Conscious, Conscientious

“Deon, you did it!” Skrili exclaimed with joy. “You won the Conscious Competition for us! We’re the champions!”

Deon stood on a wide platform. Skrili was beside him, hopping up and down with uncontainable glee. In front of him lay Benny and Darla, both defeated. Deon could hear the cheering of the crowd all around him.

“Oh wow, Deon, you’re so talented!” came a girl’s voice. Suddenly, Deon was surrounded by girls. Ashley, Miranda, Savannah, and several of his past girlfriends from Tailpiece were around him, cheering and celebrating with him.

Even Darla got up from where she was lying and joined the bunch, no longer injured. “That was amazing, Deon! Congratulations!” she said. “Now I’m sorry I married that big, stupid Benny. I should have married you!”

Skrili broke through the crowd and approached Deon. “I’m so very sorry for being so cold to you all the time,” she told him sadly. “Please forgive me. I’ll be nicer now.”

“That’s okay, Skrili!” Deon exclaimed with a smile. “I understand. You were just intimidated by my great looks and raw talent.”

“You’re right, thank you for understanding,” Skrili agreed. Then she was refilled with joy. “Hey, when you’re done hanging out with all your new girlfriends, let’s become the most famous consciousness team in the whole wide Multiverse!”

“You got it!” Deon said, giving a thumbs-up. “Come on, ladies!”

“Wait—are you sure this is okay?” Ashley asked him cautiously.

“Huh? Why wouldn’t it be?” Deon wondered.

“Won’t your wife be upset if she sees you hanging out with all of us?”

“What??? Wife???” Deon asked, heart pounding.

“Of course, team leader,” Skrili said. “She’s right there!”

All of the sudden, Pang was right beside Deon, looking up at him with a sinister smile.

“Hey hot stuff,” Pang said.

Deon screamed.

Deon’s eyes shot open and he sat right up, panting with terror. Relief swept through him as he realized he had been dreaming on the thick branch of a tree, high above the ground. The gentle glow of the early morning sun caused his eyes to adjust as he wiped them.

“That was amusing,” Skrili said plainly. She was above him to an angle, sitting in a portable tree hammock that she hung from the branches. It was a device she had recovered since getting her bag back.

Removing his hands from his eyes, Deon looked up at Skrili uneasily. “Wait…how much of that did you hear?”

“Apparently I’m intimidated by your good looks and raw talent,” Skrili answered.

Deon blushed. “Oops…well, it was just a dream…” he awkwardly justified. “Oh, never mind. Are we going or not?”

“Yes,” said Skrili. She crawled out of her hammock and balanced on a nearby branch. Then she reached over to a corner and pulled a small lever. The hammock immediately released from the branches and folded itself into a ball, which fell into Skrili’s hands. She grabbed her bag off of the branch above her and placed the rolled-up hammock inside.

“When you’re ready to go, meet me on the path,” she instructed Deon. “Make sure you keep anything you need close to you. We’ll be entering Fantasy Country today.”

“Really?!” Deon asked excitedly.

Skrili nodded, and with that she began her speedy descent down the tall tree.

Invigorated by Skrili’s news, Deon quickly grabbed his backpack and started to climb down as well. It had been three days since they met Darla and Benny, but in their monotonous travels afterward he had forgotten that their quest to the registration center in Fantasy Country was only a few days’ journey. Now he felt closer to being a pro fighter than ever before.

Additionally, Deon was looking forward to a hopeful change in scenery. He had been living outside in the forest of No Man’s Land for over a week now, and the constant sights of trees and squirrels were getting rather boring.

After Skrili and Deon split up to get dressed for the day ahead, they met on the path. It was wider and flatter than it had been for the majority of their travels, and when Deon stepped onto it, he noticed it felt more solid. The soil was also a darker shade: it was clear that they were in fact getting close to a new region.

As Deon joined Skrili, he noticed she had changed into a slightly different outfit than her usual clothing. It was still blue and black, only now she wore a long-sleeved version of her signature blue shirts. Her pants were almost the same as normal, but instead of being solid black, blue stripes circled one leg.

“Oh, a new outfit, I see,” Deon acknowledged.

