The Missile 1
Copyright© 2025 by Zen Master
Chapter 3: Choosing Sides and Picking Teams
Cindy and I and several others had exchanged cell phone numbers for private stuff, but we tried to keep everything possible public so that our parents could see what we were doing. If everything was on the phones, our parents would want to see our phones, and ... that could be bad.
The first thing I did was email Cindy, asking her to call me at my home # because I’d gotten a request -from the PRA!- to go into a Portal as an experiment. I’d be guarded, but there was still going to be some danger. Would she go with me?
There were a lot of sayings about this. “No guts, no glory.” “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” “To the victors go the spoils.” I was thinking that I’d take the bull by the horns and see who got gored. Hey, all she could do was say yes or no, right?
Meanwhile, I put my pads and armor on and went out back to exercise. I was still tring to build up the muscle and balance I needed to swing that machete. Any direction I wanted, as hard as I wanted, and as long as I might need to. I also needed to be able to stop a swing at any point, and change where it was going, whether because my target was moving or whether I needed to block an incoming blow.
Cindy called me some time that evening, asking what was up. She also warned me that her parents were listening in. Great. So, I introduced myself and started in.
I was just saying that I appeared to be a special case when Cindy started laughing. I had to stop while she explained to her parents that, yes, I had definitely ridden the short bus to school for a while, but we weren’t sure yet if I was special in any way that the Portals cared about.
Eventually she got done, and I pointed out that we’d met at that seminar at Gadsden High that all us 15-year-old Weapons in Etowah County were supposed to go to. I’d had what I thought was a good idea, but I waited until after everyone else left before I asked Jeff about it. Cindy also had a good idea, but she had no sense of timing and she’d just blurted it out in front of everyone.
After the seminars were done, Jeff had gone to the PRA with our ideas, and someone had apparently ordered this experiment done using both of our ideas. They insisted on at least two experienced Divers to go with me, but I could take up to three newbie friends if I wanted.
Naturally, Cindy’s father chose that point to ask “So, why Cindy?” Well, no guts gets no glory, right?
“There are several reasons. There’s the right reason, there’s the idiot reason, and there’s the good reason.”
“Alright, I’m listening. What’s the right reason?”
“This trial run is a test of her idea. If it’s so dangerous for ‘us children’ to go in there alone, why doesn’t the PRA set up training runs with some experienced Hunters and some of us newbies? No, it’s not a new idea, we’ve all thought of it, but she was the one with the smarts to ask the question where it had to be at least looked at. She should get the credit for it. If it works, I mean, right?”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Well, that’s the idiot reason. I’m sixteen. I have my license, sometimes I can borrow my Dad’s car, I have a part-time job and I have some money, now all I need is a girlfriend to go on dates with and blow all my money on. Cindy’s pretty, she’s nice, and I have this sneaking suspicion that she’s a lot smarter than me. Maybe she can keep me out of trouble.”
“And the good reason?”
“The good reason, the one I should tell the adults, is that she’s a Healer. You should ALWAYS take a Healer in with you, if you can find one. And, she’s the only Healer I know. Besides, we’ve all read the same fairy tales. There’s always the chance that things will go horribly wrong and I’ll spend the afternoon desperately killing monsters that are trying to eat us while she spends the afternoon desperately healing me so I don’t die on her. It would just about have to help our relationship and bring us closer, wouldn’t it?”
“We’ll get back to that later. I have to admit it’s a new approach. Why are YOU going?”
“Well, my Dad keeps telling me that I’m gonna go into the Portal and find out that my Weapon is a matched pair of knitting needles. It really doesn’t matter what my weapon turns out to be, the fact remains that I don’t know what it is so I can’t practice, train with it, or anything. And, everyone knows that you can’t take Earth weapons into the Portal. But, you can take Portal weapons out. Jeff pulled several out that he kept in his inventory for emergencies and showed them to us. So, after everyone else was gone I asked Jeff how I could get one of those Portal weapons. If I had one of those, whatever it was, I could practice with it and take it in with me when I went in the first time. That way, I’d have SOMETHING I knew how to use besides my knitting needles.”
“That sounds like a good idea. Have you found anything?”
“Jeff had three machetes he took from one of the Portals. He keeps them in case something happens to his main weapon. He sold me one for $10. That was a steal. He told us that the System will buy them back for one Silver, and the going rate on Earth for one Silver is up past $800 now.”
“Wait, he sold you something worth $800 for $10?”
“Well, if it saves my life it’s priceless, but yeah. I expect that, if I survive this first Dive, I’m gonna hafta give it back to him.”
“Wow!”
“Yeah. So, I’ve been working out and practicing with a machete I bought at One Stop Outdoors so I won’t look completely like an idiot in there, and I just got an email from the PRA. They are going to try a test run with some newbies and some experienced Hunters to keep them alive. That’s Cindy’s idea. Since I had the idea of seeing if a newbie can take a Portal weapon in and I already have one, they asked if I want to be their guinea pig. I can take up to three friends, and the rest, however many it takes up to six total, will be experienced Divers. Mom & Dad had their own questions, but they just gave me permission so of course I asked Cindy first. Because, you know, she’s a Healer, right?”
