED&I champion they knew (probably) or a bitchy lesbian friend (possible). All the standard stuff would work with ‘Jay’.