“The weather tends to be chilly at the border.”

After making sure they had everything, they continued their travels along the path.

“If you see more girls along the way,” began Skrili, “don’t think you can flirt with them. We don’t have time for that. And I doubt they do, either.”

“Aw, seriously?” Deon complained.

“Yes.”

“Even if they’re really attractive?”

“Yes.”

“But what if they’re like, super attractive?”

“I don’t care.”

“But…okay, fine. What about when we get into Fantasy Country? I bet Fantasy Country girls are cute, aren’t they?”

“No flirting.”

“No flirting?”

“NO FLIRTING.”

Deon sighed, accepting defeat. “Wait…since when did you get the right to decide when I can and can’t hit on girls?!”

“Since you decided you wanted to keep me your teammate.”

“Well played…” Deon admitted. Then he smirked. “So then…if I can’t flirt with a girl even if she’s super attractive…I guess that means I can’t flirt with you, huh?”

“…Do you want to slowly die in agony?”

Deon laughed. “Jeez Skrili, relax. I thought it was clever.”

~

Pang and Phillip walked along the dirt path, which was becoming less rocky and uneven.

“…And Skrili was holding her own against the Feelreader girl, but I got bored after beating that chubby guy so easily…” Pang paused her story to take a bite out of her apple. “…So I just manipulated the girl’s powers and made her sense her own feelings. That freaked her out, so I…” She stopped when she noticed Phillip had been staring at her strangely. “What’s with you?”

Phillip blushed and mumbled something inaudible.

“Use your voice, Phillip.”

“Are…you sure…” he said a bit louder, “…you don’t want to see a doctor first?”

Pang rolled her eyes with an understanding smile. “They’re just scabs and bruises; I’m not dying.”

Phillip nodded.

“Besides, at this rate, we’ll get to the Conscious Competition right on time,” Pang pointed out. “It’ll all happen so fast: the qualifying rounds will be a breeze, and then next thing you know, the first place prize money will be—”

All of the sudden, something shot up out of the ground beneath them, encompassing and rapidly lifting them into the air. They stopped high above the ground and realized they were dangling in a rope net hanging from a tree.

The duo hung silently, tangled in the rope and each other as the net swayed back and forth slowly.

“This might set us back a few minutes,” Phillip noted calmly.

Pang burst out laughing, her head resting on Phillip’s shoulder. “Well if I have to be stuck in some idiot’s trap with somebody, I’m glad it’s you,” she told him.

Phillip nodded in agreement.

~

“Hey—is that a…stone building?” Deon asked in amazement. It was late afternoon now in their travels, and in the distance Deon witnessed a long structure of tan bricks behind the many trees that obscured his view. It ran as far left and right as he could see. The structure was astonishingly tall, towering above even the highest trees of No Man’s Land.

“It’s a stone wall,” Skrili explained as the two walked. “It marks the border between No Man’s Land and Fantasy Country.”

“Wow, we’re almost there, then,” Deon observed.

“Yes.”

A pair of burly consciousness travelers walked past Deon and Skrili, on their own journey. By now, Deon and Skrili had passed by numerous teams. The closer they got to the border, the busier the pathways seemed to be.

“Man, I hope the food is good in Fantasy Country,” Deon said. “I’m sick of eating nothing but fruits and berries.”

“Pang and Phillip left most of my money in my bag, so we’ll be able to find something,” said Skrili.

“Really? They didn’t steal it all? I’m shocked,” Deon commented.

Skrili fell silent. The new team continued their seemingly endless walking, but their pace increased a bit now that Fantasy Country was in sight. It took another hour before they actually approached the great wall, but to Deon it felt like much longer. Having the destination in sight for that long only made him antsier.

Soon enough, they arrived.

The late sun’s position caused the Fantasy Country wall to cast a long, deep shadow on its neighboring woods where Deon, Skrili, and many other consciousnesses walked. The trees stopped only a few paces away from the wall, while the path of No Man’s Land led right up to it. The dirt walkway ended at an enormous, elegant arched opening. Sophisticated carvings of various images, like people in fighting positions, fire-breathing monsters, horses, and unique symbols decorated the arch.