He started laughing. “Right. Because she’s a Healer. Of course! Well, I’d want to meet you and your parents, and I’d have to talk to the PRA myself, but first, Cindy, how do YOU feel about this? There’s no point in me beating the shit out of the little snot if you don’t want to go on romantic dates in Portals with him.”
“Dad! I agree, it doesn’t sound very romantic to me, but I do like his approach. If he’s willing to risk his life for me I should at least smile at him once in a while. And, I’ll have to go in sometime. Should I wait until Sam is the experienced Hunter who takes me in with him, and it’s just the two of us going in alone? I’ll be an innocent sixteen-year-old maiden, and he’ll be a worldly older man of 17.”
Someone else spoke, I guessed it was her mother. “Dear, that’s bad logic. He’s already risking his life, whether you go or not. All he’s proposing is that you go risk your life right next to his. Although, he is right. If you can heal his wounds then he is safer with you there. It doesn’t follow that you are safer with him there.”
Hmmm. What can I say? “Clearly, I am not able to talk fast enough to snow you, ma’am. You beat my best shot.”
Cindy’s father said “Let me talk to the PRA people. Cindy, we’ll take it off speaker so you can talk to your boyfriend.”
The next thing I heard was “Sam, I’m in. It’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard of. Of course I’d love to spend the afternoon with you, getting dirty, fleeing for our lives from strange monsters who are trying to eat us, getting injured so we can’t run any more, killing them with your knitting needles and getting completely covered in gore. Do you think that the ant warrens have hot showers for after?”
“Uh...”
“That’s going to be one of MY conditions. Wherever it is, it had better have a hotel nearby that has hot showers. Dad, don’t worry. We’re just trying to save water by showering together. There’s nothing going on yet. It’s a first date, for Jesus’ sake!”
She’s fucking with both of our heads! Maybe a girlfriend who’s that much smarter than me isn’t such a good idea. Even off speaker, I heard his reply. “Sure, honey, after you come out, you go shower and I’ll kill him.”
“Dad, that won’t work. He’ll have his weapon, and he’ll have just spent the whole afternoon proving he knows how to kill things with it.”
“Okay, when you’re right you’re right. I’ll bring my AR. We’ll see how THAT works. Surely he can’t run and dodge better than a buck.”
Cindy asked me “So, who else do you want to bring?”
“I’m thinking George, with his sword and shield. He says he’s been practicing, too, so he’ll be good to hold the line. Then, someone with a ranged attack, if we can. An archer, or a mage of some kind? Who do you think?”
We talked about the kids we knew. We’d talked a lot on the phone, on email, on the Discord channel. A lot of us had even gotten together a couple of times, at peoples’ houses.
There were some that we’d rather just go without, even if that meant we only went in with four or five people. Some were complete airheads and couldn’t be trusted, some were complete jackasses and couldn’t be trusted. A couple were so convinced that they were the story’s hero that they simply could not work with anyone who didn’t blindly accept their orders. As far as I was concerned, they were airheads AND jackasses. And they couldn’t be trusted to help the team at all.
We finally decided that I should get George onboard, and she would try to get a fourth for us. I left it to her, since we would have our minders to keep us alive.
George was easy. “Sure, when?” His parents were not. “Not until you’re 18, George.” “Mom, 18 is when I’m supposed to be leaving the nest and going my own way. Shouldn’t I learn to fly BEFORE you kick me out?”
I gave him all the resources I could think of and left him. I didn’t need to get in the middle of that argument. I should help him, but he had to win that one on his own. If they made him wait, he’d be going into whatever Gate was available on his 18th birthday. Blue, Green, Yellow, whatever was available. Maybe I’d be a 10th level Lord and I could keep him alive. Did the Portal System have ‘Lords’?
I also called a couple of other 15-year-old Weapons who weren’t my first choice, but I wouldn’t mind having at my side. Who knew who would actually be able to make it? If everyone I called actually showed up, we’d have three swords, a sword and shield, the barbarian with two axes named Will, me with my machete, Cindy, a rogue with twin daggers, and a fire mage named Matt. Not a fire mage named Ginny, as I wasn’t about to invite another cute girl out with us on my first date with Cindy.
The last thing I did was email Cindy with my list. I wanted me, Cindy, George, and Matt if everyone made it. If not, I put everyone else in the order I’d choose them if needed along with why, but I pointed out that I didn’t know who she was bringing or where they should go on the list.
After that, my part was done. Except for my quest for better armor, clothes, shoes, food, and other supplies. And my workouts and practicing with my machete. Those went on every day regardless.
I was still wearing my pads, so when I was done calling and emailing I went back out back and worked out some more. The Black Axe could supposedly fight with his axe all day long. I couldn’t even do it for fifteen minutes yet with my machete.
Cindy kept me updated over the next several days with who-all she’d invited. A couple more fighters, some line-backer people, and some back-line support and ranged-attack people. We’d have to see who-all actually showed up and pick from them on the day of the Dive. It didn’t take too long to discuss each one and come up with an order to choose by, if one of our first picks couldn’t make it.
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