Oddly, however, the archway didn’t seem to actually lead anywhere. Instead, the pathway stopped there, and there was a window of sorts filling the opening in the wall. It was a mixture of many bright colors, and to add to the peculiarity, the window wasn’t solid. In fact, it had no substance at all: people were casually passing right through it, either disappearing into it or coming from it.

“This is a Worldline,” Skrili said, just before Deon was about to ask. “This is what divides different areas of reality from each other. A lot of them are transparent, but this is one of the famous colorful ones.”

“Wow…” uttered Deon. “And, only consciousnesses can leave from these?”

Skrili nodded.

They approached the Worldline, keeping to the right because the majority of people exiting Fantasy Country were emerging from the left side. When they were about to pass through the gate, Deon had expected to be surrounded by the colors of the Worldline for a moment. But to his surprise, the instant they passed through, the colors vanished and they were immediately on the other side.

The first thing Deon noticed, since it was the only thing he initially understood, was that Skrili was right: it had become a bit chilly once they passed through the Worldline. Second, his eyes adjusted to the brightness of this place—but once they did, his jaw dropped and he stopped in his tracks.

“What…the…?” Deon stuttered. It had somehow become early afternoon again, and all of the colors in this place seemed intensified. The sun was shining brightly down on them, but that wasn’t the cause. All colors were now more vibrant, as if Deon’s eyesight had transformed.

“Here we are,” Skrili said. Deon almost gasped when he looked at her: Skrili appeared slightly different, affected by the coloring of this new place. Her purple eyes were highly defined, almost glowing with intensity, and her midnight blue hair was now a bolder shade of dark blue. Skrili’s clothes were affected in the same manner. Strangely, her hair also seemed sharper than normal. It was as if Skrili was a painting, depicted by another artist with different preferences.

“Whoa, you look different,” Deon noted. “Not in a bad way, though…just…different…”

“You do too; it’s the color palette for the Fantasy Country mainland,” Skrili told him. “Every section of reality has its own unique color palette.”

“Oh,” said Deon, now looking around. Since his mind had finally adjusted to the new coloring, he began to notice other aspects of this new place. They stood on a wide bridge made of tan cobblestone, behind a long line of consciousnesses who had arrived just before them.

The bridge was long, and it led to another endless wall with an archway almost identical to the first, only this one didn’t have a Worldline. Instead, there was a sort of station underneath it where everyone in line would pause for a second before continuing through. Deon was too far away to see much detail, but there appeared to be officials of some sort monitoring the station.

There was a drop on both sides of the bridge, leading to a seemingly endless dark abyss beneath them. Deon had never seen anything so immeasurable.

“Man, this place is crazy!” Deon said, taking it all in. “It’s way cooler than No Man’s Land so far!”

“If you’re shocked by just this,” started Skrili, “just wait until we actually get inside the Country.”

Deon noticed a hint of a lively smile in Skrili’s vibrant eyes.

~

“You know what, Phyllis? I’ve been thinking…” Pang announced, her head still resting casually on Phillip’s shoulder. They continued to dangle, suspended uncomfortably above the ground in the rope net trap as the late day dimmed slowly.

“Yeah?”

Pang searched for a final bite on the apple in her hand, but found none. She emotionlessly dropped it through a hole in the net. “We might not have to take people’s money anymore,” she said.

There was a long silence between the teammates.

“…Really?” Phillip finally responded.

“I mean, once we have that prize money, we’ll have 150,000 scale cards in our pockets,” Pang elaborated. “We’ll have what we need—especially if we keep winning tournaments after that. And I know how much the stealing thing bothers you.”

“It’s…wrong,” Phillip confirmed.

Pang laughed briefly. “I don’t know about that. The way I see it—”

“Well what do we have here?” someone with an odd accent said from below them.

“Looks like a couple of fighters, boss!” said another man with the same accent, his voice lower and more enthusiastic.

“Mm. And kids, at that,” the boss added.

Pang and Phillip glanced downward, noticing two men standing on the path beneath them. The men wore black suits, matching hats and dark sunglasses. The taller, chubbier one was looking up at Pang and Phillip with great interest, while the shorter one observed them calmly with his arms crossed.

“We got the jackpot this time, boss!” the stout one exclaimed. “You think they got anything good on ‘em?”

“Once we’re through with them, we’ll find out for sure,” the boss said with a dark smile. He and his companion began to laugh evilly.

Pang and Phillip continued to glance down at the two men for a moment. Then they lost interest and returned their attention to each other. “So as I was saying…” Pang continued.

The thugs immediately stopped laughing, their smiles awkwardly hanging in place.

“Um…didn’t they notice us?” the chubby man wondered.

“…I’m not convinced that what we’ve been doing is wrong,” Pang told Phillip. “I mean, you have to put it in perspective. Sure, we’ve been taking people’s money, but we need it more than they do. What would’ve happened if we never got this money?”

“I know…” Phillip said uneasily. “But…”

“Hey!” the boss shouted at them from below. “What makes you two think you can just ignore our intimidating laughter?!”

“Shut up for a second! We’re trying to talk up here!” Pang shot back down. She turned back to Phillip. “Take these complete idiots, for example: they’re the same thugs we took Skrili’s bag from. They capture and rob people because they want to be rich and have fancy crap. They jip people for their own shallow gain.”

“We can hear you, ya know!” the larger man bellowed. “Wait…those two…” he gasped in horror. “They’re the kids who beat us up and stole that bag we stole!!”

The boss gulped. “Ah, crap. Yep.”

“I said shut it, didn’t I?” shouted Pang. “Anyway, Phillip, we’re different. These fools steal because they’re greedy. We don’t. And if we didn’t take that money…” she trailed off. “Well…point is, I don’t think we deserve to lump ourselves into the same category as these two.”

Phillip shrugged, looking into the distance.

“Well hey, it doesn’t matter anymore, remember?” Pang reminded him lightheartedly. “If we get that Conscious Competition prize money, we won’t have to steal ever again. And since I know how much you hate it, let’s just stop right now. We have some money to fall back on until the first Competition. Okay?”

Phillip glanced at Pang, who was looking towards the sky as she leaned against him in the cramped net trap. “Yeah…thanks,” he said as he felt a warmth in his heart.

Phillip smiled as he realized he couldn’t figure Pang out. They had been a team for about two months now, and since then their friendship had grown strong. But despite this, Phillip still didn’t get her. Pang was never one to compromise her surefire ideas, and yet that was exactly what she was doing now, solely because it bothered him. For this and many other reasons, Phillip deemed it impossible to understand who Pang really was. But maybe that was why he enjoyed her company so much.

“Alright, you ready to get out of this thing?” Pang asked.

“Yep.”

“G—Get out?!?!” the boss repeated both angrily and nervously below them. “There’s no ‘getting out’ unless we say so! What makes you think you can have a nice little bonding moment in our trap and then just waltz off?!”

Pang looked at the boss briefly. “Imaginers are so easy,” she commented to Phillip.

Then she manipulated his powers to imagine giant scissors floating above the net. She mentally commanded the scissors to open up and cut the net from the tree. With a sharp metallic snip, the net fell to the ground. Pang and Phillip managed to land upright, and stood composedly as the severed trap collapsed around them.

“Ha! There’s no way you’re getting off easy this time, punks!” the boss spat, shifting into a fighting position.

“Yeah, boss! Uh…let’s clobber ‘em!” the other added as he tried to match his leader’s stance.

Pang checked up at the sky, seeming disappointed. “Good grief…that put us behind a few hours. I guess we’ll have to move faster if we wanna get there on time,” she decided.

Phillip nodded.

With a sudden gust of air, the team dashed away along the path. Dirt flew everywhere, creating a thick cloud of dust that encompassed the two thugs.

When the dust finally cleared, Pang and Phillip had already run so far down the path that they were nowhere to be seen or heard. The boss and his associate stood wordlessly, their nice suits now covered in dirt.

“I have a few choice words for those two…” the boss grumbled irately.

“I mean I can chase ‘em down, boss, but um…let’s just say I didn’t make the track team in high school.”

“Shaddup.”